At the heart of the campus, the location in between the four different colleges, stood an enormous building.
The building had a particular appearance.
Compared to the other school campus-like buildings, this building resembled a military base.
High level barriers surrounded the building. Royal knights were also stationed as guards.
The reason for that was because there existed a ‘gate’ leading to the Shadow World inside the building.
In the Norton Kingdom that Dekan lived under, there existed three entrances to the Shadow Worlds. One of them was located inside the Hevenlit Magic Academy.
After entering the ‘gate,’ the challengers will be automatically matched with a suitable Shadow World. Generally, the match-making process would not take a long time.
The challengers that entered the other entrances around the world will all be matched together.
The lower tier challengers will be easily matched with others as low tier Shadow Worlds had a much higher appearance rate and there existed a lot of low tier challengers too.
Higher tier Shadow Worlds, by comparison, had a much lower appearance rate. Even if there were people that wanted to raid them, they would at times not be able to find an instance dungeon to raid.
The appearance of tier 7 and higher Shadow Worlds were matters of concern internationally. Counties would gather together for a meeting to dispatch candidates or teams to raid those Shadow Worlds.
The higher the level a Shadow World was, the greater the catastrophe they would become should a raid fail.
The raid failure for tier two or three Shadow Worlds were neglectable. However, when it comes to tier 7 and above Shadow Worlds, a raid failure would be equivalent to a large-scale natural disaster.
Because of that, all the countries would become extremely cautious when those high level Shadow Worlds appeared.
There were two ways to team up to raid Shadow Worlds. As there were very few tier 7 or higher challengers and the Shadow Worlds of those levels were also extremely rare, they were pretty much guaranteed to be teamed up together should they all enter the instance dungeon together.
As for the other method, it would be through using a ‘team card.’
[Team Card]
[Category: Spell Card]
[Rarity: White Common]
[Tier: 1]
[Passive Effect: You will be matched to the same Shadow World as your companion with the same serial number.]
[Remark: SN#948957812]
Dekan and Cornelia had matching Team Cards. With this, they would be able to enter the same Shadow World.
All it cost was a card slot in their decks.
……
Dekan and Cornelia arrived at the building twenty minutes early.
It seemed like the two of them were both people that didn’t like making others wait.
Dekan: “Are you ready?”
Cornelia: “Ready.”
Since they arrived early, they decided to enter the Shadow World early.
The two of them exchanged gazes without saying anything else.
Right when the two of them were preparing to pass through the checkpoint to enter the building’s next checkpoint…
“Wait!”
A hoarse voice sounded from behind them.
The two of them turned around and discovered an old man walking toward them hastily.
They looked at the old man with confused expressions.
He was wearing a yellow-colored attire belonging to the College of Alchemy. He seemed to be a professor from the College of Alchemy.
“Students Dekana and Cornelia, I am Professor Mergutt of the College of Alchemy. I’m the one in charge of the broadcasting department. If possible, I would like for the two of you to accept these cards!”
Professor Mergutt walked over to the two and took out two cards from his document folder to hand to Dekan and Cornelia.
The cards were shining with a faint purple light. One could tell that they’re no ordinary cards.
“These are?”
Dekan did not rashly accept the cards. Instead, he asked skeptically.
“They’re a means to view what’s going on in the Shadow World. They’re tier 1 cards. The reason why they’re purple is because they were extremely high definition,” explained Professor Mergutt.
Like the Team Card, it was a magic card with a passive effect.
With it, even if Dekan and Cornelia were to enter an actual Shadow World, not the Artificial Shadow World, the College of Alchemy would still be able to acquire real time broadcasting of the happenings inside.
The most remarkable technologies of the past decade were the ‘Artificial Shadow World’ and ‘Shadow World Viewing Program.’
With Artificial Shadow World, a harmless world could be created for training purposes.
As for the Shadow World Viewing Program, it could allow the personnels stationed outside the Shadow World gather useful information about the Shadow Worlds.
Information gathered from one Shadow World might become useful in raiding other Shadow Worlds!
Because of that, the study of Shadow Worlds became a popular field of study.
The development of Magic Engineering also continued to raise the clearing rate of Shadow World raids.
“Wouldn’t this take a card slot in our decks?”
Dekan didn’t enjoy being viewed by others.
“Indeed, it will slightly affect your combat strength. However, you will receive a portion of the broadcasting revenue. This is the contract details. You can decide whether to accept it or not. There’s no need to be nervous.”
Professor Mergutt smiled gently as he took out two sets of documents to hand to Dekan.
Cornelia flipped through the documents symbolically before turning to look at Dekan.
She wasn’t able to understand what was written on the documents and decided to follow Dekan’s decision.
Dekan hesitated for a short moment before accepting the two Shadow World Viewing Program cards. However, he returned the two sets of documents back to Professor Mergutt.
“Professor Mergutt, we will bring along the two Shadow World Viewing Program cards free of charge this time around. Let’s decide on the details of our contract after we finish raiding this Shadow World.Is that fine with you?”
Even though the split in profit was very reasonable, Dekan did not choose to sign immediately.
If the result of their raid was exceptional, they might be able to obtain better contract conditions upon their return.
Furthermore, Dekan wanted to properly examine the two [Shadow World Viewing Program] cards to see if they might have any hidden dangerous effect after returning from the raid.
As such, it was not wise to be enticed by the benefits and sign the contract immediately.
It was better to use this opportunity as a way for both parties to confirm their respective values.
Ever since he was scammed by that crooked merchant, Dekan became extremely cautious toward business opportunities.
“No problem, that’s no problem at all.”
Professor Mergutt accepted straightforwardly.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Professor Mergutt left.
As for Dekan, he began to explain to Cornelia what was going on as they continued to pass through the checkpoints.
As they continued onward, they reached the deepest region, a grand hall that emitted a deep blue radiance.
There existed several enormous magic apparatuses in the center of the grand hall. They surrounded a Void Gate.
This resembled the scene from the entrance exam. However, this ‘gate’ was tens of times larger than the gates in the entrance exam.
Facing it, one couldn’t help be feel a sense of terror toward the unknown.
At a location still quite far away from the Void Gate were the service area and adjustment area.
“Take these.”
Dekan handed over a pack of cards to Cornelia.
Inside were three identical Blue Equipment Cards, one Purple Equipment Card, and several other blue and white cards. The Viewing Program card was included among them.
“N-no!”
Once Cornelia discovered the quality of the cards, she immediately gestured with her hands to refuse them.
She couldn’t afford such expensive cards right now..
“I’m not charging you.”
“No…”
“Consider me lending them to you.”
“They-they’ll break…”
Cornelia was afraid that she would ruin Dekan’s weapons.
“I can repair them. Don’t worry. When it comes to Shadow Worlds, our battle power is the most important. Consider it for my protection that you need to get stronger.”
Cornelia started hesitating. In the end, she accepted the pack of cards.
Since Dekan had said things like that, it was unsuitable for her to refuse him anymore.
“Okay.”
Extremely thankful, Cornelia took out her own equipment cards, unbinded them and placed them on the counter. Then, she binded all the cards Dekan handed her.
There weren’t many martial artists that knew how to repair their own equipment cards.
It would appear that Dekan was much more multi-talented that she imagined him to be.
