Sorcerer's Handbook-Chapter 633: Leaving Senlo

In the Dead City, everyone trained around the ruins of the church.

Igor placed Gwen on a nearby high platform to observe if the Chrono Hourglass had any other effects.

Then he summoned his spirits, gently teasing, playing, and feeding them with gold and silver coins.

The Spirit Relationship is a rather ambiguous field. While it might seem useful, spirits will serve you as long as you expend spellforce, even if they dislike you. However, if you run out of spellforce, a good relationship with your spirits might prompt them to help you by triggering Spirit Resonance.

Most sorcerers prefer to maintain a good relationship with their spirits, as they often accompany them for years, if not decades. Even without deliberate efforts, such prolonged companionship can foster trust.

Igor, having benefited from Spirit Resonance during his time in Shattered Lake Prison, paid particular attention to this aspect. Even he couldn’t wear a mask all the time; only when facing his innocent spirits could he truly let his guard down.

Playing with spirits and soaking in a bath were his only outlets for stress relief.

Ashe could confide in him, but the Con Artist had no one to share his burdens with-perhaps he did, but Igor would never expose his vulnerabilities to anyone, as he couldn’t tolerate such weakness.

“Lalala(^^), lalalala…”

The relaxed smile Igor showed while playing with his spirits was something neither Harvey nor Ashe had ever seen. Only Gwen, frozen in time, could silently appreciate this unseen side of him.

Boom!

Hearing an explosion, Igor glanced westward, where the orc Chikara was researching his fire spell Miracle.

To the east, Harvey had found a basement, saying he would take this time to perform a comprehensive overhaul on Alice. As for why a basement, Igor initially thought it was for the atmosphere, but the necromancer explained it was to prevent corpse fluid from splattering everywhere.

Recalling the many baths he had shared with Harvey, Igor couldn’t help but feel a phantom stench of decay on himself.

To the north, Ashe and Raven were sparring. Raven had initially intended to teach Ashe everything he knew, but after much persuasion from Ashe, he finally abandoned that terrifying idea.

As Raven himself said, “What I struggled to achieve, you can do effortlessly, and even better.” Thus, Ashe didn’t need to learn those complex techniques; what he truly needed to absorb from Raven was combat awareness.

Igor’s training didn’t require much movement. He continued to refine his “Visualization Overlap” Miracle and pondered the use of his new spirit, “Change of Heart.”

“Change of Heart”

“Mental Sect, Three Wings Spirit”

“Active effect: Alter the target’s mindset for a moment. The more focused the target, the more critical the situation, the easier it is to take effect.”

“Passive effect: The sorcerer’s own will becomes more resolute, making them harder to sway.”

“Your mistake is thinking you still have room for error.”

The spirit “Change of Heart” appeared as a gender-neutral beauty in a white tailcoat, resembling a groom at a wedding. Igor had acquired this spirit back in the Gospel Kingdom and had used it to make enemies turn on themselves, but it had mostly been idle.

This spirit couldn’t penetrate a Sanctuary.

For targets below Sanctuary level, Igor could simply use offensive Miracles, and he often didn’t need to act himself, letting Harvey and Ashe do the dirty work. Against Sanctuary sorcerers, “Change of Heart” was ineffective since it couldn’t breach a Sanctuary.

However, after witnessing Silver Lantern’s series of “chaos Miracles,” Igor had a vague inspiration. Perhaps this spirit wasn’t meant for offense but for defense… 𝘙ἈɴỔBΕŝ

After 12 hours, Gwen hadn’t awakened, leaving Igor with no doubts about the Chrono Hourglass’s effect.

He retrieved a coat from his Spatial Card and draped it over Gwen, continuing his Miracle research.

On the fifteenth day, Chikara, the extrovert extraordinaire, ran out of topics to discuss with the others. With no progress in his Miracles and his spellforce depleted, he couldn’t bear it any longer and activated the Chrono Hourglass to sleep.

On the thirty-second day, Harvey emerged from the basement, completely drained of spellforce. He brought out a coffin, squeezed in with Alice, and closed the lid, warning Igor not to sit on it.

