Knight House common room.
The usually quieter lounge was now occupied by Vitt and Robert playing Magic Chess.
Magic Chess is a variant of [Capsule Monster Chess], with each side having twenty-one pieces. Each piece has corresponding attack, defense, health values, and skills, as well as a number of moves it can make per turn.
By deploying pieces in one's own area and moving one piece per turn, players advance, attack the opponent's pieces, and ultimately capture the fortress to claim victory!
Vitt and Robert, having pooled their resources and borrowed 5 credits, purchased this brand-new set of Magic Chess. Each piece is a miniature golem with an intelligence level of 0.5, capable of moving according to specific commands, and even singing, dancing, and rapping!
At this moment, Vitt was commanding a mermaid piece to sing, listening with a mesmerized expression.
Meanwhile, Robert was commanding a Medusa piece to dance, thoroughly enjoying his day.
Not far away, Emma Mortis watched them with a stern face, inwardly sneering.
These two underachievers from St. Marian Academy had no idea their good days were numbered!
...
St. Marian's open-air duel arena.
A beautiful, slender white dragon, seemingly capable of breaking through reproductive isolation, coiled in the air. Its snow-white scales shimmered with fine silver light under the sun, and intense light gathered on its jade-like antlers.
Pandora Dragon stood on the contestant platform, her lazy posture as graceful as if she were one with the white dragon.
She leaned forward, her elbows resting on the platform in front of her, her alabaster hands supporting her delicate chin, watching her panicked classmate across the way with boredom.
Too easy.
Life had lost its interest due to its smoothness.
Only by looking at cute, naive, and shy little boys could she find the value of life.
Pandora lowered her head, fiddling with her nails, which were slightly narrower, longer, and sharper than those of normal humans, and couldn't help but smile foolishly.
When she looked up again, her classmate across the way had completely collapsed.
In the audience, fans from all walks of life shouted her name, and huge banners displayed words of extreme embarrassment.
As Pandora stepped down from the contestant platform, she waved in the direction of the loudest cheers, instantly elevating the atmosphere by three degrees.
She smiled charmingly.
...
This was the fourth-year student of the Mage House, the Silver Dragon Maiden, a highly popular duelist with countless fans—Pandora Dragon!
...
Traveler's Street.
Dragged by Diana to visit snack stalls all afternoon, Rose leaned weakly against a chair in an ice cream shop, touching her slightly bulging belly with a wry smile.
"Rose-chan, you need to learn to say no!"
But it was so sweet!
...
Youth is so beautiful, with everyone moving forward at their own pace.
A card game called [Love Divination] quietly became popular.
Diana played with a cherry blossom card given as a gift from a candy store, suddenly shaking it vigorously, causing the cherry blossoms on the card to fly.
They truly flew off the card!
Pink and white cherry blossoms danced in the air, and waves of floral fragrance spread.
When the cherry blossoms scattered and naturally dissolved, the person most on her mind would appear on the card.
"Diana, did you divine it?"
Rose struggled to sit up, trying to peek.
Diana brushed away the petals on the card and saw the person appearing on the [Love Divination Card], a cute blush appearing on her fair cheeks.
She quickly raised her slightly chubby hand to cover the card.
Then she looked at Rose unhappily, "Let me see yours first!"
Rose leaned back in her chair, looking troubled, "I told you, there's no one. By the way, I heard yesterday that if you hold strong emotions and infuse magic into the divination card after divining your lover, you can divine the person they like. Do you want to try?"
"No!"
Diana shook her head vigorously, but magic quietly swirled at her fingertips.
She peeked through her fingers, her face suddenly turning pale—it wasn't her!
...
Back in the library, Pandora touched the image of a blond boy on the [Love Divination Card], seriously considering the possibility of a three-year age gap being a golden opportunity.
...
Emma Mortis picked up a thumb-thick book from the corner of the table, opened it along the seam, and glanced at the lily card [Love Divination Card] used as a bookmark, still unused.
At the next table, a corner of a flower card peeked out from Vitt Gold's textbook.
...
In the library reading room, Dark carefully perused "Magic Fundamentals 2."
The library didn't have textbooks, so this second-year magic theory textbook was borrowed from Ms. Bella, the library manager, who said it was an old textbook left behind by a former student.
This "Magic Fundamentals 2" wasn't a rare collection like Harry Potter's "Advanced Potion-Making" from the "Half-Blood Prince."
It was just an ordinary textbook with class notes.
However, those class notes still helped Dark understand some of the more rigid knowledge in the textbook more easily.
Starting from the second year, the difficulty of courses at St. Marian Academy would increase significantly.
If the first year was just popular science, the second year was directly diving into research!
This huge leap would cause students who weren't serious in the first year to instantly fall behind in course difficulty, leading them into an endless tutoring hell!
Even Dark found it quite challenging.
But fortunately, his writing skills were excellent, and with the help of notes, he could gradually grasp the material.
Soon, he found the chapter on "Precision Crafting of Emotion Cards."
The first-semester textbook knowledge of the first year only covered how to make "simple emotion cards."
To improve [Pride I], he had to learn more complex and advanced crafting methods!
"So, the No. 7 Refining Array is just a printing array, imprinting the power of emotion onto the Magic Card."
"To refine emotions, you need the No. 3 Refining Array."
"To amplify effects, you need the No. 9 Refining Array."
"To prevent energy loss, you need the No. 8 Refining Array."
"To make it reusable, you need the No. 2, No. 33, and No. 34 Refining Arrays!"
"Who would have thought that such a small emotion card would contain so many intricacies."
Dark took a slight breath.
Besides the refining arrays, crafting precision emotion cards also required some materials for assistance.
He glanced at his dwindling credits and thought that applying for temporary lab access from the magic theory professor might be a better idea.
After all, who doesn't love freebies?
...