Chapter 5 – The Beginning of the Mage

Punk decided to become a mage, partly because he genuinely admired mages, and partly because it was the only path available to him at the moment.

Punk was fortunate. As a half-Ancient Elf, he was born with two levels in the mage class and two levels in the ranger class, meaning he started life as a second-level mage apprentice and a second-level ranger apprentice. However, Punk had already resolved to specialize in the mage path.

At first glance, two class levels might seem insignificant, but they helped him overcome the enormous hurdle of becoming an apprentice—a barrier that had stymied countless dream-filled youths. Becoming a professional class holder was no easy feat; it required aptitude, insight, knowledge, and even luck. Among ordinary people, the odds of becoming a class holder were no exaggeration—one in a hundred thousand!

The seemingly countless class holders in the Multiverse were entirely due to the absurdly vast base population of ordinary lives. This was precisely why, even on the Faerûn Plane, where the number of class holders could be described as “staggering,” the immense land area and a population too large to count still resulted in a sparsely populated, medieval-like environment. In many places, class holders existed as “living legends.”

Punk discovered he had inherited a considerable amount of knowledge, enough to last until his formal training began. Moreover, with the System at his disposal, learning spells or cultivating would yield twice the results with half the effort. He breathed a sigh of relief inwardly; it seemed feasible to master one or two spells for self-defense before hatching. This way, he wouldn’t have to worry about being devoured by some wild beast as breakfast the moment he emerged from his shell.

Driven by pressure and ambition, Punk began immersing himself in the study of magical knowledge!

In this world, magic relied entirely on the soul:

The soul generated elements and released them into reality, then used the soul to manipulate these elements into spells, producing various miraculous effects. Elements were the fundamental building blocks of this world—note, elements, not atoms. The laws of this world differed; matter was composed of pure energy in the form of elements. There were ten types of elements: water, fire, earth, wind, lightning, light, darkness, life, space, and aether!

The first nine elements interacted in cycles of generation and restraint, while the aether element was the most unique. Not only could it transform into any of the other elements, but it could also be converted by any element, including non-elemental energies. Most importantly, only aether energy could directly transform into various non-elemental energies such as magnetism, gravity, and kinetic energy. Any energy intending to convert into these types of non-elemental energies must first be transformed into aether before aether could facilitate the conversion.

This established aether energy’s status as “primordial” and endowed it with unparalleled flexibility and diversity.

Of course, because aether energy was relatively mild and incurred some degree of loss during conversion, attacks using converted aether energy at the same energy level were less potent than those directly employing violent elemental energy.

It was for this reason that the Evocation school, which directly utilized elemental energy, was widely recognized as the most destructive discipline among cultivation paths. This brings us to the eight schools of mages (note: here, “schools” refer solely to cultivation directions):

Evocation (directly creating elements with the soul)Spellcasting (Creating ether with the soul and utilizing etheric primal energy)

Enchantment (Bestowing objects with additional properties)

Alchemy (Merging and separating objects)

Divination (Harnessing the soul’s perception to acquire information)

Summoning (Creating creatures or other entities within the soul and manifesting them in the physical world)

Invocation (Eroding reality with “concepts” from the soul)

Psionics (Influencing reality through absolute idealistic thought and spirit)

Each of these schools possesses distinct characteristics and advantages. However, regardless of schools, elements, or even the distinctions between a warrior’s Battle Aura and a mage’s mana, they all represent immature applications of the soul. Their paths ultimately converge toward the same high-level goal: ascending to the God-Throne. Upon reaching the God-Throne level, the soul can directly grasp higher-level powers like rules (spells below the Legendary level merely touch upon rules through clever workarounds), rendering distinctions between schools and professions meaningless.

Of course, in the early stages, the various advantages and characteristics of these different schools and professions remain quite pronounced!

Typically, mages in their early stages choose to specialize in two schools while supplementing with two additional schools, ensuring complementary capabilities and minimizing weaknesses. This doesn’t mean knowledge from other schools should be neglected, as every spell is an application of the soul. Knowledge from other schools can provide inspiration and insights while expanding one’s adaptability. After all, it’s essential to avoid complete ignorance when facing enemies with different cultivation directions.

After careful consideration, Punk decided to specialize in Summoning and Spellcasting to secure the safest “ranged output” and “crowd control” capabilities for a mage.

He chose Alchemy and Divination as supplementary schools. Alchemy can provide funds in the early stages, since the God of Knowledge Oghma once said: “Knowledge is wealth.” Coupled with the common “bad” habit of “secrecy” among intelligent beings, knowledge of various spells and metamagic techniques is exorbitantly expensive in this world, not to mention those rare natural treasures. These cultivation resources are undoubtedly crucial, and obtaining them—at least in the early stages—requires indispensable funds.

As for the Divination school, countless wars large and small on Earth have thoroughly demonstrated the importance of intelligence.

The original body’s parents left behind many Apprentice Rank and Apprentice-Level spells, but these decreased significantly at the Formal-Level. Still, these spells would suffice until at least the Formal-Level.

For Punk, who possessed the System, Apprentice Rank spells posed little difficulty. He quickly grasped the theory of one or two spells (though he couldn’t practice them inside the eggshell!). However, as knowledge and power levels increased, the difficulty of learning and cultivation would rise exponentially. Punk estimated that even with the System’s assistance, his learning and cultivation efficiency would only surpass his peers by 30-40% after reaching the Formal-Level. Though modest, this alone would be enough to envy ordinary mages!Generally speaking, when practicing newly learned spells, mages require incantations, casting gestures, and spell components as aids. These auxiliary methods can deepen a mage’s understanding of the spell and reduce the difficulty of controlling unfamiliar magic—essentially preventing spells from exploding in their hands before being cast. Once a mage becomes sufficiently proficient with a spell, they can discard these time-consuming methods and cast purely through soul power. If they master the metamagic technique “Spell Instant,” they can even instantly cast spells they’re already highly familiar with. However, during combat, mages will still use auxiliary methods whenever possible, as these aids can enhance a spell’s effectiveness and power to some extent. The more advanced the incantation, gesture, or material, the greater the boost to the spell. In battle, even a slight advantage can tip the scales of victory.

Unfortunately, Punk’s cheap parents only left behind one or two common sets of gestures and incantations, and he had no spell components on hand. Most importantly, there were no powerful mentors around to carefully protect him. Therefore, as a beginner, Punk carefully had the System remember to remind himself not to experiment with overly powerful magic. After all, even among Apprentice Rank spells, there were significant differences in power, characteristics, effectiveness, and learning difficulty.

Although learning simple minor spells might be easy and enjoyable, underestimating profound magic based on this experience could one day lead to one’s own downfall!

After over a month of study, having learned several Apprentice Rank spells, organized his cheap parents’ “knowledge inheritance,” and accumulated a substantial foundation in magical theory, Punk finally awaited the day of “emerging from the shell”!

(End of Chapter)