Chapter 56: The Wizard’s Ring
Soren had been waiting for a long time beside the scene. Only after confirming that the wizard had completely left did he approach the bodies of the grey dwarves, expecting to find something valuable on them. Although the high-level spellcaster had dismissed them, he was just a little thief with a sister to support; naturally, the more money, the better. In the future, the little girl would have plenty of places to spend, so he had to prepare some savings. Moreover, if he did want to spend freely, even a set of the lowest-level extraordinary equipment would require more than three thousand Gind.
The ground was covered in bl**d, and from the traces, it seemed like a sudden battle had occurred.
“Inner gang?”
Soren examined the nearby footprints, furrowing his brows as he muttered, “It looks like they were traveling together at first; I don’t know why they suddenly started fighting.”
The footprints on the periphery were arranged neatly, as if a group of people was protecting something as they advanced.
The footprints behind started to become chaotic; when people sprint with all their strength, naturally, the traces left behind differ from those made while walking. Soren tried to recreate the initial scene in his mind but could only vaguely determine that it was the grey dwarves who launched the attack. Because there were traces of second-tier warriors charging on the ground, they stimulated their potential in a short time, bursting forth with incredible speed; an ordinary warrior could reach Olympian champion levels of speed. “What is this?”
Soren reached down to pick up a shard and then flipped over three bodies, finding a grey dwarf with a punctured chest, the wound showing signs of corrosion.
“Strong Acid Arrow?”
Soren cautiously removed the ring from the dead dwarf’s finger, a look of surprise appearing on his face as he murmured, “So they also had a spellcaster, but he was killed instantly!”
There was indeed a wizard among the grey dwarves.
However, his strength was only at the second tier, around level five; perhaps due to the suddenness of the incident, he hadn’t had time to react before being killed by the high-level wizard with a Strong Acid Arrow. Soren picked up the ring, stroking it; a faint magical glow emerged from it, and his smile grew wider because this was a low-tier wizard’s ring, capable of storing 1-2 level spells additionally.
“At least worth 1200 Gind!”
Soren put the ring away and continued searching the grey dwarf wizard’s body, secretly thinking, “They didn’t even touch the bodies of their companions, which means he was either very rich and didn’t care or had something very important that couldn’t afford to be delayed.”
“Is there any significant event happening during this time?”
“d*mn it!”
“Why didn’t I pay more attention to the changes in the situation back then?” Soren quickly found a dimensional bag, also a low-level one; while a second-tier wizard’s worth was not low, he had yet to enter the ranks of the wealthy. The contents were quite mixed, seemingly not worth much, but there was one thing that Soren really wanted.
That was—the spellbook!
The grey dwarf wizard’s spellbook was a thick black tome, inscribed with mysterious runes on the outside. It wouldn’t deteriorate due to natural causes and could retain its contents for a considerable amount of time. Soren opened a page, filled with dense symbols that he recognized many of but could only judge the spells written on it based on his experience, as he lacked the specialty of ‘Secret Script Recognition.’
The first spell was ‘Enlarge.’
It could double a creature’s size, increasing its strength by 2 points but lowering agility by 2 points.
If one had the Supermagic specialty, this spell could also apply to specific positions, allowing certain things to double in size. Of course, this effect was not conceived by the story’s native inhabitants but was a power created by some morally questionable character who spent a significant amount of time combining certain Supermagic specialties, and it could also be used in conjunction with ‘Reduce.’
The second spell was ‘Arcane Missile.’
This required no further explanation, as it was one of the most commonly used spells by wizards, due to its casting time of only one second.
The spells recorded afterward included a couple that Soren didn’t recognize, but the majority were familiar: Charm Person, Burning Hands, Color Spray, Mage Armor, Shield, Web, Bull’s Strength, and Fire Bolt.
Each spell took up about ten pages, although not all spells required this length to be written out.
There were also many illustrations, some even three-dimensional.
