The Card Apprentice

Sanchez felt as though he were in a dream. If it hadn’t been for the daily training that left him sore all over, he might have just believed it was all a mere sweet dream. However, the feeling from his whole body that his bones were about to fall apart made him clearly aware that he wasn’t dreaming.

He had been the oldest among all the card artisans recruited. Every day, he could sense the odd glances cast from those around him.

Nevertheless, he didn’t care about it. He had already been used to such looks. He simply trained earnestly every day, knowing that regardless of why they had recruited him, he had to do his best. He had no lofty goals, nor did he want to prove himself. To be honest, sometimes not even he could figure out what he was being so hardworking for. Perhaps it had just become a habit of his.

As for the daily training, it was completely different from all he had come into contact with before. What they were currently doing the most was actually physical training and formation training. The card artisans around Sanchez were full of complaints. They had never heard that a card artisan needed such an abundance of physical training and formation drills.

However, those guys only dared to grumble in secret. No one dared to complain out loud. Their instructor, the young man who had interviewed Sanchez, was genuinely a man to be revered. It wasn’t a question of the strength of his individual battling capability, but he projected an aura—one that made others compliant!

Of course, among the card artisans, the rebellious were never lacking. But the end of those guys was, without exception, very miserable. Causing the slightest trouble would mean being removed at the first instant. Each day, large numbers of card artisans were kicked out of the group. Some quick-tempered fellows were enraged upon being expelled and had attempted to attack the instructor.

When he thought of that, Sanchez subconsciously raised his head to glance at the two young card artisans beside the instructor. One was a beautiful female card artisan. Her titillating figure always made others inadvertently want to gulp. There was also the male card artisan who had never spoken. He was like a block of wood—no—like an ice-cold, metallic sculpture.

But it was exactly those two people who would, whenever someone tried to attack, complete the execution at the first instant!

Heavens, Sanchez still could not forget that scene! He could swear it was the most efficient killing he had ever seen! Compared to those two, the self-proclaimed elites in the card artisan teams he had been in previously seemed like toddlers who had just learned how to walk.

Simple and effective, quick and direct, no fancy techniques, but encompassing a lethal splendor—the moves of those two people had intimidated everyone present. After that, no one dared to act otherwise. The pair had carried the bodies out of the training room. Even that lady could carry two in one hand. In the entire process, the two card artisans hadn’t spoken one word, and the young instructor hadn’t even bothered to raise his eyelids.

All of the card artisans were silent with trepidation. They were not blind. The indifference toward death, which revealed itself in every action of the two card artisans and the instructor, made them feel a bone-chilling cold.

Upon recovery from that tough battle, Lu Xiaoru’s and the bar-browed man’s perception improved by leaps and bounds, successfully breaking into the fifth level and reaching the intermediate standard of level five. Having experienced several life-and-death battles, their resolve had become steadfast and their battle experience plentiful. Their capabilities could no longer be compared against those of the past.

It wasn’t just them; nearly all of the card artisans who had survived that battle had a good amount of advancements in perception. Actual combat was a card artisan’s best teacher.

The reason battle card artisans were so much stronger than ordinary card artisans was precisely that they grew continually through battles and weren’t just purely engaged in training. Sanchez was yet to understand that, but he knew as long as he played no tricks with his training, there wouldn’t be much of a problem.

The uninteresting physical training made the card artisans feel as though they were in hell. That instructor was like an ice-cold machine, being extraordinarily strict and never explaining why.

Such primitive training greatly disappointed a good deal of card artisans. They had thought the Snow Silkworm Card Artisan Firm would have some advanced training methods. They hadn’t expected nothing but days after days of physical training to await them.

Disappointed card artisans and those who found it too hard left one after another. Oddly enough, the icy instructor made no attempt to stop them and allowed them to leave whenever. Under the influence of those card artisans, even more chose to leave.

Thus, rumors about how the Snow Silkworm Card Artisan Firm didn’t live up to its reputation spread wider and wider on the market. The card artisans who had left spared no effort in giving publicity to the hellish life they had endured at the Snow Silkworm Card Artisan Firm and its primitive training methods.

Nonetheless, many remained, such as Sanchez. With clenched teeth, they endlessly repeated the incomparably dull physical training and formation drills. The companions around them decreased further and further, but that could not shake their will.

