Chapter Nine: [Archmage] – Soren!
2015-07-17
Author: Floating Tower
In the study.
Soren slowly opened the black metallic spellbook in front of him. Accompanied by a faint glimmer of spell restriction, Soren waved his hand and erased the restrictions on it. The owner of this spellbook was not that powerful, likely not even at the semi-legendary level. Soren easily broke the restriction spells with his demigod abilities. Although archmages are powerful, not all can compare with the gods; such restrictions aimed only at mortals were utterly useless to Soren.
Click!
The cover of the black metallic spellbook flipped open, and the entire book suddenly trembled. Upon contact with Soren’s fingertips, it shook violently before settling down obediently on the table.
“Alive?”
Soren looked somewhat surprised, closed his eyes to sense it, and murmured, “It really is alive! But it has lost all awareness. The power of [Animate Life] must have been exhausted; it hasn’t had any new soul energy injected in a long time.”
Archmages possess many peculiar abilities.
Their power is not just manifested in destruction; any wizard who is respected is not due to their destructive power but because of their imaginative creative abilities.
The appearance of the floating city is the pinnacle of their creativity!
Animating life can turn a certain object into a living construct life, which is considered a relatively advanced spell. Soren had no interest in wasting killing experience on a spellbook, so he did not intend to revive it. This spell consumes a lot of soul energy; unless one possesses soul crystals from the Bottomless Abyss or the Hell of Bartok, like the ones Soren found in the White Dragon’s lair, otherwise, the personal cost might be as high as tens of thousands of points of killing experience.
The soul crystals were taken by Gloria to infuse the Tower Spirit experimental subject ‘ET-1’; currently, the soul energy of the Tower Spirit experimental subject is still insufficient. If it weren’t for the issues related to the Shadow Plane, Gloria would probably plan a trip to the Hell of Bartok. From both Soren and Gloria’s perspective, the progress of the Tower Spirit experiment is far more important than other matters; they are like construct biological computers with immense computational capabilities.
To unlock the secrets of the Shadow Plane Wizard Tower requires ‘ET-1’s scanning and computational abilities.
………………
The pages of the spellbook feel like human skin; it seems this spellbook had once been enhanced to a certain level.
The resources during the Arcane Empire period were abundant, and it’s not impossible that archmages had enough soul crystals to squander. Soren glanced at the prologue of the spellbook and quickly flipped through the following pages. The characters on it were ones Soren had never seen before; even at first sight, he didn’t recognize them at all. But soon he did recognize them, not only recognizing but fully understanding these arcane characters, because as a demigod, he had established the ability of [Literacy].
Soren can understand and comprehend any text; this is a power possessed by deities.
— [Photographic Memory].
— [Photographic Memory].
— [Scholar].
Soren spent less than half an hour to read and memorize the entire spellbook before him. It contained at least hundreds of thousands of words, along with many complex patterns and characters, yet Soren remembered everything. Ever since gaining divinity, Soren’s memory ability seemed to have strengthened further; sometimes he just needed to glance at something to memorize it.
“So this is the spellcasting method from the Arcane Empire period?”
Soren frowned and closed the spellbook. He murmured, “It seems there is no spellcasting without the magic network! Could it be that only grand archmages can achieve this?”
Humans have talent.
Among the wizard legendary advanced professions, there is a [Grand Mage], which can be elevated to a maximum of level 5, a pretty powerful advanced profession.
Within the archmage advancements, there is also a [Grand Archmage], similarly a legendary advancement. During the entire Arcane Empire period, there were not many who could be called [Grand Archmages].
“I have 10 wizard levels. It counts as having a foundation for spellcasting; I should be able to advance, right?”
Soren stood up, deep in thought and muttering to himself, “I’ve seen some powerful character templates from the Arcane Empire, and they all seem to directly advance from [Archmage] as the starting profession. If I choose [Wizard] as my starting profession, doesn’t that mean I’m starting from a lower level? I wonder if I can elevate to the field of [Grand Archmage].”
Once upon a time, there was a standard powerful spellcaster advancement route.
“[Wizard]—[Scholar of the Candle Keep]—[Grand Mage]!”
What Soren is currently worried about is that the spellcasting methods of archmages are somewhat different from those of wizards. It seems that archmages blend the abilities of both wizards and sorcerers; each profession might be superior to the others in different ways. He wasn’t sure if the two professions could be compatible, as many abilities of wizards do not meet archmage standards.
The Goddess of Magic ‘castrated’ many abilities from wizards!
………………
Hesitation is useless.
