Sorcerer’s Handbook

May 19th, a little past 7 PM.

There are at most 28 hours left until the second ranking list is announced, and Ashe is contemplating a serious problem—he has been stood up.

Over the past few days, Ashe has finally managed to form an Extreme Raid team as the commander. They fought their way through to the third phase of the Extreme Cutting Carp Overlord Lord, and it looked like they were set to clear it tonight. However, the damage-absorbing sorcerer in their team suddenly had something come up, saying they had work in real life and couldn’t make it tonight.

Now, Ashe has two choices: give the whole team the night off or recruit a random player to continue the raid. Given that the strategies for Extreme Raids are more or less the same, as long as the random player has experience reaching the third phase, they should be able to integrate into the team quickly and help them clear the raid tonight.

But there’s no way to verify in-game if the player is telling the truth. If the random player lies about their progress, Ashe’s team might end up spending the whole night doing the ‘Dragon Slaying Dance’ (the team-wiping AOE in the first phase of Extreme Cutting Carp that requires perfect coordination).

Ashe himself has pulled off such a stunt before, joining a [1% Clear Tonight Team] after just seeing the second phase. How else could he have gained raid commander experience in just a few days?

Moreover, clearing the raid might actually be more troublesome than not clearing it. If they clear it tonight, should they help the teammate who took leave to clear it again tomorrow night? What if someone refuses? The teammate on leave has also been helping them for several nights; ignoring them might not be fair.

In the past few days, Ashe has not only gained command decision experience but also a lot of management experience—when someone makes a mistake, should he talk to them privately or scold them directly? When someone is always late, should he replace them or give a warning? When team members argue, how should the leader mediate and balance?

Initially, Ashe hoped to recruit a few more strong operators, but after experiencing the difficulty of team management, he now thinks having the Witch on one side and the Sword Princess on the other is pretty good. Adding operators slowly is just fine.

Compared to forcing a raid, taking the night off is risk-free. Taking the night off won’t rush progress, won’t cause berserk phases, and won’t be annoying. Taking the night off is the best.

But if they take the night off tonight, what should he do?

Ashe pondered for a moment, looking at the Senhaeser heraldry on the back of his hand.

If the second ranking list is released and they need to move, Ashe would only have two more chances to experience Senhaeser’s Dream.

Everyone had been exploring the dreamscape multiple times since arriving here, but Ashe had been raiding every day, leaving all the dream expeditions to his Substitute.

He hadn’t experienced the dreamscape even once.

It felt like everyone else was visiting a tourist attraction while he stayed in the hotel the whole time. When it was over, everyone talked about the beautiful places and delicious food, while his experience was that the hotel bed was soft.

Not venturing into the dreamscape felt like a wasted trip to Vamora.

Thinking this, Ashe opened Aurora’s Sorcerer Handbook, selected “virtual realm exploration” – “dream expedition,” and canceled today’s Substitute expedition.

Tonight, he was going to explore the dreamscape himself!

“Warning: Operator’s soul has not yet recovered; personal expedition will not yield dream shards!”

Even without dream shards, he wanted to see it!

“Warning: Canceling this expedition will result in a significant loss of tomorrow’s benefits!”

I might be leaving tomorrow anyway!

“Warning: Are you sure you want to cancel the expedition?”

Just as Ashe was about to confirm, a devilish nobleman version of himself popped into his mind: [The system is warning you, you better not be ungrateful and listen!]

Then a Holy Seraph version of himself appeared: [He just wants to explore the dreamscape, what’s wrong with that?]

Devilish Nobleman: [What’s the point of fooling around? The cost is losing dream shards, and something bad might happen. Don’t you think this is a meaningless impulse? What if his soul gets damaged inside, prolonging the recovery time, and he can’t make it to the Spider Tower round? Will you take responsibility then?]

Holy Seraph: [You make a good point, Ashe, let’s skip it this time.]

Holy Seraph, you surrendered too quickly! Wow, my imagination is so vivid that I can imagine two characters debating this?

Ashe scratched his head. Since this was his own conclusion, he subconsciously followed it. Even though his team was short a member for today’s raid, Ashe could still join a random team. The only downside was the mixed skill levels of the players, and there might be a few who lied about their progress.

However, since Ashe had lied about his own progress before, he figured he could consider this as paying back his dues through charity.

In Senhaeser’s Dream, the Witch arrived at the starting point and let out a long breath. “Phew, that was close! Luckily, we reacted quickly, or else Ashe would have barged in.”

Another Witch, dressed in pajamas, hesitated and said, “But what we’re doing doesn’t seem right, disguising our thoughts and implying them as internal voices… The Observer might not know, but the Sword Princess will definitely be mad. She hates it when we interfere with Ashe.”

“Who cares about that crazy woman? But I do want to see what happens when Ashe enters the dreamscape. Hehe~”

“Nothing will happen. Given Ashe’s personality, he’ll probably just join that legendary sorcerer arena and duel all night.”

“Honestly, the fact that Ashe believes in internal voices is what’s most surprising to me… White Witch, you must have seen the young Observer. Was he this naive back then too?”

“Young Observer?” The White Witch thought for a moment. “I can’t really remember, but I can assure you the purest and cleanest organ he had was his large intestine. Everything else was heavy metal pollutants, contaminated soil, burning polluted air… Black Witch, do you remember?”

The Black Witch was spinning around. “La la la, la la la, la la la la~ Observer~ Observer~ Observer~ Ugh—” She suddenly vomited a pile of ink, causing the other sisters to quickly distance themselves.

The Witch clapped her hands. “Alright, break time is over. Go see your lovers.”

“Ladies!” The White Witch suddenly shouted. “Today is our last day in the dreamscape!”

All the sisters’ eyes lit up, and they immediately retreated into the white mist, disappearing—even the Black Witch, who had been vomiting, was no exception.

The Witch smirked and reached out to pull back the slowest Pajama Witch.

The Pajama Witch was confused. “I didn’t do anything wrong. Why are you grabbing me? Grab the White Queen, she’s the mastermind!”

“Once you knew tonight was the last night, you were planning to do something bad.”

“Everyone’s the same! Don’t you want to, sister? Now we can cause trouble without facing any consequences!”

The Witch grabbed the Pajama Witch’s head and smashed it into the ground repeatedly, each impact echoing with a thud. “You! Of course! Don’t! Face! Consequences! But I’m the one who will face the Observer and the Sword Princess’s combined wrath! I’m the one who will get scolded! They are so annoying!”

The Pajama Witch’s head was battered and bloodied, the crimson liquid streaming down her forehead and splitting into twin rivers along her nose, turning her once adorable face into a grotesque visage. Yet, she didn’t resist at all, letting her sister handle her as she pleased, even grinning mischievously. “Why should I care? I’m not the one getting scolded. Let me go!”

The Witch sighed. “Fine, the Observer probably accounted for this margin of error… Tonight, we’ll switch roles. You go to Deya, and I’ll go to the Scarlet Dead Apostles.”

“Why?”

“Because I want to see the Scarlet Dead Apostles one last time.”

The Witch’s lips curled into a cruel smile. “If I’m not mistaken…”

“Tonight is her death night.”

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