The so-called "Sourman" was a comic-relief character from the manga Dr. Slump, also known as "Idiot Superman."
Sourman's costume was cut from the same pattern as a certain famous superhero's, except the "S" on the chest had been swapped for "す" (su, in hiragana).
He was pudgy, selfish, cowardly, yet convinced of his own righteousness, with the comically inconvenient rule that he could only change into his superhero suit inside a phone booth.
But even after successfully transforming into Sourman, he still couldn't actually do anything.
His Ultimate Move was "lie flat on a skateboard and pretend to fly."
So the Armament Card "Sourman" not only depicted the costume with the "す" emblem, but also thoughtfully came bundled with a skateboard!
"Sourman"'s activation chant was: "Eat a sour plum, become Superman!"
...
Dark had originally just wanted something simple, carving up a random superhero suit for an experiment—and somehow blundered his way into producing this "Sourman" armament.
But in truth, apart from being "utterly useless," it had no real drawbacks either.
"I'll just give it to Phoenix Maiden as a toy..."
Thinking this, Dark tucked "Sourman" away and went back to listening to the lecture.
Phoenix Maiden's magic power was inexhaustible—she was the only one among the Magic Guide Spirits who could dive straight into studying magic or Magic Guide technology.
If Phoenix Maiden put it on, "Sourman" might actually pull off a convincing "Superwoman" look.
...
Dark had never been one for empty words, so once the day's classes ended, he really did give "Sourman" to Phoenix Maiden!
Phoenix Maiden wasn't Dark's Magic Guide Spirit, but "Sourman" wasn't exactly a heavily personalized, high-end Magic Guide Card either.
And Dark hadn't carved a mind-lock into this particular card.
So Phoenix Maiden summoned the "Sourman" armament without any trouble at all.
Dark already knew that the "Silent Sage" Cyrus had been trying to teach the Magic Guide Spirits knowledge related to the Magic Guide arts.
Of them all, Phoenix Maiden learned the fastest.
After all, she had advantages none of the others could match.
"Eat a sour plum, become Superman."
With the other Magic Guide Spirits gathered around to watch, Phoenix Maiden recited Sourman's activation chant in an icily flat voice.
Then her body flared with light, and in the blink of an eye her adorable princess dress turned into a superhero costume worn over her underwear!
For one instant, astonishment cracked across her perpetually cold face.
But that astonishment hadn't come from the look of the "Sourman" armament.
In fact...
Hideous as the superhero suit was, she somehow made it look like it belonged on a fashion runway.
The skin-tight blue bodysuit clung to her exquisite, delicate figure, and the red cape against her fiery red hair burned like living flame.
The red skateboard tucked under her arm added a touch of youthful, trendy energy.
The "Sourman" armament suited her in a way that made no sense at all!
What truly stunned Phoenix Maiden was that after transforming into Sourman, her magic power—originally as high as 1500 points—had been forced down to a mere 100, exactly matching her attack and defense stats!
When Dark found out, his mouth twitched.
"This 'Sourman' can actually turn the wearer into a useless wretch with 100 magic, 100 attack, and 100 defense?"
Once she'd calmed down, Phoenix Maiden nodded.
A closer look revealed her aura had shifted noticeably too.
It had become far more ordinary than before.
Like an average young girl, not the living incarnation of a phoenix.
With a cool expression, she set the skateboard down beneath her feet, clearly meaning to try it out.
But a mere 100 points of magic power couldn't possibly cover a Magic Guide Spirit's own baseline drain.
With Alvit providing no magic support at that moment, Phoenix Maiden's body suddenly turned transparent, then dissolved entirely into points of magical light, vanishing into the air.
Dark stared at the spot where she'd vanished, surprised. "Does that mean her original Ultimate Move—'Immortal Flame Seed'—got sealed too?" he said, hesitating.
If that were really true, this armament's ranking might turn out surprisingly high.
And since it worked as an "armament" effect, most magic or Ultimate Moves that could dispel abnormal states would probably be useless against it.
It worked on the same principle as how "Blessing" and "Healing" effects were notoriously hard to strip away.
The difference was that an "armament" could always be freely removed.
So the only way to actually use "Sourman" to seal an opponent's abilities was to first gain complete control over their mind.
