Chapter 532: Dark Demon and the Divine Fresco (4k)
The basic mana recovery rate provided by “Paradise 2.0” was 20 points per second.
At this moment, the mana recovery rate of the “Mana Book” was 22 points per second.
This meant that the fragrance of the healing flower only provided an additional 2 points per second for mana recovery.
“Isn’t this too little?”
Dark frowned.
“Little Imp Beast.”
“Yes!”
“Small dart.”
Following Dark’s instructions, the Little Imp Beast immediately shot a syringe with a shark head at an empty spot, reducing its own mana by fifty points.
However, in the next second, Dark noticed that the Little Imp Beast had recovered 21 points of mana!
“The mana recovery rate of the ‘Mana Book’ is 22 points per second, and the ‘Little Imp Beast’s’ is 21 points per second… Could it be…”
After making this guess, Dark immediately had other Mana Elves participate in the experiment.
Afterward, his frown eased as he gained a more detailed understanding of the mana recovery rate provided by the fragrance of the healing flower.
“The star level of the ‘Mana Book’ is two, and the ‘Little Imp Beast’s’ is one… This means that the fragrance of the healing flower can provide Mana Elves under the ‘Paradise’ attribute with an additional mana recovery rate equal to their star level.”
“Although it slightly deviates from what we expected, the extra increase exactly matches the natural consumption of the Mana Elves.”
“This means that as long as they stay within the range of the healing flower’s fragrance and do not misuse their mana, Mana Elves can sustain themselves indefinitely.”
Dark could not help but smile.
At least his initial choice of the “healing flower” as the core material had indeed been achieved.
Next was the trial of another additional effect of “Paradise 2.0.”
Yes, apart from the “fragrance treatment,” this upgraded “Paradise” Mana Card also had another effect!
Dark could not help but look up at the “round moon” above the “night sky.”
In fact, when he first saw the round moon on the Mana Card, he had already made some guesses, and now he was just further confirming them.
[Card Name: Paradise]
[Type: Field Card]
[Effect 1: In Paradise, all Mana Elves under the Paradise attribute will receive a mana recovery rate of 20 points per second.]
[Effect 2: In Paradise, for every additional Mana Elf under the Paradise attribute, attack and defense +100]
[Effect 3: In Paradise, the summoning time for Mana Elves under the Paradise attribute -1 second]
[Effect 4: Passive ability “Fragrance Treatment”]
[Effect 5: Passive ability “Blissful Moon”]
Although he did not know the specific effect of the passive ability “Blissful Moon,” just from its name, it was clear that it was related to the “Bliss” attribute.
The continuous information input, especially this second refinement, seemed to gradually shape the “Paradise” according to him.
Among the twenty Mana Elves recorded in “Paradise,” the Mana Elves representing the “Bliss” transformation clearly dominated, which might be because “Paradise” was first invaded by “Bliss” rather than “Arrogance” and “Greed.”
Dark pondered for a moment, summoning the “Demon Fox Beast” beside him, and said, “Try using your ultimate skill and observe if there are any changes in power.”
The Demon Fox Beast nodded slightly and silently moved forward, then directly used its most direct ultimate skill—”Fox Leaf Wedge”!
In an instant, green energy spirals continuously formed in the Demon Fox Beast’s palm, sharp green leaves condensing from them.
It raised its hand slightly, and the green leaves swept up like a whirlwind, rotating clockwise in mid-air.
Dark softly chanted, “Let’s see it.”
The Demon Fox Beast suddenly waved its hand forward, and the green leaves’ speed rapidly increased, shooting towards the ground ahead.
“Plop plop plop!”
Several pits instantly burst open on the ground.
“How is it?” Dark asked.
The Demon Fox Beast shook its head. “No change.”
Dark could not help but frown. “If there is no increase in the power of the ultimate skill, then what is the passive effect of the ‘Blissful Moon’? Could it be something like a passive effect that boosts power under the moonlight… Let me think… Could it be…”
Dark suddenly had an idea and immediately took out “Bliss III” from his deck, looking up at the Demon Fox Beast. “Prepare yourself.”
