Mage Manual

Certainly, here is the translated text:

"73 Source Crystals, 232 points..."

In the Black Robe Town inn, Ash opened Aurora's Mage Manual and tallied his inventory. Source Crystals were accumulated through daily logins, while the points were obtained by channeling Technique Spirits into the game.

It is worth mentioning that after his rainbow Void Wings had formed halfway, a three-winged Technique Spirit could only be exchanged for 12 points, two-winged 5 points, and one-winged 2 points—Ash was rendered speechless. A three-winged Technique Spirit was only worth 12 points, equivalent to 2 Source Crystals, not even enough for a single draw.

However, Ash also understood this was the Mage's Handbook dynamically lowering his earning efficiency. After all, when he was still new, a one-winged Technique Spirit could exchange for 10 points. With Ash's current strength, acquiring hundreds of one-winged Technique Spirits would be a breeze. If the Mage's Handbook did not adjust the Technique Spirit exchange rates, Ash would have overloaded its in-app purchase system long ago.

In theory, he should have been able to save more points, given that despite the higher battle intensity in the Distant Realm, the rewards were also greater, with almost each night yielding two or three three-winged Technique Spirits.

More importantly, the Sword Maiden no longer required Technique Spirits to supplement her financial matters.

In fact, ever since the Witch joined the team, the Sword Maiden would only pick high-priced Technique Spirits to sell. After Weiser joined, she would not even deal with the high-priced Technique Spirits, only taking the ones she could personally use. Besides the fact that she was no longer short on money in reality, she also had to consider others' opinions.

How to say this, during their ambiguous dance, the Sword Maiden would hope for more care and resource allocation to gain safety, subtly hinting, 'Do you like me?'; but now they could occasionally find opportunities for an office romance, so the Sword Maiden naturally wanted to distance herself from Ash, letting everyone know 'I don't actually like him.'

Besides, mixing love with profit always feels weird.

Not that the Sword Maiden believes love must be pure and unsullied, but receiving a few Technique Spirits from Ash seemed like being kept by him, which felt too cheap—she felt she was losing out!

She's now a Holy Sanctuary Mage, a few Technique Spirits can't satisfy her appetite!

So, she might as well not take any, making it more justified when arguing with Ash in the future!

However, the group found that selling the Technique Spirits via the Sword Maiden was still the most fair and efficient way. The Witch didn't lack money, Ash and Weiser were in areas where transactions weren't very developed, but the Sword Maiden's Technique Spirit trading platform was extremely established, not just for selling to schools, but also for consigning at auction. A rare three-winged Technique Spirit, if auctioned over a few days, could fetch thousands of Gold Coins.

Ash didn't present it as a gift to the Sword Maiden but said, "You manage the team's assets. Once we find a way to trade in the Void Realm, we'll ask you for the money," so the Sword Maiden reluctantly took on this job, and would find time to report to him every night before exiting the Void Realm about 'how much money the team had saved, what steady investments we made, and what high-risk financial assets we invested our shares in.'

So, even though the Sword Maiden did not need Technique Spirits to supplement her household matters anymore, most Technique Spirits were still given to the Sword Maiden to plan for future financial matters.

However, after participating in the Ghost Legacy, their efficiency in acquiring Technique Spirits drastically dropped. The Ghost Legacy rarely awarded Technique Spirits, but when it did, they were usually soul spirits they could use, and would never be sold.

Ash himself actually had some Technique Spirit inventory, mostly types he could somewhat use. Naturally, these reserve Technique Spirits weren't fully fed, being given about one Gold Coin every three days to barely keep them alive.

He was even considering when to put these Technique Spirits into Aurora's Mage Manual to exchange for more points, but during this time, he sold all his extra Technique Spirits in Black Robe Town.

Not only him, but Igula, Harvey, Qikara, and Gwen, the mages, all sold whatever Technique Spirits they could.

The reason was simple: to stockpile Gold Coins.

Previously, when they were running rampant in the Wasteland, they had Mercury Wooden Horse's financial support, so they could treat money like dirt, feeding the Technique Spirits six meals of dirt every day. But now that they've fallout with Mercury Wooden Horse and haven't joined a new sect, they had to be self-reliant.

Although they had looted several warehouses of the Four Pillars God Sect before, their Space Cards had limited storage, while they also needed to store other survival supplies, so they only took away a little over ten thousand Gold Coins in total.

A three-winged Technique Spirit consumes 3 Gold Coins daily, 90 per month, and there were 14 three-winged Technique Spirits in the team, totaling a monthly consumption of 1260 coins, not to mention daily living needs—ten thousand coins would only last ten months!

As for the three-winged Technique Spirits, there were 4 for Ash, 2 for Igula, 2 for Harvey, 6 for Qikara!

Qikara, after all, had been advancing in the Holy Domain for nearly ten years with such a foundation, which was very normal, but that a slave had daily Gold Coin consumption more than the master made Igula want to sell off this Beastman's three-winged Technique Spirits altogether.

However, Qikara argued vigorously, claiming his Technique Spirits were top-notch, capable of casting multiple powerful Miracles such as offense, defense, healing, reconnaissance, and movement, thus having true value to retain.

