Chapter 186: Dark Demon's Long-Awaited Breakthrough
After dinner.
Dark listed the remaining core resources in his hand.
① [Pride] 1 point.
② Harpy's Feather
③ Mermaid's Scale
④ Stuffed Bear Button Eyes.
Apart from the fourth item, which was a pre-arranged Christmas gift for Diana, the other three could be used opportunistically.
In fact, the first thing Dark thought of when he acquired the "Harpy's Feather" was a spell card from "Yu-Gi-Oh!" — [Harpie's Feather Duster]!
But that was clearly impractical.
The alchemy of a spell card required too many elements.
Dark was able to alchemize [Curse Cage] because there was a ready-made tutorial, and even the spell that needed to be written had a basic framework.
If he were to entirely rely on himself to write a spell that didn't exist originally, it would undoubtedly be asking for trouble.
So a more practical idea was to use the "Harpy's Feather" to take a gamble and see if he could alchemize a low-star card from the [Harpie Lady] series.
As for the Mermaid's Scale, it was naturally to be alchemized in the direction of a mermaid.
Mermaids symbolize Envy among the Seven Deadly Sins, but unfortunately, Dark had too little Envy, making it unusable in the short term.
But none of this mattered.
After careful consideration, Dark made up his mind to gamble on cards!
The path to growth always required some cost.
Even if he failed, losing a few materials was not a big deal.
But what if he succeeded?
Perhaps there would be an unexpected harvest?
No sooner said than done.
Dark glanced at the clock on the wall; it was exactly seven in the evening.
If he was fast enough, he could complete two experiments before nine.
He quickly began preparations.
The basic alchemy method had the highest randomness.
If luck was good enough and the materials added were precious enough, there was even a chance to alchemize high-star Magic Guide Spirit Cards!
Of course, this probability was very, very low.
It was basically like buying lottery tickets, falling into the category of an "intelligence tax".
Therefore, limiting the preciousness of materials within a certain range, aiming for first-tier Magic Guide Cards, was the most suitable and practical approach.
Dark spent half an hour completing the preliminary production of the first Magic Guide Card. After activating the No. 1 Alchemy Array, he began to place the core materials.
First, naturally, was the "Harpy's Feather".
Perhaps the power contained in the "Harpy's Feather" was sufficient; merely placing this feather caused the light of the No. 1 Alchemy Array to become very strong.
Before the alchemy ended, Dark did not forget to drip a little pre-prepared saliva, as instructed by the Magic Guide professor.
"Saliva" was actually an excellent catalyst in the process of alchemizing Magic Guide Spirit Cards.
This was because the rich elements contained in human saliva could promote the formation of life.
The effect of "saliva" was obvious.
After the light of the No. 1 Alchemy Array reached its peak, it quickly receded.
Then, some black impurities overflowed from the card face, gradually covering the Magic Guide Card.
Two minutes later, the Magic Guide Card finally stopped reacting.
Dark took out his tools, carefully scraped off a portion of the black impurities covering the Magic Guide Card, then picked it up with tweezers and rinsed it under the faucet for a moment.
As most of the surface stains were washed away, the edges of the Magic Guide Card were revealed, gradually emitting a faint blue glow.
"It's a blue card!"
Dark's heart stirred, and joy showed on his face.
He certainly wouldn't fantasize about a gold card; as long as it wasn't a white card, it was already a big win!
After a while.
Dark placed the washed Magic Guide Card on the table and observed it carefully.
The pattern on the card face was not the Harpy he imagined, but rather more like an "eagle".
"Hawlucha"!
Hawlucha is a type of Pokémon. When it stands up, it is less than one meter tall, looking at first glance like a wrestler wearing an eagle's mask.
Its face has blue-green mask-like patterns, and three orange feathers stand on top of its head.
Its wings spread out, red on the outside and green on the inside, like a cloak, quite dashing.
"It's a three-star card!"
[Card Name: Hawlucha]
[Type: Spirit Card]
[Level: ★★★]
[Race: Avian Beast Species]
[Attribute: Fighting/Flying]
[Magic: 1100]
[Attack: 1500]
[Defense: 1200]
[Finishing Move: Feather Dance]
...