After smelling the scent of “Bliss,” the Demon Fox Beast furrowed its brows, hesitating.
Obviously, after its uncontrollable behavior yesterday, it was reluctant to try again.
However, although it felt repulsed internally, it nodded coldly on the surface.
Dark’s lips curled slightly, and he began to summon “Bliss III.”
“In the name of Dark Demon, evolve, Demon Fox Beast!”
Under the light of “Bliss,” the Demon Fox Beast’s body rapidly expanded, the evolution light illuminating the night sky. The nine-tailed fox beast stepped on blue flames, giving a light roar before standing proudly.
However, this proud posture of the nine-tailed fox beast lasted less than half a second before it suddenly turned around and ran quickly towards Dark with a cheerful pace.
Dark hurriedly stopped it. “Nine-tailed fox beast!”
Nine-tailed fox beast: “Nya…”
Dark helplessly said, “Let’s try using ‘Brave Spirit Fireball’ to see if there is any increase in power.”
The nine-tailed fox beast reluctantly turned back, raising its nine tails high, blue demon fire bursting from the tips, circling around its body.
Then, it thought for a moment, and a demon fire shot out, exploding on the ground ahead.
The single-shot power of the “Spirit Fireball” was clearly stronger than the “Fox Leaf Wedge,” but compared to yesterday’s test, there was no fundamental difference.
Dark frowned slightly and called the Little Imp Beast over, using “Bliss III? Moon,” evolving it into “Black Diarumon.”
Immediately afterward, he used another “Bliss III? Moon,” evolving the Little Eevee into “Moon Eevee.”
However, even when the “Moon Eevee” used its ultimate skill “Moonlight,” closely related to the power of the moon, under the “Blissful Moon,” it did not feel any enhancement.
After multiple verifications, Dark had to admit that the “Blissful Moon” had no apparent enhancement effect on the Mana Elves.
“If that’s the case, then there is only one possibility left.”
He took a deep breath and began to patiently wait.
…
As the sun set and night approached, nearly ten minutes had passed since the Demon Fox Beast evolved into the nine-tailed fox beast.
While holding the nine-tailed fox beast’s head and kneading it, Dark estimated the time.
“It’s almost time.”
When the fifteen-minute evolution limit was about to arrive, he immediately raised his spirits, staring intently at the nine-tailed fox beast.
But after fifteen minutes, and then another minute, and another minute, the nine-tailed fox beast still did not degenerate!
Dark’s heart leaped with joy, gaining certainty about his guess.
He turned his head to look at the Black Diarumon and Moon Eevee, finding that these two Mana Elves had not degenerated either.
“The results are very clear; it seems that the effect of the ‘Blissful Moon’ is to extend the evolution time. As for how much it can extend, we need to see more.”
…
When the night inside and outside “Paradise” gradually synchronized, a glow overflowed from the nine-tailed fox beast’s body, its massive form rapidly shrinking until it finally degenerated back into the Demon Fox Beast.
Dark held the Demon Fox Beast whose face had rapidly turned red, finally confirming the specific effect of the “Blissful Moon.”
[Blissful Moon: Under the light of the “Blissful Moon,” Mana Elves under the “Bliss” attribute obtain a doubling of the duration of the strengthening effects obtained through “Bliss.”]
This meant that Mana Elves that evolved using “Bliss” could gain a full thirty minutes of continuous evolution time in “Paradise”!
Although this effect was not particularly meaningful in Mana Duels, it was significant in actual battles.
Relying on evolution to boost deck strength was already difficult enough for continuous prolonged battles.
The effect of the “Blissful Moon” undoubtedly gave him a margin of error that was more than double.
After thoroughly thinking it through, Dark could not help but smile.
The additional effect of “Paradise 2.0” was to increase the duration of “Bliss” evolution. What about 3.0, 4.0, 5.0…?
“It should also increase the duration of other Capital Sins’ evolutions, right?”
He could not help feeling very excited.
