“Why did Fanmula's thick mist...”
Yaxiu paused, crossed out the question, and rewrote on the Book of Gospel: “Am I in danger tonight?”
The Book of Gospel: “Yes (1 Gospel point consumed).”
Yaxiu pondered for a moment. Ducking behind the front desk, he flipped the Book of Gospel to the page for Aurora's Sorcerer Handbook, then navigated to “Sennheiser Dreamscape” — “Dream Fragment Exchange”.
Tonight's Dreamscape Expedition was already over, and now that such a massive incident had occurred—practically on par with a terrorist attack—Yaxiu felt their journey in Fanmula might end right here. In that case, he could settle his gains from the Sennheiser Dreamscape ahead of schedule.
No matter what was about to happen, converting idle resources into combat capability as quickly as possible was always the right move!
Yaxiu checked his balance. Thanks to the hard work put in by him (or rather, his Substitute) over the past few days, he had accumulated a total of 1,553 dream fragments. While that seemed like a lot, the moment he saw the vast sea of rewards in the exchange, he realized he had to budget meticulously, like a kid clutching a crisp fifty-dollar bill in a snack shop to buy treats for a spring picnic.
Fortunately, during the past few days while idling as he formed gaming parties, Yaxiu had already thought through which prizes he wanted to redeem. Thinking about what to spend prize money on before even winning the lottery was practically a form of spiritual entertainment for him.
It was also fortunate that Yaxiu had already analyzed the cost-effectiveness of each reward inside and out. As a result, he didn't need to deliberate much now—he could just grab the optimal combo package and take it all!
First up: the “Five Matchless Secret Sword Spirits Random Deluxe Gift Box”!
Compared to the standard gift box, the deluxe edition only cost 100 more fragments, but it came with two bonus gifts: an exclusive miracle orb for the Five Matchless Secret Sword Spirits (mastered immediately upon use), as well as a key common sorcery spirit required to assemble that miracle.
Yaxiu wasn't like the Sword Princess. Whenever the Sword Princess obtained a new swordsmanship sorcery spirit, she could master it almost instantly, whereas Yaxiu needed a day or two of training just to barely reach a combat-ready state. Even when ready for battle, unless a sorcery spirit's basic effect was extraordinary, Yaxiu preferred to use miracles.
One shouldn't forget that the number of sorcery spirits a sorcerer could deploy at the same time was limited. For someone like Yaxiu, four at once was his limit; any more and he simply couldn't keep up.
To make an analogy, controlling sorcery spirits was like playing an RTS game. A powerful sorcerer could micromanage every individual unit with precision tactics, while someone like Yaxiu could only play macro strategy—select all units, then send them in an all-out attack-move wave.
That was why, ever since arriving on the Time Continent, Yaxiu's sorcery spirit loadout had hardly seen any updates. He still relied on the same ranged-support playstyle centered around 'Sword Body Barrier', because 'Sword Body Barrier' was the only miracle he had mastered. As for his self-created mobility miracle 'Rushing Toward' and the debuff-cleansing miracle 'Severing Self', they rarely found any use in regular fights.
As for 'Heart Sword' and 'Sword Mark', they were basically basic attacks that did negligible chip damage.
He desperately needed a burst-damage miracle, which was why he had locked onto this deluxe gift box at first glance.
Re! Deem!
[You have opened the “Five Matchless Secret Sword Spirits Random Deluxe Gift Box”.]
[You have obtained the two-winged sorcery spirit “Emotion Sword”.]
[You have obtained the two-winged sorcery spirit “Singular Affection”.]
[You have obtained the miracle orb “Singular Devotion”.]
Although Yaxiu was delighted that the gift box had yielded two-winged sorcery spirits perfectly suited to him, their names gave him the sinking feeling that his dream of dealing burst damage had been shattered once again.
[Emotion Sword]
[Two-Winged Sorcery Spirit]
[Requirement: The sorcerer must be capable of generating emotions.]
[Basic Effect: Consumes your current emotion to summon a freely controllable Emotion Sword.]
[Passive Effect: Your emotions become more vibrant, manifested externally as an enhancement of your personality traits.]
[“Only when you are as happy as I am does it count as sharing; only when you are as sad as I am does it count as an apology.”]
...
[Singular Affection]
[Two-Winged Sorcery Spirit]
[Requirement: The sorcerer must be capable of generating emotions.]
[Basic Effect: Converts all your current emotions into a single designated emotion. Currently available emotions: Wrath, Love, Joy, and Sorrow.]
[Passive Effect: You become more devoted to all things, reducing the likelihood of indecision or wandering affections.]
[“In the world of sorcerers, even moods can be fabricated.”]
...
