The Truth of Magic - Chapter 7

Chapter 7: City of Magic
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Please choose from 0-2 Natural Flaws. These Natural Flaws cannot be removed, so choose wisely or give up this selection.”
It was quite strange, but the prompt from the system seemed to be in a hurry, as if none of this was supposed to exist. 5
A selection of Natural Flaws slowly appeared in front of Zhao Xu’s eyes.
Thankfully the staircase was covered in bright white light, otherwise anyone with a fear of heights would find it impossible to choose anything.
Zhao Xu’s attention was drawn to the number on the bottom right-hand corner.
10.
9.
8.
7.
Zhao Xu didn’t need to be a genius to realize that this was a countdown timer for him to make a selection. This system was very well hidden and the time given for him to make his choice was even more limited. 1
And the system didn’t even explain what were the pros and cons of doing this.
And the language used by the system sounded ambiguous too. It made it sound as if there was no loss if you decided not to select anything.
“Easily Hurt.” 3
“Clerical Worker.”
Zhao Xu didn’t have the energy to read through all the words and could only find two Natural Flaws in the list that were related to melee attacks.
Easily Hurt: You are not good at protecting yourself.
Effect: -1 level in Armor Class. 3
Clerical Worker: You are not good at melee attacks at all.
Effect: -2 level in all melee attacks. 2
Once the countdown timer hit zero, the entire Natural Flaw system disappeared.
Zhao Xu’s character stats had the description of the two Natural Flaws he just chose, and they were placed inside the same area as his list of feats.
Feat (bonus feat for Humans): Yet to be decided
Feat (Level 1): Yet to be decided
Feat (Natural Flaw 1): Yet to be decided 2
Feat (Natural Flaw 2): Yet to be decided
Feats in Arthur were usually given to a character after they had completed their Character Class training. If the player didn’t choose to be a Human or didn’t have the perseverance and luck to activate the Natural Flaw system…
Then those players would have three fewer Feats compared to Zhao Xu.
According to what some high-level players had said in the past, Feats were an ability that he could choose to use at any time.
And he now had three more than other players.
As for the consequences of these Natural Flaws, Zhao Xu thought about them for a while and decided that he could accept them. 1
Armor Class was his armor defense value. Every player started with 10 points of defense, then you could add on to it with things like the Ability Modifier score of Dexterity. 1
The number of hit points a player had depended on the character’s starting value as well as other additions, such as the Ability Modifier score of Strength.
In Zhao Xu’s previous life, he was a Level 5 Fighter, so his hit points were at Level 5. He had 4 Strength Modifier points, so he could increase his hit points by four levels. So his final hit points were at Level 9.
Arthur used a D20 system. D20 referred to a 20-sided die that had the numbers 1-20.
In the same way, D6 referred to a number on a 6-sided die. 2
3D6 referred to the total value of throwing three 6-sided dice.
The Natural Flaws that Zhao Xu had chosen had sacrificed some hit points and defense points, and it looked like he had a strategy for the later part of the game. 1
As Zhao Xu was thinking about the pros and cons of what he chose earlier, the image in front of him went blurry.
The world started to dim as if he was falling into a deep sleep.
He suddenly got a shock.
Zhao Xu woke up with a start to find that he was wearing linen from head to toe and was standing on some stone steps. It was clearly afternoon, but there was a huge shadow over him as if there was a gigantic cloud in the sky. 1
Zhao Xu carefully looked at the world around him. Most of them were characters that belonged to the world of Arthur and many of them looked at him curiously. Players that were dressed like himself were strangely few.
The streets were generally clean, but there were many mysterious symbols all over the place that he couldn’t understand.
At the same time, the message board on his character stats kept refreshing.
Character stats and the message board were an assistant tool for all players in Arthur.
It would state the player’s character stats as well as other information on the current situation.
“Hint 1: Please follow the recommendation letter in your bag and go to the Magic Academy in this town to proceed with the Wizard apprenticeship course and complete your training.”
“Hint 2: Please follow the recommendation letter in your bag and go to the Neutral Alignment temple in this town to proceed with the Cleric internship course and complete your training. (You are recommended to head for the Temple of Sisylvana, Goddess of Magic)” 6
Zhao Xu now noticed that there were things inside his backpack.
There were many players walking about the large towns in the world of Arthur after they had chosen a Character Class at the long staircase earlier.
Arthur didn’t have a Noob Village and was only split between towns and villages. In general, all players would be allocated to a large town because only these places would have organizations for the various Character Classes and had the resources to train the characters.
That meant that everyone had the benefit of having the system arrange all these things for you right now. After one year, getting into these training organizations cost a hefty price.
If you really didn’t have money, then you would have to sign a contract to work for the organization for a fixed amount of time after your training was complete. 2
And the more realistic part was that these towns that they appeared in actually, truly existed. Even the people walking around these towns, who everybody thought were just NPCs in the game, turned out to be real humans just like themselves after they had transmigrated. 1
But even though Zhao Xu knew what he planned to do, he had to face the hard facts right now.
All these towns truly existed within the world of Arthur, so they weren’t copy-paste jobs like most Noob Villages. Zhao Xu knew his way around the place he appeared in during his previous life, but he had no idea where on earth he was right now.
Never mind where he had to go to get his training. 3
But judging from those high city walls, he figured he wasn’t in some tiny town.
With that, he just pulled out the two recommendation letters from his backpack.
The letters would definitely tell him where he was.
Zhao Xu had 3 Intelligence Modifier points, so he would be able to grasp three additional languages without having to really learn them and just needed to go through the motions. He didn’t really understand those languages either. The system would just automatically translate those foreign languages for him.
But after the transmigration, each person would truly be able to understand the languages without the system. 2
Across the world of Arthur, every single race used the language ‘Common’, and that was the language that every player knew by default and wasn’t considered an additional language. He could decide which other 3 languages he wanted to learn later on. 1
Most people only had one recommendation letter, but because Zhao Xu was a Double Elite character, he had two.
He smiled and unrolled the parchment in his hands to see where on earth he was right now.
“Mystra.” Zhao Xu’s hands couldn’t help but tremble when he saw this word.
Mystra, the place where the Goddess of Magic became a goddess. 6
In this place, magic directed everything.
Zhao Xu suddenly understood where the strange shadow beneath him came from and immediately looked up.
Floating cities hung above him, suspended in the air by magic.