Sorcerer’s Handbook

This wasn’t the first time Ashe and his group encountered other sorcerers in the virtual realm.

Although the probability of meeting other sorcerers on the Time Continent is low, Ashe and his team drive fast, and Ashe’s virtual realm map can observe the surrounding 24 squares. Therefore, several times they could see the yellow markers representing other sorcerers on the map.

Without exception, Ashe and his team always chose to stay away from unfamiliar sorcerers, never engaging in a “fellow countrymen, shoot each other in the back” scenario.

First, other sorcerers have no communication value.

This is easy to understand. They are all two-wings sorcerers and mere passersby. Even if both parties feel safe to confide secrets because of the “we will never meet again” factor, what can different sorcerers communicate about? Exchange Secret Toxins to infect each other?

Second, other sorcerers have no assassination value.

Unless it’s a special institution like the Happy Peace Firm, which offers “chasing from reality to the virtual realm” services, there is no interest conflict between sorcerers. After all, the virtual realm is so vast that there’s no situation where one sorcerer’s gain means another’s loss. Sorcerers have developed the virtual realm for thousands or even tens of thousands of years, and instead of exhausting it, they have enriched it more and more.

More importantly, there is no benefit in murdering a living sorcerer.

In the virtual realm, the value of a living sorcerer consists of three things: the soul, the spirit, and information.

You can’t know which sorcerer you will encounter, nor whether they have the information you need, so information won’t be a motive for murder;

Spirits do have value to be seized. If there were a way to completely annihilate a sorcerer’s soul in the virtual realm, it could indeed capture all their spirits. But there’s a problem: a sorcerer only needs a thought to obliterate all their own spirits.

Not only in the virtual realm, but even in reality, cases of robbing spirits are very rare, unless the spirits are stored in containers like Glowing Spheres.

Even Shattered Lake Prison can’t strip criminals of their spirits; at most, it can seal their spellforce.

Additionally, you never know which sorcerer you might encounter, so how can you be sure they have the spirits you need?

If someone really committed virtual realm assassination of other sorcerers, the only possible motive would be coveting their souls. This isn’t uncommon; it’s said that many rituals require souls as sacrificial offerings. Moreover, even if there existed a miracle where killing another sorcerer and devouring their soul would yield Experience Points, it would be a typical storyline in the sorcerer world.

However, Ashe and his group didn’t possess such “fourth calamity”-level abilities. Naturally, they wouldn’t murder other sorcerers for profit. At most, they might kill a passing sorcerer for amusement, letting the unfortunate soul experience the world’s disparity and the unpredictability of fate, anonymously generating negative energy.

But tonight, it seemed they might make an exception.

“This is the Death Arena.”

As the sports car approached the “Worth Visiting” area from the other side, a magnificent circular arena appeared before the three of them. Sonya recognized the building at a glance and couldn’t help but speak with some excitement, “My professor once triggered this special structure-it’s the most favored virtual realm building for battle sorcerers, bar none!”

With the village girl’s introduction, Ashe and the others realized that this building held a status in the hearts of two-wings sorcerers comparable to the “Whirlpool.”

The Death Arena has three major features: after each battle, a sorcerer’s spellforce is fully restored; a sorcerer will only encounter an equal number of enemies; and only by winning a certain number of consecutive battles can a sorcerer leave.

Winning three consecutive battles allows a sorcerer to gain the highest sect experience in their current realm, roughly an Experience Orb.

Winning five consecutive battles grants experience equivalent to two Experience Orbs.

Winning ten consecutive battles grants experience equivalent to five Experience Orbs!

Even if a sorcerer can’t win, they can surrender in time, but the price is that the arena will drain their vitality, spirit, and essence before ejecting them from the virtual realm, effectively ending their virtual realm exploration for the night.

Although two-wings battle sorcerers can generally defeat knowledge creatures, unlike silver sorcerers who might perish against a Blade Fish Dragon, sorcerers like Ashe who kill monsters, set fires, and wipe out clans daily are rare. Most sorcerers would be content to kill one knowledge creature and harvest one spirit per day.

Even on the Time Continent, Experience Orbs remain a precious resource.

Most sorcerers only have one way to advance their sect realm: intense study while they’re still young. Although some people may get smarter with age, it’s normal for learning ability to peak in youth. If a sorcerer can’t elevate their spellcasting sect to the Sanctuary level before they turn fifty, it’s likely they never will.

Therefore, buildings like the Death Arena, which can reliably provide a large amount of sect experience without much risk, are naturally very attractive. In the book “The Top Ten Tourist Destinations on the Time Continent” that Sonya read, the Death Arena was ranked second!

However, Ashe and the others were more interested in another aspect of the arena’s mechanics.

“Why are there two sorcerers fighting a heroic soul commander and a Thousand-feathered Drakes in a melee?”

Sonya shook her head. “I don’t think it’s a melee—it should be the two sorcerers fighting against the heroic soul and its minion.”

“Because most of the time, the Death Arena is empty. But when a sorcerer enters, the arena has to arrange an opponent. So, the arena usually temporarily grabs a combatant from outside.”

“By the way, since sorcerers don’t belong to virtual realm creatures, the arena can’t capture sorcerers. If a sorcerer enters the arena voluntarily, the arena will most likely pull in a sorcerer projection to fight them, followed by knowledge creatures.”

“But if another sorcerer enters the arena, it will immediately arrange for the two sorcerers to duel, as it seems to prioritize sorcerer versus sorcerer battles.”

