Chapter 185 Dark Demon and Little Mew
After the experiment, Dark removed the Curse Cage.
DemiDevimon felt the preciousness of freedom for the first time, flying out of the balcony as if escaping, desperately breathing the free air.
From this, a sense of pity for the Magic Guide Spirits arose in its heart.
This mindset continued until Dark refined the [Zoo].
Although the experiment with the [Curse Cage] had ended, Dark did not stop.
He took out the [Magic Beast] material pack that had been saved two months ago from the drawer.
According to the original plan, he intended to use this material pack for the future repair of [Magic Beast: Eevee].
After all, the fur of Magic Beasts is very precious and rare.
But now it seems that as long as there are enough credits, these can all be bought.
St. Marian's Traveler's Street is a place so wondrous it feels illusory, where one can buy many treasures that are almost impossible to find outside.
The castle's unique credit system completely separates this place from the outside economic system.
Many merchants on Traveler's Street, especially material merchants, actually acquire items from students, process them, and then resell them in their shops.
When dealing with some rare items, they must follow the principle of "only entry, no exit."
Each time merchants enter or exit St. Marian, they must undergo strict scrutiny to prevent smuggling.
And the significance of owning a small shop on Traveler's Street is by no means purely financial.
This time, Dark was preparing to refine another [Magic Beast]!
For him now, refining a [Magic Beast] was already very simple.
But a Magus always reminds themselves before refining that they must never underestimate any refinement.
Dark spent several minutes concentrating before beginning the refinement of the second [Magic Beast].
His initial expectation was to refine another Eevee.
If he had two Eevee, the deck's fault tolerance would become higher, and its true combat power would significantly increase.
But reason told him that the probability of refining another Eevee was very low, almost zero.
The final form of a [Magic Beast] is influenced by various factors such as materials, time, and climate during refinement.
As for the idealistic meaning of "depending on the deepest desires of the Magus."
Although it accounts for a large proportion, it is not actually decisive.
Furthermore.
A human's specific thoughts can change even with a mere 0.1-second interval.
Changes in mindset and changes in nutrition can lead to differences in thought during two separate refinements.
It's not like if you shout that you want to refine an Eevee, it will turn into an Eevee.
...
Such thoughts only resurfaced in Dark's mind when the Magic Guide Card on the experiment table turned into a golden cocoon.
He began to anticipate what form this [Magic Beast] refinement would take.
Half a minute later, Dark reached out and gently touched the golden light cocoon with three fingers.
Then, he injected Mana.
His thoughts then flowed into the cocoon along with the Mana.
Immediately after, a slight pulsation was felt.
It seemed as if some life had opened its eyes within the cocoon.
Golden light burst out from the tiny cracks, spreading outwards and simultaneously splitting the light cocoon into two halves.
The light cocoon dissipated, leaving a Magic Guide Card with a blurred image quietly lying on the table.
Around the Magic Guide Card, a golden halo shimmered!
Dark extended two fingers and carefully picked it up.
The originally blurred transparent outline on the card face immediately began to change upon meeting his gaze.
As the Magic Beast's form gradually solidified, the surprise in Dark's eyes grew stronger.
"This is..."
[Card Name: Magic Beast (Ditto)]
[Type: Spirit Card]
[Rank: ★]
[Species: Elemental Species]
[Attribute: Normal-type]
[Mana: 100]
[Attack: 100]
[Defense: 100]
[Finishing Moves: Imposter, Transform]
...
Not Eevee, but Ditto!
And among the [Magic Beasts], which are basically White Cards, this [Magic Beast: Ditto] actually has two Finishing Moves!
Wait, two?
Is this a Gold Card?
Dark repeatedly confirmed that the halo of this Magic Guide Card was indeed golden, and couldn't help but feel puzzled.
But for now, he could only keep it in mind and continue examining.
This golden [Ditto] only has two Finishing Moves.
Among them, the [Imposter] Finishing Move is clearly a passive skill derived from Ditto's Hidden Ability.
And [Transform] is Ditto's sole skill.
[Imposter: Using [Transform] consumes no Mana.]
[Transform: Transforms into the opponent's appearance, capable of replicating a portion of the data of Magic Guide Spirits up to the same tier, and can use the opponent's exact Finishing Moves.]
