Chapter 154: Without a Price

Zhao Xu had once watched an ancient sci-fi masterpiece called The Matrix.
One of the most talked-about scenes in it was when the protagonist faced bullets, and the flow of time slowed down to an extreme crawl, allowing him to calmly lean back and dodge the projectiles—a process later known as bullet time.
The rapid burst series of spells worked precisely like this.
This was also the greatest difference between them and time stop spells.
During the duration of a time stop spell, the surrounding time is frozen, making it impossible to exert any substantial influence on the outside world.
However, in the state of a rapid burst, time is still flowing, which meant Zhao Xu could cast a fireball and kill people just the same.
Once the dizzy penalty of the spell's aftereffects could be avoided, it meant Pandora's box had been opened.
The current Zhao Xu was no longer the novice he used to be, clueless about everything.
He immediately began to ponder various possibilities that could break the game's balance.
"The first line of thought is a trigger-and-dispel approach?" Zhao Xu said.
The other day when he cast the "Resurrection" spell on Aiselwei, he allowed her to make another saving throw.
If Zhao Xu had been level 3 at that time, he could have cast the level 2 divine spell "Aura of Glory," which could have directly removed Aiselwei's frightened condition, sparing her from having to gamble on a saving throw.
Therefore, as long as someone cast a spell on him to remove the dazed effect right after he fell into the dazed state, it would work.
"Then what is your implementation method?" Antinua asked softly, seeing that Zhao Xu was finally starting to think using a wizard's logic.
"For instance, if someone casts a spell like 'Panacea' on me?" Zhao Xu offered as a line of thought.
Panacea was a level 4 divine spell. Through a touch, it could remove thirteen types of negative conditions from the target, ranging from blinded to stunned, and it included dazed.
"Don't you think it's too costly to have someone cast a level 4 divine spell on you?" Antinua asked. "Even a familiar can't accompany you through such high-consumption antics."
Zhao Xu understood immediately.
The plan was feasible, but it needed further optimization.
Once his character level was high enough, his items and familiars would gain spellcasting abilities, such as being able to cast level 0 spells, but that was the extent of it.
Even if spells existed that allowed familiars to gain broader spellcasting capabilities, they were still severely limited.
Zhao Xu needed to direct his thoughts toward lower costs.
The "Panacea" spell was not the only one capable of removing negative conditions.
Zhao Xu began to continuously search his mind for spells, and slowly, his eyes brightened.
"Healer's Lore," Zhao Xu said slowly.
Healer's Lore was a level 2 divine spell for clerics, but it was also a level 1 divine spell for rangers, so Zhao Xu had already mastered it.
Once this spell was cast, as long as Zhao Xu had 5 ranks in the Heal skill, whenever he cast conjuration healing spells such as "Cure Light Wounds," he could additionally impart the effect of removing negative conditions.
This included the "dazed" condition.
Familiars and their masters shared spell states, meaning they could equally benefit from the effects of "Healer's Lore."
Therefore, as soon as Zhao Xu became dazed, his familiar only needed to cast the level 0 spell "Cure Minor Wounds" on him to trigger the effect of "Healer's Lore" and lift the "dazed condition" for him.
The 1 hit point healed by the level 0 divine spell "Cure Minor Wounds" was already negligible; it just needed to qualify as a "conjuration healing" spell.
"However, relying on a familiar or someone else to heal oneself is ultimately a bit passive," Zhao Xu muttered, lowering his head in thought.
The more links involved in a process, the easier it was for things to go wrong.
Entrusting life-and-death matters to too many intermediary steps was indeed very risky.
Once he fell into a dazed state, the situation would be out of his control.
This was not a risk a rational wizard should take.

