While Dark was studying the rusty sword, the rest of the Magic Guide Spirits gathered around one after another.
Only Meowth lay sprawled on his back on the bed, a "Shelgon Orb" in one paw and a "Magic Crystal Coin" in the other, tapping them together now and then to produce a clinking, jingling sound—looking thoroughly content.
Because it had performed above its usual level today, with its use of "Foul Play" and "Thief" both being absolutely brilliant, Dark had rewarded it with a batch of little red flowers.
And the moment the little red flowers were in hand, Meowth immediately used them to pay off its debt and to purchase a Magic Crystal Coin.
As for the "Shelgon Orb" in its paw, that was the purple bead it had summoned earlier by relying on "Pay Day"—a product of a high-tier monster known as the Bulwartle, capable of absorbing physical impact and converting it into mana.
The effect of this "Shelgon Orb" easily brought to mind Rose's "Mobius Bug," and there was no telling whether something similar could be transmuted from it.
But for now, this thing was Meowth's property, and the right to use it lay in its paws.
Besides, Dark had obtained far too many resources that needed processing during today's dungeon adventure, so for the time being he had no time to pay attention to this purple bead.
...
Mere seconds apart, Dark poured mana into that rusty sword for the second time.
The amount of mana he gathered this time was at least three times greater than the last.
Sure enough, the rusty sword's reaction grew even more violent.
After pondering for a brief moment, he suddenly reached out and decisively grasped the hilt, then poured a great deal of mana in through the contact of his palm!
The mana surged like a roaring tide, rushing into the interior of the short sword in an instant.
Through his mana perception, he could clearly sense that the interior of this short sword was inscribed with an extremely complex mana circuit.
The moment mana was poured in, it was absorbed and dispersed by that mana circuit, vanishing without a trace like silt sinking into the sea.
But the rusty sword itself trembled madly.
This, of course, could no longer be any sort of affinity reaction.
"Looks like I've been rejected."
Dark gave a little laugh; this was within expectations, after all.
A divine artifact slumbering within a treasure chest, waiting for one fated to come and awaken it—such a scene was hardly uncommon.
It just meant he wasn't the fated one.
As for whether this rusty sword was truly one of the legendary Holy Swords, he honestly didn't much care.
"Gatomon."
"Meow?"
Gatomon, who had been perched atop the cat tree with her chin propped up, pondering how to use her little red flowers, heard the call and seized the moment to leap down—her two hands as if pinching the hem of a skirt, her feet crossed, landing nimbly.
Dark glanced at the young lady Gatomon, then pointed at that rusty sword and said, "Have you learned mana mobilization? Come give it a try."
"If it's just an ordinary release…"
Gatomon slowly walked over,
passively mastering her cognition and movement of mana through the stimulation of "Arm."
Gatomon's learning progress still ran at the very forefront of all the Magic Guide Spirits.
She came before that rusty sword, stretched out her claws to grip the hilt of the rusty sword, and then released mana.
The mana that served as a Magic Guide Spirit's life thereby gradually drained away.
But the mechanism of "[Paradise]" slowly filled this deficit.
Dark asked expectantly, "Got a feel for it yet?"
Gatomon furrowed her brow and said, "Somewhat, yeah."
Just as she spoke, that rusty sword—which, though it had devoured Dark's mana, still produced rejection toward him—suddenly lit up with a white glow.
That white light began to seep outward from within the rusty sword, causing the entire blade portion to gradually turn translucent, like a sword-shaped luminous body.
And the rust covering the surface of the blade astonishingly began to flake away under the illumination of this white light!
...
"Whoa!"
Watching the developments gradually exceed his expectations, Dark couldn't help showing a startled expression.
The Magic Guide Spirits crouching or sitting off to the side all displayed great curiosity, one and all.
Especially DemiDevimon, who had personally obtained this rusty sword—it kept flapping its wings nonstop. Was it envy, was it jealousy, or was it hatred?
DemiDevimon could only resent the heavens for their unfairness!
The sword was clearly the one it had gotten—why would it react to this stinking cat?
...
As for Gatomon, she had already completely immersed herself in the sympathetic resonance of mana.
As the rust on the rusty sword flaked away entirely, its full appearance was thereby revealed.
A hilt as exquisite as an ornament, the ring at its pommel carved with the pattern of some kind of flower; the blade, though short, was clear and lustrous, without the slightest scratch to be seen.
