Word of Little Sam's Card Shop changing owners quickly spread through the neighborhood. Many nearby shopkeepers even came over specifically to take a look and meet Duke.
There had been basically no major changes, and business had not declined either.
After all, there was only one Little Sam's Card Shop in the area around Second Vertical Street. If the nearby residents had damaged spirit cards, Little Sam's Card Shop could repair them. Who would go all the way somewhere farther away?
Dilanke and Sane came over to repair cards practically every day.
Only Best took leave and stayed away every few days. Even when he did come, he never had much of an attitude, and the amount of card-repair materials he used had increased substantially compared to before.
"Teacher Best, have you been having trouble lately? It's only been a week, but the materials you've used are already nearly as much as you used in an entire month before." Duke came over with a frown.
"What is it?" Best asked with a stiff expression.
"I hope you can put a little more care into it and try to reduce the material wastage. We're running a small business, so we need to be a bit more frugal."
"Heh." Best gave a perfunctory laugh. "Everyone has times when things don't go smoothly. Even when Old Sam was here, I sometimes used a bit more material. Is the new boss going to seize on this one point and refuse to let it go?"
Duke said calmly, "I've looked through the accounts Old Sam left behind. Teacher Best, you've been very consistent over the past year, so I only came over to remind you."
Best raised his chin and replied, "Are you looking through the accounts to settle things with me now? Didn't you see what level I was at when you were still an apprentice? Why are you rushing over here now?"
"Best, say less." Sane came over.
He held Best back to stop him from saying anything more, then smiled at Duke and said, "Best just has a foul temper. His skills are still trustworthy. Duke, don't take it to heart."
The minor conflict was resolved just like that.
Although Duke found Best somewhat unpleasant, he could not find a suitable Card Master to replace him for the time being, so he raised the matter of the materials high and let it drop lightly.
However, he secretly sped up his studies.
He hoped to be promoted to Card Master soon and replace Best.
Unfortunately, even with Xiao Yi's theoretical guidance, he still could not truly enter the inner sanctum of card repair. The reason was that he was only a One-Star Spiritual Apprentice.
Spirit Liquid was merely a crude concentration of Spiritual Power and could not produce more precise control.
Card repair was an exquisitely delicate task, like carving words onto a grain of rice, and it placed enormous demands on one's control over Spiritual Power. Unless he condensed energy threads and raised his control to another level, it was truly difficult to begin.
Xiao Yi, on the other hand, had been growing at an astonishing speed during this period.
As Duke burned the midnight oil and pored through a large number of books, the contents of Xiao Yi's database increased greatly. Especially in card repair, she had already reached the pinnacle. No matter how badly damaged a spirit card was, she could quickly provide a complete repair plan. Limited by Duke's insufficient strength, however, he could not yet bring out the full extent of Xiao Yi's abilities.
It was like a computer with a single-core CPU. No matter how sophisticated the software, it still could not run.
Only after Duke's strength improved could Xiao Yi display her capabilities.
"Xiao Yi, your card-repair skills have already reached the realm of perfection. How is your study of card-making techniques going?" Duke lay on the bed while the Blank Paper Meditation operated on its own under Xiao Yi's control.
"Card-making techniques are currently being studied. Each 'ring' requires too much data to process. Right now, Xiao Yi can only perform simulated calculations. In the simulations, the success rate for constructing a ring is below one percent."
"In other words, there is still a chance of success?"
"Yes."
"Keep working hard. I'll collect more books related to rings and card-making for you," Duke replied. He suddenly thought of something. "Oh, right, Xiao Yi."
"Please speak, Master."
"You've successfully constructed rings in your simulations. Then set aside part of your processing power and try improving the ring of a One-Ring Desert Eagle."
"Understood. In what direction does Master want Xiao Yi to improve the Desert Eagle?"
"Toward... a silencer. Install a silencer on the Desert Eagle. I know the principle behind silencers, so design it according to that principle. It should reduce the difficulty somewhat."
As a First-Ring Arcane Artifact, the Desert Eagle's power had already been verified by him. It was absolutely a killing weapon.
But the sound of gunfire was far too loud. Ordinary people could hear it from half a kilometer away, while a Great Knight with keen senses might be able to clearly hear the gunshot from even a kilometer away.
If he fired it in a busy district, everyone would probably turn to look.
His secret might be exposed then.
Xiao Yi answered swiftly, "Understood. Xiao Yi will improve the Desert Eagle toward a silencer over the coming period and notify Master the moment the improvement succeeds."
Everything in the shop remained normal over the next few days.
Duke had found it difficult to make any further progress in card repair. The fine control that Spirit Liquid could provide was simply insufficient to support the modification of energy pathways.
Therefore, apart from accumulating knowledge, he spent a great deal of time cleaning up the rear courtyard and the warehouse.
Little Sam's Card Shop had been operating for more than twenty years. Every part of it was old, worn, and leaky, and it was piled high with all sorts of odds and ends. Duke needed to sort through and repair all of it.
He also called Bob and the three apprentices over to help.
After spending nearly half a month in total, he finally cleaned up the shop from end to end.
At the front was the storefront facing the street, with two floors and two rooms on each floor. Downstairs, one room was the counter area and the other was the repair area. Upstairs, one room was for storing spirit cards and the other was for the Card Repair Equipment.
Behind the storefront, Old Sam had expanded the area by roughly the size of one room to store the materials needed for daily operations.
Farther back was a small courtyard of roughly one hundred square meters. Behind the courtyard stood a large warehouse, where years' worth of old and discarded objects had originally been thrown. Now they had all been cleared out.
The unnecessary odds and ends were sold as scrap.
For the space that had been freed up, Duke hired a construction crew to convert it into a small apartment with one bedroom, one living room, one kitchen, and one bathroom, officially moving over from his rented room.
"Behind the apartment is a small alley, and it isn't far from the market. Buying vegetables and everything else will be very convenient from now on." Duke stood at the apartment's rear door, quite satisfied with his new home.
He closed the rear door and came to the front courtyard.
The courtyard walls were very high, but the courtyard itself was empty. He had thrown out all the odds and ends from Old Sam's era.
"Once I can scrape together enough money, I'll buy a spirit plant and plant it here. It can attract more Free-floating Spirituality and make cultivation more convenient." He began making plans.
Bob had once said that, in the beginning, Old Sam had also planted a spirit plant in the courtyard to provide a cultivation environment.
Unfortunately, Old Sam's cultivation later stagnated, and he became too lazy to continue tending the spirit plant. The spirit plant eventually withered and was dug up.
"My cultivation will never stagnate, so I must make plans for a spirit plant as soon as possible." Duke came to this conclusion.
Spirit beasts could be born among animals, and spirit plants could naturally be born among plants as well. Spirit plants were not merely economic products; they also had an extremely important function—they could absorb and exhale Free-floating Spirituality and regulate the spiritual aura.
He glanced at the gray, hazy sky. "Although Spirituality is everywhere, it can be thin or dense... Snakehead Town was built atop a Spirit Spring. It's right at the center of that well-shaped grid in the middle of town. By the time the Free-floating Spirituality escaping from the Spirit Spring drifts here to Second Vertical Street, it has already grown much thinner. It must be regulated with a spirit plant."
Before you continue