Mage Manual
Chapter 459 - 380 Unfortunately, They Encountered Us

Chapter 459: Chapter 380 Unfortunately, They Encountered Us

This wasn’t Ash and his companions’ first encounter with other mages in the Void Realm.

Although the probability of meeting other mages on the Time Continent wasn’t high, Ash and his friends were fast drivers. In addition, Ash’s Void Realm Map allowed them to observe the surroundings within 24 squares, so on several occasions, they could see the yellow cursors on the map representing other mages.

But without exception, Ash and his friends chose to keep a distance from the strangers, never resorting to the phrase "Countrymen meeting countrymen, only to shoot each other in the back."

First, other mages had no value for communication.

This was easy to understand. Everyone was a Two-winged Mage who had met by chance. Even if they were reassured by the factor, "We’ll never meet again," and could confidentially share secrets, what could different mages discuss? Exchange Secret Poisons and infect each other?

Second, there was no value in murdering other mages.

Unless it was a special agency like Happiness and Comfort, which operated a business "hunting from reality into the Void Realm," there were no conflicts of interest between mages. After all, the Void Realm was vast, and there was no possibility that if one mage was full, another had to go hungry. Mages had been developing the Void Realm for thousands or even tens of thousands of years, and far from being spoiled by them, it had become more fertile.

What’s more, killing a living mage had no profit whatsoever.

Inside the Void Realm, the value of a living mage consisted of three things: the soul, Technique Spirits, and intelligence.

You couldn’t know which mage you would encounter, nor if they had the information you needed, so intelligence wasn’t a reason to commit murder;

Technique Spirits, on the other hand, did have value to harvest. If there was a way to completely exterminate a mage’s soul in the Void Realm, indeed, all of that mage’s Technique Spirits could be taken. But there was a problem: with just a thought, a mage could annihilate all their Technique Spirits.

Not just in the Void Realm, but even in reality, the robbery of Technique Spirits was rare, unless the Technique Spirit was concealed within a storage vessel like a Fluorescent Ball.

Even the Shattered Lake Prison couldn’t deprive criminals of their Technique Spirits, at most blocking their Magic Power.

Besides, without knowing which mage you would meet, how could you be sure they had the Technique Spirits you needed?

If someone really did murder other mages in the Void Realm, they only likely coveted the mage’s soul. This wasn’t something rare; it is said that many rituals required souls as a sacrifice. Moreover, even if there was a "Miracle" like "killing other mages and absorbing their souls to gain experience points," this was a quite normal storyline in the world of mages.

However, Ash and his group didn’t have such "Fourth Calamity" capabilities. Naturally, they would not murder other mages for profit. At most, it was for the sake of a little fun, to bump into passing mages and let them experience the disparity of the world, the unpredictability of Fate, anonymously creating negative energy.

But tonight, it seemed they were about to break tradition.

"This is the Desperate Arena."

As the sports car approached from the other side of the "worth a visit" area, a magnificent, circular Combat Arena appeared before the three of them. Sonia recognized the origin of the building at a glance and couldn’t help but get a little excited, "My professor once triggered this special building—it’s a Combat Mage’s favorite structure in the Void Realm, second to none!"

With the Village Girl’s explanation, Ash and his companion understood that this building before them was as revered to a Two-winged Mage as the "Vortex."

The Desperate Arena had three main characteristics: a mage would be fully recharged with Magic Power after every fight within it; a mage would only encounter enemies in equal numbers to themselves; and only after achieving consecutive victories in a certain number of fights would a mage have the chance to leave.

Win three times in a row, and a mage could earn the highest faction experience for their current Realm, estimated to be one Experience Treasure Orb.

Win five times in a row, and they could earn experience worth two Experience Treasure Orbs.

Win ten times in a row, and they could earn experience worth five Experience Treasure Orbs!

Even if a mage was defeated, they could surrender in time. However, the price was that the Arena would drain their spirit and kick them out of the Void Realm, effectively ending their Void Realm Exploration for the night.

Although most Two-winged Combat Mages could easily beat Knowledge Creatures, unlike Silver Mages who might die at the claws of a Fish-Slicing Dragon, mages like Ash and his companions, who killed creatures, set fires, and wiped out clans every day, were extremely rare. Most of them were content if they could kill one Knowledge Creature and gain one Technique Spirit a day.

Even on the Time Continent, Experience Treasure Orbs remained a scarce resource.

The only way most mages could advance their faction realm was to study hard while they were young. Although there was also a possibility that their brains would improve with age, the peak of learning ability in one’s youth was the norm for most people. If a mage couldn’t elevate their Magic Faction to Holy Sanctuary Level by the age of fifty, they were generally hopeless for the rest of their lives.

Thus, a building like the Combat Arena that could steadily provide a large amount of faction experience without much risk naturally aroused great interest. In the "Top Ten Sightseeing Destinations of the Time Continent" that Sonia had read, the Desperate Arena ranked second!

However, compared to the mechanics of the Arena, Ash and the others were more interested in another aspect.

"Then why are there two mages and a Heroic Soul Commander plus a thousand-feather Bird Dragon fighting in a melee?"

Sonia shook her head: "I don’t think it’s a melee—it should be two mages in a battle against the Heroic Soul and its followers."

"Because most of the time, the inside of the Combat Arena is empty, but when a mage arrives, the Arena has to arrange an opponent for them, so it usually grabs a temporary combatant from outside."

"By the way," it was mentioned as a side note, "because Mages are not beings native to the Void Realm, the Combat Arena cannot capture Mages. If a Mage willingly enters the Combat Arena, it is very likely the Arena will grab a Mage avatar from outside to duel them, followed by creatures of knowledge."

