To be honest, Queen of the Full Moon had a bit of a personal agenda when inviting Lloyd to the academy.
From the academy's perspective, she had simply brought them a master in the study of souls and set up a dedicated classroom for him. It was a reasonable arrangement, nothing unusual, and quickly approved.
But for some reason, once everyone else agreed, those closest to the Queen of the Full Moon—especially those who knew Lloyd well—wore complicated expressions.
The academy might not know, but they certainly understood what Lloyd was like.
In terms of expertise, Lloyd could easily be a master—he could even run an academy on his own without issue.
But when it came to communication... even though his condition had improved greatly compared to before, his ability to interact with others was still...
When the Queen of the Full Moon made that suggestion, everyone present couldn't help but recall the fear of being under Lloyd's control.
And now, not only was it about communication—the Queen of the Full Moon wanted him to actually teach...
Those who had dealt with Lloyd exchanged glances and silently chose not to object.
After all, the Sorcerers had been a constant source of trouble for them. Perhaps it was time they experienced some torment themselves.
That was exactly how the Queen of the Full Moon saw it. Otherwise, she wouldn't have suggested it.
But the problem was...
"I did want to give them a hard time, but I didn't mean to make them suffer like this."
She barely managed to hold herself together during Lloyd's opening lesson.
Killing a group of people at the very start?
Fine. They could be resurrected, and it would let them experience the power of crystal firsthand. It also served as a show of force to intimidate those arrogant Sorcerers.
Extreme as it was, she could understand.
But why, after killing them, did he not only withhold resurrection but also pull out their souls?
"Oh, that was for teaching purposes."
Raising his hand, Lloyd tore the bewildered souls from their bodies. They floated into the air as he slowly clenched his palm.
Then, accompanied by an overwhelming surge of soul energy—so intense even those without talent in the field could feel it—their souls began to shrink and twist, as though crushed by some unseen force.
At first, the souls seemed dazed. But once they realized what was happening, their expressions shifted from fear to pain, twisting under the pressure until, at last, they screamed—a sharp, piercing shriek.
The despair and agony within them were so vivid that even the Queen of the Full Moon felt a sting in her own soul.
"...Lloyd, is this really part of the lesson?"
"Of course it is."
Lloyd watched the shrieking souls with satisfaction, nodding as he spoke.
"See? They've just mastered the spell 'Soul Shriek,' haven't they?"
"I didn't learn it nearly this fast back in my day. Cost me a fortune, too. Later I found out you just need to squeeze a bit. What a waste of money..."
No, I still think it's better to pay to learn a spell like this.
But the Queen of the Full Moon didn't argue. Partly because she didn't know how to start, and partly because she was afraid Lloyd might lose focus and crush the souls in his hand.
After that shrieking went on for who knows how long, Lloyd examined the souls again, confirmed their condition, and nodded in satisfaction. Then he loosened his grip, returned the souls to their bodies, and touched the Site of Grace.
With a twist of space and time, the corpses on the ground instantly returned to life, faces still stricken with fear.
After reviving, they stood stunned for a moment. Once they realized they were alive, they backed away from Lloyd and began inspecting themselves.
That was when they noticed something strange.
Had their perception... sharpened?
It wasn't an illusion. Nor was it unique to any one of them. Everyone had experienced it.
Not only had their perception improved, but their sensitivity to the magic within Glintstone had also grown stronger. Even their physical coordination felt enhanced...
"A more solid soul deepens your connection to this world, allowing you to observe and use it more effectively."
Facing their astonishment and doubt, Lloyd opened his hands and spoke calmly.
"Normally, forging a solid soul requires first finding the right method, then shaping it bit by bit through long-term training and refinement."
"But you are different.
Your research here hasn't gone deep into souls, and you have no method to train them. Yet, as Sorcerers, you've built up enough practice without any system at all..."
"Normally, I'd teach you a training method to gradually absorb that accumulation."
"But I don't have that kind of time, and I prefer efficiency. So I simply skipped the process for you."
"So then—how does it feel?"
Only then did the Sorcerers realize what had truly happened. They stopped checking themselves and looked at Lloyd with newfound reverence.
If they had doubted Lloyd's qualifications before—questioning whether this so-called "Soul Master," parachuted into the academy, really deserved his own classroom—then after witnessing his display, their doubts only grew.
But it wasn't his skill they questioned. It was why he had come to the academy at all.
Setting aside everything else, the fact that he could extract intact souls from corpses without any tools after killing them was already astonishing enough to prove his mastery. Then came the one-click mass soul enhancement—something none of them had even heard of.
And when they thought they were dead, he pulled off a revival in the blink of an eye...
The academy's Masters were indeed strong, mysterious, and knowledgeable, with remarkable talents and spells. That much was expected.
But even so, their strength always fit within the framework of understanding. Even if they couldn't grasp the details, they could at least understand the general outline of their methods.
But this one...
If all Masters were at Lloyd's level, then back during the Magic War, the debate wouldn't have been over whether Rennala and Radagon should marry. It would have been "the Masters forcing that red-haired beast to his knees and dragging him back to be the Queen's slave."
