Renovating the New Home

The news of Little Sam's Card Shop changing owners quickly spread among the neighbors. Many shop owners from the vicinity even made special trips to visit and greet Duke.

There weren't any major changes, and business hadn't declined.

After all, in the Second Vertical Street area, Little Sam's Card Shop was the only one. If residents nearby had a spirit card that broke, Little Sam's Card Shop could fix it. Who would go to a farther place to get their cards repaired?

Dilanke and Sane came to the shop for repairs almost every day.

Only Best took leave every few days and wouldn't come in. Even on the few occasions he did show up, he didn't have a good attitude, and the consumables for repairs had significantly increased compared to before.

"Teacher Best, have you been having trouble with your technique lately? In just one week, the consumables used are almost equivalent to a month's worth before," Duke said, frowning as he approached.

"What is it?" Best replied with a stern face.

"I hope you can put more effort into it and try to minimize the waste of consumables. This is a small business, so we need to be more frugal."

"Heh," Best chuckled dismissively. "Everyone has times when things don't go smoothly. Even when Old Sam was here, there were times I used more consumables. Are you going to hold this against me right away, new Boss?"

Duke said calmly, "I've looked at the ledger left by Old Sam. For the past year, Teacher Best, your usage has been very stable. I'm just reminding you."

Best retorted, head held high, "Are you going to dig through the old ledgers to settle scores? What my skill level is, didn't you see it when you were an apprentice? Why are you rushing to confront me now?"

"Best, say less," Sane said as he walked over.

While pulling Best back to stop him from saying more, he smiled at Duke, "Best just has a bad temper. His skills are trustworthy, Duke. Don't take it to heart."

A small conflict was thus resolved.

Although Duke found Best somewhat disagreeable, he couldn't find a suitable replacement Card Master for the time being. Thus, he let the issue of consumables go with a warning.

However, he secretly accelerated his learning pace.

He hoped to be promoted to Card Master as soon as possible and replace Best.

Unfortunately, even with Xiao Yi's theoretical guidance, he still couldn't truly master the art of card repair. The reason was that he was only a One-Star Spiritual Apprentice.

Spirit Liquid was merely a crude aggregation of Spiritual Power and could not produce more refined operations.

Card repair was a delicate task akin to carving on a grain of rice, requiring immense control over Spiritual Power. Unless energy lines were condensed and control reached a higher level, it would be truly difficult to proceed.

On the other hand, Xiao Yi had been growing rapidly during this period.

As Duke stayed up late reading a large number of books, Xiao Yi's database content increased significantly. Especially in card repair, it had reached a pinnacle. No matter how damaged a spirit card was, it could quickly provide a complete repair plan. It was only limited by Duke's insufficient strength, preventing Xiao Yi's abilities from being fully utilized for now.

It was like a single-core CPU computer; no matter how sophisticated the software, it couldn't run it.

Only when Duke's strength improved could Xiao Yi demonstrate its full potential.

"Xiao Yi, your card repair skills have reached perfection. How is your card making skill learning coming along?" Duke lay on the bed, the Blank Paper Meditation running automatically under Xiao Yi's control.

"Card making skills are currently being learned. Each 'Ring' requires too much data to process. Currently, Xiao Yi can only perform simulation calculations. The success rate for Rings in simulations is less than one percent."

"So, there's still a chance of success?"

"Yes."

"Keep working hard. I will collect more books related to Rings and card making for you," Duke replied. He suddenly thought of something, "Right, Xiao Yi."

"Please speak, Master."

"If you have successfully constructed a Ring in your simulations, then dedicate some of your computing power to try and improve the Ring of the One-Ring Desert Eagle."

"Okay, what direction do you want Xiao Yi to improve the Desert Eagle in, Master?"

"Towards... a silencer. Install a silencer on the Desert Eagle. I know the principle of a silencer, so design it according to this principle. It should reduce some of the difficulty."

As a First-Ring Arcane Artifact, he had already verified the power of the Desert Eagle. It was definitely a deadly weapon.

However, the sound of firing was too loud. Ordinary people could hear it from a mile away. For Great Knights with keen senses, they might hear the gunshot from a kilometer away.

If he fired a shot in a crowded area, everyone would likely look over.

At that point, his secret could very well be exposed.

Xiao Yi quickly replied, "Understood. Xiao Yi will work on improving the Desert Eagle with a silencer in the coming time. I will notify you immediately once the improvement is successful, Master."

Over the next few days, everything in the shop was normal.

Duke found it increasingly difficult to improve his card repair skills. The subtle control that Spirit Liquid could provide was insufficient to support the modification of energy lines.

Therefore, besides accumulating knowledge, he spent a lot of time tidying up the backyard and warehouse.

Little Sam's Card Shop had been in operation for over twenty years. Various parts were old and dilapidated, and it was cluttered with all sorts of junk, all of which Duke needed to organize and repair.

He also called Bob and the three apprentices to help.

It took nearly half a month to finally clean up the shop.

The front was the street-facing storefront, with two rooms on each of the two floors. The downstairs rooms were one for the counter area and one for the repair area. The upstairs rooms were one for spirit card storage and one for card repair equipment.

Behind the storefront, Old Sam had extended the area by about one room's worth to store daily consumables.

Further back was a small courtyard of about one hundred square meters. Behind the courtyard was a large warehouse, where all sorts of old and discarded items had been thrown for years. Now, everything had been cleared out.

Unnecessary junk was sold as scrap.

Duke hired a construction team to convert the cleared space into a small apartment with one bedroom, one living room, one kitchen, and one bathroom. He officially moved in from his rented accommodation.

"The apartment's backyard leads to an alley, not far from the market. It'll be convenient for grocery shopping later," Duke said, standing at the back door of his new apartment, quite pleased with it.

He closed the back door and went to the front yard.

The yard wall was high, but the yard itself was empty. He'd gotten rid of all the clutter from Old Sam's time.

If I can save up enough money later, I'll buy a spiritual plant and grow it here. It'll attract more free-floating spirituality, which will be convenient for my cultivation, he planned in his mind.

Bob had once mentioned that Old Sam had also planted a spiritual plant in the yard in the beginning to improve the cultivation environment.

Unfortunately, Old Sam's cultivation had stagnated later on. He'd gotten lazy about tending to the spiritual plant, and it had eventually withered and been dug up.

My cultivation will never stagnate, so I must plan for a spiritual plant as soon as possible, Duke thought.

Just as spirit beasts could be born from animals, spiritual plants could naturally be born from plants. Spiritual plants weren't just economic products; they had a very important function—absorbing and releasing free-floating spirituality and organizing the spiritual energy field.

He glanced at the hazy sky. Spirituality is omnipresent, but it varies in density... Snakehead Town is built upon a Spirit Spring, located at the center of the grid in the middle of town. The free-floating spirituality that emanates from the Spirit Spring has already become much thinner by the time it reaches Second Vertical Street. It needs to be organized by spiritual plants.