"So this is… a spell spirit."
In the single dormitory of the Shattered Lake Prison, Ash looked at the spell spirit who was sleeping soundly in his palm. It was wearing blue striped pajamas and looked like a human cub. He had a feeling that they were connected by blood.
During the last adventure in the Illusory Realm tonight, the two of them went to the white fog area marked with [Welcome] and found a Fortuitous Island within.
Unlike a Legacy Island, there was no danger or trial on a Fortuitous Island. There were only wild spell spirits laughing and playing on the island.
When they stepped onto the island, the spell spirits quickly dispersed. Even though they had sharp eyes and fast reflexes, they only managed to catch two spell spirits in time. The captured spell spirits conceded to their bad luck and were willing to acknowledge them as their masters.
The two of them each got a spell spirit. The spell spirit Ash had obtained was the human cub that was sleeping soundly in his palm—"Substitute".
[Substitute]
[One-winged spell spirit]
[Limitation: Sorcerer must be an intelligent primate.]
[Basic Effect: Creates an illusion that is exactly the same as the target. It will shatter upon impact. If the target is an intelligent creature, it will listen to the sorcerer's orders.]
[Passive Effect: Slightly alleviates pain.]
[If you feel pain, pretend you're someone else. That way, it won't hurt anymore.]
And what Sword Maiden had obtained was a spell spirit from the School of Water Sorcery, "Rapid Flow".
[Rapid Flow]
[One-winged spell spirit]
[Limitation: Unowned liquid must be present nearby.]
[Basic Effect: Shoot out a water current with impact force.]
[Passive Effect: Increases control of liquid.]
[Peaceful flow is life, while violent flow is change. Nothing remains unchanged, except the flow itself.]
According to Sword Maiden, the Rapid Flow spell spirit could be sold at a high price in her school. This was because the Rapid Flow spell spirit was a rare high-burst offensive spell spirit in the School of Water Sorcery. It could also create many powerful miracles, but the difficulty of summoning it was very high. Therefore, the price was extremely high, even surpassing some two-winged spell spirits.
Although Ash really wanted to say "why would a fictional character like you need money", he thought about it and realized that it might be an automatic upgrade mechanism in the game. Furthermore, he still had to cozy up to Sword Maiden. Now was definitely not the time to get into a conflict with her. During the critical period of a project, the only technician on it was the one person you must not offend!
So, the two of them happily distributed the spoils. Sword Maiden was very satisfied, and Ash was even more satisfied. This was because the Substitution Spell Spirit was one of the compulsory main spell spirits for the Slay Self miracle!
The most important thing for Ash right now was to gather the few spell spirits required for the Slay Self miracle, and completely shatter the control of the chip on his neck. Otherwise, he wouldn't even be qualified to escape from prison!
He fixed his eyes on the Substitution Spell Spirit on his palm and secretly activated that mysterious spiritual energy in his mind.
As soon as he returned from the Illusory Realm, he discovered that his consciousness had transformed from illusory to solid. It felt like his imagination had really become a physical force, or an invisible phantom limb. He could drive his spiritual energy to touch everything in reality.
Even without asking, Ash knew that this spiritual energy was the spell energy that Sword Maiden had mentioned many times. Spell energy was the all-purpose energy of a sorcerer, and it was also the foundation for a sorcerer to activate spell spirits. Sorcerers without spell energy were no different from ordinary people.
On the other hand, as long as one had spell energy, they could be considered a sorcerer, even if they were the worst sorcerer.
However, Ash recalled that before he entered the Illusory Realm, he didn't even have any spell energy.
Ash understood the source of this spell energy very well. This was because he had been traveling in the Illusory Realm with Sword Maiden. Every layer of white mist that he broke not only tempered his spirit, but also gathered the knowledge that was roaming. Under the double effect, it formed an all-purpose energy source—spell energy.
As a result, after returning from the Illusory Realm, Ash not only possessed a spell spirit, but also possessed spell energy.
In other words, he was already an authentic sorcerer through and through.
However…
As Ash tried to use his mental feelers to explore the body of the Substitution Spell Spirit, he received feedback like the listening section of the Level 6 Foreign Language Exam. Not only could he not understand it put together, he could not even understand a single sentence.
It was exactly like what Sword Maiden had said. 'If you don't summon the spirit yourself, you won't even be able to analyze its structure.'
Since he could not analyze it, naturally, it was impossible for him to find the Gate of Truth in the Substitution Spell Spirit.
In other words, Ash was a sorcerer who could not enter the Illusory Realm on his own!
This was completely contrary to what the Sword Maiden had said about the system of sorcery. Every sorcerer, regardless of whether they were an outstanding genius or a hopeless case, and regardless of whether they were born into an extraordinary background or started out as an orphan, would without exception learn to summon their spell spirit first before entering the Illusory Realm.
Since ancient times, there had never been an ignorant and incompetent sorcerer!
The term "sorcerer" referred to "mastery of art". Every sorcerer was a master of an art!
But now, there was an exception!
Ash Heath, an ignorant and incompetent wandering soul from another world, crossed the threshold of knowledge and became an official sorcerer!
He suddenly recalled the legend of the Gold Fish and stowaways that Sword Maiden had mentioned just now.