...
Should he call it a pleasant surprise or a fright?
In any case, Dark felt his emotions were somewhat out of control.
He took some time to calm down, and then immediately summoned [Magic Beast: Ditto]!
Ditto, appearing in the light, had a squishy, floppy appearance, like a slightly larger [Trash Slime], with a lighter purple color, two small button-like eyes, and a mouth curved like a crescent moon.
Dark was just about to reach out and touch it, but Ditto began to [Transform] as soon as it appeared.
With the support of the [Imposter] skill, Ditto's simple use of the [Transform] skill would not consume Mana.
So, under Dark's gaze, it gradually transformed into Dark's appearance.
"Maang Maang~"
The 0.5-meter-tall mini-Dark reached out to Dark himself, and Dark instinctively took a step back.
Ditto seemed startled and suddenly began to melt, quickly reverting to its original 0.3-meter-tall slime-like form.
Dark quickly went over and picked it up. After half a day of coaxing, once it smiled again, he took out [Pride II], preparing to "Awaken its Intellect"!
Dark had always believed that the most "bugged" aspect of the Seven Deadly Sins Series Magic Guide Cards was "Awakening Intellect."
But he still didn't know if this effect was limited only to the Magic Guide Spirits he personally refined.
In any case.
As the dark golden orb of light drilled into Ditto's body, its form gently rippled, exuding an aura of pleasure.
Afterwards, it wiggled and transformed, surprisingly turning into mini-Dark again, and its first words were: "Ba Ba?"
Dark revealed a fond, amused smile amidst his worries.
Then he was startled!
Although its speech was unclear, this Ditto had undoubtedly spoken.
"Is it because its vocal organs also mimicked a human's form?"
Dark touched its forehead, telling it to quickly change back.
After all, seeing a miniature version of himself standing in front was still very awkward.
In any case, this Ditto clearly differed greatly from the true Ditto in Pokémon.
This could already be seen from the Finishing Move information feedback from this Magic Guide Card.
The true Ditto's [Imposter] Ability actually takes effect "upon first encounter," and [Transform] has no level restrictions.
But the Ditto Dark refined could only replicate a portion of the data of Magic Guide Spirits up to the same tier.
This "portion of data" also had nuances.
The true Ditto copies all data except for HP.
In short, an experiment was needed.
The subject for the experiment was also readily available.
Dark immediately called DemiDevimon back.
As soon as DemiDevimon returned, it realized there was just a new family member, and it immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
"Maang Maang~"
Ditto waved at DemiDevimon, then immediately transformed into DemiDevimon's appearance.
It truly was identical!
Even the height and weight were exactly the same.
This was distinctly different from its appearance when it transformed into Dark.
"It seems Ditto's transformation also has two modes: one is ordinary shape-shifting, and the other is the [Transform] skill. The latter should only be usable on Magic Guide Spirits."
"Familiars, to some extent, can also be considered a special type of Magic Guide Spirit."
Dark picked up the [Ditto] Magic Guide Card and injected Mana.
The card's face had already transformed into DemiDevimon's appearance.
But the card name remained unchanged.
The three stats for Magic Attack and Defense were temporarily indistinguishable because they were originally the same for both, but the skill had become [Small Shuriken].
Dark waved at the startled DemiDevimon, signaling that it could go play by itself.
Then he summoned the only three-star Magic Guide Spirit in his hand—Shuckle!
Ditto's [Transform] skill could be canceled at any time; if it was just an ordinary transformation, there was no cooldown, but if it was the [Transform] skill, the cooldown was 3 minutes.
Recalling the Magic Guide Card would cause the [Transform] to be undone.
For a Magic Guide Spirit's Finishing Move cooldown, a 3-minute cooldown was already considered very long.
But for a skill like [Transform], it seemed very short.
Three minutes later, Ditto transformed into Shuckle.
Then Dark suddenly realized that the number of "juicers" had doubled!
This was clearly good news, meaning the same amount of juice could be extracted in half the time.
He looked at the [Ditto] Magic Guide Card again.
