Card Apprentice Daily Log



Date- 13 April 2321

Time- 01:11

Location- Southern Region, Southern Capital, Southern Royal Palace, Royal Guest Palace No.1, Seed World

Entering the seed world I immediately accessed the demon merchant codex to check how much it will cost me to employ the devil merchant code to help me set up a demigod-grade array formation. 

[Dear Demon Merchant,

An offering of five devil-grade ingredients is required to set up the demigod-grade 'VR-Slime card' card creation array formation. Would you like to proceed with the offering? 

[Yes/No] 

Note: The offering has been selected based on the demon merchant's previous offerings. The demon merchant can change the offering to something of equal value.]

Learning that it would take five devil-grade ingredients as an offering to get the devil merchant code to set up one demigod-grade card creation array formation, my first reaction was that the offering demanded by the devil merchant code was a lot less than I thought it would be. 

I do not think that any demigod realm array master would sell their services for such a cheap rate. Yes, five devil-grade ingredients to set up a demigod-grade card creation array formation was indeed very cheap. Especially considering that the quality of the work done by the devil merchant code would be the best. 

Considering my requirement and the cost of setting up the array I decided to offer 100 devil-grade ingredients as an offering to the devil merchant code to have it set up 20 demigod-grade card creation array formations for my VR-Slime card production line. 

However, there was something I wanted to check on the inter-realm network before I placed my order with the devil merchant code. 

Entering the inter-realm network I searched for each ingredient required for the creation of an F-Rank VR-Slime card and then checked out their prices. 

There was a reason I was doing this, and as I suspected the prices of the ingredients required for the creation of the VR-Slime cards had almost doubled. 

I bought nearly 190 million sets of ingredients required for the creation of the VR-Slime card within the span of 3-days. Inter-realm networks consist of myriad markets of Myriad realms, so buying this amount of the same set of ingredients shouldn't have affected the market in any way. Yet, it did. 

There could be many reasons for this but I believe it was mainly because of the following two reasons, 

First, this was devil merchant code, here, demon/devil merchants do not come here to buy or sell a ton of F-rank ingredients. So there weren't many F-rank ingredients used in the creation of the VR-Slime card in the inter-realm network, to begin with. 

Hence, explaining that there was a shortage of the required ingredients in the inter-realm market when I suddenly bought 190 million sets of the ingredients. This sudden shortage created a demand for the set of ingredients, raising their price by almost double. 

Secondly, the devil merchant code was filled with many cunning demon/devil merchants who most likely might have figured out that someone was buying a particular set of ingredients on a large scale in the inter-realm network, and they were manipulating the devil merchant code's market to make a quick buck. 

If, of the two reasons, the latter were to be true I could report this matter to devil merchant code and seek justice but I did not have any definite proof to do so.

Not that I need proof to report malpractice in the inter-realm network to the devil merchant code but if I were to do so and it was proven there was no malpractice going on in the inter-realm market then I will be punished for making a false complaint and wasting the time of the devil merchant code and everyone involved. 

I could make a decent offering to devil merchant code to get a lighter punishment or escape any accountability for that matter if I were to be willing to make a very generous offering. 

Not choosing to go down that path I decided to think of a better solution for my current problems.

Normally with 60 devil-grade ingredients, I would have been able to make 30 million VR-Slime cards but the prices of the ingredients increased by almost twice as much as their original cost so now with 60 devil-grade ingredients I can only create 15 million VR-Slime cards. This meant that my profits had halved.

But the scary part about this wasn't the decrease in my profit but that if I continued to create the VR-Slime cards using the same ingredients then the cost of the ingredients would only increase further. 

Meaning the ingredients used to create the VR-Slime card could see a rise in their prices by about another 2-3 times. 

If now I could only create 15 million VR-Slime cards using 60 devil-grade worth of ingredients then once that happens I may only be able to create 4 million VR-Slime cards or even less. Then I would not be making any profit but a sizable loss every time I take an order.

This was the worst thing that could have happened, now how am I going to help Ann's mother keep her promise to the other royal families and the noble families of the central capital to help them procure VR-Slime cards in a month? 

There was only one valid solution to this problem and that was for me to create another recipe for the creation of the VR-Slime cards. I could make use of other F-rank ingredients with similar effects but cheaper price tags as the new ingredients for the new recipe of the VR-Slime cards.

However, this was easier said than done because the current recipe of the VR-Slime card was already the cheapest it could be for a card with the soul energy digestion effect. 

Since replacing the ingredients of the card recipe with cheaper alternatives was out of the question I decided to replace the effects of the ingredients with the help of the microarray formations. 

My plan was simple, I would use cheaper ingredients as alternatives even though they do not have as good an effect as the original ingredients then I planned to make use of the microarray formation in the card creation to make up for the lacking effects. 

But I have near to no knowledge of microarray formation and their use in card creation but I knew a place where I could find the knowledge I was looking for, the Infinity library. 

"Enter sector DS0909," I command the demon merchant codex. 

[Dear Demon Merchant, 

Insert your entire spiritual body in the spirit transfer array to travel to the Inter-realm city…

Note: Spirit transfer array takes the demon merchant's spiritual body that has entered it and transfers them to the inter-realm city.]

Following the instructions, I placed my entire spiritual body into the spirit transfer array preparing myself. A second later an invisible force gently carried my spiritual body into sector DS0909 of the inter-realm city of the spiritual plane. 

[Dear Demon Merchant, 

Welcome to sector DS0909…

Note: Behave.]

Arriving next to the rainbow fountain I was greeted by the sight that I could only see here, myriads of species living in harmony regardless of their origin busy with their daily life. 

[Dear Demon Merchant, 

An anonymous demon merchant is trying to access your information. 

Note: Anonymous demon merchant is using the inter-realm network's privacy feature to keep their identity private.]

[Dear Demon Merchant, 

An anonymous demon merchant is trying to access your information.]

.

.

[Dear Demon Merchant, 

An anonymous demon merchant is trying to access your information.]

[Dear Demon Merchant,

The inter-realm network's privacy feature has successfully kept your identity private 29 times. 

Note: The privacy feature is not provided with inter-realm network service access time.]

It was good to see that the inter-realm network's privacy feature was working fine. Without further ado, throwing myself into the non-stop moving crowd, I head straight to the Dariaus merchant mall, to enter 'The Infinity Library.'

"Hello, demon merchant Wyatt, welcome back to 'The Infinity Library.' I am Dredre the Pixie, your assigned library guide in case you forgot," walking into the Infinity Library I was immediately greeted by Dredre the Pixie, my designated library guide.

"Hello, Dredre. I remember you, after all, who can forget someone as cute as you," I greeted back. Which caused the Pixie's face to blossom with joy. I could tell that the current smile on her face was genuine compared to the professional one she greeted me with. 

Seeing the Pixie show joy over such little things I could not help but feel for her. It seems the world of the Pixie was too simple or the Infinity library had exploited them so much that even such small gestures were a benevolence and luxury to them. 

"Thank you. Demon merchant Wyatt, how can I help you today?" Dredre thanked me for remembering her causing me to feel a lot more than before.

"I need books on basic and intermediary microarray formations," I told Dredre what I was looking for so that she can help me better by getting me all the related books.

"Basic and intermediate books on microarray formations, correct?" 

"Yes."