Chapter 599 Fairy Cards (2/2)

”My lord!”

”My liege!”

Students from different nations, regions, and races exclaimed differently. The youthful students and teachers abruptly felt a chill that seeped into their marrow, and a fear from the depths of the soul spread throughout their body. Soon, the infectious fear got everyone present to notice the quiet Joshua, and like Moses parting the Red Sea, the human wall split open, making a path to the heart of the crowd.

”…”

Quite self-conscious.

Joshua did not say a thing since they already did everything by themselves, and so nodded slightly, gesturing for them to go about their business before heading up front with nary a care.

Then, he saw that the two Legendary champions Barnil and William were seated on two sides of a small table—the Ancient Dragon chasing duo held a set of cards in their hand as they frowned in deep thought.

”Eh?”

Even Joshua could not stop the utterance from escaping his lips. He walked a little faster, arriving beside the thoughtful pair and looked on as they pinched their rectangular cards on the table.

The cards were of excellent quality, being produced mainly with 'Eternal Wood' exclusive to the Far Southern forests. Each card had self-recovery abilities. The faint mana radiance and trace of runes on the back of each card showed that not only were they not just cards, a fact that could be proved alone by that uniquely designed table.

”I use 'Thoughsteal', copying two cards from your undrawn deck and puts them in my hand!”

As Joshua looked on, the wandering poet, [Mind Lord] William activated the first card since the warrior arrived. In the instant the young and handsome Legendary mage put down a card, mana radiance flashed, and the 3D animation of a man grasping his own head in pain appeared on William's side of the table that was built from steel and pyroxene. Two cards thus automatically flew from the poker-faced Barnil direction and joined William's hand.

William took a look at the two new cards and made a clicking sound. At the moment, only two out of the ten pale-blue crystals on his side of the table were still shining, but he still concluded his turn. ”End!”

On the other hand, [Rune Master] Barnil's cards did not have so many effects. Against his best friend's cold face, the rather elderly Legendary mage showed a dazzling smile. ”My turn? Well, I'm playing [Lava Reaver], and two [Flame Elemental]… Every other minion, slap his face!”

[Lava Reaver, 3 Cost 21, Rampage, each elemental card played +1 to attack] [Flame Elemental, 1 Cost 12]

As the three cards were placed on the table, the miniature shades of three monsters appeared at once. However, there were already four other monsters standing on the field before hand, and at Barnil's call, each happily assaulted William's zone. As magical symbols of '-2', '-1' and '-4' appeared at the center of the table, the heart-shaped number that represented Williams dropped to 16, while Barnil's was still a big fat '30'.

Was that not Fairy Cards?

As the watched the familiar card duel, Joshua abruptly recalled memories buried deep within his memories.

Fairy Cards, otherwise known as Shadowlight Epic, was a minigame in Continental War. Developed by fairies and distributed by the dwarves, it was a phenomenal card game that spread across the continent, gaining the favor of all races thanks to its unique play and diverse assembles. Joshua had played for a while but did not delve deeper—he was in charge of a new Boss raid after all, and therefore had no excess time to research card game.

Still, that did not stop him from understanding the game. To Joshua, Barnil and William were using the 'First Fairy Card Table' displayed in the Northern Empire Museum, the first magical machine invented exclusively for the joy of Fairy Cards. It cost a hefty sum, but the dwarves had later used cheaper materials so that each tavern could buy a few for Fairy Card players. If Joshua recalled correctly, the table should have been initially designed by Starfall 837 before being popularized across the continent by Starfall 839—up until Starfall 853 just before the world war, Fairy Cards were the most widespread entertainment on the Mycroft Continent.

It was now only Starfall 836, and yet the final product was already out? It seems that Joshua had influence every facet of the future.

Just as Joshua kept remembering the past, the card duel on the table reached a climax.

”I play [Mind Control], and will take control of one of your minions of my choice!”

At the moment, William, a candle in the wind with his life points only standing at 5 and having no minions on his side, played a powerful spell card. However, he did not indicate the minion of his choice after putting down the card, and began to stare fixedly into Barnil's eyes instead. The wandering poet's gaze flickered with faint obscure radiance as powerful spiritual power spread from William and instantly penetrated Barnil's mind. Ambushed, Barnil's entire body quivered once, before reaching out with his trembling right hand to reach out to the right bottom corner for the button that indicates 'forfeit'.

”No! William, you despicable bastard! It's the card that does the mind control, not you!”

Barnil was, after all, a Legendary mage as well. Though he did not realize his best friend's ploy at once, he reacted soon enough and bellowed, slapping the table in rage. ”You're cheating!”

”You're cheating too! I already sensed your damned scandalous trick of shifting runes to change your card's face! And I was thinking why you never seem to run out of cards in your hand, who else could create cards like you in real time!”

”Nonsense! Isn't it normal for the Rune Master to control cards with runes? It's a legal move!”

”Then my usage of mind control over you is also a legal move!”

”Didn't you just fail!”

”Alright. What on earth is all this.”

As the two Legendary mages argued without dignity before the crowd, Joshua was forced to step up and stop the pair's clash—he had noticed that Barnil was using his immeasurable runic depth to directly alter the face of the Fairy Card he had drawn on a nanometer scale. The depth of that technique did not dull in comparison to the Void Mother's molecular fission class of offensive, and yet that ability was not use in a spell, but to… cheat.

”All students, disperse—it's time for classes, why are you staying outside here? That's fifty points off your semester if I still see any of you out here in three minutes!”

In truth, Joshua wanted to laugh, but there would be no seriousness in the scene if he did. Hence, he quickly issued his order and got every instructor and student who were absorbed in the liveliness to return to where they were supposed to be, before issuing another order.

”Adrian, Arlwa, and Miss Tempest. You three stay here and explain things.'