"Indeed," Antinua nodded.
Having spent a long time with Antinua, Zhao Xu already understood her intentions.
If this path could only go this far, Antinua probably would have told him it was unrealistic right from the start, rather than continuing to guide his thoughts.
Zhao Xu continued to recall the spells he had cast.
Those few days inside the Ultimate Scroll space were the most extravagant days of his life in terms of spell usage.
His impression of those spells was also exceptionally deep.
Even spells above level 3, which were not in his list of known spells, could only be retrieved through memory.
Suddenly, Zhao Xu froze for a moment.
He thought of a spell, but its effect was almost too incredible for even him to believe.
Meanwhile, Antinua looked at him with a look of expectation in her eyes.
Zhao Xu said in a low voice, "Combining it with Shunted Healing?"
Shunted Healing was a level 5 divine spell.
During the duration of the spell, within a six-meter radius around Zhao Xu, whenever anyone cast a spell, he could draw energy from the flow of magic and automatically gain the healing benefits of a conjuration healing spell.
If Zhao Xu cast a spell himself, it would also trigger this effect.
Therefore, every time Zhao Xu cast a spell from the "rapid burst" series, it was equivalent to casting a healing spell on himself.
And this healing effect in turn triggered the effect of the level 1 spell "Healer's Lore," removing the "dazed" effect from him.
Through this chain of logic, Zhao Xu realized that when spell magnitudes were stacked to a certain degree,
many spells that seemed to carry huge costs could be circumvented through spell chains.
This was a lesson Antinua was teaching him.
Spells indeed had strengths and weaknesses, but discovering where each spell's strength and weakness lay required him to explore.
The library had a wealth of materials regarding spells, and there was actually no shortage of spell usage tips, but most of them were limited to core spell series.
If he hadn't encountered the "rapid burst" spells in the "Ultimate Scroll" space, Zhao Xu might never have known such a spell existed in his entire life.
Some level 9 wizards might not even master this spell.
"Alright, stop daydreaming. Your first line of thought has been verified. Now tell me about the second one," Antinua asked.
This time, without even thinking much, Zhao Xu replied, "The second line of thought is immunity."
In Arthur, the name of the strongest defense was immunity.
No matter how high Armor Class was stacked, it could still be rendered completely useless by spells like the "Ghost Strike" mastered by Zhao Xu, which bypassed armor entirely.
Only effects like Zhao Xu's "Star Cloak"—which immunized against non-magical weapon attacks, and could even immunize against magical weapon attacks provided a reflex save was passed—constituted true defense.
The same applied to facing dazed effects.
"And the implementation method?" Antinua asked.
"Martyr's Mercy?"
Zhao Xu slowly uttered the name of this level 4 divine spell unique to paladins.
This extended divine spell, which paladins normally couldn't learn until level 13, could be cast by Zhao Xu as early as level 8.
This spell only occupied a level 4 spell slot, yet it could immunize against seven or eight negative conditions such as dazed, exhausted, and fatigued. Even if hit points dropped below 0, the caster could remain conscious until official death at -10 hit points.
The only pity was that it could not be combined with spell persistence like Shunted Healing and Healer's Lore could.
"Well, since you already have a certain understanding of the entire spell list, I won't say much more," Antinua said with a gentle nod after hearing Zhao Xu's reply, and continued, "Did you see the loophole?"

"Infinite combo?"
This time, a hint of uncertainty finally crept into Zhao Xu's tone.
In fighting games, an infinite combo meant keeping the opponent trapped in a stagger state from the start until their death.
In terms of spells, an infinite combo meant Zhao Xu could continuously sustain himself by casting rapid burst spells.
Especially the level 8 Greater Rapid Burst, which granted nearly an extra round of time.
Within this round of time, as long as he unleashed another wave of rapid burst spells,
he could maintain that state of extremely slow time flow until his spell slots ran out.
During this period, any spell he cast would take effect on anyone.
It was equivalent to others being unable to move while he kept hurling spells until his spell slots were no longer sufficient to cast "Rapid Burst."
With capabilities like this, if he wasn't invincible, who was?
Even if Zhao Xu could currently only cast "Lesser Rapid Burst" and the granted action time was only enough for movement, he could still pull off plenty of tricks.
At the very least, it meant that even if someone ambushed him at close range, he could forcefully burst out this spell and violently force distance between them again.
"So after this spell was abused, it was corrected by the World Will," Antinua interjected at this point.
"Some multiverse worlds adhere to the rule of 'no gain without cost'; you gain an extra action, and you are bound to fall into a dazed state. If you are immune, you cannot cast the spell."
"As for Arthur, it follows the rule of 'inevitable cost.' Only after the cost takes effect can you cast the spell a second time."
Antinua explained to Zhao Xu.
Hearing this, Zhao Xu understood.
He could enjoy the first rapid burst, and he wouldn't fall into a dazed state afterward.
However, when he wanted to cast the spell a second time, he had to accept the previous dazed effect before he could cast it again.
Thus, this also prevented him from continuously casting "rapid burst" series spells and forcing others to simply stand by and watch him play alone.
At the same time, Zhao Xu began to notice that most of the methods he had thought of involved divine spells.
Ordinary wizards without divine spells would have to take a detour; naturally, they wouldn't have it as convenient as his dual mastery of arcane and divine magic.
Zhao Xu immediately felt he was overthinking things.
Where would ordinary wizards even learn such a spell?
"Alright, next, let's run a test," Antinua said suddenly, looking at Zhao Xu with a teasing smile.
She pulled a pair of deep red knee-high boots out of her bag of holding, the soles gleaming a bright copper.
"Considering that you used rapid burst, you wouldn't even be able to utilize that time which is only for movement. So, these boots of rapid stepping will serve as the trophy for the upcoming test."
"They only require a move action to trigger and use, 5 times per day, allowing a short-range teleport of 6 meters each time."
Zhao Xu looked at the knee-high boots, his eyes instantly lighting up.
Even ordinarily, he could use these boots for short-range teleports. Moreover, because their activation time was short, within a single round he could entirely manage to cast a standard action spell and then activate the boots to teleport.
At a critical moment, even if someone swung a blade right up to his face, he could calmly cast a "Lesser Rapid Burst" spell and use that extreme window of time to activate these boots.
"Shall we give it a try?" Zhao Xu said to Antinua.