"Who'd come knocking at this hour?"
Dark was momentarily distracted, but his hands never stopped their work.
No matter who it was at the door, they'd just have to wait outside for now.
He shut out the disturbance and continued the transmutation.
The inscription of the No. 1 Transmutation Circle had to be done in one continuous breath, with no interruption in the middle.
Moreover, the transmutation circle required for this particular crafting needed a fairly large area, making it all the more difficult to inscribe.
It took him nearly a full minute to finish inscribing this transmutation circle.
Half a meter in diameter, the transmutation circle covered half of the experiment table.
Only after drawing the final stroke did Dark lift his hand, letting out a slight breath of relief.
By now, the knocking still hadn't stopped.
Dark turned his head and saw that Sylveon was already poised at the door, evidently waiting for his instruction.
"Open it."
He gave Sylveon a slight nod.
"Miyo——"
Only then did Sylveon turn around, extend a ribbon feeler, and twist the doorknob open.
As a thread of cold wind blew in from outside, a human voice came from beyond the door.
A pink head poked timidly inside.
Instantly, a full measure of hostility surged onto Sylveon's face!
But even with its brows furrowed, it was still adorable.
Discovering it was Sylveon who had opened the door, Eudora said softly, "Th-thank you, good evening."
"Mii."
Sylveon gave a single reply, then turned and strode back inside with an elegant gait.
"So… may I come in?"
Eudora peered inside, and seeing that no one objected, she slipped in through the gap in the door and shut it behind her.
She walked cautiously into the entryway, her face looking a little ill at ease.
Only after spotting Dark at the experiment table did she muster the courage to say again, "G-good evening."
"Good evening." Dark turned his head. "Is there something you need?"
Eudora lowered her head and said to Dark, "N-no, nothing. Tonight, under Professor Medea's guidance, I made a prophecy."
"A prophecy?" Dark set his work aside for the moment and asked, puzzled, "Didn't Professor Medea tell you not to make prophecies carelessly?"
Eudora hurriedly said, "It's not like that—it's the ordinary kind of prophecy."
As she finished, her face suddenly flushed red, and inexplicably she felt a little happy. Then, pressing her fingertips together, she said in a low voice, "It's like this. I prophesied that tonight you would be in harmony with Saturn."
Dark was somewhat surprised. "Saturn?"
Eudora then said softly, "Mm. If there's some multiple-choice decision you have to make, you can choose Saturn."
Dark's thoughts stirred, and he couldn't help turning his gaze toward the No. 1 Transmutation Circle, which was gradually beginning to shine: "Is this reminding me to use '[Greed]'?"
Eudora stretched her neck out a little and at last noticed the Magic Guide Card and the transmutation circle on the experiment table. She hurriedly covered her mouth and said, "Are you doing a magic guide experiment? Then I… won't disturb you."
With that, she turned to leave.
"Wait."
Dark called her to a halt, revealing a distinct smile: "Thank you."
"Eh?"
Eudora was clearly startled by this sudden expression of gratitude.
But Dark had already waved with a smile and said, "Good night."
Eudora hastily raised her hand and gave a small wave: "Then, good night!"
...
After leaving Dark's dormitory, Eudora leaned against the door, unable to help clutching at her chest.
"That… helped him, right? It definitely helped!"
Amid her delight, she went trotting back to her own dormitory.
...
Meanwhile, inside Room 201, Dark had already collected his thoughts and resumed the experiment.
Of course, there was no way he'd use '[Greed]' simply because Eudora said '[Greed].'
But after careful thought, he finally recalled that Honedge seemed to have the disposition of attaching itself to humans and devouring their life energy, so he too felt that '[Greed]' might be more fitting than '[Pride].'
After that, he checked his reserves.
"'[Greed]' is at 3.5..."
He had originally planned to accumulate '[Greed]' this month and transmute a '[Greed III],' so on the first and second days of March he'd chosen to extract '[Greed].' Now, by sheer fluke, he'd ended up with a bit of a reserve.
"In any case, let's begin!"
No amount of further deliberation would help; only transmutation could reveal the truth.
Dark began his preparations at once.
First he drew out the '[Greed]' from within the Insect Tree, then returned to the experiment table and fully activated the No. 1 Transmutation Circle.
Next, he lifted the "Holy Sword," which had been soaking for half an hour, out of the prepared treatment fluid.
As the primary core of this transmutation, the treatment of the "Holy Sword" was absolutely crucial.
Even though this was merely one of the countless "Holy Swords" running through all of history, refining it down was still very difficult.
Dark thought for a moment, then set it aside for the time being, first adding the other auxiliary materials such as the "saliva."
