23: Chapter 23 You guys really made me proud!

The fleet of buses outside the examination site was neatly lined up, with the class numbers spray-painted on the side of each vehicle using magic.

Students lined up in front of the buses, waiting for the final equipment inspection.

In front of the Class 7 queue, Deputy Commander Zhou Mu paced back and forth with his hands behind his back.

A man in his forties, his face etched with sufficient vicissitudes and a sense of oppression.

After all, he was a veteran retired from the Abyss Expeditionary Army; when he straightened his face, his mere aura was enough to make a group of students shut their mouths.

He finished walking a circle, stopped, and swept his gaze across the whole class.

"Everyone, activate and take out all the summoned objects from your Magic Sealing Cards."

His voice was not loud, but every word nailed into the queue like a spike.

"This is not playing house. Once you enter the examination site later, if your armament has any mishaps, such as unstable card sealing, failed materialization of summoned objects, or interrupted magic conduction, then the one who will be embarrassed is you, and the one who will lose their life is also you! Now, take them out and show them to me one by one for inspection."

Students reached into their bosoms or card pouches at their waists one after another, pulling out their respective Magic Sealing Cards.

The faint light of magic activation flickered in the morning breeze.

—A double-edged short sword based on the essence blood of an Iron-Armored Bull, a triangular bayonet blended with mithril powder, a dagger made of stardust mineral powder and red copper dragon scale fragments...

Deputy Commander Zhou Mu nodded one by one.

Not bad, not embarrassing. For now, most of the things the students made are around D-rank, which is already a pretty good standard, considered passing.

The rating of Magic Cards is not easy to get; it's already good for an ordinary person to make a qualified product, and to go higher, every advancement requires countless efforts.

In the past, the school's top student could make a B-rank card, which was considered good, and anything higher was difficult.

Zhao Dahai stood next to Su Bai, breathing rapidly, and slapped his card onto his palm. A thick Ironwood mace emerged in response.

The mace was wrapped in rough but structurally complete magic patterns. What was surprising was his Spatial Circuit; just summoning this mace, the entire spatial fluctuation was incredibly smooth.

And...

This thing was huge!

As soon as it appeared, Deputy Commander Zhou Mu exclaimed.

"Zhao Dahai, what is this?"

He hurried over, examined it carefully, and said with some disbelief in his eyes: "Your Spatial Circuit can actually carry such a large mace?"

Incredible!

Strictly speaking, the items that a Magic Card can store are limited, which depends on the strength of the Spatial Circuit.

Zhao Dahai's usual grades were unremarkable; logically speaking, it would be good if he could make a small dagger.

But, a mace!

To accommodate this thing, the Spatial Circuit must at least be top-tier!

And it's not just the size; the energy intensity attached to this mace is also not small. Looking at the magic luster on it, one can tell that this thing contains a lot of information, which shocked Deputy Commander Zhou Mu for a moment.

Zhao Dahai... has he had a breakthrough?

No, this kid isn't cheating, is he?

Cheating is fine too, as long as he doesn't get caught... anyway, it's bringing honor to the school.

He nodded calmly and patted Zhao Dahai on the shoulder to show affirmation.

"This is my latest realization; the Spatial Circuit is a non-standard template I copied," Zhao Dahai quickly said.

"Good, good, your teacher believes in you!"

Deputy Commander Zhou Mu patted harder, his heart full of pleasant surprise.

This kid, not bad!

Then he looked to the side.

Lin Xiao stood on the other side of Su Bai. Her slender fingers pinched an ice-blue Magic Card from the card pouch and gave it a light shake—a translucent longbow made entirely of ice crystals instantly appeared. The bow body emitted wisps of cold air, the bowstring was condensed from pure ice-blue magic, and the temperature of the surrounding air dropped by several degrees.

"Han Shuang, the Master of the Ice Prison Longbow." Lin Xiao said in a flat voice, as if she were reciting a menu.

Holy crap!

Deputy Commander Zhou Mu was even more stunned now; this kind of pure ice-blue magic... is it for real?

You must know, the Spatial Circuit of a first-order Magic Card is not stable, so there are not many equipment options for students to choose from. One is that the size must be small, and the other is that the magic bestowed upon the equipment cannot be moved, otherwise the Spatial Circuit will collapse, and the card face cannot load equipment containing huge energy.

However, Lin Xiao actually overcame this difficulty!

Not only did she overcome it, but it was also more perfect and powerful than Zhao Dahai's!

"Lin Xiao, have you tested the approximate rating?"

Deputy Commander Zhou Mu rolled his throat in excitement; like Lin Xiao's family, they must have identification instruments, so she wouldn't even need to take the exam to know the card strength.

"A-rank."

Lin Xiao showed a smile.

Boom!

The surroundings completely exploded!

Several students in the front row looked back, their eyes filled with undisguised shock.

What the hell?

A-rank?!

"Holy crap, for real? A-rank??"

"Must have used ninth-order materials, right? With the Lin family's funds, it's not impossible to pile up an A-rank using ninth-order materials..."

"Envious, so envious!!"

There was a lot of discussion nearby.

Regarding this, Lin Xiao remained calm.

Ninth-order materials?

Heh!

In the past, she might have used such thoughts; after all, no matter how bad a person's technique is, as long as the materials used are awesome enough, it is possible to create a high-rated card at a low level.

But what is the point of that? That is only the strength of the materials, not the strength of the Card Creator themselves.

Thanks to Su Bai, she was able to perceive the correct copying method of the Spatial Circuit...

"Awesome, Sister Lin, you actually managed to make it!"

As an insider, Zhao Dahai only felt envy at this moment.

"It was pushed up during the final debugging last night," Lin Xiao leaned the longbow on her shoulder, "Don't call me Sister Lin."

"Okay, Sister Lin!!"

Deputy Commander Zhou Mu also nodded frequently at this time, the joy in his eyes becoming more and more intense.

Good, this is really good.

So proud!

The armaments of the surrounding students appeared one after another—knives, guns, swords, halberds, axes, battle-axes, hooks, and forks, at least they were solid metal (or ice crystal, or rock) creations, glowing with magic luster, and occasionally emitting the unique humming of weapons.

The atmosphere in the queue became more and more serious, and also more and more intense.

The things in everyone's hands were silently declaring their strength.

Then Deputy Commander Zhou Mu walked in front of Su Bai.

Su Bai took a deep breath and pulled out the pink Magic Card from the card pouch on his chest.

The card face glowed with an indescribable dark pink halo under the morning light. That was the color mixed with the law of causality contract framework, the seven-axis Space Folding circuit, and the soul displacement array—if taken apart, any one of them would be enough to make any sharp-eyed Card Creator kneel.

But at this moment, in the eyes of Deputy Commander Zhou Mu, this was just an ordinary Magic Card with a strange color.

Lin Xiao and Zhao Dahai also looked towards Su Bai.

After all...

They had been very curious about the Kyubey that Su Bai had been talking about, but they left too hastily in the morning, and they didn't know what kind of thing the Kyubey Su Bai made was.

Seems like a cat-like thing?

Unknowingly, everyone now focused their attention on Su Bai.