Chapter 294: Darc Demond’s Shift in Starry Skies (4k)
“Very well.”
Dark picked up “Meow Meow’s” mana spirit card and accepted the reality.
If he didn’t like the fur color, he could dye it.
If there were personality issues, they could be corrected.
There was nothing that couldn’t be changed.
For mana spirits, the main aspects were attributes, stats, and skills.
When a mana spirit used a skill matching its attribute, it had the potential to enhance the skill’s effectiveness.
Therefore, the compatibility between attributes and skills was very important.
The “Meow Meow” had four ultimate skills, and among them, “Thief” and “Fraud” seemed to be evil-aligned!
Dark injected a sliver of mana into “Meow Meow’s” mana spirit card, and soon received feedback.
Firstly…
This was clearly a gold card!
The golden aura around the edges of the mana spirit card was a rare symbol.
Secondly…
This was a three-star card!
This was another unexpected point for Dark.
He originally thought that mana spirits made from capital sin fruits would all start at four stars, but never imagined he would get a three-star card this time!
However, three stars also had their advantages, being very useful for enriching the deck.
Moreover, “Meow Meow’s” stats were sufficiently strong.
Although none of the attack, defense, or magical defense broke through the limits, it excelled in balance.
Theoretically capped mana and attack values shouldn’t have appeared on “Meow Meow,” which gave off a weak impression.
But in fact, Dark had long discovered that within the same tier, the star ratings of mana spirits were akin to levels in games.
This was evident from how Ditto’s star rating increased after using capital sin cards.
The high stats of this “Meow Meow” could be understood as having a very high level.
Just like how Eevee could reach two stars after using “Capital Sin II,” a level 50 Meow Meow and a level 10 Meow Meow would have different stats.
Ultimately, the strength of a mana spirit card depended on its ultimate skills!
A Meow Meow with four ultimate skills had a significant advantage.
As long as one of these skills was exceptional, it could support it becoming a strong card among three-star cards.
Dark carefully examined.
Of “Meow Meow’s” four ultimate skills, except for “Accumulation of Wealth,” the others were relatively unfamiliar to him.
“Accumulation of Wealth” should be the skill most compatible with “Greed” and “Ancient Gold Coin,” which he had anticipated from the beginning.
But the effect description seemed slightly different from what he expected?
[Accumulation of Wealth: Meow Meow summons a large number of coins from the top of its head, throwing them at the opponent, causing damage based on the quantity of coins.]
[Accumulation of Wealth (Additional Effect): Meow Meow occasionally gains rare treasures while accumulating wealth.]
“This is a projectile-type ultimate skill, where the damage depends on the number of coins… But there must be a limit to the number of coins summoned. My impression of ‘Accumulation of Wealth’ isn’t particularly powerful. Its power in the Pokémon game seems to be only 40.”
Dark pondered.
“Generally, such ultimate skills are even weaker than a normal strike by a mana spirit, maybe just changing from melee to ranged.”
“This means this ultimate skill is mostly just scratching the surface in most situations.”
“But its core isn’t in attack; rather, it’s in the additional effect of ‘Accumulation of Wealth.'”
“Meow Meow occasionally gains rare treasures while accumulating wealth… What does this mean?”
“Is it a heavenly treasure, or just finding money during the day?”
“I feel this will be a huge surprise!”
But thinking alone wasn’t enough.
He temporarily set aside the urge to verify immediately and continued to the next ultimate skill.
“Technician” was derived from Meow Meow’s trait, a passive skill similar to Eevee’s “Attractive Body” and Big Milk Jar’s “Grass Eater.”
[Technician: Meow Meow is a natural technician, increasing the power of weaker ultimate skills by 50%.]
“This is Technician?”
“Does ‘Accumulation of Wealth’ count as a weaker ultimate skill? It should.”
“If so, ‘Accumulation of Wealth’ would increase its power by 50%, going from 40 to 60… Hahaha.”
