Card Apprentice Daily Log

Date- 5 April 2321

Time- 14:03

Location- Southern Region, Blossom district, Sky Blossom City, Dungeon Highway, Barren Lands, Blood Rock Cave Gate Dungeon

"You beat Belphegor in a wager, no way, I don't believe," Corey did not like the ending of my story, I was starting to doubt that she was cheering for Belphegor to win the wager.

"Wyatt, did you really outsmart Belphegor?" Park looked at me with firm but teary eyes.

I believe she plans to find comfort in my win against Belphegor but she was finding it hard to believe me. And I promise I am not lying when I say that Park's eyes looked teary, I know her entire body was made of fire but believe me her eyes looked teary.

"I really did, him underestimating my physique became his undoing," I said without going into details. Park was not Corey, she did not require me to lay everything out for her.

"I see, I take it that borrowing the power of the devil, be it even for a few minutes, that experience must have helped your physique grow to new heights. No wonder you were able to suppress and handle Corey like a ragdoll despite her sage-level mastery in body arts. Not only did you manage to outsmart a devil but you also gained a lot from the deal, I am impressed," Park's praise was genuine but then her voice turned grim saying, "You were lucky that you summoned him as a devil merchant, if he was summoned using a sacrifice, he would have killed you and gone on a rampage after losing to you."

She was not only impressed by the boy's wits that were able to outsmart the devil but his physique that could defeat a formidable enemy with help of borrowed power and no assistance from cards and a grimoire. Now Park hoped that she should have gone to the outskirt of the city to witness the boy's victory. Even if it risked revealing her whereabouts to Belphegor because to her the expression of unwillingness on Belphegor's face as he lost to the boy would be priceless.

"Yes, that sure helped me understand the direction I should be developing my physique in. And it did help me break certain limits of my physique sooner," I wasn't lying, borrowing the devil's power and experiencing the peak of this world, I was able to map the development of my strength going forward.

Yes, my physique was strong but if I had realm-appropriate cards I could have put an end to Lois even sooner. And I have come to conclude that it would be in my best interest if I were to comprehend a few martial arts to sage-level mastery because then I would able to make the most of my physique. Fighting against Lois made me realize that I had very little combat ability and was lacking in it. When she sneak attacked me I was mostly passive if not for the ability of my floating heads and arms and ultra-level mastery in blood rule meaning along with my calamity daughter cores, my situation would not be any better than Anna's. Come to think of it I had to kill my body once to defeat Lois. That fight was barely satisfactory.

Laura and Corey, especially Laura, did not seem to have strong physical bodies when compared to mine yet their body was able to intimidate me, I guess it was the effect of them having achieved sage-level mastery in numerous martial arts. I would like to boost that in front of absolute strength martial arts were nothing but tricks but I could not deny the fact that with martial arts I could more efficiently and effectively use my strength. My physique combined with sage-level mastery, I could defeat my enemies in a higher realm without even having to summon my grimoire. I was already able to do that but I meant enemies of an even higher level than that.

"So, now can we move on from Belphegor and talk about the devil merchant code?" I asked Park, to which she nodded and asked, "Sure, what do you want to know about devil merchant code?"

"Why don't you start with the difference between summoning a devil/demon using devil merchant code and summoning a devil/demon using a sacrificial ritual?" Though I had a little idea about the two summoning methods, it was best if I got a certain clarity. And it was a good starter for me to slowly stir the conversation to talk about the pros and cons of becoming a demon merchant.

"The answer to your question is within your question, Devil Merchant Code, that's the difference that matters. In a sacrificial ritual summoning the one with the biggest fist among the parties involved in the pact would govern the pact, so nobody is stopping that party from abusing his power and it usually is the summoned demon/devil. But that is not the case when dealing with demon/devil merchants as the devil merchant code is responsible for them," The deal that Park had with Belphegor did not involve the devil merchant code as the villagers had summoned Belphegor using her father's blood and offering her as the live sacrifice to him.

"That is the basic, I know that. What I want to know is how did the people of this world know how to summon demons/devils using sacrifice and rituals or the devil merchant cards?" I mean the demons and card apprentices live in two different realms which were realms apart from each other.

So, how were the card apprentices able to come in contact with the knowledge to summon demons/devils either by sacrifice and rituals or how did they make devil merchant cards? At first, I thought maybe due to dungeons and reverse dungeons but that explanation wasn't enough.

How come, the demon worshipers who were able to summon an army of demons from the dark realm using sacrifice and ritual were not able to create a dungeon connecting to the dark realm? I have seen Corey attempt something similar in the tournament in her duel against me, maybe I could borrow that method from Park.