Chapter 206: The Poet of Boundless Love Sports a New Look Every Day

The card-making workshop in Lance's dormitory was alive with the vibrant energy of fluctuating mana. The workbench and the counters lining the walls were cluttered with magical instruments of all sizes. These included tools and barrier-linking devices that Lance had acquired over the past few months.

Lance sat at a specially carved wooden workbench in the center of the room. A tiered trolley beside him held compartments filled with materials like demon blood, fire dragon scales, and moonlight thorn-bramble fruit.

He took a stack of blank, exceptionally smooth yet tough cards from a small mahogany box to serve as the vessels for the magical structures. Of course, they could just as easily serve as raw material for explosives from "Lance's Heavy Industries."

Lance raised his left hand, and a moment later, a bottle of deep crimson ink was placed into his grasp. The Poet of Boundless Love had already intuitively prepared the magical ink mixture. Without a word being spoken, he received the blend at the perfect ratio he had envisioned.

Lance skillfully sketched the base design onto the card. The towering dragon horns and tail, the roaring flames, and the demonic traits quickly came to life. He rendered every detail, from the texture of the scales to the flow of the fire, with meticulous precision.

After completing the initial layout and referring to the sketches agreed upon with the Poet, he began inscribing the central area of the card. Working from the inside out, he transcribed and adapted magical text derived from the Polymorph: Demon spell card, ensuring the card's transformation effect would function according to his desired principles.

He proceeded step by step. The Poet needed no verbal cues; she retrieved small magic vials and worked in tandem with Lance, adding materials and refining the details of the spell-casting formula.

The clock in the living room ticked steadily. At the doorway, Boss Cat swallowed hard. This was the first time it had seen Lance make a card so calmly and smoothly. Usually, things would have exploded several times by this stage. This time, it appeared the project wouldn't turn into a heavy explosive. Lance was actually going to produce a finished card.

This kid actually does have talent at making cards! Boss Cat was utterly astonished.

Once the target runes were successfully etched onto the semi-finished enchanted card, it was time for reinforcement and sealing. Lance dipped his tool into a pigment blended from rose petals and dragon blood, then gently coated the card's surface to finalize the infusion and seal the structure. He reconnected the rune circuits to establish a magical barrier, ensuring the mana would circulate internally without leaking.

After a long period of engrossed, tireless effort, the spell card finally stabilized, showing no signs of imminent explosion. The image on the card looked incredibly lifelike, as if it might leap right off the surface at any moment.

"Phew, I didn't expect to succeed on the very first try." Lance's gaze, previously locked in absolute concentration, softened immediately. He leaned back in his chair and turned his head to look at the Poet. Creating just this single card had left him feeling somewhat drained.

The Poet patted Lance's shoulder with satisfaction. She, too, had been exceptionally serious this time around. "It really took me to make it happen."

Seeming to possess boundless energy, she immediately picked up the enchanted card from the table, now shimmering with a purple glow.

[Poet of Boundless Love Polymorph: Dragon Demon]

Category: Spell Card

Grade: Purple (Rare)

Attribute: Concealment

Tier: 4

Usable only by the Poet of Boundless Love. Upon activation, transforms the Poet into a dragon demon and alters her attire without changing her facial features. The transformation significantly enhances the Poet's aura of intimidation.

Cooldown: 24 hours.

Anything that harms you is unnecessary. Anything that stands in your way is not needed either~

In the next instant, a burst of translucent, deep crimson light erupted from the magic dragon image on the card. It was as if the shadow of a colossal dragon had streaked across the sky with a thunderous roar. A scorching, immense fire tornado instantly engulfed the Poet.

Even Lance was startled by the flames; it certainly woke him right up. Fortunately, the fire tornado erupting from the Poet carried neither actual heat nor the capacity to inflict damage.

As the dragon's breath dissipated, Lance looked upon the Poet once more. He found himself captivated by the figure with hair as red as blazing flames.

Patches of crimson dragon scales had appeared on her neck. Her golden, beast-like eyes held a profound, haughty depth, and the metallic dragon horns atop her head were patterned with deep red, lava-like veins.

Her attire had shifted from the previous deep-red formal gown to a graceful, form-fitting suit of armor that was predominantly jet-black, complementing her long red hair perfectly.