"A very standard three-star blue card. The 1500 attack power is a bonus point, and the finishing move is Feather Dance, which in the original work is a skill that directly reduces an opponent's attack by 2 stages, but it's clearly different here."
[Feather Dance: Scatters feathers, enveloping the opponent and hindering their attack.]
In short, it's a good skill similar to a "smoke bomb".
The usage of this finishing move is clearly not limited to scattering it on opponents.
If used well, it can completely serve as a crowd control skill for obstructing vision.
...
By now, Dark was very accustomed to the fact that the Magic Guide Spirits he alchemized leaned towards Pokémon.
Not only was he not surprised, but he even began to look forward to the next Magic Guide Spirit.
"In the world of Pokémon, what kind of Pokémon would be based on a mermaid? Milotic? No, its prototype seems to be an oarfish..."
Of course, he didn't immediately begin alchemizing the next Magic Guide Spirit. Instead, he first summoned Hawlucha and conducted some experiments.
[Pride I], [Pride II], [Lust III].
After using the three Deadly Sin Cards in turn once, Dark recalled Hawlucha back into the card.
It wasn't exactly disappointment.
Hawlucha was originally a Pokémon with no evolution potential. Perhaps using more precious materials could alchemize a higher-star Hawlucha, but using Deadly Sin Cards clearly couldn't provide further enhancement.
However, this also met Dark's initial expectations.
A three-star Magic Guide Spirit capable of direct combat!
Obtained!
...
The second experiment began in full swing.
Dark quickly completed the preliminary steps, advancing to the final material placement step.
This time, the core material used was naturally the "Mermaid's Scale"!
Dark carefully placed the "Mermaid's Scale" into the light emanating from the No. 1 Alchemy Array.
As the scale was swallowed by the light, he withdrew his hand, observed it carefully, and then added his saliva again.
But this time, the light of the Alchemy Array was still flickering.
If he had [Envy] at this point, Dark would definitely have put it in.
But he only had a trace of [Pride] left, and it was still in the insect branch, not yet taken out.
What to do?
Dark's gaze began to wander.
The "Stuffed Bear Button Eyes" certainly wouldn't work; putting in more than two core materials was a big taboo in basic alchemy.
So he could only add some auxiliary materials.
And auxiliary materials readily available to him... there really were some!
"Ding!"
A light bulb went off in Dark's mind, and his gaze lingered on the three hungry Catnip Grasses!
Of these three different types of Catnip Grass, one had nurtured a Pride Fruit, and two had nurtured Lust Fruits.
And after the fruits ripened and were not picked, their heads still retained the fine stems of the fruits.
Those three fine stems, like antennae, became meat in Dark's eyes!
"Speaking of mermaids, besides [Envy], there's [Lust], and here are exactly two stems of [Lust Fruit]."
Dark immediately walked over, first hugged the first Catnip Grass that pounced on him, then caught the second Fox Grass that pounced on him, and extended his sinful scissors towards the fine stem on its head!
"Meow-snip!"
"Woof?"
Fox Grass let out a soft cry, feeling as if it had lost something important, a bit empty.
So it nestled even closer into Dark's arms.
But the cruel and heartless Dark, after using it, abandoned it and turned his attention to Cow Grass!
"Moo-snip!"
"Baa?"
Cow Grass was at a loss.
Dark, having obtained two [Lust] stems, quickly went back and forth, putting one of them into the light of the No. 1 Alchemy Array first.
As the Alchemy Array swallowed the fine stem, the light gradually stabilized.
But it wasn't enough!
Dark then immediately put in the second fine stem!
And the light indeed grew stronger!
The entire Alchemy Array then began to operate at high speed.
The materials placed into it, after being fused and digested by the Alchemy Array, began the process of "extracting the essence and discarding the dross".
Some black and green impurities were discharged.
The more essential things were retained.
It was a familiar scene again.
As these impurities, which appeared from nowhere, were expelled, the entire alchemy process went exceptionally smoothly.
Dark couldn't help but show anticipation.
The basic alchemy method actually had a failure rate, and it was quite high.
But he succeeded three times out of three alchemies; he didn't know if it was the "saliva"'s contribution, or if he truly had natural strong luck!
...
