The Sorcerer's Handbook

In Blood Moon Kingdom's Caimon City.

Freya, dressed in a white lab coat, pouted as she stepped out of Syflin's consultation room and quickly left the Biological Exosuit Department. Along the way, other doctors and nurses whispered among themselves as they watched her pass. No one greeted her. It was as if an invisible psychological barrier stood between them.

Nevertheless, the veela did not mind. Compared to that, Syflin's scolding earlier hurt far more.

Despite not yet having graduated, she was already an apprentice psychological medical practitioner at Caimon General Hospital, as well as Syflin's student. However, her field of study was not the Mind Class, but the Illusion Class instead.

Since their inception, the Mind and Illusion Classes had been deeply linked. While the Mind Class was heavily suppressed within the Blood Moon Kingdom, the Illusion Class had exploded into a highly sought-after discipline. Beyond the massive demand for illusionists in film and stage productions, the booming virtual reality games dubbed the Second World were built from the ground up almost entirely by these practitioners. Consequently, their salaries soared year after year, leaving the talent market in a state of permanent shortage.

The legendary founder of the Mind Class, Psychic Eye Madara, likely never expected that what began as an auxiliary, derivative discipline would one day surpass the core Mind Class in raw productivity.

Even in the medical field, illusion arts were gaining vital importance every year, not for curing diseases, but for serving far greater financial interests and securing a more radiant future.

Freya arrived at Serena's ward. On the door hung a black sign with red lettering.

This ward houses only one patient: Serena Bright. She appears as a 1.3-meter-tall girl with silver-white hair and a streak of wine-red. She wears a blue-and-white striped hospital gown. When entering for any purpose, such as meal delivery, medication, or cleaning, strictly follow the following rules:

1. Only one person may enter at a time. If you see two people inside, do not enter.

2. Remember the patient's appearance. If she does not match the description, leave immediately and notify Medical Practitioner Syflin.

3. If you open the door and see the patient outside, attempting to enter with you, evacuate the hospital as quickly as possible (for example, by jumping out a window).

4. If, upon opening the door, you feel someone pushing you inside, no matter who it is, immediately jump out of the window.

5. If you feel discomfort inside the room, or if the interior appears visibly distorted, leave. If you cannot move, imagine that you are already outside. When someone else opens the door, you may then turn and leave (please do not imagine pushing others into the room).

Note: This hospital is very safe. Any incidents are the result of personal issues.

Freya pushed the door open, glanced inside, and saw Serena lying on the bed reading. She immediately rushed over and hugged the doll-like girl. "Serena~"

Serena hugged her back affectionately, rubbing her cheek against Freya's. "Freya!"

She knew Freya liked this kind of closeness.

"Ah, wait a second!"

Freya blinked in confusion. Serena suddenly straightened with hands on her hips, pretending to be serious. "Hello, miss. I don't know what you've been through, but in my place, sadness is not allowed. You're super cute today too!"

Freya blinked. "Huh? I thought I hid it pretty well."

"Once you stay in this room long enough, you can sense any change in the air," Serena said, swinging Freya's hand. "The moment you came in, the room was filled with the smell of sadness."

And yes. Serena now had hands. But only inside this room.

After discovering that Serena had no neural connections to limbs, Syflin changed the treatment approach. Most modern biological exosuits relied on neural extension, but without neural connections, such prosthetics were nothing more than lifeless machinery.

Thus, the only viable solution for Serena lay in a cutting-edge project pursued by all four major research institutes, namely the development of illusory exosuits.

If biological exosuits were akin to amputating one's arm to replace it with a universal tool blade, then illusory exosuits allowed a person to truly believe that a tool blade attached to their armpit was their own third hand, all without sacrificing a single real body part.

It was a far more radical, promising concept. After all, the human consciousness could only control a finite number of limbs. Even with advanced biological exosuits, a user was limited to roughly twenty equipment slots. Beyond that, the soul simply failed to recognize them. But with an illusory exosuit, a person could potentially manifest three heads, six arms, a hundred eyes, and a thousand ears. Merely possessing three brains would triple one's learning efficiency, which was a prospect even sorcerers coveted.

