At Duel Academy, Zane Truesdale had already inherited the electronic style Duel Dojo before he ever enrolled. According to the electronic style master, later known as Chancellor Sheppard, Zane Truesdale moved the Spirit of Cyber End Dragon through pure persistence and earned the right to inherit it. In the animation version, that so-called moving of a Spirit was just endless practice of miracle draws.
Day after day, he trained until no matter how the deck was shuffled, he could always open with three Cyber Dragon and one Polymerization. That infamous technique was treated as mastery itself by Chancellor Sheppard. By that logic, learning to draw like a god meant you had already reached the peak.
After that, the only other legacy that appeared in the story belonged to the later Psychic Style Dojo. Its treasured symbol of the Duel Dojo inheritance was Jinzo. Realizing this, Yugen blinked in surprise.
So our own Duel Dojo had something like that too?
In his mind, countless Rare Card from the same era flashed by. He could not help imagining what kind of deck it might be. The possibilities piled up faster than he could sort them.
"I wanted to carry the style forward myself, but I truly lacked the ability," Hall Master Takeuchi said slowly. "After the master was lost, Duel Dojo declined year by year, and recently almost no one even remembers our name."
He took a deep breath and looked straight at Yugen. His posture became serious, and his voice steadied.
"Until now, when I saw your change. I was almost ready to give up, but now I think you may be the one I have been waiting for. Maybe you can inherit this nearly vanished name and make it great again."
"So what you mean is, our style's deck?" Yugen asked carefully.
In fantasy stories, this was usually the moment when a master handed over priceless treasures. But the first thought that crossed Yugen's mind was much simpler. Would this thing brick his opening hand?
The hall master's eyes shone with confidence, but Yugen did not dare to be too optimistic. He knew very well that the definition of a powerful deck in animation was not the same as in reality. His own wins came from structure and planning, not blind faith.
If the hall master stuffed some clunky high level normal monster into his hands, he really would not be able to carry it. That thought made him tense without showing it.
Hall Master Takeuchi smiled mysteriously. "Have you ever heard of the legendary LV Series?"
The moment he heard that, Yugen's heart sank. This was bad.
LV Series referred to monsters that automatically grew stronger the longer they stayed on the field. Most of them shared effects that sent themselves to the graveyard to special summon higher LV monsters from the deck. In GX, these LV Series cards were described as Rare Card that ordinary Duelist could not buy at all.
For example, the "Armed Dragon LV" LV Series shown in the animation was a treasured card assigned by the academy headquarters to the northern branch of Duel Academy. Later, it ended up in Manjoume's hands. That was animation logic, though.
What worried Yugen was that in the real card environment, most LV Series decks were simply weak. The reputation did not match their performance at all.
"That's right," Hall Master Takeuchi said firmly. "The Silent Style passed down in our Duel Dojo comes from the tactics created by the Duel King Yugi Muto himself. And the card that stands at the peak of our style, the symbol of its inheritance, is this one."
With deliberate ceremony, the hall master revealed a card that had been sealed for many years. He held it up between them, as if unveiling something sacred.
"Silent Magician."
"Hm?" Yugen raised an eyebrow, genuinely surprised.
Silent Magician, Level 4, ATK 1000. It could not be normal summoned and required a Spellcaster Type on the field as a tribute for special summoning. Its attack rose by 500 for each card in the controller's hand, it could negate a spell once per turn, and when destroyed it could summon another Silent Magician from the hand or deck.
In the current environment, it was still a fairly strong card. Yugen remembered that this version should have been printed much later in his original world, which made it stand out even more here. Considering how this world loved developing the classic aces used by legends like Seto Kaiba, it did not feel too strange.
The instant he took the card from the hall master, something caught the corner of his eye. To his right, in the far corner of the hall, there seemed to be a faint figure. White like the first snow of winter, long robes drifting softly, tall and graceful within wide ceremonial garments.
Silver hair swayed without a sound, light as breath. But when Yugen snapped his head around, the corner was empty. There was nothing there but shadow.
"What is it?" Hall Master Takeuchi asked, clearly having noticed nothing.
"Nothing," Yugen said after a brief pause.
Was it just his eyes playing tricks on him, or something else?
The hall master did not press the matter. Instead, he spoke solemnly. "Keep it safe. This is not just a Rare Card. It is said to be a card inhabited by a Spirit."
"A Spirit?" Yugen repeated.
He looked down at the finely illustrated card, then glanced again toward the corner where he had seen the figure. There was still nothing there.
"Maybe," Hall Master Takeuchi said, scratching his head with a laugh. "I don't really know either. I only heard the stories and never saw it myself. The previous master said not everyone can see a Spirit, so who knows."
Yugen examined the card again but felt nothing unusual. Even so, given the nature of this world, he believed it was better to trust such rumors than dismiss them outright. If it truly involved a Spirit, then it was a completely different matter.
For ordinary cards, he only cared about strength and whether they would clog his hand. A Spirit was different. In this world, outside of digging in Egypt for ancient relics, Duel Monsters Spirit made up most of the supernatural side that normal Duelist could reach.
Characters like Judai Yuki relied heavily on Spirit before awakening greater powers. Early on, Winged Kuriboh saved him from dark duels and dirty tricks more than once. Later, stronger allies could even leap from the deck itself to clash head on with enemies and protect the world.
Because of that, even setting aside duel performance, carrying a Spirit card was almost required just to stay alive here. Even a useless one could make the difference when danger appeared.
"The entrance exam for Duel Academy is next week, right?" Hall Master Takeuchi said, changing the subject.
He walked to a nearby table and picked up a small card case. His movements were calm, as if he had planned this for some time.
"I heard from some apprentices that you were asking around for certain cards and offering to buy them," he said. "Some are hard to get these days, but after all these years, I still have a few friends and a couple of channels."
He opened the case and handed it to Yugen. "I couldn't find everything you wanted, but I managed these before the exam. Take them and use them if they help. If you want more, you will have to get in first and use the academy's internal channels."
Before he saw anything else, Yugen spotted the top card immediately. It was the very card he had searched for first, Jinzo, also known as Jinzo.
"Ah, you really went out of your way to find these," Yugen said.
He accepted the card case and slipped it straight into his pocket. "This is really too much. Isn't this kind of inappropriate?"
Hall Master Takeuchi narrowed his eyes slightly. If it were really inappropriate, he would have taken it back out.
"You didn't think this was free, did you?" the hall master said bluntly. "This is an investment. Remember it for now. Once you make it into the academy and get ahead, you will pay it back at market price."