Chapter 143: Item Familiars (2/3)

After coming out, Zhao Xu said goodbye to Wang Ningwei and Eswich, and they exchanged their real-life QQ contact information with each other.

Otherwise, given the sheer size of Floating City, who knew how long it would take to run into each other again if they parted ways now—probably wouldn't happen for a month or two.

Afterward, Zhao Xu reported to Antinua as instructed, listened to her arrangements, and logged off directly.

When Zhao Xu removed his neural VR headset, he found Zhang Qi busy tidying up his backpack, stuffing it with some dry rations and drinks.

The class had planned a cycling and hiking trip to Dafu Mountain tomorrow. Yesterday, Zhao Xu had specifically reminded Zhang Qi to keep an eye on Cui Lu, the most active girl in the class, when the time came.

That had resulted in Zhang Qi giving him a knowing, suggestive look.

Yet, under Zhao Xu's calm and composed gaze, Zhang Qi ultimately nodded honestly, indicating he understood.

Zhao Xu climbed down from the upper bunk, opened his laptop, and scanned the day's trending topics on the forums.

Most of them, however, were still the players' daily "101 ways to die."

Aside from those, a few analysis posts written by players had also been bumped to the top.

The most popular one was written by a player who was a wizard apprentice, analyzing the magic within the game.

That player had put a tremendous amount of effort into the post, even hand-drawing and recreating several spell model structures.

The OP (original poster) then began analyzing the structures of these similar spells, discussing the key points within the structures while correlating them with specific spell contents.

Though the entire post left everyone thoroughly baffled, the OP's conclusion was clear to all: those model structures corresponded directly to the specific spell effects.

Both *acid splash* and *ray of frost* featured similar ranged touch structures.

However, the OP went on to analyze from different angles why the former belonged to the conjuration school while the latter belonged to the evocation school.

These were the most fundamental basics of an Arthurian wizard, but at least a player-wizard had finally started mentioning them on the forums.

Zhao Xu nodded silently as he read it, glad that a player had finally started noticing the wondrous nature of Arthurian magic.

According to the OP's description, ever since entering the game, he had continuously studied those spell contents, abandoning all kinds of wizard feats and practices like summoning familiars.

He hadn't even bothered to learn 1st-level spells; instead, he had kept researching solely around the nineteen freely developed 0-level spells, spending over a month before this post was born.

Zhao Xu scrolled all the way down to scan the replies that followed.

Unfortunately, most of the replies hovered within three repetitive categories: OP is awesome, Arthur is awesome, wizards are awesome.

Very few actually analyzed the subject based on the OP's theme.

After giving it some thought, Zhao Xu left a brief comment guiding the OP's subsequent train of thought, while casually advising the other person to hurry up and officially start their wizard journey.

Though Zhao Xu hadn't strictly walked the path of pure research, having witnessed those hundreds of 1st-level spells, his own knowledge was already beyond comparison to ordinary players.

After replying to the post, Zhao Xu cleared out all the friend requests sitting in his forum account inbox and logged into his long-neglected QQ group.

Almost immediately, Zhao Xu noticed a new friend request notification waiting for him on QQ. The sender was none other than Wang Ningwei.

Zhao Xu's QQ account only had a few friends from his class added. If not for the existence of QQ groups, most people wouldn't even bother logging into QQ anymore.

Zhao Xu immediately accepted her verification request.

Facing a future top-tier player and high-roller, Zhao Xu simply didn't have the heart or inclination to reject her friend request.

Besides, this wasn't some xianxiu cultivation world where eliminating someone allowed you to devour their destiny.

The fact that Wang Ningwei could gain the recognition of Floating City's giants, and even acquire the secret heritage of the Yitel Dynasty, meant that her underlying potential definitely involved many inner workings he knew nothing about.

Even Antinua had essentially arranged for him to make early contact with Wang Ningwei in advance.

"Mr. Midsummer?" Wang Ningwei sent an inquiring message at that moment.

Zhao Xu tapped his keyboard lightly: Mm-hmm.

"Shall we create a group then?" Wang Ningwei's QQ avatar was a picture of herself.

Zhao Xu didn't have much objection to that.

Initially, Zhao Xu hiding his identity from Maple and the others wasn't some deliberate act of playing the pig to eat the tiger.

Rather, people naturally tend to associate with those similar to themselves.

When the gap widens to a certain degree, it easily falls into one-sided flattery and worship.

Zhao Xu had already passed the age where he needed others to fawn over him.

By then, Wang Ningwei had already sent a group invitation. Looking at the group number 191645033, Zhao Xu silently clicked agree.

Eswich: Hehe, the Child of the Plane has entered the chat?

Ningwei: Oh my, don't say that. Midsummer leveled up purely through his own strength.

Midsummer: Good karma, can't help it.

Zhao Xu replied with a smile.

Eswich: (︶^︶)=凸

Midsummer: How did you guys manage to reach level 2 when you first started?

Ningwei: Me? I was in an underground plaza at the time, and when the *magic missile* I cast got counterspelled, I successfully leveled up.

Eswich: NINGWEI!!!

Ningwei: What's wrong?

Eswich: Novice wizards only go to underground plazas during their very first few days to train spellcraft identification and practice spellcasting! You're telling me that was you?

Ningwei: Hehe, I really did become a 2nd-level spellcaster within two days of becoming a 1st-level wizard.

Eswich: Did you use up all your skill points?

Ningwei: Yeah. Before I even advanced to wizard, I'd already used up the skill points granted by being human and my Intelligence score. After advancing, the quadruple wizard skill points only amounted to 8 points, and after reading a few books, they all converted into Knowledge ranks.