In the end, one has to try it out to understand. Soren still had nearly 200,000 killing experiences, enough to complete the advancement to archmage.
Whether the two abilities could be compatible, that would become clear upon trying the advancement!
“Successful advancement to [Archmage]!”
“Archmage profession upgraded to level 1.”
“Gain 28 (Intelligence 22 + (22 Intelligence – 10) * 0.5) skill points; health increased by 10 (profession health 4 + (22 Constitution – 10) * 0.5).”
“You have mastered the archmage specialty [Arcane Memory]!”
“You have mastered the archmage specialty [Arcane Rune]!”
“You have mastered the archmage specialty [Arcane Countermeasures]! …the personal specialty [Spell Countermeasures] has been replaced! …”
………………
“Unknown conflict! …”
“Partial abilities of the advanced profession [Archmage] have failed! …Automatically converting part of the [Arcane Memory] effect! …”
“Magic network energy interference! …”
“Mana imprisonment release failed! …Forcefully releasing mana imprisonment will lose spellcasting ability! …Contacting deep-level magic network structure! …Connecting magic network in the arcane circuitry! …[Arcane Memory] specialty automatically merges with [Arcane Recall] ability! …”
“Advancement completed! …”
“Archmage abilities have completed the transformation to integrate with the wizard’s profession! …Personal spellcasting ability restored! …”
Pain.
Soren’s brain suddenly felt intense pain, as if it had touched a terrifying high-voltage power grid.
That was the power of the magic network!
Compared to the vast magic network system, Soren’s abilities were crushed in an instant.
Then he lost his spellcasting ability; the magic network system rejected his access. However, immediately afterwards, with the data conversion in his mind, the magic network system reopened its doors to him. Soren felt as if his consciousness had entered a deeper location within the magic network. This place did not seem to have been left behind by the Goddess of Magic but rather looked like some ‘powerful existence’ had used vulnerabilities within the magic network itself to create a ‘backdoor’ for themselves.
Inner Magic Network!
Soren widened his eyes in shock, suddenly realizing that he had actually entered the interior of the magic network. Outside the magic network system in the magic network’s ‘grid’, there exists a more special ‘inner magic network’ space.
“Arcane Memory [Profession Ability]: Archmages possess special techniques that allow them to access the magic network’s interior and deeply interpret its structure. When in contact with the inner magic network, archmages can automatically recall spells they have previously cast without needing to recreate the spell memory. Spells remembered by archmages will retain an original spell model, and over time this spell model will automatically recall and reshape.
After a certain period, the archmage will recall the spells they have cast, even if during this process they did not take a rest or meditate. 0-level spells will be remembered after 10 minutes, 1-level spells require 1 hour, 2-level spells require 2 hours, 3-level spells require 4 hours, 4-level spells require 6 hours, 5-level spells require 8 hours, 6-level spells require 12 hours, 7-level spells require 16 hours, 8-level spells require 20 hours, 9-level spells require 24 hours, legendary spells require seven days of time.”
[Note: The Arcane Recall ability is incompatible with wizard profession levels! When the archmage level was level 1, it could only automatically recall 0-level spells and 1-level spells. The Arcane Recall ability will increase with the archmage’s spellcasting level.]
………………
Still no mana.
As long as the existence of the magic network has not collapsed, then chaotic energy will not disrupt spellcasting. The newly advanced archmage still requires spell slots to complete the spellcasting process.
However, he seemed to have understood some secrets from the Arcane Empire period!
Although he has not liberated his own mana, Soren has gained the ability for Arcane Recall; he can automatically recall the spells he has cast, even without meditation. The only regret is that the archmage truly does not integrate with the wizard profession: the level 1 archmage that Soren advanced to can only automatically recall one 0-level spell he has used every 10 minutes and one 1-level spell every hour.
Yet even so!
Soren could still deeply feel the power of the archmage.
Spells can actually be automatically recalled!
The inner parts of the magic network actually can store the original spell models, automatically completing memory reshaping over time, and all spells, including legendary spells, can be automatically recalled, only the time required varies.
This ability.
Compared to previously running out of spell slots and being rendered useless without meditation, it’s like heaven and earth!
— “Light Spell!”
A light emerged from Soren’s fingertips, illuminating the study, and with his current spellcasting ability, its duration is quite long; this is merely a 0-level cantrip.
One minute, two minutes, three minutes…
As ten minutes passed, Soren found that the 0-level spell model he had used before was restored.
………………
(PS: Three updates today. There are two more updates to come.) (To be continued ~^~)
