Chapter 82 – Drawing Cards!

Looking at the 9 spirits before him, Ashe had to do some broadcast calisthenics to calm his excited mood.

Last night’s virtual world exploration, they had harvested a full 12 spirits!

Among them, 3 that were said to be able to sell for a good price were taken away by the Swordswoman, but even so, Ashe’s harvest this night could almost top the total harvest of the past few days!

Not to mention they also got 2 experience orbs!

Ashe felt that unless he drew out new virtual world exploration artifacts again, it would be very difficult to replicate last night’s results before White Wings was fully deployed.

And last night’s experience also deeply proved the life lesson he had summed up while at work: working is not as good as slacking off, slacking off is not as good as exploitation, exploitation is not as good as reaping the rewards…

When they discovered a wild mage nearby in the virtual world map, Ashe and his companions’ first reaction was to flee – not because their conscience was not yet lost and they were unwilling to rob an unfamiliar mage they had never met before, but because they were afraid neither of them was even a match for one of the opponent’s hands!

That’s right, Ashe was very sure that the two of them together could not beat the other person alone!

They had a good measure of their own strength: whether it was the Swordswoman or himself, they had reached their current strength through forcing growth, miracles seldom happened, and they barely had any combat systems.

The Swordswoman was still a little better, after all, her talent was evident, and she only needed to spend some time to catch up. Ashe was simply a thigh hanger, besides normal attacks he could only summon doppelgangers to send out, it would not be an exaggeration to describe him as ‘the weakest of the combat mages of the same rank’.

Bullying the mage projections of Legacy Isle a little, beating up some knowledge creatures a bit, was already their limit, and it even felt a little beyond their capabilities – especially after condensing more than half of White Wings, the intensity of the battles they encountered rose by a level, almost exhausting their arcane energy every time, barely able to defeat their enemies with great difficulty.

Mages like Ashe and his companion were undoubtedly anomalies in the Sea of Knowledge. After all, they had only been mages for seven days. Among normal mages, they belonged to the stage where they hadn’t even left the starting village yet, still at the novice phase of getting familiar with the game mechanics!

Whereas the mage who could appear nearby them must have condensed more than half of White Wings, spent over a month, or even half a year, a year was also likely exploring the virtual world!

The advantage of time was enough to create a huge gap at this point. To use a game analogy, Ashe and his companion were like players who had leveled up by cheating, but didn’t do any of the class missions, main missions, side missions, and didn’t even know how to combo their attacks.

And because their level had increased, the Gate of Truth would only transport them to higher level monster areas!

Fortunately, the two of them were bound as a team, if it was another solo mage who experienced their situation, they would have long been killed and forced to transmigrate by the high level knowledge creatures of the area.

A normal sorcerer would certainly only be able to slowly accumulate Silver Wings step-by-step. Whether it was sect level, combat system, mastery of miracles, or other aspects, they would far surpass Ashe and Gerard’s hacked abilities. Not to mention the high probability that the opponent had experience fighting sorcerers – they’d likely discover right after exchanging blows that Ashe was a soft persimmon that could be easily handled.

Although Ashe could also gamble that the opponent was not a battle sorcerer, there was no need to take the risk – his real body was still imprisoned and at risk, if he or the Swordswoman died, even if Ashe wailed “I don’t want to play anymore, give me back my life!”, it would be useless. He could only obediently await the blood moon tribunal’s punishment for the gambling addict.

Therefore, when Ashe saw the other party seem to be approaching, he immediately maneuvered the small boat to evade. But because of the fog blocking their view, the other party couldn’t discover the small boat at a certain distance away at all. At this time, the Swordswoman suddenly bit his ear and suggested a rather thrilling bad idea.

“Wow, you’re so nasty, but I like it.”

“Tsk, you’re one to talk like you’re such a good thing yourself.”

So the two of them sneaked around to the front of the unfamiliar mage, and in the virtual world map they found a “bit troublesome” area, threw small rocks to lure the mage there.

Based on their encounters over the past few days, the “bit troublesome” areas were mostly habitats of knowledge creatures, and basically those still growing, with larger bodies and tremendous combat power, who would make good use of spirits. Even if mages could defeat them, they definitely couldn’t subdue the knowledge creatures.

Sure enough, Ashe saw in the virtual world map that after a period of combat, the “bit troublesome” yellow area where the unfamiliar mage was gradually turned into a “go pick up the spoils” green area, and the green area kept moving, apparently the knowledge creature escaping.

And Ashe’s small boat was waiting right in the path where the knowledge creature escaped!

Judging which direction the knowledge creature would escape was actually very simple: unlike blind mages, knowledge creatures surely grasped the situation around their habitat, so they could escape to safe areas every time, rather than colliding into other knowledge creatures’ habitats to compete for territory.

Ashe only needed to observe all around, exclude the routes leading to “worth a visit”, “bit troublesome” and such areas, the remaining would be the escape route the knowledge creature had a high probability of choosing. Even if there was some inaccuracy, Ashe could keep an eye on the virtual world map and correct it in time, almost always able to let the young knowledge creature know what was meant by ‘disasters never come singly’, ‘escaping is shameful and useless’.

Relying on this method, Ashe led the unfamiliar mage to the knowledge creature’s habitat, then lay in ambush nearby. When the knowledge creature suffered a crushing defeat and fled desperately, he would go over to pick up the spoils, reaping the fisherman’s profits.

Not only were the gains from doing this abundant, the safety was high. Knowledge creatures had greatly reduced combat power when fleeing, and were easily bewildered when ambushed, like when you’re being chased by a ghost and suddenly step on a banana peel, anyone would become stupefied.

When the unfamiliar mage’s soul energy was depleted too much and he couldn’t keep going, needing to log off, Ashe and his companion still felt a tinge of regret. The two of them had slain a total of five knowledge creatures, harvesting 12 spirits and 2 experience orbs.

Especially those 2 experience orbs, in the Swordswoman’s words, were ‘what we earned in one night took an ordinary mage half a year’.

More importantly, among the 9 spirits that Ashe got, one was precisely the third type of spirit required for the Slash Me miracle!

It looked like a constantly spinning water ball, with a little water wing, held trembling in the hand, appearing extremely cute.

“Circulate”

“Single-Wing Spirit”

“Restriction: The targets affected must have a water source in their bodies.”

“Basic Effect: Transfer all effects (instant damage, persistent effects) received by the first target to the second target, the transfer speed varies according to factors like the distance between the two targets.”

“Passive Effect: When the mage’s body contains liquid, it can reduce physical impacts suffered.”

“‘Water flows to low places.'”

Having gathered the doppelganger, sword heart, and circulation spirits, Ashe already possessed all the prerequisites to cast the ‘Slash Me’ miracle!

Next he just needed to hurry up and grasp the spirits, reaching the point where he could induce virtual world resonance even with his arcane energy restricted in prison, then he could try casting the miracle in a state where spells were prohibited!

Putting away the circulation spirit, Ashe opened Aurora’s Sorcerer Handbook and chose to charge all the remaining 8 spirits!

1 spirit was worth 8 points, so 8 spirits were 64 points. Adding the previous 40 points, Ashe now had a whopping 104 points, enough to purchase a ‘bunch of source crystals’!

Purchase successful!

Obtained 20 source crystals!

Then triggered the first recharge bonus, obtaining another 40 source crystals!

Plus the 4 source crystals from checking in these three days, totaling 44 source crystals, allowing 14 divinations!

It’s my turn, time to draw cards!