Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 3082: Stealing Talents

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Five Regions, Southern Region, Blossom District, Sky Blossom City

“Humph. Coward.” Lorn snorted in disdain, making no effort to hide the contempt in her voice.

She was deliberately trying to provoke Demigod Dyke. If she could get him to accept the duel, her lord might just secure the number-one Card Creationist in the Five Regions without having to spend a single penny.

Dyke pretended not to hear her. His expression remained calm as he waited for the False Ruler to answer his question.

That only made Lorn’s intentions more obvious. Her contemptuous gaze grew more pronounced, accompanied by a smug grin that seemed designed specifically to get under his skin.

For a brief moment, Dyke was reminded of his younger days. Back then, he had been ridiculed and shunned by his fellow Card Creationists and even some of his mentors because of his poor background but eccentric methods and theories.

It hurt. But he had always possessed one thing they couldn’t take from him. Confidence in his skills. He had known that, given enough time, he would surpass every person who looked down on him.

He had been right. But now, for the first time in his life, those skills offered little comfort. He was standing before someone whose skill on par or suppressed his own. Not to mention their strength, he couldn’t measure it and was surrounded by forces he couldn’t hope to overcome through anything he could think of.

Lorn’s contempt was coming from someone who could actually back it up. Yet Dyke refused to give her the satisfaction. He ignored every jab, every smug glance, and every deliberately provocative remark.

He wouldn’t let his pride make the decision for him. Not when an Unranked Grimoire was within reach. Not when his freedom was on the line. For once, the number-one Card Creationist of the Five Regions chose to swallow his pride rather than gamble his future on it.

“You’re a smart and patient man. I like that.” I looked at Demigod Dyke with genuine appreciation. “So I’ll make an exception for you. How about a century-long employment contract, starting right now? If you agree, I’ll hand you an Unranked Grimoire right away.”

It was an exceptionally generous offer. But Dyke’s value wasn’t measured by his realm. When it came to Card Creation, or more accurately, Soul Crafting, his skills had already pushed against the limits of the Card World.

If Dyke were to enter the Dark Realm with his current understanding and mastery of Soul Crafting, many Noble-class forces would eagerly compete to recruit him. Some would probably offer him resources and positions that most Card Apprentices could only dream of.

I had known about him long before he ever presented himself before me. Back when I was still planning to become the City Lord of the Southern Academic Region, I had assigned Hive Spirit to identify talented Card Apprentices among those that had entered the VR-Universe.

The plan had been simple. Find promising talents, invite them to the Southern Academic Region, and offer them full-ride scholarships and attractive incentives so they would not hesitate to move to the South and could develop without worrying about resources.

Dyke had been on that list. Not merely on it, either. He had been ranked among the top thousand talents Hive Spirit had identified as essential recruits.

Even back then, before I knew his name, Hive Spirit had already considered Demigod Dyke someone worth investing in. Considering what he had accomplished with Soul Crafting, that assessment had only become more certain.

Having learned about Demigod Dyke’s personality through the countless stories and rumors circulating across the Grimoire Network, I already knew recruiting him through conventional means would be difficult.

The same was true for nearly everyone on Hive Spirit’s list of the top thousand talents we considered essential recruits.

Unfortunately, the Central Government’s World Decree and the pressure exerted by the Five Royal Families had made things even more difficult. Most of these talents were already tied to powerful factions, and approaching them openly would only invite trouble.

So I had resorted to something unconventional. I was going to steal them. That was what the announcement about the Unranked Grimoires had really been about. The carrot was simply too tempting for them to give up.

Just because I could no longer become the City Lord of the Southern Academic Region didn’t mean my previous plans had been scrapped. The plan had changed in name, not in purpose.

Instead of governing an academic region under the Southern royalty, I would build an Academic Region under the New Empire. Luna, Demigod Joy, and several other officials from the old Empire were already working on it.

Now that they had Hive Spirit assisting them, their progress was bound to accelerate. And if my plan worked, the New Empire wouldn’t merely inherit the talents of the Five Regions. It would attract the ones everyone else had been fighting to keep or had no idea that they existed.

The Five Regions had no shortage of programs and schemes designed to identify, nurture, and support talented and hardworking members of the younger generation. On paper, many of those programs were excellent.

But having good systems didn’t mean those systems always reached everyone who needed them. Reality was rarely as neat as the policies written on paper.

The Five Regions were far from dystopian, but they were just as far from being utopias. There would always be people who slipped through the cracks, talents who were overlooked, individuals denied opportunities because of their background, lack of connections, insufficient resources, or simple bad luck.

For many of those people, the VR-Universe had become a refuge.

It didn’t care which family they came from, what faction supported them, or how much influence they had in the real world. If they possessed talent, they could demonstrate it inside the VR-Universe.

And every day, Hive Spirit’s list grew longer. More names, more talents, and more people who had been overlooked by the systems around them. Some were geniuses waiting for an opportunity. Others were simply hardworking individuals who had never been given the chance to prove themselves.

I intended to give them that chance. The Five Regions had spent generations cultivating talent. I simply planned to make sure the New Empire became the place where the talent they missed ended up and represented it in the great academician bowl. Regardless of the five regions invited us or not.