Chapter 153: Introductory Spells (3/3)

"Ying, stop overthinking it," Wang Ningwei said, tugging at Esmeralda's sleeve. Sometimes, she still preferred to call her by her codename, Shadow.

Esmeralda had visited the front desk back then to look over the lecture notes revised by Zhao Xu. About seventy to eighty percent of the content matched what Zhao Xu had actually presented during the lecture.

The remaining twenty or thirty percent of inconsistencies were naturally the parts Zhao Xu had improvised on the spot based on the audience's reactions.

This also proved that the revisions on the manuscript were entirely his own independent work; only then could he freely adapt and reprocess them on the fly.

This was precisely the reason why many apprentice wizards in the lecture hall, after joining in the excitement, could not help but burst into repeated gasps of astonishment.

"Did you secretly chat with him privately beforehand? Did you know he had the ability to cast spells spontaneously like that?" Esmeralda looked at Wang Ningwei with a gaze hinting at a scandal.

Presently, only the two of them knew that Zhao Xu was merely a level 3 wizard.

For a high-level wizard to pull off that scene wouldn't be difficult.

But for a level 3 wizard to achieve it was truly a fantasy.

"Have you forgotten?" Wang Ningwei suddenly wore a hint of a mysterious smile. "Back then, after your fear saving throw failed, didn't you urgently call out for Chung Hsia to cast 'Restoration' on you so you could recover?"

"At that time, he cast the spell directly," Wang Ningwei said, the light in her eyes as clear and piercing as usual.

"I see," Esmeralda finally understood.

Because she had fallen into a deep state of terror at that time, she was unwilling to dwell on too many details afterward.

In truth, when she shouted "Restoration" back then, she only hoped that Zhao Xu happened to have prepared such a scroll.

Generally speaking, when venturing alone, failing a saving throw practically meant doom.

How could there be any chance of casting a spell to force another saving throw upon oneself?

If one could truly cast a spell again, it meant the negative condition inflicted wasn't all that severe.

This paradox led to lone wanderers having no need to prepare this particular spell.

That day, Zhao Xu had no prior knowledge that he would be grouped with them, making it even more impossible for him to have prepared this spell.

At this thought, Esmeralda could not help but cast a reproachful glare at Wang Ningwei.

The girl had known this all along yet deliberately kept quiet, just waiting to tease her.

***

After walking out of the academic lecture hall, deterred by his formidable presence during class, no apprentice dared to blindly follow or pester him.

Normally, when a lecturer stepped down from the podium, it signified that the exchange had come to an end.

Standing on the grounds of the floating city, Zhao Xu gazed at the three blood-red moons high in the firmament, reviewing his performance today.

The various plazas of the floating city were not sealed off, allowing natural sunlight to pour down and nourish the diverse plants growing in the flowerbeds.

However, when designing the floating city, the wizards had modeled the plaza flowerbeds as arcane gardens, adhering to the requirements of indoor greenhouses.

Even if the world were to lose sunlight forever, the plants in the floating city could still rely on those arcane runes to harvest energy and continue growing.

Tonight, Zhao Xu could even catch whiffs of floral fragrance in the air.

Then, he noticed Antinoya standing in the shadowed corner of a flowerbed; she had clearly been watching him for a long time now.

"Done showing off?" Antinoya asked.

Zhao Xu smiled. True to form, she was the same sarcastic Antinoya he knew.

Right now, Zhao Xu felt in top shape; the lingering excitement from finishing a lecture was still stirring his emotions.

"Did something happy happen to you these past few days?" Antinoya asked.

Zhao Xu looked up at the starry sky, sighed, and said, "I just realized that I'm finally able to seize a tiny shred of destiny, and I'm feeling a bit emotional about it."

Antinoya gazed at him thoughtfully for a moment before following his lead and looking up at the starry sky.

On that day, Zhao Xu had told Zhang Qi to keep an eye on Cui Lu, and later on, Cui Lu indeed passed through safely.

There was no clichéd plot where Zhang Qi suffered a concussion protecting Cui Lu and could no longer play the game.

Everything was wonderful.

This was also the first instance where Zhao Xu had attempted to proactively interfere with someone else's destiny and succeeded.

Previously, because of his appearance, Wang Ningwei and the other apprentice wizards were able to undergo the awakening ritual five days early.

Yet, because he broke the Arcane Throne, their awakening time was pushed back by another five days.

Everything had returned to the initial starting point.

Therefore, Zhao Xu had worried that some cliché like automatic world-line correction would occur.

Fortunately, everything remained normal. Without even requiring much intervention from him, a mere butterfly effect had impacted the lives of most people.

"Since you're so full of confidence, tomorrow morning after you've recovered all your spells, come find me in the spell combat room. I'll train you in some practical applications of second-level spells."

"After all, you've gone from being very pathetic to slightly less pathetic."

Logging into the game the next day, Zhao Xu couldn't help but smile wryly at the thought of having to spend three whole hours preparing spells again.

The price of showing off before others was naturally moving bricks behind the scenes.

The wizard, cleric, and archivist classes each required one hour of spell preparation.

