Mage Manual
Chapter 691 - 544: The Strongest Operators

Chapter 691: Chapter 544: The Strongest Operators

"Aurora’s Dream Treasury!"

When Ash opened the Void Realm Map, this new system popped up ahead of everything else. Now, what appeared before everyone’s eyes were a pair of gloves, a small coffin, and a ruby necklace.

"Silver Collection·Ogre Gloves: Increases strength in both hands by 100%."

"Silver Collection·Technique Spirit Coffin: Confine any Technique Spirit of Three-winged or lower into this coffin, causing a deterrence to your other Technique Spirits and increasing the Resonance Critical Rate. One-winged increases critical rate by 10%, Two-winged by 20%, Three-winged by 40%."

"Golden Collection·Crimson Blessing: Provides Holy Sanctuary protection for Mages, automatically triggering the sanctuary when encountering external damage, lasting for 3 seconds with a cooldown of 10 seconds. While carried, it will continuously increase the Mage’s Space Faction experience."

"These are..." Weiser looked at the light emanating from these collections with a glint of greed in her eyes. As they gazed at the collections, the information about the collections also flowed into their minds.

The Truth Mage reached out subconsciously but immediately withdrew her hand, and calmly analyzed, "These are not Technique Spirits, not Miracles, but closer to fantasy creations storing Miracles... But how did you manage to bring these fantasy creations into the Void Realm, and moreover, make them continue to be effective?"

"Hehe, pretty impressive, right! But this is just a trivial part of our team’s strength, not worth being surprised at all!" Diya said with an air of arrogance, as if she hadn’t been the one dumbfounded at the sight of a sports car before.

Sonia looked at the ruby necklace and asked, "Is this a gift?"

"No, these are the benefits we can gain tonight," Ash explained. "Since it’s also my first time using the Dream Treasury, everything is still a process of exploration... According to the rules of the treasury, we can get three collections at the start of each night. Then as we break a certain number of Dream Bubble Shadows, we’ll be rewarded with new collections, and the type of collections are random—apart from the golden and silver ones, there are stronger multicolored collections!"

"Based on the current intelligence, Silver Collections only slightly enhance our strength, Golden Collections can greatly reduce the difficulty of combat, and it seems that multicolored collections can qualitatively change our combat power, bringing us infinitely close to the limit of a Three-winged."

"But now with three collections," Diya counted the number of people, "and we have four. How will we divide them?"

"Speaking of that, there’s another resource to distribute," Ash said. "I have two Lightless Sanctuary Potions that allow the user to directly complete the construction of a sanctuary. Together with the golden collection ’Crimson Blessing,’ at least three of us can gain the ability to explore the Void Realm tonight."

Weiser was somewhat surprised, "Haven’t you constructed a sanctuary either?"

"Weedsed into the Distant Realm through the Seven Colored Tail," Ash admitted openly. "It’s only been about ten days since we first experienced the Wind, Flower, Snow, Moon Harmony Prohibition. We’re not proficient in the Space Faction yet, so naturally, the sanctuary remains far in the future."

"Also?" Sonia caught onto that, "Weiser, you’ve also just recently become a Holy Sanctuary Mage?"

On this topic, Weiser gave a wry smile and shook her head, "I’ve been climbing the Distant Realm for several months now."

"The Truth Mage can’t construct a sanctuary within several months?" Ash was taken aback; he had thought that becoming a Holy Sanctuary Mage would mean mastering basic working skills within a month, not realizing the probation period was actually quite long.

"According to the intel I’ve gathered, an average Holy Sanctuary Mage can step into the Space Faction after experiencing Wind, Flower, Snow, Moon Harmony Prohibition five times. With innate talent, this can be reduced to three times," Sonia said. "Prohibitions don’t significantly harm a Mage’s soul; at most, they need to rest for half a month, and as faction experience grows, the soul damage decreases. Hence, most Mages can construct their sanctuary within three months."

"A normal Mage might take three months, but I’m far from normal," said Weiser with a bitter laugh. "Because of the Secret Poison, my soul is much more fragile than the average Mage."

Ash recalled her profile: "Is it the Illusion Mirror Dragon Poison?"

Weiser nodded slightly. Although she had expected this, her wariness of Ash deepened—Technique Spirits, Miracles, Secret Poison, Magic Factions, even True Names, she felt almost transparent in Ash’s presence.

If Ash were a stranger she would never meet in her lifetime, it would have been fine. However, he was her relentless pursuer; if she were exposed... In that moment, Weiser even regretted why she had used the Dragon Blood cultivation system and incurred this unfounded enmity.

But in the next second, Weiser suppressed those weak thoughts within her.

She could not fear, for fear only made the enemy stronger and herself weaker.

She must not flee, for flight meant abandoning hope and ceding benefits.

Reality is but a momentary illusion; hence, Fate is merely unreal; the Void Realm is the eternal future, therefore all truths are permitted.

This was not crisis but opportunity.

The line between hunter and prey has always been blurred.

Countless thoughts raced through her mind, but Weiser didn’t let her expression betray a thing and continued, "The Illusion Mirror Dragon Poison causes my soul recovery rate and soul defense ability to be far below average. If I die once in the Void Realm, my recovery time is three to four times longer than a normal Mage. It’s only now, after months since the last Wind, Flower, Snow, Moon Harmony Prohibition that my soul has fully recovered. I need at least one more Prohibition to be able to construct a sanctuary, but that means resting for several more months."

"Is there only a negative effect from the poison?" Ash asked. "Is that poison information important? Is it helpful for our exploration of the Void Realm?"

