Jianhua University, Meditation Room.
As soon as Sonia regained consciousness, she couldn’t help but collapse on the ground. She struggled to sit against the wall and gasped for breath. The exhaustion of her soul was reflected in her body, and soon sweat dripped down her face like a river, sliding into the depths of her clothes like pearls.
She was exhausted.
It was still dark outside, and this was the first time she had exited the Virtual Realm so early. And Sonia felt that she was still too slow.
Just now, they were chased by eight Knowledge Beasts in the Knowledge Sea for over an hour. No matter how far or fast they ran, the Knowledge Beasts relentlessly pursued them. Even when the Observer intentionally entered the territory of other Knowledge Beasts, the pursuers did not hesitate!
And as a result of the Observer’s actions, the number of pursuers increased from eight to nine.
In theory, they didn’t need to be so afraid. After all, they were only Silver Artificers. They could just give up their first blood in the Virtual Realm. After all, Artificers would eventually die in the Virtual Realm, it was just a matter of frequency.
They could hold on until they condensed the Silver Wings and then die. Among all the Artificers in history, they were considered to be the most outstanding. If there was a “Ranking of Artificers Who Experienced Death for the First Time the Latest,” Sonia believed that she could at least make it into the top one hundred.
But just as they discovered that the Knowledge Beasts were surrounding them, Sonia suddenly recalled a piece of hidden knowledge that the Observer had shared with her about the “Expulsion Poison.”
“Expulsion Poison”
“Details of the Poison: When an Artificer stays in the same place in the Virtual Realm for too long, their scent will be detected by the surrounding Knowledge Beasts, which will provoke the hostility of the native inhabitants. The Virtual Realm is the home of the Knowledge Beasts, and they do not allow invaders to settle here. They swear to expel and devour the souls of invaders who have a ‘settling tendency.’”
“Number of people infected by the Poison: 31”
“Degree of Poison Enhancement: 31%”
“Current effect of the Poison: Easier to detect the surrounding Knowledge Beasts (when the enhancement degree reaches 51%, it will turn into a negative effect, and when it drops to 10%, it will gain a great boost).”
Sonia understood why the professors at the school always said that “staying in the same place in the Virtual Realm for too long is taboo,” but no one could explain why. Artificers were the group of people who loved to dig deep into the roots of things the most – it turned out to be because of this poison.
Unlike the Vortex Poison, which had high value in itself, the Vortex Poison could be shared with friends and family, even at the risk of being poisoned.
But the Expulsion Poison was meaningless. Now that Sonia knew the truth about the Expulsion Poison, she would remember to never stay in the same place for too long – but the school had already taught them this knowledge!
Therefore, those who knew about the Expulsion Poison would not actively spread it. The number of people infected by the poison was naturally very small, and most of them were infected unintentionally by staying in one place for too long.
And based on Sonia and the Observer’s painful experience last night, most of the people who knew about this poison were probably devoured by the Knowledge Beasts at the first opportunity.
It should be noted that they were lucky enough to escape the pursuers by riding a small boat and barely managed to leave the Virtual Realm at a critical moment.
Sonia couldn’t imagine how desperate a solo Artificer who could only move by swimming would be when surrounded by several Knowledge Beasts.
The most terrifying thing was that the “quantitative change” of the Knowledge Beasts would cause a “qualitative change” in the death of the Artificer.
As mentioned earlier, there were serious consequences when an Artificer died in the Virtual Realm because when the Artificer’s consciousness returned, their soul would still remain in the Virtual Realm, and the Knowledge Beasts would take the opportunity to take a big bite, causing damage to the Artificer’s soul.
But after being bitten by the Knowledge Beasts, the Artificer’s soul became lighter, and the return speed increased, so the loss would not be too severe.
This was why Sonia and the Observer were desperately fleeing – they were not being chased by one Knowledge Beast, but by nine!
Each of these monsters took a bite, which was enough to devour their souls completely, and there might not even be enough to go around!
This was the reason why “staying in the Virtual Realm for too long would result in death.” The Artificer would be devoured by the Knowledge Beasts, and their soul would be unable to return to their body. The body would mistakenly assume that the soul had gone to have fun elsewhere and would die on the spot.
Because of this unexpected event, they didn’t have time to explore tonight. They had to shake off the pursuers and immediately exit the Virtual Realm. It could be said that tonight was basically a wasted night, and it was even a negative gain – having the “Vortex Poison” was already troublesome enough, and now there was the “Expulsion Poison,” making Sonia feel that her mind was becoming impure.
Although the current effect of the “Expulsion Poison” was a boost due to the small number of infected people, if this poison were to spread in the future, it would eventually turn into a negative effect.
But no matter what, being able to survive was a good thing. Sonia almost thought that she and the Observer were going to die in the Virtual Realm just now.
Sonia took a deep breath and left the Meditation Tower.
The night sky was filled with twinkling stars, shining as bright as day. The largest one was the “Waning Crescent Moon Star,” which emitted a deep blue light, illuminating the paths in the school.
