Chapter 127: All First-Circle Spells (1/3)

Zhao Xu stood silently before the countless spell tomes, gazing ahead long after Antinoya had departed.

According to Antinoya, they had entered through a back door this time. That completely sealed room was actually a projection of the "Final Scroll," which the organization had detached and attached to the Obelisk. It remained hidden behind one of the Obelisk's walls at all times. Only those who had previously stood guard over the scrolls would know when and where the true back-door projection would appear. Only by using that back door could one bypass the incredibly troublesome procedures and inspections. A rookie like Zhao Xu, only at level 2, would normally not even be qualified to know of its existence. Zhao Xu even suspected that Antinoya’s previous mention of the scrolls being stored in the "underground" of the Obelisk might be questionable.

"If the players outside knew such a place existed, they would probably delete the game in protest," Zhao Xu muttered to himself. Even if the Archivists of the outside world were to see this scene, they would be envious enough to vomit blood.

A cleric’s divine spells are bestowed by deities, whereas an Archivist’s divine spells are obtained through their own research or transcription. This is why "Scribe Scroll" is a core class ability for Archivists. For the same spell—such as *Detect Magic*—the arcane version and the divine version are entirely different. Therefore, Archivists must laboriously seek out the divine versions to learn them. Compared to the vast abundance of arcane scrolls and spellbooks, divine scrolls are extremely rare on the market. Clerics do not possess "Scribe Scroll" as a class ability; to transcribe a scroll, a cleric must sacrifice a feat slot to learn it. Naturally, the base number of clerics who can scribe scrolls is far lower than that of wizards, who can do so innately.

As for divine spellbooks, they are even more ridiculous. Only Archivists require such a thing, which they call a prayerbook—the source of both their joy and their misery. Unlike wizards, who can at least spend money to borrow and copy from other wizards' spellbooks, Archivists live below the poverty line, exhausted from purchasing various rare divine scrolls. Alternatively, they must take the path of research and deduction—searching for secrets in religious texts, holy books, or even ancient stone inscriptions and pillars, piecing together the divine spells they desire from meager clues. The scarcity of Archivists makes it difficult for them to even meet another member of their own class, not to mention the risk of spells being lost during the transcription of a prayerbook.

Only those who can reach the depths of the "Final Scroll" can acquire the spells of the world as freely as Zhao Xu. Thinking of this, Zhao Xu finally understood why Antinoya said Archivists could learn all arcane and divine spells. This meant that every arcane spell has a corresponding divine version; it was precisely by exploiting this loophole that Archivists could become "full-list" casters.

"Mage Armor," Zhao Xu whispered.

A golden-edged magic tome flew down from the highest point and landed gently before him. The book popped open, revealing its contents. As if moved by an invisible hand, the pages turned one by one, displaying the incantations before Zhao Xu’s eyes.

[Adventurer Midsummer has successfully transcribed the divine version of "Mage Armor" via 'Intuitive Caster.']

The dynamic panel updated instantly! Although this divine version of *Mage Armor* was similar to the arcane version, Zhao Xu had not expected to master it automatically just by glancing through it. Compared to other Archivists who must spend an entire day comprehending these spells, his speed was simply too fast. Moreover, Zhao Xu noticed he hadn't cast *Read Magic* on himself, nor had he performed any spell identification; he had simply learned the spell automatically.

In the world of Arthur, there is always a certain probability of failure when learning spells as a wizard. A failure results in magical fog, and one must wait until their Spellcraft ability improves before attempting to learn it again. Thinking of this, Zhao Xu could only attribute it to the unique nature of this scroll space. Not knowing how long he could stay, he quickly summoned another spellbook.

The level 1 divine spell *Guided Shot* fell before him and opened automatically, pages fluttering by. After only about ten seconds, Zhao Xu had scanned the gist and was preparing to study it in detail when his dynamic information popped up again:

[Adventurer Midsummer has successfully transcribed the divine spell "Guided Shot" via 'Intuitive Caster.']

This time, Zhao Xu felt a bit guilty. He looked up in surprise at the unfathomable, uncountable number of spell tomes filling the sky. *Guided Shot* is a level 1 divine spell for clerics and paladins that increases a teammate's ranged accuracy by about 10%. This spell was not among the core spells bestowed upon clerics by their deities, which was exactly why Zhao Xu had chosen it—he had never encountered it before; it was completely foreign to him!

Core divine spells are mostly those that are widely circulated and possess the most common traits. Spells outside the core are generally only learned by clerics who have delved into specific areas or have had special encounters where a deity specifically granted them. Now, because the scroll space recorded every arcane and divine spell, Zhao Xu no longer had to wait for divine spells to arrive like a random lottery draw every time he prayed. Whatever he learned, he could cast.

