Chapter 133: Superimposed Power (1/3)

Floating City, Supreme Council of Mages.

The Supreme Council of the Floating City was the highest permanent seat of power at the headquarters of the Mages’ Association.

The Council had only seven permanent members: President Os, Vice President Raging Wind, and the five others—Vilanser, Reno, Cassius, Naiser, and one more.

Generally speaking, these seven decided every matter concerning the Floating City and even Mystra as a whole. Only when a particular issue arose would the corresponding legendary mage be invited to participate.

Even ninth-circle mages could attend only when an expanded joint session was convened for a vote.

The subject of this meeting was Antinoya’s recent work report, in which she was presenting several developments from the past few days.

Antinoya had never cared much for such meetings.

Since she had actually come to give her report this time, however, the Seven Giants listened with unusual seriousness, and all of them had deliberately sent projections to attend in person.

Just then, a secretary knocked and entered.

He walked straight to the chair’s seat and handed President Os the Floating City’s activity report for the past hour, repeating the work he had done an hour earlier.

Os usually needed only a glance to memorize every report and piece of intelligence in its entirety. Looking over this document was little more than a matter of routine.

This time, however, his gaze lingered for one or two seconds longer than usual.

That tiny difference was enough to draw the attention of at least two of the giants present.

“Antinoya, do you need to go to the Combat Testing Hall later?” President Os suddenly asked.

Strictly speaking, Antinoya had no reason to join in the bustle at the Combat Testing Hall.

Although the hall was equipped with the instruments and devices required for legendary-level experiments, most of them existed merely to provide legendary mages with a shared reserve of equipment.

Their main purpose was emergency use.

After all, many instruments and devices required regular maintenance, while the Floating City’s experts and alchemists were already operating at full capacity every day.

“How many years has it been since I last conducted an experiment?” Antinoya asked with a frown.

“Heh. The hourly report just sent over by the High Sanctum’s monitoring division said that, at your servant’s request, every testing instrument on Levels Ten through Fourteen had been activated.” President Os chuckled.

To them, even if those instruments ran at full capacity for a month and broke down completely, it would hardly matter.

If Antinoya had not happened to be standing right in front of him, Os would not even have bothered to ask.

The moment he finished speaking, Antinoya understood what had happened. She smiled knowingly.

“It must have been that foolish boy Midsummer. He probably tore a testing voucher out of the wastepaper pile.”

The Seven Giants could not help shaking their heads and laughing.

They understood at once. The only reason the testing hall would activate every instrument was that Midsummer had probably taken the voucher straight to the supervisor and said, “Let’s try them all.”

Otherwise, even legendary mages would never recklessly expend the resources needed to activate every device from the tenth through the fourteenth floors.

The higher the floor, the more sharply the resource consumption increased—doubling with every level.

“Cheek, go and notify Nock. Tell him that we authorize his research group to use every facility on Levels Ten through Fourteen for one day.”

Os addressed the secretary who had entered to deliver the report.

Since the instruments had already been activated, they might as well be put to use.

Cheek nodded and turned to leave, but Os added, “Issue a commendation to the Legendary Wing of the Combat Testing Hall. Make up the reason yourself.”

Secretary Cheek’s steps paused for the briefest moment. He immediately indicated that he understood, then continued out of the room.

As someone stationed at the heart of the Association’s upper echelons, Cheek received countless messages and rumors every day, making him one of the best-informed people in the Floating City.

After that commendation was issued, he knew that the fantasies of those hoping to replace Listan in that position would be shattered.

* * *

After successfully blowing apart the enhanced skeleton with a single crossbow bolt, Zhao Xu was startled himself.

He had not expected his damage to spike so high that it would destroy the blue-glowing skeleton outright.

He had originally intended merely to check the figures on his status panel and be done with it. Who could have guessed that his opponent would be so fragile?

A second-level fighter—and even many other classes at third level—might not possess twenty hit points.

If Ironstone, whom Zhao Xu had encountered in the canyon north of the Skybreak Mountains, appeared before him again, Zhao Xu would be able to kill him with a single headshot, provided he had two rounds to prepare.

Once the first-circle spell Divine Sacrifice was imbued into his bolt, it truly had the effect of instantly killing any low-level monster it struck.

The only price was Zhao Xu’s life force. His thirteen hit points had suddenly been reduced by ten, leaving him with only three.

Zhao Xu had no choice but to immediately cast Cure Light Wounds on himself. Otherwise, even a casual stab would leave him unconscious on the ground.

By now, Zhao Xu had roughly gauged his own combat strength. With the support of fourteen first-circle spells, he could deal damage and unleash various control effects far more effectively than the other players.

When Zhao Xu entered another testing chamber, he had already removed the ioun stone from above his head.

Among the novice mages on the first floor, even those born into mage families, few possessed an ioun stone.

The cheapest model—the one that eliminated the need to breathe—still cost four thousand gold pieces. With that much money, most people would rather copy several more first-circle spells or buy a few additional scrolls.

To provide creatures for combat testing, the Combat Testing Hall had prepared nearly every common evil creature.

Most were summoned like undead creatures and existed in the form of projections.

Once slain, they simply vanished.

Zhao Xu recalled that, during the Demon-Sealing War in his previous life, the region where he lived had suffered more attacks from the devil faction.

As a result, the creatures he had killed most often were disgusting beings such as imps and lemures.

Familiar with them, Zhao Xu skipped the undead section and went over to the infernal creatures.

