Chapter 531 “Paradise 2.0” (5k)
“Boom!”
A massive energy sphere exploded within the training ground in the backyard, a blue light circle akin to flames instantly spreading out, tearing through the pitch-black night sky.
A terrifying mushroom cloud shot up to the heavens, gray smoke obscuring the sky.
Dark watched from a safe distance. Just ahead, the Nine-Tailed Fox Beast, which had just unleashed its ultimate skill “Tengu,” was slightly panting.
The power of “Tengu” was immense, as was its consumption.
The blue flames at the tails and limbs of the Nine-Tailed Fox Beast had completely vanished; its mana was nearly depleted.
Even before the fifteen-minute evolution limit was up, the Nine-Tailed Fox Beast’s body suddenly shrunk, regressing unexpectedly back to the Demon Fox Beast!
Seeing the Demon Fox Beast half-crouching due to fatigue, Dark raised his hand, and the maid who accompanied him immediately stepped forward, expertly offering water and wiping sweat.
The Demon Fox Beast’s eyes showed resistance, but it couldn’t escape the towel being rubbed over its face.
Dark squinted, pondering carefully.
If a Digimon consumes too much after evolving, it will indeed prematurely revert from the evolved state.
He hadn’t expected that “Tengu” would be a skill that expends all remaining mana at once.
As the entire body of the Nine-Tailed Fox Beast released its blue flames, its mana was completely drained, leaving only enough to sustain its physical form.
Afterwards, there might still be side effects due to insufficient mana replenishment within the limited time.
This side effect would persist even after the Demon Fox Beast regressed.
Dark took out an “Energy Potion” and began calculating the duration of these side effects.
“Six minutes?”
…
The actual duration might vary slightly due to multiple factors, but generally, it should be around six minutes.
Dark pondered for a moment, then had the maid take the Demon Fox Beast back to the mansion.
At this time, the dining hall inside the mansion was already prepared with a sumptuous dinner, celebrating the addition of the Demon Fox Beast.
By today, he finally had all twenty Mana Spirit Cards.
According to Dark’s plan, he could start upgrading “Paradise” tonight.
However, considering that the upgrade materials for “Paradise” were not infinite and frequent failures would reduce its durability, Dark needed to spend as much time as possible on the initial preparations.
And tonight, he aimed to help the Demon Fox Beast integrate into the family.
Mana Spirit Cards like the Demon Fox Beast tended to be temperamental. Without proper guidance, they could easily become isolated.
Dark did not want any isolation within his Mana Spirit Cards.
…
After a night of joy, the next day.
Dark brought the upgrade package for “Paradise” to the laboratory.
The method to upgrade “Paradise” was not complicated, divided into four parts.
The first part involved using a special conjure method to deconstruct the Mana Spirit Card of “Paradise,” returning it to a semi-finished state.
The second part involved inputting the information of the ten newly added Mana Spirit Cards using the previous method.
The third part required re-entering personal information to make targeted adjustments to “Paradise.”
The fourth part involved melting in the core materials required for the upgrade, performing the final conjure.
Based on the choice of core materials, a Magus could add a new effect to “Paradise.”
Claire had prepared three core materials for him, each compatible with “Paradise” and capable of bringing different effects.
…
The first core material was a seed of grass attribute, enabling the growth of a special healing flower in the land of “Paradise.”
As long as one was within the fragrance of the healing flower, the Mana Spirit Cards recorded in “Paradise” would gain an additional life (mana) regeneration rate.
Although Dark couldn’t know exactly how much mana regeneration rate it would provide before the final conjure, theoretically, when “Paradise” upgraded to version 2.0, the original ten points per second mana regeneration rate would increase to twenty points per second, or twelve hundred points per minute!
Even excluding the mana consumed by the Mana Spirit Cards themselves to exist, they could still gain hundreds of mana points per minute.
This was already extremely impressive.
And if he chose this first core material, he could further enhance the mana regeneration rate on top of the twenty points per second!
Just thinking about it, one could imagine how terrifying the effect would be.
Dark himself also leaned towards this core material.
Because when the fragrance of the healing flowers spread beyond “Paradise,” the Mana Spirit Cards could follow the fragrance out of “Paradise.”
Even without the mana regeneration rate provided by “Paradise,” the fragrance itself would ensure their normal activities.
This would greatly expand their range of activity.
In short, this first core material hit right at the heart of Dark’s needs.
But the remaining two core materials were also not bad.
…
The second core material was an ancient seal.
The stone seal contained faint divine intentions, reportedly engraved with the image of some beast deity!
Regardless of the truth, the effect of this ancient seal was real.
Because it was one of the materials Claire used to refine “Animal Kingdom!”
Using this ancient seal as the core material for the final conjure would grant “Paradise” an additional ultimate skill effect—”Release of the Beasts!”
