Frost Armor

Frost Armor

Having made up his mind, Ted spent 1,000 experience points to raise Wizard to Level 2! His character panel immediately gained 1 attribute point and 1 skill point.

After some thought, he put the attribute point into Spirit, bringing it to 10—twice that of an ordinary person.

The Spirit attribute was extremely important to both Wizards and Mind Mages, making it highly valuable.

He put the skill point into Magic Power, raising it to Magic Power Lv. 3!

Ted held out his hand and sensed the Magic Power within him. It had grown much stronger! Far stronger! At least twice what it had been before! A surging sensation welled up inside him, making him want to smash something. "I really want to level up again!" Ted muttered.

Of course, he was only saying it. Leveling up too quickly was not a good thing.

Power only counted when one had truly mastered it. Otherwise, it was all just strength on paper.

What if he got Magic Power to Lv. 9 but could not control it? He might suffer magical backlash at every turn—or turn into an Obscurial bomb!

Although October's Otherworldly Knowledge, The Book of Ur, was unreliable, Ted still had September's Otherworldly Knowledge waiting to be studied.

The spells Dalaran used to train its cannon-fodder mages were equally valuable.

Previously, he had just started school, so he needed to focus on textbook magic. Besides, Ted worried that he would not be able to control those spells and might run into trouble.

After all, the spells used by cannon-fodder mages were highly destructive. If something went wrong, it would not be a minor matter.

Now, he had learned most of the first-year charms in a single month. With his Magic Power greatly increased after leveling up, he could try working on them...

Ted had played World of Warcraft on and off—getting into it, quitting, then returning again—for at least ten years. Naturally, he knew it very well.

Although he had never studied the Mage class in depth, he had leveled a few alts.

Compared to the mages of Dalaran, the city of mages in the setting, game mages who only mastered combat spells could naturally only be considered cannon-fodder mages.

Dalaran surely had countless non-combat household spells like Lumos. Otherwise, would those mages have to personally handle every trivial matter in their lives?

Could magic possibly be so inconvenient?

Although Ted had only obtained a basic combat mage training manual, it still contained sixteen spells. That alone showed that even cannon-fodder mages were not something just anyone could become.

The spells were divided into three schools: Frost, Fire, and Arcane.

There were also other kinds in the story's setting: otherworldly summoning spells studied by people like Ur and Arugal, forbidden necromancy secretly studied by Kel'Thuzad, Shadow Power wielded by warlocks, and even time magic such as Time Warp!

But none of that had anything to do with him now.

The conventional three schools alone were enough to occupy him for half a lifetime.

The Frost spells in the manual were: Ice Arrow, Frost Armor, and Frost Nova.

The Fire spells were: Flame Impact, Fireball, and Flame Storm.

The Arcane spells were: Arcane Brilliance, Arcane Missiles, Create Water, Create Food, Transfiguration, Slow Fall, Magic Suppression, Blink, Evocation, and Teleport · Dalaran.

That was roughly equivalent to a Level 20 mage in the game.

Dealing with bandits, wild beasts, Kobolds, Fishmen, Gnolls, and the like would naturally be no problem. But if he wanted to trade blows with dangerous monsters or powerful factions, he would be dead in minutes.

As he considered the knowledge in his mind, Ted pondered which spell he should begin researching. This was not the first time he had thought about the question, and he already had some ideas.

First of all, he was not pursuing destructive power.

He was only a first-year student. What danger could he possibly encounter? Even if he did run into danger, would a single Ice Arrow or Fireball really help? So the best choice was actually the Arcane school.

If he could figure out Arcane Brilliance, the intelligence-boosting buff, his learning speed would improve even further.

All the Little Wizards were currently standing on the same starting line. Getting one step ahead now meant getting countless steps ahead later! The gaps in the future all began here and now.

With Flow State, Mental Stimulation, Memory Palace, Reading Technique, Restore Energy (Green), and Ravenclaw's Wisdom (Blue), he already possessed an enormous advantage.

If he also learned Arcane Brilliance and gave himself another boost to Intelligence, wouldn't that be incredible? He definitely would not be inferior to Tom in the slightest!

But Arcane spells were more complicated than elemental spells. It was not like Frost and Fire, where one could just go biu biu biu, duang duang duang!

Furthermore, Arcane Brilliance had to be used on a person—either himself or an ally.

What if he failed to use it properly and turned it into a Weakening Spell instead? He had better wait until his Charms level was higher before trying it. Playing it safe was never wrong.

For the time being, he did not need Create Water, Create Food, or Arcane Missiles.

Slow Fall had substitutes in Levitation Charm and Cushioning Charm.

