Sorcerer’s Handbook

“If hurt enough, use both hands, joyfully sever…”

Igor yawned as he got out of bed, following his usual routine to take a bath first. He had barely stripped and settled into the bathtub when the doorbell rang insistently and urgently.

Despite his confusion, Igor wrapped himself in a bath towel and went to open the door, finding Ashe waiting outside.

“Let’s play rock-paper-scissors.”

“What?”

“Don’t ask, just play. And you have to beat me three times!”

“Is this some kind of necessary Ritual?”

“Exactly!”

“Will it harm me?”

Igor observed Ashe for a moment and sensed he probably wasn’t lying, so he replied, “Then I don’t want to.”

“Why not?”

“Helping you is a favor, not helping is my right. Why should I assist you with your Ritual?”

“Do you need a reason to help someone?”

“Your current stance doesn’t really support that argument… Plus, do I look like I’m in the charity business?”

Ashe pondered for a moment: “Do you know why a Sorcerer can’t drink water that’s just been boiled, and has to wait a while before drinking it?”

Igor was puzzled: “Why?”

“Accompany me in this Ritual, and I’ll tell you.”

Could it be that freshly boiled water contains traces of Poison Magic that damages arcane energy? Or is ‘boiled water’ part of some Ritual that, if interfered with, could lead to adverse effects?

In the world of Sorcerers, everything contains Truth, and what seems like an insignificant matter might be a ‘Ritual taboo’ that Sorcerers have summarized over centuries, like ‘chanting the passing prayer for the deceased’ to effectively reduce the residual death aura on one’s body.

So when Ashe put it that way, curiosity got the better of Igor, and he agreed to Ashe’s request. He easily won against Ashe three times—given Igor’s limited mind-reading ability, it was almost written on Ashe’s face what he would choose each round.

“Alright, thank you, Igor!”

“What kind of Ritual requires someone to win at rock-paper-scissors three times…”

“It’s called the ‘Sharpening Ritual.’ Now I’ve lost to you and my bad luck is gone, so my luck should turn around. See you—”

“Wait, you still haven’t told me why Sorcerers shouldn’t drink water that’s just been boiled.”

“Because it burns your tongue.”

Igor watched Ashe leave, dumbfounded, then closed his door and went back to the bathroom, lying in the tub again.

He stared at the ceiling and rubbed his temples, lost in thought.

“Is my intelligence being affected by hanging out with him too often lately…”

After finishing his bath, Igor was brushing his teeth when he fortuitously triggered a ‘Revelation’ spirit. The splattered toothpaste foam left a message on the mirror—

“Don’t try to drink freshly boiled water.”

“Who would?!”

After completing the Sharpening Ritual, Ashe returned to his dormitory.

“Are you sure you want to spend 30 Source Crystals for ten Searches? Remember, you can manually increase the number of Searches. The more Searches you do, the easier it is to get rare cards!”

“Confirm spend 42 Source Crystals for 14 Searches?”

“Confirmed!”

Swoosh—

The card draw interface remains as simplistic as ever, with eight white lights, four purple lights, and… two golden glows appearing on the holographic screen!

The eight white lights correspond to 1 Primary Combat Card, 4 Energy Potions, and 3 Experience Potions. The Experience Potions are acceptable since they can be used cumulatively, boosting experience gain by up to 50%. However, an Operator can only use 1 Energy Potion per week, making the excess Energy Potions seem like items meant to clutter the Card Pool.

Ashe’s interest piqued as he continued to observe: the four purple lights were 3 Joy Potions for spirits and 1 Honeyed Blade.

Joy Potion for spirits *3: When used on an Operator, it increases the Operator’s affinity with their spirit, accelerating the Operator’s mastery of the spirit. The effect lasts for one week and cannot be stacked.

Honeyed Blade: A concealed honey under the tongue that transforms into a longsword when pressed with the tongue. It can pass all security checks and can be upgraded.

Without a doubt, the Joy Potion for spirits is precisely what Ashe needs at the moment. His Heart Sword and Circulation spirit abilities are new acquisitions that he can hardly control skillfully in the Virtual Realm, let alone stir resonance in reality.

However, the potion’s effect is somewhat peculiar; it’s designed to increase the spirit’s affection for the Operator. Could it be that this potion causes the spirit to become… amorous?

For now, Ashe has no use for the Honeyed Blade, but once he escapes from prison, he’ll undoubtedly need a weapon by his side. The situation at Shattered Lake Prison makes it clear that the outside world is full of hurdles for escapees, likely rife with security checks and surveillance equipment.

Thus, a weapon like the Honeyed Blade that can pass security checks is essential for anyone planning an escape from prison.

Finally, the two golden lights!

Alchemist’s Refining Bottle: By adding two identical potions, there’s a 30% chance to refine a stronger, advanced potion, a 30% chance to transmute into another rare potion, and a 40% chance that the refinement fails, resulting in the loss of both potions.

Ashe perked up at this—armed with the Refining Bottle, those potions polluting the Card Pool could be repurposed. Although there’s a risk of loss, at least there’s hope, akin to buying a lottery ticket.

Random Spirit Summoning Card: When used on an Operator, the Operator will conduct a Summoning Ritual, autonomously summoning a rare spirit of their current level and raising the spirit’s Faction Realm to the Operator’s current level. Note that the Summoning Ritual’s restrictions, duration, and requirements vary depending on the spirit, but it will not exceed seven days.