On the sixty-eighth day, Raven had integrated all he had learned during this time and even created new techniques. Ashe and Igor were both amazed; usually, such synthesis and creation were measured in years. But according to Raven, excluding the time spent hunting evil ravens and training his body, he had only been studying combat techniques for less than three years, creating a unique technique every month on average.

This time, it took two months because he was training Ashe and had gained so much during this period that he needed to let it settle.

With Raven as a sparring partner, Ashe not only made significant strides in combat awareness but also fully mastered his long-range attack system centered around the “Heart Sword.”

Raven spent three days scouring the Dead City, unable to find the escaped Silver Lantern, before activating the Chrono Hourglass to sleep. Before sleeping, he curled up and pressed his hands against his raven mask, clearly wary of Ashe and Igor removing it while he slept.

On the ninety-fifth day, Igor approached Ashe, who was still training.

“No wonder others end up as living dead…” Igor remarked. “Our bodies follow normal time flow, and since we were brought in fully rested, we still don’t feel tired-even though not a second has passed in reality, so why would we be tired?”

“But not exhausting the body doesn’t mean not exhausting the Spirit Body. Our spirits have been under constant strain without any recovery, making living death almost inevitable. If we really stayed here for three years, we’d likely lose a significant portion of our lifespan.”

Ashe, well-versed in the Time Sect, had a deeper understanding: “All activities produce Golden Flow Water, and aging is the corrosion of the Spirit Body by Golden Flow Water. The Sanctuary only prevents this corrosion of the body, but the soul’s corrosion is unavoidable.”

“I’ve resolved what I can here; to progress further, I’ll need to recover my spellforce first.” The Con Artist asked, “Do you want to continue training?”

“Yeah.” Ashe flicked the Honey Sword. “I feel like I still have room for improvement.”

“You weren’t this diligent before.”

“Well, Tamashi inspired me. He’s been working so hard to teach me that, even if it’s just to beat him, I have to try my best.” Ashe chuckled. “But can you stop bullying him?”

“Bullying who? Where’s the evidence? Don’t accuse me.”

Ashe suddenly pointed at the Con Artist, weaving a warm yellow barrier like a helmet around his head with the Heart Sword-this was Ashe’s achievement over the past few days: the “Sword Body Barrier Armor.”

Igor was taken aback-why put a helmet on me?

Then he saw Ashe pull out a frying pan from his Spatial Card.

“Questioning me, huh? Evidence, huh? Accusation, huh?”

With each question, Ashe smacked him with the pan, the bottom clanging against the helmet. Igor couldn’t dodge; he was just a backline Con Artist, how could he evade the blows of a Cult Leader trained by Raven?

“Alright.” Igor reluctantly agreed. “I won’t mess with him anymore.”

Even without Ashe’s insistence, Igor wouldn’t continue to provoke Raven. Firstly, they were in the Dead City together, and Raven had contributed by replicating the Chrono Hourglass pattern, so Igor owed him. Secondly, not even the secret of the “Chasm Sovereign of Senlo’s divine era Demi-God” could break Tamashi, and Igor felt he couldn’t destroy this raven with ordinary means.

“Then give him some psychological counseling,” Ashe pressed further. “Just like how you’ve been subtly leading him astray, guide him back to the right path.”

“I don’t train birds.” Igor replied. “If the raven has psychological issues, let him eat more corpses.”

Seeing Ashe raise the frying pan again, Igor rolled his eyes. “You think I’m brushing you off? Tamashi is naturally strong-willed; he might have already recovered. His lapse was likely due to the sudden influx of information… Let him kill more bad guys, and he’ll naturally find his life’s meaning in the slaughter.”

Ashe thought that made sense and put away the frying pan. “Well… good night.”

Igor glanced at him.

“Get some rest, good night.”

Once Igor lay down, Ashe began training on the high platform where they slept.

On the ninety-sixth day, Ashe practiced swordsmanship.

On the ninety-seventh day, Ashe parkoured across rooftops, training his agility.