However, if Zhao Xu didn't use many spells in the future, naturally he wouldn't need to prepare them—especially since preparing level 1 cleric spells also took an hour, which was truly a waste of expression. Once he gained more spell slots, he would basically stop bothering with those level 1 cleric spell slots altogether.

Antinoya possessed a vast amount of space on the seventh level of the Spire, particularly those research laboratories whose doors she had never once opened.

This time, however, she arranged for him to use the spell combat room. Its primary feature was that the surrounding space within the chamber possessed an automatic restoration function.

Coupled with a powerful positive energy healing effect, just standing in the room boosted Zhao Xu's hit points by an extra tier, instantly skyrocketing his original 17 HP to over 20 HP.

This time, Antinoya was still wearing her previous gold-forged burgundy wizard robe.

"Mentor, is it necessary to be this formal?" Zhao Xu asked with surprise.

The robe Antinoya wore was none other than the one Zhao Xu had seen the Goddess of Magic wearing when he traveled across the rivers of history aboard the Arcane Throne—the Robe of the Archmagi.

For Antinoya, the enhanced defensive capabilities provided by this robe were negligible, but she couldn't help the fact that the Goddess of Magic had worn this exact garment when she ascended to divinity.

This made even high-level wizards eager to acquire such a robe for themselves.

Merely in terms of armor class, the Robe of the Archmagi provided double the effect of Mage Armor, offering a whopping +8 armor bonus, which was already equivalent to a warrior's full plate.

More importantly, this robe allowed the caster to recover three spell slots every day.

Usually, whenever Zhao Xu saw Antinoya wearing this outfit, it carried a special significance, such as taking him to the legacy of the Itel Dynasty.

"Today, my main goal is to give you a preliminary understanding of the opening moves in wizard combat before the Cataclysm," Antinoya said.

Hearing this, Zhao Xu couldn't help but ponder.

Opening moves?

Logically speaking, shouldn't the first greeting exchanged by high-level wizards be the ninth-level spell "Mage's Disjunction"?

This spell could destroy all of an opponent's magical defenses and magic items, packing lethal power for both user and target alike. Once someone was hit by it, it essentially meant harboring a blood feud for a lifetime.

"You can think about it: among all the spells you learned in the Final Scroll Space, which one has this kind of might?" Antinoya continued to ask.

Hearing this, Zhao Xu immediately fell into deep thought and remained silent.

Naturally, Antinoya was referring to the second-level spells he had learned.

Moreover, they were most likely second-level arcane spells, since as an archivist, he couldn't cast second-level divine spells yet without reaching higher levels.

"Phantom Strike?" Zhao Xu hazarded a guess.

This spell allowed a wizard to ignore any armor and natural armor bonuses, earning it a reputation as an armor killer.

Even the astral deva he had transformed into possessed a natural armor class exceeding thirty; once stripped of its natural armor, its defensive prowess wouldn't be much higher than Zhao Xu's own.

"Heh, although we wizards can deal damage, that's still the minority. Most spells capable of dealing damage are actually divine spells, which is why archivists are truly the number one physical damage dealers. But what am I asking about right now? Wizards, remember?"

Antinoya looked at Zhao Xu with eyes full of anticipation.

"Alter Self?" Zhao Xu tried naming this spell filled with infinite possibilities.

"Hardly amounts to much. So what if you have a ninth-level Polymorph?" Antinoya sneered.

"Glitterdust," Zhao Xu said. This spell could be said to be extremely practical among second-level spells, and many wizards loved to memorize one.

"Last chance," Antinoya suddenly said.

"Lesser Celerity," Zhao Xu replied after pondering for a moment.

Upon hearing his answer, Antinoya nodded in satisfaction. "Well, there's still some hope for you."

Zhao Xu had experimented with the Celerity spell series within the scroll space.

It consisted of three tiers, with the lowest being the second-level spell—Lesser Celerity.

Upon casting this spell, the flow of time around him would slow down to an extreme crawl, only returning to normal after he completed his corresponding action.

This was equivalent to gaining an extra action, and this action could actually affect the world, unlike Time Stop where he could only play around by himself.

With Lesser Celerity, the action gained was only enough for Zhao Xu to barely move, which was insufficient for casting a spell.

Only with the fourth-level Celerity could he burst forth with a "standard action," which could be used to cast a spell.

Greater Celerity granted the time of a full-round action.

However, all three spells came with a severely punishing cost: once that limited burst of time ended, he would immediately fall unconscious.

On a battlefield, that practically meant waiting for death.

"Mentor, but doesn't Celerity have a massive drawback?" Zhao Xu asked. When he had read about it back then, he had dismissed it.

Even though the spell looked wonderful on paper.

It could force time to slow down when an enemy attacked, allowing him more choices.

"Then let me ask you, what is the casting time of the Celerity spell series?" Antinoya asked softly.

"An immediate action," Zhao Xu replied simply.

The time consumed by an immediate action was equivalent to a swift action, both being completable in a split second.

An immediate action was even more powerful because it functioned as a split-second reaction, executable with merely a thought.

"What if I told you that we actually have a way to avoid falling unconscious?" Antinoya said.

At this, Zhao Xu also grew still.

Did this mean he was naturally capable of moving a few more times than anyone else?