Sorcerer's Handbook-Chapter 632: Chrono Hourglass

“Speaking of which, Tamashi, why are you affected by fantasy creations like ‘Sanctuary’ and ‘Mirage Prism’?”

Outside the blue door of the church ruins, Ashe was puzzled. “Most mental miracles that don’t cause physical phenomena don’t affect you… and now even the Truth Fog Wall, a Barrier Miracle, seems useless against you!”

Just moments ago, Raven had passed through the Fog Wall under everyone’s watchful eyes and retrieved an artifact from behind it.

This scene left everyone stunned-if you could cheat, why didn’t you say so earlier? Would we look down on a cheater? No, we’d just cling to you for support!

Raven was a bit embarrassed too. “I actually never triggered the ‘Link of Truth’ from the start, but I didn’t think much of it because… well, I don’t have much education… and you all had ways to crack the Link of Truth.”

“It was only just now that I realized, since I hadn’t triggered the ‘Link of Truth,’ maybe the Fog Wall wouldn’t work on me either? I didn’t expect I’d pass right through.”

Tamashi Raven Annihilation, as a virtual realm insulator, couldn’t become a sorcerer despite his talent and wasn’t affected by most spirits, so he had to manually heal himself, something even Chikara knew. But no one expected Raven’s immunity to spirit influence would prove effective in such a situation.

That’s why Ashe had this question-why is Raven sometimes affected and sometimes not?

“Because of the level of fantasy,” Igor speculated. “‘Sanctuary’ and ‘Mirage Prism’ are already Idealistic creations, where spirits probably just serve as ambiance, and can’t have much effect.”

“The more fantastical the creation, the less Raven can resist; the closer to reality the miracle, the less effective it is against Raven.”

Regarding Tamashi’s characteristics, everyone could only guess, unable to confirm, as it concerned not just him but his interaction with the world of Senlo. Comparatively, everyone was more interested in what he brought out from behind the Fog Wall.

Actually, he didn’t bring anything out, just had a faintly glowing hourglass icon on the back of his hand.

According to him, there was a giant hourglass behind the Fog Wall, and upon seeing it, he felt a warmth on his hand, which resulted in the icon. When Ashe and the others saw Raven’s hourglass, they too felt a warmth on their hands and gained hourglass tattoos-this alone made them realize it was definitely a super fantasy creation.

The ‘replicating upon sight’ characteristic is generally applied in combat scenarios, like as auxiliary means for diseases, curses, and other negative statuses. Applying this characteristic to ordinary artifacts is something only Idealistic Senlo would do so extravagantly.

Upon acquiring the hourglass icon, they also received information about this one-time artifact.

“Sanctuary: Chrono Hourglass: Usable 1/1”

“Effect: Upon activation, body time stops flowing, spirit body becomes dormant, awakening only after 12 hours. During hourglass activation, immunity to all harm is granted, and after the hourglass empties, immunity to all external influences for the next 600 seconds is provided, with spirit body clearing all negative statuses to restore absolute health.”

Ashe exchanged glances with Igor and Harvey, eyes filled with surprise.

This artifact not only meant they could escape the Dead City’s Temporal Cage-besides ‘awakening with 600 seconds of immunity to all external influences,’ merely sleeping for 12 hours would allow them to escape the Dead City’s night.

More importantly, ‘spirit body clearing all negative statuses to restore absolute health’!

Damaged souls and crippled bodies could be fully restored!

No wonder Gray Fox sorcerers had such a high probability of becoming legends; even if they drowned in the Virtual Realm, were eaten by Blade Fish Dragons, or crushed by the heroic soul legion, they could use these Idealistic creations to quickly recover soul injuries, clocking in for work in the Virtual Realm every night, refusing the Virtual Realm’s malicious leave-of course, if they could create Idealistic creations without limit, they’d prioritize making tools to aid their cultivation and learning!

Gray Fox sorcerers weren’t brainless; regardless of their beliefs and ideals, they knew the higher their strength, the closer they’d get to their goals. And they understood their Idealistic creations only worked in ‘reality’; the Virtual Realm wouldn’t acknowledge their randomly created private server artifacts.

Thus, the correct approach for Gray Fox sorcerers was to use Idealistic creations to offset their disadvantages in the Virtual Realm and their innate shortcomings!

Hence the existence of the ‘Link of Truth’ for forced knowledge comprehension and the ‘Sanctuary: Chrono Hourglass’ for soul injury repair!

Ashe and the others were just two hundred years late; had they arrived during the peak of the Gray Fox Divine Era, they might have seen the ‘Ritual of Prohibited Synchronization of Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon Sauna Room,’ ‘Golden Flow Swimming Pool,’ ‘Blade Fish Dragon Fighting Arena,’ and other fantasy facilities aiding sorcerers in exploring the Virtual Realm.

Ordinary people wanting to learn any Spellcasting Sect wouldn’t have to fear lacking talent; they’d just forcefully enter through the ‘Link of Truth’!

It was a glorious era, a golden age for sorcerers.

Igor, knowing more of the inside story, felt this even more deeply.