After confirming Lloyd's true ability, the Sorcerers' attitude shifted completely.
Fear. Awe. Yearning. Even worship...
Those Sorcerers who were infamous in the Lands Between for their arrogance, difficult tempers, and disdain for others—who even looked down on the Golden Order Dynasty next door, sneering at Incantation as the craft of short-sighted fools—now lowered their heads before Lloyd, humbly declaring their willingness to follow and learn.
They were utterly convinced.
"But please, don't ever do that again. We... we're dull-witted. We really can't endure that kind of teaching."
Calling oneself "dull-witted" was among the harshest insults in Sorcerer culture. For them to use it on themselves meant they were truly terrified.
Faced with their plea, Lloyd looked slightly puzzled.
"Really? I was planning, once you'd adjusted a bit, to roast your souls with fire, burn away the impurities..."
"We appreciate the thought, but it's really not necessary..."
"Not even if it helps you study Sorceries and souls more effectively?"
"No... still not necessary."
Normally, Sorcerers were said to be madmen who would risk everything for knowledge.
But after what Lloyd had just put them through, they suddenly realized how fragile their wills really were. Even recalling the experience made their bodies tremble uncontrollably...
"Alright then."
Seeing their reluctance, Lloyd didn't insist.
"Preparations are done. Let's begin the real lesson."
The real lesson?
At those words, the Sorcerers before him instinctively shuddered.
After a brief silence, one braver student cautiously asked,
"Um... when you say 'real lesson'..."
"Cards," Lloyd answered matter-of-factly.
Sorcerers: "...?"
Seeing their confusion, Lloyd himself frowned in puzzlement.
"Isn't this a duel classroom? What else would the main lesson be if not cards?"
"Didn't I say already? That was just the preparation."
He stepped among them, glanced at the card table, then suddenly remembered something.
"Oh, right. I don't know how to make cards yet, and I don't have a deck. You'll have to teach me how to make one first."
Sorcerers: "...?"
On the way over, Queen of the Full Moon had already explained some of the card game's rules to Lloyd, and he had pieced together the rest himself.
In short, this new form of duel wasn't just a game. Sorcerers infused their own souls into the cards, creating 'soul cards' to use in battle.
This method not only trained their control over souls and deepened their understanding but also produced cards that could be applied beyond the duel table, even in daily life and combat.
"So basically, it's just a variation of the Spirit Ash system."
"Instead of summoning a whole entity to fight, you create modular pieces and draw the right card when needed."
"Wait... that reminds me of something..."
Lloyd thought for a moment, then glanced at the Incantation in his inventory, realization dawning.
"Isn't this basically a magic version of the Aspects of the Crucible?"
Only here, the casting medium was a duel disk, with optimizations across the board—faster casting, lower mana cost, higher damage, and even extended range...
With that in mind, Lloyd quickly studied the card crafting process, cobbled together a deck of his own, and then...
That was the end of it.
Because soul cards had to be made by the duelist's own hand, a deck's strength was directly tied to the duelist's own power.
The game did have rules to balance things, giving weaker duelists a chance against the strong, but that only meant a mouse might kill a cat—not an ant kill an elephant.
To put it in perspective, even without counting the elaborate mechanics on Lloyd's cards, his monster cards alone had stats several times stronger than the Sorcerers' at the same Level.
And that was after he deliberately suppressed their power.
Unwinnable. Completely unwinnable.
After a few Sorcerers dared to challenge Lloyd and were instantly annihilated, the rest flatly refused to fight him.
After all, Soul Duels weren't like normal duels. Since the cards carried fragments of their actual souls, losing felt like having their very souls beaten down...
And earlier, while crafting cards and dueling, Lloyd had casually mentioned bits of knowledge about souls.
Combined with the methods he had already shown when manipulating their souls, it was more than enough for them to chew on for a long time. There was no need to keep playing.
Alright then, that's enough for today.
Seeing that they were all left with psychological scars and his objective had been achieved, Lloyd reluctantly put away his deck and stepped away from the card table.
[Acquired Talisman: 'Soul Deck']
[Dueling cards infused with souls, a symbol of the Duelist]
[When equipped, slightly increases the power of Sorceries]
[When paired with a 'Duel Disk'-type staff, damage boosts increase greatly, and spell types can be altered]
(e.g., Glintstone Magic becomes summoning a phantom Wandering Noble at the caster's location, or consecutively casting three Glintstone Pebbles)
[Acquired Staff: 'Primordial Duel Disk']
[Said to be the original prototype of the Duel Disk]
[Possesses no inherent special power, but as the 'first prototype,' it holds a peculiar ability]
[Its base spell damage boost is low, but it grows stronger as 'Dueling' spreads in popularity]
[The more widespread 'Dueling' becomes and the more 'Duel Disk' types exist, the more this Duel Disk evolves in turn]
[Though plain in appearance, it is revered as the supreme symbol in the hearts of all duelists]
[It is said to be the emblem of the 'King of Dueling']
With these two items in hand, the matter of the Duel Classroom was settled.