As the halo of the No. 1 Transmutation Circle flowed like a thick liquid, he then picked up the other, secondary core—the "Shelgon Orb."
After undergoing the "demotion" treatment, this deep-purple orb had its surface glow completely drawn inward, making it look like a marble without the slightest distinctive trait.
But its true power was still deeply contained within.
"From here on, there's no turning back."
After taking a deep breath, Dark placed the "Shelgon Orb" into the transmutation circle.
Then he picked up the mana pen and reached it into the light of the transmutation circle, stirring gently.
As mana was continuously fed in, the "Shelgon Orb" was gradually broken down and absorbed.
Once Dark confirmed that the "Shelgon Orb" had been completely smelted, he picked up the "Holy Sword"!
"Gatomon."
"Coming."
Gatomon immediately leapt down from the cat tree, its paw pads touching the carpet without making the slightest sound.
It strode quickly to the experiment table, stood on tiptoe to take down that bottle of "Spirit Wine" from the table, gave it a slight shake, and twisted off the cap.
At once, a wisp of fruity fragrance wafted out from the bottle's mouth.
Gatomon couldn't help poking out its nose to sniff, and a faint blush appeared on its face.
This "Spirit Wine" really could restore mana quickly, but its potency was clearly not low.
This left it feeling somewhat worried.
But Dark had already placed the "Holy Sword" into the light array radiating from the No. 1 Transmutation Circle.
The moment the sword tip touched it, water-like ripples stirred within the light array.
He held the sword in one hand and the mana rod in the other.
While maintaining the infusion of mana, he sank the "Holy Sword" bit by bit into the light array.
Several minutes later, the hilt of the "Holy Sword" also vanished into the light array.
But even now, the smelting had only just begun!
Dark switched the mana rod from his left hand to his right, increasing the amount of mana being infused.
The light array of the No. 1 Transmutation Circle began to flicker continuously, now strong, now weak, changing frequently.
Whenever the light grew too strong, he weakened the mana; whenever the light grew too weak, he strengthened the mana.
And so it went, back and forth.
After only three minutes, he felt the insufficiency of his mana.
But the moment his expression shifted, Gatomon held the "Spirit Wine" up before him—a straw had even been inserted into the bottle's mouth; truly a most thorough preparation.
Dark immediately bit down on the straw and drew in a little of the wine.
The wine that flowed into his mouth carried a hint of sweet-and-sour, with a taste like apple juice, only more delicate.
Unexpectedly, there was none of that strong, pungent liquor flavor.
Instead, a kind of light, mild sensation flowed toward all four limbs and every part of his body.
His originally slightly-deficient mana suddenly began to recover.
But as the mana recovered, a wave of dizziness, just like having drunk strong liquor, suddenly assailed him!
"I'm drunk!"
Dark abruptly snapped back to his senses.
He immediately widened his eyes, forcing himself to stay sufficiently clear-headed.
The mana that had just shown a trace of disorder instantly steadied once again.
Then came the second mouthful, the third...
Each time his mana dropped below half, he would take a sip of the "Spirit Wine."
After a full hour, half the bottle of "Spirit Wine" had gone down his throat.
Dark's face was now flushed all over as well.
He concentrated with all his might, suppressing the drunkenness deep beyond his cerebral cortex.
There wasn't the slightest moment to spare for thinking.
Only when, through his mana perception, he confirmed that the "Holy Sword" had been completely smelted did he relax a little.
But in the very instant his mind loosened, the drunkenness suddenly surged back up against the current!
The aftereffect of the "Spirit Wine" nearly drowned his consciousness.
Yet almost at the same time.
A transparent form, with only an outline, suddenly charged out from within the light array of that No. 1 Transmutation Circle!
"Haa!"
This abrupt fright instantly yanked his drunkenness-drowned consciousness back out.
He immediately realized that this must be the "soul-consciousness" within the Holy Sword.
In other words, what was commonly called a "sword spirit."
Although this "sword spirit" did not appear to possess complete thought.
It was more like an "evil spirit" instead.
That blurry human outline suddenly threw open both arms and lunged at him, truly like an "evil spirit."
He instinctively tilted backward,
and a mass of dark-green shadow suddenly surged up and scattered that "evil spirit" in an instant!
Dark immediately mustered the mana of his entire body and poured it into the transmutation circle through the mana rod.
The abruptly spinning light array generated a suction, drawing the scattered "evil spirit" back in.
Dark abruptly grabbed the bottle of Spirit Wine and took another sip.
Then he continued pouring in mana.
It wasn't until another quarter of an hour had passed that he regained his composure.
