Garlean, Swordflower University.
“…Sure enough, I knew it was a vortex. Damn it, why don’t I have the same luck as you? My Silver Wings were painstakingly condensed day and night!”
“Tsk, no, the more I think about it, the angrier I get. The more I look at you, the more jealous I become. I’ve always hated people like you with good luck and high talent. Now get lost!”
“Go back and practice your swordsmanship properly. If I find out that you’re becoming arrogant and complacent because of your achievements, be prepared to be consumed by my jealousy and turned to ashes…”
Sonia was directly kicked out of the professor’s research room. She stuck out her tongue and happily walked back. Despite Professor Teluozan’s harsh words, he didn’t skimp on the rewards. He took two swordsmanship Artisans from his own collection and gave them to her. He even shared two swordsmanship Miracles!
The two one-winged Artisans were “Sword Sheath” and “Sharpening Sword”. Sonia had seen the former in the hands of her senior, Celia. It could be triggered when the blade was stored in the sheath for more than 15 seconds, enhancing the power of the next attack.
The latter was a strengthening Artisan specifically for the blade. It could be triggered when using a whetstone on the blade, making the edge sharper, more resilient, and less prone to cracking or breaking.
The two swordsmanship Miracles were “Sword Sheath’s Radiance” and “Ten Years of Sharpening Sword”. They were derived from the sword sheath and sharpening sword Artisans respectively. Sonia would need to purchase additional auxiliary Artisans to activate these two Miracles.
For example, “Ten Years of Sharpening Sword” required the use of time Artisans such as “Second”, “Minute”, “Hour”, “Day”, “Month”, and “Year”.
Although they were time Artisans, they were not expensive. They could be easily purchased on the Artisan trading platform. In the second layer of the Virtual Realm, the Time Continent, these time Artisans were almost everywhere. Two-winged Artificers could harvest a lot of these time Artisans every time they entered the Virtual Realm.
Although these resources could only be harvested by two-winged Artificers, the quantity naturally pushed the prices down. Otherwise, Professor Teluozan wouldn’t have taught Sonia this Miracle – the Sword Saint knew about Sonia’s family background as a genius apprentice.
Because she sold many Artisans from the Virtual Realm, Sonia was actually quite wealthy. She had been thinking about purchasing other Artisans to improve her tactical system. Now, Professor Teluozan had solved her problem in advance.
From these two Miracles, it could be seen that Professor Teluozan had already established Sonia’s current goals: to improve her realm, familiarize herself with Artisans, and master Miracles.
This was only natural. It took Sonia only eight days to condense the Silver Wings from scratch, and her swordsmanship realm couldn’t keep up with the speed of her Artificing power growth.
The insurmountable obstacle in front of Sonia now was the realm of Artificing. As long as she didn’t raise her swordsmanship realm to the Gold level, she couldn’t summon two-winged Artisans, and naturally couldn’t enter the second layer of the Virtual Realm, the Time Continent, or condense the Gold Wings.
The promotion of an Artificer couldn’t have any shortcomings. Both Artificing power and realm had to meet the standards at the same time for the Virtual Realm to open up a grander world for the Artificer.
Therefore, even if Sonia fully unleashed her Silver Wings, if she wanted to promote to a two-winged Artificer, she would need at least a year to solidify her swordsmanship realm.
In a sense, Sonia’s rapid Artificing power condensation actually carried great risks. From now on, she would always venture into the core area of the Knowledge Sea. If her luck was bad, she might even encounter mature Knowledge Beasts – a presence that a one-winged Artificer couldn’t contend with.
This was why Professor Teluozan had such strict requirements for her. If Sonia became lazy and complacent, there was a high chance of consecutive deaths in the Virtual Realm. At that time, not only would her soul be damaged, but she would also lose important Artisans, and her Artificing realm might even stagnate.
“Riding the Tailwind” was a taboo for Artificers. Countless Artificers, after encountering fortuitous events, thought that they were favored by destiny and became overconfident, only to be harshly taught a lesson by the Virtual Realm, ultimately becoming insignificant compared to hardworking Artificers who steadily climbed step by step.
The Virtual Realm was not a place of charity. The more benefits you obtained from the Virtual Realm, the greater the pressure it would exert on you. All the luck bestowed by the Virtual Realm was marked with the misfortune that needed to be paid.
