Chapter 202: Dark Demon’s Paradise (4k)
“But you must remember, you cannot use it in any event-related projects.”
“After all, the school does not allow us to give out mana spirit cards for free to students, even if they are unfinished…”
“Though it’s not completely free either.”
As Dark clearly read these two lines, Altair’s frown finally relaxed.
As essential members of the academy, the professors had far more power than what was visible on the surface at St. Maryan.
Arbitrary point deductions or additions were akin to arbitrary fines or printing money.
While they did have their own set of rules to follow, their freedom was still considerable.
Thus, selecting new professors was always a troublesome process.
Claire did not show any intention of staying on this time, so Principal Altair had to look for a new professor again.
If no suitable candidate could be found, she would have to beg Claire again, albeit with a thick skin.
Now, Claire seemed to be a good choice.
Altair felt very satisfied.
With a smile spreading across her face, her body turned into light and reverted to the form of a griffin fairy.
“Good night, Demon.”
The principal’s voice coming from the little griffin made it feel particularly strange.
Dark thought for a moment and said, “Good night, Principal.”
Then the two small fairies fluttered their wings and slowly flew away.
Dark let out a sigh of relief.
Principal Altair herself was a source of pressure, and he couldn’t fully relax.
But now, he could more freely research this gift from Claire!
…
From the words, he guessed that the mana spirit card given by Claire was most likely the “Zoo” card!
This was a huge surprise for Dark.
Given his current learning progress, even excluding material costs, mastering the “Zoo” spell would take until after summer vacation.
Originally, he planned to make the “Zoo” as soon as possible and then challenge it under Claire’s guidance during the summer.
If he could get it earlier, it would not only help with his studies but also significantly aid in the early formation of “bonds”!
Of course, assuming it really was the “Zoo” card!
…
Dark flipped the Christmas card to its back.
The first line read: “Shh, Altair probably thinks this is the ‘Zoo’! Don’t tell anyone.”
…
“Uh…”
At this moment, Dark’s face twisted.
If it wasn’t the “Zoo,” then what else could it be?
He raised his head and looked in the direction the two fairies had flown, instinctively closing the window and drawing the curtains before continuing to read.
Press your thumb on the fingerprint at the bottom right corner of the Christmas card, inject mana, and you will know how to complete the unfinished mana spirit card.
Once you succeed, you will know what it is.
Of course…
If you fail…
It’s better not to know.
?‘ω’? [Cat sighing.jpg]
Dark frowned and looked up at the wall clock.
“It’s eleven o’clock, but I didn’t use much brainpower today, so I feel okay.”
Even for him, it was impossible to wait until morning.
He quickly found the fingerprint at the bottom right corner of the Christmas card.
When he pressed his thumb on it, there was a sense of “fingerprint unlocking.”
Anyway, after injecting a bit of mana, information came back to him.
He read the information, picked up a pen and paper, and jotted down notes quickly.
The unfinished mana spirit card was far more advanced than the previously activated incomplete changing card “Night Costume Mask Set,” even more complex than the academy card.
Claire had completed almost all the steps and left only two final steps: inputting personal information and the final activation.
The technique was exquisite, bordering on perfection.
Dark wrote down the detailed methods for the two steps, drank the apple juice on the table, and as his mind cleared, he started reading and understanding repeatedly.
This took about half an hour.
Then, using the “Technique of the Shadow God,” he cleared his thoughts and began the final completion of the mana spirit card!
“First, you need to draw a spell circle with mana on your fingertip!”
This was a highly sophisticated method of imprinting.
Ordinarily, one would use a mana pen to draw the spell circle on the mana spirit card, but this method involved directly drawing the spell circle on the fingertip and then pressing it onto the mana spirit card like a stamp!
This required extremely precise control of mana.
Dark had practiced the “Zoo” spell and was already quite proficient.
But this was just the foundation.
After successfully imprinting the spell circle in the correct position on the mana spirit card, the next crucial step was to input personal information!
…
The higher the quality of the mana spirit card, the more personalized it became.
Factors such as the mage’s thoughts, mana, and soul would cause different changes in the mana spirit card. Comprehensive adjustments would result in the card being usable only by the mage themselves.
At this level, even without a “thought lock,” the card could not be used by others.
A “thought lock” was essentially a “soul and thought imprint,” a binding measure often used to protect mana spirit cards from being stolen or misused.
Unlike a “thought lock,” which can be unlocked, a highly personalized mana spirit card has no lock to unlock and can only be used by the owner!
…
The information left by Claire included over a hundred questions to be answered.
These questions needed to be answered instantly while maintaining the state of pressing the spell circle into the mana spirit card to reduce thinking time.
All questions were straightforward and only required conceptual answers, not right or wrong ones.
For example, “What does your ideal paradise look like?”
As long as you imagined it in your mind, it counted as passing.
…
Even so, the entire process was mentally exhausting.
By the time Dark completed this step, he was drenched in sweat!
He released his grip, seeing numerous glowing spell circles appear on the mana spirit card, expanding and contracting continuously, indicating that the unfinished mana spirit card had been correctly activated.
However, he still needed to continue injecting mana and finely adjust each spell circle.
Although he had learned these things from Claire’s after-school lessons, he lacked practical experience.
So everything had to be done carefully, carefully, and carefully.
But Claire had clearly assessed his capabilities before giving him this unfinished mana spirit card as a gift.
Therefore, he didn’t make any major mistakes and completed the first step relatively perfectly.
The mana spirit card that accepted his mental input then underwent dramatic changes!
In short, it gradually transformed into his shape!
Unfinished mana spirit cards were far more difficult to create than regular mana spirit cards.
