Chapter Seventy-Three: Spell Testing
An inconspicuous small courtyard. Soren was practicing with his curved blade, going through the motions one by one. He had returned to White Horse City for two days, and it had been very peaceful during this time. He practiced the White Raven Sword Art during the day and continued studying spell models at night. He had already mastered ten 0-level spells, and there were hundreds of low-level cantrips available, so he could only select the useful ones to learn first. The progress of his research on the 1-level spell Arcane Missile had reached about 80%, and if all went well, he could master his first official spell that night. As his research advanced, his understanding of spell models gradually increased.
Many spell models were similar; high-level spells often contained lower-level spell models.
For example, the Second Circle spell “Acid Arrow” had a spell model structure that was very complex, possibly containing hundreds or thousands of spell nodes, but its internal structure overlapped significantly with the 0-level spell “Splashing Acid.” Similarly, the Arcane Missile, which Soren was currently studying, would allow him to integrate the spell model of Arcane Missile into the future 4-level spell “Secondary Missile Storm,” greatly reducing the time required to learn the spell.
Arcane Missile could launch up to five energy missiles in one go, while Secondary Missile Storm could launch 15-25 energy missiles at once. The principles behind many spell models became easier to understand with further research.
However, the learning of the White Raven Sword Art wasn’t progressing quickly; such mid-to-high-level combat skills required a long time to master. Generally, it took three to five years of training to achieve any notable progress in White Raven Sword Art. Although Soren had good talent, he had only managed to reacquire some techniques over the past few days and was far from proficient. Training combat skills had no shortcuts, and he had spent a long time training in the past.
At noon, he would go to the merchant caravan’s base to keep Vivian company.
The autumn afternoon sun was warm, and the two of them lay beside each other soaking up the sun. The little girl often fell asleep on him.
At her age, she was growing rapidly, and because of her heavy study load, she appeared to be quite drowsy.
If anything new happened, the little girl would lie on his lap and chatter away, telling him what she had learned and what had happened that day, eventually falling asleep without realizing it. Learning spells was a rather tedious task, and Gloria clearly wanted to cultivate Vivian into an all-around spellcaster; otherwise, she wouldn’t be teaching her so much knowledge outside of spells. Soren had gradually come to understand more about Vivian’s talent; she was simply stronger than him, understanding most things after just a glance. One could say she was a true genius.
If it weren’t for Soren lacking any special bloodline talents, he might have even wondered if Vivian was a child of the gods.
Or perhaps a descendant of a divine child.
However, this thought was quickly dismissed; divine children generally possess divine power, and Vivian showed not even a trace of divine power, so she was likely a rare talent in spellcasting. Moreover, they were half-siblings, and while he had a vague recollection of Vivian’s father in his memories, it seemed he was merely a somewhat capable adventurer. If there was any bloodline to speak of, it should be Soren’s biological father, who in his memories was a master thief.
Any spellcaster from a wizard tower is at least of high rank; those who dare to steal from it are usually thieves with profession levels above 15!
For inside, who knows how many traps and golem puppets lurk?
Any operational wizard tower has a challenge level above 15, comparable in difficulty to defeating an adult red dragon.
The cost of constructing a wizard tower is generally over 1 million Gind.
If one has enough money, the tower can even be transformed or made to fly. The final form of a wizard tower can evolve into a dimensional fortress or floating fort, one of the few structures that can instill psychological shadows in legendary thieves. It is also one of the few buildings in this world that can confront the divine kingdoms in a head-on battle. Ancient records document that a Grand Archmage teleported a floating fortress to the celestial divine kingdom and managed to bring down a deity.
………
After being stuck for such a long time, White Horse City finally began to take action.
Soren harbored profound contempt for the inefficiency of the ruling class in this world. During the Southern Islands campaign, he had been betrayed by the Noble Council, leading to the loss of his life. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have completely lost interest in the royal battles and shifted his focus to small team adventures. He had no sense of belonging to any of the countries in this world; during his wandering, he had taken jobs that involved attacking more than half of the nations.
Whoever paid more, he would eliminate their enemies!
The guard squad of White Horse City was finally preparing to depart. The assembled army included a team of knights and many hired adventurers.
After being blocked for nearly a week, the city hall finally presented a feasible plan, enlisting the wizards stationed in the city, gathering an army of around two thousand, and starting to clear the monsters on the main routes. Major battles in this world rarely exceed ten thousand participants, even in royal wars, with only a few tens of thousands involved—not due to a lack of population, but because ordinary citizens trained as soldiers are generally ineffective.
Here, elite legionnaires are valued, as true warriors are full-time soldiers.