However, progress had stalled. The core obstacle lay within the concept of illusion itself: how do you describe color to the blind, or explain thunder to the deaf? If a body part had never existed in the first place, how could someone mentally grasp how to control it?

Serena's rare condition, however, provided the perfect breakthrough. Yes, it was difficult for a normal human to conceive of a third hand, but what if the situation changed, and it was a living doll imagining limbs?

Consequently, her ward had been transformed into a Miracle rift between reality and illusion, a space where Serena's imagination could manifest into physical form. Everything had been progressing smoothly; she had already successfully imagined hands, and legs would likely follow soon. Once stabilized through Miracle surgical anchoring, she would become the world's first true illusory exosuit subject.

The treatment cost was astronomical, but Syflin possessed a powerful background, and given the unique nature of Serena's condition, the institute spared no expense. Still, it was not without risk. While Serena herself was safe, anyone who stepped into the room was in jeopardy. Because her thoughts manifested as reality, the ward could morph into an unpredictable anomaly the moment her mind drifted.

The warning sign outside had been written in the wake of numerous accumulated incidents. Her condition was currently stable, but only a select few, like Freya, dared to cross the threshold.

"Miss Syflin chewed me out..."

"What did she say to you?" Serena asked curiously. She didn't believe for a second that Syflin actually disliked Freya.

Freya shrugged. "She said my daily routine is a mess... She somehow knew I entered the Virtual World past midnight yesterday. She lectured me about not valuing the Blood Moon Blessing, saying the optimal login time is 10 p.m... Wait, is my teacher spying on me?!"

Serena offered a guess. "Maybe she just saw you logging into the Curtain after eleven?"

Freya tilted her head, pondering. "Maybe..."

"So you usually go in at ten, right? Why so late last night?"

"Last night..." Freya blushed, a silly grin spreading across her face. "Hehe..."

Ever since she had stumbled upon that diary, she had claimed it as her own. After days of following its updates, she was now certain it belonged to Ashe, and that the evil man out there somewhere kept writing in it.

Through the diary, Freya could witness the entirety of Ashe's prison escape firsthand. She watched him get bullied by a male veela named Iger, and discovered that he had been acquainted with a woman known as the Death Maniac Swordswoman from the very first day of his "adventure."

Death Maniac Swordswoman! Tch! What an annoying name!

Freya was thoroughly displeased, yet she could only watch helplessly as Ashe traveled through the Virtual World alongside that Swordswoman. Last night, Ashe's diary entry had described his first Blood Moon Tribunal, detailing exactly how he had shown his vulnerability to her. Freya desperately wanted to swap places with her, to comfort Ashe herself, and then... and then...

Serena watched the literal pink bubbles rising above Freya's head, lost in thought. A veela's mental fortitude truly is remarkably potent.

While this room was primarily governed by Serena's mind, others could still faintly influence its illusory energy. The stronger the mind, the greater the impact. If someone of Gerard's caliber were to walk into this room, Serena could exhaust herself entirely and still fail to harm a single strand of his hair.

And you, Freya, actually managed to recall your "spellcasting materials" in front of an ignorant young girl. The Soul of Dreams and Freedom must surely think you have great potential.

After chatting for a while longer, Freya prepared to leave. Before they parted, Serena asked, "Are the others still bullying you?"

Freya shook her head repeatedly. "Of course not. Not with Miss Syflin as my tutor."

"But they're secretly excluding you, aren't they?"

Freya didn't deny it.

As an undergraduate veela, even if she was already a talented sorcerer, it should have been impossible for her to directly join the Caimon General Hospital. Standard procedure dictated she spend several years undergoing standardized training in smaller town hospitals. It was entirely because Miss Syflin had pulled strings for her, even taking her on as a personal student, that she had bypassed the system. Naturally, Freya had become a target of resentment among the other medical staff. Even if there was no overt discrimination, the cold atmosphere of exclusion was unavoidable.

However, Freya didn't truly care.

Serena thought for a moment, then gestured for Freya to extend a finger. Leaning forward, she bit down hard, drawing blood.

