Chapter 152: Arbitrary Spell (2/3)

"Isn't this a bit exaggerated?" Ryan stood in the shadows, looking at the entrance of Lecture Hall 91.

Through the listening spell, he had heard every single word of the spell constructs that Arthur described inside the hall.

With Ryan's talent as a 9th-level wizard, he didn't even need to probe the spell models Arthur sketched on the whiteboard; he could guess most of it within his heart.

Naturally, he also instantly saw how that 2nd-level wizard, Tassi, had suddenly achieved enlightenment and advanced to a 3rd-level wizard.

Ryan felt that what Arthur had said wasn't all that earth-shattering.

How could it be like a lecture from the Goddess of Magic, directly enabling a listener to advance on the spot?

Antinoya was standing right beside Ryan.

She clearly held little regard for Ryan and had maintained a certain distance from him the entire time.

However, upon hearing Ryan's question, Antinoya still spoke up to explain: "In his understanding, spells are all one-sided, isolated, and static. Now that a low-level wizard has broken that perception of his, his mental barrier naturally shattered, and he leveled up."

"Wait, you mean to say that my explaining these principles as a top-level wizard would be useless, and it only works when spoken by a rookie like Midsummer?"

"Isn't that a bit contrived?" Ryan asked with a sense of injustice.

"Because high-level wizards like you, who have always had the wind at your backs, cannot comprehend the mindset of ordinary wizards who are bitterly climbing near the edge of a cliff."

Antinoya glanced at Ryan with contempt: "If you spoke to him, he would only think that your talent is just that high and that you can do anything. Only a wizard of the same level—just level two or three, like Midsummer—could shatter his illusions. Besides, what kind of high-level wizard are you anyway?"

Hearing Antinoya put it that way, Ryan was instantly left speechless and unable to refute.

Yet he could only curl his lip. *You are the young lady who is the most smooth-sailing wizard in all of Mystra, aren't you?*

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Arthur spent roughly over two hours finishing Lecturer Bruan's lecture notes, feeling thoroughly invigorated throughout the entire process.

Perhaps everyone harbors that inner psychological urge to educate others.

If Arthur hadn't awakened his Knowledge Mastery ability during the day, he certainly would have delivered this material by connecting it to arcane knowledge.

His focus would have leaned toward the origins and developmental trajectory of various spells, which was also the reason Lecturer Bruan was able to stretch those lecture notes to dozens of pages.

Yet now that Arthur had mastered his ability, this lecture instead turned into an opportunity for him to synthesize and thoroughly understand his own spell list.

Every time he mentioned a spell structure, he was actually re-examining his own train of thought.

Meanwhile, most wizards only master a dozen or even just a few 1st-level spells, but Arthur had mastered hundreds of 1st-level spells alone, and including 2nd-level spells, the total broke a thousand.

With this magnitude of accumulation, his perspective on spells far surpassed that of ordinary wizards.

And when Arthur finished explaining the notes, he noticed that many people off the stage were looking at him with eager eyes, waiting for him to reveal more secrets of magic.

Although everyone was unable to deduce the entire spell model backward from the simple results Arthur drew on the whiteboard, this kind of explanation nonetheless broadened their horizons and lowered the threshold for everyone to learn spells in the future.

"I feel like Midsummer has gotten a lot stronger," Wang Ningwei whispered to Eswehi.

"Just by advancing to a 3rd-level wizard, he shouldn't transform to this extent, right?" Eswehi looked at Arthur on the stage with some confusion. For someone like her who loved to understand all sorts of spells, Arthur at this moment seemed to be glowing from behind.

"It's mainly because ordinary high-level wizards wouldn't repeatedly delve into these low-level spells like this, and they don't have the patience to explain things to us either," Wang Ningwei whispered.

At this moment, Arthur glanced off the stage, recalled the standard steps for a lecture, and simply said, "Well, the preliminary explanation ends here. Next is the Q&A session; those with questions can raise your hands."

Immediately, a dozen hands shot up from the audience.

Without overthinking it, Arthur trusted his intuition and pointed to a female wizard who had raised her hand the fastest.

After Arthur motioned for her to stand, the female wizard wore a look of pleasant surprise and said, "Thank you, Your Excellency, for bringing such a vivid, exquisite, and interesting lecture to us beginners and wizard apprentices who are still struggling to grasp magic, allowing me—"

Arthur quickly waved his hand. "Make it short. State your question directly."

"Oh, I just wanted to ask the wizard how he deals with the disadvantage of wizards needing to prepare spells, which can make them seem a bit passive," the female wizard said in a dainty voice, looking at Arthur with an expectant expression.

Hearing this question, Arthur pondered for a moment.

Various wizard textbooks had long provided all sorts of answers to this question. Doing good intelligence work and making thorough plans were the simplest methods, followed by feats and various versatile spells.

For instance, the simplest way to use a *wish* spell was to simulate spells below the 9th level.