"However, if another Mage enters the Combat Arena, then the Arena will immediately set up a duel between the two Mages. It seems to default to the assumption that a duel between Mages is the top priority."

Ash suddenly asked, "If a Mage in the Combat Arena kills a creature of knowledge or a Mage avatar, then...?"

"Then they would drop spoils just the same," Sonia replied. "This is also what makes the Combat Arena so appealing—Mages don’t have to waste time searching for enemies; the Arena will bring them over."

Diya suddenly realized and looked up at the Combat Arena, obscured by the Rain Curtain, "So the two Mages inside are using the Arena’s mechanism to trap the Heroic Soul Commander!"

The Combat Arena would give priority to capturing Mage avatars, and fundamentally, a Heroic Soul Commander is an enhanced, magical modification of a Mage avatar.

As long as there’s a way to guide the Heroic Soul Army close to the Combat Arena and a Mage enters the Combat Arena, it is highly likely that the Combat Arena will pull in the Heroic Soul Commander for battle with the Mage!

"Wait a minute," Ash found an issue: "Can you form teams in the Combat Arena? Why wouldn’t the Arena arrange for those two Mages to face each other first?"

"Those two Mages must know each other," Sonia could only guess. "They might have used some method to make the Combat Arena see them as the same faction, so the Arena brought over the Heroic Soul Commander and his followers for them instead."

"Why would they want to... together..." Diya hadn’t finished asking when the Empress and others spoiled the answer.

Not to mention the bonus of the two Mages working together, most importantly, this meant that these ’unknown Mages’ didn’t have to fear being interrupted by other Mages! As previously mentioned, once a Mage enters the Combat Arena, it would always arrange a Mage duel first. Now that these two Mages have teamed up, only other teams of two Mages would be forced by the Arena to battle with them!

But where could you find so many Mage teams in the Void Realm!

"An exquisite plan," Ash exclaimed in admiration: "Using the mechanics of the Combat Arena to capture the Heroic Soul Commander, directly negating the numerical advantage of the Heroic Soul Army. And with the surrender mechanism in place, there’s nothing to lose even if they fail... I see, this is the correct way for a Mage to kill a Heroic Soul Commander. In front of the Heroic Soul Army, a Mage is weak, but before the Void Realm, the Heroic Soul Commander is also weak!"

Diya said, "But isn’t this too coincidental, that two acquainted Mages just happened to meet in the Void Realm, just happened to encounter the Heroic Soul Army, just happened to be near a Combat Arena...?"

"It’s precisely because so many coincidences are needed that killing a Heroic Soul Commander by a Mage is considered an impossible Miracle," Sonia also admired deeply: "I wasn’t sure before, but now I am convinced that there have definitely been Mages who used the structures of the Void Realm to kill Commanders. A Mage’s greatest weapon is not the Technique Spirit, not the Magic Power, not the Miracle, but ’technique’ itself—using the art of universal truth!"

Although Ash and their group defeated the Heroic Soul Army through ’hard power’—at least the Void Realm didn’t help them—they did not underestimate other Mages because of it.

On the contrary, seeing the Commander about to be trapped and killed in the Combat Arena by fellow Mages, they felt sincere admiration in their hearts.

Even without having met them, Ash did not skimp on praise for these two unknown Mages: strength, luck, strategy, decisiveness... they possessed all the qualities needed by the strong. If they succeeded in killing the Commander, given time, they would definitely become Legendary Mages.

Unfortunately.

They met the three of them.

"Sword Maiden, is there a way to snatch the Commander over?"

Sonia looked at Ash, her lips curling slightly, then suddenly she slapped Ash’s shoulder with a laugh: "Of course, there is!"

A fine pair of scoundrels, this dog-man and witch-woman... the Witch sisters sighed inwardly.

Under normal circumstances, Ash and their group wouldn’t need to attack other Mages, but this was not a normal situation: this concerned the spoils of a Commander!

Not to mention the Commander’s manual and the Soul Summoning Technique Spirit, just for the Commander’s map in his possession, Ash had to intervene!

Normally, killing a Commander would result in the drop of a map of command. Such maps are almost meaningless to a regular Mage, but Ash’s ’Void Realm Map’ can be directly integrated with other maps for navigation. If they can kill the commanders of all powers at least once and piece together the map of the Time Continent, then the Time Continent becomes Ash’s Amusement Park, allowing him to freely scour resource points and experience the structures of the Void Realm.

Every night, taking a trip to Miracle Park for a free Technique Spirit, then warming up at the Combat Arena, and finally heading to the Legendary Library to read books and cultivate sentiment... such pleasures make one not want to visit the third layer of the Void Realm.

Moreover, Ash had not forgotten the countdown to the Empress’ Soul’s pursuit.

If they just happened to burst out a map of the Spider Tower, then their chances of survival would be at least doubled—putting everything else aside, as long as they kept running wildly on flat roads during pursuit and didn’t encounter complex terrain like forests and swamps, they could easily shake off the Heroic Soul Army!

For the sake of future resources, for the current crisis, Ash silently apologized to those two Mages—your project was well done, please rest well. I will help you perfect the final steps!

As for Sonia, she didn’t think that much. She simply enjoyed snatching others’ harvests, and she loved doing bad things together with the Observer. These two joyous matters overlapping naturally excited her: "It’s simple. We have three people, so let’s first send two people to enter as a team. Then the Combat Arena will arrange a 2V2 duel for four Mages."

"At that time, the Commander should be pushed out of the Combat Arena, then the third person immediately enters the Arena, and the Arena will prioritize capturing the Commander for a 1V1 duel with the third person!"

"Just like them, we only need to use the mechanics of the Combat Arena to easily seize their labor results." Sonia clasped her hands together and prayed devoutly: "I hope they have already exhausted the Commander’s Soul Power."