Reduced to a mere 750 Attack, the Giant, despite its still imposing size and terrifying aura, was nothing but scrap metal before Shuckle's 2200 Attack.
"Hmph!"
With a grunt like a weightlifter's, Shuckle grabbed the Giant's toes and gave it a mighty heave, sending it spiraling through the air before slamming hard against the wall!
Truly, as expected of St. Marian's Castle…
Even after such a horrific impact, the wall remained perfectly intact, merely trembling slightly as a bit of dust trickled down.
But the Giant was plastered against it, limbs spread wide in a '大' shape.
Its head took the brunt of the impact, and it was visibly knocked clean out of its 'Berserk' state. Finally unable to resist Virt's card recall any longer, it was forcefully withdrawn.
At the same time, the faint glow around Shuckle quickly faded.
Shuckle possessed four skills. Aside from its passive ability, [Sturdy], each active skill cost 100 mana and had a very short duration. Furthermore, its total mana pool was only 900, and its skills also had cooldowns. This meant that under normal circumstances, Shuckle could typically only land one powerful blow. But still, for a commonly summonable three-star Magical Spirit, it was truly worthy of its Gold Card status.
Dark recalled it with immense satisfaction.
Virt, however, stood there, his face pale with anger and disbelief.
No one could have predicted things would turn out this way.
Deeply blaming himself, Virt rushed over to Robert's side, anxiously asking if he was hurt. Robert was relatively lucky; aside from being shaken up, he was unharmed.
Seeing Robert cling to Virt, nearly bursting into tears, Dark couldn't help but shake his head and prepare to leave. As for the duel bet… he wasn't exactly one to strictly follow school rules anyway.
But he had only taken a few steps when Virt called out to him.
Gritting his teeth, Virt insisted, "You win this round, but I'll win next time!"
Dark simply nodded along. "Good luck with that."
Virt's expression faltered for a moment, but he still transferred the 100 points, adding that he owed the remaining 1 point and would pay it back tomorrow morning.
Only after Dark turned his back and started walking away did Robert, having recovered slightly, quickly remind Virt. Virt then slowly drew the [Forbidden Love] card and pointed it briefly at the back of Dark's head.
Dark felt a prickle of awareness but pretended not to notice, gradually disappearing around the corner.
"Well? How did it go?" Robert asked, wiping his eyes.
Virt showed him the [Forbidden Love] card. The favorability rating displayed on it was still 45!
Robert gasped, "It didn't work?"
Virt nodded, his face still grim. "Maybe my performance wasn't good enough... Dammit, I can't even control my own Magical Spirit! How can I be such a failure?!"
Robert asked quizzically, "Are you骂ing yourself now?"
Virt: "..."
Could you maybe not say that out loud?
"...Just as I thought?"
Pausing briefly around the corner, Dark then continued on his way. Virt's true objective matched his suspicions closely. Thinking about it carefully, it was rather baffling.
However, being able to easily detect the prying gaze on the back of his head proved that his practice of the 'Psyshade Technique' was progressing well—much faster than Professor Kazel had predicted, at least. He believed it wouldn't be long before he fully mastered this secret art for refining mental power. By then, he wouldn't have to worry about being spied on by [Forbidden Love].
In truth, [Forbidden Love] had very little effect on him; he merely saw it as a potential future threat. In a world where methods for prying into someone's mind existed, he had to be prepared. The 'Psyshade Technique' was just a basic countermeasure; he would need to find stronger methods later on.
Back in his dormitory, Dark first experimented with the influence of the Great Sin series Magic Cards on [Shuckle]. There was an effect, but apart from a noticeable boost in its Intelligence Level, it didn't undergo any definitive changes in abilities like Eevee had.
Dark speculated this stemmed from the unique nature of [Magical Beast: Eevee]. Not all Magical Spirits possessed the inherent potential for 'transformation' like Eevee. Of course, it was also possible that [Shuckle] wasn't compatible with [Pride] or [Rapture], or simply that its potential for 'change' was already maxed out.
After recording the experimental data, Dark continued his research into mental aspects.
Around 8:30 PM, he suddenly stopped writing and sketched a Shuckle in his notebook. Next to the "Shuckle," he drew several fruits.
Right, no wonder I felt like I was forgetting something.
A spirit like Shuckle, besides combat, has another very important ability.
Inside its pot-like shell, it can dissolve stored Berries and ferment them into a delicious, viscous Berry Juice. That juice even has the special property of restoring stamina!
Considering the unique nature of Berries themselves, this world might not have the exact same Berries as the Pokémon world, but perhaps substituting other fruits could still yield some decent juice.
His curiosity piqued, Dark glanced at the large pile of fruits sitting in the corner. He had bought them all while collecting Flower Cards and was worried he wouldn't be able to eat them all himself...
Perfect for an experiment!
Naturally, since this was an experiment, he couldn't just randomly stuff fruits inside. Dark sorted the fruits by type: first apples, then oranges, then pears. Those were the ones he had bought.
"Let's start with apples."
Enthusiastically, Dark took out the [Shuckle] Magic Card and performed a normal summon.
Shuckle's shell had eight holes, perfect for inserting fruits. If they didn't fit, he'd just cut them into pieces!
Dark inserted pieces of cut apple into one of the holes.
Shuckle, its Intelligence Level now boosted above 3.0, immediately began to wiggle its body, rubbing against Dark's hand.
"Good boy," Dark soothed it gently.
Understanding his intent, Shuckle retracted its body into its shell and began rapidly dissolving and fermenting the apple pieces.
In less than five minutes, the equivalent of three apples had been successfully fermented into delicious apple juice!
Dark thanked Shuckle, temporarily recalled it to its Magic Card to replenish its mana, and simultaneously summoned DemiDevimon.
DemiDevimon flew down from its perch, eyeing the three glasses of apple juice placed on the table. For once, it actually showed a look of craving. As a familiar, it didn't strictly need to eat; regular returns to its Branch Card to replenish mana were sufficient. However, its other half being a Digimon did grant it the ability to eat.
"Pick one and try it," Dark tempted it.
DemiDevimon immediately lowered its head to the nearest glass and downed the entire cup of apple juice in one go!
"How is it?" Dark asked keenly.
DemiDevimon squinted, savoring the taste for a moment before replying, "I feel like... my mind feels much clearer?"
In any case, it was confirmed non-toxic.
Dark picked up a glass himself and tasted it carefully. Then, his mind, weary from hours of reading, felt surprisingly refreshed and re-energized.
"So it really does refresh the mind? How very apple-like!"