Virtual Realm, Knowledge Sea.

“The werewolf that cannot transform under the moonlight… Your prison really has a lot of talents, worthy of being a multi-racial nation.”

Sonia lay at the bow of the small boat, looking at the hazy sky. “But what exactly is the Gourmet Ritual? I have never heard of such a cruel and bizarre ritual. Does he want to summon the Artisan of the Gluttony faction?”

In theory, the easiest arcane faction for sorcerers to master is not the elemental factions like fire, earth, or swordsmanship, which are easily accessible. After all, elemental magic requires deliberate training by the sorcerer to gain experience.

On the other hand, the internal factions are ones that sorcerers gain experience in even without deliberate training.

What are the internal factions? They are the physiological activities that sorcerers must engage in every day.

Eating, sleeping, listening, observing, excreting… These physiological activities that are unavoidable from a young age can be converted into arcane experience. Almost every sorcerer has mastery in seven or eight arcane factions.

Unfortunately, this is only in theory.

The seemingly simplest and easiest internal factions have much higher thresholds than the elemental factions. No matter how difficult the elemental factions are, as long as one is willing to work hard, it is possible to gain entry. However, the internal factions are mostly racial talents. If you were not born with a random internal talent, you will never be able to independently master an internal faction in your lifetime.

The “Gluttony faction” that Sonia mentioned is an internal faction that often appears within the ogre tribe. However, not all ogres can learn it. Only a few ogre sorcerers can suddenly have a breakthrough and enter the Gluttony faction.

Internal factions cannot be taught. What room is there for teaching in eating, defecating, and sleeping?

Moreover, internal factions are closely related to inner desires, emotional changes, and personality traits. This knowledge cannot be conveyed through narration; it can only be “intuited but not explained.”

Sonia’s guess is not unreasonable. After all, eating and the Gluttony faction are almost inseparable. Many people believe that the reason why ogres have a talent for the Gluttony faction is because they eat humans.

“I also think that Ronat is eating for the sake of eating, but Igura has a different view – he thinks that in this ritual, eating is just a trivial step. The true core ritual is not about food, but about love.”

“Love?”

“Have you ever planted crops?”

If it were someone else, Sonia would definitely feel insulted.

The first insult is doubting that a beautiful young female sorcerer like herself has ever planted crops.

The second insult is questioning that a village girl from an agricultural town like herself has never planted crops!

“…You continue, I can understand.”

“Igura believes that Ronat is planting crops. He is planting the seed of love in his target’s heart, and through the most bloody intimate contact – eating – he allows the seed of love to quickly take root and sprout, equivalent to the process of fertilization and cultivation.”

“Although Ronald is unwilling to admit it, he has gradually lost interest in everything else. The only thing that ignites his desire is participating in Ronat’s ritual. Even if Ronat suddenly changes his menu, Ronald would probably still voluntarily write his name on it.”

Just listening to Sonia, it felt a bit chaotic. “So, what will Ronat harvest when the seed of love sprouts and matures? Souls?”

“Igura also couldn’t guess. It should be related to souls, but not just souls.” Asho said, “But that’s their business – we just need to confirm that Ronat and Ronald have an inseparable bond, and that’s where we can use it.”

“So, as long as you convince Ronald, it’s like having Ronat as a teammate.” Sonia reminded, “But both of them are ruthless criminals. Are you sure there won’t be any problems?”

Unlike Igura, who has no combat ability, Ronald is the golden mouth of the Woodpecker Gang, skilled in traps, firearms, and assassination techniques. Ronat is even more terrifying, being a werewolf, and is considered a high-level combatant even among the Second Wing sorcerers.

Compared to them, Asho and Igura are like two little lambs that can only bleat.

Once they lose the protection of the prison, facing these two fully-fledged criminals, Asho and Igura will have a hard time.

“The prison is not a talent market. I don’t have many choices.” Asho said helplessly, “Finding two capable people who are willing to escape is already considered lucky. I can’t expect their character, I can only hope that the rehabilitation in Lake Shattered Prison is successful.”

Ironically, Asho hopes that the prison’s rehabilitation is not too successful, so that he can find cellmates who dare to escape together. But at the same time, he hopes that the prison’s rehabilitation is very successful, turning those who dare to escape into great contributors to society.

“But in reality, I don’t have to worry about it. When it comes to safety, Igura cares more than I do.”Asho stretched his legs on the small boat. “He had already hinted to Ronat and heightened his sense of crisis… It’s not considered deception, just making Ronat aware that as long as he doesn’t kill Lana, his desire to be devoured by Lana will never disappear.”

