Sorcerer’s Handbook

Everyone at the Funeral was momentarily stunned. Igor hesitated and said, “You mean that anonymous ranking list that only the unfortunate can join?”

“Seems like you all don’t know.” Helephes responded with a nod, “That’s right, Purple Moth only ran a small firm before, so it’s normal not to be aware of this secret.”

Annan frowned: “Besides the lack of rewards, what other secrets does this ranking list hold?”

“Wrong, wrong.” Helephes waggled her finger, “The lack of rewards is just a facade… Don’t just stand there, keep moving.”

Once the land-dwellers resumed their huffing and puffing, the Sea Witch continued, “You might think that the individuals on the ‘Ranking of the Unrelated’ are probably some lonely, forsaken children, right? In reality, over the past century, the ranked individuals on this list are often direct descendants from consortium families like the Kaesrei, Mercury, and Roland families.”

She paused, her voice becoming a bit somber, “My niece is also one of the ranked individuals. It’s one of the few rankings that us Sirens can still join.”

This time, Annan was genuinely surprised: “So the Gospel Ranking deliberately hides the rewards, and that’s why you all still strive to get on it? Is there actually a significant benefit to being ranked?”

“Rather than hiding the rewards, it’s more like they are indescribable.” Helephes said calmly, “Moreover, there is indeed no benefit to being ranked. As the rumors go, once the ranked individual reaches adulthood, they suddenly vanish without a trace.”

“Nevertheless, while it’s not beneficial for the ranked individuals, it does benefit others.”

“Though the unrelated are not needed, they are far from reaching the age of demise when they become adults.” The Sea Witch explained, “So when the Gospel takes them, they still have a long fate ahead of them, and the Gospel would transfer their fate to the people they were once closest to.”

“I wonder if fate comes in ice cream? Or is it mayonnaise?” Igor frowned, “Can fate really be transferred just like that?”

“Let me put it this way,” Helephes explained. “If there’s a child who still has 30 years to live, will learn carpentry, and will earn 20 gold coins over his lifetime, then… bam, all that fate gets added to yours.”

“You gain 30 more years of life, get the chance to learn carpentry, and earn an unexpected 20 gold coins. Just like that.”

Just like that.

The Sea Witch’s casual tone sent a chill down the Funeral members’ spines. Ashe found it hard to believe. “Why would the Gospel create such a ranking list?”

“The Gospel’s initial intention must have been good,” Igor replied calmly. “The condition for transferring fate is that you must have been the closest person to those unrelated individuals… meaning the Gospel wanted to reward those who cared for society’s disadvantaged.”

“But once the consortium families discovered this, they exploited it for other purposes.”

Annan said coldly, “Those families just need to find someone on the fringes—”

“No,” Helephes cut in immediately. “You forget that it’s the fate of the unrelated being added, so the more prosperous their fate, the stronger the added effect. Those families wouldn’t look for someone on the fringes; instead, they would look for…”

She paused. “If you observe carefully, you’ll see that in most consortium families, each generation of direct descendants has many siblings. Yet, after they come of age, one or two children never appear again.”

Everyone was stunned by this revelation. After a while, Igor asked sarcastically, “Did you become the chief Sea Witch because of your niece’s sacrifice?”

“Yes,” Helephes replied. “So my daughter is about to become one of the unrelated.”

Igor paused, and the Sea Witch said coldly, “How could anyone exploit the Gospel’s loophole without paying any price? Not just us, nearly every patriarch of those consortium families must contribute one or even several of their favorite children. This way, the fate of the unrelated is heavy enough, and the gains for others are significant enough. Whether intentional or not, the existence of the ‘Ranking of the Unrelated’ does effectively improve the quality of the descendants in every generation of those families.”

Although Ashe felt like berating them with a “How can you do this to your children?”, in the grand narrative of the millennium-long development of these families, such accusations seemed too naive. Moreover, Igor was currently engaged in a battle, so he held back from causing any setbacks to the Rust Crow.

“…How is this ranking list related to Doomsday?”

“Don’t you think the ‘Ranking of the Unrelated’ stands out too much among all the regular ranking lists?” Helephes replied. “On top of that, the Gospel secretly transfers the fate of the unrelated to others, almost as if… it’s an experiment.” Ꞧ

“An experiment on Divine Intervention!”

