After all, Sylveon and Miltank were refined from the [Fruit of Lust], so their resistance to charm-type skills was actually quite high.
As for why they were mixed in with the group of Magic Guide Spirits just now, and why Sylveon was the first to cling on...
It can only be said that those who know, know; explaining it to those who don't is pointless.
In any case, after the other Magic Guide Spirits had scattered, Sylveon and Miltank were still rubbing against Dark.
Seeing this, Bastemon immediately spread its arms and pounced like a big cat!
"Meow!"
It stretched its limbs in mid-air, its two long tails pulled taut, and the hooked claws on its cat paws popped out instantly.
"Sha!"
Sensing danger, Sylveon and Miltank reacted almost simultaneously in a similar manner.
Sylveon, with extreme agility, hooked onto Dark's neck and swung backward, arriving behind him. It poked its head out from over his shoulder to glare at Bastemon.
Miltank, on the other hand, hid directly behind Dark's legs, peeking half its face out from behind his thigh.
Bastemon's expression froze. Its feet touched the ground, and it came to a sudden, sharp stop, steady and stable... then suddenly 'lost its balance' and flopped toward Dark with a "Meow."
Dark, with a speechless expression, raised his hands just in time to catch its meat pads.
Bastemon had no choice but to stop, blinking its large eyes at him.
In an instant, it transformed from a large carnivorous feline into a mewling little kitten waiting to be fed.
Dark revealed a faint smile: "Nice jump."
Bastemon suddenly turned shy: "It, it was just average..."
Immediately after.
Its body suddenly turned into light. Splitting down the center line of its body, a black fish and a white fish drilled out.
The black fish went left, the white fish went right.
They guided the two Magic Guide Spirits, released from the fusion, to re-condense.
Then, as if their mission was accomplished, the two fish flew back into the [Fusion] card.
Dark glanced at the wall clock in time. With a quick mental calculation, he determined that the duration of the fusion was a little over 14 minutes, not far off from the standard value of 15 minutes.
This showed that his [Fusion] refinement this time was very successful, and the Cooldown (CD) was likely not exceeding the standard value of 60 minutes either.
...
"Meow!"
Regaining its independent consciousness abruptly, Gatomon jumped a large step to the right as if its foot had been stepped on, looking at Black Gatomon with a gaze full of vigilance.
Black Gatomon, on the left, degenerated directly into DemiDevimon after a very short moment!
"Where is this?"
"What happened?"
"Who am I?"
DemiDevimon took the opportunity to lie on the carpet, staring at the ceiling and muttering with a bewildered look.
If Dark didn't know its nature like the back of his hand, he might have actually been fooled.
DemiDevimon was truly nervous at this moment. As a flood of memories from when it was combined into Bastemon returned, it immediately realized it was in an extremely dangerous situation!
Only by feigning amnesia and shifting the blame quickly could it hope to stay safe.
Sure enough.
When they confirmed that DemiDevimon and Gatomon could no longer combine evolve into Bastemon, Sylveon and Miltank, who were hiding behind Dark, slowly walked out.
Especially Sylveon—the look it gave DemiDevimon was like looking at a corpse!
As for Gatomon?
If forced to choose between Gatomon and DemiDevimon, one could trust that anyone would make the same choice.
When picking persimmons, one naturally picks the soft ones to squeeze!
...
"Alright, that's enough."
Dark stepped forward in time to prevent a tragedy.
It was also because of this that he suddenly discovered the internal relations among the Magic Guide Spirits were not as harmonious as they appeared on the surface.
Perhaps ideological and moral education on "Unity is Strength" needed to be put on the agenda sooner rather than later!
However, before that, it was particularly important to record and analyze the results of this experiment as quickly as possible.
Dark took out his notebook and recorded Bastemon's various characteristics one by one.
This included records of the reactions after evolution.
Then there was the significant effect of the Finishing Move, [Confusion]...
By the way.
The effect of this skill disappeared directly after Bastemon degenerated.
It was evident that while the belly dance was an inducement, the main reason for its maintenance was the Finishing Move itself.
Perhaps if practiced to the extreme, even without dancing, a mere frown or smile could charm the mortal world.
Dark wrote down his future visions for this Finishing Move in his notebook.
...
