Konoha: Naruto will win no matter what choice he makes! Chapter 202

“But there’s one thing you must remember: you cannot use it in any competition-related projects.”

“After all, the school, in principle, doesn’t allow us to give magic cards to students for free, even if they are semi-finished products…”

“Though it’s not entirely free.”

As Dark clearly read out these two lines, Art’s tightly furrowed brows finally relaxed.

Professors, as an indispensable part of the academy’s structure, held rights at St. Marian far beyond what appeared on the surface.

Arbitrarily deducting points or adding points was equivalent to arbitrarily fining money or printing currency.

Although they had their own set of rules to abide by, their freedom was still considerable.

Therefore, the selection of every new professor was extremely troublesome.

This time, Claire didn’t express an intention to continue her tenure, so Principal Art had to find a new professor. If she truly couldn’t find a suitable candidate, she would have to shamelessly ask Claire again.

Now, it seemed Claire was indeed a good choice.

Art felt very satisfied.

As a smile spread across her lips, her body transformed into light, instantly returning to the appearance of a griffon sprite.

“Good night, Dimon.”

The principal’s voice coming from the little griffon’s mouth always felt particularly odd.

Dark’s thoughts shifted, and he said,

“Good night, Principal.”

Then, the two little sprites flapped their wings and slowly flew away.

Dark finally let out a slight sigh of relief.

Principal Art’s presence itself was a form of pressure; he couldn’t completely relax.

Now, he could more freely research this gift from Claire!

…

From the lines of text, he had probably guessed that the magic card Claire gifted was over eighty percent likely to be [Zoo]!

This was a huge surprise for Dark.

After all, with his current learning progress, even without considering the material costs, just learning the alchemy of [Zoo] would take at least until after the summer vacation.

His original idea had shifted from making [Zoo] as soon as possible to attempting it under Claire’s guidance after returning home for the summer vacation.

And now, if he could get it in advance, it would not only help with his studies and research but also greatly assist in the early cultivation of [Bond]!

Provided, of course, that it really was [Zoo]!

…

Dark flipped the Christmas card to the back.

The first line of text read:

“Shhh, Art definitely thinks this one is [Zoo]! Don’t make a sound.”

…

“Uh…”

At that moment, Dark’s face turned square.

If it wasn’t [Zoo], what else could it be?

He looked up, subconsciously glancing in the direction where the two sprites had left, then instinctively went to close the window tightly, draw the curtains, and only then continued reading.

▼

Press your thumb on the fingerprint in the bottom right corner of the Christmas card and infuse it with magic. You will then know how to complete that semi-finished magic card.

Once you succeed, you’ll know what it is.

Of course.

If you fail…

Then it’s better you don’t know.

ฅ’ω’ฅ [Cat sigh.jpg]

▲

Dark frowned, then looked up at the wall clock.

“It’s eleven o’clock, but I haven’t used my brain much today, so I feel pretty good.”

Even he couldn’t possibly wait until tomorrow morning to continue.

He quickly found the fingerprint in the bottom right corner of the Christmas card.

When he pressed his thumb on the fingerprint, he had the illusion of “fingerprint unlocking.”

In any case, he infused a trace of magic, and information flowed back.

He read the information, picked up the paper and pen on the table, and quickly recorded it.

The level of this semi-finished magic card far exceeded that of the semi-finished disguise card [Tuxedo Mask Set] that Dark had activated before, and it was even more complex than the academy cards.

But Claire had already completed almost all the alchemy steps, leaving only two steps similar to injecting personal information and the final alchemy.

The subtlety of this technique was truly unparalleled.

Dark wrote down the detailed methods for both steps, chugged the apple juice on the table, and as his mind gradually cleared, he began to repeatedly read and comprehend.

This took about half an hour.

Afterward, he used [Meditation Art] to clear his mind, and then began the final completion of the magic card!

“First, I need to outline a formation with magic at my fingertips!”

This was an extremely clever imprinting method.

The usual method was to draw the formation diagram on the magic card with a magic pen, but this method was to draw the formation directly on the fingertip, and then, like pressing a seal, press the drawn magic formation into the magic card all at once!