That sounded pretty stupid.
But in practice... it really was stupid!
"If the target is an opponent, this is a Magic Guide Card with an extremely narrow range of application."
"It's best used on someone who's easy to control but hard to kill."
"If it's used on yourself or an ally, though, it could work well to mask one's presence."
"The drawback is that you genuinely become useless, which only raises the danger."
Dark picked "Sourman" up off the ground where Phoenix Maiden had dropped it, and in that short span of time he'd already worked out its uses and its limits.
But right then, the Vampire Young Lady stepped over, held out her hand, and asked sweetly, "Can I borrow it for a bit?"
Dark, of course, had no reason to say no.
So after transforming into "Sourman," the Vampire Young Lady went riding her skateboard down the hallway, whooping with glee.
As for the issue of drained magic power—wasn't Daddy Dark right there?
"Woohoo, liftoff!"
The Vampire Young Lady's laughter rang out again and again, sweet as a silver bell.
...
Dark shook his head slightly, a helpless smile tugging at his mouth.
Then he wrote down the results of this experiment, pulled out his notes on "[Zoo]," and went back to studying.
Just as he'd told Claire.
On the research into "[Zoo]," he really did have only one problem left to solve.
But the problem left for last was, naturally, also the hardest and most complicated.
He'd been stuck on it for a long time now.
Still, he wasn't planning to visit Claire in the middle of the night—he intended to keep grinding away at it on his own.
...
The next day...
Alvit's "Armament Forging Mini-Lecture" opened up again.
But the classroom had shrunk from four students to three.
Meowth had only sat in on the first day, listening to Alvit's complete explanation of "Tri-Armed Armament Forging," before heading back to its own classes.
It hadn't even mastered the most basic Magic Guide knowledge, so of course it couldn't hope to learn "Tri-Armed Armament Forging."
Sitting in on that first day had only ever been so it could carve better.
—Perhaps that was simply the self-cultivation of a good assistant!
...
"All right, today's topic is forging the most basic armament—the 'Armor Armament'!"
Alvit rapped the blackboard to draw Dark's attention.
Dark, who had fully mastered the standard method of "Tri-Armed Armament Forging" since the very first day, had been off wondering what he'd forge next, and hadn't expected Alvit to just assign the topic herself.
He snapped back to attention and listened closely.
Though there were three students in the room, Alvit was really only teaching for his benefit.
The other two hadn't even properly gotten started.
Mastering "Tri-Armed Armament Forging" was even harder than forging a "Fusion" Magic Guide Card—obviously not something learned overnight.
Diana and Aurora, who'd only sat through a single day of lectures, could do little more than take notes and digest them gradually.
Alvit's free time was extremely limited too; she couldn't hold their hands through every step.
Lectures in the morning. Experiments in the afternoon.
Alvit left in a hurry as soon as her lecture ended.
Dark took Diana and Aurora through the experiments together.
As the name implied, an "Armor Armament" was a Magic Guide Card that, once worn, made its user look armor-clad.
The "armament" Mike Owen had once used was one variety of "Armor Armament."
Forging this kind of Armament Card demanded pouring one's whole heart into meticulous carving.
Alvit usually worked with knitted dresses, while Dark first needed to carve a complete suit of armor—ideally a full-body set including headgear and a weapon.
Since this was purely an experiment using basic materials,
Dark didn't carve too finely this time—he went for speed instead.
He picked out a chunk of silver from the materials and quickly carved out a full suit of armor, choosing a long spear for the weapon.
Alvit's "Undying Divine Spear" and Camilla's "Fenrir Spear" had left some influence on the design.
Once the carving was finished, he began the forging.
The standard method for "Tri-Armed Armament Forging" differed from the general method for "Equipment Cards" in a great many ways.
But the standard "Tri-Armed Armament Forging" method still required the "Manjusaka" potion as its base.
This was probably a major reason Dark's earlier armament forging at the Academy had succeeded.
Since he'd already run the experiment yesterday and had a finished result to reference, his technique today was noticeably faster and steadier.
About half an hour later, he'd finished all the preliminary steps of "Tri-Armed Armament Forging."
