Asho finally ate one-third of the sword heart stone, Sonia ate two-thirds, and Diya wanted to show that she could also be human, but Asho didn’t have time or a fist and claw artisan.

After eating, there were still a lot of faction stones left, such as fire art, earth art, and wind art. They picked and chose a little more – for example, Asho’s “Earth Sword” could eat earth-shattering stone, “Wind Wall” could eat wind-injury stone, Sonia’s “Killing Intent Sword” could eat dead spirit stone, and Diya’s “Finger Silk” could eat arrow feather stone…

Just like artificers have many secondary faction systems, art spirits themselves, in addition to the main factions, will also be influenced by many secondary factions. Asho’s “Earth Sword” is the most obvious example, with a ratio of about 7:3 between sword art and earth art, so the earth sword has a catalytic effect of about 30% when eating earth-shattering stone.

After picking and choosing, there were still half of the faction stones left. These stones could not be taken away. After all, when the artificers returned to reality, they didn’t know where they would appear in the Time Continent next time. Taking the stones away was meaningless, so they either had to absorb them all here or just give up.

Sonia and Diya had anticipated this, and only Asho, who had plucked the feathers from the goose, felt a little regretful, holding the faction stones in his hand. Sonia urged, “Hurry up and eat the remaining stones, and then we have to continue chasing the White Bull.”

“Mm.” Asho nodded, because he voluntarily gave the stones needed to the Sword Girl Witch, so both of them agreed to give all the other unrelated faction stones to him.

When Asho summoned the substitute art spirit to absorb this faction stone, the art spirit was obviously a little reluctant, as if a person who ate sweet tofu pudding was forced to eat something salty. Unfortunately, under the coercion of the artificer, it had to swallow it hard.

Asho found it funny and accidentally picked up a piece of ordinary stone without any luster underneath.

The game interface suddenly popped up.

“Detected the upgrade and strengthening resources required for Orola’s automatic driving car. Do you want to absorb them?”

…

…

“It’s actually… this.”

In the Blood Moon Kingdom, on the third floor of an apartment built in the 1940s, Meiwa, a college student, looked at the art spirit in her hand and was a little absent-minded for a while.

The cat, Little String, jumped onto the table and curiously touched the glowing object, only to find that its paw actually passed through the art spirit, which made it stand up in alarm and look warily at this unknown luminous object.

The art spirit had the appearance of a long-haired girl playing the flute, and it looked like an art spirit of the sound art faction, but it was also closely related to sound.

Its name was “Echo.”

This was a rare art spirit that combined the characteristics of both the mind and sound art factions. It could not only detect the surrounding environment through sound but also make traces concrete through sound, such as visualizing everything that had happened in a certain area or to a certain object, just like a replay of the past.

Of course, because the past was too vast, the art spirit would only visualize things that the artificer had seen based on the artificer’s cognition.

In simple terms, with just this art spirit, Furia could easily join the Falconer Hall and not just join the Bloodthirsty Sequence responsible for combat, but enter the Falconer Sequence with a more relaxed job and higher pay.

But Furia had no intention of summoning this art spirit. How could she expect to summon such a rare art spirit? Her initial goal was “Suggestion,” but later she felt that “Suggestion” did not quite fit her style, so she switched to “Charm.”

Because the information on the mind art faction in the Blood Moon Kingdom was very scarce, Furia could only integrate a set of “possibly useful” learning methods based on various information she collected at the university. She also participated in volunteer work for mind counseling, gradually increasing her faction realm step by step.

Tonight, after watching a movie called “The Flower of Mud,” her fluctuating mood resonated with the Virtual Realm, and the knowledge that had already reached the standard immediately gave birth to her first legacy that could be taken into the grave – the Echo art spirit.

Although it was normal to summon an art spirit as long as the faction realm reached the standard, Furia felt that she would remember this “watching movies increases the chance of summoning an art spirit” for the rest of her life. Not only would she watch more movies in the future, but she would also record this in the Sorcerer’s Manual after she died.

Although Furia had indeed read about the Echo art spirit a few days ago, she had no idea about the summoning requirements for this art spirit, nor did she have any intention of summoning it. However, for some reason, it was summoned.

…She had a bad feeling.

Furia looked at the art spirit. Normally, the first thing a new artificer would do when they got a new art spirit was to try out the spirit’s might. However, Meiwa had no such idea at all.

Because this was her home.

The traces preserved in this room were only of a certain evil man, a mischievous animal, a lovely presence, and her and Little String.

Meiwa drew back the curtains, letting the grand Blood Moon spread a sweet color over the bedroom, then she lay on the bed, looking for the true gate within the art spirit, preparing for her first journey into the Virtual Realm.

