Hard or Not Recommendation Guide

In the Void, on a small island in the Sea of Knowledge, the battle was reaching its final moments.

"The difference between swordsmanship and slaughter lies in precision."

Professor Tello Zan's teachings seemed to echo in his ears. Sonia did her best to maintain a steady breath to prevent her movements from faltering. She gripped the wooden sword tightly, her spell power surging to a boil, and thrust it forward with all her might!

The wooden sword plunged into Ash's back, piercing through his chest!

"Ugh!"

Ash let out a muffled groan; the intense pain nearly made his hands lose their grip. The Void did not filter out the pain of sorcerers; in fact, because it was a raw interaction of souls, the pain was generally 10% to 20% higher than in reality. It was not impossible for a sorcerer to die of shock from excessive pain in the Void!

As the wooden sword pierced through Ash's body, a faint purple radiance emerged from the tip, and then—

"Reverse Ripple Sword!"

Following Sonia's sharp cry, the ripple sword energy on the wooden sword erupted!

The green orc, held by the shoulders by Ash and impaled through the waist by Sonia's wooden sword, let out a hysterical roar. Its massive, sturdy body burst like a popped balloon, and its lower half was blown away entirely.

Yet, the fierce light in its eyes grew increasingly intense. Its hands gripped Ash's throat tightly, as if trying to wring his neck like a wet towel—

Sonia decisively withdrew the wooden sword and slashed forward. The orc's neck, which had been nearly impossible to cut just moments ago, now parted like cake. As the orc's head flew off, Ash slumped onto the ground, gasping for air.

"Are you alright?"

"Aside from reliving my short life in my consciousness and hearing what sounded like the calls of loved ones, I'm fine."

Ash coughed twice and looked down at the spot Sonia had pierced. Naturally, even his trench coat remained undamaged, and the wound healed instantly.

He had known since his first battle that injuries sustained in the Void were illusory; as long as one didn't die on the spot, a sorcerer could recover almost instantly.

Of course, all miracles came with a price. Ash noticed that the opacity of his palms had decreased significantly, meaning his soul energy had been heavily depleted.

If he were to suffer such a severe injury again, he would likely lose his "first blood" in the Void.

He looked at the dissipating head of the orc, still feeling a lingering sense of fear.

This green orc was the strongest enemy they had encountered in the Void. If Ash hadn't taken the initiative to sacrifice himself as a "taunt follower" while Sonia seized the opportunity to attack, the outcome would still be uncertain.

Honestly, in terms of combat power, this green orc wasn't much different from the gunner they had encountered earlier; both were low-level sorcerers with very shallow combat patterns.

It was precisely because of this that the "Void Realm Exploration" had judged it a "worth visiting" adventure, giving Ash a false sense of security.

Then, the Void immediately taught Ash a lesson: everything in the Void carries risks. The waters of the Sea of Knowledge are deep, and you can't handle them, kid.

Even among low-level sorcerers, the gap between them could be greater than the gap between species.

Ash and Sonia could easily handle the gunner, but they were routed by the green orc because its specialized department was the very one that countered them most: the Asceticism Department! Its green skin took on the texture of wood, as hard as if it were wearing natural armor!

Never mind Ash, even Sonia could only scratch it; she couldn't hurt it at all.

More importantly, the orc had rich combat experience and seemed to have learned fist fighting. Whenever Sonia tried to use the Reverse Ripple Sword to inflict heavy damage, it would either grapple with Ash or charge directly at Sonia, forcing her to be cautious and restricting her movements.

After a long battle, the two of them were increasingly exhausted, while the orc grew stronger with every strike. Naturally, they felt things were going poorly. After a brief discussion, they decided that Ash would take the initiative to entangle it and block its line of sight, creating an opening for Sonia.

The tactic was a success. The orc was dead, Sonia's skills had improved, and Ash had experienced a rare life-flashing-before-his-eyes moment. Everyone had grown.

After the battle, it was time to search for loot. The orc left behind two wolf fang ornaments, each containing an art spirit:

"Oak Skin"

"One-Winged Art Spirit"

"Restriction: The sorcerer must possess skin tissue that covers muscle."

"Basic Effect: Transforms skin into a material like tree bark. When standing on the ground, 10% of the kinetic impact suffered by the skin can be transferred to the ground and dissipated."

"Passive Effect: Skin can be transformed into tree bark through daily exercise."

"Note: Frost, scorching sun, deep cold—all the hardships gifted by nature will make you more indestructible."

Both art spirits were "Oak Skin." Ash was puzzled: "Why does it have two identical art spirits?"

Sonia explained: "Because the Asceticism Department doesn't value the active effect of an art spirit, but the passive one, and passive effects can stack. Therefore, to push the body to its limit as quickly as possible, Ascetics often try every means to obtain multiple identical art spirits to accelerate their cultivation."

"Do you have a need for them?"

"No. Oak Skin isn't worth much, and it doesn't suit me. Even if I wanted to use Ascetic art spirits to strengthen my physique, there are better choices. Besides, Oak Skin is too ugly."

The point is that it's too ugly, right... Ash recalled the orc's skin, which looked like a piece of paper folded hundreds of times and then unfolded, and felt a sense of resistance himself.

He didn't care much about his own appearance, but that was truly ugly enough to be an eyesore.