Diana had been leaning over the table watching the whole time, and now asked curiously, "Can we start carving the [Tri-Armed Transmutation Circle] now?"
"That's right." Dark nodded, then used a magic power pen to trace out, in one smooth motion, a complex three-dimensional transmutation circle above the blank Magic Guide Card.
This one step alone, his hand moved with unusual mastery.
Once it was carved, he needed to pour in "psychic power," turning the "[Tri-Armed Transmutation Circle]" into a "Mental Furnace."
And the awakening and use of "psychic power" was one of the core things Alvit taught.
Until now, Dark had always cut corners by using "Major Sin" as a substitute for psychic power, but that clearly wasn't a sustainable approach.
What Alvit taught was a special method called the "Three Flowers Technique."
The so-called "Three Flowers Technique" was the art of gathering essence, qi, and spirit—the three flowers converging at the crown!
This had originally been a technique martial experts used to open the "Brahmarandhra."
But after Alvit made some adjustments, it became a technique for awakening "psychic power" instead.
The foundation of the "Three Flowers Technique" lay in "qi."
Using "qi" as a bridge to link essence and spirit inside the body, blending the two into one and gathering them at the "Brahmarandhra"—that was the three flowers converging.
Once the "Brahmarandhra" opened, it produced "Momentum."
And the essence of "Momentum" was psychic power itself!
This was why Alvit had originally planned to wait until Dark had a preliminary grasp of "qi" before teaching him the standard method of "Tri-Armed Armament Forging."
Once someone had "qi," even without opening all seven wheels to produce "Momentum," they could still use the adjusted "Three Flowers Technique" to awaken "psychic power."
And only with psychic power could one cast a "Mental Furnace."
...
After carving out the "[Tri-Armed Transmutation Circle]," Dark pressed a finger to his brow and closed his eyes to focus his mind.
His training in the "[Nether God Art]" let him grasp the "Three Flowers Technique" faster than even the naturally gifted Diana and Aurora.
When his essence, qi, and spirit reached deep concentration, it felt as though a single drop of water fell into the field of his heart, sending ripples spreading outward.
White light gradually lit at his fingertip, and a faint wave of psychic power rippled off it.
Then his eyes snapped open, a sharp glint flashing there and gone.
A flick of his finger sent the white light at his fingertip straight into the glowing sphere of the "[Tri-Armed Transmutation Circle]."
That point of white light spread like ink poured from above, whitening the entire surface of the transmutation circle in an instant.
The "mental irrigation" process went off without a hitch.
Dark let out a small breath of relief, then smiled faintly.
By pouring one's thoughts into the process while performing the "Three Flowers Technique," one could shape the environment of the "Mental Furnace" and forge exactly the "armament" one had in mind.
Of course, that was an extremely advanced application.
He couldn't quite pull it off yet.
But that didn't stop him from giving it a try anyway.
"For an 'Armor Armament,' it's still gotta be that one, right?"
Dark placed the carved silver figure into the "Mental Furnace," then, seizing the moment, popped a "candy bean" into his mouth.
Instantly, an immense pull surged out from the "Mental Furnace," greedily devouring his magic power.
By the time two-thirds of his magic power was gone, the entire smelting process finally completed.
Finally, he picked up the magic power pen and pressed gently down on top of the "Mental Furnace," compressing the spherical transmutation circle into the Magic Guide Card, leaving behind only a thick layer of light.
The reaction inside the Magic Guide Card remained intense.
Dark watched closely and waited patiently.
Only after five and a half minutes did the violent fluctuations inside the Magic Guide Card gradually settle, the layer of light on its surface thinning and slowly sinking down into the card.
A suit of silvery-white armor slowly surfaced on the card's face.
Though it differed a great deal from what he'd envisioned, it truly was a metal suit of armor—and it even came with a silver spear.
Of course, if Dark had genuinely wanted to forge that other thing, he wouldn't have just tacked on a weapon out of nowhere.
Besides, the material used for the carving and the supplementary ingredients needed during the forging both carried extra requirements of their own.
With only the materials available in this classroom right now... it simply wasn't going to happen.
...
"Looks like it worked?" Diana and Aurora crowded in from either side, staring at the Magic Guide Card.
Dark stood the card upright and poured magic power into it.
