The Sorcerer's Handbook

Chapter 203: The Witches’ Amusement

After several rounds of adjustments, Ashe entered all the relevant information about the Black-and-White Witch. At last, the Book of Gospel provided a useful response.

Cost: 50 points.

First conclusion: train in the Fist and Claw Class.

Learning Time Class in the real world is extremely inefficient. The only place truly suitable for cultivating Time Class skills is the Continent of Time. Your friend will gain the best cost-to-benefit ratio by strengthening combat power with Fist and Claw Class training in reality while undertaking high-intensity adventures in the Virtual World.

This recommendation presumes the following:

① Your friend genuinely has a talent for the Time Class (slightly doubtful).

② Your friend possesses items that increase Fist and Claw Class training efficiency in reality by 15% (fairly doubtful).

③ Your friend can summon two special Two-Winged creatures in the Virtual World to assist during adventures (I strongly suspect your friend is lying. Abilities that summon same-level special creatures are extremely rare among Two-Winged sorcerers).

From this comes the second conclusion: Does your friend have a serious problem?

Ashe stared at the page for a moment. Never thought the Book of Gospel would be so sharp-tongued...

Still, the guide had spoken, and Ashe had no reason to ignore it. After all, he had spent fifty points on the answer. Without hesitation, he equipped the Black-and-White Witch with Training Gloves, used Advanced Energy and Advanced EXP Potions, and filled all three of her Action Points.

Just as he was about to proceed with his training strategy, another option suddenly came to mind. Entertainment.

With the Prince of Delight’s Twenty-Sided Die active, operators could also gain sorcery experience through entertainment. Ashe had always ignored that option. The returns were lower than training and heavily dependent on luck, and Ashe had long since lost faith in his own luck. He once had a Meibo account used solely to repost lottery draws. He had never won a single one.

Then it hit him. The Twenty-Sided Die was perfectly suited to the witch’s current situation. Her profession trait drastically reduced learning efficiency, but the sorcery experience gained through entertainment under the Twenty-Sided Die would not suffer that penalty. In other words, she would receive only the bonuses while completely bypassing her negative status.

Ashe had an epiphany. Entertainment isn’t just for fun; it is a special form of training that circumvented negative status!

He had almost misunderstood the game’s mechanics. Fortunately, he had not acted recklessly earlier and had never scheduled entertainment for the Swordswoman. Otherwise, it would have been a huge loss.

Still, entertainment only consumed two Action Points, leaving one point remaining. Resting was out of the question, and with the witch’s training efficiency so low, combat was the only sensible choice.

Ashe opened the Entertainment option in the training strategy and noticed that the interface had changed. The icon now displayed a twenty-sided die, almost resembling the entrance to an online casino.

Two categories of activities appeared, namely specialized and all-around.

Specialized entertainment included activities such as Fire Class—Candle Waxing, Water Class—Pool Play, Prophecy Class—Hide and Seek, Mind Class—Playing House Alone, and Truth Class—Completing Practice Papers. The activities focused on a specific sorcery class but granted more experience.

Meanwhile, all-around entertainment involved activities such as Playing with Mud, Catching Beetles, Chinese Knots, or Playing Soccer. These activities were less focused, covering multiple sorcery classes at once, but granted smaller amounts of experience across them.

Ashe studied the screen. This looks complicated. Maybe it’s simpler to just let the witch train...

Fortunately, the game clearly understood players like him and provided a convenient shortcut.

[Random Game: The entertainment activity is random. Grants experience in only one sorcery class, but provides an additional 10% experience bonus.]

Perfect. This is it!

Just as Ashe was about to confirm, another prompt appeared.

[Trigger Watcher of Doomsday’s Innate Ability to log Black-and-White Witch into the Sorcerer’s Handbook?]

Ashe paused, remembering that operators had to be bound to the handbook before their activities could be scheduled. The Swordswoman had also gone through the same procedure[1].

A stray thought flashed through his mind. If I get new operators in the future and the handbook is full... will I have to delete old operators to make room?

