The Sorcerer's Handbook

Chapter 159: New Profession, Socially Idle Individual

Species

- Human Male

Age

- 25

Bond Level

- ∞

Profession

- Socially Idle Individual

Profession Trait

- Spirits eat less; feeding costs reduced by 50%.

Innate Talent

- Sorcerer's Handbook (Intermediate): Records other Operators into the manual; Experience gained by other operators is shared proportionally based on bond level with this character. Current pages unlocked: 1/2 (additional talent slots unlock with power upgrades).

Personal Skill

- Displaced Soul (Effect Unknown)

- Silver Blessing · Watcher's Countenance: Your appearance is deceptive. Unless you behave unusually, others will subconsciously overlook your presence. Within the Virtual World, this effect is amplified. Without a close bond, others cannot perceive your face clearly.

Owned Items

- Honeyed Tongue Sword, Virtual World Telescope, Alchemist's Refining Flask

Controlled Spirits

- Swordheart, Substitute, Flow, Earth Sword, Wind Barrier...

Sword Class

- Silver

Light Class

- Silver

Water Class

- Silver

Mind Class

- Silver

Virtual World Exploration

- 1.022%

Knowledge Curse

- Whirlpool Poison, Exile Secret Poison, Golden Fish Secret Poison.

Ashe sat in Syrin's seat. Staring at the floating text, he lost himself in thought.

Without the chip, he couldn't summon the light screen. Thankfully, the Aurora Sorcerer's Handbook wasn't linked to it, but bound directly to him. He could still open the handbook interface. It was just that the resolution had dropped from 4K ultra-clear to a rough 360p. Apart from the Swordwoman's portrait now looking slightly cartoonish rather than purely alluring, everything else functioned normally.

Ashe didn't feel any effect from Syrin's Ritual Class Miracle. After he opened his own operator profile, it took him quite a while to finally spot the differences. His profession had changed from Cult Leader / Ancient Historian to Socially Idle Individual.

The game hadn't issued any notification, and Ashe hadn't been tracking his stats closely. With the Swordwoman's portrait looking so cartoonish, he hadn't even opened the interface these past few days, let alone checked his operator profile.

He couldn't be sure whether this change was a result of Syrin's Miracle or a consequence of his escape. After all, going from a government position with free lodging and meals to a socially idle individual made sense once he broke out of prison.

Still, compared to the old Cult Leader / Ancient Historian perks—+10 luck checks and +5 to Ancient Artifact Identification—the new profession trait was far more practical. His spirits now required only half the usual feeding. It was as if the spirits themselves knew Ashe had lost his steady job and, in response, required less maintenance.

Ashe closed the game panel and opened his personal history file.

It was Syrin's compilation of the Ashe Heath Profile, documenting every aspect of his life. It contained records of his awards from foster care, middle school, and university, details of his part-time jobs, and impressions from his friends. There were photos from every stage of his life, and even his browsing history on the Curtain. Every detail had been meticulously recorded and organized in a clear, readable format. In just moments, Ashe was able to trace the trajectory of Heath's life.

Deemed elite at birth, Heath was sent to a city-level model foster home. He ranked 36th in middle school exams and entered the History Department under the Time Studies program at Caimon General University. After graduating, he immediately began entrepreneurial missionary work modeled on multi-level marketing.

He had no records of eating candy or gambling, never visited a cafe or tea shop, never worked part-time at the mud cafe, and hadn't even voted in the Blood Moon Tribunal.

Outside of his apartment and school, Heath's favorite spot was the convenience store downstairs. Beyond the usual necessities, most of his purchases were books with titles familiar to Ashe, such as The Crowd, How to Trigger a Virtual World Turbulence, and Criminal Law. Friends described Heath as low-key and unremarkable, polite but dull in conversation, and highly capable yet socially awkward.

One detail, however, unsettled Ashe. Heath's Curtain browsing history was limited to politics, history, military, sorcery, religion, and racial studies. It contained no sexual content whatsoever. No pornography, no erotic novels or images, not even pictures of human women. Even depictions of male-orc mating with ogres were absent.

The only remotely sexual reference came from rumors of the female orc military corps, the Queen's Flowers, said to hunt and reproduce by dismembering captured males during mating season. They were extraordinarily powerful and terrifyingly cruel. But female orcs? Ashe doubted Heath had any unusual fascination with them either.

In short, a perfectly healthy twenty-five-year-old man had never engaged in anything sexual and had never once made any effort to satisfy his own desires. That alone was enough to prove he was far from normal.

Yet the profile revealed no unusual encounters either. Heath's rise to entrepreneurial talent seemed almost instantaneous. There was no record of how he obtained information about the Four Pillars Cult. Ashe had assumed Professor Syrin was the mastermind behind it, the one who had passed that knowledge to Heath. But Syrin's devotion lay entirely with the Blood Moon. This clearly wasn't the elf's doing.

"Hmm?" Ashe noticed an entry marked in red. It was Heath's leave request from eight years ago. Back then, Heath was still in middle school and had taken half a month off for self-study. During that time, he hadn't been seen anywhere.

Eight years ago? Doesn't that make him only seventeen?

Iger had once mentioned that, eight years earlier, Syrin had taken part in an archaeological excavation that unearthed several ritual texts of the Four Pillars Cult. However, later that same year, a Virtual World Turbulence struck the site, and most of the findings were lost.