After such a long stretch of smelting, the radiance emitted by the light array of the No. 1 Transmutation Circle had grown steady.
Dark used the magic-brain dropper to draw up 1 point of '[Greed],' carefully dripped it in, and then observed the reaction.
The white light emitted by the transmutation circle visibly brightened a little.
But it wasn't enough yet.
So he continued, picking up the magic guide dropper...
It wasn't until he had dripped in 3 points of '[Greed]' that the light of the transmutation circle abruptly blazed bright!
This made him let out a sudden sigh of relief.
"If that hadn't been enough, I'd have run out!"
...
As the intense light radiating from the No. 1 Transmutation Circle rapidly drew inward, the experiment outwardly returned to calm.
But in truth, the smelting inside the Magic Guide Card was still ongoing.
It was only that the smelting process from here on was no longer something Dark could interfere with.
He calmed his mind and waited quietly, and the drunkenness quietly floated back up.
Within his somewhat hazy field of vision, threads of white light bored out from the Magic Guide Card, wrapping it into a cocoon of light.
Another five minutes passed.
Only then did the mana fluctuations within the cocoon of light gradually slow.
Finally, like a heartbeat, the fluctuations of mana became steady and regular.
Only then did Dark reach out and press his finger upon the cocoon of light, and as always, he infused his own anticipation along with his mana into it.
But this time, the infusion of mana caused the cocoon of light to suddenly tremble.
Then a blade-like beam of white light instantly pierced through the surface of the cocoon, thrusting out about three inches long.
After that, the beam of white light swayed left and right along the cocoon's central line, and just like that, it cleaved the cocoon clean in two from the middle!
As the cocoon of light gradually dispersed into points of mana, the Magic Guide Card that had been wrapped within fell onto the table.
All the outwardly emitted light was drawn into the card, leaving not the slightest movement.
Dark looked with some surprise at the clean, pristine Magic Guide Card on the tabletop, free of any impurity, his gaze naturally focusing on the card's face.
It was a "Honedge" that differed enormously from the appearance he had imagined!
...
A normal Honedge looks like a sword, with a scabbard sheathing the blade. The scabbard is brown, with a pattern on it—a ghost-face-like design.
At the center of the crossguard is a single blue eye.
Tied to the end of the hilt is a long blue ribbon, its tip a pale blue, with finger-like forks that can be used as arms.
In battle it wraps the blue ribbon around the scabbard, baring the blade to fight.
...
However, the Honedge on this card face was in the shape of a short sword—almost identical in form to that "Holy Sword." Although it was fitted with a scabbard, it too was that white tinged with a faint touch of pale purple.
This was completely different from the red of a shiny Honedge as well.
"This trace of purple—does it come from the 'Shelgon Orb' and '[Greed]'?"
Dark pondered briefly, then continued examining.
Besides the changes in the blade's shape and the scabbard's color, the scabbard's design had also become more exquisite. The openwork pattern on it was no longer ghost-face-like, but rather the pattern of a spider lily—the manjusaka flower.
The eye at the center of the crossguard had also shifted toward a blue-tinged blue-purple, but the eye was clearly more slender and elongated, rather than round.
As for the ribbon at the end of the hilt that could be used in place of an arm, like the scabbard, it was that white carrying a faint touch of pale purple, and likewise narrower and longer.
All in all, it looked more refined, taking on a form like a work of art.
This, on the contrary, made Dark knit his brows.
He did not want "Honedge" to lose the essence it was meant to possess because of this.
And so he immediately grabbed that Magic Guide Card, infused mana, and waited for feedback.
Very soon, the information of this "Honedge" flowed into his mind.
...
[Card Name: Honedge]
[Type: Spirit Card]
[Level: ????]
[Species: Undead Species]
[Attribute: Steel-type/Ghost-type]
[Mana: 1500]
[Attack: 2200]
[Defense: 1800]
[Ultimate Move: Weaponization, Chain Slash, Sword Dance, Holy Sword]
...
"It's actually a four-star Magic Guide Card?"
"Honedge has two evolution stages, so I'd assumed it would be a three-star Magic Guide Spirit."
"But as a four-star Magic Guide Spirit, its mana is lower than I expected, its defense value is passable, and its attack power exceeds the top value of a four-star Magic Guide Spirit by a full 200—which does still fit the essence of the 'Holy Sword.'"
"It has four Ultimate Moves, making it a gold card."
"Rather than say it's within expectations, I'd say that if it weren't a gold card, it really would be unworthy of the name 'Holy Sword.'"
"As for the Ultimate Moves themselves... Weaponization?"
Dark suddenly froze.
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