16 015 Art of Spell Weaving
James nodded and started reading the book.
The more and more James read the more impressed and shocked he was. It told epics of the legendary individuals. There were combat masters and people who masters at their professions. If he were to guess these peoples skills could never be matched in the game as it is now.
One tale was about how the Gods that are known in the world used to bestow more than their favor to the people of the world. They granted very small amounts of their power to things called Apostles.
There was a Legendary figure that mastered all four paths of the [Mage]. He could use spells from all the elements to besiege whole continents if he wished.
Another Legend was that of a sharp shooter that single handedly pinned down the largest army ever created by the Mad King of Rockwell. He then proceeded to wipe the country off the face of the map. The country used to stand as the center of the world and was at the forefront of the world's super powers.
There were an uncountable number of stories. Ones that told of masters of time and space, those who could shape-shift into animals, shadow lords, secret churches and sects that left the secular world behind, and much more.
Some of the most interesting stories he read where about [God Beasts]. They were not truly gods but were the closest things to it. Even the various legendary figures had to group together to defend against them. Powerful dragons, krakens, phoenixes, kitsunes, kilns, and more ruled the creatures of the world.
Many wars washed over the world forming it as it is known today. Single battles split apart the earth, created ravines, destroyed mountains, created oceans, and more. Nations and countries raised and fell to ruin.
Evolution spanned the ages; creatures of old became stronger as time went on. That was until the last epoch before the current era. Creatures and monsters regressed due to peace over the land. The legendary figures and god beasts disappeared. The world settled and the citizens of the current world came to be. The current era was nothing like the ones of old. In fact it might have well been a joke.
[It is no wonder why Teacher will not discuss 'them'. I wonder if they have anything to do with the legendary figures and god beast's disappearance.]
As James got deeper and deeper into the book be came across the various professions. The book talked about extremely advanced theories about their craft. From what he understood of a few professions from the books he found in the library these theories would change the difficulty the other players would experience. They would make everything easier and the items created would be of better quality.
[It makes sense that Teacher said humanity could twist the knowledge. Greed would take over as everyone wants to increase their power. Items created with this knowledge would be far stronger than most players would be able to create. They might even be more powerful than those found in dungeons and raids.]
The second to last chapter was about [Rune Masters]. He paid extra attention to this chapter. He learned that runes could be simplified compared to what they were today. Just because they would be simpler doesn't mean they would be weaker. It would actually make them stronger. It would require fewer resources to make and use. Runes could be etched or written of all sorts of different surfaces and not just runic slates or talisman papers. If a [Rune Master] was good enough they could write a [Rune] on a leaf!
He took as many mental notes about the [Rune Crafting] chapter as he could. He could not wait to start practicing.
He finally got to the last chapter. He was dazzled by its title, 'Spell Weaving, the Art of Spell Creation'.
He read though a third of the chapter before he stopped. He had a few questions.
"Teacher, if creating spells is a lost art why was Alfred able to create his [Aura of Pure Fire]?"
The man scoffed at the question, "I am the last [Spell Weaver] left. That pitiful attempt cannot count as even attempting to create his own spell. At best it is [Spell Modification]. You could say that Alfred barely scratched the surface of modification and that is a gross understatement of his knowledge. I looked into it and he merely found a tiny fragment of a scroll that mentions the ability to add secondary effects to spells."
James was not too happy hearing his teacher mock Alfred but could understand his thoughts. What Alfred did was nowhere near what this book explained.
James continued to read the book to completion.
* 10,631 of 10,631 books completed, talk to your teacher to be rewarded *
"Teacher, I completed the quest to read all the books in the library."
"Excellent job, here are the rewards for your effort."
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* Ding*
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Title Gained
Name: Master of Knowledge
Effects:
1. + 20 intellect
2. Photographic memory, you can recall every book you every read word for word.
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* Ding *
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Removed skill Identify,
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Skill: Absolute Identify
Level: Max
Grade: Legendary
Skill Information:
[Active]: Displays information about the items examined. Being the Master of Knowledge you can instantly see all aspects of the item being examined.
Cost: None
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* Ding *
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Skill: Return to Knowledge
Level: Max
Grade: Ancient
Skill Information:
[Active]: Teleports player to the Oasis of Knowledge.
Notes: Channels for 5 seconds and can be interrupted. One-way teleport, you cannot return to your previous location by using this spell again.
Cost: 100% of current mana
Limits: 1 use per day
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******** ( POV Change ) ********
What James was checking out his rewards the world was in awe once again, James created another global announcement.
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***** ( Announcement ) *****
Player Blaise has completed the first SS tiered quest.
He has received 15 gold and 150 nation fame.
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All the top guilds had the same thought. [How did he complete a SS tiered quest so soon?]
