Chapter 13. Dekan Was Ready for His Debut

The central area of the Academy. It was surrounded on all sides by the four faculties’ buildings.

There stood a massive structure. Its style looked rather unusual.

Compared to the other faculty buildings radiating a campus atmosphere, this one looked more like a military stronghold.

High-level barriers surrounded the building, with royal knights standing guard. Because inside this building was the “Gate” leading to the Shadow World.

In the Norton Kingdom where I lived, there were three Shadow World interfaces, and one of them was right here at the Heavenlit Magic Academy.

After entering the “Gate,” the Shadow World on the other side would automatically start matching the challengers with a suitable existing Shadow World. Usually, it didn’t take long to be matched.

There were also people from other ports around the world matching together.

The lower the rank of the challengers, the easier it was to find a match, because lower-rank Shadow Worlds appeared more often, and there were more challengers.

High-rank Shadow Worlds appeared less frequently. Even if someone wanted to challenge one, sometimes no dungeon was available.

If a seventh-rank or above Shadow World appeared, then it would trigger multi-nation negotiations within the Kingdom Assembly, deciding which of their strongest individuals or teams to send.

The higher the rank of the Shadow World, the more catastrophic the consequences of failure.

If second or third-rank Shadow Worlds were just minor incidents, then the failure of a seventh-rank or higher Shadow World would be a true large-scale natural disaster.

Any nation would treat it with utmost caution.

There were two ways to form a team. For those seventh- and eighth-rank challengers, since their numbers were so few and high-rank Shadow Worlds so rare, simply entering the base at the same time would match them together.

The other way was to carry a “Team Card.”

【Team Card】

【Type: Spell Card】

【Grade: White Common】

【Rank: 1】

【Passive Effect: Matches you into the same Shadow World with companions carrying the same numbered Team Card】

【Note: Number 948957812】

Cornelia and I carried matching Team Cards. With this, we were guaranteed to enter the same Shadow World.

The price was just a tiny bit of card slot space.

......

Cornelia and I arrived early at the building, twenty minutes before our agreed time.

It seemed neither of us wanted to make the other wait.

“Ready?” I asked.

“Ready,” Cornelia replied.

Since we were early, we might as well enter first.

We exchanged a look. No more words were needed.

Just as we were about to pass the security check into the next barrier—“Wait!”

A dry voice called out behind us.

We turned and saw an old man hurrying toward us.

We looked at him in slight confusion.

His clothes were yellow, the color of the Alchemy Academy. He should be a professor there.

“Student Dekan, Student Cornelia, I am Professor Morgot from the Alchemy Academy, in charge of the broadcast hall. If possible, I hope you can accept this card!”

Professor Morgot walked up and pulled two cards from the envelope in his hand, handing them to us.

The cards glimmered with a faint purple glow—they were clearly not ordinary.

“What’s this?” I didn’t take them right away, instead asking with a hint of suspicion.

“The Shadow World Broadcast Program, a first-rank magic card. The purple grade is because it’s the ultra-HD version,” Professor Morgot explained.

It was similar to the Team Card, a spell card with a passive effect.

Once carried, even if we entered a natural Shadow World, the Alchemy Academy could still obtain a real-time broadcast of our challenge.

In the past decade, the most notable technologies had been the “Artificial Shadow World” and the “Shadow World Broadcast Program.”

The Artificial Shadow World could create harmless worlds for training.

The Broadcast Program allowed support staff outside to gather information from inside the Shadow World more efficiently.

For example, intel gained from one Shadow World might sometimes be applied to another!

Thus, the study of Shadow World information had become a popular subject.

The advancement of magic engineering also meant the Shadow World clear rate kept improving.

“But won’t this take up one of our card slots?” I asked. I also didn’t much like the idea of being watched.

“It does slightly affect your combat ability, yes, but there will be broadcast revenue shares. Here are the contracts. It’s up to you whether you accept, don’t be nervous.”

Professor Morgot smiled warmly, handing me two documents from the envelope.

Cornelia skimmed the papers briefly, then looked at me.

She didn’t understand. She would listen to me.

After a short hesitation, I accepted the two Broadcast Programs but handed the contracts back to Professor Morgot.

“Professor Morgot, this time we’ll carry the Broadcast Program into the Shadow World without asking for any compensation. After we finish the challenge, let’s talk about the contract details then. How about it?”

Even though the revenue split wasn’t bad, I chose not to sign right away.

If our Shadow World run this time went very well, maybe afterward we could negotiate better terms.

Besides, after this challenge, I wanted to go home and carefully check these【Shadow World Broadcast Program】cards for any hidden risks.

So signing under temptation right now wasn’t the best choice.

Better to treat it as a trial cooperation to confirm each other’s value.

Ever since that shady merchant taught me a lesson, I had become especially cautious in business.

“No problem, no problem.”

Professor Morgot readily agreed.

After a few words of courtesy, he left.

I explained the situation to Cornelia as we passed through security together.

Walking all the way to the deepest part of the passage, we arrived at a grand hall glowing with deep blue light.

At its center, massive magical machinery guarded a void gate.

It looked a little like the scene from the entrance exam, except this “Gate” was dozens of times larger than the Artificial Shadow World’s gate.

It inevitably inspired awe toward the mysterious domain.

There was still some distance from the colossal natural void gate itself, a buffer zone and service area provided for challengers.

“Take these.”

I handed Cornelia a stack of cards.

Among them were three identical blue equipment cards, one purple equipment card, several blue and white cards, plus the Broadcast Program card from earlier.

“N-no way!”

Cornelia noticed the quality of these cards and hurriedly waved her hands in refusal.

She couldn’t afford such expensive cards right now.

“No charge.”

“No……”

“Consider it me lending them to you.”

“They—they’ll break……” Cornelia worried about damaging the weapons I gave her.

“I’ll repair them, don’t worry. In the Shadow World, your combat strength is the most important. Think of it as protecting me—you’ll need to be stronger for that.”

My words made Cornelia hesitate, but then she accepted the stack of cards.

Since I said it like that, she had no reason to refuse.

“Okay.”

Grateful, she unbound her old equipment cards and stored them at the counter, then bound the cards I handed her.

There weren’t many Fighters who could repair equipment cards themselves.

It seemed I was even more versatile than Cornelia had imagined.

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