Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 3200: Chapter 3201: Secret Treasure Restrictions

"Secret Treasure: Shapeshifting Cloak"

"Appearance: When not replicated, it is a transparent cloak. After replication, it becomes a red cloak."

"Effect: When the transparent cloak covers someone, it replicates their appearance and aura. Once the cloak turns red, wearing it will transform you into the replicated person. This includes pheromones, aura, and characteristics, mimicking the replicated individual perfectly, with the only exception being strength."

"Note: 1. The person covered by the cloak must genuinely consent to the replication and be covered by the cloak for 24 hours with a clear understanding for the replication to succeed. 2. The red cloak can be transformed back to a transparent cloak at any time. 3. The red cloak can record three different forms."

This was the first secret treasure as described by Aor Shanzhuo.

Because he is most familiar with this secret treasure, which is currently collected by his master, the Blue Steel Diamond Dragon—Heilanwojia.

This is also Heilanwojia’s favorite secret treasure, even more than another mysterious object he possesses.

The reason for this affection is: Heilanwojia is a fanatical enthusiast of giants and giant trolls.

The Blue Steel Diamond Dragon is universally recognized as the best-looking among all diamond dragons, except for the Pink Diamond Dragon. Yet, Heilanwojia is very dissatisfied with his own appearance and prefers a colossal human form, such as that of a giant or giant troll.

Hence, the form that Heilanwojia maintains for many years is always that of a giant or giant troll.

To many outsiders who have visited the Hundred-Dragon Divine Kingdom, upon seeing Heilanwojia for the first time, they would never think that his true form is a diamond dragon.

This peculiar hobby of Heilanwojia makes many mirror dragons think he has a severe aesthetic perception disorder.

However, he himself thoroughly enjoys it.

In the past, he could only use cumbersome transmutation techniques to change his appearance into the giant form he pursued; but later, after purchasing the Shapeshifting Cloak at a high price from the Ancient Tooth Fairy, he has almost never changed his form again.

Regardless of whether it’s the aura or the sense of oppression, all are the feelings brought by a giant. This is different from the empty facade of change before, and the consumption is almost nil.

Therefore, the Shapeshifting Cloak has risen to become Heilanwojia’s favorite fashion item.

"Generally speaking, the master won’t lend out the Shapeshifting Cloak; however, if you can agree to a promise with the master, he will certainly lend you the cloak," Aor Shanzhuo said this while looking over at Angel.

"..." Angel knew that Aor Shanzhuo tossed the topic to him, hoping he would pick it up. However, Angel wasn’t particularly interested in the Shapeshifting Cloak.

Is the Shapeshifting Cloak useful? It seems fine.

But with shapeshifting techniques and the enhancement of Nightmare Illusions, even if he obtained this Shapeshifting Cloak, Angel wouldn’t necessarily hold onto it.

So, he actually hopes that Aor Shanzhuo quickly skips over this secret treasure and talks about something else.

But thinking about it, he decided not to.

He could sense that the Crystal Origin of Dreams had two new guests, presumably coming from Cloud Cave. And since Luigi hasn’t logged on, it implies he’s still waiting for the two guests to return from the Cloud Cave.

However, those two guests are still in the Crystal Origin of Dreams and have not logged off... Luigi definitely won’t come until they log out.

This means there’s still plenty of downtime now, no need to rush, just treat it as listening to gossip.

"What is the promise?" Angel inquired following Aor Shanzhuo’s words.

Aor Shanzhuo stroked his stubbly beard: "Very simple, as long as you promise the master, when returning the Shapeshifting Cloak, to bring a new giant or giant troll form, the master will lend it to you."

Everyone: "..."

Angel imagined many possibilities but never expected the Blue Steel Diamond Dragon’s request to be "change skin"!

Has this really turned into a costume role-playing game with the Shapeshifting Cloak?

Angel’s inner complaint aside, but thinking about it carefully, fulfilling this promise is actually rather challenging.

Because to replicate a new skin with the Shapeshifting Cloak, it’s not as simple as just replicating; the person being replicated must genuinely agree to it for the corresponding skin to be acquired.

The vast majority of giant trolls have very low intelligence, making it difficult to get them to genuinely agree to replicate their skin; even if you manage to coerce a giant troll into agreeing, the replication takes an entire day, and the giant troll must remain conscious and genuinely willing to replicate throughout, which is quite challenging for a not-so-bright giant troll.