A moment later, a thread of information fed back to him.
[Card Name: Spear Armament]
[Type: Item Card]
[Effect: Attack +200, Defense +100; grants the Ultimate Move "Divine Spear."]
[Divine Spear: The silver spear of the (Spear Armament) has extreme extensibility, able to instantly lengthen and skewer the enemy. Armor Break +1, Attack +200.]
"So, how is it?" Diana asked, eyes bright with excitement.
Dark frowned a little. "It's a surprisingly decent armament."
"Try it on!" Diana suggested at once.
"Sure." Dark nodded.
"In the name of Dark, Magic Guide Summon—'Spear Armament'!"
"Armament, Transform!"
Dark pressed two fingers together like a blade and gave a light flick; light burst from the "Spear Armament" held between them.
Countless silver threads erupted from the card's surface, wrapping around his body almost instantly and weaving into a suit of silver armament at incredible speed.
Dark held out his hand, and threads spiraling down from the arm guard formed into a silver spear.
Checking himself against a mirror, he saw the armament covered nearly his entire body, leaving only the lower half of his face below the nose exposed.
From the moment he "put it on," the "Spear Armament" began continuously drawing on his magic power.
That magic power circulated through the armor plating, tightening the bond between the armament and his body.
Dark focused inward and found that, while his current state wasn't as strong as after the armament had evolved into "Moon God," it still gave him a noticeable boost to his physical condition.
"This must be the difference between an Armament Card and an Equipment Card."
"An Equipment Card's bonus attack and defense apply to the gear itself, but an Armament Card raises the wearer's overall stats."
"For instance, putting on an ordinary suit of armor just makes you feel heavier."
"But after an armament Transform, you actually feel lighter."
"The price you pay for that, though, is constant magic power drain."
Dark examined the sensation carefully.
This "Spear Armament" was currently draining magic power at 3 points per second—about the same as a 3-star Magic Guide Spirit.
But this was only the beginning; the drain would only grow the longer the armament card stayed in use.
"Skewer them, Divine Spear!"
Dark thrust a finger at the dummy standing in the corner, and the silver spear in his hand shot out instantly, punching clean through the dummy's chest!
The sudden sight left Diana's mouth hanging open in a perfect "O."
Dark gave the spear shaft a shake, and it snapped back at once, trembling faintly.
Then he tried "Divine Spear" again once every second.
By the fifteenth second, the spear extended once more, piercing the dummy's belly.
"Only a fifteen-second cooldown?"
"That's fast!"
Dark retracted the spear, unable to shake a small pang of regret.
If he'd carved with more care, chosen his materials more carefully... maybe what came out wouldn't have been this "Spear Armament" at all!
Give a person an inch and they'll want a mile.
Be content—be content!
Dark kept reminding himself.
But right before his eyes, a "Greed +1" notice still floated by.
A flicker of delight rose in him anyway, and he shared his thought process and what he'd learned from the experiment with Diana and Aurora.
Notebook in hand, Diana sighed enviously. "I really want to try forging one too."
"Master the Three Flowers Technique first," Aurora reminded her.
Diana took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh.
...
The three of them had fairly flexible class hours.
Once the afternoon experiments ended, they were basically free to go.
But Dark didn't leave. Instead, he stayed behind to give Diana and Aurora some supplementary lessons in Alvit's place.
Eager to be just like Dark, forging their favorite "outfits" as freely as he did, both girls studied with real intensity during the tutoring.
Unfortunately, Diana's head was full of mush.
Aurora, before this, had barely had any contact with Magic Guide knowledge at all—she was essentially starting from zero.
So their progress crawled along at a slow pace.
And Diana couldn't stay at the Duke's estate all the way until night anyway.
Once Camilla finished her teaching duties, Diana had to head home with her mother, then come back again the next day.
Each time, Dark saw Diana off to the gate, went back to check in on the Magic Guide Spirits' daily studies, ate dinner with his family, and finally returned to his room to keep working on "[Zoo]."
He was down to the very last step in fully understanding "[Zoo]."
So Dark set his other projects aside for the time being and focused entirely on cracking the "[Zoo]" problem.
