The Sorcerer's Handbook

Watching the two operators argue over who would stay behind, Ashe suddenly felt his mind drift.

He knew they were both right. He also knew his own life mattered most. After all, only by preserving the Conjuring spirit did any of them stand a chance of surviving.

The situation had already reached a point of absolute peril. A clean escape was unrealistic. Sacrifices were inevitable. They were a small team, after all, and the ultimate purpose of a team was to sacrifice a few when necessary to secure a victory for the rest.

The optimal decision was to leave one person behind to buy time. If the Legion of Heroes still caught up, another would stay. Ashe would even be willing to blind himself to resist the curse if it came to it, all to keep driving and hunting for a sliver of hope.

Probability. Expected value. Return on investment. This was the strategy with the highest success rate, a helpless but entirely rational plan. Sacrifice was necessary. Discarding pieces was justified. Faced with an unstoppable tide of fate, only fools tried to turn it back. The wise merely managed their losses within an acceptable range.

Ashe felt his consciousness slowly detach from his body. He observed everything from a third-person perspective, calmly filtering out unnecessary emotions and distractions, treating even himself as a mere chess piece. Everything existed for a greater—

”Anyway, I’ll stay behind!” Sonya pressed White Queen down to stop her from moving, then grabbed Ashe’s hand. ”Watcher, arm me with a unit!”

The warmth of her soul flowed through her soft touch. Frankly, the Swordswoman’s hands were not delicate. As a practitioner of the sword, she had a steady, strong grip, yet it felt almost like being squeezed by the soft pad of a cat’s paw.

Perhaps from fear, or perhaps from excitement, she held on tightly. Her thumb pressed firmly against his index finger, her index finger against the back of his hand, and her remaining three fingers wrapped around his pinky, as if trying to pull his entire hand into her palm.

In that instant, Ashe sensed a powerful anomaly. ”Alright.”

The moment the word left his mouth, he abruptly stabbed and blinded one of his own eyes.

Before the Swordswoman or the Witch could even react, the sports car screeched to a halt, skidding across the grass in a tight arc before coming to rest just beneath the fortress walls.

”What are you doing?!”

”The gate has opened. A Legion of Heroes is flanking us from the front,” Ashe said, exhaling heavily. ”No need to debate who stays behind anymore. We’re already trapped.”

”Then why did you blind yourself?!” Sonya demanded urgently.

”I saw the two of you fighting over who would have to do it, so I decided to try it out for you first. Trust me, it’s not an experience you’d want.”

Watcher Mode.

Through that sudden burst of intense pain, Ashe finally broke free from his Watcher Mode. Only then did he realize he had entered that state of absolute calm outside of combat without even noticing. Of course, while Ashe didn’t consider this a combat situation, his sports car, currently on the verge of being blown to pieces, begged to differ.

According to past experience, Watcher Mode only triggered during moments of absolute crisis. Its sole purpose was to ensure he made zero mistakes, allowing him to exert 100% of his theoretical strength. Because of this, Ashe was usually quite happy to enter Watcher Mode, viewing it as a unique physiological phenomenon akin to an adrenaline overdose.

Granted, their current situation was no less perilous, but it was only now that Ashe realized Watcher Mode wasn’t limited to active combat. It also assisted in his decision-making.

Perfect, flawless decisions. The highest expected value. The theoretically optimal choice.

In hindsight, Ashe didn’t think his earlier reasoning was wrong. It was just that not everything in this world could be decided by what was logically ”correct.” For example, doing advanced calculus for fun was in itself a twisted concept. And, for example, treating teammates as expendable pieces on a board.

Ashe knew exactly what he should have done. In fact, at first, he had fully intended to go through with it. But in the end, he simply couldn’t bring himself to do it.

”Don’t talk about throwing away your lives anymore. You’ve already ruined my ability to endure loneliness. I have no interest in exploring the Virtual World by myself.”

Sonya paused, her grip on his hand tightening subconsciously.

White Queen shrugged. ”Then it looks like we really aren’t escaping this time.”

The Refractive Barrier shattered completely under a relentless barrage of blazing fireballs. From the sky, a Rookie-level Evil Eye Shadow Dragon dove toward them. Its elders seemed entirely uninterested in the intruders, leaving the young beast to hunt for a late-night snack on its own.

Ashe and his companions had no intention of resisting. With their vision completely locked by the curse, they couldn’t even aim at the enemy.

”If we die here and miss the Spider Tower trial in a few days, we’ll forfeit the Conjuring spirit to the Empress.”

”It’s fine,” Ashe said confidently. ”Even without the Conjuring spirit, I’ll still make her pay!”

At the thought of the mastermind who had driven them into this corner, Ashe couldn’t help but grind his teeth. ”Empress... just you wait!”

Just then, a sweet yet haughty voice suddenly rang out from behind them. ”Alright. I’ll be waiting~.”

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!

A series of thunderous explosions erupted right at their backs. With a piercing shriek, the Evil Eye Shadow Dragon crashed hard beside the sports car. Its grotesque body looked like a paper umbrella caught in a tempest. Half of it had already melted, while the rest was utterly riddled with holes.

Hearing that familiar voice, Ashe and the others shuddered. Turning to one another, they saw the same look of absolute disbelief mirrored on each other’s faces. Even without looking back, they knew precisely who had arrived.

But the question was... Why on earth is she here?!

Glancing through their peripheral vision, they saw that as the sports car crossed into the capital city, it had left behind a thick trail of purple light. It looked as though someone had smeared the world with a paintbrush. The vibrant purple bled and diffused outward, silently eroding vast stretches of the verdant terrain.

At the same time, white specks began to crystallize within the purple depths. These specks rapidly expanded and intertwined, weaving into massive, intricate spiderwebs. Then... fully armed spiders descended from the webbing.

The Legion of Heroes that had been relentlessly pursuing Ashe’s group instantly fell into chaos. They hadn’t even finished arming themselves before the Spider Tower army tore through them with deafening force, shredding them like paper.

Red Hats, Bluebeards, giant spiders, and Seekers of Secrets... the Spider Tower army poured endlessly from the webs. Under their commander’s absolute will, they launched a full-scale assault on the giant wooded fortress. Caught off guard, the fortress failed to react in time, and its walls were quickly overrun. But soon, the lifeforms within the fortress mobilized their defenses and clashed with the Spider Tower forces, turning the entire area into a chaotic struggle for control.

The aftermath of the collision spilled into the sky. Half the horizon bled a viscous purple, while the other half burned a fierce green. Every second, shattered corpses plunged from the high walls, while fresh soldiers rushed into the meatgrinder from the webs without pause.

There was no prelude, no negotiation. Both sides launched into a total war immediately. The strategy was as raw and crude as a barbarian hunt, yet the underlying tactics were as intricate as a master painter’s brushstrokes.

Denzel sat atop an Eight-Eyed Weaving Spider, emerging from the webs not far behind Ashe and the others. Today, she wore the guise of the Seeker of Secrets. She glanced toward them through her blindfold and raised an eyebrow.

With a soft huff, Denzel said, ”So, you won’t even look at me? In your eyes, is there really only each other? Fine. Once you become my commanders, I’ll assign you all to the same unit. You can stare at each other for a few hundred years until you’re sick of it.”