Death Frenzy Sword Princess's Growth Report

“If you've been hurt enough, use a pair of hands to slice it open cleanly...” Igola yawned as he got out of bed. Following his morning routine, he went to take a bath first. But barely a few seconds after stripping bare and sinking into the tub, the doorbell began to ring, pressed over and over in frantic haste. Though puzzled, Igola wrapped a towel around his waist and went to answer the door, finding Yaxiu standing outside. “Rock-paper-scissors. Now.” “What?” “Don't ask questions. Rock-paper-scissors, and you have to beat me three times!” “Is this some sort of mandatory ritual?” “Exactly!” “Will it harm me?” “Not at all!” Igola studied Yaxiu for a moment. Sensing that he was probably telling the truth, he said, “Then I refuse.” “Why?” “Helping you is a favor; not helping you is standard practice. Why should I help you finish your ritual?” “Does a person need a reason to help someone?” “Given your current situation, you're hardly in a position to lecture me on that... Besides, do I look like a charity worker?” Yaxiu pondered for a moment. “Do you know why a sorcerer can't drink water that just boiled, and has to wait a while before drinking?” Igola was taken aback. “Why?” “Humor me through this ritual, and I'll tell you.” Could freshly boiled water contain trace toxins that damaged sorcery power? Or was ‘boiled water’ tied to some sort of ritual where interference brought dire consequences? In the world of sorcerers, every single thing contained truths. What seemed like an insignificant everyday detail might very well be a ‘ritual taboo’ summarized by sorcerers over thousands of years—just as chanting a prayer of rebirth for the deceased could effectively reduce the lingering scent of death on one's body. Thus, hearing Yaxiu say this made Igola itch with curiosity. He agreed to Yaxiu's request and easily beat him three times in a row—to someone with a degree of mind-reading capability like Igola, what Yaxiu intended to throw each round was practically written on his face. “Great! Thanks, Igola!” “What kind of ritual actually requires someone else to beat you three times at rock-paper-scissors...” “It's called a bad-luck buffer ritual. Now that my bad luck is spent losing to you, my luck is going to turn great in a bit. See ya—” “Hold on, you still haven't told me why a sorcerer can't drink water that just boiled.” “Because it burns your tongue.” Igola stared blankly as Yaxiu walked away. Closing the door, he returned to the bathroom and sank back into the bathtub. Staring at the ceiling, he rubbed his temples and fell into deep thought. “Have I been hanging around him so much lately that my IQ is actually taking a hit...?” After finishing his bath, Igola was brushing his teeth when his Revelation sorcery spirit was luckily triggered. Splatters of white toothpaste foam formed a line of text on the mirror: [Do not attempt to drink water that has just boiled.] “Who in their right mind would drink that?!” ... ... With the bad-luck ritual complete, Yaxiu returned to his dormitory room. [Confirm consumption of 30 origin crystals to conduct ten searches? Note: You may manually increase the number of searches. The more searches you conduct, the higher the chance of obtaining rare cards!] [Confirm consumption of 42 origin crystals to conduct 14 searches?] [Confirm!] Whoosh— It was still the supremely minimalist card-draw interface. Within the light screen, eight white lights, four purple lights, and... two golden lights burst forth! The eight white lights were five bottles of energy potion and three bottles of experience potion. The experience potions were fine enough; at least they could be stacked to increase experience gain by up to 50%. But an operator could only use one bottle of energy potion per week, and to pull so many energy potions at once... Were these items designed solely to pollute the pool?! Yaxiu looked further down, and his eyes immediately lit up. The four purple lights were three bottles of “sorcery spirit delight potion” and one “Honeyed Words and Daggered Heart.” [Sorcery Spirit Delight Potion *3: Upon use on an operator, increases the sorcery spirits' favorability toward the operator and speeds up the operator's mastery over them. Lasts one week. Effects do not stack.] [Honeyed Words and Daggered Heart: Honey that can be hidden beneath the tongue. When needed, simply pressing down firmly with the tongue transforms it into a longsword. Can pass any security inspection. Upgradable.] The sorcery spirit delight potion was undoubtedly the item Yaxiu needed most right now. He had obtained the Heart Sword and Transference sorcery spirits not long ago and couldn't even wield them proficiently in the Void Realm, let alone evoke resonance with them in reality. However, the effect was somewhat peculiar—it actually increased the sorcery spirits' favorability toward the operator. Could this potion put sorcery spirits in heat...? He had no immediate use for Honeyed Words and Daggered Heart, but Yaxiu would definitely need a weapon to protect himself once he broke out of prison. As Shattered Lake Prison made clear, the outside world would surely be fraught with obstacles for escaped convicts, likely crawling with security checkpoints and surveillance equipment at every turn. Therefore, a weapon like Honeyed Words and Daggered Heart that could pass any security check was virtually an essential item for a dangerous fugitive on the run. Finally came the two golden lights! [Alchemist's Refining Flask: Add two identical potions for a 30% chance to refine a more potent advanced potion, a 30% chance to mutate into another rare potion, and a 40% chance of refinement failure, losing both potions.] Yaxiu immediately perked up—with this refining flask, the pool-polluting potions could be recycled and re-forged. Although there was a risk of losing them, at least it gave him a shot, like buying a lottery ticket. [Random Sorcery Spirit Summoning Card: Upon use on an operator, the operator will perform a summoning ritual