Mage Manual-Chapter 299 - 256: You Have Received ’Sword Maiden’s Leave Request Slip

Chapter 299: Chapter 256: You Have Received ’Sword Maiden’s Leave Request Slip

"I’m kind of bored, let’s switch to another game."

When Ash faced his tenth consecutive defeat of the night in "Mage Duel 14," he suggested what Diya had expected.

Tonight, Ash abandoned the wandering Sword Saint he had been cultivating and employed popular characters like the Alchemist Dominator and Earth Empress. He even used special characters such as the enemy Mage and the Sorrowful Green Scythe, all of whom shared one feature—they had simple and handy loop suppression routines.

In short, they were ’Spear Moves’—a term from the "Mage Duel" series, referring to tactics as simple and practical as a spear thrust that are difficult to counter and great influence on the game’s enjoyability, which is why players would agree to disable them by default.

Don’t assume that only Ash had read the "Complete Mage Duel Series Strategy Guide"; Diya also made time for Liss to read it, naturally, they both knew about these Spear Moves.

Sadly, Ash only learned these superficial techniques and didn’t understand that the real key to Mage Duel were ’Counterplay,’ ’Differential,’ ’Eye Pressing,’ and ’Countermove’—or perhaps, because these were too difficult to learn, he gave up on them entirely.

The more Diya played, the more she realized that "Mage Duel" contained a vast amount of knowledge about mage combat, much of which could be directly integrated into real combat. For instance, ’Eye Pressing’ is about gauging how much hit stun your attacks will cause on an enemy, connecting the attacks just right to form an undodgeable combo, inflicting substantial damage on the opponent.

The game characters’ skills are but different ingredients, and once you grasp the key, you can handle any fight with ease.

It’s the same with ’Miracle,’ where mindlessly unleashing all Miracles in one breath means you’re just a rookie with nothing but production value. Those slightly proficient in tactics like Ash knew how to use Miracles to land combo critical hits, but that was his limit. The real powerhouses, like Diya, not only knew how to burst damage but could also catch every single flaw the enemy exposed or even force errors from the enemy when there were none.

In the beginning, Ash indeed managed to push Diya to the edge of the board with his Spear Moves, but once Diya got a grasp on the characteristics of those moves, she used actions like crouching and high jumping to break away from the edge. When Ash repeated the same tactics, Diya would capitalize on his mistakes and break through directly.

Therefore, when Ash proposed playing another game, Diya didn’t find it surprising at all. Tonight’s feast of Spear Moves was simply Ash’s last act of defiance.

He had fallen, preferring to abandon the dignity of a player to gain the power to defeat his enemies, yet still he was effortlessly crushed by Diya. In a fairy tale, that’s like the dark villain getting easily squashed by the righteous hero.

Ash knew he stood no chance of beating himself in this game, and naturally, he wouldn’t continue playing with himself. On this point, Diya shared the same view—never play a game where you can’t win.

"Sure," Diya put down the controller. "What should we play?"

"Let me check..."

Ash pulled open the drawer under the large Light Screen, where various game cartridges were stored with labels categorized: ’To Play with the Kids in the Future,’ ’Indie Masterpieces,’ ’Always Fresh with Frequent Play,’ ’Only When the Miss Is Not Around’...

After searching for a while, he suddenly pulled out a cartridge: "This is the one!"

Diya thought to herself that if the game wasn’t interesting, she would just have Liss come out and play with him. After all, as long as she ’defeated’ Ash, it would be considered completing the Observer’s task. But as the game screen came to life on the Light Screen, she was captivated and unable to look away, even with Liss knocking on the mirror beside her creating a loud noise.

"Mage Cart 5"

"A spin-off of the Mage Duel series. Game characters race in various Void Realm environments in go-karts and can use Miracles to attack other racers," Ash explained. "Let’s play this!"

"Okay!"

Perhaps this game will teach me how to attack people from a car!

Both of them thought the same thing.

.....

...

An hour and a half later, the two of them emerged from the game room, disheveled and dusty. Diya’s hair was messy, and Ash’s clothes were even torn. They exchanged glances, snorted coldly at one another, and departed back-to-back—Ash to his room, Diya to the kitchen to find something to eat. freeωebnovēl.c૦m

"Although I’m not at all surprised, did you really have a falling out with Liss?"

