Chapter 16 Epic?

The third floor of the Card Creator Association. The afternoon sun fell on the glass curtain wall, subtly blending with the orange glow of the epic cards displayed on the magic screens. It refracted into countless mesmerizing and illusory halos, immersing the entire hall in a shimmering light.

Simultaneously, waves of discussion and exclamations rippled through the floor.

Outside the building, on Hutton Pedestrian Plaza, a celebratory cheer erupted, like distant ocean waves crashing against the glass curtain wall from the screens below, clearly audible even in the third-floor conference area.

In stark contrast to the joyous atmosphere of the onlookers, the air between Hiberian and Sophia seemed frozen.

The oppressive silence made Hiberian feel suffocated.

When Sophia first saw the orange light, she was momentarily stunned, as if her brain had short-circuited.

"Orange... Epic?"

In Sophia's understanding, students of their age could only aspire to create purple, rare-quality cards.

Only the academy professors and a select few monstrous third-year students had the potential to create pink, divine-quality cards.

Orange Epic.

It was a realm only accessible to the world's top card creators, like Duke Micaiah!

"Sophia, do you know what level an orange epic card will be? Did you see it? Lanqi is amazing!"

After snapping out of his daze, Prince Einol's first action was to grab Sophia by the shoulders, his eyes shining.

Even after watching so many registered card creator exams, he couldn't predict what level his best friend would achieve!

Sophia, however, seemed to be in a daze, her eyes staring blankly at the projection screen, like a doll that had just woken up from a dream and hadn't yet adjusted to reality, allowing Einol to shake her.

On a single sofa to the side.

"Stop, please stop... Your Highness Einol... Please, put away your powers..."

Hiberian desperately buried her head, muttering in a voice as low as possible.

She felt like everything was over, like sitting on pins and needles!

If she hadn't promised Lanqi to wait for his return, she would have already activated her invisibility and run away without hesitation!

...

Meanwhile, on the other side.

In the fifth-floor atrium examination hall of the Card Creator Association, Lanqi seemed completely consumed by exhaustion.

On screen, his body flickered a few times under the mana pressure that was about to collapse. He retreated from the artificial shadow world and finally appeared in the spacious atrium hall, attracting the attention of the examiners.

He was actually unable to continue the creation of the fifth card, even if he had the chance.

At this moment, Lanqi only felt an endless wave of fatigue washing over him from every corner of his body, even his eyelids felt heavy. His dormitory, his bed, had become his only desires.

Once he returned to Yekaterina Academy, he should be able to sleep for a long time.

Perhaps even longer than when he had finished Talia's portrait on the southern Wantina border.

As Lanqi walked out of the void gate in the artificial shadow world, head examiner Laurence's eyes were filled with shock.

Although the broadcast screen didn't publicly display the examinees' scores, as the head examiner, he could directly see the results and specific content through his monitoring terminal.

There, a simple and clear line of text was displayed: [Examinee Lanqi Wilford, Platinum Level].

This assessment hit Laurence like a bolt from the blue, leaving him stunned.

He felt his heart pounding, as if he had been struck by a storm of pleasant surprises.

He stared at the monitoring terminal, the words echoing repeatedly in his mind, confirming whether he had misread them.

However, the result remained clearly visible, followed by a surge of excitement.

Laurence, the vice president of the Yekaterina Card Creator Association branch, had been in charge of the registered card creator exams in the royal capital for so many years, and had only seen a few cases of gold-level ratings.

Moreover, gold-level ratings almost always occurred when unregistered but already experienced sixth or seventh-tier card creators participated in the registered card creator exam and created a pink, divine-quality card.

This was the first time Laurence had ever seen someone directly rated as platinum level, and more importantly, he was a local teenager!

Orange Epic represented the upper limit of magic card creation and was an insurmountable chasm.

Many gold-level card creators, who had already reached the top of experienced card creators, couldn't create a representative work of orange epic quality even after a lifetime of effort.

Platinum level represented the potential to create an orange epic card.

Magic Crystal level represented the ability to control orange epic cards.

The Grandmaster level above that was just an honor, and no one in the southern continent today was worthy of it.

So even though platinum level was only one level higher than gold level, there was a world of difference between them.

Seeing that Lanqi had returned to the atrium hall, head examiner Laurence immediately assigned a deputy examiner to take over his duties, then quickly walked up to Lanqi.

"Student Lanqi, may I have a word with you?"

Laurence asked sincerely, his eyes falling on Lanqi's obviously tired face, and quickly added,

"I know you need rest, I promise it won't take too long, we can talk as we walk."

"Of course, Mr. Laurence. My friends are waiting for me on the third floor."

Lanqi immediately perked up a bit and replied with a smile.

He was curious as to what level his creation had reached to make the examiner show him such respect.

"Please, follow me."

Laurence nodded, his voice calm and composed, as if he already regarded Lanqi as a member of the association.

He led Lanqi into a corridor leading from the hall to the internal area of the fifth floor, a place usually only used by internal staff of the association.

The corridor was made of warm wooden walls, and the calm color tone formed a sharp contrast with the overall novel style of the association's building, giving a sense of stability.

They reached the end of the corridor, and suddenly their vision opened up, and a huge suspended staircase appeared in their sight.

These stairs were different from conventional stairs. They were made of semi-transparent Immortal Crystal blocks, as if suspended clouds, moving in a mysterious rhythm, like the heartbeat of the association's building.

Laurence and Lanqi gently stepped onto the stairs, and the crystal steps began to descend slowly, carrying them to the third floor. The surrounding air was drawn by the movement of the stairs, bringing a cool breeze.

"Student Lanqi, first of all, congratulations on being rated as a platinum-level card creator."

Laurence stood on the crystal stairs and turned to look at Lanqi.

"Platinum level?"

Lanqi raised his sleepy eyes slightly in surprise.

He didn't expect to be rated directly as platinum level.

It should be known that the rumored genius magic artificer girl who will come from the Yarrowland Kingdom Academy in a while to observe Dean Loren's [Primordial Slate - Wind] is only at the gold level.

(End of this chapter)