The population within White Horse City’s coverage exceeds five hundred thousand, but the standing army has only around five thousand troops, all of whom are professional soldiers removed from production. They spend more than half of their time training each year. Essentially, most soldiers are advanced warriors, but the majority have profession levels below five; only those who have experienced real battles can break through to levels above five.
Soren also planned to move with them.
Killing experience is always insufficient, and having an opportunity to act in a group, he naturally wanted to find ways to gain more experience.
At midnight.
Soren finally learned his first 1-level spell and additionally received 100 points of profession experience. Wizards learning official spells can earn profession experience, although the amount is not large; a 1-level spell grants only 100 points, a 2-level spell 200 points, a 3-level spell 400 points, and a 4-level spell 800 points. From 5-level spells onwards, the profession experience gained becomes substantial, with a 5-level spell providing 1600 points.
A 6-level spell yields 3200 points, a 7-level spell 6400 points, and an 8-level spell 12800 points.
The 9-level spell amount is currently unknown, but it should also be substantial.
From this perspective, it seems wizards can level up easily, but the problem is that wizards learn spells slowly, with high-level spells often taking one to two months to study, which means they fall behind in gaining experience from killing compared to others. Furthermore, these spells are not cheap; the higher the level of the spell, the more difficult it becomes to acquire.
“Finally finished.”
After successfully constructing the spell model for Arcane Missile, Soren immediately began memorizing the spell. He was now a 4-level wizard, with three 1-level spell slots and a low-tier wizard ring that could add an additional 1-level spell slot. That meant he could now memorize four first-circle spells, although he was currently able to memorize only Arcane Missile.
The memory process did not take long.
Soren completed the spell memorization in about two hours, constructing the Arcane Missile spell model in all four spell slots formed after accessing the magic network.
“Item Type: Low-Level Wizard Ring.
Item Level:…
Item Description: A wizard ring enchanted with special materials, which helps spellcasters store some additional spell slots.
Equipment Requirement: None.
Equipment Effect: Adds 1 first-level spell slot.”
The most expensive extraordinary item ring is the wizard ring that increases spell slots since it allows for flexible memorization of various types of spells. Next are single-type enchanted rings, which can additionally charge specific spells. For instance, Soren had obtained a withered wooden staff +1, which had three completed charges of the 1-level divine spell “Bind.” After use, it required a corresponding professionist to restore the charge. Higher-level extraordinary items can recharge themselves and can be used a certain number of times daily, but their price and materials are very expensive.
“Item Type: Withered Wooden Staff +1.
Item Level:
Item Description: A special staff empowered by divine spells, capable of casting additional druid divine spells, with a green leaf full of vitality.
Equipment Requirement: None.
Equipment Effect: Can use 1-level divine spells.”
Memorization complete.
Soren was somewhat impatient and stood up, then walked out of the room; he needed to test the power of Arcane Missile. He first took out a wooden board about three centimeters thick and then found a piece of iron roughly 0.5 centimeters thick. Testing his strength before battle was a habit he had always maintained.
“ozr…”
The casting time of Arcane Missile was very short, only one second, with the incantation being three intertwined monosyllables.
As Soren pointed forward, two Arcane Missiles the size of ping-pong balls emerged, instantly striking the wooden board in front of him. The spell’s flight speed was extremely fast, and while dodging spells was possible, it required prior prediction, just like dodging a bullet requires anticipating the opponent’s shooting position and the direction of their aiming arm before firing. The speed of Arcane Missiles was comparable to that of bullets, making the chance of evading after the spell was cast quite low; one had to prepare before the opponent cast the spell to avoid being hit.
Because Arcane Missiles only strike the first target they encounter, many spells function this way.
Even the widely known “Disintegrate” and “Finger of Death” only work on the first object they touch. Once, Soren had been carrying a hamster, which he kept as a pet. Upon seeing the red light of Finger of Death, he simply threw the hamster out—if he was lucky, it could intercept a spell; if not, he would have to rely on his strong constitution to endure the death saving throw.
Due to Soren not having mastered it, the flight path of Arcane Missiles was a straight line; the three-centimeter thick wooden board was directly pierced, creating a hole as both missiles hit the same spot. However, when Soren released the spell for the second time, the Arcane Missiles only made a dent in the iron plate; his spell power was not yet sufficient to penetrate a 0.5-centimeter thick iron plate.
“Against unarmored enemies, this could work,” Soren picked up the iron plate and examined it closely, thinking to himself. “But against armored foes, it falls short; luckily, the casting speed is rapid, making it effective if used unexpectedly.”
If he learned “Missile Storm” in the future, a single spell could turn plate armor and shields into a sieve.
……
