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The card materialized in Luke's hand, and its stats unfolded before his eyes.
*「 Eye of Timaeus 」*
Race: Dragon / Legendary Dragon
Type: Special Card / Projection Body
Effect: Summons a projection of the Legendary Dragon Timaeus. The projection possesses independent combat capability and can fuse with a designated target. Upon fusion, the Eye of Timaeus releases its summon slot. Base effects: target's level and quality each increase by one tier. Additional effects are generated based on the fusion target.
Luke studied the stats for a long moment.
"Feels like it doesn't quite fit into any category," he murmured.
He wasn't wrong. The Eye of Timaeus had broken every classification system the Card Editor used. It wasn't an Equipment Card like the Spell Tome. It wasn't a Counter Card like Magical Hats. It wasn't a standard Spirit Card like Mana or Black Star. The Editor had filed it under a third new type: Special Card, with a sub-label of Projection Body.
It had the dragon race tag, which no Equipment or Counter Card possessed. But it had no star level. No listed skills. The only passive it carried was the inherent Dragon Pressure that came from being dragon-type.
Neither fish nor fowl. A card that existed between categories, borrowing elements from each without fully belonging to any.
But the effect was where the real power lived.
Fusion with a designated target. Upon fusion: level increases by one tier, quality increases by one tier, and new effects are generated based on who the Eye merges with. On top of all that, the Eye released its summon slot after fusion, meaning Luke could summon another card spirit to fill the gap.
Level and quality, each raised by a full tier. Unconditionally. That alone would be enough to make any Card Master in the world salivate. A Six-Star Perfect Mana fused with the Eye of Timaeus would become a Seven-Star Legendary Dark Magician Girl the Dragon Knight. That was a leap from mid-tier to high-tier in a single activation.
And the fusion-specific new effects meant the resulting form would adapt to whatever target Luke chose. Fuse with Mana, get one set of abilities. Fuse with Black Star, get a completely different set. Every fusion combination would produce a unique result, making Luke's tactical options multiply exponentially.
The summon slot release was the cherry on top. Normally, summoning the Eye would eat one of Luke's limited slots, constraining his field presence. But the moment it fused, the slot freed up, letting him bring out another card spirit. The Eye essentially cost nothing to deploy once it merged.
Luke absorbed the Eye of Timaeus into his card space, where it settled beside Black Star, the two dragon-associated cards hovering together.
He opened his eyes.
"Success?" Harrison asked immediately. He'd been watching Luke's closed-eye examination of the card stats and had spent every second of it resisting the urge to ask.
The anomaly of the eight phantom stars was still eating at him. The Creation Pillar, the level jump, the inexplicable lights. Nothing in his experience or his research explained what he'd witnessed.
"Success." Luke nodded.
Through his mental link, Mana filled him in on the details of the anomaly she'd observed from the outside: eight dim stars orbiting the Creation Pillar, never seen before in any previous construction.
Luke frowned internally. He didn't have a definitive answer either. But a theory was forming.
The Eye of Timaeus contains a fragment of a Legendary Dragon's power. But it's not the Legendary Dragon itself. It's a projection. A partial manifestation of something that exists at a level far beyond what I can currently construct.
Maybe the eight phantom stars appeared because the card references a power tier it can't fully contain. The Pillar showed what the card is reaching toward, not what it actually is.
That would also explain why the Card Editor classified it as a Special Card with the Projection Body label. The Eye was a window into something greater, not the thing itself.
Just a theory, though. I can't confirm it.
He kept this to himself.
"Glad to hear it." Harrison exhaled, visibly relieved. Failed crafts destroyed materials and damaged morale, neither of which Luke could afford right now. Not with the Youth Training Competition days away and the entrance exam after that.
Harrison ran his own calculations. The Mana Surge had pushed Luke three levels, from Five-Star to Eight-Star Commander. That was consistent with a high-quality Six-Star card, the same tier as Mana and Black Star. The phantom stars remained unexplained, but the surge math pointed toward Six-Star.
He decided to accept that conclusion. The alternative, that Luke had somehow crafted an Eight-Star card, didn't align with the energy output. And Harrison Cole was, above all else, a man who followed the numbers.
"Dark Magician Girl, Red-Eyes Black Star Dragon, and now this new card." Harrison's voice carried a note of quiet wonder. "Three Six-Star cards. All Original." He paused, letting the significance settle. "You know what that means."
Luke did. Three Six-Star cards was the condition Harrison had set for elite membership. A condition Harrison himself had assumed would take until after the entrance exam to fulfill. Luke had completed it weeks early.
And all three were Original Cards. Harrison hadn't even specified that requirement. He'd considered it unnecessary, because who would possibly craft three Original Cards in a row? Original Cards hadn't appeared in centuries. One was a miracle. Three was lunacy.
But that was exactly what Luke had done.
"I have to say," Harrison shook his head, "when I set that condition, I didn't expect you to exceed it in every possible dimension. Three Originals. A dragon-type. And whatever that light show was." He gestured vaguely at the ceiling where the Pillar had been. "You don't make things easy on the people trying to evaluate you."
Luke almost smiled. The Eye of Timaeus was technically starless, the same category as the Spell Tome and Magical Hats. Harrison was operating under a misunderstanding.
He opened his mouth, considered correcting it, and decided against it.
It doesn't change anything. The card has dragon-type combat capability and raises whatever it fuses with by a full tier. Calling it Six-Star is close enough.
He let the misunderstanding stand.