…
That night, Dark explained the upgrade effect of “Paradise 2.0” to Claire and began the final experiments with excitement.
The formation of the “Demon Fox Beast” and the upgrade of “Paradise” were both very successful.
But the formation of “Arrogance IV” that followed would not be so fortunate.
Dark divided the 35 points of “Arrogance” he had painstakingly stored into two parts, placing one part in a high-level thought bottle made from the branches of the Diesel tree and the other temporarily in a regular thought bottle.
That is, one bottle with 30 points and another with 5 points.
“According to the rules deduced so far, ‘Arrogance I’ requires 1 point of ‘Arrogance,’ ‘Arrogance II’ requires 3 points, ‘Arrogance III’ requires 10 points, so to form ‘Arrogance IV,’ one must prepare more than 30 points of ‘Arrogance.'”
“But merely having 30 points of ‘Arrogance’ is insufficient.”
“If there were an inexhaustible supply of ‘Arrogance,’ the development of ‘Arrogance IV’ would go much smoother.”
“Now, the method of making ‘Emotion Cards’ seems unable to meet the requirements for forming ‘Arrogance IV,’ but the specialized formation design in mind has no clues. If only there were plenty of ‘Arrogance’ available for trial and error…”
Dark took a deep breath, letting his emotions gradually calm down.
Then he took out the research materials he had studied recently.
In fact, “Emotion Cards” were only a simplified version of Mana Cards. The multiple formation arrays used in the refining process of “Emotion Cards” did not have any specialized formations for handling emotions.
Of course, there were no corresponding incantations either!
Alvaraite’s “Tri-Armor Spell Formation Method” was based on a specialized formation array.
Claire’s “Zoo” series was based on specialized incantations.
Essentially, a specialized formation array or incantation was necessary for refining a Mana Card.
However, historically, Magi had always been weak in researching Mana Technologies related to the brain. Dark had once tried to find formation arrays or incantations to refer to, but found nothing.
And given his current knowledge level, it was impossible to create something out of thin air.
He needed a giant’s shoulder to stand on.
However, he was not completely without direction.
In the information he had gathered so far, there happened to be something worth studying.
…
A moment later, Dark fully unfolded a very long drawing on the table.
The ratio of length to width of this drawing was as high as 10:1. On the drawing, there were depictions of a farmer woman immersed in the joy of harvest, a shepherd rolling among sheep, and a baby crying under the bright moon… from left to right, forming an extremely long scroll.
This was the fresco that Dark had recorded from the walls of the second Moon Goddess Temple!
At first glance, this fresco appeared to have no incantations or arrays, but it was carved in a circular structure on the walls of the Moon Goddess Temple, perfectly enclosing the statue of the Moon Goddess.
Most importantly, it only existed in the second Moon Goddess Temple!
And this was the true reason why Dark initially noticed it and had the “Mana Book” record it.
Compared to the first Moon Goddess Temple, the second one was only more magnificent and had this additional circle of frescoes.
As a result, the states of the two Moon Goddess statues were completely different.
The statue in the first Moon Goddess Temple could not produce “Bliss” on its own; all its “Bliss” was collected by the “Sect of Marine.”
But the statue in the second Moon Goddess Temple had accumulated a large amount of “Bliss” from the beginning!
According to the current theory of the “Soul of the Moon Goddess,” she had no “Bliss” when she was born, and it accumulated over time.
But how those “Bliss” were generated, she couldn’t say.
Fortunately, Dark never expected much from her, so he wasn’t too disappointed.
In short, without any other people entering the second Moon Goddess Temple, the “Bliss” inside the statue could not have been produced out of nowhere.
After ruling out other possibilities, there was only one remaining.
The reason the statue in the second Moon Goddess Temple could produce “Bliss” on its own was due to the existence of that circle of frescoes!
After reaching this conclusion, Dark became even more interested in the fresco.
Then, he gradually discovered that the fresco itself might be alive!
The farmer woman, the shepherd, the baby… in the fresco could produce “joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness!”
And that was precisely the source of the “Bliss” for the statue!