Unless Sonia had the same luck as encountering a vortex and directly bypassed the realm barrier, encountering a Goldfish and illegally crossing to the Time Continent, she could ignore the realm barrier and directly promote to a two-winged Artificer.
But neither Professor Teluozan nor Sonia had considered this possibility – because even the observers couldn’t find the Goldfish.
Thinking about the observers, Sonia’s excited expression gradually faded.
She sighed secretly and prepared to return to the dormitory – today was still a state of martial law, with all classes suspended, and students were not allowed near the White Tower.
However, as soon as she left the research building, she saw a familiar silver luxury car parked on the driveway. She turned around, intending to go around, but the car window rolled down, revealing Felix’s handsome face.
“Get in, I’ll give you a ride back.”
It was a declarative sentence that didn’t require a response. Sonia didn’t feel like talking to anyone right now. Felix slowly followed Sonia in the car and asked, “Did you encounter a vortex?”
“Yes.”
Almost everyone in the school now knew that the village girl Sonia had encountered a vortex just a few days after entering the Knowledge Sea. If Sonia had shown some rare Artisans, someone might have made some snide remarks like “Did you get sponsored?” But the only shortcut to the growth of Silver Artificing power was this. Even the most foul-mouthed person had nothing to say.
It was impossible for anyone to sponsor Sonia with a vortex!As for the “she’s just lucky” kind of bullshit, once it appears in the “Sword Flower Exchange Area” of the curtain, it will only cause students to mock and ban it – the rise of all legendary sorcerers is not without the favor of luck, and sorcerers who are unlucky have long been bullied by the virtual realm.
Attacking a sorcerer’s luck is the most embarrassing behavior, just like saying “if he can’t breathe, then I can definitely defeat him”.
Therefore, Sonia had no need to deny it, and she couldn’t deny it now.
Felix remained silent for a long time. When Sonia was about to enter the dormitory area, he suddenly asked, “After you crossed the vortex, did you meet a severely injured Swordfish Dragon and obtain the Sword of Killing Intent from it?”
Sonia was slightly startled. No matter what she was thinking at the moment, the ceremony had already determined what she had to say: “Yes.”
Felix was somewhat surprised. In fact, he did not expect this answer. If Sonia really encountered it, she would certainly understand the implied meaning of Felix’s words.
According to Sonia’s character and abilities, she would definitely be able to deny it without revealing any traces to Felix.
Felix tapped his fingers lightly on the steering wheel and asked, “How much do I have to pay to buy the Sword of Killing Intent from you?”
Although Sonia wanted to say “I won’t sell it” with a tough attitude, her mouth obediently said, “Let me obtain a noble title.”
Felix was slightly taken aback. “Didn’t I mention to you before that as long as you marry me-“
“I don’t like you.”
That was a fake marriage for mutual benefit. What does it have to do with liking or not liking?… Felix almost wanted to ask this question, but when he saw Sonia’s serious expression, the words stopped at his mouth, and he sighed, “If you don’t want to go this way, then I have no other conditions that can persuade you… wait a moment.”
Sonia decisively retreated to the dormitory area, thinking to herself, does Felix want to forcibly snatch the sorcery spirit of a commoner in broad daylight?
Felix took out a piece of paper and wrote and drew on it, then flew it directly to Sonia, “Burn it after reading it. Is this worth a favor from you?”
Sonia took it and found that it was a miracle spell called “Killing Intent Activation”, and the main sorcery spirit was indeed the Sword of Killing Intent.
Unlike the simple enhancement of power by “Evil Light Slash”, “Killing Intent Activation” was a very comprehensive composite miracle. Its effect allowed the sorcerer to convert killing intent into their own enhancement effects, comprehensively enhancing various indicators such as strength, explosive power, reaction speed, and physical recovery. Moreover, the strengthening effect increased as the concentration of killing intent increased.
This was a very practical miracle in both the virtual realm and reality, because killing intent not only referred to the killing intent of enemies, but also included the killing intent generated by the sorcerer themselves.
In the Silver Realm, “Killing Intent Activation” could give the sorcerer a maximum of 150% amplification. Such a practical miracle was something that Sonia’s small treasury couldn’t afford even if it was emptied.
