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「 Blue Card: An extraordinary evolution card from the Digital World. Contains data capacity exceeding the Hyper Evolution Unit S, along with embedded fragments of Light of Evolution and Digital Spirit energy. 」
「 When swiped through the D-Ark, the Blue Card releases its accumulated power. A Champion-tier Digimon, processing the released data, further unlocks internal potential and ascends to the higher-tier Ultimate configuration. 」
After completing the Hyper Evolution Unit S, Luke immediately began the construction of the Blue Card, the next escalation in his Digimon evolution ladder. Where the Hyper Evolution Unit S handled the Rookie-to-Champion transition, the Blue Card pushed Champion-to-Ultimate, a substantially deeper power leap.
The construction took longer than the Hyper Evolution Unit S. The data architecture was more complex. The Blue Card didn't just store evolution data; it incorporated two additional energy categories, the Light of Evolution and the Digital Spirit, both of which required specific anchoring within the card's structure. The compound substrate slowed the construction relative to the simpler Hyper Evolution Unit S.
Ashenvale City Lord's Mansion.
"He failed again? Or maybe he's not crafting Original Cards anymore?"
Victor Ashford's brow furrowed. The viewers were getting increasingly confused by Luke's pattern.
The first silent construction had completed without a creation pillar. So had whatever Luke was currently building. From the viewers' external perspective, this looked like two failed Original Card attempts back-to-back, with only the central Spirit Card construction succeeding visibly.
The senior figures in the chamber didn't yet know that Special Cards completed silently. That lore had only been shared at the Capital City Lord's Mansion, by Lilith Crescent. The Ashenvale viewers were operating on the assumption that the absence of a pillar meant failure.
The first silent construction had at least followed the Spirit Card closely enough that the worldview manifestation phenomenon had implicitly connected the two efforts. But Luke had now moved into a third construction with no obvious link to anything visible, and the viewers were struggling to interpret what he was doing.
"He's probably crafting non-Original cards at this point," Bianca Daly speculated. "He has limited time remaining, and he's already secured his pass with that one successful Original. Maybe he's just cranking out conventional cards to pad his portfolio."
The other senior figures nodded slowly. It was the most parsimonious explanation. None of them was certain about it, but it fit the visible facts.
Capital City Lord's Mansion.
"Master, is Luke crafting another Special Card?"
Selene Dawnford asked the question quietly. She, unlike the Ashenvale viewers, knew about Special Cards. She also knew that the absence of a creation pillar didn't mean failure when Special Cards were involved.
Lilith Crescent gave her a mildly exasperated look.
"I'm not omniscient, Selene. I can't tell from observation alone."
Selene's ears went slightly pink.
"Sorry, Master."
She'd developed, over the course of the day, a reflexive habit of treating Lilith as an oracle for any question that exceeded her own knowledge. The habit was reasonable enough, given that Lilith was an Undying Realm Card Master who had crafted Special Cards personally. But Lilith's information was specialist-level, not universal.
"Don't apologize for asking. Just don't expect every question to have a clean answer." Lilith returned her attention to the monitoring display. "Phase One will end soon. Once Phase Two begins, we'll likely see Luke deploy whatever he's been building. The deployment will tell us more than any amount of observation during construction."
The tone was patient and intellectually curious. Aldric, sitting nearby, caught the undercurrent. Lilith's interest in Luke had grown over the course of the morning, and her remarks were starting to carry the cadence of someone who was already planning ahead.
Whatever Lilith intended to do once the exam concluded, she was apparently already preparing for it.
Inside the exam space.
The Blue Card's background data finally completed its registration. Luke shifted to the material-loading phase.
The materials list was, by his own evaluation, intimidating. The Insect Core, a high-grade biological component he'd traded for during the Capital trip. The Shadow Veil, a Dark-element substrate. The Holy Spirit Ring from Harrison's bet winnings. And beyond those primary components, an extensive cascade of Blue and Purple tier materials, more than any single card he'd previously crafted.