Moreover, this particular mana spirit card had reached the limit in terms of difficulty.
The deeper Dark went, the more astonished he became, doubting whether he could possess such abilities before graduation.
Claire truly deserved the title of “Sage of Beasts”!
…
The second step was the final activation.
In this step, he did not need to add materials or inscribe the activation array—those steps were already completed.
According to Claire’s message, this unfinished mana spirit card had a program set to automatically activate after activation.
So in this step, he only needed to place the mana spirit card he personally created around the newly appearing spell circles!
The unfinished mana spirit card would gather information from numerous mana spirit cards to perfect itself and ultimately complete the final product.
Dark was ready.
The previous spells had already integrated into the mana spirit card after the first step.
This time, he used the mana pen to tap the card surface, and with the influx of mana, dozens of spell circles instantly emerged, forming a circular pattern centered on the mana spirit card!
Dark first placed a card for the magical beast “Eevee” on a gray spell circle representing general attributes of bird-beast types.
Then he placed a “Trash Slime” card on a green spell circle representing plant-type grass attributes.
Next was the insect-type rock attribute “Huhu”;
the bird-beast type light attribute “Deoxys”;
the bird-beast type general attribute “Big Milk Jar”;
the bird-beast type fairy attribute “Fairy Eevee”;
the elemental type general attribute “Magical Beast: Ditto”;
the bird-beast type fighting/flying attribute “Wrestler Eagle”;
the bird-beast type water attribute “Piplup”;
and finally, the demon type dark attribute “[Curse Cage: Imp]!”
Ten mana spirit cards in total.
After placing these ten mana spirit cards on the ten spell circles, Dark used the mana pen to mark off the remaining spell circles, then triggered the subsequent processes.
The ten spell circles began rotating individually, starting to revolve around the unfinished mana spirit card.
They formed a galaxy-like diagram!
…
The experiment progressed to this point, and Dark developed an unusually intense anticipation for this unfinished mana spirit card.
What kind of mana spirit card required collecting such vast amounts of information for the final completion?
It appeared similar to the “Zoo” spell creation process.
But the “Zoo” clearly didn’t require such a complex procedure.
While the “information collection” step seemed simple, the core of this mana spirit card lay in how to handle the collected information…
Where exactly would it use this information?
But worrying wouldn’t help.
At this point, all he could do was wait!
…
Time ticked by.
The mana spirit card continued to operate autonomously, even making people suspect it might be stuck!
Dark struggled to keep his eager hands still and continued waiting.
Until after midnight.
Suddenly, a spell circle was retracted!
The ten mana spirit cards scattered across the table.
“Is it over?”
Just when Dark thought the final activation was complete, new spell circles appeared on the mana spirit card’s surface!
On the self-rotating spell circles, landscapes and modern amusement park facilities appeared, such as Ferris wheels, haunted houses, roller coasters, carousels, bumper cars, and rapids rides…
But eventually, these images disappeared, leaving only an empty fountain plaza on the spell circles.
Finally, even the fountain vanished!
The spell circle rapidly contracted.
The unfinished mana spirit card emitted a final burst of intense light before settling down.
Completion successful!
…
After holding back for two minutes, Dark couldn’t hide his excitement and picked it up.
The mana spirit card’s surface had formed an image of a paradise with a giant Ferris wheel in the background and a carousel in the foreground!
The quiet and peaceful paradise was illuminated by dim neon lights.
The carousel, decorated with colorful lights, slowly rotated to the sound of silent music.
The Ferris wheel in the background sank into the night sky, with only half of it still lit.
Further in the background, there were undulating mountain ranges.
Injecting mana instantly brought a massive amount of information back to him.
Dark was momentarily stunned.
This was indeed a field card.
And not just any field card, but an upper-level card built on top of the “Zoo”—a “Paradise”!
Claire named this field card “Paradise,” which she created through years of exploration.
Claire’s own “Paradise” contained elements like grasslands, forests, mountains, canyons, and lakes, making it a unique natural paradise.
However, Dark’s completed “Paradise” was themed around an amusement park.
More astonishingly, this “Paradise” was still evolving!
After creation, including the initial information collection, it had seven opportunities to input and adjust information!
That meant six more chances remained.
This meant the “Paradise” was still in version 1.0 and could evolve to versions 2.0, 3.0, and up to 7.0!
…
Given Dark’s current knowledge, he couldn’t even begin to imagine how Claire managed to achieve this.
“Is this the hero who has been praised since the wartime era?”
Dark gained a deeper understanding of the strength of heroes.
He glanced at his bedroom, where he unfolded the “Paradise”!
Field cards generally had two ways of unfolding: fully or partially.
The mana stored in a field card by a mage usually lasted only about three minutes.
Afterwards, the mage needed to continually inject mana!
Naturally, partially unfolding consumed much less mana.
Of course, some field cards, like Claire’s “Zoo,” could form energy cycles with the bird-beast type mana spirits within and absorb external energy for self-sustenance—a “energy-saving mechanism.”
Dark’s “Paradise” was of this type.
A single unfolding could last over thirty minutes.
Continuing to inject a certain amount of mana after unfolding would allow it to sustain for twenty-four hours easily.
And like the “Zoo,” it could also support the long-term survival of mana spirits that formed energy cycles.
Only mana spirits with recorded information could form energy cycles with the “Paradise” field.
As Dark partially unfolded the “Paradise,” the light from the mana spirit card illuminated the entire bedroom, and a carousel appeared in the empty space beside the bed.
“Miaow miaow miaow?”
“Ying ying ying?”
“Moo!”
“Miaow miaow miaow?”
“Oink oink oink?”
“Meow meow?”
