Sorcerer’s Handbook

As Ashe examined the Virtual Realm map, he asked:

“Speaking of which, Witch, are you skilled in the Time Faction?”

“Yes.”

“It’s said that the Time Faction is most effective when practiced on the Time Continent. Is that true?” Ashe inquired further.

“Correct.” Deya nodded, reaching out to touch the Reverse Golden Rain rising from the vegetation, and explained: “In fact, each drop of golden rain contains knowledge of time, or rather, all the time of the Time Continent is condensed within this golden rain. When I absorb the golden rain to consolidate arcane energy, the knowledge of time within it can almost be converted entirely into my Faction Realm experience. Compared to other factions, I can gain an additional ten to fifteen times the experience in the Time Faction.”

“That good?” Even the inexperienced Ashe couldn’t help but feel envious: “But why don’t I feel my Time Faction growing?”

The White Queen paused at such an absurd question before slowly clarifying: “Because Observer, you have not even crossed the threshold of the Time Faction. When you draw upon the white mist from the Sea of Knowledge, it can only enhance the growth of factions that have already stepped into the Silver realm. As for those factions you have not mastered, you cannot gain any experience.”

Sonya offered a more vivid explanation: “The knowledge in the white mist and golden rain is like the voice of a Professor during a lecture; only those who understand can comprehend, while for those who don’t, it becomes noise.”

Ashe finally understood and, after thinking for a moment, said: “But the Time Faction in the Time Continent is too lucrative; just by walking, one can enhance their Faction Realm… Swordswoman, is there a way for me to get started with the Time Faction?”

“No way,” Sonya shook her head helplessly: “Theoretically, the best way to enter the Time Faction is to step onto the Time Continent. But if you can’t extract the knowledge of time from the golden rain after entering, it indicates that you don’t have the Talent. No matter what you do, you can’t get started. The Time Faction is one of the Magical Factions that most requires innate Talent; effort is meaningless without it, and envy won’t get you anywhere.”

“Don’t you envy it?”

“Not at all.”

“But I’ve also made it into the Time Faction,” Ashe said with a chuckle, looking at the “Time Faction: Silver Rank” that had just appeared on his Operator interface. “Now you’re the only one who hasn’t taken advantage of the Virtual Realm.”

Due to the Bond, the experience Witch gained in the Time Faction also flowed to Ashe. Though he lacked Talent, as long as Witch fed him enough experience to cross the Silver threshold, he would naturally be able to enjoy the benefits of being directly nurtured by the Virtual Realm.

Sonya’s mouth twitched, and now genuinely angry, she pretended to be just playing around as she wrapped her arms around Ashe’s neck in the front row: “You know all this and you’re not thinking of ways to help me! Like the spirit Summoning Ritual last time—”

“That depends on luck, and aren’t you afraid of another ‘Sincerity’, being forced to tell the truth for days?”

“I can’t possibly be that unlucky all the time!—”

Watching their playful bickering, the White Queen thought to herself: “Deya, I don’t think I fit in with their way of interacting. I am psychologically too old, too mature. Maybe you should join them, you might blend in better.”

“No.”

“Absolutely not.”

“I only trust you.”

“I don’t want to interact with anyone else.”

The White Queen sighed. Just then, Ashe suddenly let out a shriek. A figure appeared in front of the sports car, and then—

Bang!

The sports car braked hard, and the three of them were nearly thrown out by the inertia.

Looking back, they saw that the figure that had appeared was now cut in two by the sports car’s Evil Blade, falling to the grass like two pieces of cloth with a slap.

Ashe immediately shifted the blame: “It’s your fault, Swordswoman, for distracting me!”

Sonya retorted: “It’s obviously because you weren’t driving carefully!”

Deya wondered: “…Did we really just hit and kill a sorcerer?”

Congratulations were in order; they hadn’t killed a person, just a Sorcerer Projection, which meant they had merely beaten a corpse.

In other words, the first sorcerer projection Ashe and Sonya encountered on the Time Continent wasn’t killed in combat but by being hit with their car.

Forget about skills, they didn’t even get a good look at what the Sorcerer Projection looked like before running it over… It sounded rather callous.

Unlike the Sea of Knowledge, Sorcerer Projections in the Time Continent don’t stay in one place; they move around randomly, making it common to encounter them suddenly during Exploration in Virtual Realm.

