007 Dekan’s Soul Card
Within Dekan’s Shadow World.
Professor Arno had already sprinted at his fastest speed to Dekan’s side.
But he found Dekan standing completely still, his hands clasped behind his back, his expression calm.
He had an air of a peerless master.
This instead made Arno somewhat unsure of how to proceed.
Why wasn’t Dekan running?
Could it be that upon noticing the increased difficulty, Dekan decided to protest by choosing not to act?
Arno admitted that he had indeed slightly increased the difficulty for Dekan, but it was still within the rules.
Thus, it did not count as a violation.
“Where’s your weapon?”
With some feelings of guilt, Arno hesitated to make the first move and asked instead.
Dekan answered by raising his right hand and showing the Gothic Lolita doll on it.
The gesture implied no intentions to forfeit.
Professor Arno’s brow creased tightly.
He looked at Dekan’s outfit, his composed stance.
He had seen unconventional warriors before, but none as unconventional as this.
Though there were so many points to criticize, he didn’t know where to begin, feeling uncomfortable yet unable to articulate it.
But as the examiner, he should not delay the test any longer.
Since the examinee chose this attitude, he could only quickly return him to the real world.
Professor Arno took a deep breath.
“Though I sincerely apologize, I hope you choose an institution more suited for you next year.”
Saying this, Arno raised the silver longsword in his hand and delivered a clean horizontal slash.
A chilling sensation of impending death immediately swept through Dekan’s body.
At such proximity, it was impossible to evade!
But Dekan showed no intention of dodging.
He had been waiting for this exact moment!
In his left hand, which had been behind his back, he held a powerful magic card.
His trump card.
It was the core of his strategy and the key to his victory!
As he infused magic power into the card, a blinding orange light instantly burst from Dekan’s palm!
Suddenly, radiant light points shot towards the sky and formed golden totems in the air!
The magic card in Dekan’s left hand dissipated and materialized.
Although it wasn’t his first time summoning this card, Dekan could still feel the terrifying power emanating from it.
The summon completed!
Following its summoning, an eerie black fog spread throughout the area.
The black fog surged towards the ground like a tide, diffusing in every direction and quickly covering the entire plain.
And the center of the black fog was right behind Dekan!
A man radiating a strong aura of undead slowly became visible from within the black fog.
The book in his hands shone with a mysterious green light.
His face filled with sorrow, a lamenting voice started.
“An ocean of fog, endless sorrow…”
…
The audience area was full of shocked cries! The scene became chaotic!
“Is this special effect from an epic card?!”
“My goodness! Is it really an orange epic?!”
“Using an epic card for the entrance exam? That’s a bit excessive!”
“Which young master is pretending to live an ordinary life?”
Orange epic magic cards usually only appeared in the arenas of experts!
How could an epic card like this be involved in a student’s entrance exam?!
The test results of Dekan’s epic card quickly appeared on the broadcast screen.
[Ruined Bard]
[Type: Summoning Card]
[Rank: Orange Epic]
[Class: 1]
[Attack: 0]
[Health: 100]
[Effect: Interferes with the minds of all enemy creatures through cursed verses, amplifying their pain by 1000%]
[Note: “Pain! Too much pain!”]
…
Professor Arno’s slash had already reached Dekan’s chest!
Dekan timed it perfectly, summoning the Ruined Bard at the precise moment Arno’s blade was about to strike.
With the three types of card effects stacked together, the pain was multiplied by sixty!
Even with only 1/4 pain in Phantom Canyon, it was still equivalent to 15 times the real pain!
The pain of the blade hitting his chest was fed back 15 times to Professor Arno.
Dekan was hit and flipped backward several times before stopping.
“It truly hurts!”
Dekan clutched his chest, propping himself up slightly.
The Crown of Pain stabilized his life force, preventing him from being defeated by the lethal blow.
However, the feeling of his chest being torn apart and his ribs shattered had yet to subside.
In contrast, Professor Arno…
was already frothing at the mouth and collapsed on the ground…
Then.
Professor Arno was declared unconscious and teleported out of the Shadow World.
“Phew—”
Dekan let out a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, the examiner was entirely unconscious; he didn’t have to deliver the final blow.
Soon, the notification came.
[Shadow World Complete. Time: 57 seconds.]
[Special condition achieved: Defeated the examiner. Basic evaluation grade: S.]
[Under special conditions, remaining time: 29 minutes and 3 seconds. Additional points awarded.]
[Calculating score…]
[Score: 1.557 × 10^13]
[Final evaluation: SSS]
[About to exit the Shadow World. Please stand by…]
Dekan had no idea that outside the arena, the discussions had reached its peak.
“Which heretic created this scum card!!”
“Knight Academy really stumbled into something this year…”
“The academy has both a reckless brute who was chasing the examiner and an utterly nauseating alternative this year. It’s a double blessing, I guess.”
“He hasn’t even reached the maximum card limit…”
Each soul has a limit to how many cards it can bind with.
For example, Dekan is at Rank 2, so he can bind cards with an overall rank of up to 20.
If he reaches Rank 3, he could then bind cards with an overall rank of up to 30.
Rank 2 Dekan carrying only Rank 2 cards would reach his limit at ten cards.
But if he carries some Rank 1 cards, he could bring more than ten.
Lower-rank cards can be considered as having less “cost”.
So some high-quality lower-rank cards won’t become obsolete even when one reaches higher ranks.
For Dekan, three cards were more than enough to pass this entrance test.
After all, his main magic cards were restricted by the test conditions.
…
After leaving the testing area, Dekan noticed that Professor Arno had already been carried away by a medical team.
He put his heart at ease.
With the pain multiplied fifteen times, there shouldn’t be any long-term side-effects.
It was fortunate that this canyon had the 1/4 pain setting. Otherwise, that single slash could have sent Arno to heaven.
“I was so low-key, no one should have noticed me, right?”
Dekan thought about it. After all, there were so many students taking the exam simultaneously.
The whole process of his exam, counting the preparation time, only took a little over a minute.
It should have just flashed by on the big screen.
It wouldn’t even be more than a couple of shots.
He hummed a tune and walked out of the Knight Academy’s main building with a light-hearted step.
But when he saw Trecia already waiting at the gate.
She seemed to have run there, still catching her breath.
She anxiously checked her surroundings, ensuring no one else was paying too much attention to Dekan, then grabbed his sleeve and started running.
“Eh? What’s going on, Trecia?”
Dekan, though slightly confused, followed Trecia as she took off.
“If you don’t run now, you’ll be surrounded like a rare creature in a zoo in a few minutes.”
Trecia said.
“What do you mean?”
“Didn’t you remember what you just did? You were on the broadcast the entire time!”
“Wh-What? Seriously?”
“Of course! When the plain map and Examiner Arno appeared, the director started focusing on you.”
Dekan thought about it. If his battle with Arno had been seen in its entirety…
“Ah, crap!”
Dekan suddenly shouted, surprising Trecia.
“What’s wrong?”
“If only I knew the world’s attention was on me, I would’ve used that chance to grab some advertisements! I’ve missed out on profits again!”
“…”
“Drecia, why are you silent?”
“Let’s decide what to eat tonight to celebrate your passing the test. It’s on me!”
Trecia helplessly smiled and said.
