The villainous young master just wants to live a Buddhist-like life.

　[Deception: Using the opponent's strength against them, attacking by borrowing their power. The higher the opponent's attack level, the greater the power!]

　I must say, this is a very big surprise.

　The usefulness of "fraud" is self-evident.

　This gives "Umbreon," a Pokémon with exceptional defense and top-tier magic, a powerful ability to counterattack.

　……

　Another fifteen minutes passed.

　Once "Umbreon" devolves into "Umbreon", Dark picks up "Greed II" and summons it.

　As expected, "Greed II" only changes the last two special moves of "Eevee" to "Craving" and "Sandstorm".

　Dark then used a normal summoning spell to activate "Greed III".

　Bathed in blue-purple light, "Eevee: Eevee" gradually evolved into "Gladiator: Eevee"!

　Dark rarely summons "Gladiator" in magical duels, but it is actually very useful.

　Especially its ultimate skill, "Mirror Reflection," is practically a mage's bane!

　In addition, the four-star "Gladiator" also has two special moves: "Ice Shard" and "Blizzard".

　Now that it has evolved into a six-star unit, it has only retained "Mirror Reflection" and "Blizzard".

　Card Name: Magical Beast (Gladiator)

　[Type: Spirit Card]

　【grade:】

　[Race: Bird-Beast]

　[Attribute: Ice]

　【Magic Power: 3500】

　[Attack: 2000]

　[Defense: 3500]

　[Special Attacks: Mirror Reflection, Freezing Beam, Hail, Blizzard]

　The night was cold, and the appearance of "Gladiator" further lowered the indoor temperature.

　Dark quickly channeled his magic and checked the information.

　Like "Gladiator," "Gladiator" is a defensively specialized magical Pokémon.

　However, what's different is that its magic power is also exceptionally high. But in contrast, its attack power is further reduced.

　With only 2000 attack power, its basic attack damage is negligible.

　Dark turned his gaze to the ultimate attack that served as the soul of the magical spirit.

　The first and most crucial technique is "mirror reflection"!

　[Mirror Reflection: Reflects double the amount of the opponent's spell attacks after absorbing the damage!]

　The second ultimate move is "Frozen Beam".

　[Frozen Beam: Fires a frozen beam at the opponent, sometimes freezing them. The chance of freezing is doubled in extremely cold weather such as (hail).]

　"A powerful attack skill with a probabilistic control effect, not bad."

　Dak couldn't help but smile.

　One scene that left a deep impression on him while watching the Pokémon anime was when Lapras unleashed its Ice Beam.

　A beam of icy blue light shoots out, freezing the opponent into an ice block—just thinking about it is exhilarating.

　Unfortunately, as a finishing move, its freezing probability is not 100%.

　Even in special climates, the probability is at most 20%.

　"Let's see the third ultimate move, 'Hail'!"

　Unlike the short-lived "blizzard," "hail" is undoubtedly a genuine terrain skill.

　[Hail (Greed): Summons hail, causing a sharp drop in temperature. Each hailstone carries the power to strip the target of their life force. The continuously falling hail will deal damage to all magical spirits except those of the Ice attribute. The hail lasts for five turns. The power of Ice-type special moves is increased by 50%, and the power of Fire-type special moves is reduced by 20%.]

　"Both are 'Greed' field moves, and the effects of [Hailstorm (Greed)] and [Sandstorm (Greed)] are extremely similar; both are field moves with offensive capabilities."

　"But the way damage is calculated is different."

　"In addition to the physical damage caused by falling, each hailstone can cause approximately 0-100 points of true damage."

　"If you don't take cover and use your ultimate move to counter it, a bunch of hailstones might just smash you to death."

　"Furthermore, the 'Frozen Beam' gains an increased chance of freezing in 'Hail' weather, and its power increases by 50%, making it an extremely powerful finishing move."

　After pondering for a while, Dark looked at the fourth ultimate move – "Blizzard"!

　[Blizzard: Attacks the opponent with a fierce blizzard, sometimes freezing them. In extremely cold weather such as (hail), the freezing probability doubles and the duration increases until the extreme cold weather ends, with a maximum duration of five rounds. A blizzard occurs once per round.]

　"Five consecutive hits of 'Blizzard'?"

　Dak was taken aback.

　"Blizzard" is already an extremely powerful finishing move, and its power increases by 50% in "Hail" weather. It is also an area-of-effect attack, so it is extremely strong even if listed separately.

　Now, when combined with "Hail," it can last for up to five rounds... That's just too outrageous!

　If the opponent doesn't have a special move that can dispel the "hail", they will be at a complete disadvantage on the field.

　The strength of this "Gladiator" seems to have suddenly jumped to a whole new level!

　……

　After spending some time recording and analyzing, Dark only tested the effect of "Rage II" after "Gladiator" devolved into "Gladiator Eevee" before stopping the experiment.

