Mage Manual-Chapter 130 - 118 The Belly of the Golden Fish

Chapter 130 -118 The Belly of the Golden Fish

“The Mage’s Handbook: Gourmet Chronicles”: “Culinary Recipes Mastery.”

“The Mage’s Handbook: Cat Care Diary”: “Cat-Care Proficiency,” “Shit Shoveling Proficiency.”

“The Mage’s Handbook: Fishing Secrets”: “Mastering the Identification of Unknown Items.”

“Shocking, this Fishing Mage, because he always fishes out weird things from the river, even mastered the identification of unknown items… However, considering his frequent no-catch records, he probably doesn’t have the Fishing Proficiency skill.”

“But, he’s pretty good at fishing for people,” Sonia said impolitely as she plopped down on the sandy ground, face flushed and panting lightly, her lips curling up slightly in a mix of complaint and excitement, “He almost killed me.”

The Fishing Mage used a bizarre type of ‘fishing rod’ weapon, which doubled as a long spear and grappling hook with ease, smoothly transitioning between long-range and close-quarters combat. He was an extremely rare One-winged Mage who excelled in group battles, handling both Ash and Sonia without falling behind.

...

He even played a trick. After baiting Ash with a long-line hook to force a defensive move, he immediately switched to attacking Sonia from behind. At that time, Sonia was also dealing with his frontal fishing rod attacks, aware of the assassination attempt from the back but with no room to evade.

Had it not been for Ash timely protecting Sonia with the Sword Barrier, they might have been forced out of the Void Realm by now. Even after avoiding this lethal trap, they expended great effort to defeat the Fishing Mage, with Ash sustaining numerous minor injuries and Sonia’s hand being pierced through. Fortunately, in the Void Realm, they could rapidly heal with soul energy; if they were in reality, the Fishing Mage would have killed them long ago.

Aside from being unable to fish, the Fishing Mage could be said to be a One-winged Mage without weaknesses.

Ash watched as the Mage’s Handbook turned into light smoke and vanished, Inheritance Island rumbling as it was about to sink. He glanced at Sonia, still resting on the ground, and noticed her body was nearly translucent, indicating a significant amount of soul energy had been depleted. He extended his hand, “Let’s call it a night.”

Sonia looked at him and took his hand to stand up, “I think I could fight another round.”

“But I’m tired. I don’t want to keep fighting.”

Ash laughed and shook his head as he sat on the boat and stretched languidly, “No need to push it. If we actually die in the Void Realm, it would affect tomorrow’s jailbreak. Let’s sail a bit more and then leave the Void Realm.”

“After all, trying to find the golden fish in one night was a ridiculously ambitious wish. It’s normal not to achieve it. If we really did, I’d start to doubt if the Gods of Four Pillars are truly blessing me,” Ash complained half-jokingly. “It’s all because you mentioned the golden fish. The bigger the hope, the greater the disappointment. Sword Maiden, you’re taking full responsibility for this!”

Hearing the Observer making such an absurd excuse, Sonia wasn’t angry at all.

She sat in the little boat, crossing her legs, with her plump and straight thighs revealing a mysterious and enticing dark line, elbow on the knee, and fair hand supporting her chin, intently staring at the Observer.

Tonight she wore a black vest and a deep red mini skirt, with little boots and long stockings, adorned with black band-like accessories on her thighs—stylish and vivid, yet youthful, adding a touch of splendor to the monochromatic world of the Sea of Knowledge.

Seeing the Sword Maiden silent, Ash was a bit frightened, “Sorry, I was too arrogant. Hey, I have a joke for you. There once was a little rabbit that met a bear with diarrhea…”

“Quiet, I’m thinking.”

“Thinking about what?”

“Thinking about the information on the golden fish,” Sonia said calmly. “Organizing the current information to see if we can uncover the truth about the golden fish.”

Ash waved his hand dismissing the thought, “Don’t waste your energy. So many Mages have searched for so many years with no success. Could it be that their talent or dedication is less than ours? But even they have to proceed step by step, first advancing through faction realms before they can ascend to higher levels of the Void Realm. Hoping for a miracle like the golden fish is just an unrealistic fantasy…”

“But Mages are born to pursue miracles.”

Sonia tilted her head and smiled. “Anyway, I’m free, so just consider it keeping me company, and think with me about how to find the golden fish.”

Ash pursed his lips, tapped on the “Void Realm Map” to navigate the boat to a safe area, and leaning against the boat’s side with his arms crossed he said, “Since you’re dressed so nicely tonight, I’ll give you this favor.”

“Thank you!” Sonia responded crisply. “Let’s start by going over the new information we’ve got.”

Ash nodded, “Of the three Mage projections we just defeated, two handbooks mentioned the golden fish: the Gourmet Mage wanted to taste the flesh of the golden fish, while the Fishing Mage believed the golden fish could be caught.”

