Mage Manual

Unconsciously, Ingrid had already gripped the sword hilt tightly, staring at the Blood Saint Mage on the stage, mentally slashing every cuttable part on his body dozens of times. An emotion even more intense than being besieged by Void Realm creatures, or encountering a strong enemy during a Meteor Disaster, or being on the brink of life and death, surged like a torrential rain in the night, triggering a landslide; mud and water indistinguishable, sticky and heavy earth covered all vitality, leaving only a dark, murky atmosphere of killing coldness in heaven and earth.

The Blood Saint Mage seemed to sense something as well. He turned his head to look at Ingrid, his lips curving into a cruel arc.

Just when Ingrid was ready to fly up, a familiar voice suddenly rang out from the edge of the stage: "I challenge you!"

The mages watching were stunned, observing a girl who couldn’t even fly with Void Wings, and had to pant heavily, climbing onto the stage, hopping to the middle. Although one shouldn’t judge by appearance, from both exterior and mentality, the mages could tell the girl hadn’t experienced much combat, and her Golden Illusion Wings definitely weren’t fully formed. On the Time Continent, she would be a weak mage at the lower end of the food chain.

Yet no one stopped her, after all, the more consecutive wins the Blood Saint Mage had, the higher his strength rating, thus his opponents could receive more blessings. Many planned to end the Blood Saint Mage’s winning streak and win all his spoils.

Only Ingrid was left dumbfounded.

"Adelle!?"

Hearing someone call her name, Adelle turned and saw Ingrid, enthusiastically waving like a songstress seeing her friends at a concert. Ingrid instinctively wanted to reach out and stop her from entering the duel of death but immediately halted that thought.

Firstly, the duel of death greatly favors the weak, enhancing their strength as much as possible to match the strong. Even if the weak die, the death penalty is low - two days of rest, and they can re-enter the Void Realm.

Secondly, and most importantly——

Adelle never participates in battles she isn’t confident of winning!

Ingrid knew Adelle too well; bullying the weak and fearing the strong, relying on strength to oppress others, and pretending to be a fox borrowing tiger’s might was simply her byword. She feared pain, hardship, exhaustion, and death, rarely attending combat training in school unless absolutely certain she could overwhelm the opponent. She would never join a fight!

In fact, Adelle’s promotion to Two-winged already greatly pleased Ingrid. After all, Adelle often said, "I’ve had all the hardships of this life," yet when Ingrid and Lois advanced, she would hastily catch up to progress alongside them, fearing to be left behind.

As Ingrid pondered, the duel of death resumed. Barriers rose around the stage, isolating the environment from the contestants. At that moment, a scale appeared in the sky, overwhelmingly tilting toward the Blood Saint Mage, matching everyone’s judgment—the Blood Saint Mage’s power crushed this deer-like girl.

At that very moment, everyone seemed to hear a silver coin drop on the scale’s other side, followed by a silver light falling on Adelle.

The death duel stage began to bless the weaker Adelle to balance the power disparity.

The Blood Saint Mage, unfazed and nonchalant about the stage strengthening the weak. Regardless of how much they enhance opponents’ strength and agility, it was meaningless to him; bat flight and blood incarnation were nearly invincible defenses against a Two-winged Mage, allowing him to leisurely slice the opponent’s flesh and drain their blood within safe limits, toying with life.

"Life Suction" could transform the opponent’s blood into Golden Technique Power; "Blood of Weakness" could significantly amplify the opponent’s pain. Even mages as soul bodies in the Void Realm, devoid of pain, would scream like pigs and sheep.

Unfortunately, the previous parasitic mage had a way to greatly reduce pain, leaving him unsatisfied. Now this one... The Blood Saint Mage gazed cruelly at the lamb-like fragile girl before him and couldn’t help but smile viciously.

How should he proceed with this delightful torment?

Da, da, da, da...

One silver coin after another fell, one silver light after another blessed Adelle. Initially, there was nothing unusual, but gradually, everyone noticed something off.

"It’s already blessed her over ten times, why has the scale barely balanced?"

"The previous parasitic mage only got six blessings!"

"It’s been twenty-six times!"

Adelle lifted her chin, proudly puffing her small chest, loudly declaring: "Because I’m really weak! Isn’t it normal for the stage to bless me more?"

Ingrid blinked, suddenly feeling the scene looked familiar. Previously, Adelle also cheating on exams, righteously argued that bringing a pen with communication function was reasonable.

Moreover, Adelle didn’t seem surprised at all by the multiple blessings; rather, it was as though...

She was conspiring with the duel stage to cheat.

After sixty-six silver gleams fell, the strength scale finally balanced, and a three-second countdown appeared on the central barrier. The Blood Saint Mage, long unable to hold back, took a deep breath, reassuring himself it was nothing; an over-strengthened weakling was still weak. She couldn’t touch him, he just needed to focus on dodging and could still kite her to death——

As the central barrier vanished, the Blood Saint Mage lifted his head only to see a small fist smashing into his face.