"So it is..."
Thirteen Fragrances muttered quietly to himself.
He sat on a chair in the inner room, quickly flipping through the posts recomnded to him by Longjing Tea.
Today seed to be... the public test? Anyway, it was a day when a massive number of players would log in. He was just the first to arrive.
About "where is this" and "what are we supposed to do," Longjing Tea and the others decided to wait until everyone had arrived before explaining uniformly. That way, they wouldn’t have to explain it over and over again, which would be quite troubleso.
So, Thirteen Fragrances went into the room to sit and rest for a bit... while also grabbing so water to drink. Defu said that the pastries and fruit were free for the taking, but he felt sowhat embarrassed to help himself.
Based on the "initial spells" ntioned in the posts, he could determine that he was inclined towards the Soul Snatching School of Wizards.
Of course, this inclination wasn’t a hundred percent certain.
If one wished to reverse their school, it was also possible through rituals and actively mastering spells from other schools to change their school inclination. As long as the weight of the spells mastered exceeded 50%, when becoming a Transcendent, one would be classified into that school.
Normally, one would only make such a choice when they were certain they had taken the wrong path... for instance, when the erosion level was too high, one could only walk the path of a destruction wizard.
The taboo for Soul Snatching Wizards included one which was love.
—Because it was simply too easy for Soul Snatching Spells to control another’s mind.
The most basic Soul Snatching Spell was able to detect the intensity of a "certain emotion" of all the people around. For instance, affection, murderous intent, fear... And this could be used not only to detect enemies but also to judge others’ attitudes towards oneself.
It was precisely because of this that one must possess a sufficient ethical standard to control oneself, not to recklessly steal another’s heart. A greater taboo was using spells for personal gain.
Couples who never argue or break up when in love were actually the minority. Once an emotional dispute occurred, or even the risk of a breakup erged... outsiders truly had no standing to prevent a Soul Snatching Wizard from using spells to pry into their partner’s innermost thoughts, to ascertain what the other was thinking, or even to directly twist their partner’s heart.
The other person would, after every argunt or during unhappy tis, suspect whether they had been manipulatively controlled, or even doubt whether their liking for the other was a result of a spell.
This distrust would further deepen suspicions and create conflicts.
—Basically, among the eight major schools of Wizards, half advocate for "less use of spells," while the other half advocate for "more use of spells." For example, the School of Prophets, the School of Idols, the School of Transmutation are all among the latter.
And both the Destruction School and Soul Snatching School are among the forr.
Moreover, Thirteen Fragrances noticed that in the Wizard’s Tower, which taught Soul Snatching Spells, the instructors were almost always cryptic speakers.
When they usually spoke, it was "Bring that book," "Go to that classroom," "Achieve that goal," and so on. Simply put, they didn’t speak plainly.
This was in order to train Soul Snatching Wizards to also have the ability to discern others’ hearts and guess others’ intentions without resorting to spells.
If they lacked this ability, they were usually advised to withdraw by their instructors. They wouldn’t be allowed to advance as Soul Snatching Wizards.
—Because if this observational skill and analytical power were insufficient, their half-understanding of others’ hearts could be tantamount to a disaster on a human level.
They might see a trace of hatred and consider soone an enemy; sense a fleeting mont of love and believe the other person was pursuing them.
They would certainly have full confidence in the accuracy of their own spells... but the lower-level Soul Snatching Spells couldn’t ticulously search through another’s mories, nor could they detect every nuanced emotion perfectly.
If they received a bit of information and then erred in the step of analysis and judgnt, the problem would beco much more serious—and would also be difficult to self-examine.
After all, emotions are fleeting.
The feelings of that instant can’t be preserved indefinitely, can’t be fixed in place to be saved, nor can one expect them to never degrade—only a Gold-level Wizard capable of commanding the highest level of Soul Snatching Spells could possibly fix a slice of emotion and forever seal it, and even then, it’s a ritual spell.
An equivalent-level destruction spell can easily destroy a city; an equivalent-level transmutation spell would be able to swap a material with the flas at the center of the sun.
