The Sorcerer's Handbook

If a single person were to be chosen as the one who had helped Ashe the most during his time in the Shattered Lake Prison, the answer would almost unquestionably be Varkas Uhl. It was neither Harvey, nor Ronna, nor Healer No. 222, nor even Iger.

Without Varkas, Ashe would have long since been turned into a firework during the Blood Moon Tribunal. An elf facing the Tribunal was a once-in-a-century occurrence, and it drew the deep malice of Caimon City's citizens entirely away from Ashe. It was only because their fury was redirected that the rising, highly sought-after cult leader managed to narrowly escape disaster.

Of course, Varkas had never intended to save him. Even when he gifted Ashe the Swordheart, Earth Sword, and Wind Barrier spirits before his death, it had only been to cause trouble for Syrin.

Ashe himself had never bothered to feel any debt of gratitude. In fact, after a whirlwind of chaos, like escaping prison, fleeing the Blood Moon, joining the Funeral Agency, escaping Azura, surviving the white mist anomaly, and being captured by Belldet, he had almost completely forgotten the elf who had once taken a blade for him.

Meeting Varkas again in the Virtual World was unexpected, yet not entirely outside the realm of reason.

Upon death, a sorcerer's soul plummeted into the Six Layers of Hell to be stripped of all emotion, leaving behind only pure memory and essence. This remnant would then enter the Virtual World as a sorcerer projection, serving as a trial and an inheritance for future generations. Because of this compulsory, age-old tradition, sorcerers were unable to monopolize knowledge or techniques. Even when nations isolated themselves, knowledge still circulated within the Virtual World, giving rise to a flourishing and diverse sorcerer civilization.

As a Two-Winged Gold sorcerer, Varkas would naturally manifest as a projection in the Continent of Time after death. And since Hero Commanders were formed from such projections, his appearance as one was perfectly logical. When Varkas first died, Ashe had even wondered if he might encounter his projection in the Virtual World. He simply hadn't expected fate to take such a bizarre turn. The only problem was...

Ashe asked blankly, "Aren't you supposed to be a man?"

He had fought Varkas before. No matter how blind he might be, he could not have mistaken his gender.

"I haven't always been a man," Hero Commander Varkas replied calmly. "After spending nearly a hundred years as a female elf, wanting to experience the world of male elves is perfectly normal. Among elves, this is quite common. After reaching adulthood, we choose the gender we prefer. In my memories, almost every elf has gone through a gender-shifting phase. If they like it, they keep it. If not, they switch back.

"Beyond curiosity about the opposite sex, there was another reason. I had a child. In my view, if I did not undergo cosmetic modification, living with my child would only invite suspicion from the Church of Devotion. But since I was already altering my appearance, I figured I might as well change my gender entirely. That way, at most, people would suspect I was a pedophilic elf, rather than believe I shared any blood relation with the child.

"However, physical modifications are not recognized by the Virtual World. It only reflects the true form of the soul, so I returned to my original appearance... Any more questions?"

Too many questions! What did he mean, "since I was already altering my appearance, I might as well change my gender entirely?"This is like deciding that if you're already renting a house, you might as well just buy it? What kind of train wreck of logic is that?

Ashe had heard countless times that the Blood Moon Kingdom's biological modification technology was unparalleled, but most of those advances involved lower-class citizens modifying themselves into mechanical forms to adapt to industrial capitalist production. He had never expected even the middle class to be this extreme. He truly could not tell that Varkas had once been a woman.

Now, things had become somewhat complicated.

As Ashe silently raised his sword, Varkas lightly brushed his fingers along its edge and assumed a standard swordsmanship stance.

"Do you also want to kill me?"

Ashe replied without hesitation, "Yes. Defeating a commander rewards me with a map, a Conjuring spirit, and a Commander's Handbook. These are resources I urgently need. As I told you before, I am being hunted by Spider Tower and cannot afford to miss any opportunity to grow stronger. I need to protect those I value."

Yes, Varkas had saved him. The spirits he left behind had helped Ashe far too much. Without the Swordheart spirit, Ashe could not have executed the Slash Me miracle to escape prison. Additionally, the Sword Barrier, derived from the Earth Sword and Wind Barrier as its core components, was still a pillar of his combat system.

However, Varkas was already dead, flattened into a smear of blood during the Blood Moon Tribunal by the Titan Executioner. What stood before Ashe now was only a remnant of the past, an echo of memory shaped by the Divine Lord.

Ashe could not fully accept Harvey's necromancy doctrines, but one thing that he said was undeniably true, which was that the dead existed to serve the living, not the other way around.

Even if a trace of unease lingered in his heart, Ashe would not show mercy. He carried not only his own life, but the future of the Swordswoman and the Witch.

Varkas nodded. "For the sake of protecting others, huh... I see. Then, I suppose there's no other way."

Ashe took a deep breath. "Varkas... prepare yourself—"

"Could you at least not take my Commander's Handbook?"

Ashe had already steeled himself for battle, so the question caught him completely off guard. After a moment, he replied, "I guess that's fine?"

The Commander's Handbook mainly granted command skills and sorcery class experience. Command skills were meaningless to regular sorcerers, and Ashe was not particularly desperate for that small amount of experience anyway. But why would Varkas even ask this?

"I can give you the Conjuring spirit and the map," Varkas said calmly. "Could you not kill me?"

It took Ashe a moment to process the words. "Why?"

"I don't have any soul energy left. If we fight, I will most likely die. If I can exchange resources for my life, that is a worthwhile trade. Unless it is a war between nations, there is no need for a commander to fight to the death. Dying here brings no merit at all."

"But the commander I killed before fought me to the very last breath..."

"Perhaps he believed, until the very end, that he still had a chance to defeat you," Varkas said, shaking his head. "But I have no soul energy, nor do I have subordinates. My chances of winning are far too slim."

"But you're not the kind of person who just gives up without a fight!"

Varkas paused slightly. "In your mind, what kind of person was I?"

Ashe stared at the projection. "Proud, impulsive, emotional, and fond of provoking others with sarcasm. Even if you knew you were going to lose, you would still try to negotiate and struggle until the very end. More precisely... You were someone who would rather die than compromise."

"But if you were willing to compromise, you wouldn't have died in the first place..."

The primary reason Syrin had driven Varkas to death was Varkas's refusal to give up raising the child. As an elf, Varkas had still ended up imprisoned, and Syrin had played a decisive role in that outcome. Yet Varkas had refused to compromise until the very end, insisting on violating the Bloodline Prohibition Law. Only then did Syrin, utterly disappointed, abandon the son, or rather, daughter, he had raised since infancy.

In a sense, Syrin was a supreme hypocrite. He had personally raised Varkas, but he refused to allow Varkas to raise her own child. It was this internal contradiction that drove Syrin to so violently forbid Varkas from repeating his own "mistakes."

In the Blood Moon Kingdom, selfishness was the only political correctness. Everything Syrin did was meant to make Varkas more selfish, to help her become a more "advanced" elf suited for survival in Blood Moon society. That was his twisted version of care. If Varkas failed to become "normal," then letting her die might have been the best outcome.

Ashe did not know Syrin's true thoughts, but he could not help but suspect that was exactly how the man felt back then.

In the end, even a powerful figure like Mayor Fernandez could not interact with his own son. Under the vast expanse of the Blood Moon, was there truly any place that could accommodate a parent and child?

"I see... So that's who Varkas was."

Ashe realized something. "Varkas, you..."

The female elf sheathed her sword, glanced around, then walked over and sat down on a large rock. Seeing this, Ashe also relaxed his stance and sat down cross-legged opposite her.

"Is there anything you'd like to ask?"

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