Meanwhile, giants with relatively higher intelligence are unlikely to agree if they find out that the Shapeshifting Cloak can replicate their pheromones. After all, knowing the pheromones could lead to being prophesized, cursed, or targeted. Unless a giant owes a great favor, it’s harder than ascending to heaven to get them to agree to replication.

In summary, this promise seems rather difficult to fulfill in Angel’s view.

Moreover, Angel doesn’t know any giants or giant trolls; if he were to count hard, only the Three-eyed Blue Demon, the true form of the Wise Sovereign, would meet the conditions. But would the Wise Sovereign agree to replicate his pheromones? Absolutely not.

However, when Angel thought of this, the images of Stop and Aex and others emerged in his mind.

This group of fun people who caused disaster in Bilun Tree Court seems to control quite a few strongmen. And strongmen, after all, can also be considered a type of giant.

If they obtain the Shapeshifting Cloak, they should be able to satisfy Heilanwojia’s request quite easily.

"Meeting the promise’s requirements seems a bit challenging," Angel said casually, then took the opportunity to change the subject: "Are there any secret treasures with slightly simpler requirements?"

Aor Shanzhuo thought for a moment and nodded: "The master has another secret treasure that he might be willing to lend."

"Secret Treasure: Reflective Drop"

"Appearance: A drop of unknown silver liquid, usually stored in a lightless pitch-black bottle. When poured out, the silver liquid rapidly expands, with a maximum spread that can form a lake."

"Effect: When the silver liquid spreads to form a ’mirror-like surface,’ using an ability on this ’mirror surface’ once will be recorded. The next lifeform that comes to the ’mirror surface’ will temporarily acquire the usage rights of the recorded ability. After using it once, the usage rights automatically disappear."

"Note: The ability to be reflected has a limit."

The Reflective Drop is also a collection of Heilanwojia.

As Angel was contemplating the usage and limitations of this secret treasure, Laplace suddenly spoke: "Was this drop also purchased by Heilanwojia from the Ancient Ruins of the Tooth Fairy?"

Aor Shanzhuo respectfully nodded: "Yes."

Aor Shanzhuo really wanted to ask Laplace why he suddenly asked this, but facing this great being’s temporal body, he was a bit hesitant to speak.

However, it didn’t matter if he didn’t ask, because Angel asked him instead.

"How do you know?" Angel curiously looked at Laplace: "Have you seen this drop before?"

Laplace said lightly, "Because the original owner of this drop was me... but later, I handed it over to Luigi, who sold it to the Ancient Ruins of Tooth Fairy."

Angel: "???"

So the original owner of this thing is actually you?!

Not only was Angel surprised, but Khuntela on the side was also shocked. This secret treasure, quite famous in the Hundred-Dragon Divine Kingdom, actually came from that great existence?

Does Hylangwoya know about this?

Khuntela couldn’t help but glance at Aor Shanzhuo, only to see the same disbelief reflected in his eyes; Aor Shanzhuo was Hylangwoya’s most trusted butler, so if even Aor Shanzhuo didn’t know, then Hylangwoya probably didn’t know about this either.

Didn’t the Ancient Ruins of Tooth Fairy mention the origin when selling this item?

On the other hand, Angel was still in shock, realizing that the original owner of this thing was Laplace; but after hearing the latter half of Laplace’s words, only one question lingered in his mind: This thing was actually sold?

In Angel’s view, the value of the Reflecting Drop was far stronger than the Shapeshifting Cloak, which was only good for playing dress-up.

The reason for saying this is that this drop can be fully developed into a "learning machine"!

Much like a wizard’s spell technique, often very idealistic in practice, where even after ten or twenty years of practice, you might not even be able to get started. But if there’s a way to directly use and experience it once personally, wouldn’t that easily pierce through that barrier?

As long as you use it correctly, wouldn’t that result in immediate enlightenment?

Laplace seemed to have understood Angel’s questioning gaze, and she explained lightly, "I can more or less guess what you’re thinking, but the effect of the Reflecting Drop is not as strong as you imagine."

"To me, it’s much weaker than the Cha Cha Mirror."

Angel was still waiting for Laplace’s explanation when suddenly, a familiar name reached his ears.

Cha Cha Mirror? At first, Angel did not quite get it, but after a while, he meekly retorted, "It’s not Cha Cha Mirror, it’s Indestructible Heart Mirror..."

