Mage Manual-Chapter 601 - 486 Seven-Colored Tail Secret Poison

Ash glanced at his new Blessing, his expression becoming somewhat complex.

"Silver Blessing, Observer’s Appearance: Your appearance is deceptive, and unless you act abnormally, others will subconsciously overlook your existence. In the Void Realm, this Blessing is enhanced, and unless there are intimate bonds, others cannot clearly see your visage."

"Golden Blessing, Listener’s Lament: Your existence is misleading, and unless you actively seek a difficult death, others’ hostility towards you will decrease one level. In the Void Realm, this Blessing is enhanced, and unless there are intimate bonds, others will find it difficult to harbor killing intent towards you."

Blessings given by the Void Realm to Ash were never about direct enhancement.

The Silver Blessing, "Observer’s Appearance," had proven its worth multiple times in the Kingdom of Blood Moon in jailbreaks, assassinating Professor Selin, and disguising as an adventurer. Ash had thought that after leaving the Kingdom of Blood Moon, it would be hard to find a use for this Blessing, but less than ten days after arriving in the Kingdom of Gospel, he became a fugitive. These days, it was the all-covering cloak and the Silver Blessing that prevented him from being knocked out and delivered to the Red Hat for a bounty.

If this Blessing could talk, it would surely ask Ash, "Do you really not plan to live a few days of peace?"

And without a doubt, the "Listener’s Lament" was more practical, bearing some resemblance to the Spider Tower troops’ characteristic [Concealment]. However, [Concealment] worked as ’if other friendly units are nearby, you will not be attacked,’ or essentially ’you must attack the taunting minion first.’ But the mechanism of the "Listener’s Lament" was ’enemies lower their attack priority against you,’ meaning Ash would still get hit, but a deadly hit turns into a serious injury, a serious injury into a minor one, a minor injury into a beating, and a beating into a scolding, a scolding into forbearance.

This Blessing sounded powerful, almost as if as long as Ash didn’t destroy worlds or bring calamity upon entire races, no one would want to kill him. However, Ash keenly noticed a loophole: hostility is a subjective emotion.

If there were objective conflicts of interest, this Golden Blessing wouldn’t save him.

Like when Ash was previously wanted, pursued by Cleris and other Red Hats. In fact, Cleris bore no hostility towards him, but capturing Ash could promote her career, so the Crying Red Hat would definitely strike him hard.

Despite the loopholes, this Blessing was still very practical; after all, people are emotional creatures, and purely rational, emotionless beings simply do not exist. With this Blessing, Ash could virtually do as he pleased.

However, Ash strongly questioned the notion of being ’enhanced in the Void Realm’—without intimate bonds, one cannot develop killing intent, but conversely, if there are intimate bonds, they could punish Ash unreservedly!

What kind of enhancement was that!

In the Void Realm, Ash would only act alongside Operators, and increasing bonds with the Operators was inevitable unless there emerged an Operator with deep-seated hatred towards Ash, or unless the Sword Witch attempted a rebellion against the tyranny of the Observer. Otherwise, the Golden Blessing would be utterly useless in the Void Realm!

Therefore, Ash concealed this characteristic of the Blessing after its enhancement in the Void Realm and only shared the first half with them. Sonia said, "Although it doesn’t directly increase combat power, it’s a permanent passive Miracle as practical as mine and the Witch’s Blessings. And for you... the Void Realm is indeed taking care of you."

Ash clasped his hands together, "Grateful to Mother Void Realm."

In a few days, he was to infiltrate the Imperial Palace for the ’assassinate the Princess’ plan. This Blessing was like timely help, a beam of warmth in the midst of a snowstorm. If exposed and needing to flee, it was unlikely that enemy attacks would even graze his body.

However, both the Silver Blessing and the Golden Blessing were life-saving skills, making Ash feel that the Void Realm’s perception of him was slightly off—he was clearly a common man yearning for peaceful days, his only desire being to upgrade his Substitute Technique Spirit so it could earn money to support him and Liss. How had he ended up living like a cataclysmic harbinger of disaster?

But Ash was still confident about himself: none of this was his fault. In the Kingdom of Blood Moon, it was because Heath hadn’t cleaned up his own mess, leaving him with the ’Cult Leader’ storyline. In the Kingdom of Gospel, he was smeared by Eternal Damnation, forcing him to embark on the ’Eternal Damnation Walker’ storyline; anyway, he was always the victim.

Right, he’d go back and talk to Hanna, and if there was still Wish Capacity, he’d wish to remove the curse of Eternal Damnation... But even if it wasn’t removed, once the Weaving Festival ended, once his Contract with Hanna ended, he would stay in a safe place with Liss and never adventure again.

However, thinking that nearly half of the time on his Contract with Hanna was still remaining, Ash instantly lost confidence in his resolute willpower. After all, although Ash was reproductively isolated from most species in the Kingdom of Gospel, like the elf sisters Qinna and Nona, Hanna happened to be purely human...

Ash shook his head to clear the delightful thoughts from his mind, and asked, "You must have already felt the new Secret Poison, haven’t you?"

As they climbed out of the Flowing Gold River, standing on the White Bull admiring the Seven-colored Tail they had created, a piece of hidden knowledge quietly emerged in their minds.