The armor was accented with scattered, layered dark-red patterns. At the center of the breastplate sat a circular emblem glowing with a blood-red radiance, resembling the heart of a magic dragon, pulsing with ceaseless, fiery energy. The lower skirt-armor was a blend of black fabric, leather, and metal plating. A belt resembling a chain of thorns swayed elegantly with her movements, striking a balance between lightness and resilience. Whenever she shifted her angle in the light, the rose-shaped seal on the skirt-armor's surface would emit a faint, deep crimson sheen.

She exuded an overwhelming, domineering presence. Even though Lance could clearly sense she was only a Tier 1 entity, her aura made it impossible to gauge just how formidable she might prove to be should she unleash her power.

Mimicking Lance's mannerisms, the Poet looked down at him and posed the question, "Lance... now that you have beheld the Poet of Boundless Love, why do you not bow?"

Lance looked the newly transformed Poet up and down before offering his assessment, "If I didn't know for a fact that your stats hadn't changed, I'd honestly think you were some kind of powerhouse."

With a disguise like this, unless someone was intimately familiar with the summon's appearance, they would never realize this dragon demon was actually the Poet.

At the corner of the workshop's entrance, Boss Cat had initially assumed the card Lance was making had an unstable design and exploded upon use, which had terrified it into hiding. However, once the workshop quieted down and it peeked back inside, it discovered that the summon had undergone a complete transformation.

"You two... are actually into that kind of wild stuff, meow?" Boss Cat was stunned. It turned out the pair hadn't just been researching card making. They were creating cards capable of altering appearances, and that wasn't even the main point.

The main point was that if Lance and the Poet could produce enchanted cards of such exceptional quality, possessing the Poet was essentially like having an entire harem at one's disposal. From that perspective alone, Tali didn't seem quite as appealing as the summon.

Come to think of it, the Poet also had a much warmer, friendlier attitude toward Lance, and their fates were inextricably linked—they rose and fell together. No matter how it looked at the situation, Boss Cat felt that the Poet was the perfect woman!

"What on earth are you thinking, Boss Cat?" Lance crossed his arms and looked at Boss Cat with a helpless expression. He had a hunch that the cat was imagining all sorts of bizarre things.

Boss Cat scampered into the workshop and leapt onto Lance. It scrutinized his expression at close range and pressed its ear against his chest to listen to his heartbeat, then asked in puzzlement, "D-don't you feel even a little bit of a spark with her, meow?"

The young man's composure was genuine. He wasn't faking it.

Lance answered calmly, "Nope."

Boss Cat found this baffling. If he didn't feel a spark even with the Poet, then this young man... surely he wasn't the type who was simply completely immune to romance, right?

No! That wasn't the kind of male lead it wanted in the love stories it watched over. It didn't want Lance to have a heart like flawless glass, as serene and steady as the sun and moon!

Lance picked Boss Cat up, set it down on the floor, and said, "Alright, let's start making the human disguise card. I'm starting to feel a bit sleepy."

Upon hearing this, the little black cat scampered out of the workshop again and sat on the floor by the doorway.

So, Lance and the Poet proceeded with the creation of the second enchanted card. The summon clearly loved her new dragon demon look with the red hair, and simply stayed in that form while she worked.

Inside the card making workshop, time seemed to have been stolen away by their intense focus, tucked into every drop of ink and every stroke of the brush. Lance and the Poet were completely immersed in the craft. Their movements were precise and perfectly synchronized.

In the corner of the workshop, the hands of an antique brass clock moved silently. Before they knew it, it was two o'clock in the afternoon.

As they worked, the daylight filtering through the gap in the door softened gradually. Outside on the terrace, trees swayed gently in the breeze, casting golden, dappled light across the workshop floor like gold dust scattered by angels.

After several failed attempts that resulted in the cards exploding mid-process, Lance and the Poet finally succeeded that afternoon in creating another polymorph card. It was a card that represented something neither of them was particularly skilled at demonstrating.

[Poet of Boundless Love Polymorph: Human]

Category: Spell Card

Grade: Purple (Rare)

Attribute: Concealment

Tier: 4

Usable only by the Poet of Boundless Love. Upon activation, the Poet's race changes to human and her attire shifts accordingly, though her facial features remain unchanged. The transformation significantly enhances the Poet's aura of approachability and charm. Cooldown: 24 hours.

In a world devoid of pain, I silence the ceaseless noise; within a gentle cage, it is I who shall grant you fulfillment~