Mage Manual
Chapter 515 - 419: Chaotic Shopping Book

Chapter 515: Chapter 419: Chaotic Shopping Book

As Ash, Sonia, and Diya sat in the convertible, exchanging glances, with the Heroic Soul Army’s thousands of troops hot on their heels, they couldn’t help but wonder: how had things escalated to this point?

Half an hour earlier, Ash had discovered a golden area on the Void Realm Map marked ’Don’t miss out as you pass by.’ They went inside and found themselves in a small coffee shop with three books and three cups of coffee appearing on the table, one set for each of them.

Ash initially thought it was "Fate Q&A," but upon opening the book, he realized it wasn’t. Instead, it was a more love-hate Void Realm mechanism—the "Shopping Book of Blessings and Curses!"

"Congratulations to every Mage who opens this book, your luck is incomparable, your fate is about to change, you’re the light, you’re the electricity, you’re the future’s legend!"

"This book is compiled by the ’Drama Poet’... Please remember this name, because... is the narrator of fate, holds the authority over contradictions, directs countless joys and sorrows, and witnesses the world’s separations."

"The countless Mages of the Void Realm are nothing compared to...!"

"The following purchasing rules must be adhered to—"

"① Each blessing and curse comes with a price; for every blessing purchased, one must bear a curse of the same price, and vice versa. Fair exchange, right?"

"② The blessings and curses a Mage chooses will not cancel each other out. You can eat and shit, or shit and eat, but eating food and shit together doesn’t cancel out excretion."

"③ Random curses only persist in the Void Realm and do not affect reality; random blessings only persist in reality and do not affect the Void Realm."

"④ Upon opening this book, at least one blessing/curse must be purchased, but there is no upper limit. Don’t miss out as you pass by."

"⑤ As a shopping tax, the book will extract experiences from the Mage’s life to create new blessings/curses. There are only two unavoidable things in life: eating and paying taxes."

"Please note, don’t think selecting all the powerful blessings will allow you to exploit loopholes and resist the curses. You might step outside and receive a curse of ’thinking causes petrification,’ instantly turning you into a statue on the spot. If you picked the blessing of ’immunity to petrification,’ the curse might then become ’thinking turns you into lard.’ In short, whoever dares to take advantage of me, I’ll exterminate their whole family."

"But there’s no need to be overly fearful, the ’Drama Poet’... isn’t such a big villain after all, it’s a benefit for the juniors. So, the first time a Mage opens this book, if your curse points are ≤10, then your random curses will end with this Void Realm Exploration; if your blessing points are ≤10, then your purchased curses will end within 72 hours in reality."

It’s you again, the nameless Drama Poet, big brother!

This is the only strange Mage whom Ash and others currently know of who can leave special mechanisms in the Void Realm. Ash and Diya had previously encountered the ’Legendary Library,’ also his handiwork. Sadly, Sonia had taken that night off and submitted a leave request.

Later, when Ash asked if the Time Continent contained many special mechanisms left by Legendary Mages, the Village Girl nodded decisively, affirming that the Drama Poet was indeed the only Mage who left mechanisms on the Time Continent.

While the Drama Poet is indeed very powerful, his real prowess lies in his ability to return to the Time Continent. After all, any Mage who can influence the Void Realm is at least starting at legendary and might even be a Demigod Angel dominating Divine Lords, but such powerful beings rarely make it back to the bottom layer of the Void Realm where Newbie Village is located.

This is also a protective mechanism of the Void Realm; otherwise, the appearance of a strong figure who likes to cut down young saplings could easily annihilate all the new Mages in the world.

The fact that the Drama Poet left so many mechanisms in the Time Continent indicates that he can almost freely enter and exit the second layer of the Void Realm, at least at a low cost. Hence, Mages are very curious as to what wrong he committed to have his name thoroughly erased.

However, not all mechanisms left by him are good. The "Shopping Book of Blessings and Curses" embodies his wicked sense of humor and makes one lament that allowing the Drama Poet to continue living would only make the price of rice more expensive.

As Ash and the others flipped through the Shopping Book, they saw a dazzling array of options:

Physique: "Sudden Death +30, Frail as a Willow +10, Immunity to Sickness -10, Limb Regeneration -30."

Wisdom: "Clueless in the Rain +30, Weakness and Slowness +10, Smart and Resourceful -10, Insight into Truth -30."

Luck: "Drown While Drinking +30, No Toilet Paper When Needed +10, Wishes Come True -10, Favor of Fate -30."

Charm: "God Hated and Ghost Despised +30, Polluted Air +10, Adored by all -10, Tribulation of Ten Thousand Tribes -30."

These were still relatively conventional options aimed at the various attributes of Mages. There were even more strange blessings/curses—

"Beautiful Life -10: Everything and everyone looks beautiful to you, every incident seems good to you, every scenery is worth stopping for, you never have a day of discontent."

"Resentful of the World +10: Even seeing others breathe makes you think the world is beyond saving."

"Listening to Hearts -10: You can faintly listen to others’ inner voices."

"Honesty +10: If everyone in a place is honest, is it Heaven or Hell?"

"Perception Illusion -10: You can’t actually see through things, but you indeed see what you want to see."

"Life-Threatening Sense -10: When you encounter danger, time seems to slow down for you. The more dangerous it is, the greater the extent time slows down."

"Time Chaos +30: Your sense of time is completely confused, today is the 3rd, tomorrow is the 9th, yesterday was the 21st, haha."

"Prophecy of Death -30: You can see how you are going to die."

