Chapter 105: The Value of Wizards
This feeling is truly unbearable.
Without extraordinary level weapons, battling supernatural beings feels like trying to cut meat with a blunt knife, and it can be even more uncomfortable than that. Soren and Aladdin exchanged a glance, each displaying a sense of helplessness at the sight of their slightly dulled weapons. Extraordinary gear is scarce, especially suitable weapons, which often need to be specially commissioned. The extraordinary weapons occasionally found on the market are usually of common variety and not very useful for wanderers like them who value skill. (Warriors have much lower requirements for weapons.)
“Brother.”
Once the battle on this side ended, Gloria came over holding Vivian’s little hand, the little girl obediently following behind. Upon seeing the dulled weapons of Soren and Aladdin, she softly said, “Let me help you repair it.”
—“Repair Spell.”
This is the most commonly used 0-level spell by wizards. With the touch of the little girl’s fair finger, a faint spell light appeared, and Soren’s blade was promptly repaired, nearly returning to its original state. The Repair Spell is very useful as a 0-level trick, capable of repairing most gear that isn’t of extraordinary level, provided that it is not completely destroyed. If the wizard’s power is high enough, they can even snap their fingers like Gloria and completely fix up the broken furniture in a messy room.
Vivian has many 0-level tricks, about twice as many as other low-level wizards!
Just as the halfling pulled out a whetstone from his bag to sharpen his short sword, he immediately became eager and offered his weapon to Vivian after witnessing her cast a spell. Grinning, he said, “Little girl, can you fix mine too?”
“Uh-huh.” Vivian gently nodded and then pointed with her fair finger.
The short sword in the halfling’s hand was quickly restored after a short while. Vivian had already used up two of her 0-level spell slots.
Low-level spellcasters will always find their spell slots insufficient.
As the elemental energy within the earth elemental dispersed, the corpse quickly began to crumble, its rock-like body gradually collapsing and scattering across the ground like sand. At the same time, a dark stone, resembling obsidian, revealed itself. Aladdin quickly went over, clearing away the sand and soil, and presented the smooth black stone to Soren, asking, “Is something like this worth 500 Gind?”
“Hmm.” Soren nodded, took the elemental core, and placed it before Gloria, saying, “You should be able to analyze it since you study golems; can you tell its quality?”
The quality of such elemental cores depends on the strength of the earth elemental.
The biological level of an earth elemental is 15, but there can also be earth elementals of level 16 or 17. Generally, higher-level elemental cores have better quality and can be used to manufacture superior golems.
Gloria took it and after a glance, a faint spell light appeared at her fingertip, and she said, “The quality should be above average; in the Northern Region, it can be sold for about 700 to 800 Gind. The most common cores in the Northern Region are water elementals and wind elementals, and there is a significant demand for other elemental cores.”
Naturally, prices differ from region to region.
On the southern side, it’s around 500 Gind, but in the north, it can be as high as 700 to 800 Gind.
“Is it really that valuable? A diamond only costs around 500 or 600 Gind, right?” The halfling’s eyes sparkled with gold. The fatigue from the battle earlier vanished, and he suddenly seemed full of energy, quite excited, saying, “Then let’s keep going. I saw about ten more inside, which should be worth around 8,000 to 9,000 Gind!”
Soren also stood up.
The previous earth elemental gave 2,550 points of killing experience; the other earth elementals should be similar, and clearing them all should net around 30,000 killing experience. This was his only opportunity in the early stage to control monster encounters while being able to challenge higher-tier foes with relatively low risk. Such chances to gain killing experience will be rare in the future, after all, elemental life seldom appears in the material plane—he could only suppress the slow and tough earth elementals among the four major elements.
The agility of an earth elemental ranges from 10 to 12 points, with strength and constitution nearing 20 points, and sometimes even exceeding 20 points. Soren’s extraordinary agility completely dominated it; as long as he was careful and not overly rash, he wouldn’t be hit. It resembles how Soren initially refused to confront ogres head-on; a significant disparity in a single attribute can easily create a suppressive effect. Therefore, any profession within the legendary domain would avoid having a markedly obvious weakness in a specific attribute.
Of course, charisma is an exception!
Recently, the beastly style has become popular; real men don’t care about charisma anymore.
Gloria slightly furrowed her brows. She looked at the two and slowly said, “Your speed is too slow. The spell duration won’t allow you to clear these monsters. I have very few repeatable spells in memory, and without spells to enhance you, there is risk in fighting earth elementals.”
Spell slots.
These are the greatest limitation for wizards, also a tool that balances their disparities.
