Sorcerer’s Handbook

Chapter 90: The Vortex Toxin

“Plunder Item #221: Cylindrical Labyrinth”

“Origin: The caravan of the Emerald Cross”

“Obtaining Process: The Temple dispatched us to plunder a caravan from the Emerald Cross. Unlike most caravans, they did not carry any banners, meaning they were not under the protection of any forces. In this desert, it could only mean they were either thirsty for death, or had the strength to protect themselves.”

“They were indeed strong. After losing three Silver Fire Knights, our captain finally led us to completely annihilate this caravan. Their souls shall surely be purified in the flames and ascend the stairs of the sun, attaining eternal serenity.”

“When searching through the spoils of war, I found a very exquisite cylindrical object in one of the tents, which could be grasped with one hand. Just then, I noticed a child hiding in the shadows, staring at the cylinder in my hand.”

“Perhaps I was misled by the plundering fire. I asked him what this was, and he said it was a family heirloom containing the secret to triggering a vortex.”

“Before the captain came in, I had already purified the child. May his soul forever depart from this land of disaster.”

“I hid the cylinder. After some investigation, I learned it was a treasure called the ‘Labyrinth’, containing the aura of a four-winged spirit. If not opened correctly, the mechanisms left by the four-winged spirit would automatically damage its contents.”

“My wisdom was not enough to unlock this labyrinth. So I pursued the most clever woman in the Temple. After making an everlasting vow, I gave her the cylinder. She spent a month finally opening it and obtained its secrets.”

“With this secret, our arcane powers advanced by leaps and bounds. Due to my stupidity, I only triggered a vortex once, while she triggered it twice and completely unfolded her Silver Wings.”

“Until one day after leaving the virtual world, I found my body restrained by the Temple Knights. She stood behind the knights, with a stern expression.”

“She exposed me. I had a broken cylindrical labyrinth hidden in my clothes. She advanced to two wings and no longer needed this secret or me. What she needed now was the Temple’s favor, she needed to relieve the vortex toxin.”

“For privately keeping and damaging important spoils of war, I was sentenced to capital punishment, unable to be purified in the flames, only able to sink into nightmares in filthy waters. Until the very last second, I never revealed the secret in the cylinder, for the everlasting vow was still in effect. She only unilaterally dissolved the vow after advancing to two wings, while the vow still constrained me.”

“In fact, if I had used the miracle Incinerate Remains, I could have temporarily suppressed all abnormal status effects, naturally breaking through the vow and exposing her pretense.”

“But looking at her, I gave up for some reason.”

“Perhaps I was misled by the plundering fire.”

“Final Destination: Damaged.”

Sonya crossed her arms. “The Temple of Plundering Fire… Never heard of them.”

“Shouldn’t people normally comment on this sorcerer’s emotional experience?”

“Do you really want to hear it? I can’t lie right now.”

“Then let’s skip it.”

“What about the method to trigger the vortex that you deliberately skipped over?”

“I’m debating whether or not I should tell you.”

Sonya was slightly surprised and tried to keep her mouth shut, looking very strained. Ashe almost laughed out loud seeing the swordswoman like this.

Hearing the laugh, Sonya could no longer hold it in and whispered: “You actually distrust me this much, wanting to keep it all to yourself? My value to you is even less than a vortex secret?”

Ashe was somewhat shocked: “So you’re mad that I distrust you keeping it to yourself, or mad that your position in my heart isn’t as high as you imagined?”

Sonya’s eyes almost visibly filled with fury: “I—”

“Sorry, don’t answer that. It’s my mistake.” Ashe quickly said: “It’s not that I distrust you, but this secret is poisonous. Once you know it, you’ll be infected. I’m already poisoned, so I felt you didn’t need to know since we can enter the vortex together anyway.”

“Poisonous knowledge? I don’t believe that.” Sonya said: “I think you’re lying to me, big liar.”

“I have to say, you really are easy to get along with when you can only tell the truth.” Ashe said: “Then I’ll tell you, but don’t blame me.”

“How could that be? If I get poisoned, I’ll definitely blame you for not stopping me. If nothing happens, I’ll think you deliberately lied.” Sonya spread her hands: “Anyway, I won’t think it’s my fault.”

