Mage Manual-Chapter 221 - 192 Only Ash Is it Just Ash Is it Just Ash

Chapter 221: Chapter 192: Only Ash? Is it Just Ash? Is it Just Ash?

Chapter 221 -192: Only Ash? Is it Just Ash? Is it Just Ash?

Eternal Damnation Walker!

Although the name was filled with a wildly charming and reckless flavor, its effect was simply like Ash challenging Freyja—pleasure followed by death. A +5 to luck wasn’t much, but at critical moments, it could feel like a devastating -50.

Win and you would gain a piece of Moon candy, lose and it felt like losing an entire factory, even worse than gambling on a fund.

Additionally, it made one ‘more likely to trigger mysterious events, more likely to face complications, more likely to be despised by fate, and more likely to experience great failures’, which basically meant one was more likely to be unlucky, and once that happened, the luck would plummet to -50, akin to Meiwa unleashing a perfect combo with her hands and mouth.

If Ash had a stable life, even a normal home, he could have slightly countered the drawbacks brought by his profession.

After all, a -50 to luck sounded intimidating, but it actually required triggering a ‘critical moment’ as a prerequisite, so the avoidance strategy was simple—just as moral blackmail required a target with morals, if Ash lived a peaceful, mundane life, even the lowest luck wouldn’t affect more than his chances of getting sprayed with soda at Wallace’s.

However, now Ash was without a stable life, let alone a home.

He even suspected that if he slept under a bridge, because of his professional characteristics, he might continuously encounter events like robberies, gang wars, serial killers, Meiwa hunts, and invasions by exotic mages throughout the night.

So for Ash, the option to ‘integrate from the bottom in this kingdom’ was far too risky—finding a place to live, finding work, and even finding Mage resources were already extremely troublesome. With a -50 to luck, Ash felt every person he met could be a fraudulent agent.

Hanna’s hundred-day Contract, while it restricted Ash’s freedom, also meant his safety was secured—the first clause clearly stated the slave owner must protect the slave.

With Hanna as an intermediary, Ash could at least safely get past the most dangerous ‘newbie phase’. He didn’t believe in bad luck aiming solely at him to send down lightning strikes; it was certain to involve a radius of fifty meters centered on him, drawing in Igula, Hanna, and others, at least allowing him to share the bad luck around. Should anything happen, others would be there to take the fall.

In fact, the negative status of Eternal Damnation was likely planted when Selena bumped into him, followed immediately by Hanna seizing the opportunity during disaster and the little girl Liss employing cute scams—two major malicious events. While ‘luck +5’ was still hard to notice, the ‘luck -50’ was indeed incredibly effective.

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As they pondered, they had already arrived in the living room.

Hanna’s apartment appeared to be a large flat design, her home encompassing the entire negative 51st floor, with just the living room easily measuring over a hundred square meters. When Ash and the others arrived, they saw several mechanical spiders returning to their web nests to recharge.

Upon entering, Ash had seen these mechanical spiders cleaning. No need for further description—just by looking, one could see the advantages of these spider mechanics: extremely flexible, not missing any sanitary corners, three-dimensional thorough cleaning.

There was also no sign of other servants around, suggesting daily cleaning was probably handled solely by the mechanical spiders.

Considering the unmanned drone delivery system and the developed autonomous vehicle network outside, it seemed physical laborers here were already without exploitative value.

Although governed by Mages, the degree of development here comprehensively outmatched the Kingdom of Blood Moon, both macroscopically and microscopically. Ash couldn’t help but consider the possibility—was the Blood Moon really the most barbaric and shoddy Mage civilization?

Was his crossing into this world a disaster from the start?

“Please sit.” Hanna was already sitting at one end of the long table, waiting for them, and had changed into a set of purple silk pajamas—Ash felt he could guess the color of this woman’s underwear. The little white-haired girl Liss, holding a cup of milk, sat beside her, dressed in a cute bunny pajama, her eyes lively and spirited.

Of course, during the hour-long drive from the suburbs where the Four Pillars God Sect was located to the city center, only Liss had fully slept; Ash and the others had taken turns resting.

The young housekeeper, Banjee, stood by attentively. Beyond his youthful appearance, he seemed as seasoned as a sixty-year-old.

On the table were four rings, gleaming with the luster of aluminum metal and engraved with numbers from 1 to 12, very high-tech, three large and one small.

“Which finger doesn’t matter, the method is to wear it and then give it a twist,” Hanna said while filing her nails. “These are Salome’s latest model of Gospel rings, available in starry sky gray, matte black, and shimmering blue. If you have a preferred color, you can mention it; they can be swapped within seven days. The numbers on the rings are just for indicating time, decorative.”

“Gospel ring?” Igula picked up a ring to closely examine.

“That’s right, just as you thought,” Hanna said. “Once you wear them, you’ll be able to open the ‘Gospel Book’. Most of your questions can be answered from the ‘Gospel Book’.”

An impatient Liss had already put on her ring and, hearing this, decisively twisted it around. Ash and the others exchanged looks, then each donned and twisted their rings.

In the next second, four different books appeared in front of them: Liss’s book had a crystal cover, emitting a seven-colored light; Harvey’s book seemed to be bound with white bones, emitting a gray mist; Igula’s book was dazzlingly bright…

Ash’s book was the weirdest—while others had solid colors or various rune patterns, his cover featured a figure in a hood hanging upside-down, holding a book that covered their face, mysterious and secretive.