* * *

Murray’s build was somewhat similar to Happy Padding’s but without Happy Padding’s murderous aura. His skin was tan as a result of working outdoors long-term. He was the new mining card artisan, and he was an advanced one, too. His duty was to take up the planning and the work arrangements of the entire mining site.

He had roughly 30 intermediate mining card artisans under him. That was the standard arrangement of a medium-sized mining site. In that not-very-sizeable ravine, it could be considered a lavish arrangement.

The treatment Murray enjoyed was great, and that satisfied him well. The newly recruited mining card artisans under him all had decent capabilities, and none had a penchant for trouble. To be honest, that was the most satisfactory job he had had until then. The boss rarely asked much, but he gave him enough authority and didn’t order him around.

But, looking at the ore, which piled up like mountains, he was a little perplexed. Their daily amount of ore dug out was rather shocking. On average, only two days were needed before they could fill up a warehouse completely.

One by one, the warehouses were stuffed full. The depletion rate of the ore was actually far smaller than the rate of mining. If that went on, they would soon have no place to pile the ore they dug out.

He located the executive, Xi Ping, who was somewhat surprised that Murray came to look for him. “Director Murray, did you run into some problem?”

“Yes.” Murray didn’t beat about the bush and said straightforwardly, “Executive, our ore has filled up the warehouses, and the depletion rate of ore is too slow. Should we consider slowing down the mining?”

Xi Ping hadn’t expected Murray would approach him for that matter.

The resources seized from the Downstream Alliance had filled up almost all of the warehouses at the Valley Nest base and left little room. Under normal circumstances, Murray’s suggestion wasn’t wrong. But Xi Ping knew how astonishing the amount of extract was that Mobley required. Although the piles of ore looked like a lot, if they were to be used for the production of extracts, they were hardly enough. The most crucial point was that he knew what Chen Mu was up to. He had the fullest confidence in the boss.

Just then, the boss asked him to head over to the refinement workshop.

Placed in front of Chen Mu were 12 silvery-white cards, which were made using a type of blank four-star card. That kind of four-star card was made from specially processed inner barks of the silver celestial trees. It looked like an extremely thin sheet of forged silver.

The structural patterns on the surface of the glimmering, silvery-white cards were quite peculiar. Countless fine lines branched off from the sides of three thick, parallel purple lines. A quick glance would leave an impression of three purple tree roots with root hair grown all over.

Ru Qiu’s gaze was intently fixed on Chen Mu. She was curious as to the functions of those cards. She had participated in the entire process of making the 12 cards, but she had no idea what their purpose was. Chen Mu had customarily handed her the plan of production, but what had surprised her was that she couldn’t understand any part of it that time.

That had undoubtedly piqued her utmost interest. In the past, though she couldn’t make much out of each production plan, a situation where she totally couldn’t understand anything was a first.

Who was she? She was the designated next head of the card making department at the Origins Academy, the one hailed a genius, Ru Qiu! Not a beginner. She believed that if she were to undergo professional assessments right then, she could easily receive the title of an advanced card master.

Yet, every card Chen Mu made at present actually puzzled her from start to finish. How could that not depress her? Dejection and curiosity were like two worms that made their way to the bottom of her heart. She very much wished Chen Mu would demonstrate the functionalities of the 12 cards at once.

Chen Mu didn’t notice Ru Qiu’s abnormalities. Once he began working, he would be extremely focused. It was a habit he had developed when he had been making one-star power cards. The reason was simple. If a lack of attention caused the failure of making a card, it would have meant a loss, which might have disrupted his daily life.

A large number of metal parts were piled up at the refinement workshop. Not one of them wasn’t new and shiny. They had all been custom-made at a molding company by Chen Mu’s order.

The dimensions of the parts had been confirmed by Chen Mu personally. Though the fee for having them made to order was not low, as compared to buying machines and then dismantling them, it was way cheaper.

Due to the rather large quantity Chen Mu ordered, plus the Snow Silkworm Card Artisan Firm’s rising fame, that company had specially sent along some technicians to assist Chen Mu for free. The technicians were long obsessed with metallurgy and were very deft in the assembly of parts. Seeing that, Chen Mu simply handed them the assembly work. The core technology and the key to the newly designed separators were the silver cards he made, so there was no need to worry about secrets being revealed.

