Mage Manual

Although he got a limited artifact, when Ash saw its effects clearly, his expression turned odd.

"Soul Stealing Manual"

"Effect · Soul Stealing Map: Creates a 50-meter radius Soul Stealing Domain lasting for 600 seconds, where all life dying within will have their souls stolen. Creatures from the Void Realm cannot return, and mages' souls cannot return to reality. Activation requires the consumption of 1 Source Crystal."

"Effect · Soul Refining Map: The Soul Stealing Manual has a page imitating the World Secret Domain 'Soul Refining Pool', with a maximum capacity of 100,000 points. Current points: 0/100,000."

"Effect · Soul Strengthening Map: The Soul Strengthening Map continuously enhances the mage's soul, and the effect is proportional to the points in the Soul Refining Map. Every 100 points in the Soul Refining Map can enhance a mage's soul by 0.01 of an adult soul per day."

"Effect · Death Soul Map: As long as the target's true name and appearance are known, 1,000 Soul Refining Points can be consumed to cast a death soul curse, ignoring space distance. The curse will grow by devouring souls and constantly affect the target's cognitive function."

"Effect · Soul Burning Map: Burns 1,000 Soul Refining Points or consumes 1 Source Crystal to significantly strengthen the target's soul for 72 hours."

['Even if I die, I'll crawl back from hell for revenge!'

'Alright, I also think dying only once is too wasteful.']

Without a doubt, the Soul Stealing Manual lives up to its status as a limited artifact—it is a growth-type artifact integrating cultivation, offense, and enhancement!

If Ash could fill the Soul Refining Map, he wouldn't need to do anything to gain the soul equivalent of 10 people daily.

After inheriting the ghost's legacy, Ash fully understands the difficulty of soul enhancement.

Generally, mages strengthen their souls as they ascend the Void Realm. Using a mature human as a baseline, a Silver Mage would have the soul of two people, a Golden Mage five, and a Holy Domain Mage ten.

Without cultivating the Soul Faction specifically, mages naturally grow to this level. But even with 'Soul Refining', 'Soul Grinding', and 'Soul Torture' techniques actively enhancing, the path of soul is extremely arduous—it's simply painful and tiring.

Any cultivation path that endlessly strengthens the mage is usually tied to endless suffering—the Weak Faction is the best example. Weak Mages permanently strengthen their bodies, becoming strong even without technique spirits. Yet one would never choose this path if life is manageable.

Most mages only superficially explore the Weak Faction. Even Sword Maiden once used the Sword Body Miracle to enhance her potential, leaving her utterly exhausted.

Similarly, the Soul Faction enhances the soul permanently, so it's unlikely to be easy and enjoyable.

This shows how powerful the Soul Refining Map and Soul Strengthening Map of the Soul Stealing Manual are—the ability to enhance the soul equivalent of 10 people daily without extra hardship! Although the benefit of those 10 souls will rapidly decline as the soul strengthens, compared to orthodox soul cultivation methods, it's far more effortless.

The Death Soul Map is even more terrifying. It's the first time Ash has seen an artifact capable of attacking over distance merely knowing the target's name and appearance. Unfortunately, he doesn't know the true appearance of the Mercury Wooden Horse, otherwise…

Compared to these three maps, Ash is more intrigued by the activation mechanism of the Soul Stealing Map and Soul Burning Map—consuming Source Crystals!

He first realized, besides searching, Source Crystals have other uses!

Is it that only limited artifacts unlock the use of Source Crystals, or do Source Crystals inherently have uses Ash does not know?

After reviewing the Mage's Handbook interface, Ash found no more clues and thus temporarily set the idea aside. He returned to the Soul Stealing Manual's effect description with numerous speculations.

Clearly, the proper use of the Soul Stealing Manual is to brutally fill the Soul Refining Pool, retaliate with the Death Soul Map if pursued, and continue killing to replenish Soul Refining Points.

The creator of this artifact was undoubtedly an Evil Mage who devastated realms for personal nourishment.

Thus, Ash appeared uninterested. The artifact's sole usefulness lay in the temporarily soul-enhancing 'Soul Burning Map.' Although it required consuming 1 Source Crystal, while exploring the ghost legacy, soul strengthening greatly aids exploration.

Feeling cheated...

Ash looked at the newly drawn gear—swimsuit, apocalypse afternoon, killing Demon Soul, and realized his personal gear outnumbered the female operators'.

"Killing Demon Soul · Observer: Self-fired Soul Faction attack effects +10% (limited to Void Realm, but wearing the same clothes in reality grants this benefit)."

The artwork for this gear is quite good. It depicts Observer clad in a black coat with a hat, wearing silver-scaled gloves, chained at the waist, seemingly accompanied by ghostly howling effects. Behind him lies a sea of countless souls, as if a massacre was freshly completed.

But Soul Faction attack effects +10%...

In the ghost legacy, Ash's role is a Guardian!

He doubts a 10% attack effect boost could rival the three Sword Maidens who have steeped in the legacy for days!

Best to honestly wear the 'Apocalypse Afternoon' gear...

Ash thought feeling this setback profoundly, drawing two golden lights, one unusable, the other with only a fifth of its function, rendering the draw fruitless.

But among the purple-light artifacts, one caught his eye.

"Soul Seal: +15% soul enhancement effect for the bearer."

This artifact perfectly suited Ash!