“To the Omniscient Weaver, the unrelated are like little lab rats. He is researching how to perfectly extract fate from these lab rats, and our benefits are just insignificant byproducts!”

The Sea Witch’s eyes sparkled. “Ordinary spellcasters don’t have the ability to steal others’ fate. Don’t even mention stealing; we can barely touch the Fate Sect! But if the Omniscient Weaver uses ranking lists as a form to experiment or develop Divine Interventions, then our opportunity arises!”

“Although historical records of the Yisuo Dynasty have become quite obscure, through years of restoration, we’ve discovered that during the chaotic era, the Gospel introduced many ‘experimental ranking lists.’ Ordinary spellcasters could use these lists to indirectly invoke Divine Interventions and gain resources for themselves!”

“More importantly, ‘experimental ranking lists’ have no entry barriers. We, the Sirens, who have been blacklisted by regular ranking lists for exploiting Gospel loopholes, can also become the Omniscient Weaver’s lab rats!”

“This is the opportunity the Sirens need!” Helephes’s tone became passionate. “While you land-dwellers are caught off guard by Doomsday, we can hide in the seas and lakes, study and utilize the experimental ranking lists to develop rapidly. After Doomsday, we can establish the Mermaid Dynasty and turn the Gospel into a water kingdom!”

Oh right, the Sirens can hide in the sea to seek refuge!

The Sea Witch realized she might have said too much and took a sip of her blue-hued sweet wine, smiling. “My apologies, Rust Crow, if my words were too revealing.”

“No worries. I’m actually pleased that the Chaotic Witch has spoken her true thoughts. This way, we genuinely have common interests,” Igor said leisurely. “Honesty is indeed the most effective negotiation skill.”

“Well, can you provide information about the Princess now…”

“Hold on,” Helephes interrupted. “This is a transaction; we need to know what you intend to offer.”

“Money?” Annan’s lips curled into a smile. “I don’t mind the cost. After all, once we complete this job, I won’t need money anymore.”

“We don’t need money,” Helephes responded. “We plan to take our compensation directly from you-we want to make two prophecies about you.”

Everyone exchanged glances. Igor then asked, “State your terms.”

“First is the Ghost King,” Helephes said. “We want to know how you, as a mortal, will come to master a deity.”

“I have no idea,” Harvey said, somewhat baffled. “Isn’t that something that happens in the future?”

Helephes continued, “Golden Time Flow, fleeting moments, traces of the future are already present now. The future is but a delayed reflection of the present. We don’t need you to answer; we just need you to lie down on the table, and we will extract the intelligence ourselves.”

Harvey calmly walked over and lay down on the long table between the Sirens, looking like a prop for the necromancers. The others watched curiously as the Sirens began their prophecy ritual, though all they could see were bubbles rising as the Sirens submerged themselves in the pool.

After a short while, the Ten Sea Witches resurfaced.

“The prophecy is complete.”

Harvey sat up and asked, “Can you tell me what it is?”

“Of course, it’s your prophecy,” Helephes said. “In simple terms, you will embark on a series of adventures in the Time Continent, ultimately gaining a conceptual Incarnation related to the Necromancy Sect. This is the key to mastering a deity.”

“What is a conceptual Incarnation?” Harvey asked with curiosity.

Ashe froze for a moment, realizing he couldn’t stop the answer in time. Helephes responded, “According to the prophecy, a conceptual Incarnation should be a special entity that exists between a spirit and a deity.”

Huh?

Is there really such an explanation?

Wait, Ashe suddenly remembered that the essence of a conceptual Incarnation is certain abstract concepts from the Virtual Realm… but the essence of spirits is also conceptual! The difference lies in that spirits are born of spellcasters themselves, whereas conceptual Incarnations are born of the Virtual Realm!

“The reason mortals can’t master deities is not due to the sheer enormity of the deity, but because the nature of the spiritual bodies is different,” Helephes explained. “Our souls are like wooden barrels, spirits are like water, but deities are like strong acid—they would corrode the barrel itself.”

“A conceptual Incarnation, however, isn’t water nor acid; it won’t harm the barrel and will form a buffer layer when it encounters the acid. Perhaps this analogy is hard to grasp—it’s more akin to taming a beast with a young cub or asking your future father-in-law for money while bringing along your girlfriend.”

Ashe blinked. So the scene in the Family Ranking where Harvey tames a deity effectively means he woos a conceptual Incarnation girlfriend and then milks her father’s resources?

