Nurturing Humanity Novel - Chapter 57

Chapter 57: Heward’s Handy Haversack

Zhao Xu took the backpack from Antonya and touched it. It was made from treated leather, and it was either new or well-made. It even had some brass fittings.

Was this a bag of holding?

Zhao Xu’s heart couldn’t stop pounding. He had 8 points of strength and that decided how much weight his body could handle.

Or, at least, he could feel that his strength right now was a little weaker than himself in the real world.

This was also the reason why Zhao Xu had chosen to take the feature Enlightened Spellcaster in the first place. If he had to carry a pile of spellbooks every single day without a bag of holding, he wouldn’t be able to take it for long.

Zhao Xu quickly lifted his head and looked up at Antonya. “Mentor, is this…?”

“Hmm?” Antonya said questioningly. “I’m not the only spellcaster around here, you know.”

Zhao Xu immediately realized what she was getting at.

The Identify spell!

An Identify spell was able to tell him the properties of anything that carried magic.

Zhao Xu stared at Antonya in shock. He had indeed prepared Identify among his spells today.

But how did Antonya know that?

Antonya could sense Zhao Xu’s confusion, so she replied in a soft and slightly mocking voice, “Sometimes you seem like you were born with the wisdom of an old man, and then sometimes I feel that you were just born yesterday. Since you’re already a wizard, then you should have the mind of a wizard.

“Don’t tell me you thought that wizards always relied on guesswork before going into a battle? Many thought processes should come to you naturally, especially things like what spells the other party might have prepared and how many more spell slots the opponent has. You have to make sure that you know all these beforehand.”

Zhao Xu knew that Antonya was giving him excellent advice, so he quickly nodded.

Once you knew what level a wizard was at, then it was indeed possible to calculate the opponent’s Intelligence score and also how many additional spell slots the person would have as a result.

After adding the basic number of spell slots that came with each character class level, you could make a pretty accurate guess on how many spell slots a wizard had at that moment.

“But Mentor, even though…”

“Even though Identify is a Level 1 spell, it isn’t a Cleric’s divine spell but a Level 1 Magic Domain spell. How did I guess that you’d prepare this particular spell?”

Antonya said exactly what Zhao Xu was thinking about, so he quickly nodded.

But then Antonya didn’t keep explaining as he expected. Instead, she just walked over to the soft armchair and sat down. “You can think about the rest yourself. If you can’t think of it, then I’m taking back your prize.”

When he heard this, Zhao Xu quickly forced himself to calm down.

Antonya was genuinely kind to him, even though she had purposely lied to him about certain things.

But when it came to something like taking back a prize, she didn’t mince words at all.

After being in contact with the divine spells of a cleric, Zhao Xu started to have a clearer understanding of things.

There were some spells which were strictly arcane spells and not divine spells, like this Level 1 spell, Identify.

So Zhao Xu wouldn’t be able to use any of the divine magic spell slots that came with his cleric class to prepare them.

But because this was a spell that belonged to one of the nine spells listed within the Magic Domain he had, Zhao Xu was able to use the domain spell slot that came with every cleric character level he had to prepare it.

But he had three domains. They were Magic, Planning, and Knowledge.

The corresponding Level 1 spells he could prepare were Identify, Deathwatch, and Detect Secret Doors.

Out of those three, how did Antonya immediately guess that he would choose to prepare Identify and not the rest?

After a while, Zhao Xu’s face slowly began to turn red.

Even though he couldn’t see Antonya’s actual expression, since it was hidden by her hood, he could more or less tell that she was smiling.

It really wasn’t easy to fool a wizard.

Since he wasn’t going to battle, he didn’t need Deathwatch, a spell that could be used to determine if a living creature was dead or alive. And since he didn’t have to go on an adventure underground, he definitely didn’t need an exploration related spell like Detect Secret Doors.

So the highest probability was that he would prepare Identify.

On top of that, Antonya was going to give him a prize, so the chances of him preparing that spell for just this occasion had gone up to 100%.

Zhao Xu hung his head. “Mentor, then I’m going to cast this spell.”

It was one thing for someone to give you something, but it was embarrassing for someone to guess that you were really excited and couldn’t wait for the gift to land in your hands.

Even though Zhao Xu was really thirty years old inside, he couldn’t help but feel his face turn red.

“You can try to see how to cast a spell with a long casting time,” Antonya said calmly.

Zhao Xu nodded and found a comfortable place to sit. He looked at the backpack in his hands, then prepared himself to cast a spell.

But, just as he raised his hand, he was suddenly stunned for a moment.

Materials!

Just like how Color Spray needed a handful of colored powder to be cast, Identify also needed materials to be cast.

“Why don’t you check the backpack’s right pocket?” Antonya hinted at just the right time.

Zhao Xu stuck his hand into the pocket when he heard these words.

After a second, he pulled out a pearl.

At the same time, the other ingredients he needed for the spell—a cup of wine with an owl’s feather hanging from it—also floated out and landed gently on the tabletop.

This was very different from how he just had to hold the necessary powder in hand to cast Color Spray.

Identify needed these materials for casting. He needed to crush this pearl worth 100 gold pieces, mix it into the wine, stir in the owl feather, then drink the whole concoction down.

If he missed any step, it would cause the spell to fail.

Most players would be both upset and happy to receive a magic item.

The happy part was that as long as this item was a magic item, it would be worth a lot of money.

But if you really wanted to use the magic item, you had to find someone to Identify it, and that would cost you the service fee plus 100 gold pieces to pay for the materials needed.

As a result, most players just went by guessing and feeling their way along.

Since they were poor, they had to face reality.

Zhao Xu patiently followed the steps of the spell and drank down the well-mixed concoction. Then he took a deep breath and immediately started to chant the necessary incantations in a low voice.

Identify wasn’t a spell that would be completed instantly with a loud DING like in most other games.

This spell had a casting time of one hour.

“Concentration is a key skill of a wizard. We have to constantly increase our Concentration skill level to make sure that when we cast spells that require a long casting time, the spell won’t get broken because of any external accident of sorts,” Antonya said to him from her place on the other side of the room.

But Zhao Xu didn’t break his focus to answer her. His attention was all centered on casting the spell, Identify.

As the casting process continued, Zhao Xu slowly realized that ‘Casting Time: 1 hour’ wasn’t a simple phrase at all.

If he had to cast a Standard Action spell, then he would only need to concentrate for two or three seconds and it would be done.

But now he had to go through a spell that took a full hour to cast, and this really consumed a large amount of his energy.

He also slowly began to understand why Antonya was willing to spend 100 gold pieces to get him to cast this spell even though she could have just told him how this backpack was useful.

There were many things where you would only understand how difficult it was after you tried it for yourself.

Every minute and every second dragged by slowly. Zhao Xu felt like a student who knew that if he got a question wrong, he wouldn’t pass the exam. His forehead was starting to sweat profusely.

Finally, a bright yellow gleam shot out from his hands and fell directly upon the backpack.

At the same time, some information flowed right into Zhao Xu’s brain, and his message board kept refreshing.

Heward’s Handy Haversack

Two side pockets: Extradimensional space bag, it can take a total of 55 liters and no more than 9 kilograms of items.

Central pocket: Extradimensional space bag, it can take a total of 225 liters and no more than 36 kilograms of items.

Effect: No matter how many items it contains, this haversack will only weigh a maximum of 5 pounds. You can take out any item from the bag immediately because the item you want will always be right on top and there is no need to rummage through the bag. The backpack itself and the items inside it will have a +2 bonus on all saving throws.

“Isn’t this a little too powerful?” Zhao Xu couldn’t help murmuring to himself.