The Sorcerer's Handbook

[Secret Poison Diary]

One-Winged Spirit

Requirement

- The user must have the ability to write.

Basic effect

- Summons a diary for free writing. By recording the comprehensive data of a Secret Poison, the user gains total immunity to its effects.

Current Capacity: 0/1.

Passive effect

- A duplicate of the diary manifests within the Virtual World. Once this copy accumulates 500 unique reads, the spirit automatically evolves to Two-Winged.

Current Progress: 0/500.

Signature Quote

- What you write for yourself is a diary; what you write for others is a biography.

With spare resources on hand, Ashe found it hard to resist buying this diary. It was the only spirit he knew of that could counter the effects of secret poisons.

To sorcerers, these poisons were akin to the slow-burning vices of life, like chain-smoking, chronic sleep deprivation, or a soul-crushing job. You knew they were eroding your mind and body, but because the catastrophic fallout lay in the distant future, you simply gritted your teeth and endured. You worried, yes, but ultimately you just lay flat and accepted the inevitable toll as the price of survival.

For now, the Secret Poison Diary could record only one poison. Even so, it offered someone like Ashe, an ”unhealthy” individual burdened with multiple chronic conditions, a genuine chance at recovery.

Moreover, if Ashe’s theory held, he could modify the recorded intel at any time. If a specific poison began to spread rapidly, he could update the entry to match. As other infected individuals succumbed, the poison’s overall destructive power would drop to a more manageable level. As long as he wasn’t hit by a cocktail of toxins all at once, his life was no longer in immediate peril.

Ideally, every operator should have one of these. The only question was when such an item would be available again. Still, since this was a form of long-term ”disease prevention,” there was no need to rush.

He was surprised, however, that the diary was categorized as a spirit at all. Its utility far outstripped the typical power ceiling of a One-Winged spirit, yet its application was incredibly niche.

If a sorcerer without any knowledge of secret poisons obtained it, it would essentially be useless.

That said, Ashe had encountered low-level spirits with broad yet oddly specialized functions before. Compared to the absurdly overpowered Zero-Winged Conjuring Spirit, the Secret Poison Diary felt almost modest.

With the Secret Poison Diary secured, Ashe’s pool of Dream Fragments had dwindled, but the shop still teased him with exotic oddities.

One such item, Spirit Relationship Intel, revealed hidden connections between spirits. By exploiting these connections, a spirit’s Gate of Truth could be directed to a secure area of about 50 square meters within the Virtual World. In other words, this intel allowed a sorcerer to obtain a 50-square-meter mobile storage space.

It was tempting, but there was a catch. The Virtual World only accepted souls. To store physical objects there, Ashe would need specialized artifacts or support-type Miracles he simply didn’t have. Buying it now would be like buying a wife cake[1] when he didn’t even have a wife to share it with.

In the end, Ashe chose to purchase a Swordsmanship Orb and a Fist-Claw Orb. These Experience Orbs weren’t for his own use. To maximize the benefits of bond-based experience sharing, they had to be given to the Witch and the Swordswoman.

Just as he was about to leave the exchange interface, he noticed a new item at the very bottom of the list.

[Witch’s Dream]

Cost: 10 Dream Fragments.

Effect: Upon purchase, use immediately. Temporarily elevates your Mind Class to Gold Rank for 24 hours. (Limited to 1 Purchase).

Ashe blinked. Witch’s Dream?

Could this reward have popped up because I chose the Witch’s Action Mode in the dream expedition? If I’d gone with the Swordswoman instead, would there have been a Swordswoman’s Dream to boost my swordsmanship to Gold Rank?

Lost in thought, Ashe went ahead and exchanged for the Witch’s Dream. It only cost ten fragments. I might as well take it.

The moment he activated the Witch’s Dream, a profound clarity washed over him. It wasn’t just a placebo. His Mind Class had truly transcended. If before he could read a person’s gaze like skimming a short social media post, now it felt as though he could analyze an entire doctoral thesis just by looking them in the eye.

Satisfied, Ashe closed Aurora Sorcerer’s Handbook and summoned his Book of Gospel.

”Open the Funeral Agency chat group.”

During their recent downtime, Annan had spent a handful of Gospel Points to establish a private encrypted channel. If anything came up, they could simply discuss it there. While civilian alternatives existed, nothing could compete with the Gospel’s instant, ironclad secrecy.

Usually, the chat was a graveyard of professional etiquette. Annan would post a directive, and a string of identical ”Received” messages would follow. With a superior watching, nobody dared to be chatty.

But today, the notification bell was ringing incessantly. The chat was unusually, almost feverishly, alive.

Mr. Perskin: I’m heading to meet up with Ashe. Where is everyone?

Death Artist: I’m on my way to him as well.

Butler: Same here.

Butler: Miss? Miss?

Butler: Why hasn’t Miss checked the chat?

Mr. Perskin: Is the Lady struggling to handle her withdrawal symptoms on her own?

Butler: Impossible.

Mr. Perskin: Why hasn’t Ashe checked the chat either?

Death Artist: Ashe, run.

Ashe froze. It suddenly dawned on him that if the hidden hand behind the Vamura anomaly were truly hunting them, their primary target would undoubtedly be him. He was an Imperial fugitive, a suspected harbinger of catastrophe according to the Art Ranking, and a man whose death wouldn’t even earn his killer a ”red name” status.

Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash!.

The windows of the gaming lounge shattered in a violent crescendo as the Red Hats, agents of the Gospel’s armed enforcement division, stormed through the glass. Their Stabilizer Boots slammed heavily against the floor. At the vanguard, Cliose brandished a short-barreled pistol in her left hand while thrusting a document forward with her right.

”Cross-jurisdictional warrant! We’re moving in now!”

”Target spotted.”

Light raised his bolt-action sniper rifle with one hand, taking careful aim at the black-robed Ashe crouched behind the front desk. ”I’m Light Rex, Captain of the Modora Red Hats. You’re a suspect under Warrant No. 69-165. Raise your hands, turn around, and face the wall for inspection.”

Ashe slid on his mask. ”How did you find me? The Mask of Distortion should have blocked the Gospel’s tracking.”

Of the rewards from the Art Ranking, the Demonic Coat could deliver a psychic shock, while the Mask of Distortion sharpened the wearer’s focus and scrambled all forms of detection.

Annan and the others had put it to the test. Whenever they tried to pinpoint Ashe’s location, the Gospel’s feedback returned as a garbled, nonsensical mess. It was the only reason his team hadn’t abandoned him. If he could be tracked by simple artifacts, traveling with him would have been equivalent to a mass surrender.

”The Gospel couldn’t pinpoint you,” Light said, a thin smile playing on his lips. ”But we found your game account at Annan’s residence. Even if you didn’t use that specific account here, it’s a simple matter for the Gospel to search for players with identical behavior patterns. I wasn’t searching for a person. I was searching for a player ID. The Mask of Distortion isn’t quite clever enough to mask your playstyle.

”Once we identified your login location, infiltrated your party, and tracked your playtime, it was easy to determine that you’d be here at this hour.”

Ashe froze. ”You—”

”Didn’t I tell you? I had work tonight.”

Light’s rifle remained steady on Ashe’s chest. ”Captain, you should feel honored. I’m a top-tier raider. Carrying a noob like you through an Extreme-level raid was, quite frankly, exhausting.”

1. Wife cake is a thin, flaky Chinese pastry filled with sweet winter melon paste, lightly chewy and subtly fragrant, often enjoyed with tea. ☜