Freya flinched from the sharp pain and tried to pull back, but Serena held her firm, gently licking the wound with her tongue.

"That should do it," Serena said solemnly. "You now carry my aura. No one will dare bully you anymore."

Freya tapped Serena lightly on the forehead in mild dissatisfaction, but she didn't truly blame her, choosing to treat it as a child's eccentric blessing. "Thank you."

After leaving the ward, Freya decided she would enter the Virtual World exactly on time tonight; the diary could wait until morning. Entering on time was better anyway. That way, she could see the little bat.

Ever since their encounter after leaving the Whirlpool, Freya had met the little bat every single night in the Virtual World. The only exception had been last night, when she had arrived two hours late.

Freya suspected she had inadvertently triggered some kind of unique Virtual World mechanism, because the little bat didn't just appear every night; it even used Miracles to assist her in combat. Even if it couldn't help, Freya still adored it. In the vast, oppressive white fog of the Sea of Knowledge, having a companion pet made the journey feel infinitely better.

With this in mind, her resentment toward the Swordswoman grew even stronger. Why her? Why not me? I want to raise that pet called Ashe.

***

The moment Freya left the ward, the smile on Serena's face faded. Her manifested hands slowly dissolved into nothingness as she lay back down, rigid as a doll.

Accepting treatment was merely a temporary facade. She would never truly allow herself to possess limbs. In her philosophy, loss was the ultimate manifestation of eternity. The moment she was polluted by the concept of possession, she would completely lose the gaze of the Four Pillars Deities.

As for why she had just blessed Freya, the reason was simple. She had already chosen Freya to be the future chief executive of the Four Pillars Cult.

Granted, Serena had still failed to convert Freya, but she didn't blame herself. It was the fault of the Four Pillars Deities.

Ever since she set foot in the Blood Moon Kingdom, it felt as though nothing had gone smoothly. She had even ended up as a medical anomaly under constant observation in a hospital. It felt as if fate itself were actively obstructing her from spreading her faith and harvesting souls. After careful deliberation, she concluded that the root cause was a severe lack of divine backing from the Four Pillars Deities.

Sense being pushed aside by fate was only natural, much like a body's immune system automatically seeking out and destroying foreign bacteria. In the past, the Four Pillars Deities had masked her fate trajectory, allowing her to expand her operations seamlessly. Now, however, Serena was certain the Deities were completely distracted by Ashe Heath's live broadcast, which was why they had forgotten to support her work in the Blood Moon Kingdom.

However, such frustrating days would soon come to an end. By her calculations, the Everlasting Doom had already been tightly entangled around Ashe for a full month. In other words... Ashe's doom was already a fixed point in the future.

A being who isn't even Sense... how could he possibly defy me, Sense itself?

Once she witnessed Ashe's demise, the Four Pillars Deities would naturally return their gaze to their adorable Serena. And then, that little veela would obediently fall into place as her chief executive.

***

[Schemer Ranking No. 1: Ashe's Kingdom Resurrection Ritual]

Lys subconsciously tightened her grip on Ashe's clothes. Beside her, both Annan and Quinna turned to look at him, their expressions tense.

Meanwhile, the person at the very center of the storm, Ashe himself, didn't feel much about it. Based on the patterns of the previous nine entries, anyone whose name appeared in the rankings was most certainly dead. But Ashe was no stranger to brushing past the grim reaper. If there really was a god of death assigned specifically to his case, that god was probably suffering from chronic shoulder pain by now from missing so many swings.

Besides, he was an outsider. Could a death written into the Gospel truly claim the life of a Blood Moon native?

Compared to that existential dread, he was far more curious about who exactly wanted to resurrect him.

Strangely, unlike the previous nine schemes, the Kingdom Resurrection Ritual did not list a mastermind. Instead, the footage began playing automatically.

"Great Rusty Crow of the Abyssal Depth. The righteous bow before you, the wicked revere you. Light itself longs for your presence, and even darkness casts its hope upon you. You are a being beyond all, the divine hue with which the gods have adorned all creation..."

At this point, Ashe was about to lose it.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!