The transmutation of "Honedge" was extremely significant to Dark's growth in strength.
Although the maximum attack power it could reach in Gatomon's hands might still not match Miltank, the "Triple Slash" was clearly easier to land than "Five-Roll."
Therefore, its versatility was definitely a fair bit higher.
And it also had strong growth potential.
Not only could it evolve itself, but Gatomon could evolve too!
Bastemon, formed from the fusion evolution of Gatomon and Black Gatomon, very likely did not possess Hero aptitude, but if it could be made to evolve into Angewomon, it would most likely have Hero aptitude.
And if Gatomon could learn some swordsmanship from Alvit, then...
In any case, Dark held great expectations for the futures of both "Honedge" and "Gatomon."
...
"Alright, go get acquainted with the family."
Dark patted "Honedge," which had recovered from its "Lust" state, and entrusted it to Gatomon.
A Hero paired with a Holy Sword—these two Magic Guide Spirits were destined to become the most inseparable of partners.
Gatomon, secretly delighted, extended its hand, and Honedge's ribbon—which split into fingers like a hand—wrapped around its wrist.
This habit was actually somewhat similar to Sylveon's.
But Gatomon suddenly frowned and said, "You're absorbing this meow's mana?"
"Sword?"
Honedge made a sound, expressing confusion.
Gatomon ignored it and simply turned to look at Dark, who was tidying up the experiment table.
Dark slapped his forehead and said, "I almost forgot—Honedge really does have the habit of attaching itself to people to drain their energy. After all, it possesses the Ghost attribute too, the same species as Drifloon."
"Yao-mi——" Drifloon floated up before him like a balloon, ceaselessly shaking its head.
Dark helplessly patted its head and said, "Yes, yes, yes, I know what you absorb is fear."
Then he turned back to Honedge and said, "Honedge, you're not allowed to absorb Gatomon's mana!"
"Sword..."
Honedge instantly became a little dejected.
It generally hadn't yet realized whether this behavior was good or bad—probably it just treated it like breathing.
Add to that the influence of "Greed," and its craving for the things it wanted would be a fair bit stronger than usual.
But its master's command had to be obeyed.
Although Honedge was disappointed, it still reluctantly withdrew its ribbon.
But at this moment, Gatomon suddenly grabbed its ribbon, then frowned and said, "Absorbing is fine, but you have to get my permission."
"Sword-sword?" Honedge instantly perked up and turned to look at Dark.
Dark looked at Gatomon with some surprise, waiting for its explanation.
Gatomon said concisely, "'[Paradise]' is enough to supply the energy it needs."
Meaning, Honedge could replenish its own mana consumption by absorbing Gatomon's mana.
In that case, even if Honedge wasn't in "[Paradise]"'s records, it could remain outside indefinitely.
Rather than being like Meowth and Drifloon, who—once Dark fell asleep or was away from the dormitory—had to be recalled into their Magic Guide Cards.
"That's actually a good idea," Dark said approvingly.
"In that case, I'll leave the care of Honedge to you."
Although he immediately realized that Gatomon was trying to turn Honedge completely into its own mana color.
But he was actually happy to see it happen.
...
By the time everything was settled, it was already one in the morning.
Dark did nothing else; he burrowed into his blankets and quickly fell asleep.
The next morning, he rarely slept in a bit, and casually ditched his morning exercise.
A new week had arrived.
After Monday's classes ended, Dark, full of purpose, came to the Library.
More than half of the materials he had on hand still hadn't been converted into combat power.
The one he cared about most was the Living Metal.
But according to his plan, he intended to find a way to transmute a special armament only after the secret passage reopened.
Before that, the goal was to obtain a gate card and to accumulate enough of the knowledge required for transmutation.
Besides that, that Bloodthirsty Giant Axe... had already been given to Meowth as a substitute for the "Shelgon Orb."
In fact, Dark hadn't yet learned how to convert a Magic Tool into an Item Card, so he decided to keep it in Meowth's hands for now.
Whenever he learned how, he could just swap it back.
What remained were the lion fang, the Magic Crystal Coin, and the eighteen-faced crystal.
The lion fang was earmarked for transmuting a lion-type Magic Guide Spirit, while he still had no clue what to do with the Magic Crystal Coin.
And the only thing he could start transmuting at the moment was the eighteen-faced crystal.
Dark's initial idea was to transmute it into a die possessing eighteen attributes; as for what the final product would be, it didn't matter.
According to Alvit's Tri-Armed Armament Transmutation Method, only an armament made with one's own hands could be used for the transmutation.
So Dark wanted to try making a high-grade armament, the better to accumulate some experience for his later use of the Living Metal.