Teleport · Dalaran was out of the question—it was too difficult. He would not even consider it before learning Apparition and Portkeys.

Besides, this world did not even have a place called Dalaran. He had better not teleport around recklessly! Arcane Brilliance, Transfiguration, Magic Suppression, and Blink were all a little too difficult for him. Researching and practicing them would also be too dangerous.

Evocation was a method for mages to awaken the Magic Power within themselves for a short time, a powerful means of restoring Magic Power.

Ted had not even figured out its basic principles. He probably would not be able to research it for another year or two; he needed a deeper understanding of Magic Power first.

After much consideration, Ted chose a defensive spell—Frost Armor.

Frost and Fire spells were relatively simple. Since this was his first time dealing with magic outside the wizarding world, starting with the simplest option was naturally the most appropriate choice.

Ice Arrow was the first spell mages learned in the game, and it might have been even simpler than Frost Armor.

But offensive spells would be troublesome if people considered them jinxes or curses.

Even a prank spell like Densaugeo was considered a jinx. As a pre-school wizard without any backing, he had better not invite that kind of trouble.

Ice Arrow required a relatively long casting time, commonly known as slowly rubbing out an Ice Arrow. More than two seconds of casting time was a little too long in this world.

But Ice Arrow was quite powerful. According to the information in his mind, its physical force alone could punch through a one-centimeter pine board from ten meters away.

If an ordinary person wearing only cloth clothes was hit in the head or chest, there was a high chance they would die on the spot.

Even with a wizard's innate Lv. 1 Magical Resistance, they would be seriously injured without casting a defensive charm. If they did not receive prompt treatment, they might die as well.

He had come here to attend school, not to clean house.

Rather than pursue destructive magic, he might as well learn Launch Firework Signal—it was far more reliable for calling someone when danger struck!

Frost Armor, on the other hand, was excellent.

Before he learned Shield Charm, it was his only means of protection.

What? Why not research Fireball? Because playing with fire could make you wet the bed!

Fireball was far more dangerous than Ice Arrow.

Azeroth's spells differed greatly from the magic of this world. The spell-and-hand-gesture casting method needed to be converted into spells combined with wand movements. He also needed to analyze the spell model and reconstruct it with Magic Power.

Ted now needed a place to practice magic.

The wizarding world surely had many private spells, like the Bat-Bogey Hex, Tongue-Tying Curse, and Sectumsempra invented by Snape.

But something like Frost Armor had a distinctly different style. If anyone saw it, it would inevitably draw attention.

A secluded place to practice magic was necessary.

Ted began trying to analyze the spell model of Frost Armor and devise a new incantation.

The key to this spell lay in cold, shielding, and defense.

He decided to study Freezing Charm, Obstacle Charm, and Shield Charm while conducting his research.

Shield Charm was an advanced charm and would be difficult to learn in a short time, but he could draw on the principles behind it.

The other two were much simpler. Given how much Professor Flitwick liked Ted, privately asking him for guidance would be no problem at all.

Ted applied to Professor Flitwick for an abandoned, unused classroom. He also found several worn-out training dummies and began burying himself in research.

A week passed. Ted had used almost all his spare time to research and practice the new magic. The results could be called successful, but also unsuccessful.

It was successful because he had already analyzed the spell and created an incantation. He could successfully cast Frost Armor.

It was unsuccessful because the current incantation was far too long, containing seven whole words. The wand movements were also complicated and took two or three seconds to perform.

Moreover, the Magic Power consumption was enormous. Casting one Frost Armor was equivalent to casting seven or eight Disarming Charms in a row!

There had to be a problem with the incantation and gestures he had converted.

The incantation was long, the wand trajectory was cumbersome, the Magic Power mobilization was inefficient, and the casting intent was not clear enough... It still needed further optimization.

The charms he was currently learning in the wizarding world had all been optimized by countless wizards over thousands of years. They were already the optimal solutions.

They might not have produced the best possible effects, but they were easy to use, easy to learn, and low in consumption.

Thinking of it that way, Snape had already developed the Bat-Bogey Hex, Tongue-Tying Curse, and Sectumsempra when he was in sixth year. The last one in particular was a masterpiece of Dark Magic! His talent for Dark Magic was unquestionably extraordinary!

Because Appraisal Technique worked extremely poorly on people much stronger than himself, and because sensitive people could easily notice it and take offense, Ted had never dared use it on the professors.

But thinking about it, aside from Dumbledore, Snape was probably the strongest fighter in the entire school, even if he might have been the youngest of the four Heads of House.

If he had not been trapped by love, he would definitely have become a great Dark Wizard remembered in A History of Magic!

A new month began with a plea for votes~