The Truth of Magic - Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Draconic and Spellcasting
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Zhao Xu didn’t have to see Antonya’s face to know what expression she had on right now beneath the cloak.
Zhao Xu figured that she was probably quite pleased with his response.
“Very good, you’ve made your choice. I hope that you won’t regret it in the future. Compared to those wizards conducting research in the safety of the floating city, a wizard who has to go to battle might run into many potentially fatal situations.”
After hearing what Antonya said, Zhao Xu just smiled nonchalantly.
During the days where he sought revenge, he hadn’t gone a single day without attending to his wounds and training himself up.
“If I weren’t sure that you’re too low a level to change your appearance so much, I would have thought that you’re a middle-aged man.” 2
Zhao Xu’s smile became a little more bitter than before.
“Fine, you can look at this book next then. Switch your language first, you should have some slots for other languages.”
A thick and heavy book flew out from the bookshelf and into Zhao Xu’s hands.
He knew that Antonya had used a Level 0 Arcane spell to do this.
The only thing that seemed strange to him was how Antonya didn’t use any movements to cast this spell at all.
It was as if the book automatically flew just because she said so.
Zhao Xu weighed the book in his hands and gently touched the title of the book: Secrets to Learning Draconic.
He looked up at his mentor, a little confused.
“You want me to study a language now? I don’t have to read any of those magic theory books anymore?”
Antonya casually sat down on a soft chair in the room. This was the first time in three days that she had actually sat down.
“Actually, you will be able to automatically understand some content in the future. I’m letting you read this right from the start in order to mold your character.”
Zhao Xu didn’t expect Antonya to have such intentions, and he looked at her curiously.
“Magic is a mysterious power. If you immediately head off to casting spells without any reverence for magic itself, then you’d just be a tool for using magic. You won’t be much different from a cannon on a city wall. In fact, if you conduct research without this sense of reverence, it will only bring disaster to yourself and others.”
There was a bitter tone to Antonya’s voice. Zhao Xu wondered if the topic brought up bad memories.
“Actually, when you returned to your room on the second day and spoke to the other Adventurers from Earth, you should have already noticed that your training is a little different from the other players who chose to become wizards.”
“Basically, we differentiate all the players, so there will be some who are going through the same sort of training as you and start from reading these ancient texts first. This group is the one that has been chosen for grooming.”
“The difference is that those people who chose to read these texts did it out of their own free will, but you have been forced to do this by me. The good part is that you will definitely be on the right path and you will learn everything the proper way. The bad part is that I call the shots on when this part of your training ends.” 1
Zhao Xu didn’t expect that these few sentences from Antonya would have exposed such a large secret.
He was wondering why it had been so difficult for the wizards in his previous life to reach prestige classes and learn powerful feats.
So there was one more catch here. Those who studied theory first would have an association to help them arrange for their future.
But those who went straight into learning spells and trying to cast them would suffer slowly later on.
The time you took to prove your true nature would determine when you would be able to see how exciting and incredible the Wizard Association could be.
But this was something that nobody in his previous life had ever mentioned in the forums.
The most he read was that some of the high-level wizard players would advise the newer players to read more of the books on magic.
But Zhao Xu still found it difficult to understand.
“Isn’t the way you choose the people a bit arbitrary?”
“So much for calling you mature earlier. There are so many powers in this universe, and the Wizard Association is only able to arrange a few feats and some possible prestige classes at the start for you players. Once you hit Level 5, then you will have to rely on the opportunities that come your way. If we really missed anyone capable, he would also be able to climb back up on his own strength.”
Zhao Xu couldn’t help but take a deep breath. Becoming a wizard had been difficult in the beginning for the players in his previous life, and these associations were probably partly responsible for that.
For a player like him, he had one feat as a Human, another two from the Natural Flaws system, and another one for being a Level 1 character. So he started with 4 feats.
Having 4 powerful feats was completely different from having 4 useless feats. 6
Zhao Xu could only say that because he had gone back to the past and naturally carried a sense of reverence towards Arthur, this attitude had helped him to pass Antonya’s initial tests.
Zhao Xu focused his attention back on the book that Antonya had passed to him.
“Many ancient texts are written in Draconic, so all Wizards must learn the language. After you read through the book once, you can start converting to this language,” said Antonya.
Zhao Xu understood what this conversion was. It was essentially activating the Draconic translation ability within the system.
Everyone would be able to grasp the Common language as well as the language of their own Race, and they could also learn as many other languages as the number of Intelligence modifier points they had.
He had +3 Intelligence modifier points, so he could learn 3 other languages.
Before this, he had lacked the opportunity, so he had no chance of learning Draconic.
Now that he thought about it, the book in his hand was the activation key to learning Draconic that other players talked about, and it could enable them to converse in Draconic.
But other players had things like dragon bones, dragon skin, dragon blood, and things like that on hand, while what he got was actually a proper book.
After some time, Zhao Xu finished flipping through the book and he realized that his character stats had refreshed itself too.
Name: Zhongxia
Race: Human/Living organism from a different world (Earth)
Age: 22 years
Sex: Male
Size: Medium
Weight: 76 kilograms
Height: 183 centimeters
Background: The Final Scroll – Secret Messenger 1
Alignment: Neutral
Religion: Sisylvana, the Goddess of Magic 1
Eye Color: Black
Skin Color: Yellow
Hair Color: Black
Base Walking Speed: 30 feet per round (Around 9.1 meters every 6 seconds) 1
Languages: Common, Draconic, To be Determined, To be Determined 1
Race Traits: Level 1 will receive 4 Skill Points. Every level increase will earn you 1 Skill Point. Level 1 will automatically receive 1 bonus Feat.
This was the first time Zhao Xu found out that he was a Secret Messenger. That was probably the lowest rank in the organization.
But Antonya didn’t seem to relax at all after this. More books flew off the bookshelf and landed on his desk.
“Finish reading the first book, Foundational Spell Preparation, and the second book, Spells & Gestures: How to Cast Spells, then continue to read the book right at the bottom last, Encyclopedia of Cantrips, and we’re done. Once you finish reading these three books, I’ll come back and confirm the choice of your first feat.” 1
When he heard those words, Zhao Xu was really about to cry. He had finally made his first step towards casting spells.
After that, Zhao Xu started to calm himself down and turned on his studying mode.
Just like every new wizard in Arthur, since he wasn’t able to understand spells, he had to memorize them. He had to blindly memorize the various ways of preparing spells.
Those books on the theory of magic were just input without any output in sight.
But these books meant that his progress in spellcasting was now at 1%, and it was only going to increase after that, so Zhao Xu was much more motivated to read these than the previous ones.
Antonya listened to him flip the pages and seemed to know what he was thinking about. She knew what he was looking at and what sort of questions he would have, so she slowly explained the contents to him.
In all the Magic Academies across the rest of this universe, there were countless students copying those spell preparations and chanting them. They were only allowed to listen to the next stage in spellcasting after they were able to rewrite them from memory.
According to those mentors, if you couldn’t even memorize a few simple books, then what right did you have to become a wizard?