In the end, Ashe used up one-third of the Swordheart Stones, while Sonya took the remaining two-thirds. Dia had wanted to prove she could handle her share as well, but unfortunately, Ashe possessed no Time or Fist and Claw spirits, leaving her with nothing to work with.

After all that, a large pile of stones was left, including Fire, Earth, Wind, and several other types. The group sorted through them and fed suitable pieces to their spirits. Ashe's Earth Sword consumed Earthshatter Stones, Wind Barrier took Windstrike Stones, Sonya's Killing Intent devoured Necro Stones, and Dia's Threads Between Fingers consumed Feather Arrow Stones.

Just as sorcerers could have multiple secondary sorcery classes, spirits were also influenced by secondary attributes in addition to their primary ones. Ashe's Earth Sword was the best example. Its Sword and Earth Class traits were in roughly a seven-to-three ratio, meaning an Earthshatter Stone offered about a thirty percent catalytic effect.

Even after selecting and feeding what they could, about half a pile of the stones remained.

It was unlikely the trio could bring the stones back. Once a sorcerer returned to the real world, the next entry point on the Continent of Time was unpredictable, making it pointless to carry the stones along. That left them with only two choices: either consume them now or abandon them.

Sonya and Dia had already expected this outcome. Ashe, however, felt a faint sense of regret as he inspected the remaining stones.

Sonya urged. "Hurry and consume the rest. We need to keep chasing the White Ox."

Ashe nodded. "Alright."

Since he had voluntarily handed over the stones necessary for the Swordwoman and the Witch, they both agreed to let him take the remaining stones unrelated to their sorcery classes.

When Ashe summoned his Substitute spirit to consume one of the stones, the spirit visibly hesitated. The reaction resembled someone expecting sweet tofu pudding only to be forced to swallow a salty dish. Yet under the authority of its sorcerer, it had no choice but to comply.

Amused, Ashe reached for another stone. He ended up grabbing a dull, ordinary rock instead of one of the glittering stones.

At that moment, the game interface suddenly appeared.

[Detected upgrade resource required for Aurora's Self-Driving Car. Absorb now?] 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

***

In the Blood Moon Kingdom, inside apartment 302 of a 1940s-style building.

Freya was sitting quietly at her desk. The veela university student stared at the spirit hovering above her palm, lost in thought. "I didn't expect it to actually be this one..."

Her folded-ear cat, Little String, jumped onto the desk and cautiously tapped the spirit with its paw. To the cat's shock, the paw passed straight through it. Little String instantly stiffened, standing upright with wide eyes as it watched the glowing, unfamiliar object.

The spirit appeared as a long-haired girl playing a sonata. At first glance, it looked like a Sound Class spirit, and its essence was indeed closely tied to sound. Its name was Echo.

Echo was a rare spirit with both Mind and Sound Class attributes. It could use sound to scout its surroundings and even reconstruct traces of the past. By materializing sound residues, it could reveal who had touched an object or what events had occurred in a specific location, effectively replaying fragments of history.

Of course, the past was vast. As such, the spirit could only materialize things based on the sorcerer's knowledge, recreating scenes the sorcerer had personally witnessed.

Even so, the ability was extraordinary. With Echo alone, Freya could easily qualify for the Heresy Court. Not the combat-heavy Bloodrage division, but the far more comfortable and better-paid Crime Hunting Department.

The problem was that Freya had never intended to summon this spirit. How could she have expected something so rare? Her original goal had been the Suggestion spirit. Later, she felt it didn't suit her temperament and shifted toward Charm instead.

Information on the Mind Class was scarce in the Blood Moon Kingdom. Freya had pieced together a learning method through university research and volunteer work in psychological counseling, gradually raising her sorcery class rank step by step.

That night, after watching a film titled Mudflower, her emotions resonated with the Virtual World. The resonance triggered her first legacy capable of being taken into the tomb. That legacy was Echo.

A spirit could appear at any time once the sorcery class rank requirement was met, so summoning one was nothing unusual. Still, Freya knew she would remember for the rest of her life that watching films increased the chances of summoning spirits. She promised herself that she would watch many more films in the future and, eventually, record this discovery in her Sorcerer's Handbook after her death.

She had briefly come across information about Echo before, yet the summoning conditions remained unknown. She had never intended to summon it, yet somehow, it appeared.

A faint sense of unease crept into her mind.

Most new sorcerers would immediately test their spirits' abilities. That wasn't the case for Freya.

This was her home, where the room held only the traces of an evil man, a playful animal, a lovable presence, and herself with Little String.