"If a Silver Sorcerer finds the Gold Fish, he can stow away to the Time Continent to become a Gold Sorcerer. I took the windfall of Sword Maiden and stowed away to the Sea of Knowledge to become a Silver Sorcerer…"
Other stowaways were movements between the classes of sorcerers. It was equivalent to the movement of people in different regions of the same country, which could always be considered an internal conflict. But Ash as a stowaway was akin to migrating from a primitive tribe to a developed country. It could be considered a species invasion.
'This was a secret that absolutely must not be exposed,' Ash thought.
If other sorcerers discovered that he was a stowaway, they would never let him off for the sake of conserving biodiversity.
Substitute!
Ash called out silently, but nothing happened. The Substitute Spell Spirit was still snoring on his palm.
The next second, the hologram suddenly popped up, and a stream of information flashed past his eyes.
[Warning: You are trying to output spell energy! This is prohibited!]
Ash patted his own head—that's right, if the chip restricted him from entering the Illusory Realm, it would definitely restrict him from using spell energy!
If he wanted to activate the spell spirit to cast a miracle, he would have to bypass the chip. If he wanted to bypass the chip, he would have to activate the spell spirit to cast a miracle to purify the chip… Tch, he had entered an infinite loop again!
"Sword Maiden, my Doraemon, save me—"
"Sword Maiden?"
Ash called out twice. The dormitory was still empty. The elusive Sword Maiden did not appear this time.
He thought about it again. Sword Maiden had already accompanied him through the tiring trip in the Illusory Realm tonight. She must be tired. Even fictional characters needed rest too. He should not disturb her today.
"If I suffer injury enough, I'll take my opponent, and sever without hesitation the curse of yesterday. I'll await daylight when night falls, leaving behind scars…"
Only when Ash looked up did he realize it was eight o'clock the next morning. The song for the routine morning call in prison was playing on time.
It was time for breakfast. There was still a deathmatch waiting for him at the Deathmatch Society.
…
…
In the meditation room of Sword Flower University, Sonia slowly opened her eyes.
She extended her hand, and a spell spirit in the form of a young maiden in a white dress appeared on her palm.
If this spell spirit was made public, it would definitely attract the attention of many people. It was very rare for someone to gain something on their first day into the Illusory Realm, not to mention that Sonia had also obtained such a precious trophy.
She did not lie to the Observer. The Rapid Flow Spell Spirit was indeed very popular on the Spell Spirit Trading Platform of Sword Flower University. Even in all of Galaxy, it could be considered a first-rate one-winged spell spirit.
However, she did not tell the whole truth: the value of the Substitution Spell Spirit was not low either.
In fact, the price of a general spell spirit was a level higher than specialized spell spirits. Unless the usage was too narrow, a one-winged general spell spirit could be sold for the price of a two-winged specialized spell spirit.
After all, only the sorcerers of certain schools had a need for specialized spell spirits, and all sorcerers could use generalized spell spirits. The demand for them was higher than the supply, so the price would naturally be high.
So why did she hide this information?
She wanted the Observer to discover her "little consideration".
Back in the Illusory Realm, Sonia had discovered that the Observer could no longer read her mind.
Perhaps it was because of the limitations of the Illusory Realm, but it actually didn't mean much—in any case, the Observer could listen to her thoughts once again in reality.
When they obtained the Substitute Spell Spirit and the Rapid Flow Spell Spirit, even though Sonia could not see the Observer's expression, she could tell from his body movements that he really wanted the Substitute Spell Spirit. Therefore, Sonia took advantage of the situation and gave the Substitute Spell Spirit to the observer.
When they returned to reality, the Observer would know from Sonia's thoughts that she knew the value of the Substitution Spell Spirit, but had held back from mentioning it, pretending that it was a great deal for her to get the Rapid Flow Spell Spirit, so that the Observer could readily accept the Substitute Spell Spirit.
A simple-minded girl who was a little scheming, but whose scheming was all in consideration for you, and whose method was so crude that you could see through it—even if such an impression couldn't deliver a critical hit to the Observer, it would at least improve the Observer's favorable opinion of her greatly.
I thought you were on the first level, and I was on the second level, but you saw through me on the third level. However, the truth was that I was on the fourth level, waiting for you to see through me.
However, the prerequisite for all of this was that Sonia had to hide the fact that she was actually on the fourth level. This was not difficult for her—after two days of mental training, Sonia had already gained basic control over her own thoughts, allowing her to only think what she wanted to think.
Sonia withdrew her Rapid Spell Spirit and left the meditation room.
[Observer, I'm going back to take a shower. Remember to recuse yourself.]
[Observer?]
Stepping out of the Pavilion of Meditation, Sonia looked around and confirmed that the Observer was really not there.
For the past few days, as long as Sonia called out, the Observer would appear in her blind spot without exception. This time, he did not appear for several minutes, which meant—
After exploring the Illusory Realm, the Observer also had no choice but to rest and stop monitoring Sonia 24/7.
However, Sonia did not feel any happiness about her freedom. Instead, she felt aggrieved, as if she had brought a cake back to her dormitory only to find that the toilet had exploded!
I went to such lengths to find an opportunity to prepare a sugar-coated cannonball, but you just ate it and ran off!?