Sorcerer’s Handbook

“Hmm?” The Stretch Paw Club President was puzzled. “What are you talking about, Little Trumpet… I asked you about tonight’s Virtual Realm plan.”

“The Virtual Realm plan…” Ashe breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ll keep an eye on things as I go.”

The sports car roared to life, chasing after the distant white bull’s hooves. Golden rain flowed swiftly into the Alchemy Throne, transforming into spellforce for the sorcerers.

Sensing the nearing fullness of her spellforce, Sonya estimated that within the next couple of days, she’d be able to fully condense her golden virtual wings and officially become a two-wings sorcerer. Although she didn’t have shortcuts like ‘Whirlpool’ for rapid spellforce absorption, the combination of the sports car and Alchemy Throne’s cultivation bonuses allowed them to absorb spellforce at least ten times faster than others. Their month-long stay in the Time Continent covered a year’s worth of progress for others.

If the Sea of Knowledge requires a journey of thousands of miles, then the demand of Time Continent is a trek of thousands of miles. In the Sea of Knowledge, sorcerers had no choice but to swim as there were few spirits and miracles, but in Time Continent, walking for a few days would feel ridiculously slow. Securing Movement Miracles for transportation tools became essential.

Sonya still didn’t have a good Movement Miracle, which had a lot to do with being driven by the Observer daily. In a way, Sonya was somewhat spoiled for this, as without the Observer, her progress in Time Continent would likely be quite arduous.

With this thought, the village girl decided on tonight’s discussion topic with the Witch: “What if we are abandoned by the Observer?” This topic could continue to lower the Witch’s favor for the Observer while also sparking her sense of crisis to actively intensify her real-world training!

However, the wording required careful consideration. If the Witch misunderstood and thought it was “What if you get abandoned by the Observer,” it would backfire, making it seem like she and the Observer were oppressing the Witch.

Therefore, Sonya had to muster genuine emotions, expressing herself as if she was really worried about being abandoned by the Observer to make the Witch empathize.

Not strong enough as an operator? Impossible, he’s clearly just saying that to scare me into more training—I saw through that long ago…

Appearing less attractive than another operator? No way, I’m the most beautiful one…

If these reasons can’t even convince me, how can they persuade the Witch? But I just can’t think of anything…

While Sonya was brewing a stomach full of mischief, she suddenly heard strange muttering next to her—

“Poison her? The success rate is too low.”

“Anyway, just hold onto it, don’t give her a chance…”

“Call her mom over? Little Red, did you forget, her mom wants it too.”

“Although it’s unlikely, what if they reconcile and decide to develop and use it together? How could we compete then? And her aunt is also an enemy—that makes three people, almost as many as we have!”

“Damn it, damn it, every single one of them is a bad person, all eyeing my treasure!”

Sonya listened to the White Queen’s lowered murmuring, watching her smooth white hair gradually tainted with bright red and black, her gentle face turning dark and gloomy. She thought about what could have happened to the Witch in reality that caused her mood swings to be so intense, even leading to a personality breakdown in the Virtual Realm.

Moreover, it sounded like something important was about to be taken away. The Scarlet Dead Apostles believed calling the other side’s mother would stop it, but the White Queen thought the mother and aunt both desired it too… Was it some kind of toy? Ȓ

Sonya quickly hugged the White Queen, softly comforting her. Realizing her own abnormality, the White Queen gently leaned on Sonya’s shoulder to rest.

“Is everything okay? Or—”

“No problem, it’s just that we lost our composure this time. Since we’ve come to the Virtual Realm, we shouldn’t dwell on real-world matters, and even more so shouldn’t bring emotions into our work.”

Sonya felt a bit disappointed—since the Witch was in such a bad mood today, she couldn’t discuss the topic of ‘being abandoned by the Observer’ to avoid adding to her troubles.

Just then, the sports car stopped outside a resource point. The White Queen looked towards the depths of the mine cave. “I hope the fight can help me relax a bit.”