to autonomously summon a rare sorcery spirit of their current rank, and raise the realm of that sorcery spirit's faction to their current rank. Note: Depending on the sorcery spirit, the restrictions, duration, and requirements of the summoning ritual will vary, but the duration will not exceed seven days.] At first glance, this gold card didn't seem particularly impressive—wasn't it just summoning a single sorcery spirit? Yaxiu had harvested twelve in a single night. However, looking closely, one would realize the crux of this card was not the sorcery spirit itself, but “current rank”! Through his studies over these past days, Yaxiu had learned that the sorcerers of this world were divided into One-Winged Silver, Two-Winged Gold, Three-Winged Sanctuary, and Four-Winged Legend. That meant if Sword Princess advanced to Two Wings, using the Random Summoning Card on her would guarantee the summon of a two-winged sorcery spirit—and naturally, the more wings a sorcery spirit had, the better. Yet for a sorcerer to summon a corresponding sorcery spirit, the prerequisite was that her faction realm met the threshold. If her faction realm was not at the Gold level, the sorcerer couldn't possibly summon a corresponding two-winged sorcery spirit, and so forth! Therefore, the true effect of this gold card was: raising a random sorcery faction of an operator to their current void wing rank, while granting a sorcery spirit of the same rank! For a One-Wing Sorcerer, this gold card was merely equivalent to an Experience Orb plus a sorcery spirit. But if the operator was a Two-Winged, Three-Winged, or even Four-Winged Sorcerer, this gold card was downright terrifying. In seven days at most, one could go from nothing to mastering a completely unfamiliar sorcery faction! Reason told Yaxiu that the later he used this gold card, the more valuable it would be. But the current situation truly didn't allow him to play the squirrel hoarding good things away. For the upcoming prison break, Yaxiu had to convert every resource into immediate combat power. If they failed the prison break because they were just that tiny bit short, Yaxiu would probably regret it so much he'd volunteer to become the main dish on Langna's plate. First was the refining flask. Yaxiu currently had a total of seven energy potions and four experience potions. Putting them in two by two for refinement, he ended up with two bottles of advanced stamina potion and one bottle of advanced experience potion. [Advanced Stamina Potion: During training actions, grants the operator one advanced action point for seven days. An advanced action point waives the operator's energy consumption, increases positive feedback gained from actions, slowly improves the operator's mood, and has a small chance to raise the operator's bond level.] [Advanced Experience Potion: During training actions, grants +50% skill experience gained by the operator for seven days, up to a maximum bonus of 100% on a single operator.] That should have been the end of it, but after some thought, Yaxiu also tossed in two bottles of sorcery spirit delight potion. Even if refinement failed, he would still have one bottle left. But it succeeded. [Sorcery Spirit Excitement Potion: Upon use on an operator, greatly increases sorcery spirits' favorability toward the operator and drastically speeds up the operator's mastery over them. Lasts one week. Effects do not stack.] This potion's name sounded more and more like an aphrodisiac... Yaxiu opened “Operator Management,” and the game suddenly popped up a notification: [Death Frenzy Sword Princess's training has concluded. Please review the growth report and set this week's training policy as soon as possible.] [Death Frenzy Sword Princess's Growth Report (4.12–4.18)] [Swordsmanship Faction: 0 → Silver] [Light Sorcery Faction: 0 → Silver] [Water Sorcery Faction: Uninitiated → Silver] [Sorcery Power: 0 → Silver Half-Wing] [Training Rating: A!] [Due to receiving an A rating, Death Frenzy Sword Princess has gained a class upgrade from the sorcerer manual: One-Winged Sword Sorcerer → Silver Slayer Sorcerer] [Silver Slayer Sorcerer · Class Trait: Each effective attack restores 0.5% of maximum sorcery power.] Yaxiu hadn't expected there would be an evaluation phase after a training policy concluded, let alone that a high rating would grant a special reward: a class upgrade. Although it had nothing to do with him directly, there was no doubt that the stronger Sword Princess became, the more efficient their exploration of the Void Realm would be. Besides, the class trait of “Silver Slayer Sorcerer” was quite practical. Her water sorcery faction had been able to reach Silver rank naturally because they had obtained two Experience Orbs last night: a Swordsmanship Orb and a Water Sorcery Orb. Because he had the “Share Experience” bond with Sword Princess, Yaxiu had yielded both orbs to her without hesitation. Watching Sword Princess's touched expression when she accepted the orbs in the Void Realm, Yaxiu had almost heard the prompt: *Your bond with Death Frenzy Sword Princess has deepened.* He then opened “Training Policy.” [Death Frenzy Sword Princess] [Current Mood: 6 (Experience Bonus: 0)] [Available Actions: Rest, Entertainment, Training, Combat] [Suggestion: Sword Princess has gone a full week without any entertainment or rest. Appropriate recreation can effectively improve mood; balancing work with rest leads to better training and study.] Yaxiu hesitated slightly. Sword Princess had complained many times that she had no time to rest, and she had helped him so much in the Void Realm. Reason and conscience alike dictated that he should let her properly unwind... *Bang! Bang!* “Yaxiu, come out! We need to find our final team member as soon as possible today!” Igola's voice came from outside. Yaxiu instantly snapped back to reality from his sentimentality. As the saying went, one must lead by example and take the vanguard—if even he couldn't rest yet, how could Sword Princess possibly rest? *I reject your suggestion!*