Weiser shook her head, "It’s only about the Illusion Mirror Dragon, but we’re unlikely to encounter one in the Void Realm."

Ash suggested, "Then see if you can contract the Golden Fish Poison and the Seven-Colored Tail Poison."

Sure enough, although Weiser showed surprise, she still couldn’t be affected by those two Secret Poisons, just like the previous Witch. When it comes to Mages, these greedy and suspicious creatures, they won’t fully believe information relayed by others unless they see it with their own eyes, and this is even more true for Truth Mages.

Selfless trust is indeed the most precious luxury for a Mage.

"That is to say, the four of us lack a Holy Domain, but there are only three items available to construct one..."

"No, don’t count me in," Diya said. "I can already build a Holy Domain."

As if afraid they wouldn’t believe her, Diya raised her hand slightly, and the transparent Holy Domain that she conjured enveloped both her and Ash.

"You can build a Holy Domain after experiencing the Taboo just once!?" Ash was shocked. "Your Space Talent is almost on par with a Beastman!"

"That’s incredible!" Weiser exclaimed in admiration. "Senior Witch’s talent is truly formidable!"

"Hehe." Diya was a bit embarrassed; in fact, it wasn’t her talent, but rather the All-Knowing and All-Powerful help of the ’Gospel’ Divine Being that forced her entry into the Space Faction.

Although the Gospel Divine Being was like a blade hanging over her head, it was also an endless treasure. She could now enter a state of All-Knowing and All-Powerful for 60 seconds every day, a state in which she could significantly advance her existing faction Realms—even learning in-depth about factions she had never understood before, like Fate and Prophecy, where the efficiency could be by a factor of thousands to tens of thousands.

Because she had some foundation due to the Taboo, entering the Space Faction could be accomplished in just a few days, whereas it might take an entire year to begin to comprehend the Fate Faction.

Sonia stared blankly at the Witch and then at Weiser, bowing her head as her mind was filled with thoughts.

"Then it’s easy to distribute," Ash said. "Two Lightless Sanctuary Potions and one Crimson Blessing. However, the Lightless Sanctuary Potion has a drawback; it doesn’t increase faction experience but directly completes the construction of the Holy Domain... The Wind, Flower, Snow, Moon Harmony Prohibition was a test to help us enter the Space Faction, and if we skip this step, we might never be able to enter it in our lifetimes."

"The Crimson Blessing doesn’t have this disadvantage and even helps to increase faction experience; it’s practically a welcome gift for new Holy Sanctuary Mages."

He paused for a moment, took out two potions, and said, "I don’t care about faction Realms; I’ll drink a potion, and as for the other potion..."

"Weiser, since you’re eager to build a Holy Domain, you drink it."

Weiser had no objections and was about to reach out for the Potion when someone suddenly grabbed her wrist.

It was the Sword Maiden.

"I’ll drink it," Sonia said. "My Talent is mostly manifested in my swordsmanship. Even if I wear the Crimson Blessing tonight, it’s doubtful I could enter the Space Faction. On the other hand, Weiser is proficient in over twenty Magic Factions; her talent is much stronger than mine. With this collection, she is definitely able to construct a Holy Domain."

Weiser looked at her in surprise. Although the Sword Maiden’s words suddenly made some sense, the Crimson Blessing seemed in every way superior to the Lightless Sanctuary Potion, and she herself was more eager for the golden collection. Although there was also a possibility that she could fail to enter the Space Faction even with that collection, she could just experience the Taboo again—after all, the Sword Maiden wasn’t infected with the Illusion Mirror Dragon Secret Poison and could enter the Void Realm in no more than half a month.

The Observer seemed to be putting old members first, which Weiser felt was reasonable, so why was the Sword Maiden refusing?

Ash was also somewhat surprised; he gestured to the Sword Maiden to step aside with him and asked, "Are you serious? You understand the importance of the Space Faction, right?"

"Mm-hm." Sonia nodded. "But if I fail to construct a Holy Domain, I’ll have to experience the Taboo tomorrow night."

"Then experience it," he said. "That’s the trial that Mages have to go through; we’ve merely found a shortcut to skip it."

"If I die during the Taboo, I won’t be able to enter the Void Realm for many days..."

"So what?" Ash smiled and said: "Not to mention I have ’Blazing Soul Essence Special Drink’ that can help you recover faster. And as you said, the more space experience you have, the less your soul suffers damage—you’ll probably recover in a few days. Isn’t spending this bit of time to enter the Space Faction worth it?"

"But I’m not a Witch like Weiser; my Space Talent isn’t strong." Sonia touched the hilt of her sword, feeling insecure: "It might take four or five, or even six or seven attempts to enter..."

"Then let it be six or seven times; it will take up at most a month or two," Ash said. "What’s the rush?"

The president of Claw Club didn’t speak, just lifted her head and looked at him with wide eyes and pouted lips.

Ash pondered for a moment and then realized, "So now, on one hand, there’s a new member joining, and on the other, you’re absent, so you’re afraid that the new member will take your place, diminishing your status in the team."

It wasn’t hard to understand the Sword Maiden’s concerns—it’s like regularly playing online games with others and suddenly being unable to log in due to some reason, then discovering a few days later that they’ve found new teammates, and you become an outsider who can’t integrate.

"You said before," Sonia spoke softly, "that an operator’s place in your heart is related to their strength."

"Did I say that?" Ash blinked. "Well, I still think that way now."

"So..."

Ash casually grasped the Crimson Blessing, which materialized in his hand. He put the necklace on her and smiled, said, "How can you become the strongest operator if you don’t even enter the Space Faction?"