Chapter 144 – Disguise and Covert Learning

Chapter 144 – Disguise and Covert Learning

As it turned out, it really was exactly as Mo Lan had guessed.

“To learn the magic of other races, you must first disguise yourself as one of them!

First, you need to prepare a sufficient supply of transformation potions in advance and study the language and customs of the target race.

Note: not the Valen common tongue, and not language magic—the actual language of the target race!

Once all preparations are complete, you can drink the potion and physically transform into the appearance of the target race.

I recommend going with a generic face. Every race has its own version of an unremarkable face, which makes it easier for us to blend in among the target race without attracting extra attention due to our appearance.

Note: the appearance produced by transformation potions is only skin-deep. Even if you sprout angel or demon wings, you still won’t be able to fly. So when disguising yourself as either of these two races, you can make up a little backstory for yourself.

For example: an avenging angel whose wings were injured by a demon and can no longer fly, now devoting herself to the rigorous study of holy light magic, vowing to carve a path of slaughter through the Abyss!

Or perhaps: a demon whose wings were scorched by an angel’s holy light magic, now recuperating back in the Abyss!

On the Continent of Valen, most races have a grudge against us anyway, so feel free to make up whatever story you like!

When necessary, you can even weave witches and Sorceresses into your backstory. Reputation doesn’t matter—strength is the only thing that counts! Our status is earned through power!

Oh, and one more thing—don’t try to disguise yourself as a Dragon! Transformation potions can only produce humanoid forms, so there’s no way to replicate a Dragon’s true form.

Besides, the Dragons’ greatest strength is their physical prowess. Their dragon-tongue magic isn’t even as good as our Witch Magic! There’s nothing worth learning from them.

As for the angels and demons, I strongly recommend paying them a visit. Learning the angels’ holy light magic and the demons’ dark magic is very useful.

There’s also human meditation techniques, Elven nature magic, dwarven forging and Alchemy, beastfolk shamans’ Blessing Magic…”

Mo Lan: “…”

Just how many races’ magic had Lady Traci secretly studied? Her experience was incredibly thorough and systematic!

And the level of detail in these instructions on how to disguise yourself and covertly learn—the tutorial was almost too clear!

It was as if she were terrified that any Sorceress reading this book wouldn’t know how to go about secretly learning.

Witches and Sorceresses were forbidden from bullying the weak without cause, which was why they resorted to stealing rather than taking by force. That much, Mo Lan could understand.

But Lady Traci had already gone through the trouble of secretly learning everything once—couldn’t she have just compiled it all into a comprehensive encyclopedia of foreign magic?

Why bother teaching Sorceresses how to steal knowledge in this book?

It wasn’t until Mo Lan reached the final section of this chapter that she understood why.

“Finally, if you have a Sorceress companion, you can serve as each other’s social connections while in disguise and split up to learn different races’ magic.

A companion who actually exists will make your fabricated identity much more convincing! And when danger arises, you’ll have someone to back you up.

I’m guessing the young Sorceress reading this is probably thinking: we’ve already learned the magic of other races, so why not summarize and share it like we do with Witch Magic?

The answer, of course, is that disguising yourself as another race is the most fun way to train!

I believe that compared to the magic you learn, the process of training through disguise is far more valuable.

Our battlefield as Sorceresses is the Well of the Sky. When I was exploring the Well of the Sky, this experience was tremendously helpful to me.

And during the disguise process, you can also covertly spread our Sorceress Magic to the outside world!

—Traci”

“So there really isn’t a book on Valen’s foreign magic after all.” Mo Lan sighed.

If she wanted to learn foreign magic, she would truly have to follow in the footsteps of her predecessors.

Fortunately, Sorceresses were few in number. Otherwise, with generation after generation disguising themselves and secretly learning like this, they’d inevitably be exposed sooner or later!

After Lady Traci’s introduction on developing universal Mana, came Lady Anita’s introduction on developing Manifested Gifts.

“My, Traci’s, and Carmela’s Manifested Gifts are all different, but Traci says there are still commonalities in the process of developing our Manifested Gifts.

Manifested Gifts are all based on our subconscious—they crystallize into the form that best represents the abilities of our exclusive Mana.

We ourselves will inevitably understand the meaning represented by the physical characteristics of our Manifested Gift.

For example, in Traci’s eyes, the symbol of knowledge is a book, so her Manifested Gift took the form of a book. In Carmela’s eyes, contracts are written in text, so her Manifested Gift took the form of a golden pen.

As for me, when I was little I saw a fireworks celebration in a human capital city. That was my earliest impression of an explosion, so my Manifested Gift is a beautiful sparkler.

With just a little bit of inspiration, we can excavate the core function of our Manifested Gift from our memories!

The Manifested Gift is our innate talent—we are inevitably the ones who understand it best.

Additionally, a Manifested Gift requires an energy source to activate.

I once thought this sparkler that suddenly appeared by my side—yet couldn’t be lit no matter what I tried—was someone’s prank, and I tried to throw it away.

But no matter where I threw it, it would automatically return to my side.

The first time I saw the discarded sparkler come back, I thought my witch hideout had been discovered and immediately moved.

But after moving more than ten times, that sparkler always managed to find me with perfect accuracy.

It wasn’t until I encountered Traci while ‘fleeing for my life’ that things changed.

She was already a famous witch by then. I asked her for help, requesting that she examine whether there was any tracking or locating magic on the sparkler.

Instead, she suspected that I had obtained a treasure like hers.

I merely injected a tiny bit of energy into it, and it released a fist-sized firework that blasted a century-old tree to ash.

Sometimes, a Manifested Gift really only needs a tiny bit of energy to activate—any kind of energy will do, though Mana works best!

If you’re at a complete loss with your Manifested Gift, try asking yourself: in your eyes, what function should it have? Or give it just a tiny bit of energy and let it show you what it can do.

Remember, just a tiny bit. For your first attempt, don’t use too much!

—Anita”

What Lady Anita described was more or less the same as what Senior Lilith had told her before. Lilith had most likely learned about developing Manifested Gifts from this very source.

Mo Lan wondered what Lilith thought about learning foreign magic.

She planned to ask her the next time they met.

If Lilith intended to follow Lady Traci’s teachings and disguise herself as another race to secretly learn their magic, then perhaps they could even form a team.

Mo Lan herself was definitely planning to go learn.

Based on Traci’s claim alone—that the experience would prove useful for future exploration of the Well of the Sky—she couldn’t afford to miss it.

But for now, studying Sorceress Magic remained the priority.

The content of this second chapter was much longer than the first, yet it only covered how to develop universal Mana and exclusive Mana, without touching on Sorceress Magic itself.

The only instructional texts on Sorceresses left behind by the three predecessor Sorceresses, aside from their individual Sorceress Magic books, was this single volume of Mo Lan’s Mo Lan’s Mo Lan’s Mo Lan’s 《The Path of the Sorceress》.

“The content on Sorceress Magic has to be in Chapter Three!”