Card Apprentice Daily Log

Date- 30 Mar 2321

Time- 13:18

Location- Sky Blossom City, Association Guild Mall, Warehouse no.234

Corey soon took Susan to experience a dungeon raid and various brutal sides of being a card apprentice. With them gone, now, the warehouse was free of unrelated people, and I did not have to watch for my words. I gazed at Diana, Cindy, and said, ” Did you hear the statement given by the Circleʼs leader?”

”Yes, I did. And I also know what you are thinking.” Diana seemed to know something.

”Oh, really, so what is it that I am thinking?” I decided to hear Diana out.

”You think that because of the Circleʼs leaderʼs stunt, the Circle is more divided than ever. Am I right?” Diana was spot on. I did assume that the Circle would be a mess because of the speech given by their leader pushing all the blame on the previous generation of the circle.

”Yes, am I wrong to think that?” Diana caught my interest, and she seemed to be confident what she was talking about.

”You would not be wrong to think so because any reasonable person would come to that conclusion because they do not know that all the core members of the circle have undergone a coming of age ceremony to prove their loyalty towards the circle. Only those that are loyal to the process can pass this ceremony, and for those that arenʼt, what happens to them remains a mystery. The commonly accepted theory is that all of them get disposed of. And I believe this one too. What I am trying to say is no matter what, the core members of the circle will not betray their leader.” Diana explained her reasoning.

”Well, thatʼs where you are wrong. That coming of age ceremony is not only to test the loyalty of the members but also their capability. There isnʼt one way to clear the coming of age ceremony but two.

The first one is the members prove their unconditional loyalty to the Circle.

The second one is the members demonstrating their capability by cheating at the coming of age ceremony.

Satisfy any one of these two conditions, and you pass the coming of age ceremony.

And for those who fail the ceremony, they enter the undead squad where they are turned into a Lich by using demonic practice.” I narrated what I had learned from the clown maskʼs memory to Diana and the other two.

”...” Diana, Cindy, and Jaya were speechless as this information they had just received was too much to digest in a breath.

”How do you know all this?” Diana finally digested my words and couldnʼt help but inquire about the source of my information.

”My Source is none other than your dear Master, the Clone Mask. She has surrendered and currently is in the custody of southern watch. That alone is enough to prove that those that pass the circleʼs coming of age ceremony do have to be loyal to the Circle.” Clown Mask has also gone through a coming-of-age ceremony and passed through her capabilities. If the Circle kept killing all good seedlings just because they werenʼt loyal enough, their organization would be filled with weak and worthless devotees who believed that their leader would save them and cover all the responsibilities.

”But, but during my investigation, I found out that there is no way to cheat the coming of age ceremony. I spent years trying to find one.” Diana could not accept my explanation because she had tried and failed to find a way to cheat in the coming of age ceremony.

”Well, isnʼt that obvious? Why would a cheater go around spreading how they had cheated? That be stupid.” Diana thought the only way to pass the coming of age ceremony was by being loyal to the circle because that is what the Circle wanted its recruits to believe. And those that were brave and strong tried to cheat. Those that succeeded kept shut about it, in a way helping the circle maintain the coming of age ceremonies status quo.

”So, those that failed are really turned into a Lich?” Diana always thought those that failed would but hearing that those that failed had a fate worse than death waiting for them. Diana felt happy that she had jumped the ship and taken shelter under the southern emperor.

”Yes, what would I get by lying to you? The supreme leader of the circle had already prepared a Lich army. I think he plans to use it to take over the central region once he feels like it.” Thanks to the Clown maskʼs memory, I knew why the circle was creating the Lich army and where they were stationed. I had a lot of information about the Circleʼs supreme leader and his plan. Which I was going to use to destroy him but letʼs start small with a branch of the Circle in sun blossom city.

”What? Even if it is the Lich army, it is nowhere near enough to invade the central region.” The central region was filled with the best of the best card apprentices. It housed about 40% percent of humanityʼs strength. Therefore it was unbelievable to hear that a person planned to invade it even if he had a personal Lich army.

”Who told you that it is just the Lich army? There is a lot you donʼt know about the circleʼs Supreme leader and his various connections. Letʼs leave it here for today.” The military strength that the Supreme leader possessed was growing steadily. It was powerful enough to go toe to toe with most of the forces from the Central region. But being the cautious leader that he is, the Circleʼs Supreme leader prefers to be through.

”Okay, I am sure when the time is right, you share those facts with me, master Wyatt. But for now, I guess you had a reason for bringing up the Sun Blossom Branch Circleʼs leaderʼs public statement.”

…

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