Sorcerer’s Handbook

Sonya curiously asked, “What is your Silver Blessing?”

Ashe was slightly taken aback as he looked at his newly obtained blessing.

“Silver Blessing – Observer’s Guise: Your appearance has a mystifying allure. Unless you act abnormally, others will subconsciously overlook your existence. In the virtual world, this blessing is enhanced such that unless one has an intimate bond with you, they cannot discern your visage.”

“Can you see my face clearly?”

Sonya was startled, “I can right now.”

Ashe blinked and briefly explained, “My blessing makes others unconsciously ignore me when they see me…though I’m not an infiltrator and don’t plan on robbing the rich to aid the poor in the future, so why did I get such a blessing? This virtual world is clearly targeting me.”

Sonya giggled and said, “Or perhaps the virtual world has seen through your true nature…”

“Don’t laugh. You should also feel that we’ve obtained another arcane poison.”

When they saw the golden fish scales appear, a hidden knowledge flowed into their minds.

“Golden Fish Arcane Poison”

“Number of People Infected: 14”

“Poison Strengthening Level: 14%”

“Current Effect: You can convert silver arcane energy into golden arcane energy at a ratio of 64:36. (Greatly enhanced effects upon reducing strengthening level to 10%, conversion becomes negative effect at 51%.)”

It was understandable that the Golden Fish arcane poison did not have a wide transmission range, since even Ashe and the others had to infer the truth and needed to personally see the golden fish to get infected.

On the other hand, Ashe was quite surprised that the number of infected was 14 people – meaning aside from them, another 6 pairs had smuggled over to the Time Spirits through the same method from the Sea of Knowledge – but Ashe’s team had cheats while the others truly met by fate!

“What a powerful poison,” Sonya exclaimed. “I’ve never even heard of a miracle that can convert arcane energies, not to mention at a 2:1 ratio, even 10:1 would be unthinkable!”

Generally speaking, silver arcane energy was just that, and golden arcane energy was just that. Lower level arcane energies would not get enhanced just because the sorcerer climbed to higher Virtual World levels, since the essence of arcane energy was the coalescence of knowledge. Just like the addition and subtraction learned in first grade would not automatically turn into multiplication and division in second grade.

Although lower level arcane energy could invoke higher level spirits, and higher level arcane energy could also invoke lower level spirits, the former was extremely inefficient while the latter was overly wasteful. Hence, sorcerers would typically invoke spirits using the corresponding level of arcane energy in order to maximize resource utilization.

However, as sorcerers obtained more and more high level spirits, there would naturally be no need to use outdated lower level spirits, and the lower level arcane energies would also become disdained.contemporary romance

Right now, Ashe and Sonya did not have an urgent need for this poison, since they did not have many Two-Wing spirits, and silver arcane energy was fully sufficient. But when they updated their spirits to the Two-Wing versions, they would feel the preciousness of this poison – even when facing Two-Wing sorcerers at the same Virtual World progress, relying on the golden arcane energy converted from silver, their mana bars would naturally be longer by a segment!

“Sneaking over to the Time Spirits after drinking with senior sister, obtaining the Silver Blessing, getting infected by the Golden Fish poison, and also…” Sonya’s eyes swiftly glanced over Ashe’s visage, “Truly a fortunate night.”

“The night’s not over yet. While there’s still time, let’s go explore the Time Spirits a bit, perhaps we can pick up some wild Two-Wing spirits—”

“We’re out of time,” Sonya said. “We’re going to die.”

Ashe was startled and opened up the “Virtual World Map,” discovering that all 25 map grids had the same message:

“Await your death, no hope left.”

“You didn’t notice my change?” Sonya twirled a lock of hair by her ear, “My hair has turned black.”

Not only Sonya’s hair, as Ashe looked around, he discovered the formerly somewhat green forest had completely turned grey. Sonya had even lost all color, like a character from a black and white film.

He looked down at his own hands, ghastly pale without a hint of flesh tone.

“The sorcerers’ pursuit of the White Ox is not solely to bathe in the golden rain, but because outside the River of Gold, time does not exist.” Sonya explained, “The River of Gold moves along with the White Ox, hence once the Ox is lost, the sorcerer will fall into the ‘still realm’ where time is absent. The concrete manifestation is losing all color, with only black and white remaining in the surroundings.”

“If we had just now—”

“I woke up to see the surrounding grass and trees already tinged grey, indicating the River of Gold nearby had already dried up. At that time, we were as good as dead.” Sonya shrugged. “Even if we gave chase, it’d be futile. One cannot outrun time.”

Ashe asked, “What about exiting the virtual world now?”

Sonya smiled. “There is an immense time difference between the still realm and outside world. Despite our long chat, only a few seconds may have passed outside. It’d likely take us several hours in the still realm to exit the virtual world, which takes 20 seconds outside.”

“Being frozen in time after entering the still realm is the second most common cause of a sorcerer’s death. The first is drowning in the Sea of Knowledge.”

“How much longer until we freeze up?”

“The textbooks state approximately 10 minutes if one does not escape and waits in place. It likely won’t be much longer.”

Ashe looked up at the sky. The golden rain was nowhere to be seen, the entire world turned into lifeless black and white.

“Will we return here the next time we enter the virtual world?”

“We will. The virtual world offers no turning back, nor do sorcerers permit backtracking. Even if I open my single-wing spirit’s Gate of Truth, we’d only arrive at the Time Spirits.”

“That works then.”

Ashe stretched lazily and laid down on the grass, plucking a blade to nibble on. Unexpectedly, it tasted a little sweet.

A thought suddenly occurred to him. “Doesn’t dying in the virtual world damage one’s soul…?”

Sonya nodded. “Yes, but since we weren’t defeated by a sorcerer’s projection or bitten to death by a knowledge being, it’d just be minor damage without losing any spirits. Before the soul fully recovers, aside from being unable to enter the virtual world, we may feel listless and unable to concentrate, feeling drowsy with reduced learning efficiency.”

“Sounds like still being half-asleep…though being unable to enter the virtual world is a big problem…”

“In any case, you won’t be entering the virtual world these next few days. Without you, I’ve no interest in solo exploring the Time Spirits either. I can take this time to properly cultivate and settle the newly learned knowledge, mastering the newly obtained miracles. After hard work for half a month, it’s time to rest.”

“Rest huh… speaking of which, I haven’t slept in a long time either, feeling a bit drowsy just talking about it…”

Ashe yawned and rubbed his eyes. Suddenly, he felt the back of his head gently lifted and placed atop a soft and elastic comfort.

A gentle, melodic voice slowly rang out, like a lover’s whisper in his ear, yet also reminiscent of the crisp clinking of ice in a summer drink – pure yet bewitching, demure yet coquettish, lulling him into drowsiness as his body relaxed, leaving him dizzy as if in a dream.

When the heavenly voice paused, Ashe still lingered between sleep and wakefulness.

“This was the lullaby my mother sang when I was little. You’re the first person I’ve sung for.”

Ashe opened his eyes to see the swordswoman gazing down, the joy in her pupils seeming to paint color into this monochrome world.

“I’ll be waiting for you in the virtual world.”

The next second, they were frozen in time like a painting.

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