A full quarter of an hour later, the interior of this Magic Guide Card finally stopped reacting.
The layer of light curtain on its surface had completely sunk into the Magic Guide Card, and on the card's face emerged the shape of an eighteen-faced die.
Just as expected, it was a white die engraved with eighteen symbols of different colors.
After Dark reached out and picked up this Magic Guide Card, he injected a wisp of mana.
The information fed back from the Magic Guide Card told him that this Magic Guide Card's name seemed to be... Wishful Die?
[Card Name: Wishful Die]
[Type: Item Card]
[Effect: Roll the die once; based on the attribute symbol that appears, randomly unleash a status-class Ultimate Move of the corresponding attribute.]
"A status-class Ultimate Move?"
Dark's mind stirred, and he immediately used Normal Summoning to summon it forth.
The moment the die came into his hand, there was a faint sense of chill.
He glanced around. Aside from the Drifloon floating above his head, the other Magic Guide Spirits were either lying in their little beds, poking their heads out to peek, or sticking their heads out from the foot of the big bed—rows upon rows of them, utterly delightful.
So he tossed the Wishful Die up into the air right then, chanting the incantation: "Wishful, wishful, follow my wish, quickly show your power!"
That Wishful Die spun in the air, the attribute symbols on its eighteen faces lighting up one after another, white light and black light winding and intertwining, the colored radiance of eighteen hues spinning and glowing, as brilliant and varied as a neon sign.
When it abruptly came to a stop, except for the symbol on the upward-facing side, which remained lit, the symbols on the other faces extinguished one by one.
The attribute that remained at the end was...
"Normal-type?"
Some Normal-type status-class Ultimate Moves immediately surfaced in Dark's mind.
So-called status-class Ultimate Moves generally refer to those Ultimate Moves that cannot directly inflict damage.
The power of this kind of Ultimate Move is all zero—although some status-class Ultimate Moves can indirectly inflict damage on the opponent by applying abnormal statuses.
Status-class Ultimate Moves generally include, but are not limited to, altering the opponent's or one's own stats, applying abnormal statuses or status changes to the opponent, restoring one's own stamina, changing the weather, changing field-type statuses, and removing abnormal statuses from oneself and one's team.
Like Eevee's "Mimic" and Miltank's "[Defense Curl]," these all belong to the category of Normal-type Ultimate Moves.
Once the Wishful Die had settled on its attribute, Dark immediately felt his own mana draining away in great quantity.
This could basically be counted as a characteristic of an "Armament Card," so he wasn't too surprised.
What did surprise him a little was that the Wishful Die, after absorbing a large amount of mana, actually exploded with a "bang" into a puff of smoke!
Looking again, within the smoke there had actually been born a tiny little Magic Guide Spirit!
Although that Magic Guide Spirit was only a palm-sized, blurry form.
Dark still recognized roughly what it was at a glance: "Gengar, or Clefable?"
Right after, an extremely ominous premonition suddenly arose within his heart.
The blurry black shadow within the smoke suddenly turned around, and a beam of white light shot out from within that fog.
Dark only had time to swing his hand up to block before the white light bathed his entire body.
It was only at this moment that, due to this mana's feedback, the name of a status-class Ultimate Move surfaced in his mind—but it was already too late.
—"Minimize"!
By the time Dark reacted, he had already turned into a palm-sized little person.
Although his own strength had not shrunk along with it, but rather had been compressed into his body along with the compression of his form.
The sudden enlargement of the surrounding environment still made him feel panic.
Especially upon seeing one Magic Guide Spirit after another, their large glowing eyes wide open, curiously burrowing out from under the bedding with intense curiosity.
Dark suddenly realized... it was over!
...
"Stop licking, stop licking, if you keep licking I'll be soaked all over!"
With a dark face, Dark endured the tongue assault of the Magic Guide Spirits, secretly swearing in his heart that once he returned to normal, he would absolutely pet every single one of them bald!
...
[Minimize: Shrinks the body, thereby greatly raising one's own evasion rate.]
...
The "Minimize" state did not last too long.
After merely a minute and a half, Dark felt a surge of mana, and then his entire body rapidly enlarged, quickly returning to its original form.
He casually scooped up the Sylveon that had been licking him most fiercely and petted it hard.
"Mi——"
The cries of spring echoed leisurely through the long night.
...
After Dark finished petting, he tossed the Sylveon casually onto the bed.
Then he picked up the "Wishful Die" Magic Guide Card again, input mana, and continued to study it.
After the "Wishful Die" was used once, the card's face turned a grayish-white color.