"First, find the magic symbols representing the eighteen attributes."
"Then select eighteen kinds of attribute materials that can be used to engrave the symbols."
"And finally..."
After spending the better part of half a day, Dark finally found a copy of "Attribute Symbols Explained" within the Library.
He set everything else aside for the time being and devoted his full effort to studying this "Attribute Symbols Explained."
Taking three days, he finally gained a certain degree of understanding of the twenty attribute symbols—including Light and Dark—and the meanings they represented.
Although his understanding wasn't deep enough, this was as far as he could go.
During this period, he kept finding time to carve woodwork, and as his proficiency rose, his carving speed grew faster and faster.
On Thursday night, he spent a great deal of time transmuting all the woodcarvings into armaments.
Although they were all armaments only on the same level as the "Moonlight Skirt," they were very helpful for raising his proficiency in armament transmutation.
Out of thirteen Magic Guide Spirits in total, aside from Sylveon and Gatomon, who already had armaments, he still needed to transmute eleven.
After all, he couldn't play favorites.
Dark racked his brains and finally transmuted these eleven woodcarvings into armaments.
Among them, the one belonging to Meowth was a small shield it had carved itself; unfortunately, the little hole in the center meant for holding the "Shelgon Orb" could only be filled with a Magic Crystal Coin, and although the final product reached the level of a "White Fish Hat," it could only be used as a toy.
But from the look of it, Meowth was clearly very happy and pleased with itself.
And so Dark grew happy too.
These eleven woodcarving armaments cost a total of 1.3 points of Major Sin.
Of which "Pride" was 0.8 points, "Lust" 0.3 points, and "Greed" 0.2 points.
Adding in the two extractions of "Pride" and two of "Greed" over these four nights.
His remaining reserves were:
[Pride]: 8;
[Lust]: 0;
[Greed]: 3;
...
Although Dark was full of craving for "[Greed III]," after careful calculation he found that no matter what, he wouldn't be able to gather the 10 points of "Greed" needed to transmute a "[Greed III]" this month.
So he decided to first accumulate "Pride" to above 7 points, and afterward accumulate "Greed."
This way, he had already extracted eight times this month, leaving only two extractions' worth of quota.
But in fact, Dark's Major Sin index had already reached a situation of supply falling short of demand.
"Pride" had only 96 points left.
"Greed" had long since dropped to the baseline of 95—and that was only because during this period "Greed" had grown by a full 3 points!
For the remaining two days, if he wanted to keep extracting "Greed," he'd need to find a way to raise the "Greed" metric.
But sometimes, deliberately trying to do so made it harder to achieve.
As his mastery of "Major Sin" grew ever deeper, the occasions of a "+1" at every turn became fewer and fewer.
Dark couldn't help falling into deep thought.
What greed did he still need now?
Greed for money and wealth?
Don't make me laugh.
Then, greed for fame, fortune, and power?
Haha...
After finding the method to make use of "Major Sin," even his greed for "drawing out the Demon God bloodline" was gradually fading.
Sometimes, looking at his own babies, he'd even start to think, "the Demon God bloodline isn't so bad after all."
As for greed for knowledge.
That actually required some stimulation.
Thinking it over carefully.
Sure enough, the desire for victory was the easiest to spark!
"Then let's set the championship of the Easter Dueling Festival as the goal."
...
March 9th, Friday, afternoon.
Dark once again came to Traveler Street.
He had quite a lot to buy this afternoon.
Besides the eighteen kinds of attribute materials needed to transmute the eighteen-faced die, he also had to buy materials for making chocolate.
He hadn't forgotten White Valentine's Day on March 14th.
There was still half a bottle of Spirit Wine left at home, just right for making liqueur chocolates.
It was just that there were quite a few people he needed to give return gifts to—counting carefully, at least five people and ten Magic Guide Spirits.
That meant he needed a full fifteen portions!
Using the Spirit Wine sparingly, it could be divided into five portions.
As for the ten portions for the Magic Guide Spirits, perhaps using Cow Grass juice to make milk chocolate would be a good idea.
In any case, when the time came, he'd still need the Magic Guide Spirits who had experience once before to teach him.
Whenever he recalled that the Magic Guide Spirits had actually known to give him chocolate on Valentine's Day, February 14th, his mood grew ever more delighted.
"I just have a feeling something good is going to happen today."
Thinking this, Dark stepped into the Catnip Flower and Wood Shop before buying his materials.
Today's Miss Cat was as plain and serene as ever, looking all the more gentle amid the throng of cats.
"Good afternoon, Miss Cat," Dark said, speaking up first.
