After reviewing his latest death, Lin Yu began to consider an entirely new problem.
Magic was way too weak!
Lin Yu hadn't thought much of how troublesome the requirement to form hand seals to cast magic was before. But after being solo-killed by a wild wolf, he realized just how troublesome the system's requirement to form hand seals for a spell to succeed really was!
As soon as his hands were restrained, he became a blank slate—and one with extremely low attributes at that.
Why was using skills in this game so troublesome? Did other classes also need to perform all sorts of preliminary actions before they could use their skills?
With that question in mind, Lin Yu opened the forum and prepared to browse for posts discussing skill activation.
Watching the number of posts on the forum grow by the moment, Lin Yu opened the search box and began searching for various keywords.
Searching like this was indeed much faster. Before long, Lin Yu found several posts discussing mages.
One post contained a video of a warrior player demonstrating skills at the training ground.
In the video, the orc player's body was covered in a layer of golden energy. The next moment, the orc player shouted and charged up to a wooden training dummy, knocking it askew. He then used three skills in succession: Upward Slash, Double Strike, and Heavy Strike. Once he was done, the golden energy around him dissipated.
In the comments, the original poster provided descriptions of the three skills.
When a newbie asked what the golden energy in the video was, the poster replied: It's a skill you automatically get after learning a Breathing Technique. It's called Qi Enhancement, and activating it boosts all your attributes.
Lin Yu went on to browse several more posts discussing skills, and one in particular caught his attention.
[Discussion: Aren't mages in this game a little too weak?
Original poster: The game's been open for quite a while now, so I'm sure plenty of mage players have tried out its magic! Never mind the problem of mages having to stand still to recover mana. Just look at the magic itself: to use a skill, you have to form hand seals, say the skill name, and then set its targeting. Even at your fastest, it takes several seconds to cast a skill, and the cooldowns are ridiculously long. It might still be playable if the damage were high enough, but is a spell power multiplier of zero point something supposed to be a joke?
By comparison, physical skills that can also be bought at the bookstore are much stronger. Heavy Strike alone has a physical multiplier of 2, and it's easier to use, too. You only have to say the name in your head to turn your next attack into a Heavy Strike. And the key point is that a skill with such a high multiplier has a cooldown of only 10 seconds.
More importantly, a warrior's qi is also more useful than a mage's mana. Just learn a Breathing Technique and you get a skill called Qi Enhancement. Activate it, and all your attributes get a boost. Most importantly, a warrior's qi recovers automatically, and much faster than a mage's mana. You could say warriors are better than mages in every way.
My advice to everyone still playing a mage: this game's mages just aren't meant to be played. Save up enough money to buy a Breathing Technique at the bookstore and learn physical skills. You can still play that way. Besides, in this game, you can learn any skill as long as you meet the requirements
One last thing: mages are trash
Wind and Rain Immortal Venerable: Agreed, mages are trash. How did they design this game's class balance?
Dreamed Someone from Paradise Came to Catch Me: Mages aren't actually trash. It's not like mages can't learn a Breathing Technique and activate the enhancement. Who says a melee mage isn't a mage?
One Kun Year Trainee: Do you think we might be playing them wrong? Have you noticed there's a Manual Casting option in the skill activation settings? Maybe you have to master Manual Casting to bring out a mage's true strength
...]
After reading the post, Lin Yu had a persistent feeling that he had overlooked something.
After reading the post several more times, Lin Yu fell into thought.
What is it?... Magic... skills... casting, Manual Casting. That's it! Manual Casting! How could I have forgotten?!
After pondering for several minutes and repeatedly recalling everything in the post, Lin Yu finally realized what he had overlooked: Manual Casting.
"I should have thought of it sooner! To cast without hand seals, I just need to master Manual Casting! The game put the solution right out in the open from the very beginning!" Having figured it all out, Lin Yu slapped his thigh and nearly jumped up in excitement.
Lin Yu took a little time to calm himself down, then began thinking about how to master Manual Casting.
He soon thought of the library. Recalling the contents of the Meditation Technique and magic books he had read there, Lin Yu had a rough idea of how to master Manual Casting.
"How did I not think of it then? Sigh! My attention was completely caught up in the experience I got from reading, and I didn't pay any attention to what the books said. Now that I think about it, the Meditation Technique clearly described how to meditate, absorb external magic power, and refine it into mana. How did I end up focusing on grinding levels?"
"I knew this game wasn't simple, so why did I still treat Era like an ordinary game after getting in? I'm such an idiot!"
"The magic knowledge in Era should be real. Once I've learned it, should I try to see if I can use it in real life?"
"I should be able to, right? Speaking of which, could it be like those novels where there isn't any supernatural energy like magic power in the real world? That seems possible! Could this be one of those plots where the game invades reality?"
Remembering everything that had happened, Lin Yu let out a series of sighs.
Lin Yu now knew how to master Manual Casting. All that remained was to test it himself.
Should I go to the library now?
Lin Yu glanced at the time and hesitated. It was already nine at night.
After playing for so long, Lin Yu was feeling a little sleepy too.
Forget it. I'll deal with it tomorrow. I'm sleepy, so I'll go to bed first. Once I've had a good night's sleep, I'll go study at the library tomorrow morning.
After deciding to go to the library tomorrow, Lin Yu prepared for bed.
A bath, then sleep.
Era was basically a second world. If he didn't bathe, Lin Yu was afraid he would start to smell.
Lin Yu stood up from the bed and walked to the washroom. After filling the wooden tub with water, he took off his clothes, folded them, and placed them outside. Once he had done all that, he began to consider something.
"Should I buy a few spare sets of clothes? With only one set, I can't wash it when it gets dirty!" Lin Yu glanced at the silver coins left in his inventory and gave up on the idea.
"Forget it, I still have too little money. I'll think about it after I find a way to earn some more!"
Putting those random thoughts aside, Lin Yu prepared to bathe.
He raised his hand and gently touched the water's surface with a finger, feeling its temperature.
The water was a little cool, but bearable. That was what Lin Yu thought at the moment.
He stepped into the wooden tub and slowly sank into the water until only his head remained above the surface.
After soaking in the tub for a while to relax, Lin Yu began to wash.