Mage Manual-Chapter 553 - 448: The Witch’s Golden Fish

June 10, the middle layer of Nabistin, Belladette Joy World.

"Wow, Ash, look, from up here Azura looks just like a blooming flower!"

"Huh? This Mist Bell Tower in Vatican Mura, these carvings, this construction, this appearance... it’s definitely the work of a Necromancer, maybe even built by that legendary Necromancer from the Six Emblems."

"I actually had some expectations for your taste just now, Harvey, that was my mistake."

"Has Helaphis become this beautiful? The last time I visited was thirty years ago..."

"Miss, you don’t have to grip me so tightly! Are you afraid of heights?"

"Me, afraid of heights? And it’s just an illusion created by an Illusionist, how could I possibly... Ah! Don’t push me out! Bastard!"

When "Leap of Faith" ended, Hanna furiously pounded on Ash’s shoulder, "You dared to scare me just now!?"

Ash couldn’t help but laugh, "Didn’t you used to live hundreds of meters above the ground in an inverted building? And you usually drive straight through the air in a Floating Car, how can you still be afraid of heights?"

Hanna furiously punched Ash’s arm repeatedly, "It’s not the same, those times I knew I was safe, but this illusion removed the cable cars, and we were flying directly over the city. I haven’t specially practiced Void Wings flying, of course I felt a bit uneasy!"

"Ash!"

At that moment, ’Liss’ came over and took Ash’s hand, "Let’s rush to the next attraction! Our reservation is almost up!"

"Alright, alright..."

Although they were wearing cloaks to conceal their identities, the funeral procession naturally blended in because the other visitors also wore a variety of distinct attire, having just brushed past ’Extreme Cutting Carp Dominator’ and ’Red Hat Bunny Girl’ who were much more eye-catching than them.

They even saw someone dressed as ’Ash Heath,’ making it so that even if Ash didn’t bother with a disguise, no one would believe he was the real deal.

Searching for the mermaid was the matter of the night before last; just yesterday, because Helaphis drowned in the square due to dehydration, they had to change hostels. Then suddenly, Hanna turned merciful, suggesting they relax before attempting to assassinate the Princess by going for a team-building trip to play at Nabistin’s middle layer Belladette Joy World.

Indeed, an underground city like Nabistin does have entertainment venues, even more so than a typical city—after all, its lower and middle layers used to be Imperial City, and the location of this Joy World was originally an old Imperial Palace—and many of the city’s transient population belonged to ’N drifters’ with intense emotional needs, desperately needing various types of entertainment to fill their empty spirits.

It’s worth mentioning that the city with the least entertainment facilities is Vatican Mura, because the physiological desires of the Six Emblems’ people are satisfied by the mist, and their spiritual needs are fulfilled by family dreams, making Vatican Mura a place with greater output than consumption, it even could be said to unilaterally dump on other regions—Qinna’s wealth is not without reason.

Perhaps some might wonder how the underground city seemed so peaceful, as just the name ’underground city’ seems to evoke an aura of freedom and gunpowder, even Ash thought it was an extremely chaotic slum before arriving, expecting fresh blood to feed the fattening thrall daily.

Although there were no Red Hats in the underground city, due to the surveillance and control by various consortium families, it had long established a certain order, and because it wasn’t regulated by law, it was even more prosperous than many above-ground cities.

The primary difference between the underground city and the surface city was that Combat Mages in this locale had the highest-earning T0 Profession—because all conflicts of interest in the underground city were resolved by direct "Magic Blood Battles." The decision-making group in the lower layers of Nabistin, mentioned by the mermaid, was an organization responsible for hosting "Magic Blood Battles."

As the only unrestricted, bloody competition in the entire Gospel, most Combat Mages participated in "Magic Blood Battles" to gain combat experience. It could even be said that all the young members listed on the combat faction’s leaderboard had once been ’underground drifters.’

Hanna’s familiarity with the underground city came from spending three months fighting blood battles there.

However, the story of the underground city had nothing to do with Ash and the others; they were just there to enjoy the amusement park and then head to the surface city to assassinate the Princess.

Clearly, the team-building proposal was entirely for the sake of accommodating Liss. But among the Liss sisters, aside from the Little Witch who had a psychological age of a child, the other sisters were far beyond the psychological age of children, with the oldest almost 25, thus their interest in Joy World...

...was absolutely irresistible!

’Liss,’ full of excitement, pulled Ash to the entrance of the "Void Realm of Terror." The staff had just opened the entrance and since they had already made reservations in the Gospel Book, they could go straight in and sit in the exploration boat, and even managed to get the front seats!

"This attraction is very thrilling and exciting, children need to be accompanied closely by a guardian, so Ash, you have to hold my hand tight; this ride might splash water, please take waterproof precautions, no worries we are wearing cloaks; this project..."

Ash watched the chattering ’Liss’ and followed her instructions to grasp her small hand, wondering if Liss really liked amusement parks this much, that even her personality seemed to change.

Not to mention, his title changed several times. Upon entering the park, it was ’Dad,’ then ’Ashu,’ just now it was ’Ash,’ and now it’s ’Little Ash’... Ash felt like he needed to discuss with Hanna later that if Liss ever called him ’Ash kid,’ he would need her help to spank Liss until she blossomed.