The components flowed into the Card Editor in a torrent.
Across every viewing chamber, the senior figures' attention snapped into sharp focus.
During the first silent construction, the materials Luke had used were mostly White and Green tier components, plus the Evolution Stones he'd been converting. Standard low-to-mid grade materials. Nothing particularly worth remarking on.
The current construction was using Blue and Purple tier materials. In massive quantities. The shift was qualitatively different.
Blue tier materials were sufficient to construct Seven-Star Spirit Cards.
Purple tier materials were sufficient to construct Eight-Star Spirit Cards.
The material investment Luke was pouring into his current construction exceeded what most known Seven-Star and Eight-Star Spirit Cards required. By a significant margin.
The viewers' eyelids twitched in unison.
Card crafting wasn't a "more materials equals better outcome" exercise. Excessive material loading produced background-material conflict, which was one of the highest-probability failure modes for card construction. Every novice Card Master was drilled, repeatedly, on the principle that material loadout should match background specifications precisely. Overloading was a beginner's mistake.
A mistake that Luke, apparently, was making on purpose.
Or, more accurately, the watchers were rapidly realizing it wasn't actually a mistake. The composed expression on Luke's face throughout the loading process indicated he knew exactly what he was doing.
"I'm getting more curious about Luke's intentions by the minute." Roland Hargrove voiced what most viewers were thinking. "Set aside the construction itself. The material investment, by itself, is enough to make any Monarch or Sovereign Realm Card Master pause. The implied cost is staggering."
Even by senior Card Master standards, the material outlay was eye-watering. Whatever Luke was building, he was using Eight-Star-card-grade resources to construct what looked, externally, like a non-Spirit Card.
The implication that he had this many Blue and Purple tier materials to spare, and was willing to spend them on a single non-Spirit construction, was its own statement.
「 Construction successful. Mana backflow received. Realm advanced to Four-Star Leader Realm. 」
"Done."
Luke felt the realm advancement ripple through his internal mana circulation. Four-Star Leader Realm. His total mana pool grew yet again, his body strength and physical attributes adjusted upward, and the Mana Crystal capacity grew incrementally further. The expansion brought him closer to the next Sub-Realm threshold.
「 Blue Card 」 Type: Evolution Card Effect: When swiped through the D-Ark, releases stored evolution data into the registered Digimon. Per the Tamer's intent and the Digimon's environmental adaptation parameters, a Champion-tier Digimon evolves into an Ultimate-tier form for a limited duration.
The description's structure matched the Hyper Evolution Unit S exactly, just with the tier upgrade. Champion-to-Ultimate. Mid-tier to high-tier in conventional Spirit Card terms.
Luke had a strong intuition about what Ultimate-form Sistermon Blanc would be capable of, and the intuition was making him impatient to test the deployment.
He stopped after the Blue Card.
Four total constructions: D-Ark, Sistermon Blanc, Hyper Evolution Unit S, Blue Card. The first phase's golden clock above showed the remaining time at less than thirty minutes.
"Time's running short," Luke murmured. He held the two evolution cards in his hands, examining their final structures. "Even if I had more time, I'd run out of materials before I could craft the Ultimate-to-Mega evolution card. The components required for that tier transition aren't in my current inventory."
The full Digimon roster would have included additional evolution cards beyond the Blue Card. An Ultimate-to-Mega catalyst, specifically, would have completed the standard evolution sequence. He had design documentation for it, materials lists scoped out, and theoretical worldview integration ready.
But not the materials. Mega-tier evolution required components he didn't have access to in the current exam window.
He filed that gap as a future construction project and shelved it for now.
What he'd already produced was more than enough for Phase One. The D-Ark, plus two evolution cards, plus the base Sistermon Blanc. A complete, functional Digimon kit at every tier from Rookie through Ultimate.
The Phase Two graders were about to see something they almost certainly weren't expecting.