Sorcerer’s Handbook

“Has visiting the prisons of every country become one of our regular tourist activities? If reality were a game, we definitely would have unlocked the ‘Prison Experience Specialist’ achievement by now.”

Ashe muttered to himself while feeling the padding on the wall.

“Not just that, you could also unlock ‘Defeated in One Second,’ ‘Best at Getting Beaten,’ and ‘Losing by a Little Still Counts as a Win’ achievements,” Igor replied, lying on the padded floor with a look of sheer boredom.

“Exactly. I was so close to turning the tables,” Ashe said, biting his nails. “Unfortunately, I haven’t mastered the Inferno of Tribulations long enough. Plus, she managed to combine the powers of four Demi-Gods to ambush me, a newcomer… If it weren’t for the incorrect intelligence from those Tribulation Fire Temple followers, if I had more time to train, if she hadn’t used her seemingly non-combative appearance to deceive me, victory would have been mine!”

Igor glanced at him. “What I meant wasn’t ‘you lost by a little, so it counts as a win,’ but rather ‘you lost so badly yet you still find so many excuses for yourself; what else can I do? I’ll have to count it as your win.’”

Ashe crossed his arms and nodded repeatedly, “I completely understand now. In your eyes, I have already won. I’m so touched!”

Igor’s face twisted in anger, while Harvey next to him couldn’t help but chuckle. “Still, it wasn’t Ashe’s responsibility this time. Even the First Gospel couldn’t have turned the situation around… Could it be that the Omniscient Weaver anticipated this and that’s why they sent Ashe, a substandard proxy, to make do?”

“Possible. The First Gospel is, after all, the Omniscient Weaver’s proxy. This was originally a brilliant opportunity for the Omniscient Weaver to infiltrate this Kingdom, yet they chose to send Ashe instead…” the Con Artist mused. “Either the Omniscient Weaver doesn’t value this Kingdom, or sending the First Gospel wouldn’t have made a difference anyway. So they decided to cut their losses and used Ashe to handle the Tribulation Fire Temple.”

“Can you save the insults for when I’m not around? Let’s focus on escaping this cell first,” Ashe grumbled. “Why do you all look so relaxed, like you’re at home?”

“And why do you think we have any chance of escaping?” Igor added. “Outside is the headquarters of the Four Pillars Cult. Even if we break out of this cell, how far do you think we can get?”

Ashe retorted, “You weren’t saying that earlier. You were all about escaping when we were in the Tribulation Fire Temple. Why the change of heart once the Four Pillars Cult caught us? How much did they pay you?”

“I didn’t know much about the Tribulation Fire Temple,” Igor said with a sigh. “But the Four Pillars Cult? This is our third encounter with them, assuming we count you as their Cult Leader. By now, we’re practically old friends, aren’t we?”

“Also,” the Con Artist sat up, patting the padded wall, “we can’t break out of this cell. This is clearly-“

“Your office?” Harvey interjected.

Igor shook his head. “I may have dabbled as a psychological Healer, but I’ve never worked as a mental health rehabilitation specialist.”

They found themselves in a roughly 25-square-meter enclosed space. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all covered with blue padding. Even the toilet seemed to be made from a soft, slime-like material. Warm light seeped through the seams of the padding, filling the room with a gentle glow and leaving no shadows.

Though the three of them had never been in such a place before, the environmental clues were unmistakable-this was an infirmary for holding mentally ill patients.

After Ashe’s defeat, Igor immediately surrendered, bringing Harvey along. Interestingly, once the Inferno of Tribulations Demi-God was captured, the red-robed priests lost all will to fight and offered no resistance. The die-hard Tribulation Fire Temple disciples also surrendered completely, and the Four Pillars Cult refrained from massacring them. They simply demolished the entire Tribulation Fire Temple, took over the area, and captured all the sorcerers.

It seemed the wars in this world followed an unspoken rule-Demi-Gods were everything. With a Demi-God, anything was possible. Without one, all was lost.

Their mode of transportation was equally fascinating: a magnetically levitating train pulled by pack beasts. Yes, that’s right-a series of hovercar-like train cars pulled by animals that resembled a cross between cows and horses, floating above the ground without the need for tracks. Even Igor, Ashe, and Harvey had to admit the design was an eclectic blend of modern and traditional aesthetics.

To be honest, the “cow-horse train” wasn’t slow at all. It was quite comfortable and far more stable than the hovercars back in the Blood Moon Kingdom. This journey would have been their best opportunity to escape, but Ashe was constantly questioned by their captor, and Harvey’s multiple attempts to break free were stopped by Igor. After a few hours, they arrived at the Four Pillars Cult’s headquarters.

The headquarters of the Four Pillars Cult was similar to the Tribulation Fire Temple, both built atop ruined cities. It wasn’t until they were locked up in this cell that they realized the original purpose of this place-it used to be an asylum!

It’s worth noting that the Blood Moon Kingdom does have mental hospitals. Mental illness can be either congenital or acquired. While congenital cases are usually dealt with at birth, acquired illnesses remain a challenge, being complex physiological and psychological conditions that even skilled Healers find difficult to treat.

Interestingly, in the Blood Moon Kingdom, seeking regular psychological help is common. Ironically, the highest proportion of patients in mental hospitals are actually psychologists. Those who frequently rescue others from the mire can sometimes find themselves sinking into it.

Although not all newborns in the Blood Moon Kingdom are given the chance to live, those who do survive enjoy comprehensive social benefits, such as state-sponsored childcare, healthcare, and elderly support. Employment assistance is also available for the jobless.

Yes, if one avoids the pitfalls of consumerism, sugar, gambling, and the mud and tea houses, they can live a laid-back life in the Blood Moon Kingdom without working, with the state providing for their needs until they become subjects for the Blood Saint’s experiments. Apart from enduring long advertisements while watching shows and mandatory participation in game testing, ordinary people live quite luxuriously, enjoying the full benefits of modern technology.

However, in a kingdom rife with anxiety, discrimination, mania, and temptations, it’s impossible to avoid moral decay as there’s no safe haven for personal sanctity.

In that sense, the mentally ill are the only ones that can resist corruption. They have finally found a place where they belong.

The main bathhouse being in the Tribulation Fire Temple while the mental hospital is guarded by the Four Pillars Cult seems odd at first, but thinking about it, it actually makes some sense.

Now, they faced a new problem: they couldn’t break out of the cell!

Their spellforce wasn’t restricted, nor were their spirits banned, yet the three Sanctuary Sorcerers couldn’t cause any damage to the cell at all!

The padded walls absorbed all kinetic energy and nullified any spellcasting damage that Ashe, Harvey, and Igor could muster. Whether it was Ashe’s Honey Sword, Harvey’s deathly corrosion, or even the silenced handgun Igor pulled from his Spatial Card, nothing left a mark on the padding.

No wonder the Four Pillars Cult felt secure locking them in here-they couldn’t even damage the toilet!

Ashe and the others started to wonder if this place was custom-built to imprison legendary sorcerer lunatics. But then Igor recalled seeing something-one of the black-robed sorcerers had the same blue padding hidden under his robes.

This meant the Four Pillars Cult had likely stripped the soft padding from the other cells in this mental hospital to make armor for their disciples!

Of course, using such damage-resistant material for something as luxurious as mental hospital padding seemed like a waste. Using it for armor made so much more sense!

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