Laplace ignored Angel’s protest and continued, "The limitations of the Reflecting Drop are not just the ’capability replication limit’ mentioned by the centaur, but there are many more."

’Centaur’ Aor Shanzhuo wanted to say he was the Spirit of the Book, not a centaur, but in the end, he just opened his mouth and said nothing. Instead, he perked up his ears, wanting to hear about the ’limitations’ that Laplace would mention.

Laplace: "The effect of the Reflecting Drop is to replicate abilities and grant the replicated ability for others to use. However, it can only be used once."

"This effect seems without issue at first glance, but in reality, it has a huge drawback."

"Many abilities have physical requirements for the user. If your physique isn’t up to standard, you simply can’t use the corresponding abilities. But the Reflecting Drop bypasses this barrier so that even if your physique is not up to standard, you can forcibly use it."

"The result is... backlash."

"Luigi was once nearly killed by backlash when using the Reflecting Drop." Laplace said lightly, "This is also why he sold the Reflecting Drop, because the side effects were too significant."

Just as Laplace finished, Khuntela suddenly spoke, "But... I recall Hylangwoya doesn’t seem to have suffered backlash?"

Laplace glanced at Khuntela, indifferent. "If there was no backlash, there can only be one scenario: the replicated ability did not exceed its physical limit."

"Hylangwoya is a Diamond Dragon, its physical and energy resistance is relatively high, weak to erosion, space, and time. If the replicated ability had any relation to erosion, space, or time, it would likely suffer backlash."

As soon as Laplace finished speaking, Khuntela turned to look at Aor Shanzhuo on the crystal book pages.

Whether Hylangwoya replicated such abilities, only Aor Shanzhuo would know.

Aor Shanzhuo scratched the whiskers under his ears, somewhat embarrassed, and said, "Well, actually, my master only replicated the abilities of giants and giant trolls using the Reflecting Drop... and all were bloodline arts."

Upon hearing this, everyone fell silent for two seconds.

Ah, no wonder Hylangwoya is a diehard fan of giants and giant trolls — the Reflecting Drop was not for use but for role-playing!

That’s because, as a Diamond Dragon, Hylangwoya already has an incredibly strong physique, far superior to giants and giant trolls. The bloodline arts it can use are on a level that giants and giant trolls cannot even fathom. Yet, instead of using its Diamond Dragon bloodline arts, Hylangwoya chose to replicate the bloodline arts of giants and giant trolls — that’s definitely role-playing!

Moreover, they now understood why Aor Shanzhuo never mentioned these physiological limits when describing the Reflecting Drop.

Because they never noticed them at all.

To them, they had nothing to say, for fanatic fans are an existence they don’t understand.

"These limitations are indeed significant," Angel broke the silence, "but knowing the limitations means there are ways to circumvent them."

For instance, if Angel used the Reflecting Drop, he could replicate illusion techniques or element-side capabilities. That way, even when used, there would be no discomfort.

In such circumstances, the Reflecting Drop could also exist as a "learning machine" without worrying about restrictions.

Angel shared his thoughts, but Laplace directly shook her head after hearing him, "It’s not feasible. Release is release, similar to wizards casting spell techniques with a magic rune scroll. This release is from the main body. Throughout this process, only physical attributes are checked; if your physical attributes meet the criteria, it will release successfully... it’s essentially impossible to learn the replicated ability this way."

"Essentially?" Angel caught onto Laplace’s wording. If it were absolutely impossible, Laplace would have stated so, without leaving any room.

Laplace: "I understand your intentions — learning through the Reflecting Drop isn’t entirely without its benefits; however, this method isn’t worthwhile."

"What method?" Angel asked.

Laplace: "Being backlashed."

As long as there is backlash, the power of the backlash will inevitably manifest onto your body, akin to accidentally failing and facing backlash while learning spell techniques.

Backlash undoubtedly causes tremendous damage; however, it might also let your body remember some energy channels, which can somehow hasten the progress.

However, ’hasten the progress’ does not guarantee successful learning.

It’s like learning a math problem — you start off knowing nothing, but after ’failure’ education, you remembered a few numbers. Yet, just remembering a few numbers can’t take you to the shores of success; you need more numbers, mathematical formulas, and the correct placement of these numbers.

Hence, using the ’being backlashed’ method to increase learning progress isn’t just unwise, it might even cost you your life.

After Luigi was backlashed back then, he was thrown into the Memory Forest as a stump for decades before he gradually recovered.

This clearly shows that this method is inadvisable.