The Sorcerer's Handbook

Chapter 201: The Swordswoman’s New Talent, the Witch’s New Profession

[Does Ashe Heath have any weaknesses that can be exploited or used for threats?]

Cost: 15 points.

The weaknesses that can be used against Ashe Heath: Iger Perskin, Archibald Harvey, Lys.

”Huh?”

For a moment, Iger almost believed he held an important place in Ashe’s heart. Joy nearly bubbled out of him. If Ashe truly favored him, he could exploit this washed-up cult leader without restraint. Then he saw the name Lys and immediately calmed down.

He and Harvey made sense. They shared the same hometown and had endured hardships together. But a little girl he had known for less than a day, one who had nearly ruined Ashe’s life, how could she possibly be leverage? If Lys were kidnapped and threatened with death without ransom, Ashe might even pause to consider handing over the matches or the fuel. He couldn’t have treated her differently just because she was a cute, white-haired girl.

Iger looked good, too. His ranking on the beauty list even stood higher than Lys’s. Yet Ashe still tricked him again and again without mercy.

Clearly, the Book of Gospel had made a mistake. Iger, Harvey, and Lys were simply the three people currently closest to Ashe, aligned with him by circumstance. The Book had mistaken their proximity for a true vulnerability.

If Iger was right, Harvey’s weaknesses were probably the same: himself, Ashe, and Lys. But he had no interest in confirming it. Fifteen points were already gone. With Lady Annan as his only source of wealth, he had to spend cautiously.

So this is what the revelation means. If I ask questions about Ashe Heath, the Book will inevitably give the wrong answers. This is all Ashe’s fault. Ashe, you’ll repay those fifteen points a thousandfold.

Across from him, Ashe had no idea he had just accrued another debt. He stared at the Book of Gospel’s reply and frowned slightly.

[Can the Omnipotent Wish allow me to travel back to my own world?]

Cost: 1 point.

The Omnipotent Wish can traverse time and space and cross between worlds. Whether it can reach a specific world requires case-by-case analysis.

The phrase ”case-by-case analysis” nearly triggered a flash of traumatic stress in Ashe. He had heard that type of official response far too often at work. The message behind it was clear. ”I can do this, but I’m not going to put in the effort for you.”

At the same time, it also offered Ashe a glimmer of hope. If the Book had sworn it could absolutely do it, Ashe would suspect the divine behind it was in the same line of work as Iger. No matter the world, only scammers would claim they could fulfill every single wish.

So if I can obtain the Omnipotent Wish... I could go home?

Even with that possibility, Ashe felt no real excitement. It wasn’t that he didn’t miss his mother’s hearty soups or his father’s endless nagging. As he once told the Swordswoman in the Virtual World, he wasn’t the type to need a grand wish just to keep living. To grasp hope arrogantly, only to sink into disappointment later... that felt far too pathetic.

Since arriving in this world, he had never expected to return alive.

If he managed to go home with the Omnipotent Wish, only to face the pressures of marriage, mortgages, and caring for elderly parents once more... that would be reason enough to celebrate, albeit with quiet resignation. If the Wish proved not truly omnipotent, he wouldn’t feel particularly disappointed either. And if he never obtained it, he would simply draw circles on the ground to curse the lucky winner, then forget it afterward.

After confirming the Wish’s potential, Ashe realized he had nothing else he truly wanted to ask.

What spirit to summon? Which sorcery class suited him best? His cultivation experience was watered-down nonsense. He had achieved his current strength entirely by clinging to the Swordswoman as an accessory. He neither needed nor possessed the ability for independent cultivation. Diligence and focus were the foundation for any sorcerer, and Ashe had lost both after graduating from high school.

There was no need to ask how to use his existing spirits efficiently either. Once he explored the Virtual World, he would replace most of them anyway. Aside from Swordheart, Substitute, Earth Sword, and Wind Barrier, the rest would either be upgraded to higher-tier spirits or sent into cold storage.

Just as Freya would not fuss over a mud worker hired for only one night, Ashe had no interest in wasting effort on spirits destined to be replaced.

He could even push this strategy further. Ashe didn’t need to waste resources on himself. An accessory must understand its role. It should not foolishly believe it could surpass the natural talents of the real agents through effort or resources. Self-awareness was, perhaps, Ashe’s greatest strength.

At the thought, Ashe opened the Sorcerer’s Handbook, and a notification immediately popped up.

[Death Maniac Swordswoman Progress Report (4.26–5.2)]

Sword Class: Silver → Silver

Light Class: Silver → Silver

Water Class: Silver → Silver

Mind Class: Silver → Silver

Mana: Complete Silver Wing → Phantom Gold Wing

Training Evaluation: S!

[Because she earned an S rating, Death Maniac Swordswoman received a profession upgrade from the Sorcerer’s Handbook: Soulbreaker Silver Sorcerer → Berserk Dancer.]

[Berserk Dancer]

Profession Trait

- Gain 2% attack speed with each consecutive hit on the same target, stacking up to 5 times. Effect ends immediately when changing targets.