These are "blessings/blessings." Although strange, they are at least understandable, but there are many that you have no idea how to categorize—

"Childhood Friend -10: Within three days, a childhood friend with similar strength to yours will find you, but your relationship will only be that of friends."

"Lover -30: Within three days, someone who perfectly fits your preferences will appear, with similar strength to yours, but will only like you in this lifetime."

"Enemy +10: Within three days, an enemy who dislikes you will appear, with similar strength to yours, and will unite all those who dislike you against you."

"Chat Channel -30: You will join a chat channel created by the Drama Poet, and chat anytime with people inside."

"Fish-Slicing Dragon -10: Every time you enter the Void Realm, there will be a Fish-Slicing Dragon by your side that completely obeys you, at your beck and call."

"Random Race +10: You will transform into a random race."

"Beauties Don’t Poop -10: Your excrement will all be transferred to another person to deal with."

"What kind of mess is this..." Ash groaned with a headache: "Since it transfers the excrement anyway, why not just transfer it to the sewers instead of stuffing it into someone else’s large intestine!?"

Diya said: "Perhaps it’s out of respect for poop, but Observer, why do you care about this? Do you want to choose it?"

"It is said that people spend half an hour every day on excretion... If that time could be saved..." Ash pondered: "But what do Childhood Friend and Lover mean? If I choose Lover, will someone who likes me just appear out of nowhere?"

"It might also be that a Sword Maiden descends by your side." Diya muttered in a very low voice.

"What?"

"I was saying how it’s strange that Sword Maiden isn’t talking." Diya looked towards Sonia, who was staring blankly at the Shopping Book, like a village girl dazzled by jewels, "Sword Maiden, have you discovered something?"

"Sincerity, eh..." Sonia muttered softly.

"What?"

"Sincerity!" Sonia looked up at Ash: "Blessings and curses are just on the surface; fundamentally, they are all the same as the Sincerity Ceremony!"

Ash was slightly startled, then realized something and looked carefully at the Shopping Book, while Diya was left clueless—what encrypted communication were you two engaging in?

The village girl also realized that she had subconsciously revealed an overly intimate attitude. She couldn’t get too close to the Observer openly, so she leaned close to the Witch to explain the Sincerity Ceremony to her.

The Sincerity Ceremony was the summoning ritual Ash had forcefully conducted last time to let the Sword Maiden obtain the Sincerity Technique Spirit, during which time the Sword Maiden could only speak the truth until the Sincerity Technique Spirit was summoned. Thinking about it carefully, wasn’t this exactly the same as the "Honesty" curse in the Shopping Book?

Following this logic, most of the blessings/curses that appear in the Shopping Book are actually summoning rituals for Technique Spirits!

"Wait a second." Diya immediately reacted: "So Foreseeing Death, Time Chaos, and Listening to Heartsounds—"

"Are respectively the summoning rituals for the Prophetic Faction, Time Faction, and Spirit Faction Technique Spirits," Ash continued. "Beautiful Life and resentful of the world probably relate to the Spirit Faction too, and Perception Illusion is likely to summon a Reconnaissance Technique Spirit... So that’s how it is, the real use for the Shopping Book is to quickly master a Magic Faction!"

"But what do Childhood Friend, Lover, and Enemy mean?"

"I can probably guess about Enemy." Sonia contemplated: "Your enemy will unite all those who dislike you... Meaning, if you keep a close watch on your enemy, you’ll know who is dissatisfied with you."

"Random Race is very useful," Diya suddenly said.

"Why?" Ash was somewhat puzzled: "I was born human and I feel pretty happy about it."

"If it was permanent, of course that would be unacceptable, but if it only lasts for 72 hours, then it’s like a rare experience," Sonia explained. "Apart from humans, other intelligent races generally have their Magic Factions they excel in, and some unique factions are impossible to learn unless you belong to a specific race, like the Gluttony Faction exclusive to ogres. Maybe you could get a start within those 72 hours."

"However, the most important are the Prophetic, Fate, and Truth Factions," Diya said earnestly. "It’s almost impossible to learn these three factions on your own; you have to rely on various adventures to luckily gain the favor of the Void Realm... and now, the adventure is right before our eyes: Insight into Truth, Favor of Fate, and Foreseeing Death."

Just by choosing one of these blessings, you’ll be able to master those most mysterious and powerful Magic Factions.

"But they all cost 30 points," Ash spread his hands. "If we choose these, we won’t be able to trigger the Drama Poet’s benefits."

Purchasing blessings adds minus ’-’ Curse Points, and purchasing curses adds plus ’+’ Blessing Points. If it’s your first purchase and the points are within 10, the Drama Poet will compress the duration of the curse within a single session of Void Realm Exploration or within 72 hours. Mages would be making a killing.

But if it exceeds 10 points, then the Drama Poet won’t help, and the curse given by the Shopping Book will become permanent. The cost is too great then, like being stuck in a major you picked wrong without the option to change and having to grind in greyness your whole life.

If it’s a curse like ’Weakness and Slowness,’ that’s not too bad, but a permanent ’Random Race’... Randomly turning into Meiwa isn’t out of the question, but if it’s an ogre, you might as well start life over. Besides, Ash is male, he would definitely not randomly turn into Meiwa, at best maybe an elf.

"Wait, why does Chat Channel also require 30 Curse Points?" Diya asked curiously. "Is this some kind of rare Technique Spirit summoning ceremony?"

"The Chat Channel itself is actually worthless. It’s the people inside that have value," Ash explained. "Maybe every week there are Divine Lords, Angels, and Legendary Mages holding meetings inside, exchanging information and items?"