This was the legendary spell model; after wizards copied spells into their spellbooks, they would spend some time analyzing and constructing them. It wasn’t just a matter of copying them down to use them. Based on their own innate talent and intelligence, wizards needed considerable time to understand them, then construct a spell model in their brains, ultimately connecting to the Magic Network to form a spell slot to record it. The memory of this spell model would be stored in their brains, and after casting a spell, they would consume the power gathered through the Magic Network; subsequently, they would need to memorize the spell model again.
A simple analogy:
The spell model composed by wizards is akin to a b*llet that needs to be loaded into a spell slot generated by the Magic Network.
Once that b*llet is discharged, the spell model disappears, and one needs to refer back to the spellbook to memorize it again—unless their talent is exceptional enough to recall a complex integrated circuit board without relying on notes. This process of recalling and reconstructing the spell model cannot have any mistakes; any error could lead to a backlash from the spell. The higher the tier of the spell, the more severe the backlash, potentially exploding one’s head in an instant.
In Soren’s memory, it seemed that only advanced archmages could memorize spells again without relying on a spellbook.
Many archmages have intelligence scores of 25, equivalent to a biological computer.
Ordinary people’s memories, even those of relatively exceptional wizards, are unlikely to reach such levels; hence, they must carry a spellbook with them.
The ability to master spells is slow; a wizard with around 18 points of intelligence would need about half a month to learn their first first-tier spell. However, once learned, remembering becomes much simpler; they just need to spend some time meditating after casting to reconstruct a spell model. Thus, the number of spells a wizard can learn is also limited; generally, high-level wizards have many spells, while low-tier wizards have very few.
Only legendary domain wizards have the time and energy to collect more spells.
“What is this?”
Soren pulled out a special piece of paper; quickly glancing at it, he tucked it away.
It bore the emblem of three tentacles.
If he remembered correctly, it should be ‘Shadow Black Tentacles,’ a fourth-tier spell that could summon three energy tentacles to bind and ensnare enemies. The grey dwarf wizard hadn’t copied it into the spellbook, which indicated he might merely be a wizard below level seven.
The wizard’s worth was indeed quite high!
Soren calculated the value of the items found on the bodies, which amounted to over two thousand Gind.
“Ow!”
Just as Soren was happily rummaging through other bodies and collecting valuable items, a sudden howl from afar made him hasten his speed, stuffing everything into the dimensional bag he just discovered and then approached the bodies of the grey dwarves holding primitive firearms.
“So it’s a stone pellet firearm.”
He picked up an alchemical weapon, weighed it in his hands, and then stuffed it into the dimensional bag. This firearm was as thick as an adult’s arm and used polished stone pellets, categorized as relatively low-tier alchemical firearms that some dwarves might use. Due to primitive craftsmanship, both the range and accuracy were quite average; the firing speed was slow, sometimes even inferior to a crossbow or longbow—especially certain human-like races whose longbows had effective ranges exceeding three hundred meters and could penetrate half-centimeter thick steel plates, resembling sniper rifles.
The primitive firearm’s craftsmanship was similar to that of the eighteenth century.
The gnomes of Tordray had even better firearms; because of their physical disadvantages, these small creatures were very dedicated to their research in alchemy.
It was unfortunate that such weapons were incapable of dealing with a biological level 24 black dragon, which would ultimately destroy the entire city with its dragon breath.
That event was likely to happen in about a year.
The howls of the wolf pack were getting closer; Soren hurriedly finished looting the battlefield and moved towards the path.
He certainly didn’t want to face a pack of wild wolves.
The sky was getting darker, and many wilderness creatures were beginning to be active; the stench of bl**d here was uncertain to attract how many carnivorous creatures.
As Soren departed, he caught sight of a pair of eerie green eyes in the woods.
That was a werewolf scout!
They could smell bl**d from a kilometer away, scattering while hunting and signaling their companions through special sounds upon discovering prey. It wouldn’t be surprising if this group of wild wolves also had to face off against the werewolves.
There would undoubtedly be a wild feast here tonight; it was better to keep far away from them.