"She's a terrible straight man's foil; that female wizard tried to suck up and ended up shooting herself in the foot," Eswehi whispered to Wang Ningwei. "She wanted Midsummer to blurt out a spell like *Larloch's minor drain*—wait, no—*Rary's mnemonic enhancer*, or even show off a bit. She just didn't expect that the Midsummer on stage is not an 11th-level wizard at all."

*Rary's mnemonic enhancer* was a 4th-level spell that allowed a wizard to retain or prepare additional spells.

*Correction: Larloch's minor drain is a sorcerer/wizard spell, but let's stick to the narrative flow.*

"Don't underestimate Midsummer," Wang Ningwei told Eswehi with a mysterious smile.

At this moment, Arthur on the stage thought for a moment, intending to tease the female wizard, and said directly, "As for that, just do a good job with intelligence work."

Arthur's answer was the most official and least technical response, akin to a formulaic reply.

"Uh..." The questioned female wizard instantly grew awkward. She hadn't expected Arthur not to follow the normal script. Originally, as long as Arthur came up with a relatively unfamiliar or even niche solution, she would naturally cooperate with an expression of wonder and then stare at him with bright, shining eyes.

That way, after the lecture concluded, she could smoothly approach Arthur and discuss his answer further.

Who could have imagined that this lecturer on stage would kill the conversation with a single sentence?

However, right then, Arthur suddenly took a few steps forward, walked past the podium in front, and looked at the wizard apprentices and novice wizards listening quietly below. "Just like how I specifically prepared the spell you intended to ask about today."

The female wizard who had stood up instantly reacted, realizing this was the chance Arthur was leaving for her to cooperate. She hadn't expected to encounter a master today who knew how to manufacture opportunities himself.

The female wizard immediately set her mind to spinning, trying to recall what spell Arthur might have prepared.

Yet Arthur had lectured on at least dozens of spells on the stage, many of which everyone had never even heard of, with no special emphasis or hint whatsoever.

The female wizard gritted her teeth; unable to care about much else, she decided to just gamble on *invisibility*.

Yet just as she opened her mouth, someone from the audience suddenly blurted out, "Alter self."

As soon as this voice rang out, a wave of commotion broke out among the crowd.

*Alter self*, serving as the first hurdle of the core transformation spells, had blocked countless people. Many wizards without transformation talents remained completely helpless against it, even after they were capable of casting 6th-level spells.

Therefore, regardless of whether Arthur had prepared it or not, even if he had, there was a high probability he would fail.

However, the Arthur on stage simply snapped his fingers.

He indeed hadn't prepared *alter self*, but his *uncanny foresight* had reserved empty spell slots, and he could also rely on *versatile spellcaster* to combine two 1st-level spell slots into casting a 2nd-level spell.

This was also why he had deliberately said that at the start. No matter what spell the apprentices in the audience proposed, as long as it was a 1st- or 2nd-level spell, he could cast it.

This was Arthur's confidence.

Suddenly, all the apprentices stared in disbelief at the casting Arthur, thinking to themselves: *Could he actually be doing this for real?*

They saw Arthur's stature begin to shrink, while the details of his facial features shifted bit by bit, slowly transforming toward the appearance of another male.

*Alter self* allowed the caster to transform into a creature of a roughly similar size category, and it could likewise transform one into the appearance of another human. This was an extremely powerful disguise effect, one that even close acquaintances might fail to pierce through.

When Arthur finally completed the transformation spell, a large crowd of apprentices in the audience erupted in an uproar, gazing in utter disbelief back and forth between Arthur and the apprentice who had spoken up.

Arthur had precisely transformed into the exact appearance of the apprentice sitting in the audience who had called out for him to use *alter self*.

Seeing that everyone had been thoroughly awed by him, Arthur snapped his fingers once more, canceled the transformation spell, and slowly reverted to his original appearance.

At that, Arthur simply motioned for the female wizard to sit down and signaled for others to raise their hands again.

Yet the succeeding apprentices mostly treated it like a game, asking Arthur to cast the spells they demanded.

*"Wall of smoke," "Melf's minute meteors," "Dimension hop," "Master's touch"*—spell after spell, many of which most people had never even heard of, were demonstrated right in the hands of Arthur.

The gazes of the apprentices in the audience slowly shifted from expectation to shock.

Only those directly involved knew just how incredible it was for Arthur to pull all of this off.

"Is this lecturer actually a sorcerer?"

"How on earth did you sneak in? Where would a sorcerer get to know and master so many spells?"

"Turns out high-level wizards can really just do whatever they want?"

Seeing the heated discussions buzzing below, Arthur figured the demonstration was about enough, so he simply put down his lecture notes and departed with an ethereal grace.

When everyone subsequently swarmed onto the stage, they discovered that the lecture notes in Arthur's hands were covered in all sorts of scribbles and doodles, and the ink hadn't even dried completely very long ago.

Clearly, these lecture notes had also just been hastily put together.

And the most obvious line—the lecturer's name, "Bruan"—had been crossed out with a pen, with a new name written above it, only for that too to be subsequently crossed out.