Moreover, titles aside, what’s more significant was the changing attitude of Liss towards him, sometimes as a little girl, sometimes as a young woman, now maturing as if she was the guardian of Ash.

A little girl’s temperament really changes like flowers by the hour...

The exploration boat suddenly started moving, passing through a brief tunnel, and then arriving at a channel in the Sea of Knowledge shrouded in dense mist. Just as Ash was trying to find the boundaries, suddenly, a dozen ferocious Fish-Slicing Dragons burst out from the mist. He instinctively reached into his mouth, almost ready to draw out his ’sweet words and a hidden dagger.’

However, the swarm of Fish-Slicing Dragons merely soared over their exploration boat, splashing countless water droplets. Before the passengers could look back, a small island appeared up ahead. The Fox Lamp Dragon on the island summoned Fox Fire flames for a long-range attack. As the flames chased them, the speed of the exploration boat surged, and Ash and the others instinctively tensed up, as if truly fearful that the Fox Lamp Dragon’s flames might burn up the boat.

Mages’ projections, mud fish dragons, arrow fish dragons, and other common entities of the Sea of Knowledge also made their appearances, even including classics like the paths Ash had never seen—"Great Road," "Sea Waterfall," and "Sky Bubble."

Even though they were already Two-winged Mages who had left the Sea of Knowledge, they still found their eyes wide open in amazement as if players who had reached the main city’s map turned around to find so many unexplored mysteries in Newbie Village.

As they continued their journey in flight, countless knowledge creatures chased after them from behind. Just as they were about to be caught, the exploration ship suddenly capsized and fell into the sea, startling everyone, including Liss who tightened her grip on Ash’s hands.

Then they realized that this was emulating the journey of the "Vortex," where the ship was quickly freed from the "Vortex" tunnel back to the surface.

Just when the passengers thought the ride was about to end, suddenly their seats each extended a pair of Silver Wings, and then the surrounding environment started to fall rapidly—it seemed as though they were fluttering Void Wings and rising quickly!

"Can flying upward take us to the Time Continent?" Igula laughed from behind. "The designer of this attraction really had some interesting ideas."

"Even a Silver Mage with a flying Technique Spirit couldn’t fly this long," Harvey commented. "Unless they had a pair of Void Wings."

"A Silver Mage wouldn’t possibly have a pair of Void Wings," Banjee added. "If they did, they wouldn’t be Silver Mages anymore."

"If two Silver-Winged Mages who have fully condensed their magic meet in the Void Realm, maybe that condition could be met," Hanna noted. "Two mages holding hands while flapping the Void Wings... sounds like something straight out of a fairy tale."

While the passengers were marveling at the ingenious idea of this segment, only the two siting in the very front row, big and small, were caught up in an overwhelming storm of emotions!

Ash had never imagined that someone would brazenly leak the Golden Fish Poison and even integrate it boldly into an amusement facility, as if fearing that others might not notice!

But life is such a marvel that even top Two-winged Mages like Hanna and Igula, despite the previous mechanics, creatures, and environment of the Sea of Knowledge being exactly like the real Void Realm, they couldn’t believe that this wildly imaginative flying segment was the actual method to find the golden fish!

In fact, Ash could understand them; after all, for Silver Mages, ’taking flight’ was an extremely difficult condition to meet. For such a nearly impossible goal, it wasn’t so much that they couldn’t believe it, as much as they chose not to believe it.

Wait, following this line of thought, the method to find the Seven-colored Tail should also be something completely unachievable by Two-winged Mages...

"Little Ash, come closer," Liss suddenly called. "Then close your eyes."

Ash did as told, then felt his face being quickly kissed four times.

"...are you really that happy?" Ash wiped his face and coughed a couple of times, "I’m glad, but let’s not do this outside, it’s a bit embarrassing... and better not back home either, I’m not quite used to such affectionate expressions..."

"No, this was just something I owed before, and now I’m making up for it," Liss explained.

"Ah? When did I owe this?"

"Well, little Ash, you just did," Liss said, her eyes rippling as she glanced at him, then looked down at the hand mirror to see her other four sisters.

Little Witch: "Aaaaah, Big Sis White, give me back my body, I really want to play in the Illusion Realm!"

White Queen: "The Golden Fish Poison is indeed real."

Black Butler: "It was like this before, wasn’t it? The Observer and the Sword Maiden holding hands and flying in the Sea of Knowledge where they discovered the golden fish."

Red Death Cultist: "I have never doubted the authenticity of the Golden Fish Poison."

Secret Princess: "Back then, it wasn’t so much that we didn’t believe in the Golden Fish Poison, as much as we didn’t believe that there were two mages in the world who trusted each other enough to become each others’ wings and leave the lonely sea together..."

"But now..."

Liss looked at Ash, her small hand turning to hold his hand. Ash glanced at her, relaxed his hand, and let her squeeze it.

"We’ve also found the golden fish."

Suddenly, a stream of information flowed into the witches’ minds.

"Golden Fish Poison"

"Number of infections: 15"

"Poison enhancement level: 15%"

"Current effect of the poison: You can convert silver Magic Power into Golden Technique Power, conversion ratio 65:35. (Enhancement decreased to 10% gives a great benefit, reaching 51% turns into adverse effects)."

The poison that the Observer Sword Maiden said a million times couldn’t be infected, the witches actually got infected in the entertainment facility of the Joy World!

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