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Luke read through the materials' effects and felt his mind immediately begin cross-referencing his card backlog.
*Light Sword.* The description emphasized sealing capability. A sword that had once contained a nation-destroying demon. That single property pointed at an obvious target: Swords of Revealing Light.
One of the most iconic trap cards in the original game. Yu-Gi-Oh's signature stall effect, famous for its role in the Yugi-versus-Kaiba arc where Yugi used it to survive long enough to draw Exodia the Forbidden One. And later, in a different memorable sequence, for keeping an aerial monster suspended in mid-air long enough to execute a winning attack pattern when the effect expired.
If Luke integrated the Light Sword's properties into the card's background, along with the anime-era lore about its stall mechanics, he could produce something with real tactical versatility.
*Holy Spirit Ring.* This one was more specialized. The description pointed to angelic residue, light-aligned essence, material that begged for an upper-tier Digimon integration.
Holy Grail.
The Holy Grail was the ultimate evolution catalyst for Sistermon's evolution tree. It worked across all three evolution paths he had designed, the Angewomon route for holy-aligned forms, the Ladydevimon route for dark-aligned forms, and the Eosmon route for data-anomaly forms. A single Holy Spirit Ring would provide the core material for whichever evolution chain he eventually pursued first.
Combined with his existing Evolution Stone, the Holy Grail completed the major ingredient list for Sistermon White's mid-tier evolution chain. The remaining minor materials could be acquired through Rewrite and Reorganize at green-tier cost.
Not bad. This is going to save me weeks of material hunting.
Of course, completing the full Digimon card roster was a multi-year project regardless. Even with Rewrite and Reorganize accelerating his material pipeline, he couldn't simultaneously craft every evolution form for every Digimon in the Digital World. It was the same scale of work as building out the full Duel Monsters roster. You picked priorities and worked methodically.
-----
"Remember, everyone," Harrison called across the room as the Ashenvale team began dispersing to their rooms, "tonight's banquet. Don't be late."
The Youth Training Competition's closing banquet was a formal event. Luke's performance had elevated Ashenvale's profile enormously, and Harrison intended to maximize that exposure. He would be doing the polite version of parading his star student around the banquet, and he would enjoy every second of it.
The Ashenvale team exchanged knowing looks. Harrison's intentions were transparent, and nobody could find fault with them. They would all benefit from Ashenvale's reputational upgrade.
-----
*「 Worldview: Digital World has completed simulation construction! 100% 」*
Luke paused mid-step on his way to the banquet hall. The notification had surfaced unexpectedly, and his face brightened involuntarily.
He'd been tracking the Digital World's simulation progress for weeks, and he'd known the completion was imminent. But seeing the formal 100% confirmation still produced a little spark of satisfaction. The Digital World was now a fully simulated worldview inside his Card Editor framework, which meant he could begin constructing Digimon cards with the same system backing that his Duel Spirits cards enjoyed.
Immediately, he mentally queued the next priority target: finishing the Digimon evolution mechanic's background and setting.
He'd independently completed over ninety percent of the design work already, through his own creative effort rather than simulation assistance. The remaining ten percent was refinement and integration, polish that required the full worldview simulation to be available. With the simulation now online, he could close that last gap quickly.
Sistermon's three evolution chains were his first concrete goal. He was confident he could finish them, cards and all, before the entrance exam. The Holy Grail material was secured. The base card concepts were designed. The only remaining bottlenecks were time and mana for Rewrite conversions.
He triggered the simulation process to begin on the evolution-mechanic completion and continued toward the banquet.
-----
The banquet venue was the same dining hall where Luke had first met Elise Hargrove. Tonight, though, it had been transformed. Elegant drapery lined the walls. Crystal chandeliers hung where the functional lights had been. A row of immaculately dressed greeters stood at the entrance, checking invitations with practiced courtesy. If not for the unmistakable architectural features, Luke wouldn't have recognized it.
He stepped inside, and the ambient noise of a full banquet washed over him. Dozens of conversations were already in progress. Small clusters of competitors and officials circulated in carefully measured orbits, wine glasses in hand, professional smiles deployed at optimal social intervals.
The room's center of gravity was already obvious.
Elise Hargrove stood at the focal point of a medium-sized gathering, dressed in a pale blue evening gown that managed to convey both formal elegance and youthful grace. Her ink-black hair had been released from its usual practical arrangement and now flowed loose to her waist, ornamented only by a pale blue ribbon that matched her dress. The gown's skirt moved like soft moonlight, embroidered along the hem with violet blooms and overlaid with a gossamer white outer layer that caught the chandelier light in soft shimmers. The overall effect was delicate, slightly ethereal, the polished evening presentation of the Hargrove family's heir.
She looked nothing like the Card Master who had been dismantled in the Mist Relic's core a few hours earlier. The transformation was professional-grade. Whatever private feelings she might have had about the tournament loss, nothing in her current demeanor suggested them.
The gathering around her ebbed and flowed with practiced politeness. She engaged each approach graciously, but maintained a subtle distance that prevented any single conversation from becoming too intimate. She'd clearly done this many times before.
In the Capital, Elise's social standing was genuinely extraordinary. A Leader Realm Card Master, heir to one of Ashenmere's most powerful families, personally trained by an Immortal Realm grandfather. In terms of status among the younger generation, perhaps only the unborn scion of the Ashford line could rival her position. Every ambitious young person at the banquet had taken note of her presence and was calculating whether an introduction was worth attempting.
But Luke's arrival shifted the room's attention.
Conversations didn't stop, but they grew quieter as he stepped into the hall. Heads turned, subtly or not-so-subtly. Whispers threaded through the gathered crowd as people angled for line-of-sight on the tournament's champion.
He'd won the Youth Training Competition. He'd single-handedly ambushed the Capital team's two strongest members. He'd produced a Seven-Star Legendary fusion spirit in front of every branch president. If Elise was the banquet's official star, Luke was the unofficial gravity well that had just started pulling the room into a new orbit.
Several of the female Card Masters present showed more than professional interest. Talent at Luke's level, combined with a physical presence that was already drawing compliments from across the room, made him a target for a very specific kind of attention.
The calculation was straightforward. With a projected career trajectory like his, an early social connection would pay dividends for years. Even an ambiguous one.
Before any of those approaches could materialize, however, Elise Hargrove excused herself from her cluster of conversation partners and began walking across the hall.
Directly toward Luke.
"Luke, you made it." She came to a stop in front of him, her smile easy, her tone just slightly warmer than strict professional courtesy required. "I was starting to wonder if you were going to show up."
Every person who'd been calculating an approach to either Elise or Luke simultaneously stopped calculating.
This isn't the expected development.