After that, it needed to be recharged with mana just like a Magic Guide Spirit Card.
Once the mana was fully replenished, one still had to wait a certain amount of time before it could be used again.
This time had to be at least more than half an hour.
Otherwise, it would cause damage to the Magic Guide Card.
The more frequently it was used, the more severe the damage to the Magic Guide Card would be.
"A very interesting Armament Card—it can trigger miracles at critical moments."
Dark looked at it for a long while, then suddenly realized: "Emmm, that said, isn't it actually just a watered-down version of Metronome?"
...
[Metronome: Wave a finger to stimulate one's own brain, randomly selecting one move from all Ultimate Moves and using it.]
...
"But it'll do. Limiting it to status-class Ultimate Moves actually makes it a bit more useful than Metronome."
"At least when it backfires there won't be especially serious consequences. And in a duel match it can add a bit of fun, too."
"Hmm, let me think—do I really want to use it in a duel match?"
"It always feels like I'm courting death, doesn't it?"
"Hahaha."
Since this question was truly far too serious, Dark decided to think about it tomorrow.
He cleaned up the experiment remnants at top speed, made his notes, then used the magic-brain dropper to extract the last drop of "Major Sin" for the month, and burrowed into his blankets.
Tonight, what he extracted was still "Lust."
...
Sunday morning.
Dark was woken by the barking of the Lion Grass.
He opened his eyes, brushed the paw pad off his face, and turned his head to see the Lion Grass going "grr-grr."
Although the stopper in its mouth was still very secure, it still desperately let out sounds through the gaps to voice its protest.
But from the degree of its struggling, one could clearly tell that it no longer had yesterday's frenzy.
Dark's mind stirred, so he flipped open the bedding, walked over to the iron cage, and scratched the Lion Grass's little paw pad—and this front paw of its suddenly retracted with a jerk, though of course it couldn't actually retract.
"Could it really have turned normal? Does 'Major Sin' have this use too?"
Dark thought it over, then pulled out the stopper in its mouth.
But the instant the stopper was pulled out, the Lion Grass started roaring again.
It was just that, even from the sound, one could tell this kind of cry clearly had a bit less of that frenzied vigor.
"Feels workable."
Dark couldn't help revealing a smile, then plugged the stopper back in.
The main reason he didn't immediately undo the Lion Grass's bindings was to protect the tender sprout atop its head.
Next, Dark once again used the magic-brain dropper to draw two points of "Pride" from the Insect Branch, inserted it through the corner of the Lion Grass's mouth, and squeezed the "Pride" inside.
With these two points of "Pride" down its belly, the Lion Grass once again sank into a "half-asleep, half-awake" state.
The feeling it gave was that its brain had also clearly been influenced by "Pride," and was at this moment gradually turning toward the benign, bit by bit.
And the tender sprout atop its head was also developing and budding very normally, gradually growing out a flower bud.
"Looking at it this way, by evening I can probably inject the final two points of 'Pride.'"
"At that time I'll pluck the '[Fruit of Pride],' then depending on the situation use other 'Major Sin' to continue conditioning it—maybe I really can fix up its brain."
Seeing that the handling of this Lion Grass had taken shape, Dark's heart suddenly brightened up.
This daytime, he called on the Magic Guide Spirits to bring along the other four Catnip and take a good stroll in the flower garden outside the Castle, and along the way he deepened his bond a little with that newly arrived Dragon Grass.
These days the home already had five Catnip; just the monthly expenditure on the "Cat Juice" magic potion alone was no small sum, not to mention the time and energy that had to be spent on it.
Fortunately, with Miltank taking on the role of little helper in caring for the Catnip, Dark was able to have such an easy time of it.
...
The Lion Grass's digestion and absorption of "Pride"'s influence was faster than anticipated.
Around dusk, it had already become active again.
After Dark confirmed that it had become even more normal, he injected the final two points of "Pride" into its mouth.
Right after, a few minutes later, atop the head that had been facing downward all along, it bloomed and bore fruit, growing out a dark-gold "[Fruit of Pride]"!
Dark carefully plucked down this somewhat special "[Fruit of Pride]," pondering whether he should immediately begin transmuting a lion-type Magic Guide Spirit—only to suddenly discover that the Lion Grass had frozen up again.
This time, it looked as if it had lost its soul, becoming extremely dull and listless, enough to make one worry.
Fortunately, this dullness did not last too long.
A few minutes later, the Lion Grass's eyes became lively—a lively gaze that, from the time Dark bought it from the Catnip Flower and Wood Shop until now, he had never once seen.
