The Sorcerer's Handbook

The Dramatic Poet's attitude was apparent. He was essentially declaring himself a shelter for the weak and a censor for the strong.

Any truly overwhelming blessing in the book cost thirty points. In other words, should someone grow greedy and seek a power capable of fundamentally reshaping their potential, the Dramatic Poet wouldn't offer the slightest help. But if one knew contentment and stopped at the right moment, he would gladly grant a few benefits to the younger generation. He turned blessings into genuine windfalls and curses into brief trials, ensuring that every sorcerer who opened the Chaotic Shopping Guide of Blessings and Curses left with something, if not with their arms full.

After a brief discussion, Ashe and his companions resisted the temptation of the Prophecy, Fate, and Truth Classes. In the long run, investing in those three paths would undoubtedly pay off, but the investment cycle was simply too long to provide immediate combat strength.

More importantly, they couldn't afford the risk.

In a few days, they would enter the Spider Tower region again. Even now, they were exhausting every trick just to evade the Empress Hero. If they added a curse on top of that, they might as well wash up and wait for the Empress to claim their lives.

While they couldn't choose the most powerful blessings, they still had plenty of viable options. They ultimately agreed on the same ten-point blessing, Fatal Sense of Danger.

The greater the danger, the slower time flows.

This blessing was likely rooted in the Time Class. Because it only cost ten Curse Points, ordinary sorcerers probably wouldn't be able to leverage it to summon a corresponding spirit. Ashe and the others, however, were different. After crossing the River of Flowing Gold, all three had advanced their Time Class to the Gold Rank. As long as they survived enough dangerous battles, they could surely use this blessing to manifest a Time Class spirit. Even if they failed, the blessing itself would directly boost their combat strength.

As for curses, their paths diverged. Sonya chose the physique curse Weak and Frail, while Ashe opted for the luck curse Out of Toilet Paper. The most ruthless choice came from Dia. She picked the intelligence curse, Slow-Witted.

Under her teammates' awed gazes, Dia calmly wiped her face. Her hair shifted to a deep wine-red, and her expression grew cool and detached. Ashe and Sonya paused, suddenly remembering that the witch possessed multiple personalities. She didn't need her main persona to bear the brunt of the curse. A simple switch was all it took for her to bypass its effects entirely. If not for the Dramatic Poet's restrictions, Dia might have even dared to choose a curse like Oblivious to Rain.

"Red Death Apostle?" Ashe asked. "You don't mind?"

Red Death Apostle thought for a moment, then nodded. "A little."

"That's only natural," Sonya said, offering some comfort. "Even if it's the best solution, passing a curse to another personality still feels a bit—"

"No, I don't dislike the curse," Red Death Apostle interrupted frankly. "On the contrary, I'm curious how I'd act if I became slow-witted. I just think Secret Princess didn't need to assign it to me. The curse doesn't affect her anyway."

She spoke with such blunt honesty that neither Ashe nor Sonya could tell whether she was being sincere or sarcastic.

The choices they purchased only cost ten points, meaning the chosen curses would disappear after seventy-two hours in real time. Concurrently, each of them would gain a permanent, random blessing of equal value. As for the ten-point blessings they bought, the corresponding random curses would only last for a single session of Virtual World exploration, vanishing the moment they returned to reality.

This was the proper way to use the book. Buy one blessing and one curse, receive a random curse and a random blessing as extras, and once the temporary curses expire, walk away with two permanent blessings.

With their choices finalized, the three submitted their orders. The book then entered its final phase, paying the taxes.

Drawing from their collective life experiences, the artifact generated new blessings and curses to replenish its inventory. The pages glowed faintly as several tendrils of light extended, drifted through the trio's bodies, and snapped back like ink sinking into paper, forming brand-new entries.

Blessing · Grand Wedding: You will have a magnificent wedding envied by all, an unforgettable honeymoon permanently etched into your memory, and subsequently, ten children.

Sonya blinked. "Huh?! Isn't ten a bit much?"

Blessing · Family Reunion: You will have a perfect family consisting of a mediocre male head, a virtuous female head, a sharp-tongued yet tsundere butler, a cold yet passionate bodyguard, an innocent and adorable daughter, and a troublesome pet.

Red Death Apostle froze. "Am I the bodyguard?"

Black Butler frowned. "Since when am I tsundere?"

Dia coughed lightly. "I didn't expect this book to be so perceptive. The mediocre male head must be Ashe, and the virtuous female head would naturally be—"

White Queen sighed. "That could only be me. So my relationship with Lys upgrades from sisters to mother and daughter..."

"Wait," Dia interrupted. "Then who am I?"

Black Butler replied flatly, "First of all, let's rule out the innocent and adorable daughter."

While Dia and Sonya drifted into increasingly wild thoughts, Ashe's expression turned utterly grim as he read the final entry.

Curse · Heartbreaker: A deceitful manipulator of feelings shall die without an intact body, with their soul scattered into nothingness. The Dramatic Poet has spoken. Not even a god can save you.

Ashe stared at the text, deeply offended. How did this damn book extract 'heartbreaker' from my completely barren love life? Is this just sarcasm? Like pointing at an overworked laborer and saying, "You are so blessed to have such a fulfilling workload!"

If I really count every woman I know... the Swordswoman and the Witch don't count, nor do the ones I've never even met, like No. 222, or the underage ones like Lys. Then there are enemies like Evelyn and Quinna, my superior Annan, and someone I simply cannot resist like Freya... Rule all of them out, and doesn't that leave me with absolutely no one at all?

If anything, he was far better at tricking men. Take Iger, Ronna, Ronald, and Harvey, for instance. He had personally poached all of them from the Shattered Lake talent market as high-end recruits!