In this world where "the heart and the mind themselves hold power," the cost and difficulty of spells that tamper with the mind are much greater than those of other spells of the sa level.
"It’s kind of like Professor X, but not quite the sa..."
Thirteen Fragrances looked at the Soul Snatching Spells he would master, thinking hard and envisioning their potential applications.
Take, for instance, the main branch of the Soul Snatching series, "Consciousness Capture."
This is sothing all Soul Snatching Wizards must learn... its importance is sowhat akin to the fireball series for destruction wizards.
Fireball, giant fireball, high-temperature fireball, sticky burning fireball, electrified fireball, exploding fireball... If one disregards the original nas of these spells, at least one-fifth of the Destruction School’s spells could be understood as variations of the fireball spell.
According to the introduction on the post... it seems that during the initial pioneering phase for players, the first boss they would encounter was a Soul Snatching Wizard.
He could use the "Heart Control" spell to easily manipulate players’ minds, just like Yuri. There was even an advanced version of this spell, "Total Control." According to the controlled players’ thoughts, the experience felt like dreaming at the ti.
They could vaguely sense that sothing about their behavior was off, but a louder voice inside was telling them, "This is natural." It wasn’t a complete blackout or an abyss of consciousness where they couldn’t rember what happened, nor was it forcibly controlling their body.
After being controlled, if they suddenly encountered a severe injury or felt pain, they would be able to snap out of control instantly. It was like realizing they were dreaming while in the middle of a dream.
The key was not to make their subjects do "what they believe they would never do." It was "what they believe," not what they actually wouldn’t do... like betraying a friend.
But for "wild monsters," this type of control spell was too difficult. Moreover, it required adaptability.
Longjing tea recomnded straightforward and unpretentious consciousness-type spells.
For instance, one could use "Consciousness Capture: Fear" to lock down an enemy and then use "Consciousness Strengthen" to hold them in place; or one could lock onto a fearful teammate and a fearless foe and instantly swap their senses of fear with "Consciousness Replacent: Fear."
Alternatively, one could use "Consciousness Capture: Courage" to lock down an enemy and then cause their fighting desire to dissipate with "Consciousness Loss." One could also dispel a teammate’s fear and despair with "Consciousness Loss."
It was controllable, and it was supportive.
Indeed, a versatile spell.
And it required no prior motions, nor was its casting range small. As long as one was within sight of the target, they could use the spell.
Furthermore, after a Soul Snatching Wizard beca a Transcendent, as long as the target had an "enhanced" consciousness... or rather, very intense emotions, they could use the spell "Soul Tear" to cause massive damage to the enemy.
If the target had more than two types of enhanced consciousness, the damage from Soul Tear would increase proportionally—in Twelve Spices’ view, this seed akin to those effects where extra damage is added based on the number of stacked debuffs.
...A case of misfortunes never coming singly?
Or a festering outburst?
In any case, Twelve Spices quite liked this profession.
Just like the psychological test they took at the beginning.
They weren’t a mber of the Firepower Cult, but preferred an abundance of control abilities.
In this regard, the psychological test was quite worthwhile...
As Twelve Spices was ntally rehearsing their future damage cycles, the door opened again, and two girls ca in.
Two new players had co in, it seed.
Twelve Spices mused internally.
One of the girls with short hair looked vaguely familiar... Her na seed to be Electric, a holand voice actor as well as a horror ga live strear who also seed to have a late-night radio show. She was a young girl who appeared a bit clumsy.
The other girl, with silver ponytails, whom he had never t before, suddenly stared at him in astonishnt.
Then she exclaid, "Wang Shouyi!"
—Who are you?
I’ve beautified my in-ga face by at least 30%, and you can still recognize ?!
Twelve Spices was shocked.
As if reading Twelve Spices’ mind, the girl quickly said, "I’m Huo Huo... It’s , Husky!"
"What the heck?!"
Twelve Spices was flabbergasted.
He knew this na very well—it was his friend who was a professional at setting him up.
But "Husky" was supposed to be a man.
"—Why’d you create a female character?"
No, rather...
"How on earth did you do that??"
Reviews
All reviews (0)