Calculating from the time of Bastemon's degeneration, it wasn't until fifty minutes later that [Fusion] gradually recovered.
However, like Magic Guide Spirit cards, [Fusion] also needed magical energy replenishment.
Counting the nearly fifteen minutes of effect duration, the CD from the start of use was over sixty minutes, probably around sixty-five minutes.
It could only be said to be passable.
...
Research based on Bastemon continued late into the night.
After eating something, Dark endured Gatomon's rejecting gaze and used [Fusion] once more.
He also used forceful commands to stop Bastemon's actions against the Magic Guide Spirits.
Then, with Bastemon's cooperation, he conducted deeper research.
...
That night, after Dark went to sleep, the midnight war suddenly turned white-hot.
But Dark knew nothing of it; instead, he slept more soundly than usual.
After all, he had produced results and refined [Fusion], taking a big step forward.
The only remaining extracurricular goal was [Zoo]!
He still had enough school credits to pay for his research.
Everything was so beautiful.
...
The next day, Monday.
January 8th.
The accumulation of [Pride] had reached 8.5 points.
He only needed to extract another drop of 1.5 points of [Pride] at night to gather enough for refining [Pride III].
After that, he would have to use the remaining quota to lower [Lust].
Dark began to pay attention to moderation.
The mornings of the new week were becoming increasingly cold.
Dark wrapped himself up tightly with a scarf, gloves, and hat before daring to go out for his morning run, but his nose was still frozen red when he returned.
However, habits persisted until now were hard to give up.
After returning to the dormitory, he hurriedly downed half a cup of hot milk. Heat instantly flowed through his body, filling him with vitality.
Immediately after, he pulled out today's copy of the Great Sage Daily from DemiDevimon's exclusive vegetable basket as usual.
Although he had expressed multiple times that he wanted to switch to a morning paper, he ultimately chose to succumb to the temptation.
As the kingdom's leading newspaper, the Great Sage Daily was incomparable to other newspapers in terms of detail and news breadth.
From it, one could not only deduce the general situation of the kingdom but also acquire a lot of interesting knowledge.
He put down the newspaper after finishing breakfast and closed his eyes to think for a moment.
The incident at Bastia Prison did not stop just because the First Princess's faction gave up pursuing it.
The effect of information control only lasted for a little over a week.
Last weekend, a huge scoop suddenly exploded!
Someone saw a war criminal, who was supposed to be imprisoned in Bastia Prison, in the XXXX region of the kingdom!
Media reporters instantly pounced on it like big dogs catching the scent of meat.
The Great Sage Daily naturally did not want to fall behind; most of today's pages were reports regarding this matter.
Although the ultimate authenticity of the event could not be confirmed because there were only two witnesses.
But the media certainly didn't care about that.
Since it wasn't finally confirmed, they would just slap on labels like "possibly," "probably," "high probability," and so on.
At the end of the article, a well-known columnist even directly questioned the Holy Church, asking why no one had come forward to explain until now!
Of course, how the Holy Church would investigate, collect evidence, and then explain was a matter for later.
If fast, perhaps a relevant statement would be seen in the Great Sage Daily in a day or two.
Perhaps after the statement was released, public opinion could be stifled for a long time again.
But after reading it, Dark always felt this was one of the signs that chaos was about to rise.
...
He pondered carefully, faintly feeling a vague sense that the development of events had formed an outline, but when he thought deeper, he couldn't grasp anything.
But as a first-year student whose main job was spectating drama and side job was studying, he wasn't that prone to unfounded worries.
"It's about time to prepare for class."
Changing his clothes and putting on his schoolbag, he instructed the Magic Guide Spirits not to be lazy.
Dark then walked out of the Noble House tower.
Monday's first class was Professor Sarah's Summoning class.
The explanation of Summoning for first-year students was mainly focused on Normal Summoning and Sacrifice Summoning.
Although Dark had compressed his Normal Summoning to near the limit relying on the high talent of the Demon God bloodline and abundant practice.
But that was completely an isolated case.
For ordinary students, wanting to compress the Normal Summoning time to the limit of three seconds required mastering a massive amount of knowledge and techniques.
As for Sacrifice Summoning, the knowledge and techniques contained within were even more profound.
Dark's current mastery of Sacrifice Summoning was still far from enough. The knowledge and techniques taught by Professor Sarah, some of which were not in the textbooks, benefited him greatly.
