Sorcerer’s Handbook

The attitude of the Dramatic Poet is quite clear: I am both the shelter for the weak and the examiner for the strong.

The truly powerful blessings in the Shopping Book all cost 30 points. In other words, if you aim to gain transformative power from the Shopping Book, the Dramatic Poet will not help you one bit. However, if you are content to take modest rewards, the Dramatic Poet is pleased to offer some benefits to the younger generation.

He will ensure that blessings become genuine blessings and that curses turn into temporary Trials, guaranteeing that every spellcaster who opens the Shopping Book will gain something, if not carry a full bag of rewards.

After a brief discussion, Ashe and the others ultimately resisted the temptation of the prophecy from the Fate Sect. Though investing in prophecy, Fate, and Truth Sects is undoubtedly worthwhile in the long run, the cycle of investment is too lengthy and offers no quick combat advantages.

More importantly, they could not afford any risks.

In a few days, they would reach the Spider Tower area, and Ashe and his companions were already exhausting their efforts to evade the Empress’s heroic soul. If a curse demanded their attention, they might as well cleanse themselves and wait for the Empress’s favor.

Although they could not choose the powerful blessings or curses, they still had many options. After a short discussion, they all decided on the same blessing: “mortal danger sense!”

The more dangerous the situation, the slower time flows!

This blessing is likely related to the Time Sect, but since it only costs 10 curse points, ordinary spellcasters would be unable to summon a time spirit through this blessing. However, Ashe and his companions are different—thanks to their recent time travel through the Golden Flow, all three of them had advanced to the Golden level in the Time Sect!

As long as they experience enough dangerous battles, they could surely use this blessing to summon the corresponding time spirit! Even if they could not summon one, this blessing alone would significantly boost their combat power!

As for selecting a curse, their choices varied. Sonya chose the Physical Curse “weak and frail,” and Ashe chose the Luck Curse “no toilet paper.”

However, the strongest was Deya—she chose the Wisdom Curse “intellectually disabled!”

Facing the awestruck gazes of her teammates, Deya calmly rubbed her face, and her hair turned wine-red, her expression becoming cool and serene.

Ashe and Sonya were slightly taken aback before they remembered that the Witch had multiple personalities. The Witch didn’t need her main personality to endure the intellectually disabled curse; she could simply switch personalities to become immune to the curse’s effects!

If not for the restrictions set by the Dramatic Poet, Deya might even dare to choose the “cannot avoid rain” curse!

“Scarlet Dead Apostles?” Ashe asked, “Are you okay with this?”

Scarlet Dead Apostles thought for a moment and then nodded, “A little bit.”

“It’s quite normal,” Sonya comforted, “Although this is indeed the best way to handle it, transferring the curse to a sister is somewhat…”

“No, it’s not that I dislike the curse. On the contrary, I’m quite curious about what I’ll be like after becoming intellectually disabled,” Scarlet Dead Apostles said. “I just think the Secret Princess doesn’t need to involve me—since the curse doesn’t affect her at all.”

Because Scarlet Dead Apostles spoke so frankly, Ashe and Sonya couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or not.

The curses that the three of them—Ashe, Sonya, and Deya—purchased were all worth only 10 points and would be lifted after 72 hours in real-time. Meanwhile, they would also receive permanent random blessings of equal value. The blessings they bought were also worth only 10 points, so the corresponding random curses would last for only one virtual realm exploration session and would be lifted once they returned to reality.

This is the correct way to use the Shopping Book: buy one blessing and one curse, with additional random curses and random blessings thrown in. After all the curses are lifted, you end up with just two blessings!

After completing their purchases, Ashe, Sonya, and Deya clicked to submit, and then the Shopping Book entered its final stage: taxation.

The Shopping Book extracted their life experiences to generate new blessings or curses to enrich the product list!

The Shopping Book glowed faintly and extended several luminous tendrils through the spellcasters’ bodies. Then it retracted these tendrils as if ink were being absorbed into the pages, generating new items in the catalog—

“Blessing – Grand Wedding: You will have a grand wedding that everyone envies, an unforgettable honeymoon that always holds a significant place in your memories, and then have ten children.”

What!? Sonya was stunned. Isn’t ten too many?

“Blessing – Family Reunion: You will have the perfect family—a mediocre male master, a virtuous female master, a sharp-tongued but tsundere butler, a cold yet passionate bodyguard, an adorable and innocent daughter, and a troublesome pet.”

Scarlet Dead Apostles was stunned, “I’m the bodyguard?”

Black Butler retorted, “How am I tsundere?”

Deya coughed, “Ahem, I didn’t expect this book to be so well-informed. The mediocre male master must be referring to Ashe, and the virtuous female master undoubtedly is—”

White Queen interjected, “Obviously me, huh. So, my relationship with Lise would upgrade from sisters to mother and daughter?”

Deya queried, “Wait a minute, then who am I?”

Black Butler responded, “First of all, let’s exclude the adorable and innocent daughter.”

While Deya and Sonya let their imaginations run wild, Ashe’s face turned serious.

“Curse – Emotional Fraud: A fraud adept at deceiving feelings will be doomed to die a horrible death, with no body left to bury and soul shattered. The Dramatic Poet said so, even the Divine Sovereign can’t save you!”

How did this cursed book extract ’emotional fraud’ from my rather uneventful life… or is this some sort of sarcastic jab? Like pointing to a worker and saying, ‘You’re so lucky to have such a fully packed schedule!’

Counting everyone I know, excluding operators (Sword Princess, Witch), those I haven’t met in person (222), those who are too young (Lise), adversaries (Yvaren, Qenna), superiors (Annan), and those I cannot resist (Freya), there’s really no one left!

