Sorcerer’s Handbook

Shattered Lake Prison, Blood Moon Nation

"When hurt enough, take a pair of hands, slash away the curses of yesterday. Wait for daylight in the night, leaving behind only scars..."

Igor awoke from the velvet bed, yawning as he went to the bathroom to take off his pajamas and nightcap. He first tested the temperature with his toes before lying in the bathtub filled with warm water on timer, enjoying a comfortable morning bath.

Just to be able to bathe anytime, Igor paid the price of 1 contribution point per 3 days to live in this luxury dormitory. As such, his contribution points were quite tight, after all living here for five months would cost 50 points, equal to the total initial contribution points of a death row inmate.

However, he felt it was worth it, because bathing was not only Igor's hobby, but also seemed to be the hobby of his 'Contract' spirit.

Once while bathing, Igor fell asleep due to exhaustion. In his dim consciousness, he vaguely saw the 'Contract' spirit riding a rubber duck, playing in the bathtub.

Although the 'Contract' spirit immediately disappeared without a trace when Igor opened his eyes, as if it had never appeared, Igor was convinced of his judgment that the 'Contract' spirit really enjoyed bathing.

If this was outside, it would at most be an amusing topic of idle chat, with no practical significance.

Although spirits were undoubtedly intelligent and had their own moods and preferences, most mages rarely paid attention to the spirits' situation. After all, as long as the arcane energy output was sufficient, the spirits had to obey the mage's commands regardless of their unwillingness.

However, in Shattered Lake Prison, where no one could output arcane energy, whether the death row inmates could evoke the spirits' resonance became a very critical factor in order to cast spells!

Although Igor still could not confirm whether his near 100% success rate in evoking the 'Contract' spirit in prison had anything to do with him frequently bathing to please the 'Contract' spirit.

But better safe than sorry, the prison was no place for research. As long as Igor had surplus contribution points, he would not change this slightly 'extravagant' way of life.

After resting in the bathtub for a while, Igor got up without putting on any clothes, wiped himself dry and went to wash up directly. He tried to empty his mind, not think of anything, making himself dull and blank as he mechanically brushed his teeth in front of the mirror. He brushed very hard, with toothpaste foam splattering onto the mirror.

Soon, the toothpaste foam that splattered on the mirror flowed along the mirror in winding trails, forming words.

This meant that Igor had successfully evoked his other spirit, 'Insight'.

The 'Insight' spirit was spoils of war Igor had found in the virtual world before. It had very wide versatility, you could say before doing anything you could first evoke the 'Insight' spirit to check the situation, and then the surroundings would change, giving you some useful reminders.

After being imprisoned, Igor had tried many methods before finding the right way to evoke the 'Insight' spirit: Empty the mind as much as possible when brushing teeth, but not completely empty, still maintaining a little thought like 'I want advice', in order to evoke the spirit's resonance.

The balance was difficult to grasp, and Igor didn't succeed every day either. He was lucky today.

But Igor only treated this process as a little diversion in prison life, because most of the suggestions given by 'Insight' were trivial things like "Don't eat oily food for lunch", "Remember to bring tissue", "Don't wear underwear".

These suggestions were indeed useful, but only a little bit useful.

Even if Igor ignored them, there would be no real harm.

But this was also normal, after all Igor had never studied prophecy, being able to utilize the 'Insight' spirit to this extent was already not bad.

If someday the 'Insight' spirit gave a very stern warning, Igor would be scared instead - because that would mean Igor had arrived at an extremely important fateful fork in the road, with the unknown veil of intertwining destinies right before his eyes, to the point that even the 'Insight' spirit reacted!

Like, right now!

In Igor's gradually horrified eyes, the toothpaste foam left a ghastly white warning on the mirror:

"Do not respond! Do not respond!"

This was the first time Igor had seen punctuation marks in the prompts, and even exclamation marks!

He quickly calmed down and considered whether he should follow the insight's guidance.

Because the insight's guidance was not always correct.

Or rather, the concepts of "right and wrong, pros and cons" were themselves cultural concepts of human society, very private and obscure. The same thing could be viewed differently by different regions, races, and even individuals, for example "sleeping in". Some people felt it was bad, while others enjoyed it very much.

For such a small matter as "sleeping in", it was fine, but even for big matters like "life and death", many people had differing views. Some thought dying young led to reincarnation sooner, some felt a miserable life was better than a good death, some people wanted to die at times and to live at other times.

When humans themselves could not distinguish between right and wrong, good and bad, how could spirits make the distinction?

Therefore, the guidance given by 'Insight' was often extremely short-sighted. It used the mage's current state as the benchmark - any accidental change to the mage's current state was judged as harmful.

For example, on the day 'Insight' suggested "Don't wear underwear", a guard came to Igor, wanting to consult him on how to pursue girls, since Igor was handsome and charming, and had some succubus bloodline - at a glance he was a womanizer.

That guard had delicate features, and also long hair, giving off an indescribably androgynous and bewitching aura. Although Igor's sexual orientation was still normal, his succubus bloodline not only made him omnivorous but also easily aroused, and he ended up scaring the guard away by getting excited, missing the opportunity to establish good relations.

Now 'Insight' was warning him "Do not respond" - could this make him miss another chance to establish close ties with the guards?

But Igor soon made up his mind - better safe than sorry!

After all, he was living quite comfortably now. Other than not having the freedom to curse, he was not really badly off, eating well, sleeping well, regular routine, recreational facilities complete.

Moreover, he had been imprisoned for over a year now.

Prison was a strange place. At first, you detested it; later, you got used to it; in the end, you couldn't leave it.

Igor had already grown accustomed to this kind of life, and had no motivation to change reality.