“…You really are unreasonable.” Ashe sighed: “But the poison isn’t too serious for now. As the saying goes, we’re in the same boat, so I’d feel pretty lame being the only one poisoned… ”

“The method to trigger a vortex is: Find a scholarly lifeform of the fish dragon species, grievously injure it, chase after it as it escapes without killing it, and let it die naturally from exhaustion. A vortex passage will form where its corpse lies, because…”

Ashe and Sonya said in unison: “The sea of knowledge embraces its slumbering child.”

Sonya looked at Ashe in surprise.

She had blurted out that sentence almost reflexively, as if after hearing Ashe’s earlier explanation, new knowledge was bred from that knowledge and uncontrollably flowed into her mind!

At the same time, Sonya felt a strange sensation, as if the entire world had changed even though nothing was different!

She looked around to find what had changed. Soon her gaze focused on the seawater outside. After staring for a bit, she felt a surge of nausea—

“The toxicity of this hidden poison is that it makes us feel disgusted by water,” Ashe said.

He opened the Sorcerer’s Handbook of Aurora – “Operator Management” and saw that both “Apocalypse Observer” and “Death Maniac Swordswoman” had an additional abnormal status effect.

“Vortex Toxin”

“Number of People Infected by Toxin: 131”

“Toxin Strength: 131%”

“Current Effect of Toxin: Disgust Towards Water (Enhanced effect upon reaching 300% strength, alleviated upon dropping to 100%, turns into a buff at 50%)”

It was a very bizarre toxin, not damaging the body but twisting the soul. Most terrifying was that the more people who knew the secret, the higher the toxin strength, burdening everyone who knew!

When Ashe told Sonya about the toxin, Sonya immediately scowled: “Why didn’t you firmly refuse me earlier, you loudmouth!”

She really lived up to her word and blamed him as she said she would. Although the straightforward swordswoman was easier to deal with, she also became much more unpleasant, like a hypocritical and tactless child.

“Wait, you said earlier that when less than 50 people are infected, the toxin becomes a buff?” Sonya suddenly said: “Then we just need to take care of all the others who know the secret…”

She made a throat-slitting gesture. Ashe cowered back: “Are you the wife who betrayed the axe-wielding sorcerer in the story?”

“I won’t rashly sell you out before you wrong me.”

“That truthful statement really doesn’t reassure me…” Ashe muttered.

After this exchange, they understood why this secret was hidden inside the cylindrical labyrinth at all costs, and why the axe-wielding sorcerer was betrayed—because even if you could keep it secret, you couldn’t ensure others wouldn’t divulge it.

Once divulged and spread, the toxin might reach a critical point and become nearly fatal, such as being completely unable to touch water, or even dying from shock upon contact.

When it reached that point, the weak without survival means would die, quickly lowering the number of infected to a safe level.

So the knowers were natural enemies of each other. Each knower had to try to eliminate the others as much as possible to lower their own risk of harm. The sorcerer’s wife betrayed him precisely for this reason, unilaterally dissolving the vow to decisively expose the axe-wielding sorcerer and reduce the number infected.

But even if every knower actively kept it secret, the secret would still spread—like how Ashe and the others obtained similar intel from the sorcerer handbook.

The virtual world was the graveyard of sorcerers. Death could not keep secrets.

Therefore, by knowing this secret, Ashe had essentially taken deadly poison and set foot on a road of no return.

If he did nothing, when the number of infected suddenly spiked one day, strengthening the toxin to a level he could not endure, he could only complain ‘why me?’ and ‘how could this be?’ before perishing in the intense poison.

But unexpectedly, Ashe did not feel much fear.

Because he knew, all the troubles brought by the virtual world could be resolved with one method.

From beginning to end, sorcerers only had one path to survival.

“So next we need to find a scholarly lifeform of the fish dragon species.” Ashe said. “Only by becoming stronger can we have a chance to alleviate the toxin’s power, or even directly eliminate it—like forcibly forgetting this knowledge. In short, we have to make good use of this intel we paid for with poisoning and convert it into our own strength as much as possible, constantly pressing forward, never stopping!”

“Isn’t that obvious?” Sonya said, leaning against the boat. “Isn’t that what we greedy sorcerers are like?”