Eswich: Oh oh, then your progress was about the same as mine. I had no skill points left for reading afterwards either—zero sense of accomplishment.

Eswich: As for how I leveled up, I was just reading a book at night and inexplicably leveled up. The wind was quite strong that night, too.

Ningwei: What about you, Mr. Midsummer? What were the circumstances of your first level-up?

Looking at the replies, Zhao Xu couldn't help recalling how many days it had taken him back then to use up his skill points.

Suddenly, he felt he didn't deserve the title "Child of the Plane."

However, seeing Wang Ningwei's inquiry, Zhao Xu hurriedly replied.

Midsummer: The first time was in a mine. I was pressured by enemies, decided to fight to the death, and then inexplicably leveled up.

At this moment, the three people sitting in front of their computers all stared at their respective replies with deep contemplation.

None of them followed the typical model of grinding monsters and accumulating a certain amount of experience to level up.

Instead, it felt as casual as achieving a breakthrough once the accumulation of one's state reached a certain threshold.

Eswich: Should we change the group name? "Floating City" sounds too ugly.

Ningwei: Yay, yay, so what should we change it to?

Eswich: The Strongest Magical Girl Wizard Trio.

Midsummer: I object.

Eswich: Objection overruled.

Midsummer: I object to the word "girl."

Eswich: I haven't even minded you using this combination name yet.

Midsummer: I just feel like you don't qualify as a girl.

Ningwei: ......

Eswich: Do you believe I'll crawl through this internet cable and find you?

Ningwei: Since we're all in Floating City, none of you have ever used a Resurrection Stone, right?

Eswich: 5 stones.

Midsummer: 5 stones.

Ningwei: Me too.

Zhao Xu looked at everyone's counts and sighed inwardly; the gap between the extremes was truly enormous.

Among the players currently making the most noise as popular candidates capable of advancing to 2nd-level wizards, the one with the most only possessed 3 Resurrection stones.

This was the cruelty of the early-stage wizard experience: the vast majority of players who successfully advanced to wizard within the first month of launch rarely managed to sustain a single character into the late game.

Basically, within eleven months, ninety-nine percent of the wizard players who transmigrated to Arthur would be characters who had re-registered later.

Without following a pure research route, it was terribly difficult to advance simply by staying tucked away in an academy.

Just then, Zhao Xu received a call from his food delivery rider. Basically, the takeout arrived downstairs at the dorm building right on schedule every day, waiting for Zhao Xu to log off and pick it up from the building manager.

Remembering Antinua's special instruction for him to log back online tonight, Zhao Xu hurriedly informed the two girls that he had business to attend to, and then logged off.

----------------------

The Seventh Floor of the Obelisk.

After finishing his meal, Zhao Xu didn't even bother taking a walk before logging back into the game.

When Zhao Xu returned from his tests today, Antinua had learned that he had already become a 3rd-level wizard, and she showed at least a trace of surprise.

Just a trace, though.

However, she immediately put Zhao Xu's 3rd-level character feat onto the schedule.

Zhao Xu's current leveling speed was still slightly exceeding her expectations, so the feat that was normally arranged for last now had to be pulled forward.

Otherwise, the spiritual resonance of his 3rd-level feat would expire and go to waste if Zhao Xu accidentally leveled up to 4th before she noticed.

Every character gains a character feat at level 1 and at subsequent levels that are multiples of 3.

If he missed this 3rd-level feat, Zhao Xu wouldn't get another chance to acquire a feat until level 6.

"Mentor, what kind of feat is it that requires me to come back tonight?" Zhao Xu asked curiously.

At that moment, Antinua had purposely changed into a golden-brocade wine-red wizard robe—the exact same one Zhao Xu had seen Cisselvina wearing before she ascended to godhood, back when he sat upon the Arcane Throne.

By now he already knew what that garment was. Logically speaking, it didn't offer all that much in terms of bonuses to Antinua, but the robe was simply too famous, so even the giants loved to keep one prepared in their wardrobes.

"This is a feat that can provide you with plenty of feedback. Things like skill points, spiritual resonance for advancement, spell slots, and it even allows you to cast 0-level cantrips on its own," Antinua said. "Didn't you sacrifice your familiar ability earlier?"

Zhao Xu nodded upon hearing this.

"Well now, it's time to supplement you with another familiar—an item familiar," Antinua said.

Zhao Xu wore a thoughtful expression.

The topic of familiars could be considered one of the daily routines for wizards on the forums.

Familiars mostly originated from ordinary animals, but through ritualistic summoning, they transitioned from ordinary creatures into magical beasts.

Generally speaking, a familiar's stats were not much different from an ordinary animal.

If you wanted a familiar that could fight better than a wizard, you usually had to equip and sustain it with enough spells.

Even so, the choice of familiar and how to use it remained hot topics on the forums, because familiars themselves granted wizards certain abilities, ranging from the *Alertness* feat to spell sharing.

"The item familiar feat allows you to establish a long-term connection with an item and slowly grant it the functions of a living familiar."

Hearing this, Zhao Xu nodded. "So, is it time to perform a ritual?"

Wizard players all needed to perform a magical ritual to summon a familiar.

"No, the prerequisite for designating an item familiar is that the object must be a permanent magical item. Therefore, you first need to pick out a magical item."

Antinua looked at Zhao Xu with a mysterious smile. "So we have to go to a place first and select the item that will become your familiar."

"Where?" Zhao Xu had a rough guess about the destination, yet found it hard to believe.

"The Lost Heritage of the Yitel Dynasty."