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"Can't I stay by your side?" Her emerald eyes fixed on Luke, Celestine asked with a touch of that natural-airhead air.
"It's not that you can't, but tomorrow will likely be rather lively. I'm not sure whether you'd be suited to that sort of environment." Luke shrugged, declining to refuse her outright. If she didn't mind, then he had no objection either.
Geoffrey had already seen Celestine, after all, so even if Luke brought her along to the closing ceremony tomorrow, he doubted the man would be too shocked.
「 Simulated Construction target selected: Kisara. Simulation beginning. 」
Having answered Celestine's question, Luke simultaneously activated the Simulated Construction Authority and began attempting to simulate Kisara's card construction within his mind. This was his first time simulating an Eight-Star card, one beyond the Seven-Star tier, and compared to before, the progress of Kisara's Simulated Construction was considerably slower.
"My current cap can finally support simulating an Eight-Star card, but it's still quite a strain." Even with the ability active, Luke felt the pressure of it.
Then again, considering that Eight-Star cards were a level only peak-Monarch and King Realm Card Masters could touch, while he himself was merely at the Leader Realm, being able to run the Simulated Construction at all left Luke fairly content. After all, once the simulation's progress reached one hundred percent, it would mean he could craft the card in reality.
"Is that so?" Nodding thoughtfully, Celestine's cherry lips parted. "In that case, I'll head back to Crescent Moon Land first."
If not for Luke, Celestine had little desire to leave Crescent Moon Land. Since Luke had matters to attend to now, there was no need for her to keep lingering on the Magic Card Civilization's main plane.
As she spoke, Celestine suddenly leaned in close to Luke and frowned, a flicker of confusion passing through her emerald eyes. "Your spiritual power. Why is it draining so sharply?"
As the tree-spirit of the World Tree, Celestine possessed a perception that could only be called terrifyingly acute. Almost the instant Luke activated the Simulated Construction Authority, Celestine had felt his spiritual power being rapidly consumed.
But where that consumed spiritual power went, even she had no way of detecting, and that gave rise to a thread of shock somewhere inside her.
"A special secret art." The two of them had been sitting close to begin with, and Celestine's slight movement had brought her all but pressed against him, forcing Luke to take her into his arms just to barely maintain his original posture.
Gazing at the peerless face mere inches away, Luke couldn't suppress his surprise. He hadn't expected Celestine's intuition to be quite so sharp. By the look of it, though, while Celestine had sensed the anomaly in his spiritual power, that was as far as it went.
"A secret art?" Celestine murmured, and the fresh scent about her spread through the space the two of them occupied as she spoke. Then she seemed to come to some decision.
In the next moment, vast life-force and mana surfaced from Celestine and surged toward the Moon Spirit Ring on Luke's hand, pouring into it continuously without a single trace of leakage, a display of her superb control.
"This is?" Seeing it, Luke raised an eyebrow, but he didn't stop Celestine either. He sensed no malice whatsoever from her. Going by everything Celestine had demonstrated up to now, Luke trusted she wouldn't harm him.
「 The Moon Spirit Ring has obtained the blessing of Ancient Spirit Tree tree-spirit Celestine. Quality raised. Congratulations, host. You have obtained the Legendary Spirit Ring (Uniquely Bound). 」
As the life-force and mana surging from Celestine slowly merged into the Moon Spirit Ring, the ring on Luke's hand advanced a further step into the Legendary Spirit Ring.
Its appearance differed little from the Moon Spirit Ring as it had been before. The one distinction was that the moon-colored spirit stone set at the very center of the ring now flickered with a special light from time to time, faint enough that you'd miss it without a careful look.
But only Luke, as the one wearing it, understood just how far the Legendary Spirit Ring's effects had climbed after the quality upgrade.
「 Legendary Spirit Ring 」(Uniquely Bound) Quality: Special Effect: The wearer's spiritual power recovery speed is increased by 200%, and spiritual power consumption is reduced by 30%. For each level the wearer rises, their spiritual power cap is multiplied by 1.5, with the wearer's physique strengthening in tandem.
"Recovery speed up by 200%, with consumption down by 30%. That increase and decrease together already far surpass the original Moon Spirit Ring." Reading the information on the Legendary Spirit Ring, Luke drew a sharp breath.
The original Moon Spirit Ring had been able to boost his spiritual power recovery speed too, but only by a third, though even that had benefited Luke immensely.
Now the recovery speed had jumped straight to 200%, equivalent to double his former rate, and more importantly, consumption had dropped by 30% on top of it. Almost instantly, Luke felt the rate at which his spiritual power drained plummet, the effect immediate and unmistakable.
"On top of that, for each level I rise, my spiritual power cap rises 1.5 times along with it. At this rate, by the time I'm able to ascend to the Monarch Realm, my spiritual power cap is going to be terrifying."
If, at the very start, Luke's spiritual power had been no more than a thin trickle of water, then by now it had grown into a small river. And if things kept on this way, that little river of spiritual power would swell into a lake, and eventually a sea.
To say nothing of the fact that, holding the Legendary Spirit Ring, Luke was now immune to attacks aimed at his spiritual power, which gave him a further measure of effective defense against formless assaults. The Magic Card Civilization had no shortage of card spirits and fierce beasts that specialized in spiritual attacks.
"Thank you." When he'd activated Kisara's Simulated Construction, Luke had felt his spiritual power straining. Now that strain had vanished, leaving him even with a slight surplus.
At the thought, even Luke couldn't help marveling once more. Celestine's power-bank functionality was downright comprehensive, practically rivaling the legendary old mentor hidden away in a ring. From life-force to mana, and now to spiritual power, the coverage left almost nothing wanting.
His trip to Crescent Moon Land had yielded far more than that initial handful of gains. Then again, Celestine had never been an ordinary existence to begin with, so her being capable of this much was something Luke found he could accept readily enough.
"I don't know what secret of yours that is, but I have a premonition it'll benefit you." Having finished all of it, Celestine tilted her head up slightly once more, the tips of her pointed elf ears tinged with a faintly enticing pink. "Consider it a return gift for bringing me to the Magic Card Civilization."
"More than just a benefit. This counts as quite the generous gift." Seeing this, Luke instinctively dealt Celestine a head-pat, and only afterward caught himself reacting.
These past days, under the influence of his two little cuties Mana and Blanc, he'd evidently picked up the habit.
"Then that's good." A radiant smile rose on Celestine's face. She didn't seem to mind Luke's gesture a moment ago in the slightest. It was only that, if one looked carefully, one could catch the pink deepening across the length of Celestine's elf ears.