When the plot-skips players into the game world

"The 'Shadow Cloak' card," he said, "possesses four powerful effects: repelling, removing negative states, invisibility, and causing blindness."

Sealing, freezing, burning, binding, and petrification, these five negative states each come from the most common restriction type negative states in the light, water, fire, wind, and earth attributes, respectively.

— Among them, the 'Arrest' and 'Shackles' law magics used by Legal Mages all belong to [Binding], while 'Silence' and 'Still' belong to [Sealing].

This card alone cannot remove the [Curse] type of negative state, primarily brought about by dark attribute mana, because shadows cannot dispel darkness. That is its greatest flaw.

Even so, it remains the most useful Phantom Card in the 'Moon' slot. Many cards produced by Superior Phantoms might not be as effective as this one.

The position of the 'Moon' card itself is quite flexible, and the Phantom Cards that can be created for it tend to lean towards control release, invisibility, detection, prophecy, berserk, and illusion techniques, among these secondary domains.

In this slot, the 'Shadow Cloak' from Shadow Demon is undoubtedly the most versatile card—unless the boss has a special mechanism, or one's equipment is specialized for Shadow Cellar, so it must be carried, otherwise the Great Sin Scholars default to carrying this one.

In almost any situation, the Shadow Cloak can be effective.

Even in most cases, players are more troubled by the question of "Should I use Shadow Cloak now or hold on to it?" rather than "This card is useless." Because its tactical value is so high, judging the timing poorly can result in a disadvantageous outcome.

However, in the current environment, Aiwass does not think he will be subject to powerful control effects. His main enemies are the Noble Red Society, primarily made up of members from the Path of Transcendence. And the dark attribute's curse "Shadow Cloak" cannot be dissolved.

Its greatest significance lies in invisibility and the subsequent blinding curse that follows.

The most common invisibility abilities come from the Path of Adaptation, and it is well-known that the Path of Adaptation does not curse—meaning those trying to reveal Aiwass have no way of anticipating the blinding curse that follows the lifting of invisibility.

Invisibility has a time limit, but curses do not. Without dispelling or purifying, that's perpetual; even with dispelling, it requires time... enough for Aiwass or Lily to complete their ambush.

This world is relatively peaceful at the moment, with Transcendents basically lacking the resolve to fight, and transcendent powers more closely resembling a pure pursuit.

Unlike players who would outfit themselves with a variety of control skills for any situation and wander the streets... most Transcendents in this world lack this kind of "be prepared" tactical acumen.

Their countermeasures are generally only against the most common enemies in their immediate environment—such as here in Avalon, because the Path of Dusk is very rare, basically no one prepares against petrification strategies, and even many Transcendents at the third and fourth energy levels do not know that necromancy and petrification are specialties of the Path of Dusk; the Path of Love is even rarer, rare enough that not even in the entire Royal Capital of Glass Island can one purchase Iron Mind potions—charms, fear, berserk, sleep, insanity, all belong to the domain of the Path of Love.

Because of the specialties of the Path of Love, the states it imposes do not count as negative states, and even the Illumination Arts of the Path of Devotion cannot disperse them. Without specific countermeasures, they are very difficult to combat.

What surprised Aiwass was that after cleaning up his room and even going out for breakfast... Lily still hadn't come to greet him.

—She couldn't be in some kind of trouble, could she? She hasn't fainted from exhaustion after reading the Codex Book, has she?

Feeling concerned, Aiwass immediately went looking for her in his wheelchair.

"Lily, are you alright? Lily..."

The moment he pushed open Lily's room door, he was startled—her room was covered in dense, grey cobwebs.

But those cobwebs seemed almost like an illusion... as Aiwass focused on them, they disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye.

"Young master."

Lily's voice, weak and tired, softly carried, like that of a person just awakening from a serious illness: "Do you require my assistance with bathing... Did I oversleep? Sorry..."

Only then did Aiwass notice Lily standing quietly by the corner of the wall, wearing the glasses he had given her.

It was as if she had been standing there from the start, and he just hadn't noticed her right away.

Indeed, it was the Authority Path magic "Edict of Invisibility" that came with [Observer in the Shadow] that had prevented Aiwass from being immediately aware of her presence.

—Without a doubt, she had successfully entered the Path of Adaptation.

She glided over, utterly void of footfall sounds... like a moth or a spider.

"I was just checking to see if everything was going well for you, and if you needed my help."

Aiwass gently closed the door.

He glanced over, seeing the grey Codex Book calmly lying next to the pillow.

It had already imparted its stored knowledge to the reader, and now temporarily devoid of mystical traits, it seemed no different from an ordinary book.

"What is its name?"

Aiwass asked as if he wasn't inquiring about a book, but a pet.

"The 'Spider's Silk Sensing'." Lily explained.

She relayed to Aiwass an outline of the secrets contained within—housed within it was a form of special heritage.

Unlike the "Nurturing Secret Sequel," it wasn't about a lost heritage but closer to a kind of "summoning creature" or a method of using an exotic weapon.