Chapter 80: Sylphine
A small bat was leisurely flying above the sea shrouded in white mist.
There were two drops of congealed, colorless liquid on the bat’s back, continuously absorbing knowledge and converting it into arcane energy from the white mist.
‘The absorption rate is still too slow…’ Sylphine sighed to herself, still very dissatisfied with the speed of her arcane energy growth.
2 drops of colorless Source Blood = 6 drops of rainbow Source Blood = 18 drops of golden Source Blood = 54 drops of silver Source Blood in synthesis. In the Sea of Knowledge, it had an arcane energy absorption rate 560% of an ordinary sorcerer.
It seemed quite impressive, a full 5.5 times the arcane energy growth rate of an ordinary sorcerer, thoroughly demonstrating the power of the Sacred Bloodline.
However, the advantage of the Sacred Bloodline was only in the Sea of Knowledge. Upon promotion to Two-Winged Gold, entering the Time Lands, the silver Source Blood would lose its effect and only the golden Source Blood could absorb arcane energy.
With Sylphine’s current 2 drops of colorless Source Blood, it could only be divided into 18 drops of golden Source Blood. Her absorption rate would decrease to 200%, merely twice that of an ordinary sorcerer.
If she advanced to Three-Winged Saint, it would change to only the 6 drops of rainbow Source Blood being able to absorb arcane energy. Her absorption rate would further decrease to 80%, already inferior to sorcerers of the same level!
By the time she reached Four-Winged Legend, Sylphine would have to rely solely on 2 drops of colorless Source Blood. Her absorption efficiency would be a pathetic 40%, not even half that of a Four-Winged sorcerer!
Therefore, despite their immortality, the Sacred Bloodline was actually the race most pressed for time. They had to quickly cross the Sea of Knowledge and Time Lands, spreading their gold and silver wings while young, and entering the Three-Winged Saint realm. Only the Sacred Bloodline who stepped into the Three-Winged Saint realm could obtain the Blood Moon Sovereign’s blessings and undergo the Bloodline Purification ritual.
The later the Bloodline Purification ritual was carried out, the less ideal the results, unable to refine higher tier Source Blood and renew their vitality.
In the research institute, Sylphine had seen many aged Sacred Bloodline sorcerers. They often remained in the Three-Winged Saint realm or Two-Winged Gold for a lifetime. Even with their long lifespans, due to their extremely poor arcane energy absorption rates, by the time their souls extinguished, they were still unable to condense complete rainbow wings and golden wings.
Therefore, the disparities within the Sacred Bloodline were extremely severe. Some managed to spread their silver wings in just a few years, yet remained silver-level sorcerers for life. Others took a hundred years just to enter the Three-Winged Saint realm, but were unable to fully spread even their rainbow wings in the next four hundred years.
Although the Sacred Bloodline broke free of time’s shackles, they would eventually still meet eternal silence.
“Hmm?”
The little bat hovered in mid-air, emitting inaudible ultrasonic waves to ordinary humans, probing the detailed terrain nearby.
Miracle – Blood Bat Form, it was one of the racial traits of the Sacred Bloodline. Almost every member could easily grasp this miracle to transform into a flying bat in the virtual world. This way, they did not have to swim laboriously in the Sea of Knowledge like other sorcerers. If danger arose, they could also flee swiftly, greatly improving their exploration efficiency and survival rate.
Ultrasonic detection was an advanced miracle in Blood Bat Form with a continuous effect, allowing Sacred Bloodline sorcerers to roughly detect the terrain around them.
Although the detection range was short due to the high interference of the white mist, it was still better than nothing.
Just now, the ultrasonic detection picked up some anomaly on the right that did not seem to simply be the sea’s surface, there was an object signal. But when she stopped to probe further, the feedback changed and the object disappeared.
Could it be a knowledge creature?
Sylphine held no fear towards knowledge creatures, on the contrary, she felt excited. She had just learned a new miracle and was looking for a victim to test its might.
However, the location where the object signal originated was just a flat sea surface, with nothing around.
She felt puzzled, but there were far too many mysteries in the virtual world. If she had to get to the bottom of every anomaly, the few hundred years would not be enough for her to research just one Sea of Knowledge.
“Oh well, I was hoping to encounter a knowledge creature, I have some spirit familiars I want to exchange…”
Just as Sylphine was about to leave, she clearly heard a ‘plop’ sound from up ahead on the right.
The little bat froze in mid-air, momentarily stunned.
This was the first time she had heard such a strange sound in the Sea of Knowledge. It sounded just like…someone throwing rocks into the sea?
Could it be another sorcerer?
Sylphine hesitated for a bit, but still flew in the direction of the sound – she was confident in herself, even if she could not beat another sorcerer, she could at least escape.
Moreover, this was the first time she had encountered another sorcerer in the virtual world. Just to satisfy her curiosity, it was worth the risk of death to venture into dangerous territory.
Who was the other person?
One of the Blood Moon Kingdom’s sorcerers?
How old were they, which magic disciplines were they proficient in?
If it was a sorcerer from another kingdom, could we communicate?
With apprehension and anticipation, Sylphine quickly flapped her wings and flew over. The white mist parted to reveal a small island before her –
It was an adolescent Ivory Thunder Dragon. Its entire body was covered in pearlescent skin, eyeless, with a neck and head containing only a single mouth.
Ivory Thunder Dragons often contained many rare lightning-based spirit familiars, making them quite valuable knowledge creatures in the Sea of Knowledge. Even if Sylphine had no use for them, she could trade them to the research institute for a large amount of research points.
