Chapter 11: First Card Repair

"Little Duke!"

Bob was always the earliest person at Little Sam's card repair shop. Since he couldn't repair cards, he mainly handled logistics and welcomed customers. Diligence was the only way to secure his position.

"Good morning, Bob."

"Morning, morning." Bob looked at Duke with some surprise.

Wearing a white undershirt with a blue necktie and a deep blue thin jacket over it, sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He wore khaki casual pants, fastened with a brown belt, and a pair of black leather shoes on his feet.

He also carried a brown tool bag on his shoulder.

His slightly naturally curly brown-black hair, about fifteen centimeters in length, was parted three to seven. His handsome face had distinct features, and his skin was full of collagen.

Compared to before, Duke at this moment exuded an indescribable vitality and a touch of casual elegance.

Just this appearance alone surpassed most people.

"Bob, what do I need to do? Did the boss give any instructions?" Duke was no longer an apprentice, so he needed to ask about his new role.

Bob snapped out of his daze and quickly said, "The boss announced three days ago that you've been promoted, but there's no specific assignment for now. You're supposed to follow him or the three card repair masters to learn the techniques of card repair."

"Understood."

"Um..." Bob seemed puzzled, "Little Duke, what did you do to suddenly get promoted by the boss?"

"It's nothing much, just unlocked my Sea of Spirit." Duke smiled in response. It wasn't a secret, much like getting into a university after high school.

"Unlocked... unlocked the Sea of Spirit!" Bob's eyes widened, "Are you saying... you unlocked your Sea of Spirit, and it really worked?"

"Yes."

"Oh, ah... congratulations, Little Duke." Bob's smile was somewhat forced.

Duke didn't mind and simply said, "Since the card repair masters haven't arrived and there are no other tasks, I'll go read a book for a while."

"Sure, feel free."

Bob watched Duke head to a corner, take out a book from his tool bag, and start reading. He then took a deep breath, quickly walked to the repair area, and grabbed Bobby, who was lazily wiping a table.

Bobby was his son.

"Go congratulate Duke."

"What?" Bobby looked like he had just woken up.

"Go congratulate Duke. You guys are good friends, right? He successfully unlocked his Sea of Spirit and became a spiritual apprentice. He'll definitely become a card repair master in the future."

Bobby was taken aback for a moment, then exclaimed, "No way!"

As fellow apprentices, Bobby found this hard to believe.

He knew Duke had saved money before, bought Qi Boosting Potion and Blood Boiling Potion, but he still couldn't unlock his Sea of Qi or Sea of Blood. It was clear that he was just an ordinary person, lacking talent in cultivation.

Moreover, among the three Seas, unlocking the Sea of Spirit was the most difficult.

"He can't even unlock his Sea of Qi or Sea of Blood, how could he unlock his Sea of Spirit!" Bobby shook his head. "Dad, don't fool me."

Slap!

Bob's palm landed on Bobby's head. "Go!"

Bobby wasn't a fool. Seeing his father's serious expression, he had no choice but to believe, even though he was reluctant. He dropped the cloth and reluctantly went to congratulate Duke.

"Duke..."

"What's up, Bobby?" Duke asked knowingly. After unlocking his Sea of Spirit, his senses had become more acute, and he had overheard the conversation between the father and son.

"Did you really unlock your Sea of Spirit?"

"Indeed."

"No way, did you really?" Bobby still couldn't quite believe it. "How did you unlock your Sea of Spirit? Didn't you fail to unlock your Sea of Blood not long ago? This is just too exaggerated."

"I borrowed some money from the boss, bought a Spirit Awakening Potion to try my luck, and I succeeded." Duke said, taking out an Arcane Card from his pocket and waving it. "Two days ago, I went to Chenjiao City by car and registered as a spiritual apprentice in the Arcane Tower."

"Arcane Card!" Bobby's eyes widened.

He wanted to take the Arcane Card to have a closer look, but he hesitated. After all, a few days ago, he and Thomas were teasing Duke for wasting money on trying to unlock all three Seas.

This sudden turn of events was too abrupt for him.

So, after confirming that Duke had indeed unlocked his Sea of Spirit, Bobby couldn't maintain his skepticism. His expression slightly changed, and he mumbled, "You're really lucky. Congratulations to you. I'll go clean the tables."

"Go ahead." Duke waved his hand.

He was in a really good mood.

From the attitudes of Bob and his son, he could clearly sense that unlocking the Sea of Spirit, even though he had just registered as a one-star spiritual apprentice, was a significant leap in status.

In the transcendent world, transcendent power was the truth.

By 8 a.m., Old Sam entered the shop. Duke immediately shared the news of his Sea of Spirit unlocking.

After Old Sam's astonishment, he congratulated Duke warmly, "Now your chances of becoming a Scholar have increased significantly. Keep up the good work, young man, lucky and clever as you are."

Duke followed up, "Boss, I want to try working on a defective Spirit Card."

"Hmm, have you cultivated your spiritual energy?"

"Yes."

"Then pick some defective cards and try for yourself. I don't feel like repairing cards now. You can use my workstation."

There were plenty of discarded cards in the card repair shop. Duke chose a widely circulated Silver Dragon Card and then activated the card inspection machine to check its energy circuits.

As the machine activated the energy circuits, he could see that the energy circuits inside the Silver Dragon Card were fragmented, like a comminuted bone fracture, broken into numerous pieces.

"Xiaoyi, assist me in repairing it."

"Understood, Master. Xiaoyi will guide the repair steps for Master and you will perform the repairs."

Xiaoyi was the best intelligent assistant tool, but unfortunately, it couldn't manifest itself or directly control Duke's hands. It could only provide theoretical support.

"The energy rings in this Silver Dragon Card are fragmented into twenty-seven pieces. Based on normal rings, there should be six sections of energy circuits already dissipated. Therefore, it's impossible to complete the card repair."

"No need to fix it perfectly, just practice. Let's connect one section of the energy circuit."

Peeling off the seal, prying open the card casing—these basic card repair steps were already familiar to Duke.

By now, the energy circuit was fully exposed in his sight.

He picked up a "Spiritual Pen," a type of spiritual tool that could perfectly transmit the user's spiritual power, converting it into stable spiritual energy to draw energy circuits.

Immediately, he felt the spiritual fluid in his Sea of Spirit flow through his arm and into the Spiritual Pen.

Duke focused his mind and concentrated on the defective Dragon Card. With Xiaoyi's guidance, he found two partly connected energy circuits and then gently tapped on them with the Spiritual Pen.

Puff!

A large amount of spiritual power surged out from the pen, directly sealing the energy circuits, but an excess of spiritual energy burst the two sections of the energy circuit, completely destroying them.

"Too much energy infusion, repair failed," Xiaoyi summarized.

"I know, let's try again."

For an hour, Duke tirelessly repaired the Silver Dragon Card. He continued until he had ruined all the energy circuits within the card without successfully repairing a single one.

"It sounds easy when you say it, but actually doing it... is really difficult!"