But as his research deepened, the final problem got peeled apart layer by layer, and he gradually realized it contained knowledge beyond his current scope—something past what he could solve alone.
"Hisss—"
Dark rapped his own head, a little troubled.
The downside of tackling such an advanced Magic Guide Card as "[Zoo]" as a mere first-year had finally shown itself.
He was stuck!
...
So then, the question was—
what do you do when you're stuck?
Answer one: pay to win.
Answer two: call for backup.
Dark thought it over and chose to call for backup.
But it was already late into the night, too late to bother anyone.
Dark decided he'd visit Claire tomorrow night instead.
...
July 4th, Wednesday.
The sun hung high overhead, the heat unbearable.
Dark handed in yesterday's experiment results at Alvit's armament forging class.
After inspecting the "Spear Armament" card, Alvit gave it fairly high praise: "Looks like forging an 'Armor Armament' is no trouble for you at all. Too bad this 'Spear Armament' isn't quite enough to get you into the Tower of Ares."
"Tower of Ares? The dueling tower you mentioned before?" Dark asked curiously.
Alvit smiled and nodded. "The Tower of Ares, also called the War God Tower, is the sacred ground of armament dueling. Your sister Ollie trained inside it once, you know."
Dark thought for a moment, then looked up. "How is an armament duel different from a Magic Guide duel?"
Alvit said, "An armament duel, as the name implies, is a duel centered on 'Armament Cards.' Duelists can only use 'Armament Cards' and 'Equipment Cards'—there's no Magic Sphere at all, just an arena, and the duelists have to fight in person."
Dark asked, puzzled, "So I'd summon my fist to represent an attack?"
Alvit couldn't help laughing. "That's actually not far off. In any case, compared to Magic Guide duels, armament duels are less varied, but far more intense and much more focused on genuine combat."
Dark nodded. "So then, why isn't my 'Spear Armament' enough to get me into the Tower of Ares? Does the Tower even have an entry requirement?"
"Of course it does," Alvit said with a smile. "For most people, even qualifying to enter the Tower of Ares is extremely difficult. No point explaining more now—you'll understand when the time comes."
Dark pressed, "When is 'when the time comes'?"
Alvit said slyly, "That's not set in stone. It'll have to wait until I've dealt with my current business. At the very earliest, that'll be around August."
"That long?" Dark couldn't help saying.
Alvit said, "Can't be helped—blame the Holy Church for stirring up trouble."
Dark's pupils narrowed slightly, but he didn't press the topic further.
After all, this was still class time; digressions ended there.
Once she paused, Alvit turned to the blackboard and wrote: "Starting today, a new topic—the advanced form of the 'Armor Armament': the 'Driver Armament'!"
Then she launched into a careful, methodical explanation.
She didn't cite classical references, but she made up for it with clarity and precision.
Dark gradually came to understand what a "Driver Armament" actually was.
The so-called "Driver Armament" differed from the "Armor Armament" mainly in that it didn't exist directly as armor or a weapon, but instead gathered all its information into a dedicated driver device.
The Transform was completed through the driver!
This driver device could be a belt, a wand, a transformation gadget, or even just a stone or a sword.
In short, drivers came in every possible form, but their core function was always the same: assisting their owner in performing an "armament Transform."
"So then, what's the advantage of a 'Driver Armament'?"
Dark had some grasp of driver devices themselves, but what puzzled him was: in a world that already relied on Magic Guide Cards as the driving mechanism, what was the point of inserting yet another driver device between the card and the armament?
Alvit blinked and said, "For most Magic Guide Masters who specialize in Armament Cards, the biggest appeal of a 'Driver Armament' is probably that you don't need to design the armament itself—you just design a driver, then let the forging process run free from there. That makes the design process far more convenient, and the finished armament often turns out more sensible too."
"A perk for the ham-fisted?" Dark couldn't help saying.
"Pretty much," Alvit said.
Dark asked further, "And for the minority of Magic Guide Masters?"
Alvit said, "That depends on who you ask. Personally, I prefer to call it a 'Mental Armament.' For our school of thought, the true essence of a 'Driver Armament' is just skipping the step of designing the armament itself, and putting the emphasis instead on the 'mental irrigation' process—not actually skipping design altogether. Because you absolutely have to know exactly what you want to forge!"