Once Lloyd confirmed there were no further issues, his gaze shifted to the girl—no, the doll-like girl—beside the Queen of the Full Moon.
From the moment he had stepped into the academy, Lloyd had noticed her presence, especially the cluster of Ergo swirling around her.
But since he had been busy with the Duel Classroom, and the Queen of the Full Moon showed no intention of introducing her, Lloyd hadn't asked.
Now, though...
"She's that 'super doll.'"
Back at the academy, the Queen of the Full Moon had shown Lloyd an advanced doll powered by a Magic Engine, and mentioned that the Sorcerers were already planning to create even stronger, more monstrous versions.
Given the tradition in this magical world of Sorcerers creating their own "fathers," and with the existence of self-awareness here, Lloyd had warned the Queen of the Full Moon to pay attention to the dolls' condition.
And he had been right to worry.
During his earlier explorations, Lloyd discovered that through reckless experimentation day and night, the Sorcerers had indeed produced a batch of dolls strong enough to be true mage-killers. Unsurprisingly, after a mishap, some of these dolls became infected with Ergo and developed their own consciousness.
But unlike what Lloyd and the Queen of the Full Moon had expected, these dolls did not rebel. In fact...
They became even more useful.
"Why would we rebel?"
When the Queen of the Full Moon asked, the dolls looked at her with genuine confusion.
"You designed us, created us, maintain us, and are even working to upgrade us. All that's required of us is to help with labor within our abilities—and that has been our mission since the very beginning..."
"We enjoy our lives as they are. Why would we rebel?"
The Queen of the Full Moon was left speechless, unable to come up with an answer.
Having learned from her past experience with the Albinaurics, this time she didn't take a hostile stance toward dolls that had developed consciousness. She even forbade the academy from opposing them and, in record time, drafted and implemented the "Doll Protection Regulations."
Still, the potential danger dolls posed couldn't be ignored. The Queen of the Full Moon kept a close eye on their actions.
And soon, she noticed something.
Though they claimed to be content, the dolls often gathered in secret, as though plotting or building something together...
"We built a central puppet hub to make it easier for you to coordinate and command us."
"The materials and site all went through proper approval. But the reviewer that day seemed too focused on card games to notice our situation..."
Looking at the doll girl before her—the "Puppet Core," a so-called super doll created by the dolls using blueprints from the Sorcerers—the Queen of the Full Moon once again fell silent.
After tracking down the reviewer, confirming everything was indeed done according to regulations, she sank into an even deeper silence.
Was this truly how things were supposed to develop?
Thankfully, after enduring Lloyd's brand of tempering, her mental resilience was stronger than ever. It didn't take long for her to accept the reality.
So, after having the reviewer dragged off to prison, she was preparing to have a word with the "Puppet Core" when...
A thunderous explosion tore through the academy, flames and thick smoke engulfing everything.
But it wasn't a doll rebellion. Quite the opposite. If not for the dolls rushing around putting out fires, the damage would have been far worse.
Watching the Sorcerers crawl out from the rubble, ignoring their wounds while muttering things like "Next time we'll succeed" or "Just a small accident," and then glancing at the obedient, silent dolls at her side...
The Queen of the Full Moon suddenly thought: perhaps a doll rebellion wouldn't be such a bad thing after all.
After she introduced the Puppet Core, the Core politely greeted Lloyd.
"I am the Puppet Core, manufactured by the Academy of Raya Lucaria, and currently in service to the Queen of the Full Moon.
"I have heard of you from 'the Puppet'—the god who mastered the essence of Ergo and granted me consciousness. He expressed deep appreciation for your tolerance toward the Albinaurics and great respect for your achievements in the field of souls.
"He also asked me to convey this: he came here merely to observe. Granting 'Self' is an attribute and requirement of his essence, not an act of hostility toward you."
Lloyd wasn't surprised.
He had dealt with plenty of gods before and knew they all leaned toward abstraction, their actions bound to fit their essence.
Though Ergo had been bestowed upon some of his enemies, there were also plenty of Ergo puppets among the Albinaurics, and never once had the Ergo deity intervened mid-battle. That alone showed there was no real conflict or enmity.
Compared to the Filth next door, always looking for ways to torment him, the deity behind Ergo was quiet as a showerhead—just endlessly circling and spraying Ergo. It granted Albinauric blood, dolls, and others selfhood, then paid them no further attention, whether they were beaten, killed, or otherwise destroyed. Its only focus was the spreading of Self.
Looking at the current situation with the dolls in Raya Lucaria, Lloyd could already guess the nature of this god.
"Absolute neutrality, then?"
"At first, yes. But now... perhaps leaning a little toward you."
The Puppet Core paused before continuing.
"Because he believes your Law is remarkably inclusive, and your insights into 'Self' are exceptional. Combined with your attitude toward Albinaurics and dolls, he feels you could become a friend—and he is willing to support your claim to become Elden Lord."
With that, the Puppet Core produced two items from her chest and placed them in Lloyd's hands.
"This is his token of sincerity."
[Acquired Weapon: 'Ark Sacred Sword']
[Acquired Key Item: 'Cursed Little Doll']