　Today's full-day experiments allowed him to fully experience the thrill of "accumulating knowledge and experience before unleashing its power."

　Following that, many new magical spirits are in the process of being created.

　"There's the 'Golden Cup' tomorrow and the day after, go to sleep now!"

　But after washing up, Dark still insisted on practicing "Netherworld Art" for half an hour before quickly falling asleep.

　The following day, the second Saturday since the start of the "Golden Cup," he received the week's schedule on Tuesday morning. On Wednesday afternoon, he also received an invitation to challenge the following week.

　According to the rules, he needs to respond before the end of this Sunday, otherwise it will be considered a refusal to accept the challenge.

　However, because he was too busy these past two days, Dak didn't take a closer look.

　There happened to be a duel this morning, so he temporarily stopped his research and took out the "Sorting Card" to check it during breakfast.

　After all, it was a challenge aimed at a second-year student, and not many people were truly willing to swallow their pride.

　Apart from the indignant third-grade students, there were only a few fourth and fifth-grade students.

　Dak glanced at the challenge applications from the third graders and spotted a few somewhat familiar names, but quickly moved on.

　What he cares about most is the challenge of fourth and fifth grade.

　In summary, there are three challenge invitations for fourth graders and only one for fifth graders.

　However, among the four names that challenged him, two of them looked quite familiar.

　"Fourth year, Magic Academy, Patricia Pollin..."

　"Isn't that the senior student in the sixth-year knight academy uniform at the masquerade ball?"

　"What did she say back then? Fifth year, Magic Academy, Patricia Pollin?"

　"She's actually a fourth-year student?"

　Dark couldn't help but show a look of surprise.

　"In the fourth-year magic academy, besides senior Winnie Skadi, there's actually someone like this?"

　"And this real fifth-grader..."

　Dark couldn't help but flip through the challenge invitation from that fifth-grader again.

　But the name written on that standard challenge invitation was none other than Fern Morse, a fifth-year student from the Fools' House!

　He was equally impressed by this fifth-grade student from the Fools' House.

　Even now, he still remembers the words his senior left behind: "Remember my name—Fern Morse, a name destined to shock the world."

　Regardless of whether he was overly arrogant, the senior who could say such things was certainly not an easy person to deal with.

　Which of these two senior students should we choose?

　“Fern Morse is a fifth-year student; I might not be a match for him yet.”

　“Although Patricia Pollin is only a fourth-year student, Snake Harriman is a bit more difficult to deal with.”

　"Okay, let's accept them all!"

　"The 'Golden Cup'—failure is also part of the experience."

　"If the schedule remains the same as this week, then there's no point in participating in the 'Golden Cup.'"

　Dark tapped the "Sorting Card," and two names appeared on the card.

　These two names are his opponents in today's and tomorrow's duels.

　They were all third-year students, and I don't remember them very well.

　An ordinary third-year student, whether in terms of the strength of their magic cards or the deck system they build, is far inferior to Elsie Kewen.

　Fighting them will generally not yield much benefit.

　"Thinking about it carefully, there's nothing we can do about it."

　"From the Duel Club's perspective, they can't keep assigning fourth- and fifth-year duelists to a second-year student indefinitely."

　"If I don't come up with a solution, I'm likely to face opponents of this caliber from now on."

　"In short, I'll go to the Duel Club first and accept Patricia Pollin's and Fern Morse's duel invitations."

　"Then we'll head to the open-air dueling arena to face today's opponent..."

　"Hey!"

　The cat sighed.

　……

　The staff at the dueling club were surprised that he would accept challenges from fourth- and fifth-year students, but they respected his personal opinion and submitted the challenge.

　They will then schedule the matches for the following weekend.

　Dark won his next duel against the third-year students without any suspense.

　Although the third-year student was unwilling, he could only admit that he was not as skilled as the other student.

　He then intended to return to his dormitory to continue his "secondary transformation" experiment—his goal was to transform two more three-star "Fantasy Beast: Eevee" cards!

　But shortly after winning the duel, he received a "text message" from Pandora.

　……

Chapter 657

　The "access card" for the secret passage is perfectly adequate as a communication device.

　Dak took out the "access card" and saw Pandora's signature.

　Then a thought suddenly struck him: "Have the dragon-type materials been prepared?"

　I opened "Messages," and sure enough, it was true!

　Dak immediately went to the clubroom.

　Pandora Drogon is currently in the Magical Creatures Club classroom, chatting with Katrina Isaiah, who is also a student at the Magic Academy.

　Apart from Katrina, none of the club members were in the classroom.

　When Dark arrived quickly, he saw Katrina with flushed cheeks, speaking rapidly, while Pandora calmly responded, looking like she was imparting knowledge.

　Pandora is an idol.