Bab 25: The Limitation and Condition

Within the workshop, This is the first time Daniel is going to actualize a sentient being that has their own set of thinking and beliefs from the card.

He had prepared many countermeasures in the workshop in case Michaela considered him an enemy, be it the armored war golem standing near the ground where he will summon Michaela or the trapped artifact he had prepared earlier.

For he remembered that in the lore he had written, she is a staunch believer and servant of the Lord Creator. Which is equal to God in his lore. Even though the Keeper told him that all the creatures he actualized will have absolute loyalty to him, he must be prepared in case this is not the case.

His mind sank into the mindscape and was about to choose the Michaela card, but what he saw was that the card was not lightened up like other cards that could actualize even though he had actualized more than 10 "Mana flask" from the "Emergency Mana" cards.

Daniel then tried to see if anything was wrong and saw that among the 3 light elemental mana and 5 non-elemental mana. The only mana that was not lightened up was only one light elemental mana, other than that it was all lightened up, indicating that he needs one more light elemental mana to actualize it.

This would normally mean that he would need one more Light Elemental mana to actualize this card, but he was sure that he had more than enough mana flasks prepared.

Thinking back to the difference between the card he had previously actualized and this card, all the cards he had previously actualized were non-sentient cards, even if they were creatures, but they came in the form of golems or artifact constructs.

He needs to ask the keeper what's the problem about why he can't actualize this card, but first, he needs to check on the result of yesterday's spying from the metal scarab he sent to spy on that police officer.

Daniel walked toward an artifact that looked like a notebook computer, he built this thing for his own use to receive the signal from his Spy Metal Scarab as its signal that was generated from the mana was different from normal radio or internet signal in the modern day.

He opens the artifact and begins to check on the information he gained last night.

The conversation records Daniel's judgment to be between the police officer he met last night and the man who is supposed to be the leader of the royal court mage begin.

Daniel listened to the conversation about last night from the start to finish and some of the information he got from the second metal scarab after the first one was destroyed let him know that from the leader of the royal court mage's perspective. He was a fearsome Artificer and a dark mage who are very proficient in dark magic.

A very interesting piece of information he got was that. Maybe the average standard of the dark mage in the real world is low, or maybe the unavoidable collateral damage is a nature of real-world dark magic.

Whether it was the former or the latter, he needed to meet with wrath again to confirm his deduction.

As for now, he needs to meet with The Keeper to ask him about the problem he faces while actualizing Michaela.

Daniel thinks about the card shop and wishes for the door to appear, within a moment a familiar door of the card shop appears before Daniel's eyes.

He walked into the shop and met with a bald black man in a black suit and long coat, his tie and the decoration on his body displayed elegantly as if he was a British gentleman. The black gentleman was smiling at Daniel.

"Welcome Mr.Daniel, How may I help you today?" A familiar voice came out from the mouth of that black gentleman.

"You… are you The Keeper?" Daniel asks, stuttering as the surprise hits him.

"Yes, it's me, The Keeper. You might be a little bit confused about my new looks but I gained the ability to manifest my human look because of last night's new manifestation in the shop." Answered The Keeper.

"Last night?" Daniel repeat, he did a lot last night.

"Yes, last night. May I inquire of you about what happened in the real world last night? What did you do?" The keeper asks again.

Last night it was the first time he killed people, the first time he went out of his way to bluff someone, and also the first time he got recognized by a powerful magician as an artificer and a dangerous dark mage.

Daniel then tells The Keeper about what had happened last night including the information he got from spying on the conversation between the Royal Police Section Chief and The Royal Court Mage Chief. Then asks him about the problem when he tried to actualize Michaela in the real world.

"I see…" The Keeper nods in understanding after he heard what Daniel told him.

"Let me answer the question first then, Mr. Daniel." The keeper adjusted his necktie and then begin to explain.

"The only reason I could think of why Michaela can't be actualized is that she is a sentient being, and in order to make the sentient being from the card to be actualized, it needs the elemental mana from the location in the real world as the anchor for them to be actualized and living here." The keeper explained and continued.

"Also, I think I know why there is a new card box set appearing in the shop." The Keeper points to the poster on the wall not far from Daniel.

Daniel's eyes followed The Keeper's hand and saw a poster that was hung on the wall.

"Huh? What is this?" Daniel walked to the wall and checked out the poster.

"New box set! The Crusade Of Light And Darkness!" This is what was written on the poster. He saw an elegant-looking middle-aged man in black armor who seems to be the leader of the army of monsters and undead fighting with a valiant knight in white armor who has a blood lust smile on his face while the crusaders behind him slaughtering the creatures of darkness.

Daniel remembered that this set was about the war between light and darkness, and also told the story of light within darkness such as the vampire who would do anything to protect his homeland, and darkness within light such as the corruption and greed of the high ranking priest who use the war to fill their own coffers.

There are many dark magic theme cards in this set. Whether it was the zombie, lycanthrope, necromancer, corpse resurrection spell from the dark magic theme card or even the valiant paladin, the vampire and lycanthrope hunters, the angels, and the true resurrection spell from the white magic card theme.

While checking the poster and reminiscing about the card Daniel suddenly realized.

"Don't tell me… the recognition from the real world!?" Daniel blurted out as he immediately turned toward The Keeper.

The Keeper nod.

"That's right, It seems the recognition from the real world about who you are, especially the recognition from the strong and people en masse are the reason why the shop manifests new card sets." The Keeper confirms Daniel's suspicion.

"Is that so?" Daniel replied.

Does this mean he needs to bluff people like some scammer to let them think whatever he wants them to think in order for the shop to manifest a new card set?

Now he was a great Artificer, a Dark mage… maybe next time he should bluff them to think that he is the founder or the owner of a powerful secret organization or make someone believe that he was a descendant of some Olympian god or relate him to the Greek myth?

He remembered two card sets he had prepared for selling. The first was about the guild and the underworld organization, the second was about the Greek myth that has many Greek heroes and monsters.

After thinking it through, Daniel let out a smile and then walked toward The Keeper at the counter.

"Thank you for your clarification Mr.Keeper. Now I have 20 1kg 99.99% pure gold bars. Half of it goes to the new set, the other half goes to the Atlantean Artifact set." Daniel said then placed 20 gold bars on the counter.

Seeing the gold bars, The Keeper opens two new box sets and places them on the counter for Daniel to choose to his heart's content.

Daniel let out a smile as his mood immediately got better while choosing the booster packs. Now, Daniel tries a new ritual as he closes his eyes and uses only his hand to pick up 10 boosters from each box.

"Good luck Mr. Daniel." The Keeper said with a smile before opening some of the remaining boosters to find some good cards to sell individually while Daniel goes to the table to open as The Keeper had instructed.