Though Gloria has many spell slots, as a high-level witch, she possesses one or two times the number of slots compared to other wizards, yet she must also retain memory of spells for life-saving, protection, combat, and control. The enhancement spells like just now are limited to one or two in memory; she wouldn’t waste a large number of spell slots on them. Without the enhancement of spells to create absolute attribute suppression, they could risk getting hit by earth elementals. Just looking at their size indicates that it would hurt a lot!
“What about this?” Aladdin glanced at the others and whispered, “We could take down some today, then take down the rest tomorrow after you re-memorize your spells?”
Soren shook his head, saying, “It’s best to deal with them today; after all, this is a place connecting to the elemental planes, and staying too long can lead to accidents.”
He turned to look at Gloria beside him and asked in a low voice, “Do you have the memory of a magic-weapon spell?”
Gloria pondered with a furrowed brow for a moment before replying, “That spell is seldom used; I basically don’t memorize it, but I do think I have a scroll for magic-weapon.”
Indeed, she truly is the affluent and opulent Northern Witch.
The essential magic-weapon spell for low-tier groups, and she didn’t even think of memorizing it.
This spell is actually the most frequently used spell before acquiring extraordinary equipment, typically to enhance the team’s top explosive damage dealers. She quickly retrieved an unassuming spell scroll, opened it, and activated it with her magical power, causing a spell light to fall upon Soren’s curved blade.
In an instant,
Soren’s originally ordinary quality curved blade became this:
“Item Type: Military Curved Blade +2 [Temporary Enchantment]
Item Level: [Second Tier Extraordinary Item]
Item Description: A weapon made using folded wrought steel, both its toughness and strength far exceed that of ordinary weapons; only those blacksmiths with forging skills above 150 can potentially craft such gear.
Equipment Requirements: Above 10 points of strength.
Equipment Effects: Blacksteel traits, +2 sharpness, +2 penetration, +1 energy damage.”
………………
Just like that, a second-tier extraordinary weapon was born.
Gloria is a high-level witch, and her enhancements are significantly stronger than those of other wizards, directly boosting from first-tier to second-tier. However, the limit remains at second-tier extraordinary weapons; only ‘Greater Magic Weapon’ spells can enhance to higher tiers, and there are even ‘Legendary Magic Weapon’ spells later on, but unfortunately, those who learn them are quite rare.
She glanced at Soren and softly said, “It can only last for twenty minutes. You’d better hurry.”
The spell indeed provides a temporary enhancement effect.
True extraordinary equipment must be forged with special materials combined with alchemy. Soren looked at the properties of the curved blade and immediately felt a surge of confidence: “This is enough for me to take them down.”
Aladdin, watching from the side, became envious and approached with two short swords in hand, gazing at her with longing.
Gloria glanced down at the small halfling and said indifferently, “There’s only one scroll; you should just make do with that sword for now.”
Aladdin immediately felt a bit disappointed but quickly followed along.
With Soren’s weapon upgraded to a second-tier extraordinary item, he naturally assumed the role of the main damage dealer. As the halfling again attracted an earth elemental, he rushed in and jumped up, fiercely slashing at the earth elemental’s neck.
A series of data appeared:
“Hit.”
“You have dealt a slashing attack to the earth elemental! … 7 (+2) points of physical damage inflicted! … an additional 1 point of energy damage! …”
“You have successfully enraged the target.”
Though only 8 points of damage were dealt, the weapon’s enchantment doubled Soren’s attack power!
Initially, his damage output was only around 4 points per strike, but now a single strike surpassed what two used to deal. As he twisted and slashed again, what previously dealt only 2 or 3 points of damage against the earth elemental’s rocky surface turned into 6 or 7 points. The solid rock even bore a two to three-centimeter deep mark, all thanks to the penetration and sharpness attributes of the second-tier extraordinary weapon, which allowed him to breach the defenses of enemies with natural armor to a certain extent.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t the most formidable [Armor Break] attribute; otherwise, he could slice through its inherent elemental armor as though it were tofu.
Six strikes!
Each of Soren’s strikes dealt an additional 1 point of energy damage, and after six consecutive slashes at the earth elemental’s arm, he managed to sever one of its arms from the shoulder. Wielding the extraordinary weapon, Soren’s combat power skyrocketed, even without needing Aladdin’s assistance; as long as he provided a little cover, Soren effortlessly hacked off two of the earth elemental’s arms and part of its leg.
Finally, one last strike severed the earth elemental’s head from its neck!
………………
(PS: That’s all for today; more updates tomorrow.) (To be Continued ~^~)