Dark chuckled dryly, then delved deeper into his thoughts.
“The name ‘Technician’ likely indicates that Meow Meow has a very high innate talent in technology!”
Dark couldn’t help but recall the special Meow Meow from the Pokémon world, which could not only speak but also create various high-tech gadgets, almost godlike.
“If my Meow Meow could be that impressive… Suck…”
He couldn’t help but think.
“No more daydreaming; better continue studying the remaining ultimate skills. ‘Thief’ and ‘Fraud,’ as expected of evil-aligned skills, exude an air of wickedness just from their names.”
[Thief: Clever Hands, stealing items while attacking, but unable to steal if already holding an item.]
Clearly, “Thief” was a type of ultimate skill similar to Eevee’s “Desire.”
Both could steal items from opponents.
And its power was similar to “Desire,” only 60.
Even with a 50% boost from “Technician” and base type bonuses, it might approach the level of Eevee using “Moon Power.”
Though not exceptionally powerful, it was still acceptable.
The core of this ultimate skill was the additional effect of “stealing items.”
Overall, it was a very good ultimate skill.
“The final ultimate skill—’Fraud’!”
[Fraud: Counterattack, using the opponent’s power to attack. The stronger the opponent’s attack, the greater the damage!]
“Gurgle, gurgle, Su Murong Meow??”
Undoubtedly, this was a true divine skill perfectly matched with a gold card!
From its description, it was very similar to “Huhu’s” series of skills, roughly the same type.
Both grew stronger against stronger opponents.
Using the opponent’s own methods against them!
But “Meow Meow’s” “Fraud” was more straightforward in mechanism compared to “Huhu’s” tricks, making it a bane to strong offensive mana spirits.
If it were only this, it wouldn’t be unsolvable.
After all, the effects of ultimate skills were limited by tiers.
Skills crossing tiers were weakened.
Normally, crossing two tiers rendered the skill almost ineffective.
But the mana spirits炼成 by Dark were of a higher rank, making it possible to cross tiers.
…
After digesting all the information, Dark silently chanted “Normal Summoning Spell,” summoning “Meow Meow” under the watchful gaze of the other mana spirits.
“In the name of Dark Demond, Mana Summoning!”
A layer of golden light, slightly incongruous with the bluish-purple “Greed,” illuminated the mana spirit card.
“Meow Meow” emerged from the card, coalescing in the light.
“Greed” and “Gold Coin” incarnate, a gray cat with an oval gold coin on its forehead, breathing in the world’s air for the first time!
It had smooth gray fur, with white on its ears, front paws, and part of its tail.
Standing at only 0.4 meters, it was as cute as a house cat.
Despite being bipedal, Meow Meows mostly walked on all fours.
Dark’s Meow Meow was no exception.
Freshly introduced to the world, it still carried a naive innocence, unlike the cunning depicted on the card.
But inevitably, as it became familiar with the world, its true personality would gradually emerge.
“Meow—”
Meow Meow opened its eyes, already showing signs of awareness.
Mana spirits created using “Capital Sin Fruits” didn’t need “Capital Sin Cards” to awaken their intelligence.
They were already embodiments of sin, naturally more intelligent than usual.
Almost instinctively,
Meow Meow locked eyes with Deoxys on the cat tree!
Gray cat and white cat.
Greed and Pride.
Though not as irreconcilable as black and white, they weren’t harmonious either.
But Deoxys merely hummed and refocused on its reading book.
“Tsk.”
Feeling belittled, Meow Meow couldn’t help but grin, half-closing its big round eyes to hide its true feelings.
Then, it stood up, lifting its claws and extending a sharp nail.
But before it could act, its feet suddenly floated.
Its expression instantly collapsed.
It sharply turned its head to see the person who had lifted it by the armpits with both hands.
That instant, the collapsed expression melted away like a magic trick.
“Meow—”
The soft meowing sent shivers down one’s spine.
…
After Dark raised Meow Meow, he flipped it over, examining it from every angle.