“However, you’ve already missed your chance,” the Sea Witch added.

“Huh? Why?”

“Because you missed the initial Adventure,” Helephes said, looking puzzled. “By now, you should have had your first Adventure in the Virtual Realm, but for some reason, you didn’t, and thus missed out on all subsequent Adventures.”

Harvey was stunned and instinctively made eye contact with Igor—Death Arena!

Speaking of missed recent Adventures, it must be that one!

If it weren’t for the interference of those two female spellcasters, they would have killed the heroic soul commander and obtained the mysterious spoils.

“Well, that’s unfortunate.” Although he said this, Harvey didn’t seem too concerned, as if he had merely seen a plate of Lala Fatty fall to the ground.

After the necromancer settled back into his seat, Igor asked, “What’s the second requirement?”

“It’s quite simple,” Helephes said. “I just need the Demon Lord to answer one question.”

Ashe gestured for Lise to get off his back, stood up from his push-ups, and said, “What’s the question?”

The Sea Witch was stunned. She had thought the shorter, masked person who had been silent all this time was the Demon Lord. She hadn’t expected it to be the one taking care of the children!

Being gentle and caring with children yet ruthless to the world—to the extent of having Annan paint a Doomsday portrait of him, then turning around to join forces with Annan’s mother and aunts, and finally turning them into necromancers to eternally serve him… Yes, only such a twisted individual could be the Source of Calamity.

“Was Roger Dior’s death related to you?”

“No,” Ashe replied firmly.

The Sea Witches exchanged eye contact, their communication complete within the sounds of the flowing water: he wasn’t lying.

This was expected; if there had been any connection, Helephes wouldn’t dare to meet them.

“Nabistin Palace, the central island in Lake Yalan.”

The Sea Witch answered straightforwardly, “The Princess resides in the tower on that island.”

“Can you guarantee the accuracy of this information?” Annan asked. “I believe the information isn’t fake, but its timeliness might already be outdated.”

“Well, you might not know this, but over thirty days ago, there was a commotion on the surface of Nabistin,” Helephes said. “Though the news was quickly sealed off, many noticed it and began asking us if something had happened to the Princess. It was then that we discovered a slight breach in the Miracle barrier of the palace, allowing us to obtain limited intelligence about the Princess. It seems the Yisuo Royal Family intentionally let this information slip to reassure everyone.”

“Since then, we’ve been prophesying the Princess’s whereabouts daily—she has remained in the tower without any changes.”

As the meeting room door closed, the Sea Witches breathed a sigh of relief.

“Helephes, do you think they’ll succeed?”

“I don’t think they’ll succeed, nor do I think they’ll fail,” Helephes said. “I just find it interesting.”

“A Princess blessed by the Gospel, a Demon Lord favored by fate—I’m really curious about what it will look like when they meet, but unfortunately, prophecy cannot reveal it.”

“More so than that, I’m surprised that Roger really wasn’t killed by the Demon Lord.”

“Wasn’t that clear a long time ago?” another Sea Witch asked. “Although prophecy couldn’t reveal it, it seemed obvious that the Yisuo Royal Family was framing him to maintain the Gospel’s credibility.”

“It just feels a bit… overly dramatic,” Helephes said. “And rather than preserving the Gospel’s credibility, it’s more like they’re establishing the Demon Lord’s prestige.”

“Not just now, actually. I’ve had a faint premonition since the beginning. If the Art Ranking might have been a coincidence, starting from the Family Ranking, the Gospel has consistently been bolstering the Demon Lord’s image. The Family Ranking and the Evil Arts Ranking are essentially the same; the latter is just more aggressive, as if something couldn’t wait.”

Helephes mused, “Between the Art Ranking and the Family Ranking, Ashe must have done something that drew the Gospel’s intense focus on him…”

“According to our investigation, he was in Senhaeser playing games during that time,” the Sea Witch said. “Prophecy suggests he might have been flirting with Qenna and Annan in a Dream.”

“I think you’re worrying too much, chief,” another Sea Witch commented. “Even if the Yisuo Royal Family intended to replicate and sustain their credibility, we’re not Roger. Even if they sent secret guards, they couldn’t murder the chief in the Mermaid Palace!”

The next morning, a dried-up Siren was found dead in the fountain at the square.

Just as the second rank on the Evil Arts Ranking had indicated.