[Miracle: Singular Devotion: Convert emotions using Singular Affection, then generate a specific Emotion Sword. Depending on the emotion, the Emotion Sword produces different effects—
Wrath Sword: Extremely high attack speed, immense armor-piercing power;
Joy Sword: Possesses healing effects for both physical body and soul;
Sorrow Sword: Moderate attack speed; each hit inflicts various debuffs on the target, including slow, blind, tinnitus, and stun;
Love Sword: Comprehensively enhances the target's physical capabilities.]
How should he put it... While it wasn't completely devoid of burst, and while it was extraordinarily practical and versatile...
No matter how you looked at it, this miracle was support-oriented! He still had to stand in the backline playing support and attrition!
I just wanted to look cool and show off in front of the Witch and the Sword Princess—is even such a simple wish too much to ask?!
After purchasing the deluxe gift box, his dream fragments dropped from four digits to three, leaving Yaxiu with fewer choices. Nonetheless, the miracle “Singular Devotion” was indeed a tremendous help. Yaxiu had originally planned to buy a medical sorcery spirit for emergencies, but having the 'Joy Sword' saved him a hefty sum.
With so many dream fragments still remaining, Yaxiu couldn't resist casting his gaze toward the most expensive pinned rewards in the “Sennheiser Dreamscape”:
“One-Winged Sorcery Spirit: Secret Poison Diary”, “Random Sorcery Spirit Summoning Card”, and “Operator Possession Card”.
Among them, Yaxiu had drawn the “Random Sorcery Spirit Summoning Card” in the past. It was a Golden Legendary-tier utility card, and its practical effect truly lived up to its rarity—within one week, an operator would summon a sorcery spirit matching their current sorcery power level. Back when the Sword Princess was still a One-Wing Sorcerer, she had summoned a one-winged mind sorcery spirit, elevating her mind faction attainments to the Silver rank along the way.
Now that they were Two-Winged Sorcerers, using this utility card would naturally summon a random two-winged sorcery spirit, raising their mastery in the corresponding sorcery school to Gold rank.
All three rewards shared the same price, which meant the other two were also of the Golden Legendary tier. However, Yaxiu hadn't initially included them in his considerations. After all, the Empress lover in the Void Realm was glaring like a tiger stalking prey, ready at any moment to tear their family of three apart, and these prizes couldn't boost their strength immediately. It had seemed far better to gamble on sorcery spirit gift boxes, prioritizing filling Yaxiu's deficiencies in offense, defense, debuffs, and healing.
Yet the Emotion Sword was simply too practical. Yaxiu felt like someone who had set out to buy a whole bunch of entertainment gadgets, only to buy a smartphone and discover it could already cover every entertainment need well enough. As the old saying went: if it works, it works. There was no need for Yaxiu to blow more funds chasing marginal performance upgrades.
As for the pinned rewards, the “Random Sorcery Spirit Summoning Card” was the first to be eliminated. Although its utility was universally acknowledged, its infuriating downside had met fierce resistance from the Sword Princess. The summoning ritual was entirely random; during the Sword Princess's trial, she had randomly rolled a requirement where she “could only speak her innermost thoughts,” which messed up her personal relationships so drastically they underwent an upheaval.
Although the outcome had turned out well in the end, if Yaxiu dared to pull that on her again, the Sword Princess would definitely fight him to the death.
Since he couldn't use it on the Sword Princess, he naturally couldn't use it on the Witch either—after all, the Witch's condition was in every sense even worse than the Sword Princess's.
Yaxiu himself had even less use for it. The card was essentially a training course for a specific sorcery faction, and one only ever heard of training employees, never of training the boss.
The effect of the “Operator Possession Card” was rather nuanced as well. Put simply, Yaxiu could temporarily summon an operator to possess him, allowing the operator to take control of his body in combat.
Because it was a soul possession, the operator's sorcery spirits were brought along as well, allowing the operator to unleash one hundred percent of their combat power aboard the “Fighter Jet Yaxiu.”
To be fair, this card was truly worthy of the Golden Legendary tier. In the right hands, it could turn the tide of battle and overturn a desperate situation.
The trouble was, the Sword Princess and the Witch were only marginally stronger than Yaxiu...
If they were Four-Winged Legendary Sorcerers, with Yaxiu focusing on support, the Sword Princess on assault, and the Witch on crowd control, the gap in combat capability between them would indeed widen immensely. A formidable enemy Yaxiu couldn't withstand might be slain in a single strike by the Sword Princess. In that scenario, this Operator Possession Card could serve as Yaxiu's trump card for a dramatic comeback.
Right now, however, they were merely Two-Winged Gold Sorcerers. While the Sword Princess could certainly defeat Yaxiu, it wasn't to the level of a total blowout. Yaxiu could use tactics like defense, fleeing, and harassment to delay his defeat. If an enemy was one that Yaxiu couldn't defeat at all, swapping in the Sword Princess wouldn't offer much more hope either.
It was a great card, but unfortunately it arrived too early; the timing was all wrong.
Therefore, Yaxiu chose to purchase the first pinned reward.
Chapter 342