This was precisely the ultimate skill attached to the “Zoo” Dark conjured.
It allowed the Mana Spirit Cards of the Avian-beast Kin within “Paradise” to gain a group effect for thirty seconds!
The attack power of the body increases.
If the number of avian-beast kin golems reaches 10, the attack power increases by 200 points; if it reaches 100, the attack power increases by 2000 points!
This is a deadly skill that, while not particularly impressive in its current effect, is bound to play a significant role in the future.
However, given that “Zoo” already exists, it lacks priority.
…
As for the third core material, it is a water attribute gem.
The three core materials provided by Claire have all undergone special treatment.
For example, this gem called “Heart of the Ocean,” once melted in, can add a central fountain and a network of waterways within “Paradise.”
It allows golems that can only live in water to expand their range throughout any corner of “Paradise.”
Moreover, water attribute golems residing in “Paradise” will gain effects similar to those of a water attribute field card, enhancing their three-dimensional attributes and water attribute skills.
This effect is not bad.
But it lacks “irreplaceability.”
In fact, similar attribute field cards are relatively easy to create.
However, the duration of these fields does not match the twenty-four-hour cycle of “Paradise.”
Furthermore, Dark does not have many water attribute golems.
…
Therefore, after much contemplation, Dark finally decided to use the first core material, which is the seed of the healing flower!
The physical body of the healing flower is an inconspicuous little yellow flower.
But its true place of growth is an extremely dangerous location, a treasure from Claire’s travels around the world.
The seed in Dark’s hand is actually not a real seed.
It was refined from the essence of the healing flower collected by Claire, specially made for upgrading “Paradise.”
The same goes for the other two core materials.
Even if they are not used for now, they can be saved for future upgrades.
…
After determining the core materials, research on various details began.
Dark tried to mix various potions needed for the upgrade and through repeated practice, mastered the special formation for engraving.
By noon, Dark had brought all twenty golems into the laboratory.
Although the information of the first ten golems did not need to be re-entered, during the adjustment of the third part, all twenty golem cards had to be present.
The golems had known since last night that Dark planned to upgrade “Paradise,” so they entered the laboratory with anticipation.
The latter ten golems were especially excited.
For them, joining “Paradise” not only meant leaving the “Watchers’ Alliance,” but also having a sense of ceremony, a faint honor.
It felt as though they had truly become part of a family.
Their mana would blend together in “Paradise,” like bloodlines, even closer than blood relations.
“It’s about to begin!”
Dark took a deep breath, turned around, picked up a stack of golem cards, and waved them at the golems.
The golems responded with calls, then one by one transformed into light and entered their respective golem cards.
Dark arranged the twenty golem cards into two parts.
The newly added golem cards are:
Plant-type grass/golem attribute “Fruit-eating Worm”;
Fairy-type fairy attribute “Mana Book”;
Undead-type ghost attribute “Dream Demon”;
Undead-type steel/ghost attribute “Solo Sword Sheath”;
Undead-type dark attribute “Vampire Noble”;
Avian-beast kin evil attribute “Meow”;
Avian-beast kin normal attribute “Little Cubone”;
Avian-beast kin fairy attribute “Demon Fox Beast”;
Avian-beast kin fighting attribute “Lion Beast”;
Dragon-type light/dragon attribute “Primordial Dragon Egg”;
…
Adding the previous ten golems, once “Paradise” is upgraded, it will have: Elemental, Insect, Avian-beast Kin, Plant, Fairy, Undead, Demon, and Dragon races; Rock, Flying, Water, Grass, Dragon, Ghost, Fairy, Light, Dark, Evil, Fighting, Steel attributes.
Golems in total have fifteen races and twenty attributes.
If Dark wants to continue perfecting “Paradise,” he must add the missing races and attributes.
This roughly becomes his next goal for crafting new golem masters.
…
In short, after everything was prepared, Dark immediately started the experiment.
Being his first time doing such an experiment, he was very cautious.
The difficulty of upgrading “Paradise” mainly focuses on the first part, which is the reverse deconstruction of the “Paradise” golem card.
Up until now, Dark has not encountered this knowledge, only knowing that to perform a secondary refinement on a golem card, it must first undergo “reverse deconstruction.”
Each golem card’s “reverse deconstruction” has different methods and details, making the exploration process extremely cumbersome.
Without Claire’s simplified method, Dark could not have completed this step.
After failing twice, he finally succeeded relatively smoothly on the third attempt.
He only deconstructed a small part, equivalent to making a small opening in the “Paradise” golem card, bringing it back to a semi-finished state.
Next, he proceeded to input information for the additional ten golems.
This step is not difficult.
Dark injected mana, activating the program already set in the “Paradise” golem card.
Immediately,
The magic circles on the surface of the Mana Cards began to shimmer and appear one after another.