But Igula consequently remembered Qikara's expertise as a Beastman, commanding him to manufacture Space artifacts.

The client (Igula) stated the need for three Space Rings with 10 cubic meters each, and the contractor (Qikara) claimed this was a massive workload, that even one month of nonstop work could only create one 5-cubic-meter ring. The client fully sympathized with the contractor's difficulties, generously extending the completion period to six months.

After discussion, it was agreed to promptly sell off excess Technique Spirits to stockpile as many Gold Coins as possible, and to reduce the daily intake of three-winged Technique Spirits from 3 Gold Coins to 2.

The consequence of underfeeding Technique Spirits was akin to humans not having enough to eat, with performance directly dropping by 50%. Should they remain unfed for long, the Technique Spirits won't die but will gradually consume the mage's soul, which is why condemned inmates at Shattered Lake Prison can still keep Technique Spirits alive.

Even though they could last ten months with the current amount of Gold Coins, the team still followed Igula's orders.

Because the belief war was far from over.

As the war continues, the already fragile economic system of the Wasteland will utterly collapse. First, Gold Coins need to be refined from gold mines, which are the primary contested resource points between the Qinri Alliance and the Four Pillars God Sect. When the fighting starts, the efficiency of gold mine production will naturally be affected.

More importantly, both the Four Pillars God Sect and the Qinri Alliance will tighten the circulation of Gold Coins!

Earlier, we talked about the difference between an unfed and a fed Technique Spirit, but there's another scenario—what if you give the Technique Spirit an extra meal?

For instance, a three-winged Technique Spirit fed with 6 Gold Coins daily can have its performance enhanced to 120%!

During peacetime, mages certainly wouldn't spend double the Gold Coins for a mere 20% improvement, but in wartime, who knows if they'll be wiped out by AOE in the next second? Who would save money at such a time?

With Gold Coin production rates decreasing and consumption rates increasing, plus major forces actively conserving strategic materials, it's easy to predict that the amount of Gold Coins circulating in the market will sharply decrease for a period, possibly lasting until after the war. Saving money now is to prepare for the future.

Of course, Ash and his companions actually have another option: robbery.

The four Holy Domain, one Two-winged, and one Black Crow, together form a top-tier crime gang wherever they are. But they've already offended the Four Pillars God Sect, and if they also rob the Qinri Alliance, they'll truly have nowhere to hide in Senluo. They could also raid the Four Pillars God Sect's logistic teams, but Mercury Wooden Horse is waiting for them.

Let's not forget Mercury Wooden Horse can now control a Legendary Mage. If it catches the opportunity, they're doomed for annihilation.

For safety's sake, they have to suffer some hardship themselves.

Even though Ash can't afford the "Box of Source Crystal" worth 648 points, he can't bring himself to close the game and instead opens the "Operative Seeking" interface.

A dim, gray interface filled with souls of despair appeared before him!

"'Soul Stealing' Activity Seeking"

"Limited items 'Soul Stealing Manual', 'Soul Seeking Ring', and 'Annihilation Eye' probability ↑↑"

"Limited attire 'Demon Soul Observer', 'Secret Hunter Observer', 'Blood-Stained Wedding Dress Observer' probability ↑↑"

"Ends on September 3 at 00:00"

Yes, a new event seeking!

There was no system notification, no message whatsoever, Ash only discovered this seeking yesterday; otherwise, he would have already figured out a way to gather money for in-app purchases!

Ash suspected whether this was related to Ghost inheritance, but couldn't verify it.

Now was the last chance for seeking, logically, Ash should quickly spend money on in-app purchases, but he hesitated.

Firstly, the only in-app purchase option that could trigger the first-time double reward was the "Box of Source Crystal" worth 648 points. Ash wanted to save points to buy this, but he was far from enough, unable to buy the "Bag of Source Crystal" worth 198 points, which he was reluctant to buy.

Secondly, this activity seeking did not increase the probability of obtaining operators!

If there was a new operative, Ash would unhesitatingly empty his wallet!

Even if there were attire like "Bride Sword Maiden", Ash wouldn't spare his savings either.

But without new operators, the attire is all for his own Observer—who wants to draw their own attire!

The only valuable thing are those three limited items, it's the first time Ash has seen an activity focusing on items.

But should he really spend his savings for a few items?

After thinking it over, Ash went to wash his hands, then chose to consume 72 Source Crystals to seek 24 times.

Yes, he decided to draw until the Source Crystals were gone and wouldn't make any extra in-app purchases. If he couldn't pull anything, so be it. The limited items have no information, and hold little appeal for him.

If the result of in-app purchases ends with drawing all Observer attire, he fears he'd need to seek psychological therapy from Igula.

First, 18 white lights polluted the pool—all Energy Potions, Experience Potions, and Career Potions, to be refined later.

Then, 4 purple lights appeared, consisting of 2 bottles of "Lightless Sanctuary Potion," 1 bottle of "Pure Spirit Light Special Drink," and a new item "Soul Seal."

Finally, 2 golden lights!

"Demon Soul Observer"!

"Soul Stealing Manual"!

He actually drew the limited items!