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"Sit." Selene only smiled at his admiring sigh. "I've already logged your information into the ward. Next time you come, it won't stop you."
"Senior sister, what did you call me up here for?" Luke settled across from her and asked outright. He truly had no idea what she wanted with him.
"Nothing much, honestly. A few matters, mainly." Selene lifted a hand and tucked a stray lock of hair back behind her ear. "That Dragon Renegade we brought back has confessed everything he knew."
"The fortunate part is that the Renegades planted only a single mole inside Celestial. The trouble is that the mole is a mentor, and for the moment we don't know which mentor made the deal with the Renegades, or when they mean to act."
"A Celestial mentor, dealing with the Renegades. They really did bet the house on this one." Luke's brow went up. He'd assumed at first the mole was a student. No wonder Silas Vane had been so sure of himself.
Celestial's mentors, after all, were King realm at minimum, and no freshly enrolled Leader-realm student could hope to stand against one. As for Luke and his Monarch realm, that had been an accident of the count. Nobody had seen it coming.
"The Head already has Moira pressing the search for that mentor. In the meantime, you and the Valley sisters, Violet and Viola, could all draw the mole's attention, so keep your guard up." Selene's tone carried a note of warning.
"Understood." Luke nodded. He wasn't much afraid of anyone coming for him, but a little caution would spare him plenty of trouble.
Though if they truly came for him, who ended up predator and who ended up prey would be anyone's guess.
"The second matter." Seeing him nod, Selene drew a special card from inside her robe and handed it across. "This is a transport token for the Corridor of Time."
"A transport token?" Luke took it. It was warm to the touch and carried a trace of her scent, and he turned it over in his hands. "A bit like the Crescent Moon Token. But what's the Corridor of Time?"
The token itself interested him less than the place it opened. From the name alone, the thing sounded every inch as formidable as the Land of Finality the Night Empress had once mentioned.
"Celestial stands among the Ancient Kingdom's Four Great Academies, and at the very top of the Eastern Region, and faculty alone didn't win it that place. The resources it commands are an advantage no one can overlook." Selene explained. "As for the Corridor of Time, it's a special secret realm, built through the combined power of several generations of Celestial's Heads."
A secret realm resembled a dimensional plane, with one difference. A dimensional plane was what remained after a world collapsed and evolved from its ruins. A secret realm was a special region made by hand.
"Luke, you know well enough that crafting cards is no simple thing, and high-level cards most of all. The span of time stretches even longer, and conceiving the card usually takes the largest share of it." Selene crossed her ankles and shifted into a more comfortable half-recline.
"True." Luke nodded. He knew that much from experience. Even with the Simulated Crafting authority in hand, he couldn't conceive a card in an instant. He'd only cut the time it cost him down to a fraction of what other Card Masters spent.
"It was exactly that problem the Heads had in mind when they built the Corridor of Time together. And its property is a single one. It speeds the flow of time." Her red lips parted on the words that startled Luke. "To be precise, it speeds the flow of time for everything that enters it."
"Conceiving a card is no simple task, and the Corridor cuts that time down, compressing what a Card Master spends on conception and lowering the time cost of crafting overall. Beyond that, inside the Corridor a Card Master's mind stays in a heightened, active state. Inspiration comes far more easily than it does day to day."
"Now that is interesting." Luke smacked his lips at the description.
Faster time, and a sharper, livelier mind on top. For a Card Master conceiving cards, the Corridor amounted to a top-tier cheat.
"That said, the Corridor's acceleration isn't unlimited. Every opening burns through a hefty store of resources, so the credits it costs to redeem a transport token are just as staggering."
"An ordinary student can graduate and leave Celestial without ever having saved enough for a single token."
"Your showing on the Trial Road and in the Dark Purgatory already puts you far past your peers, and you walk the original-card path on top of it, so there isn't much help I can actually offer you. The Corridor token is one of the few things I can. Call it my welcome gift."
Saying it, Selene felt a small, private bafflement. This junior brother of hers was growing faster than she ever had, and for the senior sister in the arrangement, the pressure was mountainous.
Luke might have only just entered Monarch realm while she was already at peak Emperor, but who could say she wouldn't wake one morning to find he'd caught up?
"Senior sister, as gifts go, this one couldn't have come at a better time." Turning the token over once more, a gleam lit Luke's eyes.
At present, his Simulated Crafting was almost entirely committed to Kisara's conception, which meant that any other card he wanted to make, he had to conceive on his own. He'd grown used to working that way, but it still ate plenty of hours.
And just now he had several cards waiting to be conceived. Selene's gift had landed at exactly the right moment.
"The last matter concerns the exchange match among the Four Great Academies. The Head is considering having you take part. It's still a long way off, though, so don't let it weigh on you for now. Just know it's there." With everything laid out, Selene finally let out a breath and stretched, and her fitted clothing traced a stunning, flawless curve.
"The Four Academies' exchange match?" Luke's brow rose. Still, since Selene had said not to dwell on it yet, he'd deal with what was in front of him first.
"Senior sister, are there any restrictions on using this token?" He waved it in the air and asked.
"You want to use it now?" Selene blinked at him.
"The monthly hunt's in two weeks, isn't it? I'd already planned to craft a few more cards before then, but the time was tight." Luke explained. "With the Corridor token, though, I should be able to make it."
Nor was it only the special cards. Given the chance, he wanted to see whether he could find a breakthrough for the evolution cards and the ship-girl world as well. With the Corridor sharpening a Card Master's mind, the odds of inspiration striking ran higher inside than out.
EXTRA CHAPTER FOR EVERY 500 POWERSTONES.