Scribe Spell

Chapter 21 Scribe Spell

However, once Zhao Xu actually started learning the knowledge, he realized he had underestimated the task.

Of all the Mage players in the game, the fastest record for graduation was seven days, and there was a reason for that.

It was like asking a junior high student to self-study advanced mathematics directly; it wasn't impossible, but it would be difficult.

The content high school students learned wasn't as much as university students, but they still studied it repeatedly for three years. This was so that during the college entrance examination, they could react intuitively to various transformed problems.

The time for the college entrance examination wasn't enough for proper thinking, which is why the "practice by doing vast amounts of problems" strategy was popular, trading experience for compressed thinking time.

Spells were the same.

Those formulas and various incantation gestures needed to be integrated into his instincts.

Through his studies over the past few days, Zhao Xu already knew that the majority of the work involved in casting a spell was completed during the hour dedicated to preparing daily spells.

Actual spellcasting was like driving a car; the spell itself, meaning the car, was already built and parked.

But even so, the process still required everyone to put in effort and pull their weight.

A Mage couldn't possibly flip through a book to see how to recite a certain incantation at the last moment; that would only make their opponent laugh their heads off.

However, Zhao Xu found the various incantation syllables a headache.

But Zhao Xu's progress hadn't completely slowed down. According to Antinoa's schedule, this was something that required multiple rounds of consolidation anyway.

So, by the fifth day, he had roughly finished reading the two books on models and incantations, and then he started to get into zero-level spells.

"The spellbooks of us Mages all use Arcane script. It's a system with commonalities, but each Mage must process it themselves. Therefore, if you are directly given a spellbook, you must pass a 'Spellcraft' check before you can transform it into its true appearance and read it."

Antinoa's words, translated, meant that spellbooks were encrypted, and you needed a key to decipher the plaintext.

Spellcraft was one of Arthur's character skills, which, like Perception and Sense Motive, required investment and training.

Zhao Xu hadn't reached the later courses on Spellcraft yet, so it didn't matter.

"You can read these spells now because the 'Book of Zero-Level Cantrips' was specifically designed this way, or rather, when the owner of the spellbook allows you to read it, you also don't need to perform 'Spellcraft'."

"And by using the zero-level spell 'Read Magic', we Mages can also read spellbooks that others haven't specifically trapped without any obstacles."

Zhao Xu nodded as he listened. In short, the spell "Read Magic" was a universal key.

In this light, Arcane script wasn't intentionally encrypted by Mages. It was just that its inherent complexity created encryption for outsiders, so Mages specifically developed a deciphering spell.

This meant it protected against outsiders but not against Mages.

"But you must remember, spellbooks are the foundation of every Mage. Except for the spell 'Read Magic', which can be prepared without a spellbook, for any other spell, a Mage must have the spellbook of the spell they are scribing before they can prepare the spell and thus cast it."

Antinoa said this slowly and solemnly.

In his previous life, Zhao Xu had heard that Mages often went bankrupt from scribing spells, and he couldn't help but ask curiously, "Mentor, is there a cost to scribing spells?"

Antinoa then handed a book to Zhao Xu.

Zhao Xu took it and opened it directly. Although all the book covers were uniformly thick and heavy, the inside of this book was completely blank. He estimated it had about a hundred pages, and since they were all parchment, it looked quite thick.

He looked at Antinoa, somewhat bewildered, not knowing what this meant.

"After you spend a whole day studying a spell, you can scribe it into your own spellbook. For a spell of a certain level, you need to scribe that many pages; zero-level spells also require one page."

Zhao Xu frowned immediately upon hearing this. Spending a day to study each spell was one thing, but the problem was that with 100 pages, he could only scribe eleven 9th-level spells. It seemed these spellbooks were quite fragile for scribing, meaning he would need to carry many spellbooks.

"Moreover, the cost for scribing each page is 100 GP. However, you new Mages are taken care of. The scribing costs for all your zero-level spells and three first-level spells are covered by the association, so you don't need to worry about that."

Zhao Xu had heard of the considerable price, but he hadn't expected it to be so outrageously expensive.

"Mentor, is this money given to anyone?"

"No, no one receives this money. It's just the cost of material attrition. The spellbooks used for scribing, specialized quills, specially consumed ink, and incense burned to create the environment, on average, to fill a 100-page spellbook costs about 10,000 GP, so we've agreed on 100 GP per page."

"If you don't spend these, how can you imbue the spells you've scribed with spirituality, making them ready for casting?"

Hearing this, Zhao Xu could only lament the poverty and hardship of Mages.

No wonder no one in his previous life had thought of mass-producing spellbooks with such special requirements.

How could those without substantial family fortunes afford to burn money like this?

"This is how it is when you scribe spells from your own memory or from scrolls. If you directly copy someone else's spellbook, because you can reference it, the time and scribing cost are halved, only 50 GP per page. This is also based on statistical results."

Hearing this, Zhao Xu's spirits immediately lifted.

He didn't even need to guess he could sense that Antinoa must have had a smiling expression under her cloak, waiting to see him make a fool of himself.

He had to pay for a membership to watch a web drama.

For the very means of his livelihood, if someone lends you a book, even if the time is halved, it means they can't prepare the spells in that book during that period.

Copying his own spellbook also costs 50 GP per page, and no one would be that bored unless absolutely necessary.

Antinoa didn't delay too long and directly explained, "The current rental fee for spellbooks is calculated at 50 GP per level. For some rare spells, there will be additional charges or they won't be shared at all."

Hearing this, Zhao Xu nodded. The rental fee was exactly equal to the cost saved by copying spellbooks.

This meant that for someone to copy spells by borrowing spellbooks, the cost would be 100 GP per spell level.

"So, now you have to decide your two paths."

"The first path is this book in my hand." As she spoke, Antinoa somehow produced another book, its cover made of iron with silver trim and a lock, approximately 30cm by 15cm with a thickness of 15cm. It flew into his hand.

"This is the Goddess's Blessed Book, a wondrous item. When it was made, due to its spiritual nature, you won't need to pay for scribing materials anymore. It has 1000 pages and costs 12,500 GP, but it's quite difficult to obtain because all Mages want one."

Looking at the seemingly ordinary cover, Zhao Xu hadn't expected it to be a divine artifact capable of reducing the scribing cost to nearly a tenth.

With such a wondrous item, the average scribing material cost per page would drop to 12.5 GP, a significant advantage compared to the original 100 GP or the 50 GP for copying spellbooks.

As for it being difficult to buy, that was for outsiders. He had finally joined such a powerful organization, so he naturally had an internal purchasing channel.

This was probably what people meant by privilege.

However, Zhao Xu wasn't overly excited at this moment because he noticed Antinoa had mentioned two paths.

"The other path is for you to activate the 'Mindful Caster' Feat."

"From then on, your spells will be scribed in your own heart, and you will no longer need a spellbook."

Zhao Xu's heart couldn't help but leap. His path as a Mage had begun, and the organization's powerful Feats were finally beckoning him.