Chapter Nineteen: Toward Martial Prowess

“Mentor, shall we continue reading ‘The Path of Arcana’ today?” Zhao Xu asked. By the second day of reading, he had already realized that this was one of those specially processed magical tomes.

Whenever you finished reading and closed the book, its contents would shift automatically, so every time you opened it there would be something new. If you wanted to retrieve something you’d read before, you simply had to recall it in your mind, and upon opening the cover, the relevant passage would appear again.

This was the first time Zhao Xu had ever seen a book with built-in intelligent indexing—something akin to artificial intelligence. In his previous life, he’d only heard rumors of certain items capable of communicating with their owners.

These past few days, Zhao Xu had devoted himself almost entirely to the book and the lectures.

“No need,” Antinoia replied.

Even after spending several days together, Zhao Xu still hadn’t managed to get a good look at her face, which remained shrouded beneath the shadow of her cloak.

“In the past couple of days, there have been some new debates within the organization regarding your future path.”

Zhao Xu immediately perked up when he heard this—he felt no burden at all about being used as a pawn. His only goal was to survive and live well.

“The main thing is that someone has suggested a new approach, and this is all because of your dual-elite class status.

“In fact, there are some in Arthur who choose not to advance, instead pursuing the path of a pure mage or pure cleric. Though they are few, these pure-class specialists still manage to hold their own.”

Zhao Xu understood. Pure mages and clerics were formidable; even without advanced classes, they would never truly be weak.

“After reaching the legendary level, the benefits of specializing as a pure mage are considerable. What’s more—” Here, Antinoia paused for a moment. “A pure mage can devote themselves wholly to the study of magic, which is beneficial for magical research.”

“Therefore, some in the organization have suggested that you become a pure mage, rather than seeking short-term power gains.”

Now Zhao Xu understood—after observing him these past few days, perhaps they thought he was worth cultivating? He wouldn’t be sent out as field personnel, but would instead become a researcher?

But as Zhao Xu reflected, he realized that everything Antinoia had just told him actually only became relevant after he set foot in the floating city.

So the opinions of the organization had only started to shift in these last couple of days. Three days ago, no one in Arthur even knew of his existence.

“The reason we talked before about deciding your class path was to prevent you from wasting your advantages on some worthless advanced class. It would spare me the need to use Energy Drain to strip your class levels. Our organization is actually quite free in its approach, so this time I’m here to hear your thoughts.

“Do you want to pursue power and go the advanced class route, or do you want to become a pure mage and stay in the floating city as a researcher?”

Listening to Antinoia’s careful explanation, Zhao Xu felt a chill run down his spine when he heard the name “Energy Drain.”

Arthur had many negative status effects: ability damage, ability drain, energy drain, blindness, deafness, fear, panic, confusion, fatigue, exhaustion, nausea, sickness, slow, stun, prone, grapple, suppression, entangle, daze, paralysis, hold, bind, sleep, unconsciousness, petrification, paralysis, and so forth.

But of all these, the one that struck terror into the hearts of players was energy drain.

Energy Drain was a ninth-level arcane spell, capable of erasing 2d4 (that is, 2 to 8) character levels from its target.

2d4 means the sum of two four-sided dice, ranging from 2 to 8. Being struck by this spell was soul-crushing. If your character didn’t have enough levels to lose, you’d die on the spot.

If you survived, the spell’s effects would linger for 24 hours, after which you’d make a saving throw for each lost level. Succeed, and the negative level vanished. Fail, and you’d permanently lose one character level for each failure.

A permanent level loss—that was the real punishment.

One of Zhao Xu’s most powerful friends in his past life had been struck by a lich’s Energy Drain, failed all his saves, and fell from power overnight, losing everything.

So for those who made their living off their class levels, avoiding such effects was a matter of life and death.

Realizing he might be caught up in some ideological dispute, Zhao Xu carefully asked, “Mentor, may I ask—who in the organization is proposing this?”

“Strictly speaking, our Final Scroll is just one major faction within the Arthur Mage Association’s headquarters. The Goddess has great influence, but even she doesn’t have absolute authority. This suggestion came from some of the old research fossils at the headquarters. They’ve been stuck on the divine magic barrier project for a long time, so they’re hoping that someone with your innate talent for both arcane and divine magic will join them.”

Upon hearing this, Zhao Xu was immediately reassured. Researchers were hardly the type to come after you with a knife if you refused; declining their offer would probably not be held against him.

“I heard that in Arthur, advancing as a Mystic Theurge also allows you to combine arcane and divine magic, doesn’t it?” Zhao Xu suddenly recalled something from his previous life and asked.

Antinoia’s expression hardened, her sharp gaze so intense that Zhao Xu could almost feel it even through the shadow of her hood.

“The Mystic Theurge is a very secretive advanced class. It doesn’t surprise me that you players would eventually learn about it, but I didn’t expect you to encounter the concept after only three days.”

Zhao Xu felt terribly awkward—he hadn’t meant to show off, but had inadvertently stepped on a landmine.

In truth, Antinoia and the other high-ranking figures were aware that Zhao Xu had access to the internet back on Earth—this had been conveyed by the gods themselves. So whenever Zhao Xu brought up obscure knowledge about Arthur, Antinoia would always answer his questions without suspicion.

“Are you wondering why this surprises me?”

Zhao Xu quickly nodded.

“The Mystic Theurge has no class abilities of its own; its only feature is that each level of the class stacks with both arcane caster and divine caster levels.”

Now Zhao Xu suddenly understood why the Mystic Theurge, which others had raved about in his previous life, was considered so exceptional.

A character who was a 1st-level wizard, 1st-level cleric, and 10th-level mystic theurge would be a 12th-level character, but could cast spells as an 11th-level wizard and an 11th-level cleric.

What, then, was the point of having a dual-elite build?

Wait—did that mean he could do the same?

But Antinoia immediately dashed his hopes.

“The prerequisite for advancing as a Mystic Theurge is the ability to cast both 2nd-level arcane and 2nd-level divine spells. Dual-elite characters like you are not eligible for this class.”

Zhao Xu finally understood—there was the pitfall. Players would only learn about this advanced class at level seven or so; there was no way he could have known about it at the very start, which explained Antinoia’s suspicion.

Being able to cast 2nd-level arcane and 2nd-level divine spells meant a player had to be a 3rd-level wizard and a 3rd-level cleric—already sixth level. Even if you then took ten levels in the advanced class, you’d only reach seventh-level spells in each by sixteenth level.

Meanwhile, a pure mage would already have access to eighth-level spells, and would soon reach ninth-level spells.

A slow start meant always being a step behind. If you could start as a level-20 character, the Mystic Theurge might be fine, but if you began at level one, this class with no abilities of its own would be a miserable experience.

This was the main advantage of the dual-elite build—having your cake and eating it too.

“Mentor, I choose the path of power.” At this point, Zhao Xu had no more doubts. Since he had the dual-elite advantage, he should make full use of it. If he didn’t take the advanced, power-focused route, he’d be wasting his one-in-a-million test account.