True Advancement

As president of the Mage Association, Osse possessed far more secrets than anyone present.

Even Cassius, who sat in the farthest corner, seemingly unconcerned with everything, yet was the oldest of the seven present—and was said to have met the Goddess before she became a deity—knew less than he did.

Osse recalled the instructions of another exalted one. After much deliberation, he slowly spoke.

"It isn't that he will go to see the Goddess. The Goddess will go to see him."

Even these magnates, who had weathered countless storms, could not help drawing in a deep breath at those words.

Perhaps those words signified the arrival of another Great Cataclysm, the beginning of another divine war.

"Impossible." Nesser, who had devoted himself to researching legendary spells of destiny and time for nearly a century, declared.

Within his hollow eye sockets burned an ever-blazing soul fire—Nesser was one of Arthur's few remaining Great Liches, an undead creature of Good Alignment.

Every association magnate present possessed extraordinary Intelligence. With a single sentence from Nesser, everyone understood.

The Goddess wanted to meet someone. Though the gods could not personally descend upon Arthur's Material Plane—

She could still dispatch an incarnation. Saints, too, were one face of the gods.

Just like the seven great magnates present, once one reached their level, their true bodies would be hidden in places of extreme secrecy.

Those who walked the world were projections summoned with Legendary Spells. Their consciousnesses descended into them as though they were their real bodies, allowing them to wield all the power of their true forms.

Once a wizard reached Level 5, they would already devise several emergency escape methods. For wizards above Level 21 and beyond legend, their methods increased exponentially.

Just teleportation alone offered more than ten methods even to a high-level wizard, let alone the seven magnates.

Even if a projection of one of the seven magnates were destroyed and their true body's hiding place discovered and attacked, the resurrection sequence triggered after death would still be enough to bring them back ten times over.

Yet the Goddess's current method was to use Zhao Xu's ascension to the Arcane Throne as an opportunity to summon him into the river of history, to the moment before she became a deity, for a meeting.

"A god's worldline is locked by the god herself. Thus, no one can return to the past and kill the gods while they are still fledglings."

"Her Excellency, the Goddess of Magic, who holds part of the Destiny Divinity, is among the foremost beings in this regard."

Osse merely repeated these two pieces of common knowledge, which were no secret to Legendary Mages.

But with their Knowledge Skill ranks and intelligence, the other six clearly understood what Osse meant.

Gods of the destiny domain were not particularly formidable against gods of equal standing. Their divine power could not influence the destinies of other gods.

But before mortals, they held the power of life and death.

Because gods of destiny could see those who might threaten them in the future, they could intervene in the worldline and erase them.

And the Goddess, who had combined part of the Destiny Divinity with her own overwhelmingly powerful divinity of magic, also possessed part of the almost taboo Time Divinity.

From countless worldlines, this Goddess could select the one most suitable for herself.

Even if none of the worldlines suited her, she could trace time backward, sever the timeline, and restart from a certain point.

That was why, after this Third Goddess of Magic ascended the throne, she had not fallen like the previous two.

At that level, she was nearly immortal and indestructible.

But what kind of crisis could force a god to involve a mortal and make him meet her past self?

If Zhao Xu had even the slightest possibility of endangering the Goddess, she would not merely erase him now.

Even if Zhao Xu grew into a Legendary Mage, the Goddess would still be able to travel back into the past and kill the once-weak Zhao Xu, slowly weakening and destroying the future powerful Zhao Xu.

If she needed Zhao Xu's strength, she could simply make arrangements in the future worldline.

Rather than allowing Zhao Xu to enter a worldline that was so deeply private to her.

"Then there is only one explanation. That Earth adventurer, Mr. Midsummer, is the one who can break the Goddess's dead end. Among all impossibilities, he is the sole possibility. The Goddess needs him as an anchor to alter the worldline she is headed toward," Osse said.

"Record the above in the Association's Ninth-Level Emergency Top Secret archives, then seal it," Osse said.

"Received. Jacques has recorded it," said a construct golem that had stood silently by the door. Having received an awaken spell, it was far more intelligent than an ordinary person.

Seeing that everyone had accepted his explanation, President Osse continued, "Before we proceed with the agenda we just interrupted, I have an application to submit."

"Regarding the advancement arrangements for the Earth adventurer Midsummer after Level 5."

"Previously, we had planned to arrange Spell Guardian as his divine spell advancement."

"The original plan was for him to receive no advancement on the arcane side. But it now appears insufficient. Therefore, I propose—"

"Archmage? Then no one below legend will be able to restrain him in the future." Nu Feng raised his somewhat gray-white brows. As a wizard from the Eastern Lands, he had never possessed much reverence for the gods.

Thus, his views differed from those of the Final Scroll faction represented by President Osse within the Association.

"I agree to advance him into Spell Guard. That falls within your authority. But Archmage has always been granted only to Association wizards with outstanding contributions. I do not oppose granting it to Midsummer, but at least wait until he has accumulated sufficient merits," Nu Feng said.

A wizard's spells all had a certain duration, ranging from several rounds—six seconds per round—to several turns—one minute per turn—or even several hours.

But once a spell could last an entire day—

Its strategic significance became completely different.

A day happened to be the cycle for a wizard to recover spells.

The wizard would no longer need to hastily layer all kinds of defensive buffs on themselves when an unexpected situation arose before launching a counterattack.

Various beneficial buffs could even become permanent fixtures, directly pushing a wizard's combat strength to its limit and turning them into a war beast.

A wizard enhanced with all kinds of spells being able to deal better physical damage than a Fighter was no empty claim.

The Feat "Spell Endurance" was precisely the key to reaching twenty-four hours.

However, the cost of combining that Feat with spells was enormous. Through a certain stacking method, an Archmage could reduce that cost to almost nothing.

Thus, the Association had always been exceedingly cautious when granting the Archmage advancement.

Any Archmage was several times stronger in combat than a pure wizard of the same level, nearly impossible to restrain.

A wizard choosing the Wizard class from Levels 11 to 20 would gain only two metamagic Feat class abilities.

But one choosing Archmage from Levels 11 to 20 would gain four metamagic Feats and six or seven powerful abilities.

It was an utterly one-sided advantage.

"No. I intend to grant him another advancement."

Osse looked into everyone's eyes and said, word by word, "One with an even lower cost—Archmage of Arcane Shaping."

Archmage of Arcane Shaping, the foremost arcane advancement!

This chapter explains why, in the future, the protagonist will be the only one on the entire server with such a balance-breaking advancement.

Next chapter, back to the main plot. After the protagonist learns the Feats, he will take on a quest.