Sorcerer’s Handbook

Cramped, dark, and cluttered.

To Igor’s right was a large cardboard box filled with over twenty boxes of tissues, likely bought on sale, piled high with a boxy heater and various household items temporarily without use; to his left, a tightly shut door.

This storeroom had been his dwelling for the past five days.

The pronounced feeling of hunger in his belly indicated it was now 18:00, and Emma would soon be back to feed him.

Reflecting on his life over these days, Igor couldn’t help but sigh. Although he had achieved his goal and remained unscathed under the relentless pursuit of the Sin Hunter’s Hall, the means by which he had reached his goal were rather unique—he had been kept by Emma like a dog.

Literally a dog, Igor tugged at the Collar around his neck, feeling an ironic sting.

He had gone through great pains to remove his neck chip collar for freedom, yet now, in pursuit of liberty, he had willingly donned a real Collar.

As for why Sin Hunter Emma Lexus was willing to shelter him, that story traced back to three years prior, when Igor was moonlighting at the Mud Café.

Although males with the Bewitcher Bloodline often took shifts at the Mud Café—much like an Ogre with a regular job might paint after work—Igor rarely did so. Mainly because working as a Mud Worker was too slow a way to earn money, not nearly as satisfying as swindling it.

Igor’s willingness to work at the Mud Café meant only one thing: the café afforded him a convenience for his scams.

“Revelation of Gamble” was one such establishment, operating both as a Mud Café and a Tea Café. By name alone, one might assume it was a gambling den, and indeed it was, requiring customers to purchase initial chips to partake in various betting games.

However, it distinguished itself from other gambling venues by the stakes—it gambled time.

Customers were free to seek out a dealer of their choice to bet against, with both parties using 60 minutes as their chips. If a patron won a dealer’s 60 minutes, it meant they could command the dealer for an hour, with the dealer obliged to comply with various requests. Conversely, if the dealer won the patron’s 60 minutes, then the dealer could command the customer for an hour, with the customer having to cater to the dealer’s whims.

Yes, regardless of whether they win or lose, the dealers always share a chuckle with the customers. After all, the customers’ chips are purchased with real Silver, and it wouldn’t do to send them home confused and dissatisfied. A Mud Café/Tea Cafe that doesn’t respect customer needs is sure to fail.

In short, this establishment markets itself on gambling, but it performs much better than other themed establishments in the same industry. It turns out that gambling is always the best mechanism to stimulate human impulses. Customers who win leave feeling exhilarated, while those who lose, after being played by the dealers (who don’t hold back), are fueled by a competitive spirit to continue challenging and often return.

Igor took part-time work at this shop precisely because of this ‘domination of time’. He specifically targeted wealthy women, approaching them and enticing them to take up the challenge, then smoothly winning their 60 minutes.

Once in a private room, Igor could use the ‘domination of time’ as a pretext to have these wealthy women swear oaths to him, such as ‘to be good to me for a lifetime’ or ‘to give me their most precious possessions’.

The wealthy women, thinking it was a special quirk of the dealer, would agree readily. Then, they would be bound by Igor’s Contract spirit, forced to keep their casually made promises, even unable to call the police, as that would not be ‘being good to Igor for a lifetime’.

Not only did these customers lose their fortunes to Igor, but he also refused to mate with them, which could be considered a serious breach of professional ethics.

Besides wealthy women, occasionally wealthy men would approach him, and Igor would gladly accept them as well, even having them swear oaths like ‘not to feel lust for anyone but me’. He effectively cured them of their susceptibility to being deceived by beauty.

Thus, by deceiving for wealth but not for sex, Igor significantly promoted the redistribution of social wealth through his part-time job, sometimes even surpassing the efficiency of his main Occupation. However, smooth sailing is a phrase that never applies to the life of a Con Artist, and one night, Igor met Emma.

To gain control, Igor, with his unusually high win rate, quickly earned the title of ‘Gambling King’ in that establishment. Therefore, there were those who sought him out not out of desire for his body, but purely to challenge his gambling skills. Emma was one of these gamblers.

Emma entered the Mud Café without concealing her Moonshadow heritage. Igor normally preferred not to mess with this privileged class, but Emma specifically requested him. Since no one else wanted to compete with a Moonshadow, Igor had no choice but to acquiesce to her dominance and serve her.

Emma was skilled at gambling, but Igor, being a Con Artist, had the added advantage of a deep understanding of human nature, which was the secret to his undefeated streak. After defeating Emma without much difficulty, Igor decided not to take advantage of her. He would simply fulfill his duty at the Mud Café as if bitten by a dog.

Yet, Emma was not willing to admit defeat and insisted on gambling again, even going as far as to repurchase chips. Multiple purchases were permitted to encourage customer spending, and if a customer bought N times the chips, the dealer was required to provide N times the service duration, win or lose.

Before starting the second round of gambling, Igor, seemingly on impulse, asked Emma, “If I win, I can make one wish for a duration of 120 minutes, okay?”

“No problem.”

The Contract was established.

Unlike usual contracts, Igor set a number restriction (one) and a time restriction (120 minutes). The more restrictions specified in a Contract, the stronger its effect, especially since Emma was a Moonshadow, which meant that Igor’s typical predatory ‘Contract’ might fail.

However, after Emma lost 300 minutes, the situation started to take a delicate turn. It seemed that she received an urgent message and left Revelation of Gamble abruptly. Igor soon discovered that Emma was a Blood Mad Hunter.

He immediately realized he held a valuable wish in his hands.

After that, Emma frequently visited the café to gamble with Igor, trying various games and occasionally winning, but Igor generally continued to dominate. The time restriction on the wish, with multiple accumulations, had grown to 9000 minutes.

While Igor was pondering how to maximize the benefit of this wish, he was cornered in Revelation of Gamble by the Sin Hunter’s Hall.

That explained it all. No wonder Emma kept coming back to gamble with him, and no wonder she never moved to ‘settle the gambling score’.

High-end Blood Mad Hunters often appear before Con Artists as prey.

Igor was suddenly arrested and didn’t have time to alter his memories. The Memory Master searched his memories and, oh boy, uncovered a long list of fraud cases. Off to Shattered Lake he went to face his fate.

Even though he was captured, the Contract with Emma remained valid — the Virtual Realm is the longest-standing witness.

After his escape from prison, Igor went straight to Emma’s door, confronting her in her pajamas with his revenge: “I command you to help me escape from the Blood Moon Kingdom.”

It was just one wish, but it could be broken down into three parts:

– Provide Igor with a safe place to stay and food;

– Do not disclose any information about Igor’s whereabouts;

– Gather intelligence for Igor.

Emma fulfilled all three.

So Igor stayed in that cramped storage room, waiting each day for Emma to return home to feed him. He couldn’t claim she broke the Contract — at most, she had met his demands in the most humiliating way possible.

Click.

The sound of a key turning in the lock signaled Emma’s return home.

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