She had already completed the knowledge reserve before entering the Virtual Realm. Tonight, the Blood Moon was very bright, and the “Blood Moon Shelter” would make her soul even more resilient. It would consume less soul energy when treating injuries in the Virtual Realm.

The true gate, connecting the Virtual Realm, sinking into the mist…

Unlike the stupid rumors in the game world and the private chats in the university, entering the Virtual Realm did not give her the uncomfortable feeling of being stuffed into a rubber tube, nor the relaxed feeling of being freed from bodily constraints. To put it very figuratively, Furia thought it was – naked.

Unrestrained, yet still herself. Just like being naked was facing the world candidly, entering the Virtual Realm was the artificer facing knowledge without any cover.

As expected, falling into the sea, even though she had practiced many times before, Meiwa still subconsciously felt anxious – except for the fish artificers, all terrestrial creatures would have this reaction when suddenly surrounded by seawater – but she quickly came to her senses, gently paddling her feet to maintain balance, opening her eyes to face this unfamiliar world.

White mist, dark sea, silence, monotonous colors constructed a vast prison, and boundless loneliness came rushing over. But for the residents of the Blood Moon, this level of loneliness could barely be accepted, after all, they had been trained to resist loneliness from the starting line.Furia, while volunteering for psychological counseling, had seen Artificers who were frightened by the loneliness and dangers of the Virtual Realm. Most of these Artificers were humans, with a few Goblins and Orcs, and almost no Ogres—apart from the scarcity of Ogre Artificers, the more important reason was that Ogres could directly consume moon sugar to dispel their fears, without the need for a psychologist’s assistance.

In dealing with psychological and mental illnesses, moon sugar was a panacea.

Apart from Ogres, Veela Sorcerers rarely needed psychological counseling either, as Veelas could heal their minds by resolving their desires, making psychological diseases extremely rare among them—a racial gift of the Veelas.

Furia had mentally prepared herself before entering the Virtual Realm, much like bracing herself to enter a newly opened mud café, ready to face everything unfamiliar.

However, as she turned her head, an anachronistic object suddenly intruded upon her sight.

A boat.

Veela stared blankly for a few seconds before her mind started to work—why was there a boat here?

After hesitating for a moment and remembering that death in the Virtual Realm wasn’t real, she climbed aboard to check the situation.

There was nothing noteworthy, just an ordinary boat without oars, floating forlornly on the Sea of Knowledge, like a pet abandoned by its owner.

She sat on the boat, looking up at the boundless white mist, feeling the tension in her heart dissipate by more than half.

Just then, her body stiffened, and from the depths of her memory, she unearthed a forgotten gem.

“Help, help, I’ve been ambushed by Veela at night, I’m going to be killed…”

“Hey, if you don’t want to die, hand over your Virtual Realm experience. I heard you need to swim in the Sea of Knowledge, how do you swim? Backstroke? Butterfly? Freestyle?”

“Huh? I’ve never swum in the Sea of Knowledge, I took a boat.”

“You could at least humor me, how can you treat me like a fool, there are no boats in the Sea of Knowledge! You forced me—”

“No, this is too much of a foul, I’m really going to die… Sword Body Barrier!”

Could it be…

Furia summoned her Echoing Sorcery Spirit, staring at it for a while, making the Sorcery Spirit feel a bit uneasy, before she finally activated it.

A clear voice brushed over the boat, vibrating the air into specific shapes. He had stood here, sat there, lay here, sprawled there, over and over, densely packed. Veela looked around, and it was all his traces.

Furia dispelled the Sorcery Spirit’s effect, staring at the boat for a while, her mind pondering something, then—

“Die!”

“Die die die die die!”

“(╯>д

Because she kicked too hard, the boat tipped over from Veela’s kick, losing its balance. However, the boat seemed to have its own gyroscope system, righting itself and continuing to float on the sea, leaving only Veela soaked in the water.

She climbed back onto the boat, lying on it, staring blankly at the sky shrouded in white mist.

“I was clearly meant to soak in the sea, it was you who insisted on rowing the boat to pull me up, then left on your own accord. I had finally prepared myself to continue soaking in the sea, why did you leave the boat for me?”

“A man as evil as you should be locked in the basement, to be woken up by me once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and three times at night.”

“But…”

Furia sat up and stretched lazily.

“There’s no reason for a Veela to refuse gifts from the opposite sex, it’s our duty to only take without giving back, so I’ll accept this boat with a clear conscience. But how am I to use it without oars?”

She searched the boat thoroughly once more, and finally found a strand of hair in the boat’s planking. Pulling it triggered a mechanism, and a steering wheel rose from the center of the boat, allowing direct control of its movement.

Veela looked at the hair in her hand, feeling as if it was from her own little Xian.

“So…” Furia operated the steering wheel, driving the boat through the thick fog: “Wait for me, I’m coming for you!”