In the past, Sylphine would have been happy to encounter such a decent prey. But now, she felt somewhat disappointed – she really wanted to try chatting with someone else in the virtual world! Even just trash talking would be great!
If the other party was a nice sorcerer, they might even temporarily party up and explore the virtual world together!
But her encounter was just an ugly Ivory Thunder Dragon…
Noticing the little bat, the Ivory Thunder Dragon let out a shrill roar. The intense sound waves were enough to temporarily deafen sorcerers.
But Sylphine simply reverted back to her humanoid form during that instant, becoming one with the virtual world for 0.1 seconds during the form transformation. Naturally, she avoided the dragon’s roar.
As she transformed, blood mist burst forth violently around the Ivory Thunder Dragon. When Sylphine landed, the dragon’s pearlescent skin erupted with wisps of blue electricity as it charged at her with a bellow!
Such reckless brute force attacks were the hardest to deal with. Firstly, the small island limited the sorcerer’s evasion space. Secondly, the intense electric current around the dragon’s body could heavily injure or even briefly stun the sorcerer if they barely grazed it.
Yet Sylphine did not dodge or evade. Facing the pouncing dragon, she stretched out her palm and softly exclaimed, “Miracle – Blood Brambles!”
The blood mist abruptly condensed into thorny vines that tightly coiled around the Ivory Thunder Dragon’s body. As it continued its charge, countless lacerations were ripped into its pearlescent skin by the blood brambles, practically skinning it alive!
Some days ago, Sylphine still found it somewhat difficult to unleash ‘Blood Brambles’, but after practicing with surgical spells like Eyelid Incision, Orthodontic Molding, and Nasal Sculpting these days, her proficiency with this miracle had increased tremendously, allowing her to use it in combat now!
Suffering such a brutal attack, the Ivory Thunder Dragon’s charge naturally came to an abrupt halt. It violently flapped its wings, the flickering electricity tearing apart the blood brambles. It took to the skies to escape the range of the blood mist.
Knowledge creatures’ learning capability was no inferior to sorcerers’. The Ivory Thunder Dragon had realized the blood mist was extremely dangerous, so it wanted to swoop down from the sky to strike at this detestable invading sorcerer!
Sylphine remained composed. Tracing intricate gestures with her hands, she muttered, “My first time using this in actual combat, hope nothing goes wrong…”
Sizzle!
The Ivory Thunder Dragon suddenly spiraled down in a fierce dive, completely enveloped in a thick layer of electric plasma, resembling a terrifying electric plasma ball!
Even sorcerers proficient in defensive abilities like the Masochist disciplines would surely have their souls instantly damaged and ejected from the virtual world if struck head-on by that!
Yet Sylphine clapped her hands together, a bizarre radiance flashing in her bloody pupils as she exclaimed, “Miracle – Blood Retrograde!”
Hiss!
Accompanied by a wretched shriek, the Ivory Thunder Dragon’s body lost control. Like a severed kite, it was flung away, writhing in agony on the ground. Within its body, blood vessels continuously ruptured as its muscles convulsed. The reversed blood flow even burst through its skin like blooming blood flowers!
When the Ivory Thunder Dragon was pierced by the blood brambles earlier, Sylphine’s ‘blood seeds’ had already been planted within it.
With the blood seeds’ assistance in locking onto the target, Sylphine could freely manipulate the blood within the target using her Hemomancy spirit familiars, hastening blood loss and reversing blood flow were common miracles. High-level Hemomancers could even freeze or boil the blood of their targets!
Among the Blood Moon Kingdom’s sorcerers circulated this adage – ‘When fighting a Hemomancer, the moment you shed your first drop of blood, you’ll know it’s time to commit suicide.’
“Waaa!”
The Ivory Thunder Dragon suddenly let out a shriek resembling a human infant’s. Violent arcs of electricity erupted from its body once more as it swung its tail and flung 3 spirit familiars in the opposite direction!
When Sylphine went to collect the 3 spirit familiars, the Ivory Thunder Dragon immediately smashed into the white mist, its traces and sounds quickly obscured by the layers of mist as it fled to parts unknown.
Sylphine was not surprised at all by this. Battered as the Ivory Thunder Dragon looked, if it went all out, Sylphine’s Hemomancy miracles could not stop it at all.
This was also where the cunning of knowledge creatures lay – even when hunting, they would conserve some strength, misleading enemies into underestimating them. The moment they realized the odds were against them, they would toss out bait and decisively flee, never fighting enemies to the death.
Coupled with the concealment of the white mist, unless they had the time, terrain, or attribute advantage, one-winged sorcerers basically could not slay knowledge creatures alone. After exploring the virtual world for over half a year, Sylphine had not killed a single knowledge creature, a true reflection of most sorcerers’ experiences.
As Sylphine kept the 3 spirit familiars, her ears twitched. She seemed to vaguely hear the Ivory Thunder Dragon’s agonized cries from afar.
But with the heavy obstruction of the white mist, Sylphine found it hard to confirm her own judgment. Listening carefully again, she seemed to hear nothing.
But as aforementioned, there were far too many bizarre occurrences in the virtual world. She need not waste time pondering over such matters. Time was the most precious resource to the Sacred Bloodline. She had to treasure every second exploring the virtual world.
Sylphine activated her miracle again, transforming back into a bat. Just as she was about to pick a direction to continue forward, she suddenly heard another ‘plop’ from up ahead on the right.
The little bat hovered in midair, bewildered.
Again?
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