Mage Manual
Chapter 516 - 420 Main City

Chapter 516: Chapter 420 Main City

The Drama Poet’s attitude was very clear, "I am a sanctuary for the weak and an auditor for the strong."

The really powerful blessings in the Shopping Book were all priced at 30 points, which means that if you want to acquire a transformative power from the Shopping Book, the Drama Poet wouldn’t help you a bit; but if you are content and know when to stop, then the Drama Poet is happy to offer some benefits to the juniors.

He would turn blessings into real blessings and curses into short trials, ensuring that every mage who opened the Shopping Book harvested something, even returning fully loaded.

After a brief discussion, Ash and the others eventually resisted the temptation of the Fate Faction’s prophecy. Although from a long-term perspective, investing in the Prophecy, Fate, and Truth factions was definitely worth it, the investment cycle was too long to quickly form combat power.

More importantly, they couldn’t afford any risks.

In a few days, they would reach the Spider Tower region, and Ash and his friends were already using every trick in the book to avoid the Empress’ Soul. If a curse were to distract them, they might as well wash up and wait for the Empress’ favor.

Although they couldn’t choose a powerful blessing or curse, they still had many options. After a simple discussion, they all chose the same blessing, "Life-Threatening Sense!"

The more dangerous it was, the slower time passed!

This blessing must be related to the Time Faction, but considering it was only worth 10 Curse Points, ordinary mages probably couldn’t summon a Technique Spirit with this blessing. However, Ash and his friends were different—because they had crossed the Flowing Gold River last time, their Time Faction had all advanced to the Golden Level!

As long as they experienced enough dangerous battles, they would definitely be able to summon the corresponding Time Technique Spirits with this blessing! And even if they couldn’t summon one, just having this blessing was enough to directly enhance their combat power!

As for which curse to choose, opinions diverged, Sonia chose the physical curse "Fragile," Ash chose the luck curse "No Toilet Paper."

But the strongest was Diya—she chose the intelligence curse "Weakness and Slowness!"

Facing her teammates’ awestricken gazes, Diya calmly wiped her face, and then her hair turned wine red, her expression becoming cool and tranquil.

Ash and Sonia were briefly startled, then remembered that a Witch has multiple personalities. The Witch didn’t need her main personality to endure the curse of stupidity; she just had to switch personalities to become immune to its effects!

If not for the Drama Poet’s restrictions, Diya would even dare choose the curse "Can’t Avoid Rain!"

"Red Death Cultist?" Ash asked, "Do you mind?"

The Red Death Cultist thought for a moment and nodded, "A little."

"Quite normal," Sonia comforted, "Though dealing with it this way is indeed best, transferring the curse to a sister feels a bit..."

"No, I don’t dislike curses, on the contrary, I’m quite curious about how I’d be after becoming weak-minded," the Red Death Cultist said, "I just think Empress didn’t need to have me do this—after all, this curse has no effect on her."

Because the Red Death Cultist spoke so openly, Ash and Sonia couldn’t tell whether she was being sarcastic or not.

The curses Ash and his friends bought were all worth 10 points and would be lifted after 72 real-time hours. Meanwhile, they would also receive a permanent random blessing of equal value; the blessings they bought were also worth 10 points, so the corresponding random curses would only last for one Void Realm Exploration and would be lifted once back in reality.

This was the proper way to use the Shopping Book: buy one blessing, one curse, get a random curse and a blessing in bonus, and after the curses are all lifted, you are left with two blessings!

After completing their shopping, Ash and his friends clicked to submit, and the Shopping Book entered its final phase: taxation.

The Shopping Book extracted their life experiences to generate new blessings/curses to enrich its list of products!

The Shopping Book glowed slightly, emitting several light tendrils that passed through the mages’ bodies, then withdrew like ink leaping into the pages, creating new product listings—

"Blessing·Grand Wedding: You shall have a grand wedding that makes everyone envious, an unforgettable honeymoon that always holds a significant place in your memories, and then have ten children."

Ah!? Sonia was stunned, aren’t ten too many?

"Blessing·Family Reunion: You will have a perfect family—a mediocre husband, a virtuous wife, a sharp-tongued but tsundere housekeeper, an aloof yet enthusiastic bodyguard, a cute and naive daughter, and a troublesome pet."

Red Death Cultist was startled, "I’m the bodyguard?"

Black Butler, "How am I tsundere?"

Diya, "Cough cough, didn’t expect this book to be so knowing, the mediocre husband is definitely referring to Ash, so the virtuous wife naturally comes down to—"

White Queen, "Only me, huh, then does my relationship with Liss upgrade from sisters to mother and daughter..."

Diya, "Wait, then who am I?"

Black Butler, "First off, exclude the cute and naive daughter."

While Diya and Sonia were daydreaming, Ash looked stern.

"Curse·Emotional Fraudster: A skillful deceiver of emotions will ultimately die unwhole, soul scattered, as the Drama Poet says, not even the Divine Lord can save you!"

Just how did this damn book extract a Curse like "Emotional Fraudster" from my impoverished life experiences...or is it being sarcastic? Like pointing at a worker and saying, ’You’re so busy working, you really are fortunate.’?

All things considered, the females I know, excluding operators (Sword Maiden, Witch), excluding those I’ve never met (222), excluding those too young (Liss), excluding enemies (Yvalin, Qinna), excluding superiors (Hanna),excluding those I can’t resist (Freyja), that doesn’t leave anyone at all!

