Usually, when a Card Master was focused on repairing cards, it was the easiest time for the apprentices.
Duke was preparing to look around the shop and think of ways to make money.
The two apprentices at the neighboring workstation, Bobby and Thomas, also began quietly repairing cards once the Card Master focused on his work. They slipped into a corner and started sharing their candies.
Duke wasn't that bored.
He swept his gaze around Little Sam's Card Shop. Bob, the regular employee, was managing the counter. The repair area had four workstations. Three Card Masters each occupied one, while the fourth workstation was a spare, usually used by the owner himself.
However, the owner hadn't come in today. He had gone to the city's Scrap Card Station to hunt for goods.
"How am I supposed to make money?"
He furrowed his brow, feeling somewhat helpless.
As a transmigrator, he naturally remembered plenty of knowledge from Earth, but when it came time to use it, he discovered that almost none of it was useful. Iron smelting, brick firing, and distilled liquor were basic technologies in this world. Products like soap, glass, and perfume were nothing rare either. As for high technology such as computers and phones, it didn't exist here—but Duke couldn't build those, either.
He gazed into the distance through the warehouse window.
Beyond the low, densely packed residential district, he could see towering chimneys in the distance belching thick black smoke. Unknown birds circled the smoke, occasionally diving down to peck at the Spirituality rising within it.
For beasts to evolve into spirit beasts, they had to devour vast amounts of Spirituality.
"That's the Black Snake Spirit Gold Smelter, an industry of the Black Snake Family. It extracts Spirituality-infused metal from mundane iron ore... The pollution is truly awful." From an Earthling's perspective, the factory was practically a poison-gas plant. But the entirety of Snakehead Town was the Black Snake Family's fief, and no one dared interfere no matter how severe the pollution became.
Or rather, no one cared.
The Seven Towers Federation had no concept of environmental protection. Developing magical-energy industry, strengthening humanity, and continuously expanding into the Barbaric Continent's primeval forests—that was the prevailing ideology of the age.
"Magical energy... Spirituality... A supernatural world!"
A trace of yearning appeared in Duke's eyes. Having made it through the initial panic of transmigration, he had begun to long to witness the magnificent sights of this supernatural world—wonders he had never seen before.
Of course.
To experience the supernatural, he first had to Open Spirit Sea. Otherwise, he could only live as an ordinary person, scraping by at the very bottom of society.
"There doesn't seem to be any good invention that can make money quickly... Hmm, gunpowder!" Inspiration flashed through Duke's mind, and he thought of a great idea. "The Seven Towers Federation is an alliance of Arcana Mages, and Arcana Mages represent this world's supernatural power system—the Spiritual Arcana system. So Black Powder has never been invented."
The people who lived here believed that the earth beneath their feet possessed unparalleled Spirituality.
It was precisely this Spirituality that granted all living things on the Barbaric Continent mighty supernatural power and established the "Spiritual Arcana" power system.
Spirituality was collected and refined into magical energy.
It was this magical energy, more wondrous than electricity, that had triggered a mighty industrial boom.
"Powerful Arcana Mages can destroy heaven and earth, so Black Powder is definitely far less valuable here than it was on Earth. But Black Powder still has plenty of uses. I can try to formulate it in this supernatural world!"
He searched his memories. As he recalled, the ratio for Black Powder was One Saltpeter, Two Sulfur, Three Charcoal.
He made it through to the noon break, hurriedly finished his boxed lunch, then briskly walked to another street before turning into a broad alley. Every shop here sold various materials, from Spirituality-infused materials to ordinary ones—everything imaginable.
After making the rounds and asking everywhere,
Duke's brow furrowed deeply. "Saltpeter, a material that can even grow in toilets, actually costs one 23-Silver Dragon per pound, while sulfur costs thirty Copper Dragons per gram? That's faster than robbery!"
He had no idea how many repeated experiments it would take to formulate Black Powder.
The materials needed for enough experiments would have long since exceeded the value of the Spirit Awakening Potion, which cost 23-Silver Dragon. With that money, I could have bought a Spirit Awakening Potion already... Wait, why don't I scrape saltpeter out of toilets?
When one plan failed, Duke came up with another.
A pound of saltpeter could sell for one 23-Silver Dragon. He could completely scrape up saltpeter and save money. Although scraping saltpeter from toilets would be a little miserable, it would clearly make money faster than working as an apprentice.
However, after Duke ran through several toilets with wastewater flowing everywhere, he soon returned to Little Sam's Card Shop with a look of disappointment.
Those toilets were filthy enough, but there was no saltpeter like the white frost he had imagined clinging to the base of the walls. There were only various yellowed urine stains and fecal stains, enough to make anyone nauseous.
"Why hasn't any saltpeter grown?"
"Did someone scrape it away? Probably not—there aren't any scrape marks on the walls... Could it be because the toilets in Snakehead Town are built from stone instead of packed earth?"
He remembered that the earthen outhouses in the countryside grew saltpeter.
Perhaps something in the soil reacted with urine to produce saltpeter. Once stone replaced earth, the reaction could no longer occur, so saltpeter could not grow.
In any case,
his plan to make money by scraping saltpeter from toilets was shattered.
He made it through the end of his shift without thinking of any good way to make money. After returning home, he cooked white rice again and steamed some sausages. With his purse so tight, that was all the food he had left at home.
The Spirit Meal Pot's card slot held a Spirit Storage Card whose glow had already dimmed.
"If I can't get more money, I'm afraid I won't even be able to afford magical energy anymore." Duke sighed, pulled a Spirit Card with a somewhat damaged cover from his chest, and stared at it blankly.
This was his Spirit Dragon Card.
It was equivalent to a bank card on Earth. Since the Dragon Coins issued by the Seven Towers Federation were inconvenient for transactions, the Arcana Mages had developed Spirit Dragon Cards. To buy or sell something, one only needed to swipe the Spirit Dragon Card.
"The balance seems to be fifty-seven Copper Dragons. Miserable!"
"Still, this kind of Spirit Card really is miraculous." Duke put away his negative feelings and shifted his attention to the Spirit Dragon Card in his hand and the Spirit Storage Card inserted into the Spirit Meal Pot.
Both types of cards belonged to the category of Spirit Cards.
Spirituality was sealed in the form of an energy circuit, then imprinted onto a card for storage. That was the technological principle behind Spirit Cards.
Spirit Storage Cards stored vast quantities of stable magical energy, while Spirit Dragon Cards were directly connected to the banks. These miraculous Spirit Cards were merely the simplest technology under the Spiritual Arcana system.
"This is the supernatural power I can touch. If I don't Open Spirit Sea, this is probably the only supernatural power I can ever touch."
"I must Open Spirit Sea as soon as possible!"
He ate, washed the dishes, had no nightlife, and went to sleep.
After tossing and turning for a long while, Duke sank into sleep amid his beautiful hopes for the future.
In a daze,
Duke felt himself drifting to a place ablaze with starlight.
The stars were countless and the expanse boundless. Darkness surrounded him on every side, like the depths of the sea.
"This is it. I'm back!" Duke's thoughts gradually cleared, and he understood that he was in a dream. "Just like last night, I came to the Spirit Sea through my dream again."
He looked toward the direction where the starlight was thickest.
The stars clustered around two dazzling light masses like suns. When Duke flew close, he could make out that one dazzling light was shaped like a phone, while the other was shaped like a pistol.
"My golden finger!"
"Wait for me!"
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