Chapter 41
In the virtual world, on a small island in the sea of knowledge, the battle was coming to an end.
"The difference between swordsmanship and slaughter lies in precision."
Professor Trotzam's teachings seemed to echo in her ears. Sonya tried to maintain steady breathing to prevent her motions from distorting. She quietly held the wooden sword, channeling arcane energy until boiling, and thrust out with all her might!
The wooden sword pierced Ashe's back, stabbing through his chest!
"Ugh!"
Ashe let out a muffled grunt, the intense pain nearly causing him to lose his grip. The virtual world did not shield sorcerers from pain; in fact, due to the direct contact of souls, the pain was generally 10-20% more intense than in reality. Therefore, it was not impossible for a sorcerer to die from excessive virtual pain.
The tip of the wooden sword piercing Ashe's body glowed with a faint purple aura, then—
"Inner Vibration Sword!"
Following Sonya's soft cry, the vibration sword aura on the wooden sword exploded!
The green-skinned beastman that Ashe held by the shoulders, impaled in the waist by Sonya's wooden sword, let out a hysterical roar. Its burly, muscular body burst open like a popped balloon, its lower half blown apart completely.
Yet the ferocity in its eyes only grew more intense, its hands clenched tightly around Ashe's throat, nearly wringing his neck out like a wet towel—
Sonya decisively pulled out her sword and swung it down, effortlessly slicing through the beastman's neck that was nearly impervious earlier. As the beastman's head flew, Ashe plopped down on the ground, gasping heavily for air.
"Are you okay?"
"Other than briefly recalling my short life, hearing what sounded like loved ones calling out, nothing much happened."
Ashe coughed twice, glancing down at where Sonya's sword had pierced. Of course now his coat was undamaged, the wound healing instantly.
He had known from the first battle that any injuries suffered in the virtual world were illusory. As long as he didn't die on the spot, a sorcerer could recover almost instantly.
Of course, every miracle came with a price. Ashe saw his own hand's opacity decrease noticeably, meaning his soul energy had depleted greatly.
If he suffered such serious trauma again, he'd probably have to give up a life in the virtual world.
He looked at the dissipating beastman head, still feeling some lingering fear.
This green-skinned beastman was the strongest foe they had encountered in the virtual world. If Ashe hadn't sacrificed himself as a taunt follower and Sonya seized the chance to attack, the victor would still be uncertain now.
To be honest, in terms of combat power, this green beastman was not much different from the musketeers they had faced. Both were low-level sorcerers with very shallow combat patterns.
And that was exactly why "Virtual World Exploration" had deemed it an adventure target 'worth visiting', giving Ashe a false impression.
Then the virtual world immediately taught Ashe a lesson: everything in the virtual world carried risks, the sea of knowledge ran deep, and he needed to tread carefully, my child.
Even low-level sorcerers could have massive gaps between them, possibly even greater than racial differences.
While Ashe and Sonya could easily handle the musketeers, the green beastman had them badly beaten because it specialized in the masochist school - the natural counter to their own! Its entire green skin exuded the color of trees, hard as armor.
Not just Ashe, even Sonya could only scratch it, unable to truly wound it.
More importantly, the beastman had abundant combat experience and seemed to have learned boxing too. Whenever Sonya tried to inflict serious damage with Vibration Sword, it either grappled with Ashe or charged at Sonya directly, not giving her a chance to act decisively.
As the battle dragged on, the two exhausted their resources quickly while the beastman only grew more vigorous. Sensing trouble, they briefly discussed and decided to have Ashe actively engage it to obscure its vision and create openings for Sonya.
The tactics succeeded beautifully. The beastman died, Sonya's skills improved, and Ashe gained a rare glimpse of his life flashing before his eyes. Everyone obtained growth.
After a battle of course came the time to check for spoils. The beastman left two wolf fang ornaments, each containing a spirit:
Oak Skin
One Wing Spirit
Restriction: The sorcerer must possess skin tissue that wraps muscles.
Basic Effect: Transforms skin into bark-like material. When in contact with the earth, 10% of kinetic impact against skin can be transferred into the ground.
Passive Effect: Skin can transform into bark through daily training.
Note: Wind, frost, searing sun, all of nature's tribulations will make you even more unbreakable.
The two spirits were both Oak Skin. Ashe found it strange. "How does it have two identical spirits?"
Sonya explained, "Because masochists don't care about the active effects of spirits, but the passive effects, which can stack. So to accelerate their training, masochists often try to obtain multiple copies of the same spirit."
"Do you want it?"
"No, Oak Skin is worthless and doesn't suit me. Even if I wanted a masochist spirit to strengthen my physique, there are better options. Besides, Oak Skin is just too ugly."
The key point was it's too ugly... Ashe recalled the beastman's skin that looked like a piece of paper folded hundreds of times then unfolded - all those wrinkles and folds. He felt some resistance too.
