Star Card Masters are divided into several levels: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Shining Star, Radiant Moon, Burning Sun… each representing a different tier.
For high school students like Su Yuan, who haven't even reached the Bronze Level, they can only be considered Star Card Master Apprentices, a stage where they are laying the foundation for a breakthrough into Bronze Star Card Masters.
Star Card Master Apprentices are divided into nine stages, where the first five stages are relatively manageable. However, from the Sixth Stage onwards, the difficulty of advancing exponentially increases. Without the necessary "talent," one might never become a Star Card Master.
This so-called "talent" is the Lifebound Star Card awakened from the soul, also known as the Soul Card!
Starting from Star Apprentice Sixth Stage, the accumulation of Star Power in apprentices becomes sufficient to support the awakening of the Soul Card, and a specially made "Soul Awakening Card" is usually used to increase the chances and potential of the awakening.
In the Great Flame Country, the Soul Awakening Card is a White Card that all high school students are entitled to apply for once they reach the Star Apprentice Sixth Stage.
A strong youth leads to a strong nation. The more young people become Star Card Masters, the stronger the future of Great Flame Country will be, enabling it to stand tall through successive natural disasters.
Though the Soul Awakening Card is a White Card that can be applied for, due to its special nature, high-level Soul Awakening Cards are exceedingly rare and immensely precious.
Including the Soul Card, all Star Cards are graded into six quality tiers: common White Card, Elite Green Card, Master Blue Card, Epic Purple Card, Legend Golden Card, and Myth Red Card.
All Star Cards also have five Skill Levels: Entry-level, Skilled, Master, Great Success, and Perfect.
Under normal circumstances, the Soul Awakening Cards that schools can apply for are all of Entry-level.
To obtain a Skilled-level Soul Awakening Card, with the educational resources of Guangchuan Fourth Middle School, one could probably apply for only ten cards per year from Guangchuan Education Bureau.
The rules for competing for these ten Skilled-level Soul Awakening Cards within Guangchuan Fourth Middle School are simple: whoever breaks through to Star Apprentice Sixth Stage first gets them first.
Therefore, both Su Yuan and Jiang Jun, who had just spoken up to remind him, received a Skilled-level Soul Awakening Card after they broke through to the Star Apprentice Sixth Stage.
As for the Master-level Soul Awakening Cards, there are only one or two in the entire Guangchuan City and they are perennially held by the first and second middle schools, leaving Guangchuan Fourth Middle School with no chance at all.
If one were to buy it on their own, the price of a Master-level Soul Awakening Card would be exorbitantly high. Without several million, it would be impossible to afford one. The price is even higher than that of a regular Blue Card!
As for the Great Success Stage and Perfect-level Soul Awakening Cards... ordinary people shouldn't even think about them, as they are often not found on the market at any price.
As the most common White Card, the reason for the high price of the Soul Awakening Card is not only because its special nature results in higher manufacturing costs, but more importantly, because it can not only increase the chance of awakening, but also affects the quality of the Soul Card that is awakened!
There are only two factors that can influence the quality of the awakened Soul Card: first is the strength of the Star Apprentice's soul, and second is the level of the Soul Awakening Card!
The greater the soul's potential, and the higher the level of the Soul Awakening Card, the higher the quality of the awakened Soul Card will be!
A year ago, Su Yuan transmigrated here and also inherited the memories of his predecessor.
The predecessor had a talent for cultivating Star Power and had reached Star Apprentice Sixth Stage early on, but faced repeated failures when it came to awakening the Soul Card.
The first time, using the Skilled-level Soul Awakening Card issued by the school, failure!
To encourage their child, Su Yang, his father, and Tang Shiyang, his mother, spent a considerable sum to purchase another Skilled-level Soul Awakening Card from the market.
However, the predecessor's second breakthrough attempt still ended in failure!
Su Yuan's family was not wealthy; his mother, Tang Shiyang, was an elementary school teacher, and his father, Su Yang, ran a small fruit shop near the neighborhood. Although their financial circumstances were not very poor, they certainly weren't good.