And the second class afterward was Professor Kazel's Magic Theory!
What surprised Dark exceptionally was that this session of Magic Theory was actually about "Remote Conduction and Control of Magic Power"!
In other words, the technique of remotely controlling the Magic Orb!
This kind of knowledge, which was supposed to be taught only in the second year, was pulled to the beginning of the second semester of the first year, making the little magisters excited.
"First, let's congratulate the seven students who successfully joined the Dueling Club."
Professor Kazel stood on the teaching stool waving his wand. Sparks bursting occasionally from the tip of the wand attracted the attention of the little magisters.
He looked down at the podium. The students of Knight House and Noble House were the more outstanding branches among this year's first-years.
The two houses each had three students who successfully passed the Dueling Club's assessment.
"Noble House: Dark, Diana, Doron."
"Knight House: Emma, Virt, Justin."
"Now, I invite the above six students to come to the stage to assist with the teaching."
Professor Kazel's wand pointed them out one by one, and a flower of flame lit up above each student's head.
As a remnant alchemy master of the old era, Professor Kazel's attainments in magic were also very deep.
Dark reached out and touched the top of his head, feeling only a trace of heat slightly higher than body temperature.
Under the illumination of that flame, even his body felt much warmer.
"Is this also magic?"
Some magic sometimes looked more convenient than magitech.
But Dark didn't think that way. He still had some one-sided understanding of the nature of magic.
He knew that for this stuff, learning even a single Fireball spell would consume several years of a normal person's energy.
Only those who were truly remarkably gifted and knowledgeable could set foot in the field of magic.
In comparison, magitech was the pioneer of the new era.
He put down his textbook and walked from the aisle toward the podium.
The other five students also stepped out one after another.
Before long, six students were standing on the podium.
The six most outstanding students in dueling from Noble House and Knight House were all present.
Dark stood in the first spot. Blonde hair and blue eyes, fair skin, exquisite features, without a single flaw.
Judging solely by appearance, he felt even more like the "Prince in a fairy tale" than First Prince Charles.
But if judging by temperament... he was even more like one!
The elegance and bearing of a high-ranking noble were displayed vividly on him.
After a semester of getting along, no one could recall his persona as a villainous young master anymore.
He was undoubtedly the benchmark for nobles, a model in the eyes of teachers and students.
Beside him, the silver-haired Diana had developed slightly compared to when school just started. Her chin had a little point to it, but compared to her peers, she was still short. Combined with her carefree innocence and artlessness, she was as cute as a porcelain doll.
Further to the side.
The brown-haired Doron was like a budget version of Dark. He always wore the word "Pride" on his face, taking the "demeanor" of old-era nobles as his guide, but he personally had a personality that warmed up to people instantly. Not only did he put on no airs, but he was also quite sentimental.
As for the Knight House side.
Emma stood in the first spot.
Whether in grades or dueling strength, she was the number one of Knight House.
Compared to her lack of grooming when school just started, she had now been influenced by her close friends and upperclassman seniors, gradually learning to manage her hair and apply light makeup.
No longer having messy hair, she covered some small freckles with makeup, looking more and more like an exquisite young girl.
In old impressions, literary girls always gave a gloomy feeling of bangs covering their eyes, but in reality, as long as they dressed up a little, that self-restraint and intelligence revealed from the inside out would always be more fascinating than a superficial skin.
After Emma was Justin Wayne.
This Knight House student had the appearance and temperament most consistent with the word "Knight." A sunshine-like smile always hung on his lips, making people feel as if bathing in a spring breeze.
His Knight-series Magic Guide Cards were also very eye-catching; he was a steady and solid student.
Finally, there was the Son of the Hero—Virt Gold.
The black-haired Virt had a gentle temperament that made people unable to resist getting close to him—if he just stood there and did nothing.
Among the seven students in the first year, he barely crossed the line with the lowest score. The foundation he hadn't laid well made his subsequent studies struggle with every step.
But the bonus of talent might be able to make up for some of it.
If one added the Magic House student who wasn't here—Sarah Swati—that would be the current lineup of the most excellent duelists among the first-years.
...
Professor Kazel looked at this batch of students with some relief.
Today's class was opened specifically for them.
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