Sorcerer’s Handbook

Based on Ashe and Sonya’s situation, asking the Golden Fish was undoubtedly the most cost-effective choice.

Spirits – they lacked them, but Fate’s answers could not simply hand over a spirit directly. This was a Q&A, not a wish granter.

Miracles – they were not lacking much in this aspect, and with their number of correct answers, the Virtual Realm would most likely not provide a detailed miracle formula at most, only pointing them toward a specific direction of miracle research.

As for quickly improving the proficiency level of their spellcasting disciplines, the fastest method would undoubtedly be taking Experience Orbs. And the origin of Experience Orbs were creatures of knowledge. The Virtual Realm could at most point them toward suitable creatures of knowledge, not directly taking an orb out from such a creature’s body and giving it to them.

After thinking it through, the three factors of spirits, miracles, and proficiency provided only decorational improvements. What truly determined a sorcerer’s combat power were undoubtedly the number of virtual wings and the level of arcane energy!

As long as they advanced to two wings, they could adventure in the Time continent and obtain two-winged spirits!

As long as they advanced to two wings, their arcane energy could continue growing!

As long as they advanced to two wings, Ashe could use his golden arcane energy to fully activate the two-winged spirit Sword, greatly increasing the defensive power of the Miracle Sword Barrier. This would provide greater assurance when breaking out of prison!

The reason Ashe was so eager to improve the swordswoman’s sword mastery to golden grade was that he hoped after she advanced to two wings, she could bring him to smuggle into the Time continent. And now there was an even better smuggling opportunity!

Of course, if they directly asked the Golden Fish, the Virtual Realm would definitely not provide a very detailed answer.

However, there was an obvious loophole in the Fate Q&A – no matter how many correct answers a sorcerer had, if the question was a matter of right or wrong judgement, the Virtual Realm would definitely provide the right answer!

For example, if a sorcerer was stuck in their research on a certain miracle, and had tried all possibilities leaving only two directions A and B, then asking the Virtual Realm whether direction A was right, the Virtual Realm could only answer “yes” or “no”, naturally also knowing whether direction B was right or wrong.

If it was a master logician, they could even construct a complex right-wrong judgement question to have the Virtual Realm eliminate multiple doubts for them.

For example, if Ashe asked “Will I see the swordswoman sleeping beside me when I wake up one day 10 years later?”, with the key points being “one day 10 years later”, “wake up”, and “swordswoman sleeping beside”.

“Wake up” was a necessary element, Ashe could not stay in the Virtual Realm every night, sleeping in lazily was a luxurious and wonderful enjoyment that Ashe definitely wanted to experience occasionally.

And “swordswoman sleeping beside” was a controllable element, Ashe could completely remember this and have her act it out and sleep beside him in the future.

The only uncontrollable element was “one day 10 years later”.

If the Virtual Realm answered “yes”, then naturally there was nothing more to say, Ashe could directly confidently call the swordswoman his wife.

If the answer was “no”, there were two possibilities – either Ashe and the swordswoman had broken up by then, so the swordswoman refused to even act it out; or the Virtual Realm believed Ashe would not live past 10 more years.

Therefore, when the Virtual Realm was stingy with its answer quality, asking right-wrong judgement questions was the most cost-effective choice, at least it would not provide useless information.

After briefly discussing, they decided to ask the Virtual Realm different questions in succession:

“Does the Golden Fish need to be seen through a specific ritual?”

Questions like “Where is the Golden Fish” or “How can I find the Golden Fish” would definitely not get a detailed answer. The Virtual Realm would mostly answer with correct nonsense like “In the Sea of Knowledge” or “Use your eyes to look for it”.

These two questions actually originated from Ashe and Sonya’s guess – Sonya had asked Professor Trotzam before, the Time continent was also an extremely vast place, not much smaller than the Sea of Knowledge. Logically, the Time continent was so big, then the Golden Fish should also be very huge, but why could sorcerers not see the Golden Fish in the Sea of Knowledge?

With the precedent of “Whirlpool Venom” and “Expulsion Venom”, they naturally associated and guessed that the Golden Fish was likely “non-existent” in the Sea of Knowledge. Only when a sorcerer activated the Virtual Realm’s mechanisms through a specific ritual would the Golden Fish appear before the sorcerer.

Yet the answer greatly shocked them: “No.”

The Golden Fish did not need a specific ritual to be seen? That meant the Golden Fish also existed in the Sea of Knowledge right now?

After briefly discussing, they asked the second question:

“When does the Golden Fish float up from the seabed?”

In any case, Ashe and Sonya were certain that encountering the Golden Fish through normal sailing was impossible. After all, even Ashe who held the “Virtual Realm Map” had never seen any trace of the Golden Fish, let alone other sorcerers.

Since it was not on the sea surface, then naturally it was sunk at the seabed. And adding on that the Golden Fish did not need a specific ritual to be seen, they guessed the Golden Fish may periodically float up from the deep sea to the surface. So they directly asked the Virtual Realm when the Golden Fish would float up, and they could try their luck finding it then.

Because it was not a right or wrong question, they were very nervous about whether the Virtual Realm would randomly spew nonsense.

The result still greatly shocked them: “The Golden Fish has always been floating on the sea surface.”

The Golden Fish has always been floating on the sea surface, and can be seen without any specific ritual?

Although this conclusion completely contradicted Ashe and Sonya’s experiences exploring the Virtual Realm, they had no choice but to believe it. If the Fate Answers mentioned the ‘future’ which may not happen, but their question about the Golden Fish was information the Virtual Realm definitely possessed. The Virtual Realm was the authority in this!

“Could it really be just our bad luck that we have never encountered the Golden Fish?”

Although incredulous, Ashe could only accept this conclusion. At this time the paper disintegrated into light smoke and disappeared, while their chairs also suddenly vanished, almost causing them to fall on their butts.