Freya pulled back the curtains, allowing the great Blood Moon to flood the bedroom with a gentle crimson glow. She lay down and searched for the spirit's Door of Truth, preparing for her first journey into the Virtual World.

She had long built up the knowledge and been prepared for entering the Virtual World. The Blood Moon shone brilliantly that night, and the Blood Moon Protection strengthened her soul. It would reduce soul energy consumption while helping her recover inside the Virtual World.

The Door of Truth opened. Freya connected to the Virtual World and sank into the mist.

Contrary to the absurd rumors on Curtain and the idle chatter of university students, entering the Virtual World did not feel like being forced through a tube, nor like shedding bodily restraints. If Freya had to describe the sensation, she would call it something entirely different—it felt like being naked.

Freed from every constraint, yet still unmistakably herself. Just as nakedness was the best way to represent her true self to the world, entering the Virtual World meant confronting knowledge without barriers.

As expected, she fell into the sea. Despite her prior preparations, her instincts still stirred unease. Any land-dwelling creature would feel the same when suddenly plunged into seawater, unless they were fishman-type sorcerers.

Freya quickly regained control. She lightly moved her feet to steady herself and opened her eyes, confronting the unfamiliar world.

White mist, a dark sea, silence, and monotonous hues stretched endlessly around her, forming an inescapable prison. A weightless loneliness pressed down, yet for the residents of the Blood Moon Kingdom, this level of isolation was bearable. From the day they were born, they had been trained to endure solitude.

During her time as a mental health volunteer, Freya had seen sorcerers paralyzed by fear in the Virtual World. Most were humans, with a handful of goblins and orcs. She had never seen an ogre react this way. Ogre sorcerers were not only rare, but they could also simply consume Moon Candy to erase fear, requiring no counseling. When it came to mental or psychological ailments, Moon Candy was a universal cure.

Veela sorcerers, too, seldom needed guidance of any kind. Freya's people possessed a unique racial trait, allowing them to heal the mind through the release of desire, which made mental illness almost nonexistent among them.

Before entering the Virtual World, Freya had prepared herself mentally, bracing as one might before stepping into a freshly opened mud cafe, ready for every unfamiliar sight. Yet when she turned her head, something entirely out of place caught her eye.

It was a boat.

Freya froze. Her mind raced. Why is there a boat here?

Then she remembered that death in the Virtual World wasn't real. With caution, she climbed aboard to investigate.

There was nothing remarkable about it. It was just an ordinary boat, without oars, drifting alone on the Sea of Knowledge like a stray pet. She sat down, tilted her head back, and stared into the endless white mist. Slowly, the tension in her chest began to ease.

Then her body stiffened. From the deepest, long-forgotten corner of her memory, a gemstone emerged.

"Help! Help! A veela attacked me at night! I'm going to die..."

"Hey, if you don't want to die, hand over your Virtual World experience. I heard you need to swim in the Sea of Knowledge. Backstroke? Butterfly? Freestyle?"

"Huh? I've never swum in the Sea of Knowledge. I was on a boat."

"You could have lied, but no! How dare you try to fool me! There's no boat in the Sea of Knowledge! You forced me—"

"No, this is too unfair. I'm really going to die... Sword Barrier!"

Could it be?

Freya summoned her spirit, Echo, and stared at it. The spirit's tiny hairs bristled under her intense gaze. Only then did she activate it.

A pure, clear voice swept across the boat, shaping the air into tangible forms. Every place he had stood, sat, lain, or crouched appeared before her eyes, densely filling the space.

Freya deactivated Echo and studied the boat in silence. Then...

"Die!

"Die, die, die, die, die!

"I hate men like you who can't let go... ah!"

She kicked with too much force, tipping the boat. But it righted itself, like it had a built-in gyroscope, leaving Freya drenched in the water. She climbed back aboard, lay down, and stared blankly at the misty sky.

"I was supposed to stay in the water, and yet you had to row me up before leaving. I had finally prepared myself to stay in the sea... so why leave me this boat?

"A man as wicked as you should be locked in a basement, woken once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and three times at night. Still..."

Freya stretched and sat up. "There's no reason for a veela to refuse gifts from the opposite sex. Taking without giving back is our duty. Fine. I will accept this boat. The only question is... how do I use it without oars?"

She searched carefully. In a plank on the deck, she discovered a strand of hair. Pulling it triggered a mechanism, and a steering wheel rose from the center of the boat, giving her direct control. She glanced at the hair and guessed it must have come from her cat, Little String.

"Well then..." She grasped the wheel and steered through the thick white mist. "Just wait! You won't escape me!"