Chapter Thirteen: The Limits of Intelligence

"Is the mage class a joke? They expect me to memorize spells without question? If I don’t, I get kicked out?"
"Same here, and apparently there’s even an exam. I came here to play a game, not have the game play me."
"I gave up after ten minutes of lectures. What a waste of my 18-Intelligence character. I’m deleting and rerolling a Strength/Agility warrior."
"As a druid, I’m still lost in the forest. I’m not a ranger, should I log off and beg for a guide?"
"You guys are already learning spells? I haven’t even found the local Mage’s Guild. The village NPCs don’t know anything, and they barely respond to me."
"Maybe you spawned in the wrong place? Check the map. As far as I know, there are no Mage’s Guilds in villages. You’ll need to get to your town, but I wouldn’t recommend it."
"Why not?"
"Because I just left the village, and on the way to town, some goblins stabbed me all the way back to the Temple of Rebirth. It hurt. The system told me ‘Resurrection Stone -1’; now I only have four left. Is this—?"
"That’s right. Congratulations, you have four lives left, then your character is gone."
"This game is way too hardcore for me. After two hours, not a single person on the server has finished their class training and started fighting monsters."
"I heard that after trying it out, a major guild decided not to invest in this game. They think the requirements are too strict and the game doesn’t fit the mainstream, so it has no real potential."
"Someone please tell me why, just because I criticized the gods for being outdated, the priests kicked me out and called me a heretic. Where am I supposed to get a job now?"
"Friendly advice: unless you’re a glutton for punishment, just start with sixteen points each in Strength and Constitution and pick warrior or barbarian. Other classes will take days to get going."
"Get going? You must be a rogue. Us mages are still quietly sitting in class. I paid three hundred just to attend a lecture on occultism in this game. Hilarious. Consider it a donation to faith—goodbye."

At this point, most players were still in-game and unable to post on the forum.
But that didn’t stop those who had decided to delete their characters, switch classes, or who had died unexpectedly from logging off and venting their frustrations.
The forum’s activity spiked for the first time since the servers opened at eight.
Countless players were bewildered—when would they finally be allowed to fight monsters?
Or at least start running errands, delivering packages, and fetching quest items?
If not saving the world, they at least wanted to use some basic class abilities.
Even the most punishing action games start you off with a weapon or two.

As for Zhao Xu, he was struggling with his studies.
He glanced at the female mage quietly pacing in front of her desk. Her robes were a bit too large, making it impossible to see her figure.
Antinoya’s perception was clearly high—Zhao Xu hadn’t looked at her for more than three seconds before she turned and met his gaze.

Only then did Zhao Xu notice her eyes were the same shade of black as his own.
"Do you have a question?"
He didn’t dare admit he’d been absentmindedly sizing her up, so he quickly changed the subject. "Instructor, is my Intelligence score of sixteen sufficient?"
In Arthur’s world, attributes were quantifiable and not a secret among the locals—especially not for someone like Antinoya, who was clearly a mage above level ten.
Every attribute point marked a distinct tier. Each increase brought a tangible sense of growth.
Antinoya simply nodded, "Eleven is enough for you."
"You’re not joking, are you?" Zhao Xu asked.
In Arthur, most spellcasting classes required a key attribute of ten plus the spell level to cast a given spell.
With sixteen Intelligence, Zhao Xu could only cast up to sixth-level arcane spells unless he increased it further.
To cast ninth-level arcane spells, he’d need nineteen Intelligence.
Without it, he simply couldn’t comprehend the spells.
Eleven was just enough for first-level arcane spellcasting.
Zhao Xu wasn’t a genius, but he understood Antinoya’s subtext: he could always raise it later.
You could increase an attribute every four levels, so Zhao Xu wasn’t worried about getting from sixteen to nineteen.
But no mage ever considered Intelligence a drawback.
Extra spell slots from Intelligence were indispensable for a mage, who always suffered from limited spells.
Unless you only planned on fighting one or two monsters a day, spell endurance would never keep up.
Most novice mages were left firing hand crossbows from a corner after running out of spells.
Mages’ attacks were so feeble they barely scratched monsters.
If you stood too close, your teammates worried a stray monster would drop you in a heartbeat.

"Guess my Intelligence modifier. If you’re off by no more than five, I’ll give you a valuable gift."
Zhao Xu calmly studied Antinoya.
He’d always valued attribute allocation precisely because attributes were so hard to come by.
In his past life, he’d had a belt that granted +2 Strength, so unless he found another piece with +4, that avenue was closed—bonuses of the same type didn’t stack.
He’d only ever seen legendary +6 attribute items, the maximum, in the hands of warriors above level ten.
So Antinoya’s stats could be estimated.
Arthur was transparent that way—knowing someone’s stats and level let you calculate even their spell slots.
Zhao Xu mused, I admire your eighteen Intelligence, a one-in-a-million starting attribute.
Judging by her apparent youth, she was probably a level twelve mage—three attribute increases, making twenty-one in total.
Add the legendary +6 Intelligence headband, and the maximum would be twenty-seven.
In Arthur, there was only one way to permanently boost attributes. You couldn’t get creative with it.

"You mean the Intelligence modifier that affects spell slots?" Zhao Xu asked, just to be sure.
To gain extra spell slots, the Intelligence modifier had to be permanent or last at least twenty-four hours.
Anything that lasted that long was practically permanent.
He just wanted to be sure there wasn’t some obscure spell he didn’t know about that granted a temporary bonus.
"Of course."
"Twenty-five?"
With a five-point margin of error, anything between twenty and thirty would count as a win.
Zhao Xu guessed two below his estimated cap of twenty-seven, just to be safe.
"Are you underestimating me? You can double that."
"Fifty? That’s impossible," Zhao Xu said, incredulous.