Thus, these two art spirits naturally went into Ash's bag as backup funds for top-ups.

Sonia picked up a scroll dropped by the orc, glanced at it, and tossed it to Ash with a look of disgust, muttering: "You wouldn't actually absorb a Sorcerer's Manual like this, would you?"

Ash caught it, took one look, and was stunned.

The scroll left behind by the orc was, well... to put it politely, an Encyclopedia of Beauties; to put it formally, Research Data on Otherworldly Customs Industry; to put it vulgarly, a Hard or Not Recommendation Guide.

The beginning of the scroll featured artistic photos of a dozen orcs. Although the aesthetic was rather rugged, Ash hadn't seen any "spicy" content in a few days, so he could appreciate the wild beauty within.

The middle section started to get interesting: humans, elves, ogres, some with fluffy ears, some with scales, some with wings, some with horns, and even spiders—no wonder this orc was an Ascetic! Who else but an Ascetic would have the capacity for such detailed and diverse research?

But there was one thing Ash was dissatisfied with: the orc's aesthetic was too singular, only pursuing "size." Big is good, big is beautiful. There wasn't a single female in the scroll under two meters tall; they were all "big vehicles" Ash could only look up to.

"If you like it, why not take it back and read it slowly?" Sonia crossed her arms, her eyes filled with undisguised contempt. "Heh, men..."

"I'll be done soon, just wait a moment."

Although he said that, the scroll was incredibly long. It listed at least several hundred women—more than Ash had ever known in his life. It was truly a case of some starving while others drowned in excess...

When Ash flipped to the end of the scroll, he saw an ordinary Orc woman who stood out—her photo was the only one in the entire scroll where she was wearing clothes.

Based on the intelligence gathered earlier, this likely meant the Ascetic Orc Arcanist hadn't engaged in any reproductive activities with her.

In the photo, she was holding the hands of two Orc cubs with a Wooden Cabin in the background. She was a bit short and stout, but she looked kind. Even though her smile revealed menacing fangs, she didn't feel threatening in the slightest. Dressed in a dirty apron, she looked every bit like an Orc Middle-Aged Peasant Woman.

Since there was no written description, Ash could only guess: had the Ascetic Orc Arcanist fallen in love with this Middle-Aged Peasant Woman? But why hadn't they become a couple? Was it because the Orc Arcanist was dying, or had he contracted some illness from his frequent "health maintenance"?

What a strange Orc Arcanist he was...

As the scroll dissolved into wisps of smoke, Ash gained two new skills.

"Secret of Pleasure (Only effective on females over two meters tall)"

"Wild Instinct"

Ash stared at "Secret of Pleasure (Only effective on females over two meters tall)," feeling somewhat dazed.

How should he put it? Even though he had zero driving experience, he had somehow obtained a Class A1 heavy vehicle license. From today on, he was a "cloud driver" with a license.

The second skill, "Wild Instinct," was actually quite useful. It wasn't a racial trait of the Orcs, but rather a combat technique honed by Orc Arcanists through years of fighting, allowing for effective evasion of surprise attacks from outside one's line of sight during close-quarters combat.

After absorbing the Sorcerer Manual, this inheritance Island began to sink. Sonia sat at the stern, watching him, and raised an eyebrow: "You really can absorb those Sorcerer Manuals... It seems your Three Views are quite broad..."

"Not really, I just have very flexible Three Views."

In truth, Ash vaguely sensed something was wrong. The Sword Maiden couldn't absorb either of the Sorcerer Manuals, yet he absorbed every one he saw. Clearly, the problem wasn't the conservative Sword Maiden, but Ash, who was as open as a public bus.

Ash suspected it was a hidden feature of the game Aurora's Sorcerer Manual, but since the game never popped up any relevant notifications, he could only bluff his way through with the Sword Maiden.

"Let's head to the next area. I hope we encounter an inheritance Island for a Swordsman... or perhaps an adventure Island with a Sword-style Spell Spirit... as long as it's not another inheritance Island for an Ascetic," Sonia leaned against the side of the Boat, complaining lazily.

Ash nodded; it was hard not to support that suggestion. The experience of fighting enemies that caused his blade to bounce off every time was truly terrible. He would rather run into a Mud Fish Dragon and be insta-killed by it.

He opened "Void Realm Exploration" to check the surrounding area prompts, and suddenly noticed an orange prompt he had never seen before beneath the area to the right—

"Wait a second."

Sonia waited for dozens of seconds, but seeing no sign of the Boat moving, she couldn't help but feel puzzled: "Why aren't we leaving yet?"

"We have to wait a while before we can go."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

"How long do we have to wait?"

"I don't know."

"...Fine, we'll wait then." Sonia stretched, "Speaking of which, there's something I wanted to discuss with you. I completely forgot about it just now."

"Discuss what?"

"About my daily training." Sonia crossed her arms, "Can you cancel my Forced Training schedule?"

Why were the paper characters these days like this? She actually didn't want to generate surplus value anymore.

She was truly the laziest batch of paper characters I'd ever seen.

I never encountered anything like this when I played mobile games in the past.

Many thoughts raced through Ash's mind, but on the surface, he interlaced his fingers and assumed a posture of listening to the people: "Of course, no problem. I respect your wishes, Sword Maiden—but I would like to hear your reasons."