The Truth of Magic

Chapter 60: Mystery Reward

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

When he heard Antonya’s reply, for a single moment, Zhao Xu felt a strong urge to pull off her hood, because he wanted to see if the face beneath that hood was now covered in a smile that was amused from trolling him.

But when he thought about how Antonya was a Legendary Wizard, he figured that it was impossible to go anywhere near her with ill intentions, never mind remove her hood.

He didn’t even dare to guess how many buffs were on Antonya herself.

This was something that Zhao Xu knew very well after he had seen how some high-level wizards had fought in battles in his previous life.

Just one Level 5 Wizard was sufficient to steer a battle in a completely different direction.

But Zhao Xu still humbled himself to be a good student and to ask Antonya for guidance.

When the transmigration happened a year later, the number of people who would want a Legendary Wizard like Antonya to teach and guide them would line up from the church all the way to Mystra’s city gates and beyond.

If you didn’t have generations of contacts with important families, or if you didn’t have some amazing or mind-blowing talent, then, in general, there were very few rookie Level 1 wizard apprentices who would be able to receive such guidance from a Legendary Wizard.

“Mentor, I’ve heard of the spell Permanency before. But isn’t there a price to pay for it too?” asked Zhao Xu in a soft voice, and his attitude was much humbler than before.

The Level 5 spell Permanency was able to make more than ten types of commonly used spells permanently effective on the spellcaster. Zhao Xu knew about this.

But he had also heard that the price of using this Permanency spell was something that even Wizards couldn’t afford.

“The price to pay is to use up one class feature and two spell slots,” replied Antonya.

When Zhao Xu heard this, his teeth started to feel sore. That sounded simply too infuriating.

If he had to use the class features and spell slots he could regain use of every day, then that was no simple price to pay.

He was consuming his lifespan by just waking up every single day.

For someone like him, he needed to prepare the necessary material, clear crystals, to cast Read Magic.

Before casting this spell, he had to take this material out from the side pocket of his haversack, and after he was done with them, he had to stuff it back in.

And this was only because he had a Heward’s Handy Haversack from Antonya, and so he could easily retrieve the item he wanted from an extradimensional space.

Wizards who didn’t have equipment like that would have to wear an outer robe with countless pockets just to store all their materials and retrieve them easily. Those who didn’t know better might even wonder where this beggar magician appeared from.

But to have a Permanency spell, a spell that would only require hard work once and the results would last forever, was something that made Zhao Xu so envious that he almost drooled.

But he was just a disciple of Antonya’s and not her biological son, so there was no way he could ask for so much.

“As for the second point. Your estimation of my spell duration of Read Magic is way off from the actual time. This is something that all wizards must avoid at all costs in battle.”

When he heard this, Zhao Xu nodded. The level of a spellcaster decided the strength of their spells, their duration, and various other effects. So. if you guessed your opponent’s level wrong, it would cause a huge difference in your judgment and approach.

But even if Antonya were a Level 35 Wizard, then she would be able to make it last for 350 minutes, or less than 6 hours.

During his first few days in Mystra, the books on the history of magic told him that the only wizards that had gone above Level 40 in Arthur were those who became Goddesses of Magic.

“8 hours?” Zhao Xu immediately thought of something and made a guess.

If you paired Extend Spell and used up a Level 1 spell slot as a result, you could increase the spell duration by twice the original duration.

“You seriously don’t know anything about the powers of a wizard,” muttered Antonya.

Zhao Xu was stunned for a few moments. He didn’t understand this unnecessarily flamboyant declaration from Antonya.

“If you pair it with Persistent Spell, then you can cast it on any spells whose effects have not been discharged, and it will extend the spell duration to a total of 24 hours,” replied Antonya calmly.

When he heard this, Zhao Xu nodded his head.

Then he suddenly widened his eyes with a start as he looked back up in disbelief at Antonya and quietly murmured, “That’s not quite right, is it?”

“What? Do I need to lie to you?”

So that was what made Wizards so powerful!

Extending a spell like Read Magic that lasted just ten minutes multiplied by the spellcaster’s level wasn’t very meaningful for use in a battle, because it was a spell that lasted ten minutes.

But there were some spells that were only effective for one round multiplied by the spellcaster’s level.