“It definitely will. Nothing like slaying a few Blade Fish Dragons to relieve some stress,” Sonya laughed. “I’ve even set challenge goals for myself. My current record is one sword slash killing five Blade Fish Dragons. Maybe you should set a challenge for yourself too—like how many pieces you can divide a Blade Fish Dragon into with a single attack?”

Skilled in eradicating enemies and looting, Sonya seized the opportunity while the White Queen was scavenging for essential materials to pull Ashe aside and asked, “What’s going on with you today?”

“W-What do you mean?” Ashe was visibly tense.

“Why did you use the Healing Sword and Empowerment Sword on me so many times?” Sonya crossed her arms over her chest. “The minor injuries I had could be healed with soul energy alone; I didn’t need the Healing Sword. And the Empowerment Sword lasts for over twenty seconds—you kept reapplying it every ten seconds. Do you know how annoying that is?”

Sonya always felt that the Observer’s Empowerment Sword was incredibly peculiar. It gave a strong sensory stimulus for some reason, and every time she was empowered, it felt like he was hugging her. Not that she disliked it, but it did interrupt her fighting rhythm quite a bit when done frequently.

“I’m sorry!” Ashe immediately clasped his hands together in apology. “I’ll let you have all my essential materials tonight!”

“I’m not asking for compensation…” Sonya frowned slightly. “You’ve just been acting weird tonight.”

“No, I haven’t. I’ve always been like this—”

“Look at me and don’t move.”

Under Sonya’s intense gaze, Ashe managed to maintain eye contact for two or three seconds before turning his eyes away. He opened the virtual realm map and said, “Sword Princess, I think we should go to—”

“Forget about these trivial virtual realm matters.” Sonya pushed Ashe against the wall and grabbed his hand. A faint red glow emerged from her fingertips as they came into contact with his. “Look into my eyes.”

“Sword Princess, the Witch is about to come back—”

“Look. At. Me!”

Miracle – Treat with Sincerity!

This Miracle, based on the spirit of ‘sincerity’, had previously been used by Sonya only once—in the Amnesia Cabin to share her emotions with the Witch and the Observer, thereby gaining their trust. However, this Miracle could also be used the other way around. As long as the other party didn’t resist, she could reverse the process to sense their emotions.

At that moment, Ashe, noticing the Witch emerging from the mine cave, immediately used the Rush ability to teleport outside. “I’ll be waiting in the car while you two finish scavenging!”

The White Queen emerged, seeing the Sword Princess standing alone at the entrance of the mine cave, feeding stones to a spirit as she approached. “Sword Princess, the Observer…”

The moment the Sword Princess turned to look at her, the White Queen’s words abruptly stopped. Her mind went blank under the impact of the icy killing intent. After a difficult moment of regaining her composure, she adjusted her glasses. Instantly, her makeup, clothing, and hair color transformed to black, becoming the Black Butler.

The Black Butler looked at the Sword Princess, twitching slightly at the corner of her mouth. She took a deep breath. “Sword Princess, you… I can’t help it, I’m still really scared!”

Adjusting her glasses once more, she morphed into the cold and arrogant battle-crazy Scarlet Dead Apostles. The Scarlet Dead Apostles gave the Sword Princess a glance and shook her head. “I’m not stupid.”

In the end, it was the Secret Princess Deya who stepped up to handle the situation. Yet even Deya didn’t dare to look directly into the Sword Princess’s eyes, which seemed to be a sea of blood and killing intent. She hugged the Sword Princess, burying her head in the latter’s chest, her voice trembling. “S-Sword Princess, what happened? You seem to be in a very bad mood…”

“Nothing happened.”

The Sword Princess’s voice was still as soft and captivating as ever, like feathers brushing the ear, stirring the heart. She gently stroked the Witch’s little head, smiling. “I just suddenly had a strange thought and got lost in it for a moment.”

“W-What thought?”

“A very trivial thought… just, what if the Observer abandons me.”

The anxiousness of avoiding eye contact.

The lingering excitement of a secret joy.

And a strong sense of guilt.

Even though it was her first time feeling this way, Sonya’s intuition—or what the Observer called “Dark Insight”—had already grasped the truth.

He’s seeing someone else.