Mage Manual

Chapter 70: Chapter 66: The Aftermath of Death

“Ugh…”

In the meditation quiet room, Felix groaned, clutching his belly and holding his nose as a steady flow of blood trickled from his nostrils, his forehead slick with cold sweat.

His abdomen was filled with a sensation of death.

It was not pain, but emptiness.

It felt as though a gap had suddenly appeared between his upper and lower body; even as he clutched his belly, it felt as though he was holding a piece of pork, devoid of any sense that he was touching his own body.

This was the aftermath of a death in the Void Realm—a severe soul injury, even to the point of losing one’s sense of reality.

As a barely audible lament sounded, the ruby on Felix’s necklace shattered with a crash, and a single-winged Spiritual Body made of light dissipated into the air.

This was the Artifact Spirit, “Fish-Slicing Dragon’s Belly Scale.” Its effect was to transfer all death damage sustained in the Void Realm to the abdomen, and this was the secret behind the enduring strength of the Vosloda Family.

When a Mage dies in the Void Realm, the mortal wound is reflected upon the soul, leading to a loss of soul energy.

A soul that is not whole cannot traverse the Gate of Truth, so until the soul energy is restored, naturally, a Mage cannot enter the Void Realm.

And since the soul is closely related to the body, regardless of which part of the soul energy is missing, it will cause a temporary “soul disability” in the Mage.

In simple terms, if the chest’s soul is injured, then the heart will maintain a low-frequency beat for a long time, preventing the Mage from partaking in any physical activity;

If the limbs’ soul is injured, the Mage may not be able to control their hands and feet;

If the head’s soul is injured, the Mage will fall into a coma.

Only when the soul energy is restored will the Mage’s bodily functions return to normal.

Hence, the goal of sailing thousands of miles through the Sea of Knowledge, which might seem not too challenging, is in fact an unreachable horizon for many Mages—they cannot all cease their normal activities to focus on cultivation. Life is more than just distant lands; one must also attend to trivial day-to-day needs, and each death in the Void Realm can cause substantial losses for a Mage.

Although death is inevitable and soul injury is certain, Mages have still thought of numerous ways to minimize these losses.

For example, by localizing each death’s damage to a less critical area.

“Fish-Slicing Dragon’s Belly Scale” is a secret Miracle of the Vosloda Family; the family Mages extract the effect of the Miracle and, through complex rituals, embed it into a gemstone to form a temporary ‘Artifact Spirit.’ When a family Mage dies in the Void Realm, the Artifact Spirit inside the gem activates, transferring all the death damage to the abdomen.

Apart from a significant decrease in the digestive capabilities of the stomach and the need to eat liquid food for a few days, Mages had nearly no cost to pay.

Furthermore, the Vosloda Family had another miraculous “Dragon’s Banquet,” which allowed them to quickly restore the soul energy of the abdomen through eating, thereby reducing the cooldown period before re-entering the Void Realm.

With these two Miracles, the Mages of the Vosloda Family could reduce the losses from Void Realm death to a minimum, greatly improving the efficiency of Void Realm Exploration, significantly increasing the chances of a Gold Two-winged Mage or a Holy Domain Three-winged Mage emerging. This was the foundation of the Vosloda’s hundreds of years of prosperity.

Other noble families had similar methods, and a solid system for nurturing excellent Mages was practically a standard for century-old nobility; otherwise, a single break in producing talent could exterminate an once illustrious Dazzling Star noble family.

Before the Void Realm, Mages stand equal, but some Mages can fight for more equality.

However, minimizing the cost of death was already at its limit; what must be lost, would still be lost.

Felix introspected his Technique Spirit and immediately felt his vision darken, almost fainting.

His “Slaughter Sword” Technique Spirit was gone!

It was a high probability for a Mage’s Technique Spirit to be lost upon death in the Void Realm. This is because Technique Spirits are hidden within the soul; when a part of the soul energy is lost due to death, that part may include a Technique Spirit, which could also be cast away.

The more Technique Spirits one has, the greater the chance of loss, and the greater the number of losses!

Even with Felix mentally prepared to lose some Technique Spirits, he never expected to lose his most important “Slaughter Sword” on his first death!

It was a relic left by his mother, one of the legendary “Secret Swords Twenty-One Spirits”!

A Technique Spirit of this level was almost impossible to purchase, and even if it were for sale, Felix, the less favored noble young master, could never afford it!

Moreover, he had not fully mastered the knowledge of the “Slaughter Sword,” meaning he could not summon it on his own!

What offered Felix some small consolation was that his Silver Wings had already formed halfway, reducing more than a year of his cultivation time.

He didn’t expect to encounter the natural Wonder, “Vortex,” just a few days after entering the Void Realm.

No Mage would pass up such an opportunity, let alone an Avenger like Felix thirsty for power. However, after stepping into the Vortex and traversing thousands of miles, what appeared before him was a mature Fish Dragon!

In the Knowledge Creature Atlas, Fish Dragons were considered to be among the stronger Combat Powers, let alone a mature one!

Knowledge creatures are classified into stages such as juvenile, mature, fully mature, and complete. At the periphery of the Sea of Knowledge, only juveniles are typically encountered; mature stages appear in the inner areas, and fully mature might be seen in the core regions. As for the complete stage, they do not appear in the Sea of Knowledge.