There were those that only lasted for just one round, and these were all spells that were incredibly and incomparably powerful, so they naturally came with a shorter spell duration.

But if such spells could last for an entire day...

Then whatever Wizard who cast it would be able to make fiercer attacks and take on harder damage than a Fighter.

Also, this sort of wizard would have magic around him for a long time, so he wouldn’t need to buff himself in a hurry during battles.

So when the opponent met this wizard, the opponent would have to be at his peak fighting ability.

Antonya just calmly observed the shocked look on Zhao Xu’s face and knew that he had figured everything out.

But Antonya didn’t intend to tell Zhao Xu that this was only one area in which wizards were powerful either.

There were many other aspects where wizards were insanely powerful.

“Mentor, then, what’s the price to pay for that?”

Zhao Xu had snapped back to reality and calmed his nerves down. He knew very well that this was the sort of thing that he had to work hard towards attaining.

In his previous life, there was no mention of this particular feat, and it was clear that very few players had managed to grasp it.

High-level wizards were already almost godlike to other players, but if they also had this feat alongside their spells, then Zhao Xu didn’t dare to imagine exactly how powerful a wizard could really be.

“The prerequisite is to have the feat Extend Spell, and that was also why you had to choose the Planning Domain.

“As for the price to pay, you just need to use up a spell slot that’s six levels higher than the spell you intend to use it on,” said Antonya casually, as if that was a small price to pay.

When he heard this, Zhao Xu instantly felt like he had been rudely awakened from a wonderful dream.

He just felt like Antonya had been trolling him all this time.

Six levels higher?

What kind of crazy concept was this?

That meant that he had to use a Level 6 spell slot in order to prepare a cantrip like Read Magic.

You needed to be a Level 11 Wizard to have a Level 6 spell slot.

And even if you hit Level 17 and you obtained a Level 9 spell slot, you could only use it to prepare a Level 3 spell if you wanted to use this feat.

Even though it was still a meaningful feat to have, it had lost the original value for battling that Zhao Xu thought it had.

“Don’t worry so much. The prestige classes of wizards can help you to reduce the price necessary for all these things. Otherwise, how would I be able to permanently keep a Level 9 spell like Undermaster on myself? Study hard and study well. As long as you work hard, we’ll allow you to get to that sort of prestige class.”

Antonya’s words stunned Zhao Xu time and again.

He took a deep breath and knew that his heart was already in a mess.

He felt like he had gone back to the games he used to play as a child, and how it felt when he discovered that there were cheat codes.

Zhao Xu could only continuously chant spell incantations and use this sort of focusing method to suppress the confusion and agitation in his heart.

“So now you can keep guessing. How long is the spell duration of my Read Magic spell? Yesterday you made a right guess on the Skill Points, and I promised you a reward. I’ve brought it here with me, and it’s in this blue pouch right here. If you can get this question right as well, then your reward will go up by another level to the things in this green pouch here.

“But since you’ve reached this point, then there will be a price to pay for guessing. If you still guess wrong, then I’ll take back the prize that’s in this blue pouch.”

Zhao Xu looked at the blue pouch and green pouch that Antonya placed on the table. The pouches weren’t very large, and he could hold each one within his fist.

But if he understood it right, she wasn’t giving him both, but just giving him the things in the green pouch.

The items inside the green pouch were probably not far from the haversack that he carried on himself 24 hours a day.

“How do you decide if my guess is accurate or not?” asked Zhao Xu.

“If I think it’s possible, then that’s a correct guess. If I don’t think it is, then even if you fall short by 1 round, it will still be a wrong guess.”

When he heard these words, Zhao Xu started to calm down instead.

Antonya was making him bet on whether it was 24 hours or not.

But when he thought about it carefully, actually it wasn’t hard to guess.

If you used Persistent Spell, then that would definitely make a spell last for 24 hours.

If you used Extend Spell to double the spell duration, then Antonya would have to be higher than a Level 72 spellcaster in order for the spell to last longer than 24 hours.

How could Antonya have reached that level of spellcasting?

Not even the Goddess of Magic could do that!

After a long time of silence, Zhao Xu went ahead and answered Antonya.

“More than 24 hours.”

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