Mage Manual

Chapter 90: Chapter 83: Growth Report of the Death Mad Sword Maiden (Tenth Update)

“If hurt enough, just use a pair of hands to swiftly cut open…”

Yawning as he got up, Igula went to take his usual bath. He had barely stripped and settled into the bathtub for a few seconds when he heard the persistent and urgent ringing of the doorbell.

Although puzzled, Igula still wrapped himself in a bath towel and opened the door, only to find Ash outside.

“Let’s play rock-paper-scissors.”

“What?”

“Don’t ask, just play rock-paper-scissors, and you have to beat me three times!”

...

“Is this some kind of necessary ritual?”

“That’s right!”

“Will it harm me?”

“No!”

Igula observed Ash for a while, feeling that he probably wasn’t lying, so he said, “Then I don’t want to.”

“Why?”

“Helping you is a favor; not helping you is my right. Why should I help you complete this ritual?”

“Does helping others need a reason?”

“Your current position doesn’t really support you saying that… And do I look like I do charity?”

Ash pondered for a moment: “Do you know why Mages can’t drink water that’s just been boiled and must wait for a while before drinking?”

Igula was taken aback: “Why?”

“If you join me in completing this ritual, I’ll tell you.”

Could it be that freshly boiled water contains trace amounts of Poison Skill that damages Magic Power? Or is “boiled water” part of some ritual that could lead to negative consequences if interfered with?

In the world of Mages, every little thing contains truth. Perhaps a seemingly trivial matter is a “ritual taboo” that Mages have summarized over centuries, like “chanting prayers for the deceased” can effectively reduce the residual Death aura on their bodies.

With that in mind, Igula’s curiosity got the better of him, and he agreed to Ash’s request. He easily won three times against Ash — with Igula’s somewhat Mind Reading ability, it was almost as if Ash’s choices each round were written on his face.

“Okay, thank you, Igula!”

“What kind of ritual requires someone to win rock-paper-scissors against oneself three times…”

“This is called the Lay Up Ritual. Now that I have lost to you, my luck will improve. So, goodbye—”

“Wait, you haven’t told me why Mages can’t drink freshly boiled water.”

“Because it burns the tongue.”

Igula stared blankly as Ash left, closed the door, and went back to the bathroom to lie in the bathtub.

He stared at the ceiling, rubbed his temples, and fell into deep thought.

“Have I been affected intellectually by associating with him too frequently recently…”

After finishing his bath and while brushing his teeth, Igula was fortunate to trigger a ‘Revelation’ from his Technique Spirit. The splashed toothpaste foam left a message on the mirror—

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

“Who would drink that!”

…

After the Lay Up Ritual, Ash returned to his own bedroom.

“Confirm the consumption of 30 Source Crystals for ten searches? Note, you can manually increase the number of searches; the more searches, the easier it is to draw rare cards!”

“Confirm the consumption of 42 Source Crystals for fourteen searches?”

“Confirmed!”

Whoosh—

The card-drawing interface was still utterly plain, revealing eight white lights, four purple lights, and… two gold lights!

The eight white lights were 1 Basic Combat Card, 4 Energy Potions, and 3 Experience Potions. The Experience Potions were fine since they could be used cumulatively to increase experience growth by up to 50%. However, an operator could only use 1 Energy Potion per week, but so many had been drawn… Were these just to pollute the card pool?

Ash continued to look and his eyes lit up: The four purple lights were 3 ‘Joy Potions’ for Technique Spirits and 1 ‘Sweet Words and a Hidden Dagger.’

‘Joy Potion’ * 3: Used on operators to increase the affinity of Technique Spirits to the operator, accelerating mastery of the Technique Spirits, lasting one week, and cannot be used cumulatively.

‘Sweet Words and a Hidden Dagger’: Honey that can be hidden under the tongue and transformed into a long sword when pressed with the tongue. It can pass any security check and can be upgraded…

Unquestionably, the Joy Potion was exactly what Ash needed at the moment. His ‘Heart Sword’ and ‘Circulation’ Technique Spirits were new, not yet mastered in the Void Realm, let alone resonating in reality.

But the effect was a bit strange; it could increase the affinity of Technique Spirits towards the operator. Could this potion make the Technique Spirits… amorous?

‘Sweet Words and a Hidden Dagger’ wasn’t needed at the moment, but Ash would certainly need a weapon after escaping from prison. Shattered Lake Prison showed that the outside world must be full of obstacles for an escapee, likely filled with security checks and surveillance equipment everywhere.

Thus, ‘Sweet Words and a Hidden Dagger,’ a weapon that could pass security checks, was essential for an escapee when out and about.

Finally, there were the two gold lights!

“Alchemist’s Refinement Bottle”: Mix two identical potions for a 30% chance to refine into a stronger, advanced potion, a 30% chance to mutate into another rare potion, or a 40% chance to fail and lose both potions.

Ash perked up at once—with this refinement bottle, those potions polluting the card pool could be recycled. Although there was a chance of loss, at least there was something to look forward to, like buying a lottery ticket.

“Random Technique Spirit Summon Card”: When used on an operator, the operator will perform a summoning ritual, autonomously summoning a rare Technique Spirit of their current level, and advance the Technique Spirit’s faction realm to their current level. Note that based on the Technique Spirit’s nature, the summoning ritual’s restrictions, duration, and requirements may vary, but the time will not exceed seven days.

This golden card all of a sudden didn’t seem so great to Ash—the card only summons one Technique Spirit, while he could gather 12 in just one night.

But upon closer inspection, the focus of this card isn’t the Technique Spirit, but the “current level”!

