Chapter 65 - The Whirlpool
The whirlpool, also known as the destiny shortcut, the stairway of advancement, and the last stroke of luck for the cursed, is an extremely rare natural wonder in the sea of knowledge.
Natural wonders are completely different from other existences in the virtual world. Knowledge creatures have habitats, legacy islands and adventure islands remain unchanged for thousands of years unless a sorcerer steps in, while natural wonders appear randomly in time and location, and disappear after a period of time, almost like the most made-up rumor in the legends of the virtual world.
Even the most unlucky sorcerer would eventually encounter knowledge creatures, legacy islands, and adventure islands in their lifetime, while even the luckiest sorcerer may never encounter a whirlpool in their entire life, truly the ultimate luck detector.
The reason why those who have seen a whirlpool are so envied and jealous is the whirlpool's tremendous power - virtual world transfer!
Sorcerers who step into the whirlpool will emerge from another whirlpool somewhere else in the sea of knowledge.
Although it sounds incredible, a simple spatial transfer, how could it arouse the sorcerers' craving?
This is because the whirlpool does not simply transfer, but allows the sorcerer to pass through the mysterious passage in the whirlpool, traversing countless areas of the sea of knowledge in just a few seconds; at the same time, the basic rule of "the farther the sorcerer sails in the sea of knowledge, the more arcane energy they absorb" does not fail either!
If two whirlpools are separated by ten thousand miles, then the sorcerer only needs to pass through this whirlpool passage, which is equivalent to sailing ten thousand miles in the sea of knowledge, directly absorbing enough arcane energy to condense complete silver wings!
How could this not drive the sorcerers crazy?
In theory, an ordinary sorcerer only needs two to three years of sailing to condense the silver wings, but the premise is that the sorcerer does not die in the sea of knowledge - in addition to the "death cooldown" where the more arcane energy, the greater the death penalty, sorcerers actually have a Damocles sword hanging over their heads: the more arcane energy, the greater the danger sorcerers will encounter!
Every time sorcerers open the Gate of Truth and enter the virtual world, the locations they descend to are actually different, not the end point of the previous exploration.
The more abundant the sorcerer's arcane energy, the closer their landing point in the virtual world is to the core areas of the sea of knowledge. The legacy islands and knowledge creatures in the core areas not only burst out more generous spoils, but are also more dangerous!
Countless formal sorcerers, on the verge of condensing the silver wings, were attacked by knowledge creatures as soon as they entered the virtual world, and when they turned to flee, they encountered even more ferocious knowledge creatures, getting taken care of by several knowledge creatures in turns, happily exiting the virtual world directly.
Exploring for a few minutes and cooling down for more than ten days is often the true portrayal of these "half-step grandmasters".
Therefore, the whirlpool is jokingly referred to as "the last stroke of luck for the cursed": not only referring to the sorcerer who encounters the whirlpool exhausting the luck of their lifetime, but also referring to the suddenly increased arcane energy making it quite difficult for the sorcerer to explore the high-risk areas of the sea of knowledge, and may even be beaten into depression by playing ranked matches in high elo after being in low elo.
That said, no sorcerer would not crave the whirlpool. And in places with a large enough sorcerer population, whirlpool lucky ones will occasionally appear one or two - for example, the senior who beat up Sonya this morning, Leone, her speed of condensing the silver wings was indeed a bit fast, and many students felt that she had encountered a short-distance whirlpool, everyone was so jealous they turned sour!
After listening to Sonya's introduction, Ashe was also excited. He was the one who needed strength most urgently now, and the more powerful he became, the more hope he had of breaking out of prison!
Also, with the sudden addition of three spirit weapons, his arcane energy was clearly insufficient.
The sword heart and wind wall were fine, but the earth sword spirit was a two-winged spirit weapon, consuming arcane energy like a gushing faucet, but its effect was less than one-fifth of its potential.
Just now Ashe was able to show off in front of the swordswoman, creating an impenetrable sword wall that the Fulgurator could not break through, but the price was that his arcane energy was now less than one-fifth, and he would have to think about how to trick the swordswoman into fighting harder later.
The boat passed through layers of mist, and soon the whirlpool appeared before them.
True to its reputation as a natural wonder, the whirlpool was indeed very strange - although it was a swirling vortex that kept spinning, the surrounding waters were as calm as spectators, completely undisturbed by the whirlpool.
Even when the boat was less than two meters away from the whirlpool, it did not feel any traction. If a sorcerer with poor eyesight passed by the whirlpool, they might not even notice the natural wonder next to them.
"Go, go quickly, the whirlpool can disappear at any time!"
"Wait."
Ashe noticed that when they entered the whirlpool area, the exploration range of the map suddenly extended two very long routes, and at the farthest ends of the two routes, there were two tips: "Wait a moment" and "No danger but you may not get teleported here randomly".
"I think we'd better wait a moment."
"Is this the effect of your detection ability?"
"This whirlpool seems to randomly lead to two other whirlpools, one of which requires waiting, the other is safe."
Since waiting last time allowed them to take advantage of the sleeping fox dragon, Sonya naturally believed the Observer's judgment.
However, after waiting for more than ten seconds, she saw the whirlpool getting smaller and smaller, and couldn't help getting anxious: "Being able to enter the whirlpool once is worth it even if you die! It's just not being able to enter the virtual world for a few days!"
Ashe glanced at her, "If I can't enter the virtual world for a few days, the probability of me gathering all the Miracle spirits of Slash Sword will be even more slim."
Sonya was speechless.
Compared to life, the increase in arcane energy was indeed negligible, but...
She looked at the shrinking whirlpool, hesitant to speak.
"Do you want to go in first yourself? Let me wait until it's safe to go in?" Ashe saw her thoughts at a glance, "It sounds feasible, but it actually won't work - did you forget? I can't open the Gate of Truth in prison, if you die, I still can't enter the virtual world. You and I are bound together, we prosper and suffer together. "
"However, I'm not sure if my judgment is correct either, after all there's a 50% chance it will lead to a safe whirlpool, and even if we're unlucky and it randomly leads to a dangerous whirlpool, it may not necessarily lead to death. But missing the whirlpool is really missing it."
"If you want to go, I don't mind."
"You really don't mind?"
"I don't mind."
"You won't secretly resent me and take revenge on me?"
"I won't."
"You won't suddenly bring this up to accuse me someday?"
"I won't."
"Really?"
"Really."
"Observer, you are so dishonest, even deceiving a college girl like me." Sonya sighed, lowered her head dejectedly and stared at the whirlpool: "If we really miss this whirlpool, I will definitely bring up this old incident every time you do something wrong in the future."
"I really don't mind."
"I don't believe it, if it were me I would resent it for the rest of my life, and still remember on my deathbed that I missed a whirlpool opportunity."
Ashe was speechless: "That's you, not me, I'm not as...petty as you."
"I only believe in myself, so I believe you are that kind of person too."
Sonya pouted.
"I'm not selfish enough to think others are selfless. Anyway, I'll remember that I made a big sacrifice to accompany you this time, you'd better write it down in your little notebook and remember to give me a share of any benefits you get in the future."
Ashe was slightly startled, and suddenly felt that he had another reason to break out of prison.
Were there really no strangers worth caring about in this world? It didn't seem so.
"Of course, in the future whenever I have a piece of meat to eat, I will definitely call you over to smell the aroma."
"You little chatterbox..."