Archmage

Aoko slept until noon the next day before slowly getting up.

She rubbed her head, not surprised that she had woken up so late. After all, she had expended so much energy last night, and then she had also drunk alcohol.

She sat on the bed, spacing out for a good while, before suddenly remembering that she hadn't done her meditation for the day. Thus, she immediately jumped out of bed and quickly washed up and changed.

Sitting at her desk, Aoko picked up her pen and refilled it with some specially made ink. Then, she opened her spellbook and immersed her mind within herself, beginning to communicate with the Weave Fragments within her body.

The bizarre and colorful scenery of the Weave once again appeared before Aoko's eyes. She tightly maintained her sense of self and began to examine the gains she had made by defeating Ruge Beowulf.

First, she noticed that her Wizard level had increased from 9 to 10.

Her Intelligence had increased by two points, from 22 to 24. As a human, Aoko's Intelligence had now reached a truly terrifying level. Even among mages, where monsters ran rampant, her Intelligence could be considered outstanding.

A higher Intelligence attribute represented a deeper connection with the Weave. Aoko gained an additional fourth-level spell slot and an additional fifth-level spell slot, which increased the number of scrolls she could prepare each day.

And through this deep connection with the Weave, she had qualified to learn a new feat.

In Aoko's previous plan, she had intended to advance to become an Archmage, but Metamagic feats were the only obstacle to her becoming an Archmage. Therefore, Aoko chose "Widen Spell" from the many feats as her first Metamagic feat.

As for why she didn't choose "Quicken Spell"? Firstly, Quicken Spell required using a spell slot four levels higher than the original spell level, which was of little use to Aoko, who could currently only use fifth-level spells. Secondly, generally speaking, if one prepared spell scrolls in advance, one could also achieve quick spellcasting. Therefore, Widen Spell was more practical and freer than Metamagic feats like Quicken Spell or Empower Spell at this stage.

A wave of dizziness washed over her as knowledge flooded into Aoko's brain. She realized that she had grasped all the knowledge regarding the Metamagic feat, Widen Spell. Although gaining this knowledge did not mean she could use it skillfully, Aoko was confident that she could master this new ability in a short period to improve her combat power.

Aoko felt a surge of excitement upon gaining the new feat. This clear sense of accomplishment made her happier than beating up her sister's dog through cunning means...

In addition to this feat, Aoko also "fished out" two additional spells from the Sea of the Weave: the fifth-level Evocation School spell, Lightning Ball, and the fifth-level Transmutation School spell, Simbul's Spell Matrix.

The former was an unremarkable Evocation spell that enhanced Aoko's artillery firepower, while the latter was a new item that seemed useless at first glance but had broad application prospects.

Judging by the spell's effects, the spell matrix created by this spell could store a magic of up to third level and activate and release it with just a gesture when needed.

What was this? This was a remote-controlled bomb! Stuff a Fireball into the spell matrix, then hide somewhere far away and wait for someone to approach, and then with a gesture, you could blow them to bits. Was there anything more enjoyable than that?

However, this spell also had a corresponding negative effect: activating the matrix with a gesture would cause the caster to be injured. From the knowledge Aoko had acquired, this injury in the real world should manifest as a consumption of life force.

This was a bit awkward. Although Aoko's life force was very strong, she instinctively felt a revulsion towards anything that weakened her. Therefore, she could only temporarily shelve this double-edged sword magic and couldn't use it to have fun often.

After confirming the spells, Aoko began the main focus of this session of linking with the Weave for meditation: advancing her class.

She sank her consciousness into the deeper parts of the Weave, the places she had been unable to probe before. Using the knowledge she had already acquired about "Archmage," she began to synchronize with this part of the Weave.

When Aoko had made this attempt before, she had only received a feeling of rejection. But this time, as she did so, the Weave responded to her with a deeper sense of immersion.

As this immersion deepened, Aoko excitedly discovered that a large amount of abilities and knowledge that she had previously been unable to obtain or discover were being gradually poured into her mind. At the same time, there seemed to be some mechanical inquiry asking her what she was willing to give up in exchange.

If she could, Aoko certainly didn't want to exchange anything. But the answer she received from this irresistible willpower was that she had to do so to gain the power of an Archmage.

Aoko immediately understood. This was the consequence of the Archmage's School Specialization ability. She had to abandon any school except Divination and Abjuration as her opposing school and lose the ability to learn and continue researching that school. (However, spells already learned were not affected; she just couldn't learn new ones.)

After careful consideration and choice, Aoko finally decided to abandon the Necromancy School and choose it as her opposing school.

After making her choice, Aoko immediately felt the knowledge flowing into her consciousness and brain become greater and faster. It seemed as if her body, still existing in the real world, had also undergone some changes...

When Aoko opened her eyes again, she found that she had finished her meditation and withdrawn from the deep link state with the Weave.

She raised her hands and clenched them repeatedly, carefully feeling the power she had just gained, and was immediately filled with joy.

In short, she had transformed from an "ordinary" mage into an Archmage, gaining an Archmage level.

If there were a character panel, Aoko's character level would have changed from Wizard (Level 10) to Wizard (Level 10) + Archmage (Level 1). Her total character level would then become 11.

Unlike multiclassing rules, multiclassing into other spellcasting classes did not increase her highest spellcaster level. However, after gaining an advancement class, her Arcane spellcaster level cap was cumulative.

This meant that Aoko had effectively gained two character levels in this meditation session, and the improvement was considerable.

Aoko carefully examined her changes and the first thing she discovered was that she had gained a sixth-level spell slot!

However, since Aoko currently had no knowledge related to sixth-level spells, she could only wait for her next meditation session to enter the Weave and see if she could find any sixth-level spells.