After rushing to the refinement workshop, Xi Ping was just in time to see the technicians putting parts together.

“Boss, this is the new separator?” Xi Ping asked in a low voice as he watched the huge machinery being assembled. Though the assembly was incomplete, the parts that had been put together were already five or six meters in size. It would certainly be gigantic.

Chen Mu nodded. “Yeah, but it’s not finished yet. The efficiency will only be known after trying it out.”

Xi Ping nodded in reply and stopped speaking at once, standing aside and watching quietly.

The assembly work was finished swiftly. The technicians were skillful at their craft, and it was hard to estimate how much faster they were compared to Chen Mu doing it himself. The machine was six meters in height, and its body was shaped like a huge water tank lying on its side. It had a three-meter-wide conveyor belt connecting to the entry point at the top of the body, and on the other side was another conveyor belt.

Chen Mu approached the separator without hesitation. He opened a small door at the bottom to reveal a card slot, into which he inserted one of the silver cards. A gentle whirring sounded, lively but soft.

Chunks of ore that had been ready long ago were rapidly transported to the entry point by the conveyor belt. The conveyor belt continuously brought ore over to the separator while the residual slags were brought away via the other conveyor belt.

So, it’s for making separators! A trace of disappointment flashed across Ru Qiu’s eyes. She wasn’t interested in separators; they required excellent metalwork, which she knew nothing of.

Xi Ping was staring excitedly at the test tubes used to hold the extracts. The speed at which the extract was increasing in the test tube was faster than when using the old separator. No, it was much faster! Moments later, the tons of ore prepared had been all been depleted. The efficiency of the new separator was stunningly high.

The great functionality of the separator instantly enraptured everyone, and the remaining 11 separators were assembled at top speed. The originally somewhat spacious refinement workshop became suddenly crowded, and the gentle whirring sounded ceaselessly.

Xi Ping asked Murray to speed up the mining at once. He had seen with his own eyes how the ore had been reduced to a heap of slags in the blink of an eye. The speed at which those new separators used up ore was really too fast.

Seeing that the performance of the new separators was indeed excellent, Chen Mu relaxed thoroughly. The production of the extracts of purple fluorescent ore was currently one of their most important trump cards. As long as the production of the extracts could be maintained, no one would dare to have any designs on them in the short term.

Extremely exhausted, Chen Mu could no longer withstand the waves of lethargy and fell into a deep sleep after having a few words with Xi Ping. The mad fits of studying and research in the past few days had strained his nerves to the extreme.

That time, Chen Mu slept for two days. When he woke up, he saw Xi Ping in front of him with a face full of smiles and a box in his hands. Seeing that sort of expression of Xi Ping’s face, Chen Mu knew something had happened for sure. Pointing to the box in Xi Ping’s hands, he asked, “What’s this?”

“Heh heh. Boss, these are the liquid nutrients Miss Sue Lochiro specially concocted for you to recharge your physiological functions,” Xi Ping said, smacking his lips. The expression on his face was as though he was recalling the savoring of some delicacy. “Speaking of which, Miss Sue’s rather concerned about you. How enviable!”

Liquid nutrients?

Chen Mu took the box from Xi Ping’s hands with a doubtful face. After opening it, he indeed found a few vials of pale blue liquid. He randomly picked one up and poured the liquid into his mouth. It seemed to be fruit-flavored. But every test tube was only the size of an index finger. Chen Mu’s single pour had already emptied it, so it was gone before he had time to carefully appreciate it. Chen Mu reached out and was about to have another.

Xi Ping hurried to intervene when he saw Chen Mu’s motion. “Boss, Miss Sue said this stuff isn’t suitable for large dosages. It must be no more than one vial each time taking it and no more than two each day.”

“Oh.” Chen Mu could only withdraw his hand sulkily. Very soon, however, he felt warmed all over, and his spirits lifted greatly. He sized up the empty test tube in his hands with mild surprise. This stuff is indeed rather effective!

Seeing that, Xi Ping let out a meaningful laugh and left to busy himself.

Chen Mu, who had just walked out of the Valley Nest for some fresh air, received an exhilarating piece of good news.

Bogner was back!