It was a Polymerization fusion of Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Meteor Dragon, Level 8 with ATK 3500, and a normal monster. In the real card pool it was basically useless, but what surprised Yugen was that Red-Eyes Black Dragon was supposed to be ultra-rare in this world.
In the DM era, only Joey Wheeler seemed to have one, and it was his signature monster. By GX, its rarity had dropped a bit, but even then it was still top-tier rare, not something you would casually see.
"That one is expensive," the senior said with a laugh. "The Duel Department paid a huge price to get it. It is the evolved form of a legendary monster, you know."
Yugen frowned. "But the Duel Department does not have Red-Eyes Black Dragon in storage, right? Then this card cannot even be summoned."
"Right, it cannot be summoned," she replied, blinking as if that were obvious.
Yugen: "?"
"Come on, Red-Eyes Black Dragon is legendary," she said, laughing so hard her shoulders shook. "If we could actually summon it, do you think our budget could afford that? Meteor Black Dragon is less rare than the original, and its battle value is not high, so it is mostly for collection."
She added that some Duelist still used it as an ace by replacing Red-Eyes Black Dragon with King of the Swamp as the Polymerization material. Of course, King of the Swamp itself was also a Rare Card. The explanation ended with another cheerful laugh.
Yugen: "…"
So it was just a Mascot after all. Then again, he suddenly remembered a certain generic card he had recently obtained from the Academy Department. If paired with that, this card might actually have some use.
"Then I will take Meteor Black Dragon," Yugen said.
There really was nothing else in the box that interested him. The senior nodded and handed the card over without hesitation.
After passing the assessment and receiving his reward, Yugen exchanged contact information with the senior for future communication. She seemed unusually happy to get his details. Her smile lingered even after they were done.
"By the way, senior," Yugen asked, "where are the recruitment sites for other clubs? Are they happening soon too?"
Her expression turned a little strange. Being asked that during a Duel Department recruitment did feel awkward. Still, she explained that different clubs had different schedules, mostly concentrated within the next two weeks, and advised him not to join too many since energy was limited.
"Thanks for the advice, but it is fine," Yugen said with a confident smile. "I know my limits."
The second week after arriving at Duel Academy was coming to an end, and the exchange duels involving Yellow Dormitory were finally nearing their conclusion. Yugen had already dueled almost everyone he was supposed to, though he still felt a bit unsatisfied. Over the past two days, he could still occasionally see students from Yellow Dormitory finishing their own matches in the dorm area.
When he passed by, he sometimes stopped to watch. Overall, although quite a few students had been shaped by his Duel over these two weeks, there was nothing like the obvious Underworld-style spread he had seen back in Duel Dojo. After all, anyone who could enter Duel Academy was already an elite Duelist, and everyone had pride in their own Deck and would not change it lightly.
As he was walking past, he heard a Yellow Dormitory student shout, "My Turn!! Card Draw! I set four cards and end my turn!" Yugen fell silent for a moment. That opening felt strangely familiar.
He watched a bit more, and at the very least, the ratio of trap-heavy setups among Yellow Dormitory students seemed to have increased recently. No one was directly copying his Deck or fully imitating his builds, as everyone still stuck to their own decks and cores. Still, on top of that, there was a faint trend drifting toward the Underworld direction.
If things kept developing like this, then during any future large-scale inter-dorm exchange Duel, the other two dorms would probably feel it too. No, thinking further ahead, if this Underworld-style spread continued until it dominated all of Duel Academy, then when Saiou Takuma came to take a look, he would likely shake his head and leave within a week, saying the place was too dark and that his Light of Destruction could do nothing about it.
By the time the story reached the Yubel arc and the entire Duel Academy got sent to Different Dimension, the tone would probably shift from "teachers and students struggling to survive in another world" to "the Different Dimension Spirit disaster of the Underworld." Yugen reflected for a bit and felt that if things ever really turned out that way, it definitely would not be his fault.
Yu-Gi-Oh! was always a game with two people involved but only one person truly playing, just like Yugi Muto. Duel had always been this way.
In the afternoon, it was Alchemy Class. Before the second week was even over, attendance for Alchemy Class had visibly dropped by nearly a quarter. That was not surprising, since most students felt alchemy was vague and mysterious and did not seem to help with Duel at all.
On top of that, the instructor Daidouji-sensei looked like the easygoing type. He never took attendance, did not care how many students skipped class, lectured to himself, and left as soon as time was up. As a result, alchemy was widely seen as the easiest class to coast through.
Even so, Daidouji noticed that despite his own act, that student from Yellow Dormitory, Yugen, sat with a straight back the entire time and kept taking notes. In the whole classroom, no one else was as serious as him. That focused attitude even made Daidouji wonder whether his lectures were really that good.
What surprised him even more was that this student chased him down after class to ask questions. Since coming to Duel Academy, across so many years and classes, Daidouji had never seen such a diligent student. Even model students like Asuka Tenjoin or the past Ryo Marufuji only listened carefully out of respect, not with this level of enthusiasm for alchemy.
"Teacher, after the first class, I became very interested, so I went to the school library and looked up a lot of related material," Yugen said in the hallway outside the classroom. He even took out a written list of questions he had prepared.
"I found some clues in various sources, like the development of alchemy in ancient Egypt, its connection to excavated artifacts from the Ruins of the same period, and some other things. I listed them all here. Could you see if I understood them correctly?"
Daidouji-sensei held his fat cat named "Pharaoh Atem" in one arm and took the list with the other, squinting as he examined it. Yugen continued, "All these clues suggest that alchemy has been connected to Duel Monsters since ancient times, right? Is that why Duel Academy offers Alchemy Class?"
Daidouji carefully read through the excerpts, then looked at him through his lenses for a moment before the corners of his mouth lifted slightly. "Ah, well, is that really the case? Yugen-kun, you are quite eager to learn," he said. "There are indeed schools of thought that believe alchemy originated in close connection with Duel Monsters, but that is only one view, and there is still a lot of debate in academia."