Silver Wings!

"Why is it that sorcerers haven't found the slightest trace of the theoretically colossal Golden Fish?" "Why does the Void Realm say the Golden Fish is right on the sea and can be seen without any ritual?" "There's only one answer." Yaxiu murmured, "We're inside the Golden Fish. The Time Continent is above the white mist." Sonia instinctively wanted to nitpick, but as she matched her current information against this conclusion, she found every single point aligned. It explained the truth of the Golden Fish flawlessly! "Right!" she suddenly recalled. "Didn't the only sorcerer manual I read mention that after the Explorer found the Golden Fish, he climbed more than eight hundred levels and still couldn't reach the top of it?" "Thinking about it carefully, if the Golden Fish really was as massive as eight hundred levels, sorcerers wouldn't be unable to find a trace of it, even with the white mist obscuring everything... And in the Sea of Knowledge, the only place one couldn't reach even after climbing eight hundred levels is..." "The sky." The two stared blankly at the misty white sky. After a long pause, Sonia asked blankly, "But how are we supposed to climb up there?" Indeed, how could they climb into the sky? Even though they knew the Time Continent was directly above, and reaching it would make them Two-Winged Sorcerers... where was the way up? No heavenly ladder hung from the sky, no skyward tower rose from the ground, and the Sea of Knowledge lacked any natural feature taller than a single meter above sea level. Nor were they proficient in the earth sorcery faction like the Explorer, so they couldn't erect towers from the ground. Their only way to gain height would be to place the Substitute on top, have the Sword Princess stand on the Substitute's shoulders, and have Yaxiu stand on the Sword Princess's shoulders. Could Yaxiu summon several thousand Substitutes to stack himself up? That was impossible too. He only had the 'Substitute' sorcery spirit, not the 'Multiple Substitutes' miracle, so he could only summon a single Substitute. If he summoned a second Substitute, the first would vanish. To summon two at once, his best bet would be finding a second Substitute sorcery spirit and activating both together to form a 'Dual Substitute' miracle. The use of sorcery spirits was truly an art—wildly permissive in some aspects, yet remarkably rigid in others. "Are there any flight miracles?" Yaxiu asked. "Flight miracles at the one-winged rank are very rare," Sonia said, shaking her head. "Movement miracles at the one-winged rank basically just involve rapid movement on the ground. Even if they let you take to the air briefly, it's only to clear obstacles, not true flight. "That doesn't really improve even at the two-winged rank—at most, you get faster movement, lower consumption, and more agile direction changes. True flight miracles only become common at the Three-Winged Sanctuary rank." "Why?" "Because the prerequisite to reaching Three-Winged Sanctuary is fully unfolding both Silver Wings and Golden Wings." Sonia raised her arms, mimicking flapping wings. "Did you think a sorcerer's void wings were just for show?" "Huh? Aren't void wings used to intimidate opponents? Like before a fight, everyone compares their void wings—the more void wings someone has and the more complete they are, the stronger they are." "That's just their social function. True void wings are the manifestation of a sorcerer's accumulated knowledge. Each void wing provides a sorcerer with tremendous aid..." "Tremendous aid?" Yaxiu paused, unfolding his Silver Wings. "Besides saving me from turning on the lights when I use the bathroom at night, what other aid do they offer?" "The Silver Blessing." Sonia threw up her hands. "Didn't I tell you before? Fully unfolding Silver Wings merely proves our silver sorcery power has reached its limit. Only when we successfully advance to two wings, leave the Sea of Knowledge, and arrive on the Time Continent will the Silver Wings begin to shine—only then do they reach their perfect form. "Shining Silver Wings grant a sorcerer a permanent blessing, usually related to their primary faction. Even for a newly advanced Two-Winged Sorcerer, the Silver Blessing boosts combat strength by more than twenty percent. With good luck, it can even reach a hundred percent." Yaxiu realized. "No wonder you insisted on dragging me out to look for the Golden Fish tonight even though you were exhausted..." A solid twenty to one hundred percent boost in combat strength would be decisive for his prison break tomorrow. If it was for the Silver Blessing, it was truly worth giving everything they had. Sonia felt the alcohol from the real world welling up again, her cheeks flushing slightly warm. "I already told you, I just wanted to see the scenery of the Time Continent as soon as possible... Besides, you promised to help me achieve my dream. Finding the Golden Fish is part of that dream, so of course I had to drag you along." "Fair enough. So when are you going to sing for me? Based on your voice, I can judge whether I took on dirty work that violates my conscience." "You just won't let that go, will you? Fine, I can play that game too. 'I feel so light all over, not a bit of weight...'" "I'm sorry, I was out of line. Let's talk about flight miracles, flight miracles." Yaxiu had also resolved a doubt in his mind. He had long felt that his Silver Wings were a bit inferior compared to the ones Valkas had displayed back then—not as radiant, not as crisp. He had previously assumed it was a lighting issue, but it turned out to be an issue of development. As long as he hadn't opened the door to the new world, his Silver Wings remained untouched, virgin wings rather than mature void wings. Sonia paused. "Once sorcerers obtain perfect dual wings, they not only gain the Silver Blessing and Golden Blessing brought by their void wings, but also the qualitative change that comes from having a pair of wings, allowing them to soar directly in reality. For this reason, most flight miracles require Three-Winged Sanctuary, or at the very least complete two wings." Put simply, flight miracles were like luxury sports cars and yachts—enjoyed exclusively by tycoons of three wings and above, with none of the wealthy bothering to invent low-end versions for the broke. She looked up at the murky gray sky. "Even if we found a flight miracle usable by a one-winged sorcerer, the Explorer couldn't reach the top even after building a tower eight hundred levels high. Even if we drained all our sorcery power, I doubt we could fly that high. "The easiest way for a sorcerer to fly is without a doubt using void wings, bar none. Knowledge is our most effortless set of wings." Yaxiu stood up and flapped his Silver Wings. Aside from making the boat wobble, it produced no effect whatsoever. Sonia said helplessly, "Even if you haven't studied wind sorcery, shouldn't you know you need a pair of wings to fly?" A puzzled look crossed her face as well. "Flight miracles can't fly that high, and earth sorcery can't build a tower to the heavens... How on earth did those legendary sorcerers who claimed to have found the Golden Fish and successfully smuggled themselves through climb to the Time Continent? Are we mistaken, or is there a stairway to heaven somewhere on the Sea of Knowledge? Or perhaps some method exists to obtain a pair of wings in advance?" "If we only need a pair of wings..." Yaxiu said softly, "we have one too." "We do?" Sonia froze, watching as the Watcher pointed at his own Silver Wing, and then pointed at hers. "That's absurd..."