After these days of learning, Ash also knew that mages in this world are classified as One-winged Silver, Two-winged Gold, Three-winged Holy Realm, and Four-winged Legendary. This means, if the Sword Maiden advances to Two-winged, and the random summon card is used on her, she will be sure to summon a Two-winged Technique Spirit—the more wings a Technique Spirit has, the better, naturally.

But in order for a mage to summon the corresponding Technique Spirit, the prerequisite is that her faction realm is at the threshold.

If the faction realm is not at Gold Level, then it’s impossible for the mage to summon the corresponding Two-winged Technique Spirit, and so on!

Therefore, the true effect of this golden card is: to randomly raise one of the operator’s magic faction realms to the current Void Wings level, and obtain a Technique Spirit of the same level!

To a One-winged Mage, this golden card is equivalent to an Experience Treasure Orb plus a Technique Spirit, but if the operator is a Two-winged, Three-winged, or even Four-winged Mage, then this golden card becomes quite terrifying.

In a maximum of seven days, one could become proficient in a magic faction one has never touched before!

Reason told Ash that the later he used this golden card, the greater its value, but the current situation truly didn’t allow him to be a squirrel hoarding goodies.

For the upcoming prison break, Ash had to convert all resources into combat power, and if it came down to the wire and caused the escape to fail, he feared he might regret it enough to volunteer to be Lanna’s next meal.

First was the refinement bottle, Ash currently had 7 Energy Potions and 4 Experience Potions, which he put in pairs for refinement, finally obtaining 2 Advanced Physical Potions and 1 Advanced Experience Potion.

“Advanced Physical Potion”: In training actions, gives the operator an advanced action point, lasting seven days. An advanced action point exempts the operator from energy consumption, increases positive feedback from actions, slowly improves the operator’s mood, and has a low chance of improving the operator’s Bonds Level.

“Advanced Experience Potion”: In training actions, increases the operator’s skill experience gain by 50%, lasting seven days, with a maximum bonus of 100% per operator.

This should have been the end of it, but Ash thought it over and put in 2 Technique Spirit Joy Potions as well.

If the purification failed, he still had one he could use, but it succeeded. @@novelbin@@

“Technique Spirit Excitement Potion”: When used on an operator, significantly increases the Technique Spirit’s affinity towards the operator, greatly speeds up the operator’s mastery of the Technique Spirit, lasts for one week, and cannot be stacked.

This potion’s name is starting to sound more and more like an aphrodisiac…

Ash opened “Operator Management,” and the game suddenly popped up a message:

“The training of Death Mad Sword Maiden has concluded. Please check the growth report and set this week’s training strategy as soon as possible.”

“Growth Report for Death Mad Sword Maiden 4.12~4.18”

“Sword Technique Faction: 0 → Silver”

“Light Magic Faction: 0 → Silver”

“Water Technique Faction: Uninitiated → Silver”

“Magic Power: 0 → Silver Half-wing”

“Training Evaluation: A!”

“As a result of obtaining an A grade, Death Mad Sword Maiden has received a professional enhancement from the Mage’s Handbook: One-winged Sword Master → Annihilator Silver Mage”

“Annihilator Silver Mage · Professional Characteristics: Each time an effective attack is made, 0.5% of maximum magic power can be recovered.”

Ash hadn’t expected there to be an evaluation phase after the training strategy concluded, and moreover, that high evaluations could lead to special rewards—professional enhancement.

Although it had nothing to do with him, no question the stronger the Sword Maiden was, the more efficient their exploration in the Void Realm would be, and the “Annihilator Silver Mage’s” professional characteristic was quite practical too.

The advancement of the Sword Maiden’s Water Technique Faction to Silver Level was naturally because they obtained two Experience Treasure Orbs last night, one for swordsmanship and one for Water Magic.

Because Ash had a “Shared Experience” bond with the Sword Maiden, without a doubt, he let her have both orbs. Watching the moved expression on the Sword Maiden’s face as she received the orbs in the Void Realm, Ash felt as if he could hear the prompt “Your Bonds with Death Mad Sword Maiden have deepened.”

Then he opened “Training Strategy.”

“Death Mad Sword Maiden”

“Current Mood: 6 (0 experience bonus)”

“Available Actions: Rest, Entertainment, Training, Combat”

“Suggestion: The Sword Maiden hasn’t rested or entertained for a week; appropriate entertainment can effectively increase mood, and balancing work with leisure can lead to better training and study.”

Ash hesitated a little: The Sword Maiden complained many times about lacking rest time, and she helped him so much in the Void Realm, both emotionally and rationally, he should let her relax properly…

Snap! Snap!

“Ash, come out, we need to find our final team member fast today!” Igula’s voice came from outside.

Ash immediately snapped back to reality from his sentimentality: As the saying goes, lead by example, if he couldn’t rest, how could the Sword Maiden rest?

I reject your suggestion!

PS: Finally hit 10,000 subscriptions, although it didn’t reach the delusional dream of 15,000, but like a happy typing boar, I’ll be adding two more chapters, making it ten updates! Thank you for all your support!

Welcome to the new overlord Villie! Such domineering presence!

Here I solemnly recommend a new book from a great author coming from next door, guaranteed quality:

“When Darkness Falls, Please Sleep”

“The chilly, numb voice of a shadow outside the window softly calls someone’s name, the shadows on the ground crawl like serpents and insects, the elevator door at the end of the hallway opens by itself, the faceless elevator girl reveals a strange smile, and in the midst of shadows, the skinless butcher slowly raises a cleaver…

In this era where all nations have outlawed staying up late, Chen Xiao has lost his sleep.”