He didn’t linger on it. The idea vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared. Ashe tapped Confirm.

[Swordswoman’s Training Strategy: Train, Train, Combat.]

[Witch’s Training Strategy: Entertainment (Random Game—Fist and Claw Class experience), Combat.]

With the weekly training strategies for both the witch and the Swordswoman finalized, Ashe closed the Book of Gospel.

Across the room, the young butler had just finished his cigarette. He crushed the burning butt in his palm, stood up, and spoke, ”The Lady has two requests for you.”

Everyone looked up.

”First, you are not allowed to leave the house for now. Second, you are not allowed to train in any sorcery classes for the time being.”

Pankey paused, thinking for a moment before adding, ”At most, you may consult sorcery class manuals. The Lady hopes you relax, enjoy yourselves, and do as little serious work as possible.”

Ashe froze. Can such a good deal really exist?

Iger, however, seemed to have guessed the reason for it. ”Is it to prevent our actions from ’tainting’ our evaluation?”

”Exactly,” Pankey explained patiently. ”The Book of Gospel records your learning efficiency. The harder you study, the deeper its understanding of you becomes, and that can work against you becoming an Echoer. On the other hand, the lazier you are, the more the Book will overestimate you. After all, your Two-Winged mana is the only real credential it can measure. When it notices you aren’t putting in much effort, it naturally inflates your talent.”

Ashe thought. Ah... Got it! Academic trickery! Act like you’re doing nothing every day, but secretly finish the whole semester’s work ahead of time, just to make everyone think you did it effortlessly and overestimate your talent.

Compared to the eager-to-improve Iger and Harvey, Ashe couldn’t have been happier. Yes! I’ve got everyone slacking off with me!

”Lys, you can enjoy yourself during this period... but why do you look so unhappy?”

Adjusting her reflection in the mirror, Lys looked conflicted. ”Which part of me makes you think I’m unhappy? I’m happy, Daddy!”

”Then at least put on a happy face to fool me!”

Pankey added, ”By the way, I haven’t shown you all the facilities in this house yet. There’s a library, a swimming pool, a shooting range, a media entertainment room, a simulation room, and a curiosity room. Fire Class sorcerers aren’t allowed in the shooting range, Water Class sorcerers can’t enter the pool, and Illusion Class sorcerers aren’t allowed in the simulation room. Follow me—”

Harvey stood up. ”I’m not interested. I’m going back to my room. Please get me a box of catnip.”

Pankey paused. ”A whole box? Are you sure?”

”Catnip? Is that some kind of vegetable?” Ashe asked, curious.

”Does Harvey look like the kind of kid who eats vegetables? He’s more likely to eat corpses,” Iger muttered. ”If he proactively asks for something, there are only two possibilities. It’s either corpse-related, or—”

”Catnip is a very niche herb,” Pankey interrupted, emphasizing the word niche. Everyone got the point. Most people would ask the Book of Gospel about careers or girlfriends, but Harvey was practical. He simply wanted to know whether there was a substitute for Moon Candy.

Watching Harvey head back to his room alone, Ashe frowned. ”Can the Necromancy Class increase poison resistance? Even if he has some resistance, using hallucinogens like this should seriously affect his mind, right?”

”Maybe he’s deliberately trying to affect his mind,” Iger suggested.

Ashe frowned. ”Isn’t this when a Mind Class sorcerer like you should step in? Your specialty is psychological treatment. Harvey’s at least on our side now, help him get back to normal.”

Iger replied lightly, ”Firstly, by the standards of the Blood Moon, Harvey is perfectly normal. Moon Candy has always been a classic remedy recommended by psychologists. If you perform psychological therapy, nine times out of ten, they’ll advise Moon Candy. On the tenth, they’ll tell you to get something stronger on the black market.

”Secondly, do you really think I have the energy to handle other people’s mental problems?”

The fraudster met the cult leader’s gaze and sighed softly. ”Ashe, you’re stronger than any of us here.”

Ashe froze for a moment and shook his head. ”I’m just experienced, that’s all.”

1. Refer to C3. ☜