Back on the small boat, watching the Fate Q&A island sink, Sonya murmured: “Feels like we totally got ripped off, didn’t get any useful intel at all.”

“At least I know I can escape Bloodmoon alive.” Ashe was quite relaxed. To him the Fate Answers were just a windfall opportunity. Gains were of course good, but no gains just opened his horizons: “And in the future we will also break up for various reasons, then get back together for some other reasons—”

“Since we experienced the Fate Answers, the future may not necessarily happen that way!” Sonya glared at him. “There’s also always been a saying that many prophecies in Fate Answers were never fulfilled, but those who knew died before the prophecies happened, so no one knew of these invalid prophecies, thus there were no records.”

“If you die, then I’ll report this precious case regarding Fate Answers to the school. Maybe I can earn some credits…”

Survivorship bias, not bad… Ashe spread his hands: “So do you hope the prophecies come true, or hope they don’t come true?”

Sonya snorted lightly: “I only believe prophecies beneficial to me, unfavorable ones are all lies.”

“It’s you.”

“What about you then?”

“Me? Hmm, how do I put this… I don’t care about the prophecies themselves, but I look forward to confronting them.”

“Confronting? What do you mean?”

“Let me think how to explain this to you… Swordswoman, do you think the you now and the you 30 years later would be the same in personality, values, ideals, habits etc?”

Sonya thought for a bit then shook her head: “Should be different right? I’m not even 20 yet, 30 years is longer than my entire life until now. Many changes would definitely happen.”

Ashe nodded: “Then if the soul of you 30 years later suddenly took over your current body, can it be considered the 30 years later you killing the current you?”

Sonya’s brows knitted slightly, looking a bit unsettled: “Can think of it that way, I guess?”

“If you extend the ‘taking over’ process to 30 years, where through the prophecy you know 30 years later there is a Swordswoman completely different from you in all aspects, yet you still inevitably become the Swordswoman of the prophecy. Can that be considered the prophesied Swordswoman slowly killing you over the 30 years?”

“…Most people wouldn’t think that way.”

“But don’t you think it’s very interesting?” Ashe spread his arms: “If you didn’t know the prophecy then forget it, but since you know the prophecy, it’s like a ‘future you’ has appeared. Only one of you can survive, either she kills you, or you kill her, no second possibility.”

“The only difference between ‘prophecy’ and ‘taking over’ is the time span. ‘Taking over’ happens instantly, so you feel it’s the ‘future Swordswoman’ killing the ‘current you’, but for ‘prophecy’ it’s long days and nights where the ‘future you’ uses time to sculpt the ‘current you’ into your likeness.”

Sonya’s lips moved slightly, seemingly wanting to retort but didn’t say anything, probably thinking how to refute him. Ashe continued asking:contemporary romance

“Have you heard of a game where children write a letter to their future grown up selves?”

“Heard of it, I’ve written one too.”

“What do you think, when the grown up adult reads that letter, would they feel it’s like a final will?”

“Why would they think so?”

“Because they are completely different people, vastly different in thoughts, habits, values, ideals, yet they once lived in the same body. Isn’t that like the latter killing the former?”

Sonya shook her head repeatedly: “But they are the continuous same person, this change is called growing up, not taking over!”

Ashe smiled: “When the child wrote the letter, it’s like freezing the him at that instant in time on the letter. The soul on the letter broke away from the continuum of time, becoming an independent unchanging individual.”

“Isn’t this very similar to a prophecy? The prophecy pulls out a future you from a certain point in time to show you. Isn’t that like the future you writing a letter to the current you?”

“Myself from a different time is not myself.”

“So I don’t care about prophecies, but I look forward to confronting them. Of course, things that are clearly about to happen soon like me going after Sylin after breaking out don’t really count as prophecies. But if in the future we really break up for those random reasons, then it means the prophesied Observer killed me, the prophesied Swordswoman killed you.”

Ashe suddenly pondered: “Speaking of which, why does the reason for getting back together contain romance, but the reason for breaking up doesn’t include broken relationships? Could romance have only sprouted after breaking up, both sides realizing how indispensable the other is—”

Sonya snapped back to reality and said with a red face and gritted teeth: “That would mean we got back together not because of romance, but to unite against common threats!”

“Alright alright, no need to get worked up.”

“I’m not worked up!”

“Okay okay okay, you’re right, we should go kill a Slash Dragon to liven up the mood.”

After hunting two more creatures of knowledge, not only were there no Experience Orbs, Sonya also failed to intercept an escaping creature of knowledge. But such mistakes were common, Ashe didn’t mind. They bid farewell and exited the Virtual Realm together.

Upon her consciousness returning to her body in the meditation room, Sonya took a long time to recover her bearings, the Observer’s words still echoing in her mind.

Actually, after growing closer, Sonya couldn’t help but harbor doubts – was the Observer really the reincarnation of a mighty one like she had imagined?

Mainly because the Observer did not resemble a legendary figure at all – he did not pursue power, did not love learning, even his desires were shallow. If placed in Swordflower College, this kind of person with no potential, a mediocre and inferior passerby, Sonya would not even glance at.

But the Observer’s speech just now made Sonya realize he was absolutely no ordinary person, even if he was now, he would not remain so in the future.

That madness wrapped in logic, that wickedness vastly different from common sense, Sonya had witnessed many times in “Psychoanalysis of Malicious Sorcerers”. Malicious sorcerers were not all evil people, many were even content with mediocrity and having families. But once their lives were shattered by accidents, they would shed their ‘old selves’ like cocoons into butterflies, daring to trample all earthly laws and morals, and chase the light in their hearts like moths to flames.

She recalled the opening words of that book—

“They did not change, only awakened.”

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