Several hundred thousand was a huge sum for the Su Family, and that one Skilled-level Soul Awakening Card had drained all their savings. Even so, Su Yang and Tang Shiyang still gritted their teeth and scraped together a hundred thousand yuan to buy another Entry-level Soul Awakening Card for the predecessor.
Logically, if a person has the "talent" to become a Star Card Master, then the first attempt at awakening has the highest chance of success, the second attempt is less likely, and if the third attempt fails, there's no chance left.
That night, the predecessor holding the Soul Awakening Card had thought too much and was eventually overwhelmed by the pressure and fainted.
And it was then that Su Yuan just happened to transmigrate over...
It was as if he inherited the will of his predecessor, for Su Yuan carried over a system—a system that could enhance cards!
Suddenly arriving in a supernatural world, Su Yuan was quite curious about "Soul Cards," "Star Power," and such things.
However, even so, Su Yuan did not blindly use this entry-level Soul Awakening Card worth one hundred thousand.
Su Yuan was very clear that the previous incarnation had failed to awaken twice using a Skilled Level Soul Awakening Card, let alone the Entry-level one he had in his hands.
Moreover, he had just crossed over and hadn't adapted to anything; blindly attempting an awakening was akin to seeking death.
But most importantly, it was because of the Golden Finger.
Since this system had an "Enhancement" feature, which seemed able to enhance cards, naturally he had to study and research it thoroughly.
After a period of observation and trial, Su Yuan roughly mastered the function of the enhancement feature.
This system used "Star Dust" as energy, automatically recovering 1 point of Star Dust daily. Every 10 points of Star Dust could enhance a card that had been embedded into the Star Power Vortex, which is commonly referred to as adding points.
Before awakening, a Star Apprentice's Star Power Vortex could only support one Soul Awakening Card, so Su Yuan could only experiment with the Soul Awakening Card.
And when he enhanced the original Entry-level Soul Awakening Card to Skilled Level on his first point addition, Su Yuan immediately understood that he was going to soar!
Having inherited the memories of his predecessor, Su Yuan was very clear about the significance of high-level Soul Awakening Cards and decided on the spot, no matter whether he could successfully awaken the Soul Card or how long it would take, he must bring the Soul Awakening Card to Perfect Level!
From that point on, Su Yuan embarked on the path of adding points.
Entry-level to Skilled, add points once,
Skilled to Master, add points twice,
Master to Great Success, add points four times,
Great Success to Perfect, add points eight times,
In total, adding points fifteen times, costing 150 points of Star Dust, taking 150 days.
When the card reached Perfect Level, Su Yuan was ready to awaken his Lifebound Star Card, but he suddenly discovered that the Soul Awakening Card was still in a state where it could be enhanced further!
This was completely unexpected for Su Yuan; according to the teaching of the Star Apprentice Class, the highest level for a Star Card was Perfect Level.
Being able to upgrade the Soul Awakening Card was certainly a good thing, but it warranted consideration for Su Yuan.
Because Soul Cards can significantly improve the speed of Star Power cultivation, and from Star Apprentice Sixth Stage onward, the difficulty of each stage of cultivation far exceeds the previous five stages. Without a Soul Card, progress would be extremely difficult.
Being surpassed by others didn't matter much, but once one exceeded 18 years of age without having awakened a Soul Card, one would never be able to awaken it again.
According to the previous pattern of point addition, to reach the sixth level above Perfect might need 16 additions, which is 160 days, nearly half a year!
And this is under ideal conditions. If 32, or even 64 point additions were needed... that would take much longer, and it might not be possible to achieve the sixth level before graduation.
However, after contemplating for a bit, Su Yuan decided to give it a try and add points at least another 16 times.
After all, the opportunity to upgrade a Soul Awakening Card like this was absolutely unique for others! Not trying it out would be letting the system down!
If aiming for the best, then strive for perfection!
If 16 point additions do not reach the sixth level, then he would use the Perfect Level Soul Awakening Card for the awakening. In that case, he would still have over half a year to improve himself and prepare for the high-stakes examination.
Thus, Su Yuan started the lengthy process of adding points to the Soul Awakening Card once again.
And today, on this last day of the upper third year of high school, Su Yuan had added points on top of the Perfect Level a total of 15 times, with only one last enhancement remaining!