Funnily enough, when watching the live Blood Moon Tribunal last night, Igor felt a surge of disgust when the death row inmates cursed. That was not disdain for vulgarities, but rather a subconscious feeling that "foul language is wrong".

Igor the "Fraud" who specialized in exploiting legal loopholes, was gradually becoming a supporter of the law. When you get used to shackles, you start to recognize and even glorify the meaning of shackles - this was the significance of Shattered Lake Prison, this was the might of the chip modifications.

Leaving his room, Igor walked briskly to the cafeteria, determined to not utter a word outside, ignoring anyone who looked for him. He would finish breakfast then go back to his room.contemporary romance

He also considered directly spending contribution points to order meals and hiding in his room the whole day. But because he had lost to Ashe once before, his contribution points were a little tight, unnecessary spending like meals should still be conserved as much as possible.

Igor didn't believe he couldn't keep quiet during a meal!

Igor found a corner to sit with his tray, but the next second someone sat opposite him.

"Good morning my friend Igor! Wow, your lobster balls look great, may I have one?"

The corner of Igor's mouth twitched, he silently watched Ashe use the relatively rare chopsticks to pick up a lobster ball.

However, Ashe didn't seem very skilled either, unable to pick it up, the lobster ball flew out of the plate, onto the table.

Ashe blinked, tried again, still unable to grab it, flying out again.

On the third try, he finally accurately picked up the lobster ball, then put it back into Igor's plate before picking up another clean lobster ball to eat.

"You don't mind right?"

The corner of Igor's mouth spasmed, but he still didn't speak, only ate faster.

While eating, Ashe made a very exaggerated gesture and knocked over his cup, spilling milk all over the table, dripping onto his clothes.

"Ah sorry sorry, let me wipe you, okay?"

Ashe used napkins to wipe Igor's clothes. Igor silently pushed his hand away and directly went into the cafeteria's restroom.

After washing the milk stains off his clothes, Igor thought since he was already here, he might as well pee.

But Ashe appeared next to him again: "What a coincidence Igor, you also came to pee huh."

Igor stayed silent, speeding up his stream.

"Ah, didn't wipe my mouth just now. Igor could you hold it for me while I grab some tissue?"

Igor almost couldn't hold it in, but he recalled the warning on the mirror and clenched his teeth, forcibly swallowing back the words in his throat.

"No towel after washing hands, can I wipe with your clothes?"

"You finished breakfast already? Let's go to the deathmatch society, could you introduce me to the strong guys there?"

"Did you watch last night's Blood Moon Tribunal? I have some questions I want to consult you about. Of course, in exchange, you can also ask me questions."

"Don't rush off so quickly, wait for me okay?"

Igor ignored Ashe as if he was farting all the way, never responding to Ashe's requests, walking swiftly back to his room.

Seeing Igor's hurried back, Ashe was naturally very puzzled.

He had revealed so many flaws, how could Igor still not take the bait?

Igor Bukin, who had the notorious titles "Fraud" and "Beast Tamer", was a wicked man whose nature was to take advantage of the kind and bully the weak. How could he be so well-behaved today like a kitten who had yet to be weaned?

No, he had to use his trump card!

Ding!

Hearing the sound of a gold coin falling to the ground, Igor subconsciously looked over due to professional instincts. His ears catching a sound like heavenly music: "Could you help pick up the coin for me?"

"No problem." Igor instantly shook out from his sleeve a copper coin painted gold that could pass off as a gold coin. Only after he had switched the coins did he react that he had spoken.

But Igor was not flustered either. Looking at Ashe he said: "Although I don't know why you insist on making requests of me, but now as you wished - the Contract spirit has taken effect. I fulfilled your request, so you must also fulfill my demand."

In Shattered Lake Prison, no one dared to agree to Igor's requests, and no one dared make requests of Igor - because under the influence of the Contract spirit, no matter who established a "transaction" relationship with Igor, Igor could force them to uphold their promise through the contract, while he himself did not need to be responsible.

And the best contract was the other party making a request of Igor, but not stating what "compensation" they would provide. This was like giving Igor a blank check, for Igor to fill in whatever demand!

Therefore, Igor had exercised tremendous self-control earlier to suppress his urge to respond to Ashe, because as long as he agreed to Ashe's request, he could make an unconditionally demand of Ashe - even specifying that Ashe lose the next deathmatch to him.

Igor was already aware that Ashe was deliberately doing this, but he was not afraid at all.

Even if Ashe really had some plot, now Igor had one chance to make a wish of Ashe, what did he have to fear?

To intimidate Ashe, Igor specially summoned out his Contract spirit.

The Contract spirit was a devil with wings holding chains. Its illusory chains kept extending until wrapped around Ashe's neck, as if ready to strangle Ashe's throat at any time.

"I advise you to be honest, Ashe Heath." Igor narrowed his eyes: "I can now make an unconditional wish of you, and you must fulfill it."

"Any wish at all?"

"Of course, even asking you to do a handstand while shitting." Igor arrogantly said: "Ashe, you're already my 'good friend' to order around as I please."

"That's really great then."

Ashe stretched out his hand, and a single-wing spirit appeared in his palm.

The spirit looked like a single-wing scale. When it appeared, part of the chains extended by the Contract spirit suddenly fell onto the left side of the scale. To keep the scale balanced, identical chains also appeared on the scale's right side, extending all the way to Igor's neck!

The Contract spirit's chains bound Ashe, while the scale spirit's chains bound Igor!

"Balance exists in all things."

Looking at Igor's increasingly ugly distorted face, Ashe laughed and said: "Igor, helping each other is what 'good friends' do, right?"

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