▼
[Card Name: Magic Beast (Ditto)]
[Type: Spirit Card]
[Rank: ★]
[Species: Insect Species]
[Attribute: Rock-type]
[Mana: 100]
[Attack: 0]
[Defense: 2200]
[Finishing Moves: Sturdy, Power Split, Guard Split, Power Trick]
▲
As expected, all data changed except for the card name, star rank, and Mana!
"This point is not much different from a true Ditto, and the skills are completely identical."
"With 2200 Defense, it's more than enough as an early-game prime item."
"But each of Shuckle's Finishing Moves consumes 100 Mana, while Ditto only has 100 Mana."
"This is just like [Magic Beast: Eevee]'s Finishing Move Mimicry; once used, it's gone."
"To use Finishing Moves while ensuring survival, one needs to equip Recharge Cards like [Energy Potion]."
"This is nothing in an actual battle."
"But in a duel, it becomes cumbersome."
Dark seriously considered the versatility of [Ditto], then took out [Pride II] and [Lust III].
The Pride Series and Lust Series Magic Guide Cards had already proven to have little effect on [Trash Slime], [Shuckle], and [Miltank].
But Dark believed that Ditto, as a Magic Beast, possessed different possibilities compared to Magic Guide Spirits like [Trash Slime] and [Shuckle].
So, before the experiment began, he was filled with anticipation.
He first used [Pride II].
"No, it's still in a transformed state!"
Dark suddenly realized and immediately canceled the transformation.
And after canceling the transformation, Ditto's data indeed underwent a complete change!
▼
[Card Name: Magic Beast (Ditto)]
[Type: Spirit Card]
[Rank: ★★]
[Species: Elemental Species]
[Attribute: Normal-type]
[Mana: 200]
[Attack: 200]
[Defense: 200]
[Finishing Moves: Imposter, Transform]
▲
"Just like Eevee, under the effect of [Pride II], Ditto became two-star, and its Magic Attack, Attack, and Defense stats all became 200!"
For a two-star Magic Guide Spirit, although 200 all-rounder stats might be unimpressive, it was double Ditto's initial stats.
This meant that after transforming into [Shuckle] in this state, it could release at least one Finishing Move!
And the change in star rank made Dark think of a possibility!
"Could it be..."
He suddenly felt a surge of excitement.
To prevent [Pride II] from influencing the observation of [Lust III], Dark specifically waited for the effect of [Pride II] to disappear.
Afterwards, he immediately activated [Lust III]!
Under the pink light, the [Lust] emblem appeared on Ditto's abdomen, and then its stats began to rise at a visible rate!
▼
[Card Name: Magic Beast (Ditto)]
[Type: Spirit Card]
[Rank: ★★★★]
[Species: Elemental Species]
[Attribute: Normal-type]
[Mana: 400]
[Attack: 400]
[Defense: 400]
[Finishing Moves: Imposter, Transform]
▲
"Four-star, 400 Mana!"
Of course, this wasn't the main point.
Dark immediately injected a trace of Mana and received feedback on the Finishing Move information.
"Indeed, the target range for the [Transform] skill is still Magic Guide Spirits up to the same tier! This means that after using [Lust III], Ditto is now capable of transforming into four- to six-star Magic Guide Spirits!"
"Moreover, although 400 Mana may seem not much, it's already enough to use multiple skills!"
Immediately after, Dark summoned [Sylveon] for an experiment and found it to be true!
Despite his excitement, he also felt a slight regret.
If he had used [Lust III·Moon] earlier, he could have enjoyed the pleasure of [Sylveon] x3.
...
In summary.
Overall, [Magic Beast: Ditto], as Dark's third Gold Card, might have significant inherent flaws, but with the blessing of the Seven Deadly Sins Series Magic Guide Cards, it truly lives up to its Gold Card status.
A bountiful harvest!
It's a pity, however, that while [Magic Beast: Ditto] and [DemiDevimon] are both first-tier Magic Guide Spirit Cards, they are only one-star. Their potential is abundant, but their inherent attributes are not good, and sometimes they still can't compare to two-star or three-star Magic Guide Spirit Cards.
Dark still lacked two-star and three-star cards that could engage in direct combat.
So, how could he refine the two-star or three-star cards he needed?
Dark fell into deep thought.
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