Knowing he would die, Felix fought with all his might, attempting to kill the Fish Dragon first. But ultimately, with too few Technique Spirits and insufficient means, Felix perished at the sharp tail of the Fish Dragon after inflicting a severe wound.

“Losing the ‘Slaughter Sword,’ forming half of the Silver Wings…”

Felix sighed, unable to decide whether it was a loss or gain.

Magic Power was naturally of utmost importance to a Mage, but the Slaughter Sword was a crucial lifeline for his current predicament—if not for the assistance of the Slaughter Sword, he would have been unable to evade multiple assassination attempts.

“However, this also means I can inherit more of my mother’s legacy.”

Felix’s face darkened as he clenched his fist, “Just you wait, Bessel, one day, I will make you kneel and apologize to mother…”

Due to his physical weakness and not having moved the whole night, his chest felt uncomfortable and his breathing was unsteady. Since he was alone in the meditation quiet room, he undid his chest wrap, and two large ‘white rabbits’ burst out to breathe the free air. He also relaxed completely and rested against the wall for quite a while.

Half an hour later, Felix dressed and left the Meditation Building, stepping into the sunlight scattered with dazzling stars.

Still, having just experienced death for the first time, Felix felt a sudden loss of control over his lower half as he walked. He stumbled and was about to fall when he quickly propped himself up with his sword case.

“Heh, why is young master Vosloda in such a bad mood so early in the morning, taking it out on the ground?”

A hand reached from behind and pressed on Felix’s shoulder, helping to steady his form.

Felix turned around and said calmly, “You seem to be in a good mood, had a good harvest?”

Sonia passed by him with a refreshing look, raised her eyebrows and said, “You could say that. This afternoon in Professor Trozan’s office, you’ll know.”

Petty triumph.

Although Sonia’s talent for swordsmanship was indeed one in a million, Felix had also discerned her character flaws: vain, plagued with an inferiority complex coupled with arrogance, and possessive of cunning without great wisdom… Without her talent for swordsmanship, Sonia would be no different from those vulgar Female Mages he had encountered.

Now she was, at best, a vulgar Village Girl with a talent for swordsmanship.

Truly… enviable.

Others might think that Felix was also a prodigy in swordsmanship, but he knew well that without the ‘affectionate’ Technique Spirit left by his mother, he would never have been able to cultivate the Wave Motion Stance to the degree necessary to summon a Technique Spirit so quickly. @@novelbin@@

And he had paid a significant price for it—without Magic Power, to activate the ‘affectionate’ Magic Power, he had to constantly change girlfriends to trigger the Resonance with the Technique Spirit, leading to his notorious reputation and almost becoming the shame of the Vosloda Family.

But now things were different.

After traversing the Vortex, Sonia had been left far behind by him, no longer qualified to be his competitor.

His goal should be Reonie, the orange dancer, and those Monsters at Truth University—

“Hmm?”

Felix suddenly felt a familiar flow.

He looked up and saw many students covertly watching Sonia.

News of Reonie being ‘defeated’ by Sonia had spread throughout all Mage Universities in Jiale City by the previous day. Sonia undoubtedly became the most prominent student at the moment, and she seemed to thoroughly enjoy this attention, adopting a supposedly modest and unassuming demeanor as she casually walked away.

However, Felix felt that Sonia seemed to be drawing a very familiar type of energy from all this attention!

‘Blindsight’ Technique Spirit, activate!

Felix closed his eyes, and in an instant, the world vanished from his sight. In the pitch darkness, he saw wisps of blood-red mist flowing towards Sonia’s location!

That was Killing Intent!

And the passive effect of the ‘Slaughter Sword’ was precisely the ability to absorb the Killing Intent others directed at oneself!

Though there were numerous Technique Spirits capable of absorbing Killing Intent, for some reason, Felix was absolutely certain Sonia had just acquired a new ‘Slaughter Sword’ Technique Spirit!

Was the ‘Slaughter Sword’ she received the same one that the Fish-Slicing Dragon snatched from me?

Felix immediately dismissed the thought as soon as it emerged—what were the odds?

Moreover, the place where Felix fought the Fish-Slicing Dragon was near the Vortex. If it was such a coincidence, wouldn’t it mean that Sonia also happened to cross through the Vortex? But before Felix died, he clearly saw the Vortex shrinking to an almost imperceptible size.

Sonia must have just been lucky, acquiring a wild ‘Slaughter Sword’ Technique Spirit.

Felix was so consumed by jealousy that he became hungry—an aftereffect of his soul damage. Any emotional fluctuation translated directly to his gastrointestinal organs; a good mood meant a feeling of fullness and a bad mood led to unbearable hunger. Furthermore, he couldn’t indulge in a lavish meal, or else he’d suffer constipation.

Once he calmed down, Felix pondered whether there was any chance of obtaining the ‘Slaughter Sword’ from Sonia.

He quickly shook his head.

To take it by force would mean dealing with Professor Trozan, who stood behind Sonia;

To buy it, there were plenty others who wanted it, and he lacked the capital to compete.

It was just that the Slaughter Sword was too crucial to him. If there was no hope, he would have let it go, but now there was a chance to recover his loss…

Felix gritted his teeth, opened his eyes, and shouted at Sonia, who hadn’t yet walked far:

“Sonia!”