Miss Cat set down the Catnip she was holding in her arms and rose, saying, "Good afternoon, Demon. I thought you'd be coming tomorrow."
Dark: "I happened to have time."
Miss Cat smiled and said, "Alright then, did you bring the authorization letter?"
Dark turned, set down his backpack, took out an authorization letter, and handed it over.
"Let me see." Miss Cat took the authorization letter, opened it, and examined it carefully. "The signature is... Lily Laplace. Is she a professor in your Arithmetic Class?"
Dark nodded and said, "Yes. Can you take me to see that little lion now?"
"Of course." Miss Cat folded the authorization letter, tucked it into her pocket, and turned to walk toward her secret room.
This time Dark didn't follow her in; he just petted the cats outside for a while.
Before long, Miss Cat came out carrying an iron cage covered with a coarse cloth.
The cage swayed surprisingly much, with a continuous low growl coming from inside.
Seeing Dark look over, Miss Cat revealed a bashful smile: "It's a bit fierce."
Dark gave a dry laugh, finally understanding just how serious the so-called "bad habit of biting people" really was.
This Lion Grass probably "bit anyone it saw," right?
If it were kept in his room, wouldn't it tear the place apart in the blink of an eye?
Huskies, dopey huskies, the runaway-the-instant-you-let-go types, the show-offs-the-moment-people-are-around—none of them could even compare.
"If this Lion Grass is really used to cultivate Major Sin fruit, there won't be any problems, will there?"
Dark couldn't help feeling a trace of hidden worry.
"If I used the Major Sin fruit cultivated by it to transmute a Magic Guide Spirit, and ended up transmuting something like a Numemon or a Sukamon..."
...
Steadying himself, Dark bent down and lifted away the coarse cloth covering the iron cage.
The Lion Grass locked in the cage wasn't big; it looked like a lion cub, with no mane.
When the light shone into the cage and the figure of a stranger appeared in its eyes.
This Lion Grass abruptly bared its teeth and let out a frenzied low bark at Dark.
Its appearance looked exactly like a vicious dog with rabies.
"Be careful, don't get bitten," Miss Cat hurriedly reminded him.
Dark reckoned that if he got bitten, he might really catch rabies, so he nodded right away and grew even more careful.
After observing for quite a while, he finally fished out a "Happy Card" and used it on this Lion Grass.
But the Lion Grass that was hit by the "Happy Card" did not quiet down as he had expected, which left him silent.
Miss Cat said, "It's no use. Its problem lies in the simulation of its brain—it has no emotion receptors, so emotion cards won't have any effect on it."
"That makes things difficult."
Dark pondered, "If this problem can't be solved, there's no way I can keep a pet at home that bites anyone it sees. Is improving this Lion Grass really this difficult?"
Miss Cat shrugged: "Mainly, we can't find a breakthrough point. You know how it is—creative techniques all need a steady stream of inspiration to support them."
"Then I..."
Dark couldn't help frowning.
In fact, he had considered just taking this Lion Grass back, using it once, and then returning it to the factory.
But if he sent it back for repairs after cultivating Major Sin fruit with it, it could very likely expose his secret.
This was obviously rather unwise.
But if he used it and then discarded it...
He wasn't the type to love and abandon, either.
"Let me try again."
Dark took a deep breath and took out another "Pride I."
If "Pride I" also couldn't suppress this Lion Grass's ferocity, then he'd have no choice but to give up for now.
"In the name of Dark Demon, Magic Guide Summon!"
As the Normal Summoning completed, a dark-gold orb of light flew out from the card's face and plunged straight into the Lion Grass's head.
In that instant, the Lion Grass's frenzied barking and clawing at the iron cage abruptly stopped.
Its whole body seemed to freeze; only after a long while did it roll its eyes and let out a suppressed low bark.
Although it hadn't stopped its cries, it was clearly holding back.
The "hiss-hiss" sounds leaking from the corners of its mouth were still acceptable.
"Is this also an emotion card?" Miss Cat couldn't help exclaiming in astonishment.
"More or less," Dark replied offhandedly, the knot in his heart gradually loosening. "How many credits is this Lion Grass?"
Miss Cat thought for a moment and gestured a number: "88."
An ordinary pot of Catnip only cost fifty credits, so eighty-eight for this pot of Lion Grass was quite reasonable.
But Miss Cat immediately added, "Just like the Cow Grass, the Cat Juice it requires is also a dedicated magic potion, 30 credits a bottle. Of course, we also provide after-sales service, with a three-month warranty..."
____
________________________________________
If you want more chapters, please consider supporting my page on (P). with 50 advanced chapters available on (P)
👻 Join the crew by searching Leanzin on (P). You know the spot! 😉