Hyper-Dimensional Player

Chapter 945: Chapter 12: Archmage? More Like Archchump! (2)

But in Duncan’s view, they are just a bunch of weaklings, thoroughly pathetic, with leashes wrapped around their necks eighteen times.

A complete Merlin could probably easily trounce most of the legendary mages of the current age.

"Really, they’re still wearing a dog collar, with a leash held by the hand of the Magic Goddess."

Duncan opened the spellbook on the projection page before him, and the first thing to appear were the 0-level cantrips, with a total of 4 spell slots. Nothing much to say, human forms simply don’t have that many spell slots.

Further down were the 1st level divine techniques. The divine techniques mastered in human form were close to those of a paladin, focused mainly on buffs.

—— Endure Environment, Protection from Evil, Create Water, Healing Light Wounds, Blessing, etc.

These spells were scattered here and there, and with the Goddess’s domain spells, there were dozens in total, of varying tiers.

But this was not where the problem lay.

The problem was that no matter how many spells Duncan could master, the only ones he could actually cast were those already memorized, engraved in the spellbook, and uploaded to the magic network, in other words, those pre-recorded in ’files’ (spell slots) as backups.

As for the other spells that hadn’t been pre-recorded and backed up, or stored in the magic network archive, sorry, even if you knew a thousand spells, you simply couldn’t use them.

Can you imagine?

A legendary mage, unable to cast even a single Fireball Technique the next day because he hadn’t pre-memorized it.

Folk saying — "A prepared mage is nearly invincible."

But similarly, if the mage has no foresight, no way to predict the enemy’s capabilities, the spells recorded in the magic network archive the previous day (stored in spell slots) might be utterly useless in a fight.

Even worse, even if you memorized a Fireball Technique, no matter how full your mana bar is, you can only cast one fireball.

Want to cast a second Fireball Technique?

Sorry.

The magic network archive doesn’t have a pre-backup.

You’ll be trying to cast that second Fireball Technique to death, requiring eight hours of meditation, to store pre-prepared spells in the corresponding spell slot of the spellbook, on the corresponding spell level, be sure to remember to back up ’two Fireball Techniques’.

No wonder he killed that painful one so easily.

Don’t look at the painful one as a legendary tier priest, but what spells he could cast were not determined by how many powerful divine techniques he mastered, but by what spells he had memorized and backed up the previous night.

"What on earth can you memorize and back up with this pitiful number of spell slots?"

Duncan glanced at the spellbook, a look of disdain on his face, having painstakingly mastered dozens, even hundreds of spells, only to have a mere handful that could be backed up onto spell slots, and they had to just so happen to be able to cope with sudden changes on the battlefield, or they were of no use.

You want to switch spells but can’t, without powerful meta-magic capabilities to support you, what’s backed up is what’s there, whether you survive the battle the next day depends entirely on whether the spells you memorized and backed up the day before can respond to unexpected situations.

How mages feel about this, Duncan doesn’t know.

But as a cleric, a paladin-like figure who could only cast up to fourth-level spells at most, Duncan truly found it unbearable.

"A heal, a buff, a damage, a warning."

"Heh heh."

"Guess what? The spell slots are used up!"

Although Duncan had regained casting ability under divine grace at this moment, this restored divine technique casting barely improved his strength at all.

There were only a few spell slots available to use, yet they had to be backed up in advance, and even though there were dozens of divine techniques in the spellbook, ultimately only a dozen or so were usable, calculated rigidly because there was no room for variation.

"If all powerful mages in this world are like this."

"Then I wouldn’t even be afraid of legendary mages!"

Something flickered in Duncan’s eyes.

Gambling on luck.

Betting that the legendary mage hadn’t pre-memorized spells targeting him, with his current strength, even running into a legendary mage could be a fifty-fifty fight.

"From now on, whether it’s killing a mage or a priest."

"I can rely on this targeting."

To say it in an even funnier way — "I’m betting you can’t cast a second Fireball Technique!"

Of course.

Those spellcasters who are particularly wealthy are an exception, because they have curiosities, magic wands, scrolls, etc., but for Duncan, it would take him just as long to rip open a magic scroll as it would to kill the enemy several times over.

"These spellcasters, once you deduct the healing and life-preserving spells, have extremely limited spell slots they can actually use."

"And they have to reserve corresponding spell slots for different emergencies."

Trade Avenue.

On his way back, Duncan immediately added a new set of targets to his hunting list.

Spell grandchildren!

What spell lords? They’re really just grandsons.

The fighting power of this world’s mages does not match their reputation at all, others may greatly fear and dread the abilities of mages, but after Duncan perceived the nature of the magic network, and understood that leash around a mage’s neck, he viewed spellcasters without any rose-colored glasses.

Unless someone could be so powerful as to be a prophet, otherwise he could truly kill those legendary mages.

"Of course."

"For now, it’s just a preliminary understanding."

"Not ruling out the possibility that legendary mages have so many spell slots they barely run out, but based on my current understanding of the magic network, their spell slots probably aren’t that many."

"But at least after understanding the structure of the magic network, I no longer fear powerful spellcasters."