It seemed that its "frenzy," along with the plucking of the "[Fruit of Pride]," had been completely uprooted and utterly vanished.
This phenomenon was truly far too obvious.
So much so that Dark looked back and forth, over and over, between the "[Fruit of Pride]" in his hand and the Lion Grass, and his originally relaxed mood suddenly grew heavy.
"Could it be because, during the process of this '[Fruit of Pride]' growing and developing, it absorbed the factor that caused the Lion Grass's frenzy?"
"Then does this '[Fruit of Pride]' contain a frenzy factor?"
Although Dark thought of this layer, he had no way to corroborate it.
He placed the "[Fruit of Pride]" on the table and tried injecting mana to sense it, but he didn't sense any difference.
"Should I let it out?" It was only when DemiDevimon landed beside him, pointing at the Lion Grass and saying this, that Dark snapped back to his senses.
"Let it out, and take good care of it."
"Roger that!"
DemiDevimon immediately flew onto the iron cage and released the pitiful Lion Grass from inside.
"Meow-meow——"
"Moo-moo——"
"Ying-ying——"
"Roar-roar——"
The other four Catnip, as if welcoming a new companion, carefully gathered around.
The Lion Grass shook its head, then immediately, frolicking, burrowed into the circle of its companions.
The atmosphere in the bedroom gradually grew cheerful.
...
"If it's a blessing it won't be a disaster; if it's a disaster there's no dodging it."
"It's not like I can just leave it unused forever."
"Isn't the purpose of an experiment precisely to verify the truth?"
After half an hour of deliberation, Dark ultimately made his decision.
He immediately began methodically preparing the experiment equipment.
There was still plenty of time tonight, more than enough to transmute one Magic Guide Spirit.
Regarding the experiment about to be conducted, he had already carefully thought it over these past two days.
"The transmutation method is 'Animal species - Light attribute.'"
"The core materials are the '[Fruit of Pride]' and the 'lion fang.'"
"In this kind of transmutation, the Major Sin fruit has always occupied an auxiliary position."
"What needs to be prepared: Spirit Milk Juice, brain-lobe essence water, active egg fluid, Light-type attribute powder..."
"Basically, the transmutation process is the same as when transmuting 'Gatomon.'"
"The preliminary target is the symbol of the sun—Coronamon!"
...
Even though he was already very practiced at this kind of experiment, Dark was still extremely cautious.
When he had transmuted a blank Magic Guide Card to the degree of a half-finished product, he paused for a moment, selected a bottle of powder from among the experiment materials, and temporarily mixed up a bottle of "ink."
That bottle of powder was a key material made from a lion-type monster, dehydrated and then ground.
It contained the lion's factor, and using it to draw the No. 1 Transmutation Circle could better steer the transmutation result toward "lion."
Up to this point, everything had gone very smoothly.
It was just that throughout the experiment process, Dark had been harboring a trace of hidden worry.
The possible "frenzy factor" within the "[Fruit of Pride]" made him uneasy.
"Don't get distracted!"
After soaking the tip of the mana pen in the "lion ink" for several minutes, Dark warned himself not to overthink it, and only after he had completely calmed his heart did he begin drawing the No. 1 Transmutation Circle.
"Awoo!"
The cry the Lion Grass made while frolicking with the other Catnip made him shudder all over, nearly ruining all his prior effort.
Fortunately, the right hand holding the pen remained as steady as a boulder.
After an abrupt finishing stroke, the No. 1 Transmutation Circle was drawn.
According to plan, he activated the No. 1 Transmutation Circle, then added some auxiliary materials like "saliva," and poured the most important fermented juice of the "[Fruit of Pride]" into the transmutation circle to be smelted; last was the lion fang that had been drawn from that treasure chest!
Regarding the quality of this lion fang, Dark actually didn't know much.
It might be of higher quality than the Two-Headed Demon's, or it might be lower.
Many times, we cannot judge the true value of an item from its surface.
But in any case, since the experiment had proceeded to this step, there was no longer any possibility of turning back.
He let go of his hand, letting that lion fang fall into the light circle.
"Beep——"
Ripples spread out circle by circle, as if continuously expanding the possibilities.
This Magic Guide transmutation, at least on the surface, had not failed.
...
Dark waited for the Magic Guide Card to form a light cocoon, and three minutes later cut it open with the mercury knife.
A liquid mixture like mud overflowed from within the light cocoon.
He used tweezers to pinch the Magic Guide Card out from inside, rinsed it, then placed it back onto the wiped-clean tabletop.
Then he looked toward the Magic Guide Card's face.
—It was not "Coronamon."
____
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