This required extremely high control over magic.

Dark had practiced this when learning the alchemy of [Zoo] and was already very proficient.

But this was just the basics.

Successfully imprinting the magic formation onto the correct position of the magic card was the key to the first step.

That is, the infusion of personal information!

…

The more sophisticated a magic card, the more obvious its “personalization” became.

The thoughts, magic, soul, and other factors of a Magus would cause different changes in the magic card. Various adjustments made to the magic card, taking into account all these factors, would result in only the Magus themselves being able to use that magic card.

At this level, there was no need for a “thought lock” to ensure the magic card couldn’t be used by others.

The so-called “thought lock” was an “imprint of soul and thought.”

It was akin to a binding measure.

It was often used to protect magic cards from being seized and misused.

The difference was that a “thought lock” could be unlocked.

However, a magic card with obvious “personalization” had no lock to be unlocked; it could only be used by its owner!

…

The information left by Claire listed over a hundred questions that needed to be answered.

These questions had to be answered in a rapid-fire manner, minimizing thinking time, while maintaining the state of “pressing the magic formation into the magic card.”

All the questions were very simple and straightforward, with only conceptual distinctions, and no right or wrong answers.

For example: “What does the paradise in your heart look like?”

As long as he imagined the appearance of a paradise in his mind, it counted as passing.

…

Even so, the entire process was still a huge drain on his mental energy.

By the time Dark completed this step, he was drenched in sweat!

He suddenly let go, seeing magic formations shimmering with different lights continuously appearing on the card face of the magic card, layered and constantly expanding and contracting. He knew that this semi-finished magic card had been correctly activated.

But next, he still needed to continue infusing magic.

And he had to subtly adjust and optimize each magic formation with magic.

Although he had learned all these things in Claire’s after-class lessons, he didn’t have much practical experience.

So everything had to be done with extreme caution.

However, Claire had clearly measured his abilities before giving him this semi-finished magic card as a gift.

So, he ultimately didn’t make any major blunders and completed the first step relatively perfectly.

And the magic card, having received his thought infusion, also underwent a dramatic change!

In short, it was gradually taking on his form!

This kind of semi-finished magic card was several times more difficult to make than a magic card itself.

Moreover, the difficulty of making this magic card had already reached its limit.

The deeper Dark delved, the more shocked he became, even doubting that he would possess such an ability before graduation.

Claire was truly worthy of being called the “Beast Sage”!

…

The second step was the final alchemy.

In this step, he didn’t need to add materials or carve alchemy formations—in fact, these steps had already been completed.

According to Claire’s message, this semi-finished magic card had a program set to run automatically after activation.

So in this step, he only needed to place the magic spirit cards he had personally refined around this semi-finished magic card, on top of the magic formations that would subsequently appear!

This semi-finished magic card would collect information from a large number of magic spirit cards, thereby perfecting the magic card itself to complete the final product.

Dark had already prepared.

All the previous magic had been integrated into the magic card after the completion of the first step.

This time, he used his magic pen to tap the card surface, and as magic flowed in, a dozen or so magic formations instantly popped out, centered on the magic card, appearing on the same plane, forming a ring!

Dark first picked up a [Fantasy Beast: Eevee] and placed it on the gray magic formation representing the general attribute of beast-type creatures.

Then he picked up a [Sludge Slime] and placed it on the green magic formation representing the grass attribute of plant-type creatures.

Next was [Shuckle] of the insect-type rock attribute;

[Gatomon] of the beast-type light attribute;

[Miltank] of the beast-type general attribute;

[Sylveon] of the beast-type fairy attribute;

[Fantasy Beast: Ditto] of the element-type general attribute;

[Hawlucha] of the beast-type fighting/flying attribute;

[Popplio] of the beast-type water attribute;

And finally, [Curse Cage: Impmon] of the demon-type dark attribute!

A total of ten magic spirit cards.

After placing these ten magic spirit cards on the ten magic formations, Dark used his magic pen to tap away the remaining magic formations one by one, and then triggered the subsequent process.

