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Luke tested the Second Authority immediately.
He pulled a green-tier material from his inventory, one of the generic drops from the unified exam rewards that he'd never found a use for. He focused on the Sistermon project and what it needed: light-type materials for the holy evolution path.
Mana flowed out of his reserves and into the material. Under his senses, the substance broke apart at a molecular level, dissolved into raw potential, and reassembled itself according to his intent.
A few seconds later, the generic green material was gone. In its place sat something new.
*「 Holy Trident: A weapon-form material infused with the flowing power of light. Reaches its full potential in the hands of a practitioner skilled in holy energy. 」* l
Light-type. Green-tier. Exactly what he needed for Sistermon White's evolution path.
"One green-tier conversion costs roughly ten percent of my mana." Luke ran the arithmetic. "So at full reserves, I can convert about ten green-tier materials before I'm empty. That's workable."
He pulled out a blue-tier material next.
"Let's see what happens when I go up a quality level."
The moment he activated Rewrite, his mana plummeted. Not the gentle ten-percent drain of a green conversion. This was a cliff. His reserves cratered so fast that his vision blurred at the edges and his fingers went numb.
"Nope. Nope nope nope." He cut the process short, but not before nearly eighty percent of his total mana had vanished in a single conversion.
He sat down heavily on the edge of the bed, legs suddenly unreliable. His head was swimming. The world felt distant and slightly sideways.
One blue-tier conversion nearly wiped me out. Purple-tier is completely impossible at this level.
"Master, what happened?!" Mana burst out of the bathroom, hair still damp, face full of alarm. She'd been humming contentedly when she'd felt Luke's mana signature drop off a cliff. She was at his side in seconds, hands on his shoulders, searching his face for injury.
"I'm fine. Overdid a mana experiment." Luke pinched her cheek reassuringly. "Just need to rest a minute. Go make breakfast? I'm starving."
"Okay!" Mana nodded rapidly, still looking worried, and flew toward the kitchen. Within minutes, the apartment filled with the smell of cooking.
Luke sat still, waiting for the spinning to stop. The Second Authority's limits were now clear: green-tier conversions were cheap and sustainable, blue-tier conversions were emergency-only, and purple-tier was off the table entirely until he reached a higher level with a bigger mana pool.
But even with those constraints, Rewrite and Reorganize was absurdly powerful. Over time, the ability to convert unwanted materials into needed ones at green-tier would compound into an enormous advantage. No more hunting for specific ingredients. No more stalking the Association marketplace hoping the right material appeared before someone else bought it.
Speaking of which.
Luke recovered enough to open his tablet and browse the Association's trading platform. His habit of checking the marketplace hadn't stopped just because he now had an alternate source of materials. The smartest approach was to combine both methods: buy what was available, Rewrite what wasn't.
A listing caught his eye.
*「 Evolution Stone: A stone infused with unusual energy. Appears to possess the ability to stimulate latent potential in card spirits, catalyzing deeper development. 」*
Blue-tier material. But the price tag was absurd. It was listed at a premium that matched purple-tier materials, sometimes exceeding them.
Luke dove into the research and found his answer within minutes.
Evolution Stones could boost a card's level and quality during crafting or reconstruction. The probability wasn't high. Some estimates put it at single-digit percentages. But even a one-percent chance of pushing a card above its expected tier was enough to drive every Card Master in the world into a bidding frenzy.
The demand was insatiable. Evolution Stones sold out within seconds of being listed. The supply was laughably small compared to the number of Card Masters who wanted them.
And this is perfect for Digimon.
The realization hit Luke like a physical impact. Digimon evolution was, at its core, a process of growth and transformation. A Digimon absorbed energy, reached a threshold, and evolved into a stronger form. That was literally what Evolution Stones did: catalyze deeper development, push card spirits beyond their current limits.
Evolution Stone plus Digivice. The combination he'd been missing.
Luke's fingers moved before his brain finished processing the thought. He placed an order for one Evolution Stone, and by the time he refreshed the page, every other listing was gone. Sold out.
"Popular doesn't begin to cover it." He leaned back, waiting for delivery.
The stone arrived within minutes via spatial courier: a heavy, rough-surfaced chunk of crystal shot through with veins of shifting light. He placed it in the Card Editor immediately. He didn't have the mana to Rewrite a blue-tier material right now, and besides, this stone was more valuable as a reference than as raw material.
Because the breakthrough was happening. Right now. The pieces were clicking together.
"Digimon use Net Evolution. A single Digimon has multiple evolution paths. To use that mechanic, I need a way to select which path activates during combat."
"The Digivice stores evolution data and provides the energy boost for the transformation. But I don't need to pre-load every single evolution path into the Digivice. That would require an insane amount of materials and data input."
"Instead…" Luke's eyes brightened. "The Digivice handles the power. The evolution form is determined by auxiliary cards. Swap in a different card, trigger a different evolution. The Digimon's base data stays the same. Only the direction changes."
A card-swap evolution system. The Digivice provided the engine. The auxiliary evolution cards provided the steering wheel. Together, they gave Luke exactly what he needed: a flexible, multi-path evolution mechanic that could be expanded infinitely just by crafting new evolution cards.
The direction was clear. The breakthrough was real.
Luke grabbed his pen and started writing.