When the Magic Guide Card's alchemy was completed, Dark cleaned it and discovered that it was actually a
two-star purple card!
The pattern on the card showed an exceptionally cute little sea lion!
This sea lion had wet and smooth blue skin, a pure white muzzle, trembling whiskers, and a pink spherical nose.
A light blue collar encircled its neck, and it had a pair of front flippers and a tail fin both in front and back of its body.
In short, it was super cute!
...
[Card Name: Popplio]
[Type: Spirit Card]
[Level: ★★]
[Race: Mythical Beast Species]
[Attribute: Water]
[Magic: 500]
[Attack: 700]
[Defense: 300]
[Finishing Moves: Liquid Voice, Alluring Voice]
...
Compared to Hawlucha, Dark clearly preferred this Popplio.
Although it only had two stars, as one of the starter Pokémon from the Pokémon Sun & Moon series, Popplio possessed enormous evolution potential!
[Popplio → Brionne → Primarina]
Its final evolution, [Primarina], was a Pokémon shaped with a mermaid as its prototype.
And looking at the data panel, Popplio's three-dimensional stats were only mediocre among two-star cards, very similar to a two-star Eevee.
But as a purple card, it had two skills: a passive skill evolved from the hidden ability [Liquid Voice], and the Fairy-type skill [Alluring Voice].
[Liquid Voice: All sound-based moves become Water-type.]
[Alluring Voice: Emits an alluring cry, dealing mental damage to the opponent.]
Each Magic Guide Spirit had its own attribute. Under normal circumstances, when using a finishing move of another attribute, its power would be greatly reduced.
Only by using a finishing move of its own attribute could its full power be unleashed.
[Liquid Voice], like [Magic Beast: Sylveon]'s [Pixilate], was a passive skill that converted other attributes into its own attribute, but [Liquid Voice] had no extra power bonus.
Unfortunately, the sole finishing move [Alluring Voice] didn't have high power.
Even after being converted into a native-type skill, it was nothing special.
Because [Sylveon] also possessed [Alluring Voice], Dark was not unfamiliar with it.
However, [Popplio], without [Charming Body] as a foundation, could not fully unleash the alluring effect of [Alluring Voice].
This had to be said to be a great pity.
...
In Popplio's evolution chain, Popplio and Brionne were purely Water-type, and only the final evolution, [Primarina], possessed an additional Fairy-type attribute!
This meant that Primarina's evolution would very likely use [Lust] series Magic Guide Cards!
But that was already the second stage of evolution.
Before that, Dark needed to figure out how to evolve [Popplio] into [Brionne].
[Pride] series cards were clearly not suitable.
[Lust] series cards had some possibility.
But indeed, [Envy] was the first choice.
Envy symbolizes Mercury, and its attribute tendency is Water, which perfectly aligns with mermaids among the Deadly Sins.
Nevertheless, Dark summoned [Popplio], and then used the three Deadly Sin Cards in turn, treating it as "awakening its intelligence"!
And sure enough.
The first two [Pride] cards had little effect. Although the last [Lust III] card caused some phenomena, it could not promote Popplio's evolution.
Nor did it show the star-ranking increase phenomenon like [Magic Beast: Eevee].
Clearly, [Magic Beast: Eevee] was special, and like [Magic Beast (Ditto)], any type of [Deadly Sin Card] could affect it.
"Momo!"
"Alright, Momo, Momo."
Dark helplessly responded to the 'lust-ified' Popplio, temporarily setting aside the thought of immediately tidying up.
...
Today's experiments concluded here, with considerable gains.
Dark looked back and suddenly realized that in this single day, he had successively alchemized [Curse Cage], [Magic Beast (Ditto)], [Hawlucha], and [Popplio] - a total of four Magic Guide Cards!
It could be said that this day was very fulfilling.
It also counted as an accumulation finally paying off.
With these four Magic Guide Cards, his deck was further perfected.
When he registered for the Dueling Club next year, he would also be able to perform better.
"The remaining unfinished Magic Guide Cards are only [Fusion] and [Zoo]!"
"[Zoo] has a long way to go."
"[Fusion] can be attempted soon. Regardless of success or failure, he must take this step. The materials costing 1500 academic points will be treated as buying experience."
"I just wonder when the senior will be free?"
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