You could say I’m adept at deceiving men, perhaps—Igor, Langna, Lunette, Harvey were all talents I lured from the Shattered Lake market myself!

Putting down the Shopping Book, Ashe and his companions left the café. The moment they stepped out of the special area, the random curses took effect—

“Curse – Eye Contact: You must maintain eye contact with others for 59 minutes and 59 seconds.”

Ashe didn’t know if this curse was custom-tailored for their team, but he knew that the moment the curse descended, he couldn’t tear his gaze from the eyes of the Sword Princess and the Witch!

The Sword Princess and the Witch were in the same predicament, with the three of them locked in a staring contest. For a moment, no one dared to move. Meanwhile, Ashe’s “no toilet paper” level luck seemed to have just kicked in—the thunderous hoofbeats of the heroic soul legion could be heard in the distance, signaling their immediate need to flee in the sports car!

But the curse of eye contact was like a multi-person control spell, keeping them rooted to the spot. Suddenly, Ashe had a flash of insight. He lifted the Sword Princess and the Witch, placing them in the front seats facing backward, while he sat in the back seat facing forward. This way, they could maintain eye contact while Ashe drove the sports car… to escape?

Damn it!

Ashe couldn’t look at the virtual realm map because he had to maintain eye contact! He moved the virtual realm map beside the Sword Princess’s face, using his peripheral vision to navigate. He focused solely on escaping, with no regard for the direction of the white bull!

“Two heroic soul legions are closing in,” Sonya observed through her peripheral vision, “The number of followers exceeds 100, but there are no armed troop types yet.”

“Armed troop types consume soul power. Unless they’re sure they can catch us, the commander won’t waste resources,” Ashe replied, relaxed.

For the past few days, they had been driven hither and yon by the heroic soul legion, but actually faced little danger, even managing to loot while on the run.

Aside from being fast, their lack of serious pursuit from the heroic soul legion was key.

Even though they knew Ashe had a conceptual Incarnation, deploying armed troop types required real soul power. If they failed to catch them, it would be a huge waste, right? Thus, the heroic soul legion had only been making tentative pursuits. But as soon as they started chasing, Ashe and his team would run. If the pursuit failed, there was no need for the heroic soul legion to deploy armed troop types. This endless cycle meant the heroic soul legion was like a whip constantly driving them. Ashe and his team hadn’t dared to rest for days, looting and running, and then looting again, with far more efficiency than before.

However, as soon as Ashe finished speaking, the long-range attacks of the Thousand-feathered Drakes rained down on the “Refracting Wall.”

“Why are they using armed troop types now?” Ashe was surprised, “Are they really confident this time?”

Suddenly, a heroic soul legion appeared ahead, causing Ashe to swerve in fright. Just as he was about to leave the legion in the dust, another one emerged from the right front!

What’s going on? We haven’t even reached the Blood Tomb section tonight, and Spider Tower comes after that. It’s one thing to be zealously pursued in the Spider Tower area, but why are the locals here also going all out to hunt us down?

“Something’s off!” Sonya exclaimed. “This is the seventh different heroic soul legion we’ve encountered, and they haven’t even considered giving up!”

“Are we lost?” Deya asked.

“If we had a destination, that could be considered being lost. Right now, we’re just wandering!” Ashe replied helplessly.

Another fresh heroic soul legion appeared to their left front, forcing Ashe to redirect once again. He had no way of determining if they were heading into a trap because his eyes were focused separately on the Sword Princess and the Witch, leaving only a sliver of his peripheral vision for the virtual realm map!

“Can you squeeze a bit closer? Otherwise, I can’t maintain eye contact correctly…”

“We’re practically glued together already. I could lick the Sword Princess’s face with my tongue,” Deya complained. She was indeed face-to-face with Sonya. “Tsk, why don’t we switch places? I’ll sit in the back, and you can watch while I cozy up to someone.”

“What are you talking about, Witch?” Sonya retorted angrily, wrapping her left arm affectionately around Deya’s waist.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, it felt as though they had passed through an invisible barrier, and all three spellcasters sensed the change—or rather, they directly saw the change!

In their view, the Reverse Golden Rain vanished instantly, replaced by a lush, green meadow!

“Did we enter a static domain?” Sonya quickly recalled how they had been turned into a painting by a static domain when they first arrived on the Time Continent.

“No, it’s not a static domain,” Ashe murmured. “You’ll realize what it is soon.”

The sports car screeched to a halt, carving a donut shape into the grassy lawn. Throughout the abrupt stop, they managed to maintain eye contact. Finally, Sonya and Deya could see the enormous structure occupying this space—

A fortress.

A fortress made of colossal vines and giant trees!

Countless knowledge creatures flitted and danced outside the fortress walls, nesting and multiplying!

In the depths of the fortress stood a spiraling steel structure that resembled a gigantic torch, pointing straight toward the skies of the Time Continent!

All the Reverse Golden Rain could do was float around the grassy area, forming a Rain Curtain that nourished the oasis’s soil without turning the grass a single shade of gold!

A peculiar realization dawned upon the spellcasters: even the time rules of the Virtual Realm could only add to this place but could not overshadow it.

A faint sense of vanity swelled within them, and their pride as fellow spellcasters made them increasingly reverent.

Because this was the work of the most powerful spellcaster.

This was a manifestation of the Will of the Divine Sovereign permeating the Virtual Realm!

“No wonder we encountered more and more heroic soul legions along the way,” Ashe remarked. “We’ve stumbled into one of the main cities of the Six Nations.”