Mage Manual
Chapter 406 - 339 Warning

Chapter 406: Chapter 339 Warning

May 19, late 7 p.m.

Only 28 hours remained until the release of the second list, and Ash faced a serious problem—he had been stood up.

Over the past few days, Ash had finally assembled an Extreme Dungeon team in his role as Commander, overcoming numerous challenges to reach the third stage of the Extreme Cutting Carp boss. It seemed he would clear the dungeon tonight, but suddenly the team’s damage-taking Mage announced he had work in real life and couldn’t make it tonight.

Now, Ash had two choices, give the whole team a day off or recruit a random player to continue the dungeon. Since the strategy for the Extreme Dungeon was almost finalized, as long as the random player had experience up to the third stage, he could quickly integrate into the team and aim to clear the dungeon tonight.

However, in the game, there was no way to verify if players were telling the truth. If the random player lied about their progress, Ash’s team would end up stuck playing "Dragon Dance" (an intense team coordination trial AOE from the first stage of Extreme Cutting Carp) all night.

Ash had done this himself, daring to join a "1% clear tonight" group upon just seeing the second stage. Otherwise, how could he have gained experience leading a raid team in just a few days?

Moreover, clearing the dungeon posed a more troublesome question—If they cleared tonight, should they redo it tomorrow night for the teammate who was absent? What if someone refused? The absent teammate had also spent several nights helping them; wouldn’t it be unfair to disregard him like that?

In these few days, Ash hadn’t just gained experience in decision-making; he had also gained plenty of team management experience—should he privately message or openly scold someone who made a mistake? What should he do about someone who consistently arrived late—replace them or give a warning? When teammates argued, how should the leader soothe and balance the situation?

Initially, Ash had hoped to draw a few more powerful operators, but after experiencing the difficulties of team management, he felt having a Witch on the left and a Sword Maiden on the right was quite good; it was fine to slowly increase the number of operators.

Compared to forcibly proceeding with the dungeon, taking a day off had no risks, didn’t press for progress, didn’t lead to frustrations, and didn’t bother anyone; taking a day off was the best option.

But if he took the night off, what should he do?

Ash pondered for a moment, then looked at the Senheiser Emblem on the back of his hand.

If they had to move after the second list was released, he would have at most two more chances to experience the Senheiser Dream.

Having been here for so many days, everyone had explored dreams multiple times, but Ash had spent every day raiding, with the Dream Expedition entirely managed by a Substitute.

He had never experienced the sensation of a dream.

It felt as though everyone had gone on a tourist vacay together, but he had stayed hidden inside the hotel, never stepping out. While others had memories of beautiful sights and delicious food, his only experience was how soft the hotel bed was.

Not visiting the dream realm seemed like a waste of his trip to the Vatican Mura.

With that in mind, Ash opened "Aurora’s Mage Manual," selected "Void Realm Exploration"—"Dream Expedition," and canceled today’s Substitute Expedition.

Tonight, he would personally explore the Dream Realm!

"Warning: The operator’s soul has not yet recovered, and undertaking the expedition in person will not yield any Dream Fragments!"

He didn’t need the Dream Fragments; he just wanted to see it!

"Warning: Canceling this expedition will cause a severe drop in tomorrow’s gains!"

Tomorrow he might be gone!

"Warning: Are you sure you want to cancel the expedition?"

Just as Ash was about to confirm, an image of a Demonic Prince Ash suddenly popped into his mind, "The system has already warned you. I advise you not to ignore it—just behave and obey!"

Then, a vision of a Sacred Angel Ash appeared, "He just wants to experience the Dream Realm for fun, what’s wrong with that?"

Demonic Prince, "What’s the point of entertaining yourself? The cost is losing Dream Fragments, and who knows what other bad things might happen. Don’t you think this is a meaningless impulse? What if his soul is damaged inside, delaying the recovery time and causing him to miss the Spider Tower round—who will take responsibility then?"

Sacred Blazing Angel: "You make a lot of sense, Ash. Let’s not go this time."

Angels surrender so quickly!? Since when was my imagination so overflowing that I could imagine two characters discussing something?

Ash scratched his head, but since this was the conclusion he had himself reached, he instinctively obeyed. Although the team he had formed couldn’t play today due to lack of members, Ash could still join a random team. However, the quality of teammates varied, and some might even falsify their progress.

But Ash had falsified his progress before, so now he might as well consider this as a charity to pay off his debt.

...

In Senheiser’s Dream, a Witch arrived in the Land of Origin and heaved a long sigh: "That was close, luckily we reacted quickly, otherwise Ash would have barged in."

Another Witch, hesitating in her pajamas, said, "But this isn’t really nice, disguising as inner thoughts to give suggestions... The Observer doesn’t know, but the Sword Maiden definitely will get angry. She hates us interfering with Ash most."

"Why care about that crazy woman? But I really want to see what happens after Ash enters the dream world, yo ho ho~"

"Nothing will happen. Given Ash’s character, he’d probably just join the Legendary Mage’s arena and spend the whole night fighting."

"To be honest, the most shocking thing is that Ash actually believed the inner voices... Sister Bai, have you seen how naive the young Observer was? Was he this pure back then?"

"Young Observer?" The White Witch pondered, "I can’t remember at all. But I can assure you, the only clean and pure organ in his body is his large intestine. Everything else is full of heavy metal pollutants, buried in contaminated soil, burning polluted air... Hey Black, do you remember?"

Black Witch was spinning around: "La la la, la la la, la la la la~ Observer~ Observer~ Observer~ Blegh—" She vomited a large amount of ink and the other sisters immediately backed away.

The Witch clapped her hands: "Alright, break time is over before our job starts, go meet your lovers."

"Ladies!" the White Witch suddenly shouted, "Today is our last day in the dream!"

Their eyes sparkled as all of them quickly retreated and disappeared into a white fog, even the Black Witch, despite being mid-vomit, was no exception.

The corners of the Witch’s lips twitched as she reached out and hooked back the slowest, the Pajama Witch.

Pajama Witch was dazed: "I didn’t do anything bad, why are you grabbing me? Grab Sister Bai, she’s the ringleader!"

"After knowing tonight is the last night, you were planning to do something bad."

"Everyone is the same, don’t you want to too, sister? There’s no consequences for causing trouble now!"

The Witch grabbed the Pajama Witch’s head and slammed it into the ground, pausing only to slam again, causing the floor to resonate loudly: "You! Of course! Don’t! Have! To! Face! The! Consequences! The one who will get mixed doubles blasted by Observer and Sword Maiden is me! I’m the one who will get scolded! They are so annoying!"

Pajama Witch, her head bloody and blood running down from her forehead over her nose splitting into two streams, made her cute, innocent face suddenly terrifying. Yet she didn’t resist at all, completely at the mercy of her sister and even cracked a mocking smile: "What do I care? It’s not me getting yelled at, let me go!"

The Witch sighed, "Forget it, the Observer must have taken these error margins into account... Tonight, let’s switch it up. You go to Diya’s place, and I’ll go to the Red Death Cultist’s side."

"Why?"

"Because I want to see the Red Death Cultist one last time."

The corners of Witch’s mouth twisted into a cruel smile: "If I remember correctly..."

"Tonight is her death night."