In the course of her perception, Gatomon's thoughts stirred slightly, and she stretched out a single finger to hook the ring at the pommel, then gave a forceful pull—and astonishingly drew out a long, slender silver steel wire!
This steel wire was extremely long, and would retract the moment it was let go.
If manipulated with mana, it could be wielded with even greater versatility.
This single feature alone caused dramatic changes to this short sword's attack range and method of attack.
Whether used temporarily as a thrown projectile, transformed into a meteor hammer, or with the steel wire hardened to serve as a long spear, they were all viable routes.
Gatomon let go of the ring, gripped the hilt again, made a couple of practice swings at the air, and suddenly said, "It handles really well."
"Of course it handles well—can't you see the white light from the sword has already crept up your arm?"
[Envy +1]
By this point, Dark really did want to go find Virt to confirm whether this sword was truly one of the legendary Holy Swords.
If it was, then it would mean that Gatomon, who was likewise able to trigger and use it, also possessed the qualifications of a "Hero."
She was one of this generation's Hero candidates!
"What on earth is going on here?"
Dark found his mind a little muddled.
He patted his forehead, forcing himself to calm down.
According to his original plan, supposing this rusty sword was of no use to him, he would then find a way to seek out more compatible auxiliary ingredients and attempt to transmute a Magic Guide Spirit known as "Honedge."
Since this rusty sword produced rejection toward him, then he'd just transmute it into a Magic Guide Spirit.
Then it couldn't very well reject him again, could it?
In any case...
Dark's idea was highly feasible.
But the present situation made him hesitate.
Gatomon could actually use it!
"Wait."
Dark abruptly slapped his forehead, and an idea popped into his mind.
"Even if she can use it, wouldn't it handle even better if I could transmute it into 'Honedge'?"
"After all, who wouldn't want a sword that can move on its own?"
"And then, I could even ride on 'Honedge' to fly through the air on a sword, pretending to be a sword immortal."
...
While Gatomon was trying to grow familiar with the "rusty sword"–"short sword," she had no idea at all that Dark was planning to transmute this Holy Sword that belonged exclusively to her into a Magic Guide Spirit that anyone could use.
This act of nationalizing private property was truly vicious (meow!).
...
Still, this was only an idea Dark had.
To take a weapon possessing self-awareness like this one and use it for transmutation, the auxiliary ingredients required and the mana that would need to be consumed would both be unprecedentedly enormous.
Dark didn't have much confidence in his current amount of mana.
He needed more time to accumulate.
Of course, if he truly wanted to use it for transmutation, he had another method—and that was to shatter this short sword!
As long as it was shattered, it would change from a weapon possessing self-awareness into purely a precious material.
Then the cost of transmutation would be greatly reduced.
But in that case, it would very likely become impossible to transmute "Honedge."
Although "Honedge" has the appearance of a sword, it is in fact a dual-attribute spirit of "Steel-type" + "Ghost-type."
Lacking the "Ghost" element, it would be very difficult to successfully transmute.
Furthermore, after "Honedge" evolves into "Doublade" and "Aegislash," both will possess shields.
So in order to transmute "Honedge," the "shield" element was also needed.
Speaking of "shields"...
Dark couldn't help casting a glance in Meowth's direction, but he quickly withdrew his gaze.
"Now that I think about it, it seems I already possess the core conditions for transmuting 'Honedge'?"
"And if that's still not enough, that piece of Living Metal could perhaps make up for the shortfall."
He suddenly realized that the only threshold left between him and "Honedge" was "insufficient mana."
And "insufficient mana" could be made up for through a variety of methods.
For instance, the most common "Mana Recovery Potion," or something else even more efficient.
It was just a pity that Miltank's "milk" was in essence life recovery, not mana recovery; otherwise he wouldn't have needed to worry about insufficient mana at all.
So the final question was, which kind of "Major Sin" should he use as the guiding orientation?
...
While considering the feasibility of transmuting "Honedge," Dark took out "Gatomon's" Magic Guide Card to examine it.
After inputting a wisp of mana and getting feedback, he discovered that Gatomon, holding that short sword, had indeed gained a substantial boost in her attributes.
Gatomon's base attack power was 1900, which under the boost of the "Holy Ring" could be steadily maintained at 2400.
And after acquiring that short sword, it had directly surged by 1200 points!
