Chapter 146: Powerful Feat (2/3)

When Zhaoxu was teleported back to Mystra's floating city, hoisted by Antinoya, his mind was still lingering on the heritage of the Ithil Dynasty.

At this moment, Zhaoxu used the 1st-level spell "Magic Aura" to mask the magical radiance emanating from his Cloak of the Stars.

When not worn, the Cloak of the Stars simply looked like an ordinary cloak, which better suited Zhaoxu's requirements.

Therefore, through the spell "Magic Aura," he concealed the inherent magical radiance naturally emitted by magical items.

In this way, others using detection magic would not be able to tell that this "Cloak of the Stars" was a magical item.

Even after the cloak was put on, the starlight-like shimmering glow was suppressed. Unless someone used means such as "Identify," no one would ever suspect that Zhaoxu was wearing an expensive magical item.

Furthermore, the spell "Magic Aura" had its caster level calculated by days, so when Zhaoxu combined it with an Ioun Stone, casting it once could last for as many as four days.

Upon arriving at the seventh tier of the floating city, Antinoya conducted the awakening ritual for his item familiar.

The process was very similar to the previous awakening rituals that granted Draconic Speech and Insightful Caster.

However, right after finishing his awakening, Antinoya received a notice to attend an emergency meeting of the floating city's upper echelons, leaving Zhaoxu alone to study the instruction manual for the 'Item Familiar'.

As an item familiar that might accompany him for a lifetime, Zhaoxu carefully read through the instructions, constantly pondering the details within.

After choosing the "Insightful Caster" ability, he had specifically checked the forums regarding the abilities of familiars.

He had also perused quite a few books about familiars, among which the most frequently mentioned point was that the familiar and the wizard were considered as one entity.

Wizards could also gain benefits from their chosen familiars; for instance, wizards who chose a toad familiar could receive an additional 3 hit points, which in the early stages was even comparable to the "Toughness" feat.

Wizards who chose a lizard familiar could gain a +3 bonus to their Climb skill.

Of course, many players nowadays liked to choose a raven so that they could converse with it.

More importantly, as long as the familiar was by their side, the wizard would additionally enjoy the +2 bonus to Spot and Listen checks granted by the "Alertness" feat.

If one even chose a falcon familiar, they could gain an additional +3 bonus to Spot and Listen checks in bright environments, which stacked with the Alertness feat for a total increase of 5 points.

In the early stages, a 1st-level Rogue or Ranger who maxed out their Spot and Listen skills would only have a total of 4 ranks anyway.

Therefore, Zhaoxu strongly suspected that both Wang Ningwei and Eswyth had abandoned their familiars; otherwise, had they summoned their familiars at that time, they could have further enhanced the effectiveness of their surveillance network.

Had that been the case, their Spot and Listen capabilities would likely have surpassed those of all other players at the time.

This was also the terrifying aspect of wizards: with the support of spells, their skill effectiveness could actually exceed that of rogues, who naturally possessed 8 skill points per level.

One had to know that rogues earned at least half their living relying on skills.

However, this kind of power was currently limited to wizards like Zhaoxu, who had mastered almost all 1st-level spells.

Zhaoxu carefully sensed the Cloak of the Stars on his body. Following the ritual, he truly had the feeling of being merged into one with the item.

Zhaoxu also began to operate the item familiar's abilities according to the prompts in the manual.

Compared to ordinary familiars, the strength of an item familiar lay in its ability to provide feedback.

It was equivalent to a hen that would actively lay fresh eggs for its master rather than a four-legged gold-devouring beast.

Upon advancing to 3rd level, Zhaoxu gained 4 skill points (3 from Intelligence and 1 human bonus), while the remaining class skill points would only be acquired once he officially obtained his class levels.

He tentatively manipulated the 3 skill points in his mind and channeled them into the "Cloak of the Stars."

Immediately, the Cloak of the Stars began to react, continuously absorbing Zhaoxu's skill points as it attempted to integrate them into its entire fabric.

After about half an hour, Zhaoxu noticed that his character sheet interface had changed.

His remaining available skill points had dropped to 1.

However, a new line had additionally appeared below: [Item Familiar Skill Points: 4]

Seeing this, Zhaoxu let out a soft breath of relief. It had finally succeeded.

The power of an item familiar was that after digesting skill points, it could amplify them by one-third and feed them back to the master.

If Zhaoxu dared to take the risk and invest all his skill points, his skill points in the future would be one-third greater than those of someone under identical conditions.

For the wizard class, which was inherently plagued by a shortage of skill points, this was a significant enhancement.

Wizards only received 2 class skill points per level; if not for the boost from Intelligence, they wouldn't even have points to invest in Knowledge skills. Unlike spellcasters like Archivists, who had at least 4 class skill points per level.

The only issue was that these 4 skill points were attached to the cloak. If Zhaoxu were separated from the cloak for too long or if the cloak were damaged, he would find himself in an extremely passive position.

Yet, it was merely being passive.

Others might lose those invested skill points forever.

Zhaoxu, however, could ask Antinoya to cast a Wish spell to restore them.

This was also the reason why Antinoya arranged an item familiar for him.

Seeing that he now had 4 skill points available, Zhaoxu was not in a hurry to allocate them. His "Sleight of Hand" skill was a black hole that devoured skill points, capable of consuming any number given to it.

It was just that he temporarily lacked the time and inclination to practice hiding coins or playing string figures. In his past life, he had seen a rogue with only a few ranks in Sleight of Hand manage to spin a sharp double-edged blade back and forth across four fingers.

