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Bonus chapter
One day later, Westbridge Academy, principal's office.
Harlow looked up as Luke walked through the door, and the greeting he'd been preparing died on his tongue. His eyes narrowed. Then widened.
"You broke through to Five-Star Commander?"
It had been one day. Twenty-four hours since they'd last spoken. Luke had walked out of this office as a One-Star Commander and strolled back in at Five-Star, as if leveling up was something he did between meals.
But even more than the level jump, Harlow wanted to know what card Luke had crafted to trigger that much Mana Surge. Card Masters didn't gain levels by meditating. They gained levels by building cards. If Luke had jumped four stars in a single crafting session, whatever he'd built was serious.
Luke caught the look. He didn't volunteer details. Just nodded.
Harlow's curiosity was killing him, but he let it go. He wouldn't appreciate being grilled about his own cards, either.
"Well then." Harlow stood. "Let's get moving. Today's the day."
The City Lord's Mansion sat at the dead center of Ashenvale, connected to every district. If trouble broke out anywhere in the city, response teams could deploy within minutes. It was part administrative hub, part military command, and today, part staging ground.
Harlow led Luke through the gates without issue. Inside, the others had already assembled: Townsend and Brandt with their students, Victor in his usual seat, and a striking elderly man Luke didn't recognize, who'd been staring at him since the moment he walked in.
The stare was... intense. Unblinking. Evaluating.
I'm a guy, Luke thought uncomfortably. What exactly are you looking at?
"That's Harrison Cole," Harlow said, noticing Luke's unease. "President of the Ashenvale Card Master Association branch. He's the one who approved your direct membership."
"Ah." Luke's internal assessment shifted from 'possible creep' to 'important ally.' "Got it."
Marcus and Hailey were there, along with two students Luke recognized from the exam but hadn't interacted with. Tyler Grant from Ironvale, who'd apparently earned the fifth spot alongside Hailey. And Derek Walsh from Crestfall, who'd come in alongside Marcus. Both looked nervous.
"Our hero arrives!" Victor called out the moment he spotted Luke, grinning like a man who thoroughly enjoyed watching teenagers squirm.
That phrase again. Luke had lost count of how many times authority figures had called him that this week. And every single one of them had been male. It was getting weird.
But the teasing died the instant Victor actually looked at Luke properly. The City Lord's eyebrows climbed his forehead.
"Five-Star Commander? Already?" Victor's composure cracked just slightly. "What have you been eating?"
Harrison Cole's relentless stare finally made sense. The old man had been sensing Luke's level since he walked in, and Victor's words confirmed his reading was correct. His expression shifted from analytical to deeply satisfied. The gamble on early membership had paid off.
Townsend and Brandt noticed two seconds later. Their expressions went through a now-familiar cycle: surprise, disbelief, grudging respect, and finally that particular shade of frustration that came from watching someone else's student outperform everything their schools had ever produced.
Does this kid have a limit? Every time they saw Luke, he'd leveled up again.
Marcus and Hailey's mouths twitched. They'd stopped being surprised and started being resigned. Luke existed in a different dimension of progress. Comparing yourself to him was bad for your mental health.
"Just broke through," Luke confirmed.
"Good. Very good." Victor clapped his hands, pulling the room's attention. "Since everyone's here, let me brief you on Fae Spirit Hollow."
He laid out the basics. Three days inside the Dimensional Plane. Any materials harvested from beast kills were theirs to keep. The deeper they went, the stronger the beasts. Six-Star creatures lived in the deepest zones, which was beyond what any of them should be engaging.
As he spoke, Victor's gaze drifted to Luke, and a strange thought crossed his mind. In previous years, the strongest card among the top-five students was typically Four-Star. The Six-Star beasts in the deep zones were the ceiling, the threat you ran from, not toward.
But this year had Luke. And Luke's Spellcaster had killed Six-Star beasts for breakfast during the exchange match.
Maybe this year, the beasts should be the ones worried.
"One more thing." Victor's tone shifted, losing its warmth. "Dimensional Planes are the remnants of collapsed worlds. Their spatial fabric is weakened. Which means they occasionally generate what we call Black Gates."
The room went quiet. Nobody recognized the term.
"A Black Gate is a dimensional rift. A crack in the fabric of the Plane that opens a temporary connection to extradimensional space." Victor let that settle. "The rifts close and reform unpredictably. There's no way to anticipate when or where one will appear."