Compared to Senlo, the Blood Moon Sovereign’s interference with the Blood Moon was minimal, so the Blood Moon Kingdom’s development level was the poorest;

The Omniscient Weaver sent deities to interfere with the Gospel, but as a result, the entire nation’s civilization was built on the Gospel system, and if this system were destroyed, the nation would collapse and regress;

The Chasm Sovereign of Senlo completely transformed Senlo, even becoming the Dream Master of Senlo’s Phantom, resulting in multiple golden ages, with development levels likely the highest among all nations, but when the Chasm Sovereign of Senlo encountered problems, the entire nation would be buried with it.

Perhaps the Divine Sovereigns didn’t love the people, but they took the exam of civilization seriously.

However, for Ashe and the others, the fantasy healing effect of the ‘Chrono Hourglass’ meant they could lift the Blood Seed curse even if they didn’t kill Silver Lantern.

After nearly two months of a long pursuit, they finally achieved half their goal.

“Besides the Chrono Hourglass, what else was behind the Fog Wall?” Igor asked.

Raven shook his head. “Nothing, just a giant hourglass. And I’ve tried many methods, using all my strength, but couldn’t take the hourglass down. However…”

He paused, “There were some words floating beside the hourglass.”

“What words?” Ashe asked, then immediately realized, “Can you transcribe those words?”

Raven fell silent; although everyone couldn’t see his expression, they could imagine the embarrassment under his mask.

He squatted down, scribbling on the floor.

Igor looked over and saw a crooked, bizarre symbol that didn’t correspond to any text. Feeling something, he asked, “Do all words appear to be crawling to you?”

Raven nodded lightly.

No wonder!

Igor had long wondered why a combat genius like Raven was illiterate; the Raven Annihilation Cult wasn’t without basic education, and Raven’s combat talent proved his intelligence was high, making literacy seem easy for him.

Even if he didn’t recognize complex text, he should know basic numbers, right? But he couldn’t even understand numbers!

It turns out Raven’s illiteracy wasn’t due to external reasons but because he had severe reading difficulties!

Igor had previously browsed related symptoms, and it was said that people with this condition could understand simple patterns but couldn’t read any text with information content. To them, text wasn’t a dead object that could be easily recognized but a living thing that crawled!

Do those afflicted also face the Virtual Realm’s disdain? Igor didn’t know. After all, unless one’s talent was so high that ‘not being a sorcerer is unreasonable,’ no one would find it strange for a person with reading difficulties to not become a sorcerer.

As for whether Raven was truly disliked by the Virtual Realm, no one was sure; perhaps sorcerers just wanted to find a reason for Raven’s anomaly, as they couldn’t accept being crushed by a ‘normal person.’ Especially those sorcerers beaten by Raven, they couldn’t accept losing to a mortal.

Thus arose the rumors of the ‘virtual realm insulator, Raven Annihilation Berserker.’

Igor even suspected that Tamashi was initially just an ordinary person unable to become a sorcerer due to reading difficulties, but as rumors spread, he gradually gained effects like ‘immune to spirits,’ truly becoming an insulator-in the Idealistic Senlo world, the people’s sanctification or demonization of him was enough to become his source of power.

But this meant they couldn’t know the message behind the Fog Wall unless Ashe obtained citizenship to check it, yet not only Ashe, they might not be willing to stay here for three years.

“However, we should first test the effect of the ‘Chrono Hourglass’…”

Always cautious, Igor naturally wouldn’t fully trust this fantasy creation, so he looked at the outsiders in the team: Gwen and Chikara.

The orc scratched his head, having already slid to his knees, naturally prepared to do the dirty work. But Gwen raised her hand, “I’ll be the first to test it.”

“…Alright.”

With permission, Gwen pressed the hourglass icon on her hand, but nothing happened. Until Igor waved his hand in front of her, they realized her hourglass had already activated.

The mental sorcerer checked carefully and found that although Gwen had her eyes open, there was no mental activity in her mind, her spirit body completely dormant. Then he had Raven try, discovering even the gray fox blade couldn’t harm Gwen in the slightest, nor could they move a finger of hers.

Gwen seemed to be embedded in time, unaffected by any external influence. Igor laid her horizontally on the ground, saying, “Basically, it’s consistent with the description; entering the hourglass countdown makes one ignorant and unconscious but absolutely safe, even Silver Lantern can’t harm us.”

“In other words, we can leave the Dead City at any time.”

“But it’s rare to have an environment completely free from external interference and independent of normal time flow,” Igor looked around at everyone. “You all probably want to take this opportunity to train, right?”

Everyone nodded, especially Raven, who was already cracking his knuckles.

Only Ashe’s face fell, “Uh, I’m kind of sleepy, how about-“

“Ashe, didn’t you say you wanted to learn combat techniques and mental methods from me?” Raven grabbed Ashe’s arm. “We never had the chance before, but tonight I’ll teach you my life’s skills!”

“If I say that was just a polite remark, will I get beaten?”

“You will.”

“Alright, how do you plan to teach me? It’s not going to start with basic physical training, is it?”

“No need, your physical foundation is good; we can go straight into combat training.”

“Combat training, meaning…?”

“You’ll get beaten up.”