Card Apprentice Daily Log

Date- 1 April 2321

Time- 10:38

Location- Sky Blossom City, Southern Watch military base.

"I will return a thousandfold," Corey said grudgingly. A sinister fire raged in her eyes, and black smoke oozed out of her body.

"I will be waiting." Longing anticipation could be seen on Anna's face proving that she took Corey's words seriously. As if she was waiting for a worthy enemy for eons. She really hoped Corey could be that enemy.

"I will not keep you waiting for long," Corey replied as she limped. Though Anna didn't use full strength, she ensured the corporal punishment she delivered had a lasting effect.

"Corey, honey. Drink this." Susan handed Corey a low-rank blood elixir Van had explicitly made for her.

"I will get stronger so that you don't have to face such a situation again." Said Corey as she drank the blood elixir given to her by Susan. Corey felt it must have taken a lot of restraint on Susan's part for her not to step in as Anna punished her.

"Corey, honey, learn to endure it. Be moderate and show self-restraint. You cannot keep challenging her Majesty's authority without enough power to back it. The only reason you are still alive is that her highness has accepted you as her goddaughter." Susan didn't know what was going on in Corey's head, but she decided to teach Corey not to stretch her tongue further than her strength.

"Saints endure. Demons live unrestrained." Uttered Corey. She ignored Susan and her words. Then she gazed at me and sincerely said, "I can help."

"I know." I had seen the martial arts card Corey had created with the help of her ego fire. Each one of them is a masterpiece and worth a fortune. I gained a bargain by paying one thousand soul jades' for her martial card.

When the Garcia twins said they wanted a martial art type skill card, I already decided to recruit Corey's help after I found an answer on how to create two origin cards using one fated ingredient.

"..." Corey didn't expect me to agree with her. She expected me to ignore her help without listening to what she had to offer as Anna did. So she was stumped.

"Name your price," I said to Corey.

"What?" Corey was confused because, in her mind, she did not prepare this far as she believed that I would need a little convincing to let her help.

"Girl, state your price." I repeated myself and added, "Our client this time is loaded. So be wise when you answer."

"But, you haven't heard how I can help you." Argued Corey.

"I don't need to. I trust you." 'I trust Corey Park.' I knew if Corey said she could help, it meant Corey Park had a solution to the problem we were facing.

"Okay." Replied Corey resolutely. I could see my words had the desired effect on Corey. Even if she had memories of her past lives, she still was a troubled teenager.

"Oye, I am right here. How dare you two plan to take advantage of the state treasury right in front of me?" Anna felt stupid for trying to flaunt her wealth as she saw the card creationist she was employing didn't even bother to hide their intention to raid her wealth with steep services.

"I want an ingredient of my choosing from the devil you slew yesterday." Corey suddenly stated. The reason Corey overzealously tried to help her boss was that she wanted to get her hands on the ingredients Anna collected from the devil she slew yesterday.

"..." I looked at Corey dumbfoundedly. I did ask her to state a steep price for her help, but damn, she didn't hold back and directly reached for a demigod realm legendary grade ingredient. 'Wait! Anna slew a devil yesterday? How come I haven't heard about it?'

"No fucking way. Little girl, have you gone insane? An SSS-Rank ingredient for your services? Even a Diamond grade card creationist will not demand that. Don't be unreasonable. Ask something more reasonable." Anna flipped, hearing Corey's price, but she suddenly realized, "Wait, how do you know I defeated a devil yesterday? It is confidential information."

The Devil descended on the world for 2 seconds at most before it was trapped in Anna's field card and defeated. Therefore, someone of Corey's status shouldn't know that Anna beat a devil yesterday. Yet she knew, which could only mean Corey was more than what meets the eye.

"My master told me about it." Answered Corey nonchalantly.

"And who would that be?" Anna pressed Corey for more details.

"Master is master." Corey played the fool, but Anna wasn't buying it.

"Girl, don't play with me. Unless you are looking for another ass whopping." Anna threatened Corey straight.

"I don't know the original identity of my master. She never revealed it, and I never bothered to ask." Corey said innocently. But only she knew that she had whooped up a mysterious master out of thin air to hide the reason for recent progress in strength and card creation.

"You expect me to believe that you have a mysterious master who told you about me fighting a devil yesterday." Though Anna said this, she had already bought into Corey's lies because this was the most reasonable answer to explain the staggering changes shown by Corey.

"Yes. A mysterious but beautiful lady walked up to me and said that she wanted to take me as her disciple to pass all her knowledge to me. And in return, she wanted me to fight against the demons and devils." Not only did Anna sell an image of a mysterious female master with unfathomable strength, but she made sure to make it clear that she was an ally of humanity and hated demons and devils.

"If your said mysterious master is real, how come the states array couldn't detect her?" The array formation was explicitly made to detect and locate powerful card apprentices. If there was a mysterious master behind Corey, as she claimed, then the array should have detected her presence.

...