The ten magic formations then gradually rotated on their own, and revolved around the semi-finished magic card as their center.

They actually formed a star system diagram!

…

By this point in the experiment, Dark had developed an exceptionally strong anticipation for this semi-finished magic card.

What kind of magic card was it that even its final completion required such a vast amount of information to be collected?

It seemed somewhat similar to the alchemy method of [Zoo].

But [Zoo] clearly didn’t require such a complex procedure.

The “information collection” step didn’t seem that difficult, but the core of this magic card lay in how it processed that information…

What exactly would it use this information for?

But even if he was anxious, it was useless.

At this moment, he could only wait!

…

Time passed by, little by little.

The magic card was still operating autonomously, making one wonder if it had gotten stuck!

Dark tried to restrain his eager hand and continued to wait.

Until after midnight.

The magic formations suddenly retracted!

The ten magic spirit cards then scattered onto the table.

“Is it over?”

But just as Dark thought the final alchemy was complete, new magic formations appeared on the card face of the magic card again!

On the autonomously rotating magic formations, constantly appearing were scenic wonders of mountains and seas, as well as some very modern amusement park facilities.

Such as Ferris wheels, haunted houses, roller coasters, carousels, bumper cars, log flumes…

But eventually, the scenes of these facilities all disappeared.

Only an empty fountain plaza remained on the magic formations.

In the end, even the fountain was gone!

The magic formations rapidly contracted.

The semi-finished magic card released a final burst of strong light, then settled into calmness.

Completion successful!

…

After restraining himself for two minutes, Dark finally, unable to hide his excitement, picked it up.

The card face of the magic card had formed, and it was actually a scene of a paradise with a giant Ferris wheel in the background and a carousel in the foreground!

The paradise under the night was quiet and peaceful, with half-extinguished neon lights providing the only remaining illumination.

The carousel, adorned with colorful lights, slowly rotated to silent music.

The Ferris wheel in the background was submerged in the night, with only half of it still lit.

Further in the background were continuous rolling mountains.

The moment he infused magic.

A massive amount of information flowed back.

Dark was momentarily stunned.

This was indeed a Field Card.

And it was an advanced card built upon [Zoo]—[Paradise]!

Named Paradise by Claire, this Field Card was a unique creation of hers, born from her many years of travels.

However, Claire’s own [Paradise] was a natural paradise containing various elements like grasslands, forests, mountains, canyons, and lakes.

But this [Paradise] that Dark had completed was themed after an amusement park.

Even more incredibly, this [Paradise] had not yet taken its final form!

After its alchemy, including the initial information collection, it had a total of seven opportunities to record information and readjust!

Which meant six opportunities remained.

This implied that this [Paradise] was only version 1.0; it could have version 2.0, 3.0, all the way to 7.0!

…

With Dark’s current knowledge, he simply couldn’t imagine how Claire had managed to do this.

“Is this the hero who has been sung about since the war era?”

Dark gained a deeper understanding of the “hero’s” power.

He glanced at his bedroom and activated [Paradise] indoors!

Field cards generally had two deployment methods: full deployment and partial deployment.

The magic stored by a Magus in a field card could generally last for about three minutes.

After that, the Magus needed to infuse it themselves!

Naturally, partial deployment consumed much less magic.

Of course, there were also field cards like Claire’s [Zoo], which could form an energy cycle with the beast-type magic spirits within the field and had an “energy-saving mechanism” that absorbed external energy to replenish itself.

The [Paradise] in Dark’s hand was of this type.

One deployment could last for over half an hour.

If he continued to infuse a certain amount of magic after deployment, it could easily last for twenty-four hours.

And just like [Zoo], it could also allow those magic spirits that formed an energy cycle to live there for a long time.

However, the magic spirits that could form an energy cycle with the [Paradise] field could only be the ten that had already been recorded!

As Dark partially deployed [Paradise], the light emanating from the magic card illuminated the entire bedroom, and a carousel appeared on the empty space beside the bed.

“Meow meow meow?”

“Ying ying ying?”

“Moo!”

…

…

[Two-in-one, 4150 characters, yesterday’s portion!]