Dark shook his head. "Designing a concrete model in your head isn't any easier than meticulously crafting an actual armament."
Alvit said, "True enough. But doing it this way lowers the material requirements considerably. And 'Driver Armaments' tend to fit better than 'Armor Armaments'—they suit the Magic Guide Master more closely. Most importantly, a 'Driver Armament' can gain amplification from psychic power!"
"An Idealist Armament?" Dark fell silent for a moment.
If that were true, then the "Driver Armament" really did hold more potential than the "Armor Armament."
Of course, some "Armor Armaments" could gain the same amplification from psychic power, but they were a rare exception.
...
With that, Dark had gained a general grasp of the "Driver Armament."
Seeing this, Alvit said, "Same as usual—I'll go over the key points of the 'Driver Armament' in the morning. The afternoon is yours, for your own experiments."
Dark nodded slightly.
Alvit went on with the lesson.
...
Forging a "Driver Armament" looked simpler in its steps, but it was actually more complex than an "Armor Armament" at its core.
Dark absorbed everything Alvit taught with his full attention, like a sponge.
Diana and Aurora, though they didn't understand much, still took careful notes.
With everyone fully focused, the morning class ended quickly.
Alvit didn't even stay for lunch at the Duke's estate—she rushed off to her office together with Claire.
As mid-July drew closer, the two of them grew busier by the day.
Apart from occasionally discussing things with them, Dark kept trying to read the current situation through the newspapers.
He could faintly sense that undercurrents were already stirring within the Royal Capital, all sorts of monsters and demons starting to poke their heads out.
When the Holy Church held its "Execution Ritual," that would likely be the moment all the devils came out to dance.
But Dark sometimes wondered—if even he could think this far, surely the Holy Church couldn't have failed to think of it too.
So could it be that the Holy Church was actually operating on some fifth level of scheming?
Did the "Execution Ritual" have some other purpose entirely?
...
That afternoon.
Once Dark entered the classroom, he started trying to forge a "Driver Armament."
But forging a "Driver Armament" turned out to be, as expected, harder than forging an "Armor Armament."
After several attempts, Dark failed every single time.
The last try got lucky and succeeded, but the result was barely better than nothing.
This left him rather troubled.
But after declaring "class dismissed" for himself, he quickly recovered his good mood.
At half past nine, after dinner,
Dark learned from Ollie that Claire had been home for a little over half an hour, so he gathered his notes and materials and went to pay her a visit.
This was the first time since returning to the Duke's estate that Dark had visited Claire Kite's room at night.
"You're here?"
Claire, dressed only in pajamas, leaned back in a white latticed chair, looking a little worn out.
These days, helping Alvit handle official business kept her just as swamped, with only her evenings left free.
The moment Dark stepped into Claire's bedroom, he noticed "[Zoo]" spread out across the room.
But the familiar animals were all curled up quietly in various corners of the room.
Even the most mischievous monkeys were simply hanging from the swing dangling from the ceiling, swaying gently.
"Is this all right, Aunt Claire?" Dark asked.
Claire waved a hand. "Of course."
So without standing on ceremony, Dark set his notebook—packed dense with writing—right in front of her and launched into a deep discussion.
More than an hour later, everything clicked into place for Dark.
He'd already spent an enormous amount of time researching this on his own and had been down to the final step; now, with Claire's guidance, he'd finally fully grasped even that last part that had been beyond his scope.
"Looks like I can start the forging experiment for '[Zoo]' in a couple of days!"
Excitement stirred in Dark's chest, a new brightness entering his eyes.
Unlike "[Paradise]," which he'd gotten for free, "[Zoo]" had basically been researched piece by piece through his own effort, and the time and energy it had cost him were beyond counting.
If he could successfully forge it, that would stand as a huge affirmation of all that effort.
For his academic career, it could genuinely be called a milestone victory.
But before that, he still had one small problem left to solve.
"Here—the materials kit."
Claire waved a hand, and a monkey came shuffling over carrying a large box.
"Three portions. Once they're gone, they're gone," she said, pointing at the box.
Dark scooped the box up at once—score!
Claire shook her head, picked up Galileo from the desk, and walked off toward the bed.
____
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