Tempest was the most annoyed. He punched a nearby tree with his fist, "Damn him. That quest was the one that kicked me out of the library in such a shameful manner."
He then proceeded to post a message in his guild chat, [- 2 gold for the first person to kill the player Blaise with video proof! -] Many of the guild member's blood was boiling over the potential to earn so much money.
Alexander ignored Tempest's message knowing it would take him a little while to fully cool down.
******** ( End of POV ) ********
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[Wow! Those two skills are nuts! I am so happy about not having to waste skill points to rank up that old [Identify] skill. Now I can focus fully on other skills! The Return to Knowledge is very useful. I am sure I will need to return to Teacher often as well as I have a free trip to the city once a day if I need. The title is amazing as well.]
"Thank you teacher for your reward."
"It is but a small reward. Your true reward comes from the other quest; would you like to take a guess at what it is?"
James held his chin in thought, "You're a [Spell Weaver] and the final chapter of the book was about the same topic. Is it the profession of weaving spells?"
"Close but not quite. [Spell Weaving] is not a profession but a path of the arcane way."
"So it is a class?!?", blurted James.
The man smiled, "Exactly, would you like to change your class from a [Fire Mage] to a [Spell Weaver]? As you know spell creation is actually just combining advanced level knowledge on runes into spell matrices. Your profession will complement your new class well."
"Absolutely!"
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* Ding Quest Rewards*
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Unlocked the hidden class Spell Weaver
Rank: SSS
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Process: Character level will be reset to level one. Player will keep all their items and gold. Player will keep any skills compatible to the new class.
Start?
[Yes] [No]
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James did not hesitate to change his class, [It is not like I have anything to lose; I am still level one after all.]
Yet another global announcement appeared for all the players. This time they were in frenzy.
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***** ( Announcements ) *****
Player Blaise has unlocked the first SSS hidden class.
He has received 20 gold and 250 nation fame.
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All of a sudden the entire world started to shake violently. If you looked at the sky you would see endless golden clouds forming. The clouds were the most dense above the library. Beams of holy light leaked out from between the clouds. Various wisps of mana and other elemental spirits danced in the sky near the clouds for everyone to see.
It was as if the heavens celebrating.
James who was trying to stay upright on his feet panicked due to the earthquake, "Teacher what is going on?!"
"The heavens and earth are celebrating. A step towards confronting 'them' has been taken thanks to you."
[Just how much change did I cause? I won't be able to show my face to public at this rate...]
Every player in the game was received a notification.
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A major step has been taken to forge the future of Amerish. Thus, the heavens and earth are granting 10% bonus experience rates from now on.
Mana across the lands has become denser and more pure. Those of the arcane path will find great benefits.
A con to this progress is that monsters everywhere have become more dangerous. Until now only elites and violent monsters have appeared but now the bosses of the fields, seas, mountains, dungeons, and raids have awoken early. Watch out as the world has become more dangerous than ever before.
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The players were raving about what just happened many of which logged out of the game and went to the forums. The moderators had to close discussions and limit the forums to only replies to mega-threads they created. James created a large headache for the poor moderators.
The top guilds once again came together at their meetings place.
Scarlet, like many of the other members of the meeting were puzzled, "Just what does this mean and does Blaise have something to do with the game notification everyone received."
Jack voiced his thoughts first, "Blaise is a mage class so I believe he does have something to do with it. There are countless reports from mage classes around the world are stating that their total mana increased by 100 and their mana regeneration increased by 5%. Whatever he did brought magic based classes' up-to pair with the melee classes. While mages are powerful thanks to their spells we run out of mana too fast while farming and in battles. But now we can last longer thanks to the increased mana and mana regeneration. However, from our initial testing we found that mages still cannot handle 1v1 situations. Mages still primary holds spots in parties combat."
Everyone was relieved hearing that. Scarlet for once was friendly, "Thanks for testing that Jack."
The other members of the group nodded their head in agreement.
Author carried the group to the main focus of the meeting, "It seems like our guilds have come to the same conclusion. That is that if Blaise does not want to enter one of our guilds that makes him our enemy. Our relationships with Reaper and Talon have hit a low. Battles with those two have broken. I assume it will be the same with Blaise. We can only assume that he remains a magic class due to the buffs to all magic classes."
Alexander apologized, "I'm sorry, it is probably our guild's fault that Blaise is unwilling to join a guild currently. I did not think to monitor Tempest's actions while his behavior is all over the place."
"It is no problem, it was bound to happen eventually, besides your guild already suffered from it. I heard you lost 6% of your members and applications to join the guild also dropped considerable."
Alexander looked at Rend and cursed, "I will find your mole eventually."
Rend only laughed in response.
The group was about to disperse when another announcement came through, this time it was not James.
