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"Because Luke is an Original Card crafter."
The words left Victor's mouth, and the communication array went silent.
Aldric didn't react immediately. Not because he hadn't heard. Because the statement was so far outside the range of expected responses that his mind needed a moment to confirm it wasn't a hallucination.
"Repeat that."
"Luke Mercer crafts Original Cards." Victor's voice was steady, each word deliberate. "During the unified exam, I personally witnessed the World Transformation phenomenon when he constructed his worldview. When the card was completed, a Creation Pillar appeared. Both are markers exclusive to Original Card construction, and I saw them with my own eyes."
He pressed on before Aldric could interrupt.
"The dragon that destroyed the Abyss Predator is also an Original Card. Built from the same worldview. And based on our conversation today, Luke's next card will almost certainly be another Original, another dragon-type, from the same source."
"A Commander Realm Card Master who already possesses two Original Six-Star cards, and is actively working toward a third. An Original dragon-type card, at that." Victor's composure cracked just slightly, the sheer weight of what he was saying finally bleeding through. "This level of crafting talent, at this stage of development, hasn't appeared in recorded history. Not in centuries. Not in millennia."
"That's why I said even you can't match him, Grandfather. Not in this. Not in the talent for creating Original Cards. Because you've never created one. And neither has anyone else alive today, as far as we know."
The silence that followed lasted a long time.
Aldric sat motionless in his chair. The tapping had stopped. The mild grandfatherly expression had stopped. Everything had stopped.
Original Card crafter.
Three words. And they changed everything.
In the centuries of Aldric's life, he had personally witnessed exactly zero Original Card creations. But he knew about them. He knew the history. And he knew the legend that was whispered only among Immortal Realm Card Masters and above, a legend that was never shared with anyone below that threshold.
The Millennium Powerhouse.
Every thousand years, roughly, an Original Card crafter appeared somewhere in the world. Not necessarily in the Ancient Kingdom. Not necessarily in any predictable location. But they appeared. And without exception, every single one of them had risen to become the defining power of their era.
The Night Empress. Two thousand years ago. She had crafted Original Cards. Not at Luke's age, not at Luke's stage, but eventually. And she had become the strongest Card Master of her millennium, one of four Undying Realm masters who now governed the Ancient Kingdom's four regions. Her power was so far above her contemporaries that the gap was measured in epochs, not ranks.
The Supreme. Five thousand years ago. Another Original Card crafter. Another era-defining titan whose legacy had endured millennia after their death.
The previous millennium's Powerhouse had emerged outside the Ancient Kingdom entirely, in a foreign nation, proving that the phenomenon respected no borders.
And every one of them, every single Millennium Powerhouse in recorded history, had crafted their first Original Card later than Luke Mercer.
The Night Empress had used conventional cards for years before her first Original construction. The Supreme had been a Leader Realm veteran before achieving the breakthrough. Luke had done it as a Soldier, during his first exam, on his first attempt.
If the pattern held, Luke wasn't just talented. He was the seed of the next thousand years of power.
If he grows. That was the key qualifier. Potential was meaningless without time, and the world was full of things that could kill a Commander Realm student long before he reached his ceiling.
But if he survived. If he was nurtured correctly. If the resources flowed to him at the right time and the right pace...
Then the Card Master sitting in a classroom in Ashenvale right now could become the most powerful being on the continent within decades.
Aldric became aware that he'd been silent for over a minute. Victor was waiting on the other end of the array, patient but clearly on edge.
"Grandfather?" Victor ventured. "You were mumbling something. I couldn't hear it clearly."
"Nothing important." Aldric composed himself. His face returned to the grandfatherly default. But behind his eyes, calculations were running at a speed and depth that Victor couldn't begin to follow.
The Millennium Powerhouse legend was restricted to Immortal Realm and above for a reason. If it became common knowledge that Original Card crafters were destined to become era-defining powers, every faction on the continent would either try to recruit Luke or eliminate him as a potential future threat. The information itself was a weapon.
Victor didn't know about the legend. He'd arrived at his conclusions about Luke's importance through observation alone, without the historical framework that made those conclusions terrifying on a civilizational scale. That was fine. He didn't need to know. Not yet.
"You've done well, Victor." Aldric's voice carried a warmth that hadn't been there at the start of the call. "The Black Gate reward will be handled personally. I'll arrange it and send it to you via spatial transport."
"As for Luke..." Aldric paused, choosing his words with the care of someone who understood that what he said next would shape the trajectory of an entire generation.
"Protect him. Nurture his growth. And make sure he enters the college entrance exam in peak condition. If he performs the way you've described, the Four Great Academies won't be his ceiling. They'll be his stepping stone."
"Understood, Grandfather."
The array dimmed. Aldric sat alone in his office in Ashenmere, staring at the wall, and thought about millennia.
The timing fits. The previous millennium ended without an Original Card crafter appearing in the Ancient Kingdom. It's been a thousand years since the last one walked our soil. And now a boy in a satellite city builds two Original Cards before he's even taken the entrance exam.
He closed his eyes.
If this is real, then Ashenvale just became the most important city in the Eastern Region. And that boy just became the most important person in the Ancient Kingdom.
Whether he knows it or not.