Hanna couldn’t help but give Ash’s book a second glance, soon losing interest, “Look at your Gospel Books and silently think ‘mine’.”

Ash did so, and the Gospel Book opened immediately, listing information:

“nome Ash Heath”

“Current points: 0”

“Points available this month: 0”

“Current ranking: None”

“Huh?”

Ash turned his head and saw that Igula and Harvey were showing shocked expressions. He felt a bit odd; the technology difference between this design and the chip light screen wasn’t that big, were they really that unsophisticated—

“Hanna sister, I’m ranked 10th on the ‘Azuma Beauty List’!” Liss boasted excitedly.

Ash blinked.

“First place in the ‘Two-winged Necromancy List – Azuma Sub-list.'” Harvey spoke softly, “It seems that the development of the Necromancy Faction here isn’t very good. I’m actually in first place …”

“Wait, Harvey, when did you become Two-winged?” Ash suddenly noticed a detail: “During the Blood Moon Judgement, you were still a One-winged Mage!”

“My accumulation was actually enough long ago. In the few days I broke out of prison, I absorbed enough magic power in the Void Realm, broke through to the Golden Level in the Necromancy Faction Realm, and then elevated my lifebound Technique Spirit to Two-winged, which allowed me to smoothly enter the Time Continent.” Harvey shrugged, “Even I, a newly promoted Two-winged Necromancer, can rank first here…sigh, I feel like I’ve come to a cultural desert.”

“Isn’t it good to be first?” Igula raised an eyebrow, “Second place in the ‘Two-winged Spirit List – Azuma Sub-list,’ fifth in the ‘Azuma Beauty List’… I can forget the Beauty List, but to have a Spirit Mage in the Two-winged Spirit Realm higher than me here, if this were in the Kingdom of Blood Moon, I might already be thinking of hiring you to assassinate that colleague.”

“You’re so weird. If someone is stronger than you, shouldn’t you want to surpass him with sheer strength?”

“Isn’t using money to assassinate him also a form of sheer strength? Resources, connections, power, intelligence—these are the real strengths of a Spirit Mage. Magic power is just a trivial part of it.”

Harvey thought for a bit and actually agreed with Igula’s twisted logic, “That’s true, after all, corpses count as my strength. Magic power isn’t enough to summarize everything about me…”

As they were talking, they suddenly noticed the absence of a noisy voice.

The two turned to look at Ash: “Ash, what’s your ranking?”

“Me, well,” Ash said dismissively, “This is very important confidential information, how can I just reveal it carelessly like you two—”

“Turn your ‘My’ page to me.” Hanna said.

Instantly, the three complied, and Liss obediently turned the book as well. Hanna glanced at it and saw that the name on it was indeed “Liss,” and the account had zero points. She let go of her last bit of suspicion about this mysterious little girl.

By then, Ash’s page was fully exposed to Igula and Harvey’s view.

Igula feigned extreme surprise and yelled loudly:

“Ah, my dear Ash, you don’t have any rankings?”

“Can it be, only Ash has no rankings? Only Ash? Only Ash?!”

“As expected of Ash, indeed it’s a secret worth hiding; we definitely can’t let everyone find out how embarrassing you are—”

Ash became so frustrated that the corners of his mouth twitched. Igula, that damn flirt was one thing, but even Harvey, with his deadpan face all day, was laughing like he was high on moon candy, his shoulders trembling so hard they almost shook his pajamas off.

“Harvey, in our prison break operation, who was really dragging us down, who was fooling around, I think it’s pretty clear.”

“Indeed, hahaha. Sorry Ash, I really can’t help you, it’s just too funny haha—”

“Laugh it up,” Ash resignedly said, “As long as I work hard, I can definitely be among the top!”

“‘As long as I work hard, I can surely get into college’!” Igula almost couldn’t keep the smirk off his face. “I miss it, the classmate who said that phrase seems to have turned into the star ‘Silver Fire Dragon.'”

“Ash, don’t be like this.” Harvey laughed, “I promise you, if there’s a corpse list, I will do my utmost to make sure you rank at the top!”

“Dad, don’t be sad!” Liss clenched her little fists and said, “I wouldn’t despise you!”

“Do you really still want to call me dad?” Ash couldn’t help but say.

“Eh? But apart from dad, who else would agree to always protect Liss, to always listen to Liss?” Liss seriously said, “I believe that even an incompetent dad will protect Liss well!”

“Since when did the contract time extend to forever—”

Harvey prompted, “When she made the vow, she didn’t mention a time limit, theoretically even if you died and I turned you into a necromancer, you should continue to protect her.”

“Stop, stop.” Hanna gently knocked on the table, “Now that you roughly understand the meaning of the ‘Gospel Book,’ it’s time to get to the main topic.”

“Is it about points?” Igula guessed, “The higher the ranking, the more points you earn, you want us to give you all our points?”

“I’ve been in the top three lists since I was sixteen, Banjee and I have the same number,” Hanna said lazily, “I’m not impressed by your little points.”

“But your jobs are indeed related to the lists, related to the ‘Gospel Book.'”

Hanna blew on her nails, “I need you to become the future number one.”