Ashe had assumed that this time, after exacting his revenge, he could finally unravel Heath's mysteries. Instead, Heath was like a nested doll. Each layer he uncovered revealed even more surprises.

He also considered another possibility that Syrin was telling the truth, but only to mislead the Heresy Court. After all, memory alteration was possible in this world. Knowing that Heath could betray him at any moment, Syrin might have edited his own memories, pinned all the responsibility on Heath, and presented himself as a devout follower of the Blood Moon. It was a scenario that was both plausible and likely.

Much remained shrouded in mystery, but Ashe decided to temporarily set aside his investigation into Heath's background. As Heath's number-one critic and most devoted secret fan, Syrin's collected records were likely the most comprehensive and accurate available. As far as Ashe could tell, this was the total of Heath's life in the real world.

If Heath had any hidden encounters, they would exist either in dreams or... in the Virtual World.

Ashe was already on the verge of leaving the Blood Moon Kingdom. No matter how complicated Heath's past might be, it would ultimately remain someone else's story. Yet he couldn't shake a premonition that even after leaving, Heath's history would continue to shadow him. Like a gun introduced early in a detective story, it was bound to fire eventually. Heath had invested too much effort. He couldn't have intended simply to send Ashe off to enjoy comfort in Shattered Lake Prison.

Four Pillars Deities, Heath, Sense, the rituals... Ashe noted every detail in his notebook. If he didn't encounter anyone connected, so be it; but should he meet them in the Virtual World, he wouldn't hesitate to unleash the Swordswoman.

Next came the loot. Ashe rummaged through every box and drawer, finding four Gold Coins, five Silver Coins, a pile of luxury items that could likely be exchanged for cash, and five spirit cocoons.

Here, the disruption of traditional offline robbery by a credit-based currency system became evident. Physical coins were still in use, but most people had grown accustomed to chip payments, carrying only minimal cash for emergencies.

Syrin's total wealth was likely measured in tens of thousands of Gold Coins, but he carried only a few for feeding his spirits. Compared to these coins, Syrin's luminous wristwatch was probably worth far more.

Of the five cocoons, three contained Two-Winged spirits, one a One-Winged spirit, and one a Three-Winged spirit. Normally, this would be an exceptional haul, but Ashe felt no joy. Every cocoon had a chastity lock.

Sorcerers, for trade and other purposes, developed multiple ways to seal spirits. The most common was the Glowing Orb, which put a spirit into stasis and reduced feeding frequency by 70%. This allowed sorcerers with surplus spirits to minimize maintenance costs.

The downside, however, was severe. Glowing Orbs had no defense mechanism. If broken, the spirit could escape, and anyone who obtained the orb could control the unbound spirit. A spirit inside an orb was like money in a bank, always at risk.

The cocoons before Ashe represented a more advanced sealing method. Spirits inside stopped all activity and required no feeding. Crucially, each was secured with three rotating combination locks. Only the correct code, combined with mana, could dissolve the cocoon.

Entering the wrong code automatically locked the cocoon. Only the original sorcerer who cast the seal could unlock it. This was reportedly a Miracle at the level of the Three-Winged Sacred Realm, making it nearly impossible for a Two-Winged sorcerer to forcefully break. Even if they tried, the cocoon might self-destruct along with the spirit.

Some might wonder why such a high-level Miracle was necessary merely to seal spirits. In a stable civilization, spirits were not only tools. They also held potential as luxury items.

The One-Winged spirit in the cocoon was clearly a luxury item. Known as the Reverse Moon spirit, it had the appearance of a cicada with emerald-green wings and a golden glow.

Reverse Moon spirits were consumable and vanished upon use. Their effect was straightforward. They could roll back a target's physical state to one month prior. When used on an elderly sorcerer, the body would revert to its condition from a month ago, while mana, memories, and spirit remained unchanged. It effectively granted the sorcerer an extra month of life.

Unlike the Reverse Day Spirit, which served for emergency healing, Reverse Moon and Reverse Year spirits were harmless longevity tools, highly sought after and extremely valuable. Ashe had heard the Swordwoman casually remark, "Picking up trash on the Continent of Time can actually make you rich."

This particular Reverse Moon spirit was clearly stored as a gift. The other cocoons seemed intended for similar purposes. One even contained a rare Two-Winged Sword Class spirit. After brief consideration, Ashe made a decision contrary to the Swordwoman's advice.

[Recharge successful! You gained 8 points.]

[Recharge successful! You gained 20 points.] ×3

[Recharge successful! You gained 40 points.]

The cocoons were far too large to carry. Even if he could, Ashe had no way to dissolve them. Naturally, feeding them all to the greedy system was the best choice. Still...

Forty points for a Three-Winged spirit? As expected of that stingy Aurora.

After another round of searching yielded no new valuables, Ashe turned his attention to the materials Syrin had left behind. In planning the hunt for Ashe Heath, Syrin had tried to predict every escape route and close every potential loophole. In effect, he had crafted the most viable escape path for Ashe.

Ashe quickly found what he was looking for.

[Report on Observation Point #49 in the Virtual Channel (Top Secret)]

April 21, 1668, 13:11—Observed water surge; passage led to an underground river. Abandoned.

[Report on Observation Point #53 in the Virtual Channel (Top Secret)]

April 30, 1668, 17:36—The rabbit returned; the passage led to uninhabited wilderness. Safe for the hunting festival.