The arrangement was the same as before. The novice mages stood on an elevated second-floor platform, while the infernal creatures occupied pits below. A protective barrier also separated the creatures from the testing area, preventing them from breaking out.

This time, Zhao Xu chose the lemure testing chamber.

Several novice mages were already undergoing trials there. When Zhao Xu entered, they paid him little attention.

Suddenly, the entire floor trembled faintly. Even the protective barrier isolating the lemures seemed to grow indistinct.

Several seconds passed before everything returned to normal.

The novice mages stared at one another in bewilderment, then hurried outside to see what had happened.

There was once a story in Arthur of a mage whose testing session had ended in disaster when the barrier trapping the demons suddenly vanished, allowing the creatures to tear him apart.

The Association had later resurrected the mage with a resurrection spell, but the psychological trauma left behind was so severe that he eventually departed the Floating City.

Zhao Xu, however, paid little attention to the incident. The protective staff in his pocket was still with him. Even if a more powerful demon appeared, he had ways to deal with it.

Thus he remained unmoved and continued observing the lemures below.

Just as he remembered from his previous life, these lemures were the lowest creatures in the infernal hierarchy. They resembled disgusting lumps of flesh, possessed no brains, and could only act according to the orders of higher devils.

Although these extraplanar creatures had only about ten hit points, their skin possessed respectable defensive strength—roughly equivalent to that of an ordinary armored human.

Among the various classes, spellcasters such as wizards and clerics were indeed the ones most likely to encounter demons and devils.

That was why the first floor of the Combat Testing Hall contained testing chambers for creatures of this kind.

If Zhao Xu used True Strike again, he would remain invincible against anything short of a more powerful devil.

The dozen or so mindless lemures below, wandering aimlessly back and forth, could not withstand even one of his attacks.

However, Zhao Xu decided to test his newly acquired ability.

That day in the library, Zhao Xu had encountered Lynch, who had explained to him the origins and principles of the Devotion feat.

This ability was similar to an archivist’s Dark Knowledge. The moment Zhao Xu heard about it, a prompt had appeared on his status panel, informing him that he could exchange for it.

At the time, however, he had been stuck at the threshold of advancing as an archivist and had paid it no attention.

The message had remained quietly locked in place ever since.

Now Zhao Xu opened it again and examined it.

Knowledge Devotion was actually a feat. The price for acquiring it was that he had to relinquish the Knowledge domain.

The Knowledge domain allowed Zhao Xu to treat every branch of knowledge as a class skill.

But as a wizard, Zhao Xu already possessed that ability by nature. The Knowledge domain’s remaining benefit—granting him a +1 caster-level bonus when casting divination spells—was of limited significance.

After considering the matter, Zhao Xu concluded that exchanging for the ability would actually benefit him more.

With that decision made, he immediately agreed to abandon the Knowledge domain and acquire the Knowledge Devotion feat.

At once, the abilities and domain spells associated with the Knowledge domain vanished from his cleric spell list.

However, he had already learned those spells through the archivist spell list, so he suffered no real loss.

After completing the exchange, Zhao Xu looked at the lemures below, then at the Knowledge Devotion feat on his character sheet.

As extraplanar creatures, lemures fell under Knowledge—The Planes. Zhao Xu immediately activated the ability and attempted a knowledge check.

[Adventurer Midsummer makes a Knowledge—The Planes check. Result = 7 + d20 (1–20) = 17. Falling within the range of 16–20, he gains a +2 insight bonus to attack and damage against lemures.]

Zhao Xu faintly sensed that he now understood the lemures’ movements on a deeper level. In his eyes, their motions seemed to slow.

The effect was not as overwhelming as the +20 insight bonus granted by casting True Strike on himself, but it was still nearly a ten-percent increase to his attacks—equivalent to raising his attack power against lemures by two grades.

Moreover, as long as he faced the lemures before him, the effect would remain in place rather than applying to a single attack.

A fighter could raise his attack power by only one grade for every level gained.

In his previous life, Zhao Xu had been stalled for a long time by the fighter’s attack progression before finally reaching second level.

Later, when he attempted to advance to third-level fighter, he had already crossed into this world. He practiced diligently with a greatsword every day, and only after making hundreds and thousands of sword strikes did he comprehend the essence of third-grade attack power.

As for the legendary might of a twentieth-level fighter, whose attack reached the twentieth grade, Zhao Xu had no idea what it truly entailed.

Only after casting True Strike on himself had he managed to grasp the faintest hint of it.

But True Strike could grant him the basic attack ability of a twentieth-level fighter for only one strike. Once that attack was used, he fell back into the mortal world, becoming even weaker than a first-level fighter.

Immediately afterward, Zhao Xu activated his Dark Knowledge—Tactics ability against the lemures ahead.

[Adventurer Midsummer makes a Knowledge—The Planes check. Result = 7 + d20 (1–20) = 26, exceeding the DC 15 difficulty by 10 points. His attacks against lemures increase by two grades for 1 minute. Uses remaining: 2/3.]

Just as Zhao Xu had expected, Knowledge Devotion and Dark Knowledge stacked perfectly.

Against the lemures, he had gained a full four-grade advantage in attack power.

In an instant, he completely erased the advantage granted by their natural armor.

Without the slightest hesitation, Zhao Xu raised the light crossbow in his hand and aimed at the bewildered lemures below.

For a fighter to increase his attack by four grades, he would need either four additional levels, eight more points of Strength, or a +4 magic weapon.

None of those options was easy to achieve.

Zhao Xu pulled the trigger.

The lemure was reduced to ash on the spot.