Chapter 166: Illusion and Reality
Hearing Arno’s words, the other Wizard Apprentices, who were fantasizing about the bright future of learning, snickered.
Betty, having recovered from her despair, was now envisioning creating even better magical machines after her studies. She looked at Arno with frustration and said:
“Are you really a Wizard? Such enticing knowledge is about to be learned in the next five years, yet instead of being excited and happy, you are saying such discouraging things!”
“Brother Arno is not saying discouraging things! He is just… he just learns a bit slowly. He will definitely become a qualified Wizard!”
Ollie, with her black hair and eyes, her long hair straight and smooth, glared with her round eyes. Her cute little face puffed up as she looked down at the short, flat-chested, twin-tailed Betty.
“Actually, I am a Knight…”
Arno tried to explain, but both girls glared at him fiercely. His voice grew softer and softer under their gazes.
Ancestar looked at Arno and the others, his eyes showing nostalgia. She used to glare at me fiercely like that too.
Not far away, Warren had opened his Grimoire and was frantically taking notes. There were too many new things, and he hadn’t figured them out yet. He could only write them down, planning to ask Ace once he understood.
Bayen was emotionally stirred. Ace’s description of the future matched his expectations. Such a society would be a society of scholars, of researchers. Supernatural knowledge would be power!
After waiting for the crowd to discuss fully, Ace continued:
“All of this is not without cost. Everyone, please take out your Grimoires and transform them back to their original form.”
The Wizard Apprentices transformed their various imperfectly transformed Grimoires back to their original forms. The cold touch, the hard-shell magical paper made from mixed Monster bone and fur, the simple hexagram pattern on the cover, and the sentence below it.
Ace said to the crowd: “Please read this sentence aloud, repeatedly!”
The Wizard Apprentices read the sentence one after another:
“Keep Secrets, Stand Guard Together, Equivalent Exchange, Respect Knowledge, Seek True Knowledge.”
Ace’s voice became impassioned. The Soul Spell Suggestion was taking effect. The Suggestion, Empathy, and Will Runes flashed sequentially, gradually forming a solemn atmosphere.
“This is my pact with you! It is the principle of the pioneer of the path of Magic, the Torch-Bearer, and all Wizards. It is the promise we will follow and practice for our entire lives!”
The eyes of the crowd, repeatedly reciting this sentence, became solemn.
“I imparted the Grimoire to you, helped you achieve Mental Overdrive, guided you onto the path of the supernatural, and will teach you foundational magical knowledge for the next five years.
According to the principle of Equivalent Exchange, you will freely share the knowledge you discover and the results of your research with me in the future. I have the right to use them for free. Simultaneously, according to the principle of keeping secrets, I cannot share the knowledge and results with a third party without permission.
If you accept the reward I give, it will be deemed as permission for me to share the knowledge and results with a third party for a fee, and the proceeds from the paid sharing will be split equally between us.”
Ace looked around at the crowd and said slowly: “This is my pact with you, also recorded in the covenant of the Grimoire. Who among you agrees, and who opposes?”
While the Wizard Apprentices looked solemn, Bayen was the first to stand up. With a grave expression, like a pilgrim, he said:
“This is a fair pact. This is a sacred pact. The Pathfinder granted us the foundation of the supernatural and taught us the basics of Magic. As an individual, I, Bayen, am willing to share the knowledge and research results obtained in the rest of my life with His Excellency the Torch-Bearer!”
Sulu stared at the old man, considering him a formidable competitor. He stood up and said: “I, Sulu, am also willing to share with His Excellency the Torch-Bearer!”
Daina realized that two people had already stolen her role as Ace’s number one supporter. She snapped out of her infatuation, stood up hurriedly, blushed, and said somewhat timidly: “I am willing to share everything I have with His Excellency the Torch-Bearer.”
Other Wizard Apprentices also spoke up one after another, agreeing with this decision.
Ace watched the apprentices with pleasure. This was human nature. This was him, manipulating the apprentices, using the name of Equivalent Exchange to secure options on their future knowledge and research results.
But it was not enough. That Covenant Ritual alone might only bind the apprentice level. A Formal Wizard would likely require a new covenant.
In the future, he must simultaneously attempt to deduce improvements and discover more supernatural entities related to covenants. Perhaps Devils, who are proficient in covenants, would be excellent research subjects.
Last time he used the mental imprint network for deduction, Ace sensed an anomaly. The mental imprints, bound by the covenant and constantly nourished by the holder’s Mana, seemed to effect a soul-shaking change when linked into a network.
Yesterday, when Ace synchronized with the mirror image, he felt this sensation was familiar and abnormal. Perhaps the mental imprint network could become a witness existence like Great Hero Arnold!
He planned to test his hypothesis now, to see if the shared mental imprint network of the Wizard Apprentices could witness his pact with the Wizards!
He could even consider researching the nature of the mental imprint network to try and solve the problem of constant synchronization with the mirror image.
Having thought this through, Ace chanted a spell, levitating his Grimoire in the air. He solemnly pressed his hand on the Covenant Ritual page, the first page.
Following his Mana rhythm, the apprentices involuntarily placed their hands on the Covenant Ritual section of the first page of their own Grimoires.
With the aid of the mental imprint on the second page and the hub function of the Spirit of the Book on Ace’s head, their souls began to tremble. Their mental powers connected with each other, gradually stabilizing within a frequency range, linking into a strong mental imprint network!
A strong soul resonance occurred. The plump cowlick of the Spirit of the Book also trembled rhythmically. Ace seemed to hear the Spirit of the Book’s childish voice.
“How did we arrive at the Sea of Illusion and Reality…”
In this network, every apprentice was a node. They could sense other apprentices, and even more so, they could sense Ace, the hub with the plump cowlick on his head.
When they formed a close-range mental imprint network and resonated souls with a quasi-rule creature, a strange change occurred.
They seemed to enter a dimension that was both real and illusory. In a trance, it was like entering the world matrix, or a warm ocean.
The people present were all the Wizards of this world. The network formed by their mental imprints represented the Collective Conscious Mind of all Wizards. Under normal circumstances, they could only form a stable Collective Conscious Mind.
However, this time was different. The close-range collective soul resonance synchronized with the quasi-rule creature. With the aid of the quasi-rule creature, their collective consciousness entered another dimension, transcending the Collective Conscious Mind and penetrating into the Collective Subconscious.
At this moment, our vision shifts to the realm invisible and unknowable to mortals, the Outer Plane of the world, the layer between illusion and reality, the Sea of Illusion and Reality.
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