“Dislike it?” he finally asked.
“Meow!” Meow Meow quickly shook its head.
Dark: “Good. I thought you might have some opinions about your creation.”
Meow Meow: “Meow?”
Dark: “If so, we’d have to remake you.”
Meow Meow: “Meow meow meow?”
Dark: “Fortunately, that’s not the case.”
Meow Meow: “Meow…”
Dark: “I was just joking.”
Meow Meow: “Meow!”
Dark smiled, observing Meow Meow’s reaction.
After all, being newly born, even if clever, it lacked sufficient knowledge accumulation.
Moreover, it clearly had no defenses against its owner, Dark.
With proper education, it wouldn’t stray onto the wrong path.
Unfortunately, Meow Meow’s information hadn’t been recorded in “Paradise,” so it couldn’t reside in the dorms like other mana spirits.
Although there were six chances left for information recording, it wasn’t worth wasting one for just a mana spirit.
According to Dark’s plan, he would record information again after creating ten new mana spirits.
Before that, if he wanted Meow Meow to be active outside for long periods, creating a “Zoo” would be a practical method.
But now wasn’t the time to think about the future.
After some affectionate moments with Meow Meow, Dark began experimenting with its skills.
Primarily, he tested whether “Technician” affected other ultimate skills and if “Thief” could steal “Item Cards.”
The results were quite satisfactory.
So far, Meow Meow’s four ultimate skills aligned closely with Dark’s expectations.
The only unverified aspect was Meow Meow’s talent in technical learning, and the additional effect of “Accumulation of Wealth”—gathering treasures!
“Can’t just let Meow Meow wander around to see if it can find money, right?”
“Come on, there’s no currency in the academy!”
After multiple failed attempts, Dark realized he could only wait for future signs to reevaluate “Accumulation of Wealth’s” additional effect.
Next…
Dark took out a card from the “Capital Sin Series” and experimented on Meow Meow.
The focus was on “Bliss III” and “Pride III.”
“Bliss III” and “Pride III” could evolve Eevee and Imp Beast into four-star mana spirits.
But Meow Meow was only three-star.
So he needed to confirm if “Bliss III” and “Pride III” could cause evolution!
The results were obvious.
“Bliss III” and “Pride III” had little noticeable effect on Meow Meow.
“Bliss III” made Meow Meow an extremely clingy little cutie.
“Pride III” only made it more reserved.
In this situation, Dark first considered creating a “Greed III” to see if it could evolve Meow Meow into “Cat Boss.”
But creating “Greed III” required 10 points of “Greed!”
This month, although there was a quota of 10.5 points, it was clearly impossible to use all for “Greed.”
Currently, the “Greed” index was 95.5, only 0.5 points above the standard line of 95.
Regulating the increase of “Greed” in a controlled manner was a significant challenge.
– It wasn’t as easy to handle as “Bliss”!
So the ideal state was to begin creating “Greed III” next month.
For the rest of this month, the priority was to reduce “Bliss”…
—
After the experiment, Dark had to return “Meow Meow” to its mana spirit card.
Although his mana recovery rate could sustain “Meow Meow” for long periods outside, this approach was superficial and meaningless.
Instead, he decided to let it hone itself inside the mana spirit card—handing it over to the Trash Slime!
“Meow Meow” composed the head of the mana spirit card.
The Trash Slime formed the body.
Surprisingly, they complemented each other.
Mana spirits could move within the mana spirit card, though it consumed mana values, the consumption was minimal.
“Meow Meow” kept meowing, but the Trash Slime, which formed the body, couldn’t understand the elf language…
This was the essence of Dark entrusting it to the Trash Slime!
If it lived comfortably, what kind of “honing” would it be?
Regardless of whether it was “Greed” or “Pride,” to freely “move,” one had to learn patience in communicating with the Trash Slime or other elves.
Thus, Noble Academy Room 201 Kindergarten gained a peculiar student.
—
End of Chapter 294