Sonia kicked Asho’s legs back. “So they will end up killing each other once they escape?”

“Kill each other? I think it’s more than that. If possible, Igura will definitely make them attract the attention of the Falconer’s hunting hall, and then he will take the opportunity to escape.” Asho smiled bitterly. “And he still holds one of my wishes in his hands, and I haven’t figured out how to deal with it yet.”

Although the wish cannot be too excessive, it must be a request that the other party can fulfill and will not trigger instinctive resistance, such as a request for “suicide,” which is an unreasonable request that goes against instinct.

Therefore, Asho only asked Igura to “help him” escape, rather than asking Igura to “let him” escape. The latter request is invalid.

But even so, Igura can still make Asho unable to escape. For example, when escaping, he would ask Asho to “hold them back” for a while, and Asho cannot refuse such a reasonable request.

Even if hundreds of Bloodthirsty Hunters come rushing towards them, he must turn around and surround them for a while, showing the posture of “holding them back” in order to continue the escape.

“So what are you going to do? And do you have a plan after escaping?”

“I probably do. First, I’ll find the enemy of this body, a elf professor named Xilin. I’ll see if I can get revenge. If I can’t, I’ll steal some money from him and then find a way to survive.”

“Isn’t that just taking it step by step? Aren’t you afraid that it’s more dangerous outside than in prison? After all, you were at least safe in prison.”

“This is called using the strategy of taking long-term benefits in the field of adventure, using the analysis of detachment and transmission as a starting point to empower life, and considering resource allocation in the logic of escape…”

“Say something that a child can understand.”

“It means that I have chosen my own path, and even if it’s difficult, I am willing to accept it.” Asho said leisurely. “Regret is something future me needs to consider. Right now, I just need to think about how not to regret. You don’t want to see me crying all day because I was locked up in prison, do you?”

“You might as well perform for me. I love seeing people crying uncontrollably, especially when their faces are covered in snot.”

“Besides,” Asho sat up, “I still have you.”

“I can’t help you.” Sonia rolled her eyes.

Asho said, “Because of the bond between us, the stronger you become, the stronger I become. So if you don’t want to explore the Virtual Realm alone in the future, you should increase your training consciously and not always leave on time. Don’t live such a comfortable life at such a young age. Be brave and step out of your comfort zone!”

“When you say that, I feel like being lazy. Ah, I just don’t want to train, I just want to play.” Sonia muttered, sitting up and stretching lazily. “Is your Artificing power fully restored?”

“It’s almost restored.”

They had just encountered a growing Mire Dragon, and almost exhausted their Artificing power to barely drive it away, so they had to rest on the small boat. During times like this, they often shared their daily lives.

To be honest, they had quite a lot of resting time because after condensing more than half of the Silver Wings, both the inheritance island and the strength of the knowledge creatures had increased significantly. The most common situation was that the knowledge creatures would exhaust their Artificing power and run away.

Asho suspected that the knowledge creatures were deliberately draining them.

But Sword Girl said it was normal. They couldn’t instantly kill the knowledge creatures, nor did they have any control miracles like stunning. They were not faster either, making it difficult to catch the knowledge creatures.

This was the dilemma of most Silver Sorcerers—they often excelled in one aspect, and could still cooperate in teams in reality, but in the Virtual Realm, their shortcomings in one aspect would cause serious tactical flaws.

This situation often had to wait until they reached the two-winged Gold or even the three-winged Holy Domain for the Sorcerers to perfect their Artificing system. But by then, they would also face new challenges in the Virtual Realm.

Asho opened the Virtual Realm map, but there was nothing interesting. The surrounding 24 grid areas were all “wasted effort” zones with no rewards. In such situations, they could only randomly choose a direction and rely on luck—

“Ah!?”

Sonia was puzzled. “What’s wrong with you—”

Asho instantly covered Sonia’s mouth with his hand and put his index finger on his lips.

Sonia blinked and immediately understood. She asked in a low voice, “Is there a Sorcerer nearby?”

Asho nodded and turned to look at the sea area shrouded in white mist.

In the Virtual Realm map, a yellow marker identical to Asho and Sonia suddenly appeared in the adjacent area!

…

Ten meters away from the small boat, in the white mist, a small Truth Gate appeared in space, and a figure fell out from it.

When she was about to touch the seawater, she suddenly burst into smoke and turned into a small bat, flapping its wings and flying forward.ps: I feel like 7000 is somewhat achievable, so I’ll go ahead and update with Chapter 6. Whether we can have eight or ten updates today depends on you all!

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