Ashe suddenly asked, “If a sorcerer kills knowledge creatures and sorcerer projections in the arena, then…?”

“They’ll drop loot just the same,” Sonya said. “That’s another reason the arena is so appealing—sorcerers don’t have to waste time searching for enemies; the arena will bring them in.”

Deya realized, looking up at the arena obscured by the Rain Curtain, “So, the two sorcerers inside are using the arena’s mechanism to trap and kill the heroic soul commander!”

The arena prioritizes capturing sorcerer projections, and a heroic soul commander is essentially a powerful, modified version of a sorcerer projection.

As long as they can lure the heroic soul legion near the Arena, the sorcerers can then enter the Arena, and the Arena will most likely pull the heroic soul commander inside to fight!

“Wait,” Ashe pointed out a problem. “Can the Arena accommodate teams? Why aren’t those two sorcerers being forced into an internal battle first?”

“Those two sorcerers must know each other,” Sonya speculated. “They might have used some method to make the Arena consider them as being on the same side, so the Arena brought in the heroic soul commander and his minions for them.”

“Why would they want to team up…” Deya began to ask, but the White Queen and the others already knew the answer.

Not to mention the combat synergy between the two sorcerers, the most important thing is that this way, the “unknown sorcerers” don’t have to worry about other sorcerers interrupting their battle!

As mentioned earlier, once a sorcerer enters the Arena, the Arena will prioritize arranging an internal battle between sorcerers. Now that these two sorcerers have teamed up, in this scenario, only another team of two sorcerers will be forced to fight them!

But where in the Virtual Realm are there that many sorcerer teams?

“A brilliant strategy,” Ashe marveled. “Using the Arena’s mechanism to capture the heroic soul commander, effectively nullifying the heroic soul legion’s numerical advantage. And because of the surrender mechanism, even if they fail, they won’t suffer any losses… I see, this is the proper method for sorcerers to kill a heroic soul commander. In front of the heroic soul legion, sorcerers are the weaker party, but in the Virtual Realm, the heroic soul commander is the weaker one!”

Deya added, “But isn’t it too coincidental? Two sorcerers who know each other just happen to meet in the Virtual Realm, just happen to encounter a heroic soul legion, and there’s conveniently an Arena nearby…”

“It’s precisely because of so many coincidences that sorcerers killing a heroic soul commander is considered an impossible Miracle,” Sonya said with admiration. “Before, I wasn’t sure, but now I am certain that in the past, sorcerers have indeed used Virtual Realm buildings to kill commanders. A sorcerer’s greatest weapon is not their spirit, not their spellforce, not even Miracles, but ‘spells’-the art of utilizing the Truth of all things!”

Although Ashe and his team defeated the heroic soul legion through sheer “hard power”—at least without any help from the Virtual Realm—they did not underestimate other sorcerers because of it.

On the contrary, seeing the commander about to be trapped and killed by their peers in the Arena, they felt sincere admiration.

Even though they had never met, Ashe did not hold back his praise for these two unknown sorcerers: strength, luck, strategy, decisiveness… they possessed all the excellent qualities needed to become legendary sorcerers. If they succeeded in killing the commander, given time, they would undoubtedly become legendary sorcerers.

What a pity.

They encountered the three of them.

“Sword Princess, is there a way to snatch the commander?” Ashe asked.

Sonya looked at Ashe, her lips curling into a slight smile. She suddenly patted Ashe on the shoulder with a grin. “Of course there is!”

What a pair of conniving partners… the Witch sisters thought to themselves.

Normally, Ashe and his team had no need to attack other sorcerers, but this was not a normal situation: it involved the loot from a commander!

Not to mention the commander’s handbook and soul summoning spirit, just for the map in the commander’s possession, Ashe had to intervene!

Typically, killing a commander would drop a map. While maps are almost meaningless to ordinary sorcerers, Ashe’s “virtual realm map” could directly incorporate other maps and provide navigation. By killing all the faction commanders once and piecing together the map of the Time Continent, the Time Continent would become Ashe’s playground, where he could freely plunder resource points and experience Virtual Realm buildings.

A nightly visit to Miracle Wonderland to get free spirits, a warm-up at the Arena, and then a relaxing read at the Legendary Library… it would be so enjoyable that he wouldn’t even want to go to the Third Layer of the Virtual Realm.

Moreover, Ashe hadn’t forgotten about the countdown to the Empress’s heroic soul’s hunt.

If they happened to obtain the Spider Tower map, their chances of survival would at least double—if nothing else, just by running continuously on level roads without encountering complex terrains like forests or swamps, they could shake off the heroic soul legion!

For the sake of future resources and the current crisis, Ashe silently apologized to the two sorcerers—this project you did very well, please rest well, I will help you finish it off!

As for Sonya, she wasn’t thinking that far ahead. She simply enjoyed plundering others’ gains and liked doing mischief with the Observer. The overlap of these two pleasures naturally made her excited: “It’s simple, since there are three of us, we can send two people in as a team first, then the Arena will arrange a 2v2 duel with four sorcerers.”

“At this point, the commander should be pushed out of the Arena, and then the third person enters the Arena immediately. The Arena will prioritize pulling the commander back in for a 1v1 duel with the third person!”

“Just like them, we only need to use the Arena’s mechanism to easily snatch their hard-earned rewards,” Sonya said, clasping her hands together in a pious prayer. “I hope they have already exhausted the commander’s soul power.”