Sorcerer’s Handbook

The virtual world, the sea of knowledge.

“Now everything is ready, tomorrow is the day we enact the plan.”

Ashe checked the virtual world map while steering the small boat, and said, “If the prison break fails and I get caught back by the hunters, then naturally everything is over and things will remain the same. But if I succeed in escaping, then I must be vigilant at all times. Until I can confirm my safety, I can’t enter the virtual world.”

Sonya nodded, completely understanding the observer’s thoughts.

Exploring the virtual world takes at minimum 4-5 hours and up to 8-9 hours. The observer who follows a regular schedule in prison can naturally log into the virtual world on time, but escaping means not only does he have to find a way to make a living, he also has to avoid the hunters’ pursuit as much as possible. How can he possibly have 4 hours or more of safe time to enter the virtual world?

She breathed a sigh of relief, “You scared me, I thought…”

Ashe raised his eyebrows, “Thought what? That I was going to abandon you?”

Sonya’s small eyebrows furrowed, looking pitiful and charming as she pretended, “Yes, I’ve discovered I can’t leave you anymore. Just thinking that I won’t see you for the next few days, I feel empty, lonely, cold, and so sad I could almost cry… Oh right, since you’ll be busy, does that mean we have to stop my training too?”

“Of course not, the training continues as usual. Although I won’t be here, I’ll still supervise your training. Speaking of which, you should have rested for an hour tonight right? That’s a one-time reward only for tonight, back to normal tomorrow.”

“Well aren’t you so very kind.”

“You’re welcome.”

Sonya harrumphed and stared at the observer, legs crossed. “So when will you be back?”

“After I can confirm my safety.” Ashe said, “Didn’t you see in the fate answers that I may leave the Bloodmoon Kingdom? If I succeed in breaking out, I plan to look for a way to leave the Bloodmoon Kingdom.”

“So there’s no specific timeline…”

“Mm.”

Sonya tilted her head to one side, watching the wisps of white mist drifting by. She asked softly, “Is there anything I can help with?”

“Didn’t you say before you wanted to become a songstress? How about singing a song for me to hear?”

“You—”

“Haha just kidding.” Ashe laughed, “Let’s not hunt knowledge creatures tonight, and specifically look for sorcerer projections instead.”

Sonya understood instantly: “You want to read other sorcerers’ manuals through their projections, to find more clues about the golden fish?”

Ashe nodded slowly, “Based on our progress, even if we get experience orbs from hunting knowledge creatures, it’s still not enough for your sword skills to break through to gold rank.

“Even if we get a rare spirit, it can’t be immediately integrated into my combat system and does little to improve my combat strength.”

“We only have one night left, the golden fish is the only choice if we want a breakthrough.”

Although the two of them had hunted many knowledge creatures these days, most of the spirits were either used by Ashe to allocate points, or sold by Sonya to earn a bit of cash on the side. Very few were kept for their own use. The most important reason of course was—unsuitability.

Despite grasping four disciplines of swordplay, water magic, light magic, and telepathy, for the bizarre spirit world of the virtual world, what they had encountered was barely the tip of the iceberg, at most a drop in the ocean. It was common for the spoils of war to not contain spirits of disciplines they specialized in.

Even if they got spirits of the same disciplines, most likely it would be unsuitable. For example, swordplay spirits like ‘Vibrating Sword’, ‘Continuous Sword’, ‘Poison Sword’ represented three different directions – relying on high frequency vibrations to increase destructive power, increasing attack speed for continuous slashes, or imbuing the blade with special properties.

Apart from the swordplay discipline, ‘Vibrating Sword’ needs the sound magic discipline as support, ‘Continuous Sword’ means having to train in the weak constitution discipline to improve physical fitness, while ‘Poison Sword’ signifies the need to study the poison magic discipline as well.

The time a sorcerer would need to invest to delve deep into any small direction is difficult to estimate, possibly even requiring involvement in other unfamiliar disciplines. If the spirit is used superficially without thorough understanding, the effect would certainly be inferior compared to a combat system that the sorcerer had carefully researched and developed, such as the destructive power of Sonya’s ‘Rupture Slash’ which could easily overwhelm the aforementioned three swordplay spirits.

Therefore, although they had obtained many spirits, those spirits were not indispensable. Rather than deciphering those new spirits, it was better to utilize their existing, tried-and-true spirits – old is gold, new is not necessarily better.

But their situation could be considered as lucky, what average silver-rank sorcerer could harvest 2-3 spirits every night? Just surviving was a blessing from the virtual world, any gains could be celebrated like a festival.

It’s not like they didn’t update their equipment at all. For example, Ashe was the first to complete the three fundamental swordplay spirits of ‘Slash Sword’, ‘Thrust Sword’, and ‘Cleave Sword’. In principle, a swordsman would need to personally summon these three spirits in order to establish a solid foundation in the swordplay discipline. Sonya, being an actual swordsman, did not ask for these three spirits, while Ashe, as a stowaway outsider without any skills, naturally did not care about foundations.