Igula had just come out of the room when he saw the two of them together and couldn’t help wanting to laugh.

"Don’t make it sound like I’m responsible or anything," Ash said irritably, "That little brat can’t take a loss and throws a tantrum, am I supposed to put up with her?!"

"Although I have no parenting experience, based on my time in the orphanage, guardians are supposed to indulge children. Looking back now, those were wonderful times. I controlled the entire orphanage with the ’Child Protection Law’, even adults didn’t dare to defy me..."

Ash was no longer surprised by Igula’s evil and preposterous past and retorted, "We were just playing a racing game, it’s a part of the game to sabotage each other, but Liss lost her temper after I knocked her from first place three times... Sigh, why do kids nowadays care so much about winning and losing."

"Ash, I really advise you to wear a mask, considering your expression management is even worse than the new arrival Harvey brought back. You can’t contain your schadenfreude even while speaking."

"Ah?" Ash subconsciously touched his mouth, "Then when you go out, buy me a mask, a good-looking one."

"How do you know I’m going to..." Igula got halfway through his sentence and stopped himself, looking down at his trench coat and boots, it was clear to anyone, even a fool, that he was going out—they usually wore slippers in here.

Ash: "Have you talked to Harvey?"

Igula knew what he wanted to ask and shook his head, "I asked, but Harvey didn’t say what task he and Hanna performed last night. However..."

"However what?"

"The Ice Cold Flowing Fire inside him that was dying out seems like it’s really going to ignite," Igula leaned against the wall and said, "If before Harvey was digging his own grave, now it seems like he plans to make the grave bigger, but who he plans to bury, I have no idea."

"So, has Hanna completely activated Harvey?" Ash said. "Could the Lady use the ’Light of Hope’?"

"Harvey doesn’t have Longevity Syndrome, the Light of Hope can’t cure that," Igula shook his head. "But his concerns are nothing but two things, one is his dead lover, and the other... is the Necromancy Faction’s enterprise."

"Hmph, unlike me, I wish I was the only one in the whole world who practiced the Spirit Faction, while Harvey craves for the whole world to practice Necromancy."

"It’s you, Igula, who’s not quite normal," Ash said. "Don’t you look forward to a peer who is equally matched, who can keep up with your thoughts, and with whom you can exchange sparks of wisdom?"

The Swindler glanced at the cult leader.

"Cowards need friends," he said. "Harvey is that kind of person who can’t live without relying on something, and the only reason he clings to life is to go all out... I’ve seen too many patients like him, I have many clients like him; strong, persistent, yet more fragile than glass. But Harvey is indeed heavyweight among the psychological patients I’ve seen, do you know why he likes Necromancy so much? Because he’s so lonely he needs the dead for companionship—"

"Hey." Ash cut him off, his expression half joking, half serious, "It’s only meaningful to talk bad about people to their face. Talking behind their backs is like hiding behind a shield to throw sh**; it’s not the least bit thrilling."

"Are you even in the mood to care about others, Ash Heath?" Igula raised his head, his face full of scorn. "You should understand, since Harvey hasn’t come looking for us, he already has other plans. In this house, you don’t have any friends, the alliance no longer exists."

Ash glanced at him but suddenly burst into laughter.

"What are you laughing at?"

"I’m just thinking, when you want to use me, you speak pleasing words, so when you’re hurling insults, what exactly are you up to?"

Ash patted Igula’s shoulder, "I’m off to the Void Realm, hope your work goes smoothly tonight."

"Hope you get run over by the White Bull in the Void Realm," Igula said with no good humor.

Ash returned to his room to take a bath, and while there was still time, he decided to soak in the bathtub and open up the game system to do some research.

If it weren’t for receiving the map last night, Ash wouldn’t have known that his Void Realm Map had a recording function, so there might still be some useful options in the game system that Ash hadn’t discovered yet—such as possibly delegating Void Realm Exploration...

However, as soon as Ash opened the game, he saw a red dot in ’Operator Management’, clicked in, and saw an envelope icon on the Sword Maiden’s portrait.

"Notice: You have received ’Sword Maiden’s Leave of Absence’."

Visit freewe𝑏no(v)el.𝘤𝑜𝓂 for the best novel reading experi𝒆nce