These magic circles varied in height and were layered, with light rings expanding and contracting on each of them.
Based on the races and attributes of the ten Mana Spirit Cards, he selected ten corresponding magic circles from these. Then, lifting the Magic Pen, he gradually eliminated the other magic circles.
Once only ten magic circles remained, he continued to infuse mana, making subtle adjustments and optimizations to each of the used magic circles, ensuring they were all the same size and formed a circular pattern on the same plane.
Only then did he place the ten Mana Spirit Cards one by one over the corresponding magic circles based on their race and attribute.
After placing them all, he further activated the information collection procedure.
Subsequently, the ten magic circles began to rotate around “Paradise” while maintaining their own spin, much like stars orbiting a celestial body.
…
The process of recording information was slow, but as long as one maintained enough patience, no mistakes would occur.
Dark took this opportunity to recover his status. Only after the information recording ended did he begin adjusting his personal information for the third part.
When he reactivated the “Personal Information Input Program” of “Paradise” with the magic circle drawn on his fingertip, even more substantial information flooded his mind than during the first input.
He immediately closed his eyes and began answering the questions posed by “Paradise.”
Not only were there questions from the previous input, but there were also numerous new ones, including his preference levels for each Mana Spirit.
This time, he answered over two hundred questions, finally completing the re-recording of his personal information.
The final part turned out to be the simplest.
Following Claire’s guidance, Dark quickly melted the seed of the healing flower into “Paradise,” and immediately, a great light shone!
After the light converged, “Paradise” had finally upgraded to version 2.0!
Dark immediately focused his attention to check.
On the card face, the amusement park with its towering Ferris wheel had clearly undergone a change.
The standard Ferris wheel now had an additional layer of decoration, akin to a “special edition for holidays.”
The dark background remained serene and peaceful, forming a stark contrast with the dynamic amusement park.
But at the top of the night sky, a never-before-seen full moon emitted a noticeable, pure glow.
As mana was infused, the neon lights of the amusement park flickered one by one, and ribbons and balloons, which enhanced the festive atmosphere, slowly floated. The carousel played music as it rotated.
Looking down, indeed, yellow flowers emitting a faint, sweet fragrance bloomed on the ground.
The fragrance even wafted off the card face, entering his nostrils, causing him to become enchanted.
Dark originally thought that the changes in “Paradise 2.0” were limited to just a few small yellow flowers, but he never imagined that the details had changed as numerous as stars.
If the original card face was like a painting worth three thousand, the current value was clearly over thirty thousand.
This upgrade was truly a transformation!
…
After some contemplation, Dark gathered the twenty scattered Mana Spirit Cards and took out the “Mana Book” to perform a summoning.
Once the “Mana Book” was summoned, he slowly infused mana into “Paradise” to delve deeper into its effects.
As expected, the basic mana recovery rate of “Paradise” had increased to twenty points per second.
There was no change in the three stats increase for the Mana Spirits; each additional Mana Spirit still added +100 to attack and defense.
Since he now had twenty Mana Spirits, the maximum possible increase in attack and defense… was 2000!
Overall, the effect doubled.
In addition, the -1s reduction in summon time remained unchanged.
The increase in stats and the -1s reduction in summon time were considered the most fundamental attributes of “Paradise,” theoretically unchangeable.
As for the additional effects…
Firstly, the extra increase in mana recovery rate brought about by the healing flower.
It didn’t need to be much; if it could increase by 10 points per second, it would be sufficient for Dark’s needs.
However, as the number of Mana Spirits around him gradually increased, Dark still couldn’t uncover the details. He couldn’t help but frown: “Does it have to be unfolded to know?”
With this thought, Dark waved to the Mana Spirits and stepped out of the laboratory.
Then, he was astonished to find that he had spent the entire afternoon in the lab.
Outside, the sky had grown dim, and a hint of orange-red twilight appeared on the horizon.
Dark left the mansion, nodded to the maid who followed closely, and arrived at the training ground outside. There, he personally summoned the “Vampire Noble.”
Once the twenty Mana Spirits and the Soul of the Moon Goddess were summoned, Dark fully unfolded “Paradise” in the training ground.
“Rumble!”
Amidst the rumbling, exquisite buildings sprang up from the ground.
The wide training ground instantly transformed into a massive amusement park, with a black curtain covering the sky. A round moon emitting pink mist appeared on the curtain, as if a moon hung in the night sky.
The scent of the healing flower instantly filled the air, even spreading outward from the amusement park.
The Mana Spirits were immersed in the fragrance, clearly showing relaxed expressions.
Dark directly picked up the Mana Card from the “Mana Book” to check.
After multiple summonings, the mana value of the “Mana Book” had been heavily consumed, but as soon as “Paradise” was unfolded, its mana began to rapidly recover.
Dark counted carefully and said, “22 points per second?”
…
