Sorcerer’s Handbook

On a small island in the Sea of Knowledge within the Virtual Realm, the battle was drawing to its final conclusion.

“The difference between swordsmanship and butchery lies in precision.”

Professor Trozan’s teachings seemed to echo in her ears as Sonya strove to maintain steady breathing to prevent any distortion in her movements. Holding the wooden sword quietly in her hand, she channeled the arcane energy to its boiling point and thrust with all her might!

The wooden sword pierced through Ashe’s back and out his chest!

“Ugh!”

Ashe grunted, the intense pain nearly causing his hands to lose their grip. The Virtual Realm didn’t shield sorcerers from pain; in fact, because it was a direct contact with the naked soul, the sensation of pain was generally 10% to 20% higher than in reality. Hence, it was not impossible for a sorcerer to die from excessive pain in the Virtual Realm and carry that death back to the real world!

As the wooden sword impaled Ashe, a faint purple glow emanated from the tip, and then—

“Inner Vibration Sword!”

With Sonya’s delicate shout, the Vibration Sword Qi burst forth from the wooden sword!

The green-skinned orc, whose waist had been pierced by Sonya’s sword while it clutched at Ashe’s shoulders, let out a hysterical roar. Its burly body burst open like a punctured balloon, and its lower half was blown away.

However, the ferocity in its eyes intensified as its hands clutched tightly at Ashe’s throat, almost twisting his neck as if wringing out a wet towel—

Sonya decisively pulled out the wooden sword and made a swift cut. The orc’s neck, which had seemed nearly impervious to cuts just moments before, now parted like a slice of cake. As the orc’s head flew off, Ashe also sat down heavily on the ground, gasping for air.

“Are you okay?”

“Other than reliving a brief life in my mind and hearing what seemed to be the call of kin, nothing much.”

Ashe coughed twice, looking down at the spot where Sonya had stabbed him. Naturally, not even his windbreaker was damaged, and the injury had instantly healed.

He knew from the first battle that any injury sustained in the Virtual Realm was illusory. As long as one didn’t die on the spot, the sorcerer could almost instantly recover.

Of course, all miracles come at a price. Ashe saw that the opacity of his palm had significantly decreased, indicating that a lot of his Soul Energy had been consumed.

If he were to suffer such severe trauma again, he might truly have to concede his first blood in the Virtual Realm.

He glanced at the dissipating orc’s head, still feeling a shiver of fear.

This green-skinned orc was the strongest enemy they had encountered in the Virtual Realm. Had it not been for Ashe’s willingness to sacrifice himself as a decoy and Sonya seizing the opportunity to strike, the outcome of their battle would still be uncertain.

To be honest, in terms of combat ability, this green-skinned orc was not much different from the gunners they had encountered before, both being low-rank sorcerers with very superficial battle modes.

And that was precisely why the “Exploration in Virtual Realm” had deemed it a ‘Worth a visit’ adventure target, giving Ashe a misconception.

Then the Virtual Realm taught Ashe a lesson: everything in the Virtual Realm carried risks, the waters of the Sea of Knowledge were deep, and if you couldn’t grasp them, you’d be in over your head, child.

Even among low-rank sorcerers, the gap between them could be greater than racial differences.

Ashe and Sonya easily defeated the gunmen, but were overwhelmed by the green-skinned orc because its specialized faction was the perfect counter to their Physical Faction! Its green skin took on the color of wood, hard as if it were clad in natural armor!

Not just Ashe, but even Sonya could do no more than scratch it, unable to truly hurt it.

More importantly, the orc’s battle experience was abundant, and it seemed to have also learned boxing techniques. Every time Sonya tried to seriously wound it with the Vibration Sword, the orc would either entangle with Ashe or charge directly at Sonya, effectively forcing her to hold back out of caution.

After a prolonged battle, both Ashe and Sonya’s energy was greatly depleted, while the orc fought more fiercely as time went on, which naturally boded ill for them. After a brief discussion, they decided Ashe would actively engage the orc to block its line of sight, creating an opportunity for Sonya to attack.

The tactic was successful: the orc perished, Sonya’s skills improved, and Ashe experienced an unusual trip down memory lane. Everyone grew from the experience.

Naturally, after the battle, it was time to search for spoils of war. The orc left behind two fang ornaments, each with a spirit:

“Oak Skin”

“One Wing Spirit”

“Restriction: The Sorcerer must have skin that wraps around muscle tissue.”

“Basic Effect: Transforms the skin into a bark-like material. When on the ground, 10% of kinetic energy impact on the skin can be transferred and dissipated into the earth.”

“Passive Effect: Through daily exercise, the skin can be transformed into that of tree bark.”

“Note: Frostbite, sunburn, deep cold—all the trials gifted by nature will only make you more indestructible.”

Both spirits were “Oak Skin,” and Ashe found it odd, “Why does it have two of the same spirits?”

Sonya explained: “Because the Physical Faction values not the active effects of the spirits but the passive effects, which can be stacked. Therefore, to quickly train their bodies to the extreme, Physical Sorcerers often seek to acquire multiple identical spirits to speed up their training.”

“Do you need them?”

“No, Oak Skin isn’t valuable, and it doesn’t suit me. Even if I wanted to use Physical spirits to enhance my physique, there are better options. Besides, Oak Skin is just too ugly.”

The focus is on being too ugly, huh… Ashe recalled the orc’s skin that looked like a piece of paper crumpled hundreds of times then unfolded, and he felt some aversion.

