The Sorcerer's Handbook

The frontline was under heavy pressure, and the rear was no less strained.

Harvey tore open a Snow White candy wrapper and tossed a piece into his mouth. Simultaneously, he lit a roll of Catnip, exhaling a smoke ring shaped like a perfect donut. Candy and smoke. Does life get any better?

”Necro, what pattern do you like?”

”Purple Moth, what kind of grave do you prefer? If anything happens, sell my corpse for a good price. A necromancer’s worth is only truly proven in the price of his body.”

”Fair enough. You take the right, I’ll take the left.”

Buzz!

As a swarm of drones rounded the corners on both sides, Harvey and Annan turned and stepped into their respective zones.

The necromancer lightly patted his coffin. It turned its back to him and slid into the center of the corridor. Harvey had actually fitted it with wheels. Then he clasped his hands and bowed slightly toward it, as though paying homage to the dead.

The pitch-black coffin suddenly glowed with a faint green light. Seven spectral chains burst from its sides, anchoring themselves to the walls, ceiling, and floor. Between the chains, the air itself formed a translucent barrier, like shimmering foam. In an instant, the entire corridor was sealed off by the coffin and the pale green screen. With the coffin standing guard, no machine could pass!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Gunfire echoed through the corridor, crossing back and forth like a torrential downpour. Yet not a single bullet could reach Harvey behind the coffin. The seemingly fragile fluorescent barrier proved as solid as a fortress. No shot could break through.

Miracle, Immortal Coffin’s Eternal Burial!

Pankey had advised them to spend this time idling away with food and indulgence, but Harvey was never one to do as he was told. Behind closed doors, he had been working to prepare his weapon, the very coffin he now held.

People often misunderstood necromancers. They assumed the Necromancy Class revolved entirely around manipulating corpses, but they were wrong. Compared to bodies, a coffin was what a necromancer truly favored.

After all, good corpses were rare and ultimately consumables. Once used, they had to be replaced. Anyone with even a shred of financial sense knew better than to invest heavily in consumables. Resources should be allocated to assets that could be held long-term.

Of course, exceptional corpses, like the remains of a dragon, titan husks, and Sacred Realm vessels, did exist and held great value. But ordinary necromancers could never hope to obtain such assets. Instead, they turned their attention to something that could stay with them far longer, their true companion, the coffin.

Its drawbacks were obvious, but its advantages were equally irresistible. A good corpse could be placed inside for modification, and ritual formations could be inscribed onto the wood for rapid casting. Even when traveling, a necromancer could simply stay inside the coffin, removing any need for a tent. To a necromancer, a coffin was as indispensable as beauty was to Iger.

Every necromancer was expected to craft their coffin with their own hands. It was the most worthwhile investment they could make, the only fortress capable of sheltering them from the wind and the storm. Without a good coffin, even the finest corpse would eventually be lost. But with one, even a poor corpse could be cultivated into something valuable. Just as marriage required a house, the same principle applied to a necromancer and their coffin.

Unfortunately, when Harvey was captured, the Bloodrage Hunters had confiscated the coffin that had accompanied him for five years. By now, it had likely ended up in the hands of another Blood Saint. After escaping prison, he had nowhere to settle. In the vastness of the Blood Moon, there was no place for him to build a new one. Only after arriving in the Gospel Kingdom did he finally find the time to build his own small world.

Immortal Coffin’s Eternal Burial was a Miracle cast through the coffin itself. It created a temporary barrier based on the terrain, absorbing all incoming damage and dispersing it through the chains into the surrounding structures. However, as a Two-Winged Miracle, there was a limit to how much it could endure. Under the drones’ relentless barrage, the coffin’s green glow intensified. The walls and ground connected by the chains began to crack; everything pointed to an imminent collapse.

Yet Harvey showed no concern. He pressed both hands against the back of the coffin as though listening to a heartbeat within.

”Alice, save me.”

The green light surged to its limit, and in the next second, the barrier shattered. As the barrier broke, the coffin flew open.

With a sharp crack, the lid slammed aside. A small corpse, radiating green necromantic light, stepped out. An instant later, a streak of green flashed through the air, and the leading drone exploded.

The bullets might have been fast enough to follow Alice, but the drones’ gun barrels could not turn quickly enough to keep pace.

Combined Miracle, Immortal Coffin’s Eternal Burial · Torment’s Revival!

On its own, Torment’s Revival seemed like a useless Miracle. Its effect was straightforward. When a necromancer’s undead suffered an unavoidable attack, they would gain a stack of Pain. The more Pain accumulated, the stronger the undead became in all aspects. However, these stacks had a short time limit and would quickly fade. In essence, the more you were beaten, the stronger you became.

Under normal circumstances, even if a necromancer could efficiently heal their corpses, an undead could only accumulate two or three stacks of Pain at most. This made it a barely noticeable enhancement. However, when used together with Immortal Coffin’s Eternal Burial, Torment’s Revival instantly became a top-tier necromantic Miracle.

This was because the activation of Immortal Coffin’s Eternal Burial treated the undead and the coffin as a single entity. Any destructive attack against the coffin also applied Pain stacks to the undead inside. The drone swarm’s gunfire shattered the barrier in just a few seconds, allowing Alice to accumulate at least a hundred stacks of Pain. The combined Miracle had a short duration and specific terrain requirements, but it was perfectly suited for dealing with these drones.

Harvey considered whether he should assist the young lady, but when he turned around, he saw Annan already unfolding her virtual wings.

Two wings spread out behind her in a deep, abyssal purple rather than silver or gold. These wings were not meant for flight. At their tips, gun barrels extended outward to form dense turret arrays that guarded both sides of Annan. As Annan and the assault-gun girl opened fire on the drone swarm, the wing-mounted turrets silently unleashed bursts of mana-infused bullets. The dense storm of firepower forcibly pinned the drone swarm into the corner.

No wonder she claimed she could handle the rear alone. In a narrow corridor like this, her firepower is more than enough for her to suppress an entire drone army by herself.

Creak!

A ceiling fixture suddenly swayed and fell, causing the light to dim slightly. The house was large and filled with lamps, so the loss of one made little difference. But as the fixture tumbled, two mechanical spiders dropped from the shadows above.

Harvey managed to shoot down the one lunging at him, but Annan was occupied. Facing down the corridor and overwhelmed by the roar of her own gunfire, she did not notice the second mechanical spider dropping directly toward her.

Bang!

A shot cut through the air, grazing Annan’s hair. The young lady tilted her head slightly to see Little Lys standing behind her, both hands gripping a handgun with smoke still rising from the barrel. At her feet, the pierced mechanical spider fell, curling up like a dead insect.

Annan glanced at the calm, white-haired girl, her expression unchanged. ”Thanks, Lys.”

”You’re welcome.”

She then returned her focus to maintaining fire superiority over the drone swarm at the corner.

However, her mana was not infinite. Harvey’s Alice could not maintain her berserk state indefinitely either. With the Good Moonlight Agency having converted every delivery drone in the city into a killing machine, the swarm kept coming without end. Every extra second they remained here brought them one step closer to the Crimson Cicada Duchess.

Even without a direct clash, Annan knew they were no match for the leaders of a top-ten national agency. The key to breaking through this stalemate still lay at the front line.