Chapter 45: New Spells, Ring Proficiency

After dinner, before the tactics class, Xia Duo hurried to the Material Requisition Office to exchange for two Learning Scrolls. Considering he had already exchanged for an attack spell, this time Xia Duo chose functional spells: Ghost Sound and Mage Hand.

Having Acid Splash as an attack spell was enough; Xia Duo did not believe he could roam the battlefield relying on a few Apprentice spells.

Choosing functional spells was merely to give himself more options when facing danger; ultimately, the goal was to survive this Orc Tide, and everything else was secondary.

He had absolutely no intention of laying down his life for the Savile Territory; it was simply forced by the situation, and he had no choice.

For the tactics class, Xia Duo still chose the same Spell Practice Room as the previous two days. This time, the tactics class only taught some army commands and how to use standard-issue weapons.

After the class, the Official Apprentices were issued a single-handed sword, a small Hand Crossbow, and 6 crossbow bolts. The moment he received the weapons, Xia Duo realized that battle was coming soon.

Yet, facing the powerful Orcs, Xia Duo felt these two weapons did not bring him much sense of security.

The other Apprentices also seemed to understand the terrifying fate they were about to face, and one by one, they began to practice frantically, whether it was Magic or Sword Art, or anything else that could bring them a sense of security.

Seeing this scene, Xia Duo could not help but shake his head. He found it strange why the Mage Tower did not provide proper guidance; did they really want these Apprentices to die on the battlefield?

He couldn't understand it, he just couldn't!

Xia Duo had come to Netheril from Earth by accident, and counting it all up, it had been less than a year. He was still working hard to learn everything about Netheril; he could not yet delve deep into this kind of underlying human social logic.

However, regardless of what others did, Xia Duo always had his own goals, plans, and determination to act.

Practicing Sword Art was not a good choice, and Xia Duo didn't even plan to take this single-handed sword to the battlefield; what could it do other than be a burden?

He didn't practice with the Hand Crossbow either. The arrows were few, only 6. Xia Duo hooked his finger on the bow string and could almost conclude that this Hand Crossbow could not cause fatal damage to an Orc.

It would even be difficult to kill a human in one shot.

Moreover, the effective damage range of the Hand Crossbow was limited; by the time the situation actually required his meager damage, he would likely be not far from death.

Only Magic!

Only Magic could turn the impossible into the possible, and turn decay into magic.

Although Xia Duo came from the technology-prevalent Earth and had been in Faerûn for less than a year, he had truly seen the wonders of Magic, and he was now full of confidence in Magic.

Even if they were just some Apprentice-level spells, who knew, they might produce miraculous effects!

The remaining time in the tactics class was limited and had to be put to good use!

Xia Duo quickly found an empty corner in the Spell Practice Room and unfolded the Learning Scrolls. During this time, others also wanted to get a chance to read the Learning Scrolls, but Xia Duo refused them one by one.

He was preparing to verify his hypothesis from last night, so he did not copy them into his notebook immediately, but instead studied them directly from the Learning Scrolls.

First was the Ring spell, Ghost Sound.

The effect of this spell was somewhat similar to the Sending he had learned before; the only difference was that the sound produced by Sending could only be heard by the target, and the distance was greater.

Ghost Sound, on the other hand, emitted sound indiscriminately, and depending on the volume, everyone with hearing within a certain range could hear it.

Its spell structure was similar to an open arc surface. Continuing to dismantle the spell structure, its essence remained the operations of entangling, joining, bending, coiling, and overlapping at the shallowest level of the Magic Net.

In Xia Duo's previous research, he had already become more than familiar with this.

Not practicing Ghost Sound immediately, Xia Duo put away its Learning Scroll and opened the Learning Scroll for Mage Hand to study it in detail.

It was still similar to the Ring spells he had studied before, and at this, Xia Duo completely set his mind at ease—

Sure enough, all the Ring spells he knew had similar operations at the same level of the Magic Net; the only difference was that the spell structures above this underlying operation were different.

In other words, the spell structure was just an intuitive manifestation of successful Spellcasting, while those direct operations on the Magic Net were the true essence of Magic.

Whether it was the entangling, joining, bending, coiling, or overlapping of the threads of the Magic Net, or any other more complex operations, Xia Duo named them "Elements of Magic."

Named in reference to the "Three Elements of Spellcasting."

Any Magic was composed of several elements, but these operations were too complex, and Mages still needed spell structures to assist their memory when casting spells.

It was like a house being composed of several building materials, but the builder could not turn the materials into a house directly; they still needed a construction blueprint to ensure the entire building process did not go awry.

If a Mage could penetrate all the elements of a Magic, then even without knowing the spell structure, they could release that Magic.

Of course, this analogy was not entirely appropriate, because all the elements actually already included the spell structure.

The elements of Ring spells were still relatively shallow, being merely operations at the shallowest level of the Magic Net, and the spell structures above the elements were not complex either.

At least, in Xia Duo's view, they were not complex.

At this step, Xia Duo could actually be called proficient in Ring spells (theoretically). For other Ring spells he hadn't exchanged for, Xia Duo was confident that as long as he was given enough time, he could even "create" them himself.

Having reached this point, Xia Duo could also look forward to the scenery at a higher level; an Official Mage was not out of reach.

No one knew that just now, in this Spell Laboratory shared by many people at the same time, Xia Duo had completed an important transformation—not in strength, but in vision, confidence, and even ambition.

A whole morning of labor had tempered his body, and the afternoon's research had transformed his spirit. But no matter how he transformed, the hurdle of the Orc Tide could not be avoided.

Xia Duo could only put his thoughts aside for now and devote himself entirely to spell practice.

The only Ring spells he had mastered proficiently now were Acid Splash and Light. Although he had learned the other spells, they were still lacking a bit of polish before he could be considered proficient.

Casting spells with a human body could also be called a magical craft, which naturally required constant practice.

What if it were a machine?

For a moment, Xia Duo's thoughts wandered off again, actually thinking about alternative spellcasting devices, while ignoring that the Mage Tower itself was a multi-functional, super-powerful alternative spellcasting device, or rather, a building.

Pulling his wandering thoughts back, Xia Duo warned himself not to be overly ambitious, to be down-to-earth, and to take care of the present before talking about anything else.

The time that followed passed quickly.

After dinner that day, Xia Duo did not study as usual, but rested early. After a day of physical and mental exhaustion, he was too tired.