He wasn’t overly concerned about his own appearance, but that level of ugliness could indeed affect the aesthetics of the city.

Thus, those two spirits naturally went into Ashe’s bag as reserve funds for Recharge.

Sonya picked up a scroll that burst out of the orc, glanced at it with disdain, and tossed it to Ashe, muttering, “You can’t possibly absorb even this type of Sorcerer Handbook, can you?”

Ashe took a look and was immediately taken aback.

That scroll left by the orc was indeed a… Well, to put it elegantly, it was called “Flora’s Compendium,” more formally “Research Material on the Customs of Another World,” and crudely, “The Recommended Guide.”

The scroll started with a dozen or so artistic shots of orcs. Although the aesthetic was rather rough, Ashe, who hadn’t indulged in such visuals for a couple of days, could appreciate the wild beauty within.

The scroll really started to get interesting in the middle; there were Humans, Elves, Ogres, creatures with long fuzzy ears, ones with scales, winged beings, horned figures, and even spiders—no wonder this Orc was a Physical Sorcerer, who else could conduct such a detailed and diverse survey!

But one thing Ashe found less satisfying was the Orc’s single-minded aesthetic, which only pursued ‘size.’ Big was good, big was beautiful, and there wasn’t a single female in the scroll under two meters tall—they were all giants that Ashe could only look up to.

“If you like it, why not take it back and peruse it at your leisure?” Sonya held her arms, barely concealing her disdain, “Ha, men…”

“I’ll be quick, I’ll finish it in no time, just wait for me.”

Though he said this, the scroll was very long, documenting at least several hundred females, more than Ashe knew in person—it was a case of the drought-stricken envying the flood-stricken…

When Ashe reached the end of the scroll, he saw a photo of an ordinary Orc female, quite special—her photo was the only one in the entire scroll where she was clothed.

Based on previous information, this likely meant the Physical Orc Sorcerer hadn’t engaged in procreation activities with her.

She was depicted holding two Orc children, with a wooden hut in the background. A bit short and plump, she looked kind, and even her fierce-looking fangs when she smiled didn’t seem threatening. She wore a dirty apron, clearly an Orc farmwife.

With no textual information, Ashe could only guess: Had the Physical Orc Sorcerer fallen for this Orc farmwife? But why hadn’t they become a couple? Was it because the Sorcerer was close to death, or had he contracted some disease from frequent self-care?

What a strange Orc Sorcerer indeed…

As the scroll turned to light smoke and dissipated, Ashe gained two new skills.

“Secrets of Bliss (Effective only for females over two meters tall)”

“Primal Instincts”

Ashe looked at “Secrets of Bliss (Effective only for females over two meters tall)” with some bewilderment.

How to put it… Although he had no driving experience, he somehow managed to get an A1 class driver’s license. Starting today, he was a licensed cloud driver.

The second skill, “Primal Instincts,” was quite useful. It wasn’t an Orc Race trait, but a combat skill honed by the Orc Sorcerer over years of Battle, allowing for effective evasion of sudden attacks from outside one’s field of vision in close combat.

Having absorbed the Sorcerer Handbook, Inheritance Island was about to sink again. Sonya sat at the stern of the boat, raising her eyebrows at him: “You really managed to absorb that Sorcerer Handbook… It seems you have quite a broad perspective…”

“Not really, I just have a flexible set of principles.”

Actually, Ashe also felt something was off. Swordswomen couldn’t absorb the handbooks, but he could absorb every one he encountered—it was clear that the problem wasn’t with the conservative Swordswomen but with Ashe, who was as open as a public bus.

Ashe suspected it was a hidden feature of “Aurora’s Sorcerer Handbook” the game, but since the game hadn’t popped up any related prompts, Ashe could only fob off the Swordswoman.

“Let’s move on to the next area. I’m hoping we’ll encounter an Inheritance Island for a Swordcerer… or even Adventure Island with a spirit of Swordsmanship would be fine… Just as long as it’s not an Inheritance Island for a Physical Sorcerer,” Sonya complained lazily as she leaned against the boat’s hull.

Ashe nodded, finding it hard not to agree with the suggestion. Facing enemies that bounced off their swords at every strike was a truly terrible experience. He’d rather deal with a Mud Fish Dragon and finish them off quickly.

He opened the “Exploration in Virtual Realm” to check the surrounding area for any hints and suddenly noticed an orange alert beneath the right-hand area that he had never seen before—

“Wait a moment.”

Sonya waited for dozens of seconds, and when she noticed the boat showed no sign of moving, she couldn’t help but ask curiously, “Why aren’t we moving yet?”

“We have to wait a bit before we can go.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“How long?”

“I don’t know.”

“…Fine, we’ll wait then,” Sonya stretched lazily, “Speaking of which, I have something I wanted to discuss with you, I had almost forgotten.”

“What is it you want to talk about?”

“It’s about my Daily Training,” Sonya crossed her arms. “Can you cancel my Forced Training schedule?”

The Paper people of today, how come they’re so unwilling to generate surplus value?

This has to be the laziest bunch of Paper people I’ve ever seen.

I’ve never encountered such a thing when I played mobile games in the past.

Many thoughts crossed Ashe’s mind, but outwardly he intertwined his fingers and assumed a posture of listening to the people’s will, “Of course, there’s no problem, I respect the wishes of a Swordswoman like you—but I’d like to hear your reasons.”