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***** ( Announcements ) *****
Player Reaper has unlocked a SSS hidden class.
She has received 20 gold and 200 nation fame.
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Scarlet, whose face changed to one of disgust, only muttered something before she stormed out, "That bitch..."
The remaining leaders could only agree on maintaining a hostile relationship with the Reaper.
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James was still inside the Oasis talking to his teacher.
The conversation stopped when he saw the announcement. His teacher was amused.
"Seems like I was not the only one of old with a plan."
"What do you mean?"
"Apollo, the god of war and bloodshed, has chosen an [Apostle]."
"{Apostle], like the ones mentioned in the book?"
"Exactly. Let continue on with the lessons."
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During his time in the Oasis James followed Talons advice and got familiar with the user interface, [Talon won't be able to poke fun at me anymore.]
He opened his character sheet to look at his current stats and skills.
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Player: Blaise
Class: Spell Weaver
Professions: Rune Master
Titles: Master of Knowledge, Junior and Senior Librarian, Junior and Senior Scholar, Persistent
Level: 1
Experience: 0/100
HP: 250 --- [(10 * 25) + 0 + 0 + 0]
Mana: 850/850 --- [200 + 0 + ( 650) + 0]
Int: 85 --- [20 + (65)]
Endurance: 10
Str: 10
Dex: 16
Agility: 8
Attack Points: 10
Defense: 20
Mana Regeneration: 23 --- [20 + 5%]
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Abilities:
Passives:
Magical Eyes, to unlock the description talk to your teacher.
Magical Conduit, to unlock the description talk to your teacher.
Magical Battery, to unlock the description talk to your teacher.
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Actives
Open Spell Slot
Open Spell Slot
Open Spell Slot
Open Spell Slot
Open Spell Slot
Aura of Pure Fire [Locked] (Lv 1)
Absolute Identify (Max)
Return to Knowledge (Max)
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"Teacher could you explain magical eyes, magical conduit, and magical battery?"
"[Magical Eyes] can be either turned off and on at will. It will also automatically activate if magic is used nearby and is targeting you. It lets you see magical matrices and the runes they are made from. You can also see traces of magic from spells and magic formations."
"Next is [Magical Conduit], you can control the flow of raw mana that you come in contact with. You can give or take mana to/from other people or sources. This is useful while creating spells and runes since it can use up large amounts of mana."
"Finally there is [Magical Battery], it allows you to store more mana in your body than you could otherwise. It complements [Magical Conduit] very well. For example if you kill an elemental spirit you can direct the mana that is left in its body to your own. Then store that mana for later use. For an easier explanation, you can overcharge your mana."
"Overcharge? Currently I have 850 maximum mana, does that mean if I find some mana to absorb I can go over that limit. For example I can have 900/850 units of mana?"
"That is correct. The more powerful the spell the more mana it takes to create. Most of the time spells above tier 2 take much more mana then the average body can hold thus [Spell Weaver]s had to find a way around their limitations. Your mana regeneration however, will not overcharge your mana storage"
"Thank you for your explanation. Now, it says I have five open spell slots. Does that mean I can only create a total of five spells period?"
"Once again you are only half-right. As you grow stronger you will be able to create more and more spells."
"What about my aura spell, it says it is locked"
"You changed classes from a [Fire Mage] to a [Spell Weaver]. You can create endless spells thus eventually you'd make the same aura spell that you have now. But since you already knew the spell at one point it was locked behind a level requirement. If you examine the spell carefully you will see what I mean."
James quickly opened his ability list and viewed his ability.
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Skill: Aura of Pure Fire
Locked: Reach level 10 to manually unlock it or create a matching spell matrix.
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James had lost track of time during so far in the game. He has yet to logout of the game but the couple in the lab already told him to spend as much time in the game as possible. He pulled out the [Mask of Illusion] to see just how long he has played.
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Mask of Illusion
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Time Left: 4 days, 54 minutes, and 12 seconds.
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The time left on the mask was not much so he needs to learn as much as he can from his teacher.
Before he put the mask away he took some time to look at it. His [Magical Eyes] activated when he pulled the mask out. There were runes etched all over the mask.
He pulled out an enchanted note book that his teacher gave to him. It's only function was being a notebook with unlimited number of pages. This teacher said it allows a [Spell Weaver] to take notes of runes and spell matrices without running out of paper. Apparently, spell matrices can quickly get out of hand and take up several notebooks, books, or scrolls.
He started by coping down the runes he saw in the surface of the mask. He did not know what they did or the proper way to engrave mana lines in them yet but he wanted to have the runes in his notes. He did not know if they would disappear once the timer on the mask ran out.
The GMs and developers of the game felt like they were in trouble after everything that happened today.