"Seven-Colored Tail Secret Poison"

"Number of people infected by the Secret Poison: 9"

"Secret Poison enhancement level: 9%"

"Current effects of the Secret Poison: (1) You can convert Golden Technique Power into Seven-colored Magic Power at a ratio of 59:41; (2) When using Seven-colored Magic Power to command Technique Spirits below Three-winged, they can perform at a level equivalent to Three-winged; (3) While carrying this Secret Poison, all your Seven-colored Magic Power is transformed into Seven-colored Magic Power, and using Seven-colored Magic Power to command Three-winged Technique Spirits reduces Magic Power consumption by 10%. (Enhancement level reaching 11% will reduce the benefits)."

The Secret Poison has three effects!

The first effect was similar to that of the Golden Fish Poison, which transformed silver magic power into golden magic power, while the Seven-colored Tail transformed golden magic power into phantasmal magic power. Whenever Ash and his comrades wished, they could add up all the silver and golden bars to the phantasmal bars.

The second effect was impressive, using phantasmal magic power to drive Two-winged and One-winged Technique Spirits could unleash the effect of a Three-winged Technique Spirit, disregarding the original tier of the Technique Spirit! It was like offering your subordinate a salary of fifty thousand a month, and then the subordinate performed at that level, even if they were just a fresh graduate!

This meant that even though Ash and his comrades had not yet mastered the Holy Domain, nor did they possess a single Three-winged Technique Spirit, their combat power had already far exceeded that of a Two-winged Mage, reaching the level of a Three-winged Mage!

Before they could upgrade all their Technique Spirits to the Three-winged level, the second effect would bring them great benefits.

However, the third effect left Ash and Diya somewhat baffled.

The only literate Miss Sonia explained, "The magic power of a normal Holy Sanctuary Mage is Seven-colored Magic Power, not phantasmal magic power. Phantasmal magic power is probably an enhanced version of Seven-colored Magic Power."

Ash thought of Banjee’s Frost Magic Power and Harvey’s Necromancy, immediately agreeing with that explanation. He regretfully said, "If the number of people infected by the Golden Fish Poison had been less than ten, we might have also obtained an enhanced version of golden magic power, but now that chance is gone forever."

Although phantasmal magic power could not directly enhance the effects of a Three-winged Technique Spirit, its utility was incredibly high as it could work on any Technique Spirit of any faction.

Even without considering advancing to the Holy Domain, just these few effects of the Secret Poison made Ash and the others feel that the arduous search for the Seven-colored Tail was absolutely worth it—it truly was an immense amplification Secret Poison considering less than ten people were infected!

"The number of infected is nine people..." Diya blinked, "We are three people, which means there are six others who know about this Secret Poison..."

For them, who had just escaped the Time Continent, the number six was filled with a terrifyingly magical force. Thinking that aside from them, those who knew this Secret Poison could be those supreme beings, even Ash felt a bit fearful.

For example, knowing more secrets about the person you like means you are getting closer to her, which would excite you; but knowing more secrets about a serial killer feels as though she is getting closer to you as well, and that would cause a fear and repulsion towards the twisted to arise within you.

Compared to the Divine Lord, a serial killer seemed as innocuous as a mere katydid.

Unable to dwell on this thought any longer, Ash stood up and said, "Let’s explore this place while we still have time... By the way, Sword Maiden, the Distant Realm doesn’t also have a ’Static Domain’ mechanism where if you don’t run, you die, right?"

Sonia shook her head, "No."

The trio walked out of the alley; the street was bustling with people, the city grounds were clean and tidy, and the buildings somewhat old. The sky was bright but the neon lights in the shops were all on, and even the vehicles on the roads had their lights on, probably because the timeframe of this dream was actually nighttime, but the Distant Realm always appeared as daytime.

Though not densely populated, Ash and his comrades could easily spot the doorframes that perhaps clung to the walls or stood out on the ceilings—very conspicuous as if afraid the Mages wouldn’t see them. There was no doubt these were the Space Gates leading to other dreams.

No pedestrians paid attention to Ash’s trio, the passers-by merely walked around them. Ash glanced at the blonde little girl still hiding behind and observing them and asked, "How do we explore dreams?"

"In dreams, there are also Mage projections, sentient knowledge beings, just hidden," Sonia explained, "And some dreams are just pure dreams with nothing in them. But the dream itself is a resource."

"Each dream has a Dream Master, and if you can find and contact the Dream Master, the dream will dissipate, and the Mage can gain faction experience from the Dream Master. Although it isn’t as much as an Experience Treasure Orb, it adds up and is quite considerable. However, Dream Masters are very difficult to find, and they will avoid and hide from any Mages making movements."

Ash skeptically glanced at the little girl shrinking her head behind a large tree, deciding to reserve some doubt about the Sword Maiden’s statement, "So the way to explore is by finding the Dream Master?"

"Of course not," Sonia shook her head. "The way to explore the Distant Realm is completely different from the Sea of Knowledge or the Time Continent, and it’s very difficult to explain it to you with your intellect."

"Really?" Ash turned to Diya, "Witch, it seems like you’ll have to switch to the White Queen from now on."

"We just have different personalities. I’m as smart as the White Queen!"

"I wasn’t talking about your intelligence..."

"Don’t you think I know what you were trying to say!?"

"It’s actually not true," Sonia interrupted their banter. "The relevant books about the Distant Realm require certain permissions to view, and that’s all the information I have. Compared to this, have you not noticed that you are unable to return to reality?"

Ash and Diya were stunned, and in attempting to find their way back, they instantly panicked—the thread of consciousness that would take them back to reality was gone!

Stepping into the Void Realm felt like winding a rope around your waist and entering a labyrinth to explore, and now it was as if you were in the labyrinth, but the rope had disappeared!

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