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It’s hard to say whether the former is audaciously bold, daring to covet the great beings of the Void Realm, or whether the latter is simply insane, unable to forget about fishing even in the Void Realm.

“Although the Gourmet Mage had pursued it for many years until his death without tasting even the golden fish’s shit, he did have his gains—he had once reached the Fate Q&A Island.”

From this, it became clear that Ash’s ‘Barrier-Free Reading of Mage’s Handbooks’ ability would become increasingly important in the future.

Initially, they could only read handbooks from low-level Mages, yielding almost no benefit, since the lives of low-level Mages were hardly worth mentioning.

But when they reached the core area of the Sea of Knowledge and encountered the projections of powerful mages, the benefits from reading the Mage’s Handbook could be said to have skyrocketed.

Because not only did they have extraordinary encounters in the Void Realm, other mages also had their lucky moments of being favored by the Void Realm.

What was even more miraculous was that the encounters in the Void Realm might not be unreplicable.

Reading the Mage’s Handbook was tantamount to gaining the strategies and intelligence of other mages who explored the Void Realm. Take ‘Vortex Secret Poison’ as an example, if Ash had not happened to read that particular handbook and learned this fast-leveling strategy, they would probably still be Silver Half-winged mages.

“Like us, he also asked the Void Realm about the golden fish, ‘Can I eat the flesh of the golden fish in the Sea of Knowledge?’ The answer from the Void Realm was ‘You can’t.'”

“We can draw a conclusion from this: the golden fish do not exist in the Sea of Knowledge as beings of flesh and blood.”

“The Fishing Mage, on the other hand, believed that the golden fish were hidden in the sea, so he persisted in fishing in the Void Realm for over a decade. But aside from occasionally catching mud Fish Dragons and Fish-Slicing Dragons, which are creatures of knowledge, he found no trace of any golden fish. He even dived into the Sea of Knowledge, but it was pitch black in the sea, and he died very quickly.”

“Here we can also draw a conclusion: we cannot dive into the Sea of Knowledge to search for the golden fish.”

Sonia pondered, “The information we got before was that the golden fish can be seen without triggering any ritual and are always floating on the surface of the sea.”

Ash counted on his fingers, “The golden fish are on the sea surface, they are not creatures of flesh and blood, the golden fish can be directly seen… Ah, I know what the golden fish are now!”

“Ah?”

“Don’t these mists here meet all the characteristics? They’re on the surface, inedible, and visible to the naked eye.” Ash looked at the thick mist engulfing their small boat. “The only problem is, it doesn’t look like it could carry an entire continent.”

“Be serious!”

“I am being serious,” Ash said languidly, leaning against the small boat and looking at Sonia with a sudden smile, “Don’t worry, even without Golden Technique Power, I won’t just die while trying to escape… presumably.”

Sonia’s eyes flickered, “Who cares about you, I just want to see the sights of the Time Continent as soon as possible. Staying in the Sea of Knowledge, my Magic Power simply cannot grow.”

“Alright, alright, I’m just being over-sensitive,” Ash replied cheerfully. “By the way, didn’t you rest for an hour tonight? What did you do?”

“I went drinking with Reonie.”

“The Reo who beat you up pretty bad last time?”

“Who got beaten up pretty bad? I clearly won, and after all, it was your fault for insisting I fight her! You still have the nerve to mention it—”

“Hey, so you’re of age to drink now?”

“Ugh, you’re really… Of course, I’ve been an adult for a while now. She talked a lot about her adventures in the Abyss, it was very interesting.”

“Tell me some of it?”

“For instance, there’s this particularly rare ‘Evil Shadow’ with no substance, it attacks the soul and is incredibly difficult to deal with, but its weakness is quite obvious. Just shine a light to cast its shadow, and then attack the shadow, the creature itself will be severely injured.”

“And there’s the terrifying ‘Eyeball Hunter,’ extremely sturdy, it stays still when being watched but moves swiftly towards the mage to pierce their eyeballs the moment you avert your gaze. She and her group saw one once, fortunately, they were far enough to escape in time.”

“The most dangerous monster in the shallow Abyss is the ‘Devourer,’ enormously huge, it disguises its stomach as a regular cave. Once a mage steps inside, it seals off the stomach-cave and releases potent stomach acids. Ordinary Silver Mages stand little chance of breaking through its stomach lining, they can only watch as they’re dissolved…”

As Sonia talked about these terrifying Abyssal stories, she seemed excited and her eyes sparkled. Ash listened with a kindly face at first, to the charming school anecdotes, but his expression gradually changed, and he even suddenly sat up.

“Did you just say there was a monster that disguised its stomach as a cave?”

“Yes, called the ‘Devourer.’ Why, have you seen it?”

“I think I might have seen something similar.”

Sonia blinked, “Something similar?”

Ash looked up, gazing into the fog-shrouded sky.

“Do you think, maybe we are inside the belly of the golden fish?”