It wasn't that he cared much for appearance, but that was just too ugly it affected one's looks.
Thus the two spirits naturally went into Ashe's bag as backup funds.
Sonya picked up a scroll the beastman had burst out of and skimmed it with disgust before tossing it to Ashe, muttering "I bet you can even absorb a sorcerer's handbook like this?"
Ashe caught it and his body trembled.
The scroll left behind by the beastman was a... how to put it, called Flower Catalogue in elegant terms, Sorcerer's Research Materials on the Intimate Customs of Other Worlds in serious terms, Fuck Yeah Recommendation Guide in crude terms.
The beginning of the scroll contained a dozen or so artistic photos of beastmen. Although the aesthetics were rough, Ashe hadn't seen erotic drawings in two or three days, so he could appreciate their primal beauty.
Then it got interesting. There were humans, elves, ogres, furry long-eared ones, scaly long-tailed ones, winged ones, horned ones, even spiders - no wonder this beastman was a masochist sorcerer, who else could investigate so thoroughly and diversely!
But there was one thing Ashe found unsatisfying, which was the beastman sorcerer's taste being too singular, only pursuing "big". Big was good, big was beautiful. There wasn't a single female under two meters in the scroll, all giants that Ashe had to gaze up at.
"If you like it, why not take it and peruse slowly?" Sonya asked with arms akimbo, disdain in her eyes. "Tsk, men..."
"Very quick, I'll finish reading it quickly, just wait a moment."
Although he said that, the scroll was extremely long, documenting at least hundreds of females, far more than Ashe had ever met. Truly a feast for the parched and flooded.
When Ashe turned to the end of the scroll, he saw an ordinary beastwoman who was exceptionally the only one wearing clothes in the entire scroll.
Based on the earlier information, this likely meant the masochist beastman sorcerer had not mated with her.
In the photo, she held two beastman cubs against a wooden house. A bit short and stout, but she looked gentle, even her bared ferocious fangs showing no threat at all. Wearing a dirty apron, clearly a beastman farm wife.
With no textual description, Ashe could only guess - did this masochist beastman sorcerer fall for this farm wife? But why didn't they become mates? Was it because the beastman sorcerer was nearing death, or contracted some illness from excessive vitality nurturing?
Truly a strange beastman sorcerer...
As the scroll dissipated into light smoke, Ashe obtained two new skills.
Secrets of Bliss (only effective on females over 2m)
Primal Instincts
Ashe looked at Secrets of Bliss (only effective on females over 2m), feeling somewhat stunned.
How to put it... it was like obtaining an A1 license for large vehicles without any driving experience. From today, he was a licensed cloud driver.
The second skill, Primal Instincts, was quite useful though - not a racial trait, but the beastman sorcerer's combat techniques honed over years of battle. It allowed effectively evading sudden sneak attacks from blind spots at close range.
After absorbing the sorcerer's handbook, this legacy isle was sinking again. Sonya sat at the stern watching him, cocking her eyebrows. "So you really can absorb that sorcerer's handbook... looks like you have pretty broad tolerance..."
"Not exactly, I just have more flexible principles."
Ashe also vaguely sensed something amiss. Swordswoman couldn't absorb the two handbooks, yet he absorbed them as soon as he saw them. Clearly the problem wasn't the conservative swordswoman, but the overly open Ashe like a public bus.
Ashe felt it was a hidden function of the game Aurora's Sorcerer Handbook, but the game hadn't given any related prompts. He could only gloss it over.
"Let's head to the next area. Hopefully we can find a swordsmanship legacy isle... or a serendipity isle with sword spirits too... anything but a masochist legacy isle." Sonya leaned against the boat side lazily complaining.
Ashe nodded, finding it hard not to support this suggestion - facing enemies where one clash meant losing health, the experience really was too poor. Better to just summon a mudskipper dragon to instakill them.
He opened Virtual World Exploration to check the nearby area hints. Suddenly he saw an orange hint below the right area that he had never seen before -
Wait a moment
Sonya waited several dozen seconds, noticing the boat showed no signs of moving. She asked puzzled, "Why aren't we going yet?"
"Have to wait a while before we can go."
"Why?"
"Don't know."
"How long?"
"Don't know."
"Fine... let's just wait then." Sonya stretched lazily. "Speaking of which, I also wanted to discuss something with you earlier but forgot.
"Discuss what?"
"About my daily training." Sonya hugged herself. "Can you cancel the mandatory training you assigned me?"
How are fictional characters like this nowadays, actually unwilling to generate surplus value.
Truly the laziest generation of fictional characters I've seen.
I never encountered this when playing mobile games before.
Various thoughts flashed through Ashe's mind, but outwardly he crossed his ten fingers, striking a listening pose. "Of course, no problem. I respect Swordswoman's wishes - but I'd like to know your reasons."
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