Next, Zhaoxu refocused his attention on the second ability of the "Item Familiar"—Return Vigor.

Before investing his vitality, Zhaoxu had indeed pondered this.

Opinions had always been divided on the exact form in which experience points existed.

The character sheet interface only quantified various skill levels, hit points, and Armor Class for them.

Yet, there was no such thing as an experience point progress bar.

Therefore, it had always been difficult for everyone to gauge precisely when they would level up.

If one could see a prompt like "+1 mathematical experience" appearing behind them while studying, then many people would study hard.

Because studying would instantly become an endeavor with immediately visible rewards, much like leveling up and fighting monsters in a game.

Meanwhile, an item familiar could accept investments of things similar to experience points, thereby feeding back even more experience points.

Though this feature seemed somewhat redundant to Zhaoxu, who leveled up at lightning speed and inexplicably without knowing why.

Still, even the smallest mosquito meat was still meat. After some thought, Zhaoxu followed the manual's instructions and began to meditate.

He slowly visualized channeling the vitality of his body into the cloak.

In the corner of the quiet room, the three burners emitting calming incense suddenly flickered, trailing wisps of smoke that drifted lazily.

Filaments of light began to emerge from Zhaoxu's entire body, slowly pouring into the cloak like life energy.

After lasting for ten minutes, Zhaoxu woke up with a start.

He noticed that his body felt considerably drained, and both the 3rd-level numerical value and the hit point values on his character sheet interface were beginning to fluctuate.

"Surely I'm not going to de-level?"

Zhaoxu suddenly thought of his friend who had been kissed by a succubus. Because the other party could not break free from the succubus's kiss, every sweet代价 was accompanied by a reduction in level.

Just as Zhaoxu felt his level was on the verge of destabilizing and dropping, a sudden surge of warmth rushed out from the cloak, continuously pouring into his body.

A quarter of an hour later, Zhaoxu felt that he had received far more energy than the vitality he had initially expended.

This also verified what the manual had stated: possessing the "Item Familiar" feat meant he had essentially gained about a 10% bonus to experience points.

If Ay瑟 had a VIP system, this experience bonus ability of the item familiar could definitely be considered a VIP perk.

Reaching this point, Zhaoxu stood up and patted the dust off his clothes.

An item familiar possessed yet another ability: it could absorb a spell slot and feed it back to him reduced by two levels.

That meant if Zhaoxu invested a 2nd-level spell slot, that 2nd-level spell slot would henceforth be tied to the item familiar, while he would simultaneously receive an extra 0-level spell slot as feedback.

It was just that he did not yet have any 2nd-level spell slots, so he had to put this on hold for now.

As for the remaining abilities of the item familiar, such as intelligence, telepathic communication, and various potent capabilities, they would only become available as he leveled up in the future.

Thinking of this, Zhaoxu couldn't help but tug at the cloak on his body, drawing it slightly closer to himself.

This cloak could now be considered the most exquisite magical item in his possession.

Confirming that he had mastered the abilities of the item familiar, Zhaoxu logged off and returned to the real world.

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When Zhaoxu logged off this time, he found that Zhang Qi was engaged in the daily nauseating activity of a video chat with his girlfriend.

Although Zhaoxu had only been online for a little over two hours after dinner, he had acquired a 130,000-gold-piece magical item and concurrently mastered a powerful feat.

Yet, he felt as though a very long time had passed.

Now, after logging off and temporarily suppressing the excitement of obtaining his new gear, Ernest's legendary story began to linger in his mind.

At the time, driven by a certain innate sensitivity, he had not pressed Antinoya further about the aftermath or the identity of the person being protected.

However, Zhaoxu was certain that Ernest's legendary hidden treasury remained in a legendary state and had not been claimed by any deity.

Zhaoxu had read the book "The Arcane Path" given to him by Antinoya.

He was well aware that the overlap between the deities of Ernest's era and the present deities was less than the fingers on one hand.

Thinking about it this way, being a deity could also be considered a high-risk profession.

As Zhaoxu pondered, he climbed down from his bed, opened his phone to check, and found that in the QQ group, Wang Ningwei and Eswyth had exchanged several hundred messages with each other.

The topic had shifted from details about Ay瑟 to daily apparel and even two-dimensional anime topics, giving Zhaoxu a headache just looking at it.

"Babe, the quest at Falling Star Lake is too dangerous. You really shouldn't go," Zhang Qi was saying to his girlfriend on the video call.

Immediately afterward, Zhang Qi began analyzing the surrounding environment of Falling Star Lake for her.

Falling Star Lake was a crucial stronghold near Winterfell.

Most university students whose characters originated in Winterfell had gone to train and fight monsters around Falling Star Lake, and a supply post had begun to develop there.

Hearing Zhang Qi analyze everything logically, Zhaoxu found it strange: knowing how dangerous it was, why had Zhang Qi given up his remaining four resurrection stones at Falling Star Lake in his past life?

The Battle of Falling Star Lake, as the first large-scale campaign initiated by players in Ay瑟, held profound significance.

This was also the reason why the university alliance Zhaoxu belonged to was able to hold such a pivotal position in the future.

"Alright, alright, I'll accompany you to the trial then," hearing his girlfriend's spoiled whine from the other end, Zhang Qi hurriedly coaxed her.

Zhaoxu looked at Zhang Qi's back, recalling how Zhang Qi had cared for and helped his family in his past life.