[Increased mana strengthens the Deathmaniac Swordswoman’s talent!]

[S-rank evaluation achieved! Profession assessment task unlocked: Frenzied Dance!]

[Frenzied Dance: Within the next 7 days, perform 10,000 effective slashes. After completing the task, the Berserk Dancer profession trait can be permanently solidified! Current progress (0/10000).]

Ashe had not expected the Sorcerer’s Handbook to come up with something new. And why is it another one that only benefits the Swordswoman? I want one too!

Permanently solidifying a profession trait meant that even if the Swordswoman switched to a new profession later, she would still retain the attack-speed bonus from Frenzied Dance. It was essentially an extra passive skill. Ashe quickly grasped the true power of this mechanism.

This time, she had only solidified the Frenzied Dance trait. But there would be a next time, and the time after that. Operators like the Swordswoman clearly possessed an additional enhancement system separate from their spirit companions.

That didn’t mean she could currently crush ordinary Two-Winged sorcerers. Under the present circumstances, ordinary Two-Winged sorcerers could easily overwhelm the two illegal stowaways who had slipped into the Continent of Time. Yet with long-term cultivation, as more profession traits became permanently solidified, her combat power would eventually surge explosively.

It was like working the same job as someone else. Even if the salary was the same, your colleague collected rent on the side. Ten years later, you still hadn’t saved enough for a down payment, while they had already taken out a loan for a second house. The only complication here was the profession assessment task.

In the past, it would have been easy to complete. But now, he and the Swordswoman still didn’t know when their souls would fully recover. If they couldn’t enter the Virtual World to hunt Virtual World creatures, the only alternative might be letting the Swordswoman take a part-time job at a slaughterhouse.

Beyond that, the Swordswoman’s talent had grown stronger.

Innate Ability

- Swordswoman (Mid Rank): Gain an additional 150% swordsmanship experience. Small chance to gain 10,000% swordsmanship experience. Extremely low chance to trigger the Phantom of the Resentful Radiant Dragon (higher talent levels unlock as strength increases).

Her talent had advanced to mid rank, roughly on par with the Witch’s. Just like the Witch could trigger Bronze Dragon’s Favor, the Swordswoman now had a chance to summon the Phantom of the Resentful Radiant Dragon. Ashe tapped the prompt several times, but no further details appeared.

There wasn’t much to say about the Swordswoman’s training strategy. The system once again suggested setting aside time for entertainment, but as usual, Ashe ignored it. At worst, he would serve as her personal source of amusement and toss out a few extra cold jokes in the Virtual World.

When Ashe opened the Black-White Witch’s interface, he saw that after only one day, she had undergone enormous changes.

Profession

- Daughter of the Bronze Dragon

Profession Trait

- A girl favored by the Bronze Dragon, currently under a special curse. Removing the curse grants the blessing of the Bronze Dragon. While cursed, the Black-White Witch suffers −75% learning efficiency for all sorcery classes and +10 to luck checks.

Curse Example

- The girl transforms into an old woman. A true love’s kiss can break the curse, but she cannot reveal the curse’s contents to anyone.

Knowledge Curse

- Bronze Dragon Secret Poison

The curse... actually seemed almost fairy-tale-like. No wonder the Witch refused to let Ashe ask about her condition. She had been gagged, and asking any questions would have been pointless. In reality, she might currently appear as an old woman, or perhaps not even human at all, maybe a frog, a rabbit, or even a Lala Fat.

Still, the debuff from this profession was brutal. A −75% learning efficiency meant doing twice the work for half the result, while the luck bonus added a mere +10. By comparison, Ashe’s previous profession, Cult Leader, offered a similar luck bonus but lacked such harsh penalties, aside from turning him into a public enemy.

In short, this profession currently brought almost nothing but negative returns, much like Ashe’s Everlasting Wanderer. Yet, following the sorcerer world’s principle that ”greater risk brings greater reward,” the Bronze Dragon’s Blessing, obtained after lifting the curse, promised immense power. She might even transform directly into a dragon. At that point, Ashe would no longer need to ride the automatic carriage in the Virtual World; he could simply become a dragon rider.

Additionally, the Witch had suddenly gained the Bronze Dragon Secret Poison. It was likely triggered after activating Bronze Dragon’s Favor. Just as Ashe moved to check its details, a prompt appeared.

[You do not know this secret poison.]

Thanks for stating the obvious... how was I supposed to know if you never explained it?

Ashe guessed that secret poisons differed from other data. If the player didn’t know about them, the system wouldn’t display them. It was a safeguard to prevent operators from feeding the player useless information. For instance, a worthless poison like Exile Secret Poison was better left unknown.

Ashe was about to arrange the training strategy when he paused. The Witch’s talent clearly belonged to the Time Class, yet her main sorcery class was Fist and Claw. She relied on her fists and claws as her primary combat method, and Ashe even had a pair of training gloves that increased efficiency by 15%.

So, should the Witch focus on Fist and Claw or the Time Class?

In the past, Ashe would have chosen at random. But now, with the Book of Gospel, he could consult it directly. ”I have a friend...”