Although the demise of this Sorcerer Projection was too swift, they were still able to determine its Faction from the spirits that dropped. It seemed to be a practitioner of both fire and Physical weakness, yielding a total of two Two Wing spirits and three One Wing spirits. As the first business transaction on the Time Continent, the profits were decent.

None of them needed these spirits. Ashe thought for a moment and asked, “Witch, do you have a way to convert spirits into other resources in reality? Before you joined, our way of distribution was to divide the spirits we didn’t need by value. The valuable ones were given to Swordswoman to sell for money, and the less valuable were left to me to exchange for special resources that only I could use.”

Deya shook her head, “I don’t have a convenient way to exchange spirits in reality. Just continue with your previous method of distribution. However, as compensation, could I have priority access to the Sorcerer Handbooks?”

Ashe’s eyes lit up, “Can you read all Sorcerer Handbooks too?”

“Too?” Deya blinked but shook her head, “No, my success rate of reading Sorcerer Handbooks is about 80%, not 100%. There are some particularly abnormal, disgusting, or bizarre handbooks that I simply can’t process.”

“Observer can read all Sorcerer Handbooks,” Sonya said nonchalantly, patting Ashe on the shoulder. “Even those you can’t stomach, he can read with relish. Impressive, isn’t it?”

The White Queen clapped on the outside, but on the inside, she had already silently raised the threat level of Observer once again. Ever since entering the Virtual Realm, Observer’s demeanor had been too benevolent and even a bit scatterbrained, to the point that many common pieces of knowledge among sorcerers were unknown to him, making everyone forget that he was a terrifying sorcerer capable of tracking, dominating, or defeating them.

Deya’s reluctance to face Observer directly was largely due to the fact that Observer had once completely defeated her within the realm of her own mind.

Facing such an existence that she couldn’t surpass even in thought, Deya was so afraid that she dared only to hide behind the White Queen.

Now, Deya was even more terrified—the soul that could read all Sorcerer Handbooks might not be the most honorable, but it was definitely without limit, a thousand times more evil than the most malevolent villain in any fairy tale.

Ashe, however, hadn’t noticed that Sonya had considerably lowered his reputation. After some thought, he said, “No problem, then going forward, Witch, you can have first dibs on the Sorcerer Handbooks, and those you can’t read, pass them on to me… Wait a second, the spirits that Swordswoman doesn’t need go to me, the handbooks that Witch can’t read go to me, why do I feel like I’ve become a trash bin?”

“Of course not,” Deya immediately responded, “It’s because we don’t have the ability to utilize these resources that we have to give them up. Observer, you can efficiently use these resources, and that’s a testament to your strength!”

“So you should be more confident,” Sonya said with a squint and a cheerful snort through her nose, “Take out the ‘seems like’!”

While they were talking, Deya picked up a Sorcerer Handbook that had fallen. The handbook was edged with gold, and its cover featured a black flame flower. As she opened the first page, she quietly activated the “Mask spirit.”

Personality Split—Mask Reshaping—Temporary Mode   Myriad Transformations!

Deya’s hair began to shimmer with various colors; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet were all present, thankfully without causing any light pollution. At first, the colors were bright and clear, but they gradually turned murky, like cheap paint spilling into a puddle, mixing into a dirty maroon.

Not only Ashe, who knew the circumstances, but also Sonya, could see that Deya wasn’t relying on her own flexible values to read the Sorcerer Handbooks, but rather through some kind of Miracle.

This was why Deya, without any formal sorcerer education, could still become a Two Wings sorcerer and set foot on the Time Continent—most of her sorcerer knowledge was acquired through reading Sorcerer Handbooks in the Virtual Realm!

Even without Ashe’s exploratory skills, Deya had spent a full two years in the Sea of Knowledge, reading through over forty Sorcerer Handbooks. While her knowledge system wasn’t as well-organized as Sonya’s, she had mastered the basic knowledge required to navigate the Virtual Realm, making her a bona fide Combat-oriented Wildcat Sorcerer.

A wildcat may not be as robust as a house cat, but its survival skills are in no way inferior, and may even be superior.

Before turning to the last page, Deya stopped and handed it to Ashe, “Do you want to have a look? There might be valuable intelligence worth noting in every Sorcerer Handbook. If you’re willing to let me have this handbook, just stop before you reach the last page.”

Ashe had no objections and took the handbook to browse for a while, then suddenly exclaimed, “Huh?”

“What’s wrong?”

“I think I might have seen someone we know in there.”