"This number…"
"The Two-Headed Demon's giant axe could only provide a 1000-point attack bonus, yet this short sword can actually provide a 1200-point attack bonus, and so far it appears to have no side effects whatsoever."
"1200 points… could it be 4×300? Just like Diana's '[Bear's Power],' is it calculated by star rank ×300?"
"If it really is a Holy Sword, then the possibility of this calculation method is fairly high."
"Let me see—besides the pure attack increase, what other abilities does it come with."
"It's added two passive skills: one is 'Holy,' and the other is 'Holy Sword.'"
[Holy: On top of the original attribute restraint, restraint against the Demon race is increased by 100%, restraint against the dark attribute is increased by 50%, with an additional lethal effect against the Demon race.]
[Holy Sword: When attacking, ignores the opponent's stat changes, always hits, with a small chance to ignore defense and attack directly.]
"Looks like it's a Holy Sword, no mistake about it!"
"The attributes of these two passives really do have a bit of the flavor of a Holy Sword."
"If I remember correctly, the Magic Guide Spirit 'Honedge' also possesses the 'Holy Sword' skill—though the effect differs slightly, it's inexplicably compatible."
...
Looking at the passive skill named "Holy Sword," the more Dark looked, the more he felt that this Holy Sword and "Honedge" were fated for each other.
Perhaps with just a casual attempt at transmutation, it could be successfully made.
Moreover, as a light-attribute Holy Sword, the "Major Sin" it used would necessarily be "Pride."
Just as when transmuting "Meowth," using the "Basic Transmutation Method" as the main axis and adding "Holy Sword," "Shelgon Orb," and "Pride," perhaps it could be transmuted.
The more he thought about it, the more he felt this possibility was extremely high.
If he'd had an efficient means of replenishing mana on hand, he might have started the experiment then and there!
...
But fortunately he didn't yet have that condition, and in the end he calmed down after all.
"No rush, no rush. Tomorrow I'll first go to the Catnip Flower and Wood Shop to ask about matters related to Lion Grass, then see if there's any method to rapidly replenish a large amount of mana."
"For now, there are still other things that need attention."
Dark returned to his desk and sat down, turning his gaze to that black crystal with eighteen faces placed on the desktop.
Emma's offhand glance at this eighteen-faced crystal had given him a reminder, and he finally recalled where he had seen this kind of eighteen-faced object before.
Just as Emma had said, it was a "die."
An eighteen-faced drinking-game die!
As a die used for drinking-table entertainment during the Western Han period, though it wasn't very famous, it did indeed exist.
"If I use this as a template, might I be able to transmute it into a die possessing eighteen kinds of effects?"
"Taking this line of thought as a starting point, perhaps I could achieve some breakthrough in thinking."
"If you exclude light and dark, Magic Guide Spirits also have exactly eighteen attributes."
"It's just that when it comes to the transmutation of item cards, what I've learned is still not much."
"Unless I make it into a kind of Arm."
In any case, the general approach to handling this eighteen-faced crystal had roughly taken shape.
After recording his ideas, Dark turned instead to pick up that piece of Living Metal.
Even among all of today's gains, this piece of Living Metal still radiated an immense sense of presence.
Unlike ordinary metal, it didn't have a hard outer shell—a slight application of force could induce deformation—but left in place it would slowly return to its original shape, giving off a sort of "memory metal" feel.
Dark's initial idea had been to use it for Arm transmutation, but in fact he hadn't figured out what to transmute it into.
This really was a difficult problem for him.
The range of applications for Living Metal was actually fairly broad.
Dark would occasionally think, too, that if he made it into a character figurine and then processed it using the techniques for crafting Mystic Puppets, might he obtain the legendary "figurine that can move"?
But that would be far too wasteful.
If he wasted such a large piece of rare metal for the sake of his own preferences, he'd surely be unable to sleep.
But speaking of figurines...
Dark stared at that piece of Living Metal for a long while, and suddenly a flash of inspiration struck.
In his memory, there was a kind of thing extremely similar to a figurine.
And it was, without a doubt, of the Arm category.
It also employed the system of mental power.
But the essence of that thing was actually "the inheritance of the soul."
There was no way it could be transmuted relying on a single piece of metal alone, no matter how he thought about it.
"This will require careful, long-term planning."
Amid his deliberations, the night gradually deepened.
Dark gradually came to have some bold ideas.
...
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