According to the lunar phase chart, the meteorologists would replace the Moon Star with the “Last Quarter Moon Star” tomorrow… Sonia suddenly became curious about the Blood Moon on the Observer’s side. Was it also managed and replaced by the Meteorological Bureau, just like the Moon Stars in the Starry Kingdom?
Suddenly, a rainbow halo bloomed in the night sky, startling Sonia. She looked closely and found that it was caused by the disturbance from the White Tower.Marked as a warning area and gathering all the Artificers from Garlean, Sonia vaguely realized that the ‘Virtual Realm Turbulence’ on the white tower that could drop people was very important. However, her current status was too low to access such high-end information, so she could only look from afar, guessing whether there was a group of professors having a wild party inside.
Back in her dormitory, Sonia moved lightly, not waking her roommates. There was no hot water late at night, so she took a bath with cold water, stood on the balcony to let the wind blow, and waited for her hair to dry naturally.
She tapped her miracle bracelet, popped up the light curtain, and wanted to watch the new drama starring Daidalos.
There was a full-length mirror on the balcony. Sonia glanced at herself in the mirror, suddenly adjusted her posture, combed her hair, and studied her appearance over and over again.
“What are you doing in the middle of the night?”
Adair, who had been watching the drama under the covers without sleeping, poked her head out and asked Sonia curiously.
Sonia looked at Adair and thought for a while before asking, “Am I considered a pure and cute beauty with a good figure?”
Adair blinked, “Yes, but you’re still a bit inferior to me.”
She stretched out her hand and made a ‘little bit’ gesture, indicating that the gap was really not that big.
……
…
Shattered Lake Prison.
Asho rolled off the bed abruptly, the cold floor seemed to touch his panicked soul, slightly relieving the turbulent emotions after the escape.
When he stood up from the ground, he found that his whole body was soaked, so he went to the bathroom to take a hot bath. Although ordinary dormitories do not have bathtubs, hot water is available around the clock – not providing hot water would be considered torture by human rights organizations.
Leaning against the white tiles, letting the water splash on his body, Asho opened the light curtain to sort out tonight’s gains.
Yes, there were gains tonight. Although in the eyes of others, ‘Exorcism Toxin’ might just be a pure burden, but in “The Sorcerer’s Manual of Orola”, ‘Exorcism Toxin’ has brought about new changes.
‘You are infected with ‘Exorcism Toxin’.’
‘Exorcism Toxin’ enhances the ability of the End Observer to sense knowledge creatures in the Virtual Realm, and the Virtual Realm map has undergone new changes.’
‘Note: The Virtual Realm map has been updated, now you can find knowledge creatures within the observation range on the Virtual Realm map and get brief information.’
Just now in the Virtual Realm, Asho opened the map and found that the surrounding 24 grids had some changes. Most of them were still ‘waste of effort’ and ‘not worth mentioning’, but a few grids popped up with more information:
‘Fog Fish Dragon, worth a visit’
‘Explosive Fish Dragon, a bit troublesome’
‘Umbrella Bird Dragon, a bit troublesome’
Although it’s just the names of the knowledge creatures, it’s a huge breakthrough for exploring the Virtual Realm!
Before this, Asho could only roughly judge whether the area was a heritage island or a habitat of knowledge creatures through the map prompts. Generally speaking, ‘worth a visit’ is mostly heritage islands, ‘a bit troublesome’ is basically knowledge creatures, although occasionally there may be misjudgments, but it’s better than blindly rushing around.
Now that the areas where knowledge creatures inhabit are marked, then other areas where battles occur but are not marked are naturally heritage islands!
Not only that, although Asho doesn’t know much about knowledge creatures, Sword Girl has read the ‘Knowledge Creatures Guide’. She can judge the corresponding monster’s proficient faction, approximate combat power, and even specific weaknesses by the name, and specifically bully those knowledge creatures that can be restrained by them!
They can even hunt knowledge creatures that drop sword art orbs to cultivate Sword Girl’s sword art realm, such as ‘Slash Fish Dragon’ and ‘Umbrella Bird Dragon’, which can feed Sword Girl’s sword art realm to the golden level, helping her to advance to Two-Winged Gold!
As long as Sword Girl reaches the Time Continent, Asho can naturally repeat his old tricks and smuggle to the Time Continent through Sword Girl.
Just like becoming a Silver Artificer in the Sea of Knowledge, Asho can also advance to Golden Artificer on the Time Continent, even if he doesn’t have a single magic faction reaching the golden level, and even if he himself hasn’t practiced for a day, he can ascend by clinging to Sword Girl’s thigh – if this gets out, it might make other Artificers furious.
With Asho’s exploration ability and Sword Girl’s knowledge, as long as they don’t deliberately trigger taboos and seek death like just now, the exploration of the Sea of Knowledge will go smoothly and there will be no more danger!
But the premise of all this is that Asho has to survive, has to leave this prison, has to gain freedom.
Turning off the shower overhead, wrapping his body in a towel, and walking to the sink, Asho looked at his wet self in the mirror. The water dripped from his hair to his lean shoulders and slid down his collarbone.
“Damn, I’m starting to like this world a bit.”
He tilted his face up, his mouth slightly upturned: “Today is another day full of hope.”