At first glance, this Gold Card may not seem impressive—just another spirit summon. Ashe can obtain 12 spirits in one night.

But upon closer inspection, the emphasis of this card isn’t the spirit itself, but the ‘current level’!

Throughout his studies, Ashe has learned that in this world, Sorcerers are categorized as Silver One Wing, Golden Two Wings, Tri-wings Sanctuary, and Quadruple Wings Legend. This means if a Swordswoman is promoted to Golden Two Wings and then uses a Random Summoning Card, she will inevitably summon a Golden Two Wings spirit—the more wings a spirit has, the better.

However, in order for a Sorcerer to summon the corresponding spirit, they must first reach the necessary threshold within their Faction Realm.

If the Faction Realm does not include the Gold Tier, it’s impossible for a sorcerer to summon the corresponding Two Wings spirit, and the same principle applies to higher levels!

Therefore, the real effect of this Gold Card is to randomly elevate one of the operator’s Magical Factions to the current virtual wing level and to obtain a spirit of the same level!

For a One Wing sorcerer, this Gold Card is equivalent to an Experience Orb plus a spirit. However, for sorcerers with Two Wings, Tri-wings, or even Quadruple Wings, this Gold Card becomes incredibly powerful.

In just up to seven days, one could master a Magical Faction they have never encountered before from scratch!

Ashe knew that the later the Gold Card is used, the more valuable it becomes, but the current situation does not allow him to hoard good things like a squirrel.

For the upcoming escape from prison, Ashe must convert all resources into combat power. If the escape fails due to a slight shortage of resources, he might regret not having offered himself up to Langna on a platter.

First are the Refining Bottles; Ashe now has seven Energy Potions and four Experience Potions. By refining two by two, he ends up with two Advanced Stamina Potions and one Advanced Experience Potion.

“Advanced Stamina Potion”: In cultivation actions, it grants an operator an advanced Action Point for seven days. An advanced Action Point exempts the operator from energy consumption, enhances positive feedback from actions, slowly improves the operator’s mood, and has a low chance of increasing the Bond Level.

“Advanced Experience Potion”: During cultivation actions, it boosts the operator’s skill experience by 50% for seven days, with a maximum of 100% bonus for a single operator.

That should have been the end of it, but Ashe thought it over and added two Spirit Excitation Potions to the mix.

Even if the purification failed, he’d still have one left, but luckily, it succeeded.

“Spirit Excitation Potion”: When used on an operator, it significantly increases the spirit’s affection for the operator and accelerates their mastery of the spirit. The effect lasts for one week and cannot be stacked.

The names of these potions are starting to sound more and more like aphrodisiacs…

Ashe opens “Operator Management,” and the game suddenly pops up a message:

“The cultivation of Death Maniac Swordswoman has ended. Please review the Growth Report and set the Cultivation Strategy for this week promptly.”

“Growth Report for Death Maniac Swordswoman 4.12~4.18”

“Sword Faction: 0 → Silver Rank”

“Radiance Magic Faction: 0 → Silver Rank”

“Water Faction: Not Initiated → Silver Rank”

“arcane energy: 0 → Silver Half-Wing”

“Cultivation Evaluation: A!”

“Due to receiving an A grade, Death Maniac Swordswoman has been awarded an Occupational Enhancement from the Sorcerer Handbook: One Wing Swordcerer → Silver Slayer Sorcerer”

“Silver Slayer Sorcerer   Occupational Traits: Each effective attack recovers 0.5% of maximum arcane energy.”

Ashe did not expect there to be an evaluation phase after the cultivation strategy ended, and moreover, a high evaluation could lead to special rewards — Occupational Enhancement.

Although it’s not directly related to him, there is no doubt that the stronger the Swordswoman becomes, the more efficiently they can explore the Virtual Realm. Plus, the ‘Silver Slayer Sorcerer’ occupational trait seems quite useful.

The fact that the Swordswoman’s Water Faction reached Silver Rank is naturally because they obtained two Experience Orbs last night, one being the Swordsmanship Orb and the other the Water Art Orb.

Because of the “share experience” Bond he has with the Death Maniac Swordswoman, Ashe undoubtedly gave both Orbs to her. Watching her emotional expression as she received the Orbs in the Virtual Realm, Ashe felt as though he could hear the prompt “Your Bond with the Death Maniac Swordswoman has deepened.”

Then he opened the “Cultivation Strategy”.

“Death Maniac Swordswoman”

“Current Mood: 6 (Experience Bonus 0)”

“Selectable Actions: Rest, Entertainment, Training, Battle”

“Recommendation: The Swordswoman has not had any Entertainment or Rest for a week. Proper entertainment can effectively improve mood, combining work and leisure can lead to better training and learning.”

Ashe hesitated slightly: The Swordswoman had complained many times about her lack of rest, and considering how much she had helped him in the Virtual Realm, it only seemed fair to let her relax a bit…

Snap! Snap!

“Ashe, come out, today we need to find the last team member quickly!” Igor’s voice came from outside.

Ashe snapped back to reality from his reverie: As the saying goes, to lead by example, if even he can’t rest yet, how can the Swordswoman take a break?

I reject your suggestion!

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