Mage Manual
Chapter 416 - 346: Abandoning Ash

Chapter 416: Chapter 346: Abandoning Ash

Igula found that in dreams, as long as one’s imagination was rich and delicate enough, even without the assistance of a "real" person, one could create an illusion that could interact normally with them.

Thus, he conjured an illusion of cattle and horses and traveled with them through various dangerous and mystical ruins. If there was trouble, the cattle and horses would die; if not, they would work. These past few days had been delightfully fun.

As for the romantic task arranged by Hanna, he planned to just muddle through it and explain to the young lady when the next ranking list came out, "Sorry, I can’t distinguish between my love and killing intent, I tend to kill the other when I fall in love."

After ending tonight’s dream journey, Igula crawled out from under the bed, just about to take a bath to soothe his nerves, when his heart suddenly beat violently.

"The first heartbeat is the last warning."

The revelation he had achieved while brushing his teeth that morning was vivid before his eyes; before any other senses acted up, Igula immediately applied "Heart of Rock" and "Iron Will" to himself, enduring the hormone disruption caused by withdrawal symptoms with an absolutely calm demeanor.

He didn’t need to look at the window to guess that the density of the white fog outside had reduced to a level unfit for survival. This surely was not confined to Vatican Mura; at least the Senheiser region was affected, or else he, living in the heart of Senheiser, wouldn’t suddenly have encountered withdrawal symptoms.

At this sensitive time point, a city-level disaster had suddenly occurred in Vatican Mura, naturally related to them, the foreigners.

If I were the attacker, my first target would be...

Igula tightened his robe, took a few steps in his slippers then kicked them off, took out the emergency escape bag he had prepared, and left the room barefoot while simultaneously pulling out the Gospel Book to open the Funeral Ceremony chat group.

"Mr. Bokin: I’m going to meet Ash. Where are you?"

"Death Artist: I’m also heading toward Ash."

"Housekeeper: Same."

"Housekeeper: Miss? Miss?"

"Housekeeper: Why isn’t Miss checking the group?"

"Mr. Bokin: Can’t the young lady handle the withdrawal symptoms on her own?"

"Housekeeper: Impossible."

Igula narrowed his eyes, thinking that Banjee and Hanna indeed had prepared to leave Vatican Mura at any time.

He himself had temporarily suppressed the withdrawal symptoms using Spirit Miracle; if Igula wasn’t wrong, the Necromancer had not suppressed the withdrawal symptoms but was directly satisfying them through smoking and sugar. He heard that the man was recently trying to quit smoking; it seems that it was likely to fail now.

Since neither Banjee nor Hanna were majors of the Spirit Faction, nor had the habit of smoking, but could immediately recover from withdrawal symptoms, it could only prove that they were well-prepared.

Walking towards the elevator shaft, several Senheiser clansmen lay quietly by the path, their gazes stagnated and their consciousness blank, like low-quality toys whose springs had suddenly snapped. Igula glanced at them and hurriedly passed by, very fortunate that there were no such breathing corpses in the elevator.

However, until now, Hanna, Liss, and Ash had not spoken; Igula felt a sinking feeling in his heart—could Ash have been overwhelmed by the withdrawal symptoms?

"Mr. Bokin: Why isn’t Ash checking the group either?"

"Death Artist: Ash, run."

Swindler frantically pressed the elevator button, cancelling their arrival at the game level at the 72nd floor, instead selecting the 73rd floor. Harvey’s warning was certainly not without basis, and heading to the game level where Ash was located would be like walking into a trap. Igula asked the Gospel Book, "Notify me of the movement of people within a hundred meters, and display a three-dimensional perspective view, with real-time monitoring for 10 seconds."

The Gospel Book transformed into a real-time monitoring map, "Consuming 50 Gospel Points, please see the map."

On the game level, there were many green dots representing living organisms, most of which were neatly aligned, likely representing the Senheiser clan members lying dead in their gaming pods; in an open area near a window, there was a group of green dots still capable of movement, clearly the intruders who had invaded after the white fog dispersed.

From looking at the map, this group of green dots was confronting another flickering green dot, who was evidently their beloved Mr. Primitive, who had not checked the group chat in time.

"Bokin said, "Ash has been captured on the 72nd floor, I’m going to the 73rd floor, where are you guys?"

"Death Artist: I’m going to the 71st floor."

"Housekeeper: I’ve already descended to the 72nd floor via the outer wall, there is a group of Red Hats inside, eight in total, including two Three-winged Mages, ’Crying Red Hat’ Cleos and ’Sniper Red Hat’ Leite. Ash is doomed."

Two Holy Sanctuary Mages!?

Igula felt like he had fallen into a pit of ice—they couldn’t defeat even one Holy Sanctuary Mage, how could they possibly stand against two? Was it necessary to mobilize two Holy Sanctuary Mages just to capture a criminal as trivial as Ash? Such extravagant wastefulness should be outlawed!

If Senheiser were still operational, Qinna would definitely assist them in escaping, either through official channels or by force. As a local powerhouse, Qinna would certainly make these Red Hats regret their actions.

But now that the white fog had dispersed and the Senheiser were almost completely paralyzed, Qinna was utterly unreliable! Igula even suspected that Qinna had become like a broken toy, and the Holy Sanctuary Mage’s power simply made her a more advanced—though broken—Holy Sanctuary Mage/Clan Leader/Elf toy.

Igula and others had only been in Vatican Mura for a few days, but the withdrawal reaction from the dispersal of the white fog quickly incapacitated them, leaving them at most one or two seconds of emergency power-off protection time.

If using cured meat as a standard, these foreigners hadn’t yet been thoroughly marinated.

And for those who had lived in Vatican Mura for decades, thoroughly marinated from their bodily pores to the wrinkles of their souls, they probably burned out their fuses and shut down immediately, not even having a moment of emergency protection.

Or perhaps the fact that the people of Vatican Mura didn’t immediately drop dead but were merely waiting for a reboot after a system crash indicated that their family’s Rebirth Dream had indeed maintained their primitive human essence, preventing them from completely degenerating into creatures reliant solely on inhaling white fog for sustenance.

"Housekeeper: Give up on Ash, Miss is currently out of contact as well, we should first go to protect the lady. Once she is safe, Miss will find a way to rescue Ash from the Red Hats."

"Bokin said, "No."

"Housekeeper: Do you have a way to snatch Ash back from the Red Hats?"

The elevator stopped at the 73rd floor, the warehouse level. Igula’s mind raced with thoughts as he let out a soft breath.

"Bokin said, "I can. Harvey, can you cause a disturbance below? No need for lethal force."

"Death Artist: If targeting Holy Sanctuary Mages, the distraction would only last for the duration of a breath."

"Bokin said, "That’s enough. Banjee, be on standby on the outer wall. Upon receiving my signal, storm into the game level and strafe these Red Hats."

"Housekeeper: Our opponents are Holy Sanctuary Mages, far superior to us; anything we do has no chance of success. Attacking the Red Hats might even get us all arrested! With Miss’s situation unclear, we should first ensure her safety before attempting to rescue Ash."

"Housekeeper: Mr. Bokin, Mr. Harvey, we must give up on Ash for now."