After selling off her spoils of war, Sonya quickly gathered the necessary spirits for the two miracles ‘Sheath’s Gathered Light’ and ‘Sharpen for Ten Years’, further increasing her combat strength.

Although not exactly invincible in the world, this male-female duo could be said to have the capital to act unrestrainedly in the sea of knowledge.

But from another perspective, this also meant the sea of knowledge was starting to have diminishing returns for them. They had gained too much in the virtual world and needed to spend ample time slowly absorbing it.

Unless they could reach a higher level of the virtual world.

“If I can coalesce golden arcane energy, I can fully activate my sword body barrier, increasing my defense by at least five times compared to now.” Ashe explained the necessity of golden energy for him. Unlike the swordswoman, he had the two-wing spirit ‘Earth Sword’ granted by Valcas, so advancing would instantly boost his combat strength.contemporary romance

Sonya waved her hand dismissively, “That’s assuming we can even find the golden fish. You’re talking as if you’ve already won the lottery before the numbers are drawn.”

“What would you do if you won the jackpot?”

“First I’d buy a mansion in Cailleach, then pretend to be gravely ill and urge my mother to borrow money from other relatives and villagers.”

“Why?”

“Those arrogant villagers who always bullied my widowed mother definitely wouldn’t want to lend money. Then I’d rent a fleet of luxury cars to go pick up my mother, let the villagers jealous. If anyone dares ask my mother for money, I’ll remind her of it and chop off the hands of those arrogant villagers.”

“Ew, you really are…”

“Got a problem with that?”

“I think you could find a well-connected person and have her borrow money for your mother. When you return home gloriously, you can generously reward that person. Contrast makes the harm more apparent – this way you only need to spend a little, but can make others regret it so much they’ll bash their heads on walls.”

“Wow, you observer are really nasty and oozing.”

“I’ll be shy from your praises.”

During their banter, Ashe noticed a light red area appear on the virtual world map, marked as “Extremely Challenging” – this was the most dangerous area they could access, and also the area Ashe was looking for.

Ashe’s smile faded as he solemnly said, “Although not necessarily linear, the stronger the sorcerer’s projection, the more likely they’ll know information about the golden fish. So from here on, it’ll be tough battles.”

“Anyway you won’t be coming to the virtual world after tonight.”

Sonya’s palms emanated a steel-white glow as she lightly stroked the wooden sword in her hand, “Let’s go crazy just once, worst case I’ll give you first blood.”

Miracle – Sharpen for a Day, activate.

Strictly speaking, although ‘Sharpen for Ten Years’ was a two-wing miracle, there was a large adjustable range. Because in time-based spirits, ‘year’ was the rarest, followed by ‘month’, with ‘day’ being the most common. ‘Ten days’ was a two-wing spirit, ‘hundred days’ a three-wing spirit, ‘thousand days’ a four-wing spirit, and so on for ‘year’ and ‘month’.

Therefore, Sharpen for Ten Years could be changed to Sharpen for One Day, Ten Days, Hundred Days, Thousand Days, One Month, Ten Months, and so on. As the spirit rank was adjusted, the might of this miracle would correspondingly increase or decrease. It was called Sharpen for Ten Years simply because ‘ten years’ had the best cost-performance ratio.

Yes, activating this miracle directly consumed the time spirits, which had to be rebought. So Sonya only dared to use the cheapest ‘day’ spirit. It was said the more advanced and complex powerful miracles often required massive spirit consumption. Thus when legendary sorcerers made a move, it was like pouring out gold and silver, which could still crush many people even if converted to gold and silver coins.

But in proportion to the cost, these miracles had excellent effects. Sonya’s wooden sword emanated a bright grey glow – this was the ‘sharpness’ generated from sharpening. All her attacks in the following duration would gain the sharpness buff, increasing their penetrative power. Even against masochist mages she could break through their defense.

Ashe took out a longsword from his tongue – the ‘Honey Stomach Sword’ he had drawn previously. He then summoned a clone and had it circle around the sea to reach the inheritance islet from the other side.

Preparations complete, the two broke through the wisps of white fog and arrived at the inheritance islet. At the same time, the clone crawled onto the islet from the other side, drawing the sorcerer projection’s attention.

Now!

Ashe pointed his sword tip, and a cute single-wing spirit appeared on the blade. A flash of sword light shot towards the sorcerer projection’s neck like lightning!

Spirit – Sword Heart!

Sonya kicked off from the small boat, leaping up with sword drawn. The corners of her mouth hinted at an expectant smile, like an elegant dancer bounding onto the island and spinning. The swirling sinister light surged forth like a meat grinder towards the sorcerer projection!

Miracle – Rupture Sinister Wave Slash!

The clone attracted attention and sacrificed itself, Ashe attacked from afar, Sonya erupted in close combat – this was their foolproof encirclement tactic!

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