On the ninety-eighth day, Ashe found a tall building and carved all the intelligence they had gathered onto its outer walls. Though missing crucial information, it might save future visitors some trouble.

On the ninety-ninth day.

Ashe sat at the edge of the high platform, gazing over the entire Dead City.

The night was ink-black, and silence enveloped everything, as if he were the only one left in the world.

He sat for a full six hours before dusting himself off and walking over to Igor.

Their sleeping positions were quite varied: Raven was curled up, Harvey squeezed into a coffin, Chikara sprawled out like a starfish, while only Gwen and Igor were relatively normal.

Ashe lay down on the cold floor, exhaled deeply, and touched the hourglass pattern on his left hand with his right, becoming completely still.

One second, two seconds, fifteen seconds, a minute… five minutes… ten minutes.

At the ten-minute mark, Ashe suddenly spread his wings and flew up, quickly surveying all the surrounding buildings. After circling once, he returned to the platform, stretched, and lay down.

After a moment of daze, he drew the Honey Sword and placed it beside him, then activated the Chrono Hourglass, letting his Spirit Body fall into slumber.

Half an hour later, Vesser cautiously climbed the tower, peeking to check the situation. Even knowing no one would wake from external forces, she tiptoed over to Ashe.

She studied Ashe’s sleeping face intently, perhaps for the first time observing him up close. His lips were a bit thin, his nose a bit high, his eyelashes a bit long, his eyebrows untrimmed… just an ordinary person. Strange, he was just an ordinary person, so why…?

She glanced at the Honey Sword beside Ashe, reached out to touch the hilt, then recoiled as if shocked. Though her right hand had healed, touching the sword brought Raven’s voice back to her mind, making her hand ache faintly.

You’re not worthy. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ

Vesser stood and found Raven, stomping on his head a few times, even knowing it was pointless.

Then she returned to lie beside Ashe, turning to gaze at the sleeping man.

“I actually learned how to make Lala Fatty cuisine.”

Vesser whispered, “I’ve studied the games you like, the women you fancy, and tried everything you’re interested in.”

“I feel like we still have a chance, but I know better than anyone that we have no future.”

She sat up, looking up at the lightless night sky.

“It shouldn’t be like this,” Vesser said, “but it can only be this way.”

She raised her hand, gripping the Honey Sword’s hilt beside her. Her obsession with the sword was merely to take it as a memento, or perhaps to seek nonexistent companionship from its lingering warmth.

But the phantom pain in her hand still strongly conveyed a fact.

“Maybe I’m just not worthy.” Vesser took a deep breath, released her grip, and lifted her chin, looking up. “What’s the big deal, it’s all just a delusion anyway.”

She leaned down, gently kissed Ashe’s forehead. A tear fell from her eye, frozen in time.

“Good night.”

When sunlight slipped through his eyelids, Ashe’s first thought was: Is it raining?

He sat up, wiping his slightly damp cheek, then immediately gripped his sword and spread his wings to fly-he wasn’t the only one; the other awakened sorcerers also took to the sky, even Raven clung to Ashe’s back!

Before sleeping, they had discussed the Four Pillars Cult-their camp was just outside the Dead City! If luck was on their side and the cult found them at dawn, they could use the Chrono Hourglass’s ten minutes of invulnerability to give the cult a taste of their morning wrath.

If luck wasn’t on their side and the cult hadn’t found them, they’d have to use their invulnerability to fight their way through the cult’s camp!

However, as they flew up and looked towards the cult’s camp, they only saw a burning encampment.

Harvey stared at the camp for five seconds, using some Reconnaissance Miracle, and said, “No living people there, but plenty of corpses.”

Everyone fell silent, knowing whose handiwork it was.

“Igor, Harvey.” Ashe suddenly asked, “How do you feel?”

The two were taken aback, then realized what he meant, and after sensing carefully, they said, “The Blood Seed curse is gone.” “Same here.”

“That’s good.” Ashe sighed in relief. “The only issue left is my Half Tactile Sense identity… In that case…”

“Let’s find a way to leave Senlo.”