Chapter 15: Still Too Kind (Please Continue Reading! Please Comment!)

With new skills as a foundation, Ron suddenly felt much more confident. At least now, he was no longer completely powerless in the dungeons.

According to Bailu, even if creators stayed behind closed doors, every month the editorial department would arrange a team dungeon for them. The rewards from team dungeons were far richer than those from ordinary ones, but the risks were significantly higher, as most of these dungeons had been sealed by the editorial department due to their extreme danger.

This also meant that the death rate in team dungeons was much higher than usual, leading to the strange phenomenon where many creators’ stories would abruptly end right after their first recommendation. Fortunately, the editors assigned recommendations based on the creators’ overall strength and data, so Ron didn’t have to worry about being matched with something far beyond his capabilities.

Still, enhancing his own strength was an urgent matter. So Ron began operating on two fronts simultaneously. On one hand, he taught Vivian new magic in the Resonance Spirit Realm; on the other, he searched the city for new spirit realm dungeons during his breaks from writing.

He didn’t rush to use his monthly dungeon tickets to climb the rankings. With a limited word count, even if readers saw his work, they might not click in to read it. Posting four thousand words daily was indeed a challenge for a novice like Ron. Every night, he would sit at his computer for hours, scratching his head just to squeeze out enough material for a day’s update. The thought of having to produce explosive amounts of content later made his head ache.

The plot in his novel wasn’t something he could fabricate at will. If events hadn’t truly happened in the spirit realm, the characters in the novel would diverge from their real counterparts, greatly weakening their strength. If the novel’s characters deviated from their real-life inspirations, they couldn’t effectively wield their real abilities.

Thus, each day’s update had to be based on actual occurrences in the spirit realm, at most employing a bit of literary embellishment. Considering that time in the spirit realm and the real world ran concurrently during Resonance, Ron had to make sure Vivian did something every day to maintain the daily update volume.

No wonder the veterans always said to have a stockpile of drafts. No wonder some top creators wrote a month’s worth of updates about events that happened in a single day. No wonder many masters would rather pause updates for several days than half-heartedly churn out something.

Fortunately, Vivian had been diligently practicing various magics under Ron’s guidance these past few days, so she wasn’t idle. The only issue was...

Whenever his magic passed into Vivian’s hands, it always underwent some strange transformations.

Take the self-imprisonment spell he taught her earlier. After subsequent testing, Ron discovered that under Vivian’s casting, not only did the spell’s target shift from herself to the enemy, but even its effect subtly changed.

While under Vivian’s self-imprisonment spell, the enemy’s senses were amplified dozens of times over.

Ron was stunned when he saw Vivian use this feature to tickle Grella mercilessly.

Grella laughed so hard she fainted.

Are you sure this isn’t some kind of adult manga scenario?!

He instinctively recalled his novel. It wasn’t some petty prince story, so he reluctantly accepted this bizarre twist.

Ron had taught Vivian six or seven different magics, perhaps too hastily. But Vivian had some self-awareness: she focused on practicing just three spells—self-imprisonment, self-silencing (both control spells), and the one that set herself on fire.

Under Vivian’s development, the fire-self spell gained an entirely new application.

[ Vivian ignited herself. ]

[ Vivian cast various curse magics at the magical beasts before her. ]

[ All the curse magics landed on Vivian herself. ]

[ The surging flames burned away the curses, transforming them into pure energy. ]

[ Vivian leaped forward, directly charging at the Thunderhorn Rhino. ]

[ Her speed was so fast that the dull-witted Thunderhorn Rhino didn’t react in time. ]

[ Vivian raised her staff and struck the rhino’s head hard. ]

[ Bang! ]

[ With a loud crash, the Thunderhorn Rhino was knocked to the ground by Vivian’s blow. ]

[ “Amazing! We did it!” Vivian excitedly pumped her small fists. ]

[ The Thunderhorn Rhino struggled to get up but was mercilessly struck down again by Vivian. ]

“...”

Are you a magician or a berserker?

This style of rushing in and bashing someone really doesn’t suit a mage.

But it had to be said, Vivian’s developed tactics fit her perfectly.

The fire-self skill was not picky—it didn’t demand mastery over curse magics. So Vivian didn’t have to spend much time practicing the curses; as long as she cast them quickly enough, it didn’t matter—they would never affect the enemy but only fuel the burning.

“Good. With this, we can set out,” you applaud Vivian’s success.

Vivian was strong enough now to investigate the place rumored to harbor a lingering demon lord’s soul fragment.

“Are you sure your sensing is correct?” Vivian asked anxiously as she harvested materials from the Thunderhorn Rhino.

Since you told her there was a demon lord’s soul shard nearby, she had been worried.

She had witnessed firsthand the horrors inflicted by the bandit group trying to fuse the demon lord’s soul fragment.

Several villages had been wiped out completely.

The blood of the villagers was drained and piled up at the village gates.

Vivian could never forget the hopeless, hollow eyes of mothers clutching their long-dead children.

To merge the demon lord’s soul fragment, the blood of suffering souls was a necessary ingredient.

To cause such suffering, the bandits resorted to every atrocity imaginable.

Though the bandit group had been wiped out days ago, Vivian’s anger remained unquenched.

She did not want to see such horrors happen again, so when you mentioned this, she resolved without hesitation to investigate.

“Ron, do you think everyone who fused with a soul fragment has done the same?” Vivian toyed with her staff.

It was a gift from her mentor, Vigfart—the first and only staff she had ever owned.

At times like this... maybe I could sow some discord?

Plant the seed of hatred against her mentor in Vivian’s heart.

Then let Vivian have a grand rebellious battle with Vigfart?

Ron hesitated, but his subconscious already answered for him.

“If the soul fragment has been fused before by someone else, then merging it again just requires absorption, no ritual necessary,” you answered calmly.

Damn... I’m still too soft-hearted.

That would have made for a great dramatic conflict.

Ron felt a twinge of regret but not enough to feel truly remorseful.

After all, he was not the kind of person who enjoyed manipulating others’ emotions.