You’d say I’m good at deceiving men if anything, Igula, Lanna, Ronate, Harvey are all top talents I swindled away from the Shattered Lake talent market!

Put down the Shopping Book, Ash and the two others left the café. The moment they stepped out of the designated area, a random curse struck—

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

Ash had no idea if this curse was specifically designed for their team, but he knew at the moment the curse took effect, he couldn’t take his eyes off the Sword Maiden and the Witch!

Like the Sword Maiden and Witch, the three of them stared wide-eyed at each other, no one daring to move. However, it seemed that Ash’s "out-of-toilet-paper" level bad luck had just arrived—the thunderous hoofbeats of the Heroic Soul Army could be heard in the distance, they needed to get in the car and escape immediately!

But the Eye Contact curse was like a multi-person control skill, firmly locking them in place. Ash suddenly had a flash of inspiration, he picked them up, put them in the front seat facing backward, while he sat in the back facing forward. This way, while maintaining eye contact, Ash could still look forward and control the sports car... Escape?

Damn!

Since Ash had to maintain eye contact, he couldn’t look at the Void Realm Map at all! He could only move the Void Realm Map next to the Sword Maiden’s face and operate it using his peripheral vision, only caring about escaping. As for the direction toward the White Bull, he couldn’t manage that anymore!

"There are two Heroic Soul Armies coming to encircle us," Sonia observed using her peripheral vision. "The number of followers exceeds 100, and they are yet unarmed."

"Arming troops costs Soul Power; unless they are sure they can capture us, the Commander wouldn’t waste resources," Ash said lightly.

Over the past few days, they had been chased around by the Heroic Soul Army, but in reality, they hadn’t encountered much danger and had even managed to scavenge while on the run.

Aside from their fast pace, the lack of importance the Heroic Soul Army placed on them also played a significant role.

Even though they knew Ash possessed a Concept Avatar, arming troops would actually consume Soul Power. If they failed to capture them, wouldn’t that be a huge loss? Therefore, the Heroic Soul Army only pursued them tentatively to drive them away, but Ash would certainly hurry away at that, making it pointless for the Heroic Soul Army to arm their troops. This vicarious cycle continued, the Heroic Soul Army essentially acted as whips driving them on. Ash and his companions hadn’t dared to stop and rest these days; they would scavenge and then run, their scavenging efficiency higher than before.

However, just as Ash finished speaking, the ranged attack of the Bird Dragon from the Heroic Soul Army struck the Refraction Curtain like a sudden storm.

"How come they have armed troops now?" Ash was stunned. "Are they that confident this time?"

Suddenly, a Heroic Soul Army sprinted forward, prompting Ash to quickly change direction. Just as he thought he had left the Heroic Soul Army behind, another new one emerged from the front right!

What’s going on, we haven’t even reached the Blood Tomb round tonight, and it’s only after Blood Tomb that we get to Spider Tower. It would be one thing to be pursued passionately in the Spider Tower area, but why are the natives of this region also going all out to chase us?

"Something’s wrong!" Sonia exclaimed. "This is already the seventh different Heroic Soul Army, and they show no signs of giving up!"

"Are we lost?" Diya asked.

"You can only be lost if you have a destination, what we are doing at best is called wandering!" Ash said helplessly.

Another fresh Heroic Soul Army appeared to their front left; Ash could only continue altering their direction. Right now, he simply didn’t have the capacity to determine whether it was a trap or not, as his eyes were each focused on the Sword Maiden and Witch, leaving only a bit of his peripheral vision for the Void Realm Map!

"Come a bit closer, otherwise I can’t focus..."

"We’re already very close! I could lick the Sword Maiden’s face with my tongue if I stretch it out," Diya complained. Indeed, her face was right against Sonia’s now: "Ugh, why don’t you switch with me? I’ll sit at the back and watch you two get cozy."

"What are you talking about, Witch?" Sonia was noticeably annoyed, affectionately wrapping her left arm around Diya’s slim waist.

Phew!

Suddenly, it was as if they had passed through an invisible barrier—all three Mages sensed something odd—no, they directly saw the anomaly!

In their line of sight, the Flowing Gold Rain suddenly disappeared, leaving only a lush, green meadow!

"Did we run into the Static Domain?" Sonia immediately recalled how they had been turned into a painting when they first arrived at the Time Continent.

"No, it’s not the Static Domain," Ash murmured. "You’ll see very soon."

The sports car skidded around in a perfect doughnut on the lawn, coming to a sudden stop. Even during the hard brake, Sonia and Diya still maintained eye contact, but now they could finally see the massive entity occupying this space—

A fortress.

A fortress built of vines and giant trees!

Countless knowledge creatures fluttered and nested outside the fortress walls!

Deep within the fortress stood a spiral iron structure that looked like an immense torch stand, pointing directly into the sky of the Time Continent!

The surrounding Flowing Gold Rain could only float outside the green grass area, forming a Rain Curtain that nourished the soil of the oasis, but it could not tint any gold onto this oasis!

A wonderful cognition climbed into the minds of the Mages: even the temporal rules of the Void Realm could only add bricks and mortar here, not overwhelm the primary domain.

A faint sense of vanity arose, and as Mages, a feeling of pride filled them further with awe.

Because this was the work of the most powerful Mage.

This represented the Divine Lord’s will invading the Void Realm!

"No wonder the Heroic Soul Armies were increasing along the way," Ash said. "We’ve run into one of the six main cities."