Thinking of this, Zhao Xu could not help but sigh deeply. He actually wanted to study the spells properly, but the organization wouldn't give him the chance. In this scroll space, he even saved himself the trouble of the various stimuli required for transcribing spells; it was equivalent to high-speed photocopying without having to pay for the printing.

Suddenly, Zhao Xu closed his eyes and noticed a difference in the spell list, so he immediately summoned another book. This time, the paladin level 1 divine spell *Lesser Energy Buffer* landed before him. The entire process of transcribing the spell into his heart remained incredibly smooth. This transcription confirmed one more thing to Zhao Xu: Archivists could exploit loopholes in spell levels. Even Antinoya didn't bother to brag about this point.

*Lesser Energy Buffer* is a spell that can block 5 points of elemental damage per round. If he had mastered this spell from the start, he could have reduced the damage from the druid’s lightning strike and had some room to fight back. However, *Lesser Energy Buffer* is a level 2 divine spell for clerics, but a level 1 divine spell for paladins. Relying on its status as a paladin level 1 spell, Zhao Xu successfully learned this level 2 spell that a cleric would normally only obtain at level 3. Classes like paladins and rangers only gain divine spells later in their progression, and since they cannot reach level 9 spells, many of their requirements are lower.

For the rest of the day, Zhao Xu compared the lists for various classes and kept pulling the spells he wanted from the towering, sky-reaching collection of books to learn them. By the time he could no longer remember all the names of the spells, he had officially become one of the few "casters" in Arthur to have mastered the vast majority of level 1 spells.

***

After logging off, Zhao Xu still found it hard to shake off the excitement of having learned spells so effortlessly. He lay on his bed, his body burning from the adrenaline. Had his pulse quickened any further, the helmet’s protection mechanism might have triggered, forcing him to disconnect. In such a case, Zhao Xu’s body would have remained in the game, plunged into a deep sleep, and he would only be able to log back in to reclaim his body after a 20-minute cooldown.

Even knowing this, Zhao Xu could not hide his high spirits. He had mastered almost every level 1 spell! With "Intuitive Caster" combined with the "Final Scroll," learning spells became just like a traditional online game—he gained them with a simple "ding." This provided a sense of mental satisfaction to Zhao Xu, who had a bit of a collector's streak. Regardless of whether they were useful or not, he learned them anyway. Antinoya had only warned him to prepare useful spells and avoid junk ones; learning a few extra didn't seem excessive.

For an ordinary wizard, learning one spell a day meant that over a year, they would only just catch up to what Zhao Xu had achieved in a single day—not to mention the tens of thousands of gold coins in transcription and borrowing fees. For Zhao Xu, money was a minor issue; the main thing was that learning these spells saved him a massive amount of time. Even the direct descendants of top wizard families in Arthur likely didn't possess half as many level 1 spells as Zhao Xu. Some level 1 spells were simply impossible to learn; one might not even know their names, let alone find a spellbook. It was no wonder Antinoya hadn't bothered to give him those level 1 arcane scrolls at the beginning. It was only after his insistent requests to use the travel time that he had obtained that stack of scrolls for transcription. She had clearly planned for him to enter the "Final Scroll" all along.

After a deep exhale, Zhao Xu took off his neural VR helmet and hopped off the bed. It was past eight or nine in the evening, and the dormitory was empty; there was a class basketball game at the gym, and almost everyone had gone to participate. In his rush to learn as many level 1 spells as possible, Zhao Xu hadn't even logged off to eat dinner. He was about to open a food delivery app when he saw a message on WeChat from Zhang Qi, reminding him to come watch the "death match" tonight if he logged off.

Zhao Xu shook his head and smiled, but he couldn't resist getting up to go. It wasn't good to be disconnected from the group for too long. Although there had been contradictions and conflicts in his previous life, after the world-crossing, everyone was able to unite for the sake of resources and class levels to strive for greater benefits. It was by leaning on his class that Zhao Xu had been able to take over as the town's sheriff—similar to the head of a county's public security department on Earth—when he was nearly level 3.

As Zhao Xu walked down the dormitory stairs, he opened his phone and browsed the trending posts on the forum.

"To the fans of Mystra’s floating city: if you can't provide evidence, stop bragging about players mastering scroll transcription in 22 minutes!"

"It's fine to brag, but can you at least break the wizard training time record before you start?"

Zhao Xu found this strange. In the first half-year of his previous life, Mystra had not been a trending topic on the forums; the wizards of Mystra had been struggling in obscurity. It wasn't until he entered the game in the eighth month after the server opened that it had gained some popularity. Even after the world-crossing, people weren't necessarily clear on which high-level wizards among the players came from Mystra. Why were there three or four consecutive trending posts denouncing them so early on?

Curiosity piqued, Zhao Xu clicked on the detailed forum thread to investigate.