Obviously, this was a matching miracle that Felix obtained along with the Sword of Killing Intent.
“Can this spell make you owe me a favor?”
“It can, but it’s only equivalent to a silver coin of favor. If your request exceeds a silver coin, I will refuse your request with a guilty conscience.”
“You really calculated it clearly.” Felix smiled, “I will use this silver coin of favor in the most appropriate place.”
“But you’re just giving it to me like this?” Sonia was surprised, “Don’t we need to sign a confidentiality agreement? Are there no other requirements?”
“No need, just use the Sword of Killing Intent well, don’t waste it.”
After saying that, Felix drove away. Sonia was a little dazed, thinking to herself, is this what a rich person is like? Just giving away a miracle with a wave of his hand?
But it can also be understood that as the “21st Secret Sword” Sword of Killing Intent, it would be very difficult for Felix to obtain it again. Therefore, the matching miracle of Killing Intent Activation was almost meaningless to him. It was better to give it to Sonia as a favor.
Moreover, Felix seemed to be planning to switch to poison arts, water arts, and wind arts. Swordsmanship had already become his disguise, and Professor Teluozan was just a temporary shelter he found. There was no competition between him and Sonia now.
Although that was the case, Sonia couldn’t help but sigh at the courage of the young nobleman. If it were her, she would never be willing to give away a miracle for free. At least the other party would have to pay some money to appease her stingy heart.
However, the Sword of Killing Intent still required two auxiliary sorcery spirits, which were expensive and might not be available, making Sonia, who was not originally wealthy, even more troubled.
As if going from bitterness to sweetness, Sonia actually obtained two sorcery spirits and three miracles in one day. Just mastering these “new equipment” would take up a lot of her time.
If it were the Sonia from half a month ago, she would never have thought that one day she would be troubled by having too many sorcery spirits and miracles.
However, what Sonia was most worried about at the moment was not the sorcery spirits and miracles.
She originally wanted to relax in the dormitory and watch Daidalos’s new film or something. But after hesitating for a moment, she chose to go to the training hall for sorcery spirit training.
…
At 11 o’clock in the evening, Sonia arrived at the Meditation Tower on time.
Although the school was still under martial law, the areas outside the White Tower were basically back to normal operation. For example, the cafeteria and training hall were still open, but classes were canceled and students were allowed to self-study all day long – many students hoped that this kind of day could continue indefinitely.
When searching for the Gate of Truth, Sonia suddenly felt a little flustered, but she quickly calmed down.’I was still forced to practice swordsmanship for two hours last night… Obviously, the power of the observer is still at work…’
‘And for a strong person who has lost his memory like this, even if he dies, he can definitely be resurrected…’
‘If something really happens to him, wouldn’t that be great? Then I could be free. After all, I’ve already condensed the Wings of Silver, and I temporarily don’t need him to explore the Virtual Realm. He’s useless now…’
‘But he probably succeeded in escaping from prison last night, and accidentally fell asleep, so he didn’t come to the Virtual Realm. It’s not that easy to have an accident. Speaking of which, if I show off the new Sorcery Spirit and miracle I got, will he be surprised?’
Lost in her thoughts, Sonia found the Gate of Truth, sank into her consciousness, and entered the Virtual Realm.
Her soul passed through layers of dark fog, and her consciousness took shape in the Virtual Realm. Sonia slowly opened her eyes, and what came into view was the familiar small boat and the familiar strange man.
His voice was still so frivolous and unreliable: “Good evening, Sword Girl.”
Sonia suddenly forgot the lines she had prepared to complain and scold.
Like a huge stone falling from her heart, she breathed a sigh of relief, lightly pressed her hand to her chest, and showed a relieved smile: “I’m glad you’re okay.”
This sudden concern made Asho slightly stunned, but before he could say anything, a golden light burst out from the peaks in front of Sonia’s chest, transforming into a dazzling one-winged Sorcery Spirit.
It looked almost transparent like a butterfly with only one wing, but when it fluttered, it refracted colorful light, as beautiful and dreamy as a bubble.
Even without contact, the moment they saw it, Asho and Sonia already knew the name of this Sorcery Spirit.
‘Sincerity’.