Putting down the book, Ashe and the others left the café. The moment they stepped out of the safe zone, the random curse descended.

Curse · Eye Contact: You must maintain uninterrupted eye contact with others for 59 minutes and 59 seconds.

Ashe couldn't help but wonder if this curse had been custom-tailored to torment their team. The instant it took effect, he found his gaze utterly locked onto the Swordswoman and the Witch, unable to look away for even a fraction of a second.

The Swordswoman and the Witch faced the same predicament. The three of them stood frozen, staring intensely at one another, none of them daring to move. To make matters worse, Ashe's bad luck, living up entirely to the name of his Out of Toilet Paper curse, chose that exact moment to strike. The thunderous hoofbeats of the Legion of Heroes echoed in the distance. They had to drive and flee immediately!

However, the Eye Contact curse functioned like a multi-target crowd-control skill, pinning them in place. Desperate, Ashe had a sudden stroke of inspiration. He grabbed the two girls and shoved them into the front seats facing backward, while he dove into the backseat facing forward. This way, they could maintain their mandatory eye contact, and he could still look ahead to steer the sports car and escape... right?

Damn it!

Since Ashe had to keep his eyes glued to theirs, he couldn't look down at the Virtual World Map at all. He was forced to drag the holographic map right next to the Swordswoman's face and navigate it entirely through his peripheral vision. With his focus stretched to the absolute limit just trying to drive, he could no longer keep track of the White Ox's course.

"Two Legions of Heroes are flanking us," Sonya reported, catching a glimpse of the map from the corner of her eye. "Over a hundred minions. No armored units yet."

"Armored units consume soul energy. Unless they're absolutely certain they can catch us, their commander won't waste valuable resources," Ashe said, forcing himself to remain calm.

Over the past few days, they had been chased across the region by the Legions of Heroes, yet they hadn't faced much genuine danger. They had even managed to loot while on the run. Their sheer speed played a part, but the legions' lack of urgency helped just as much.

The natives knew Ashe carried a conceptual incarnation, but mobilizing armored units required precious soul energy. If the legions failed to capture him, the material loss would be staggering. Consequently, they only pursued and harried them as a test. The moment Ashe accelerated away, the commanders saw even less reason to deploy their expensive armor, creating a predictable cycle. The legions acted more like a whip, driving them forward. Ashe and the others didn't dare stop to rest, choosing to loot, run, and loot again, which ironically only improved their efficiency.

Just as the words left Ashe's mouth, a volley of long-range attacks from a flock of Feathered Bird Dragons rained down like a tempest against their Refractive Barrier.

Ashe froze. "Why are they deploying armored units now? Are they really that confident this time?"

Suddenly, another legion materialized directly ahead. Ashe swerved in alarm. But just as he tried to shake them off, yet another legion emerged from the front right!

What is going on? We haven't even reached the Blood Tomb region tonight. The Spider Tower is past the Blood Tomb, so it makes sense to be aggressively hunted there, but why are the natives of this region suddenly going all out to kill us?

Sonya shouted, "Something's wrong! This is already the seventh different legion, and none of them are giving up!"

"Did we get lost?" Dia asked.

Ashe yelled helplessly, "You need a destination to be lost. At this point, we're just wandering!"

Another brand-new legion cut them off from the front left. Ashe had no choice but to yank the wheel and change direction again. His eyes remained locked onto the Swordswoman and the Witch, leaving him with only a sliver of peripheral vision to read the map. He had no way of judging whether he was driving into a trap.

"Stick closer, or I can't focus—"

Before Ashe could finish, Dia complained, "We're already close enough! I could stick out my tongue and lick the Swordswoman's face right now."

She was pressed nearly face-to-face with Sonya. "Ugh, why don't we switch? I'll sit in the back and watch you two get cozy."

"Witch, what are you even saying?!" Sonya snapped, wrapping her left arm tightly around Dia's slender waist.

Whoosh!

They passed through an invisible threshold. All three sorcerers felt something unusual, or rather, they saw it.

The perpetual Ascending Golden Rain vanished from sight, replaced by a vast, lush green grassland.

Sonya immediately recalled their previous ordeal. "Did we blunder into a Static Zone? Like the time we were turned into a painting?"

"No... that's not it," Ashe murmured, his voice dropping. "You'll see soon enough."

The sports car skidded to a halt, cutting a wide, sweeping arc across the grass. Even through the violent deceleration, the trio rigidly maintained their eye contact. Only now could Sonya and Dia appreciate the massive presence dominating the horizon.

It was a fortress, a colossal citadel constructed entirely from gargantuan vines and towering trees. Countless Knowledge Creatures drifted and swarmed outside its living walls, nesting and multiplying.

Deep within the heart of the fortress stood a spiraling steel structure. It resembled a giant torch platform, pointing like a spear straight into the sky of the Continent of Time. The Ascending Golden Rain hovered exclusively outside this green sanctuary, forming a shimmering curtain that nourished the perimeter's soil, yet it could not stain this sacred land with even a single trace of gold.

A profound realization dawned on them. Even the fundamental time rules of the Virtual World could not take center stage and were reduced to a mere backdrop here.

A deep sense of awe swelled within them. As sorcerers themselves, their natural pride dissolved into pure reverence.

This was the handiwork of the ultimate pinnacle of their path. This was the tangible manifestation of a Divine Lord's will, successfully eroding and reshaping the Virtual World itself.

"No wonder there were more and more legions blocking our path," Ashe said quietly, staring into the girls' eyes while visualizing the landscape. "We've driven straight into the capital city of one of the Six Nations."