True Advancement

Chapter 33: True Advancement

As the President of the Mage Association, Os held far more secrets than anyone present.

Even Cassius, who occupied the most secluded corner, seemingly uninvolved yet the oldest among the seven present, rumored to have seen the Goddess before she became a deity, couldn't compare to him.

Os recalled the instructions of another esteemed deity and, after much deliberation, slowly spoke.

"It is not he who will meet the Goddess, but the Goddess who will meet him."

Upon hearing this, the titans, who had weathered countless storms, couldn't help but take a deep breath.

This statement might signify the advent of another great catastrophe, the beginning of another god war.

"Impossible," Nesser, who had devotedly researched Legendary spells of Destiny and Time for the past century, declared.

Its hollow pupils revealed a soul fire that was constantly burning—Nesser was one of the few surviving Great Liches in Arthur, an undead of the good alignment.

The Association titans present were all individuals of extraordinary intellect. Nesser's single sentence made everything clear to everyone.

The Goddess was going to meet someone. Although the gods could not personally visit Arthur's main plane, they could dispatch avatars. Saints were also reflections of the gods.

Just like the seven titans present, at their level, their true bodies were hidden in extremely secret locations.

What walked the world were projections summoned by their Legendary spells, with their consciousness descending into them, appearing as real and possessing all the power of their true bodies.

A mage at level 5 would devise several emergency escape methods. For mages above level 21, Legendary mages, their methods increased exponentially.

Just teleportation alone, let alone for the seven titans, a high-level mage had no less than ten methods.

Even if the projections of the seven titans were destroyed, and their true bodies were attacked, the resurrection sequence triggered after their death would be enough for ten cycles.

The Goddess's current action was to use Zhao Xu's ascension to the Arcane Throne as an opportunity to summon him to the moment before she became a god in the river of history for a meeting.

"The worldlines of deities are locked by themselves, so no one can return to the past to kill the gods when they were still fledglings."

"The Goddess of Magic, who controls part of the Destiny Divinity, is even more of a top-tier existence in this regard."

Os simply repeated these two sentences, common knowledge not considered a secret among their Legendary mages.

However, the other six, with their knowledge, skill levels, and intelligence, clearly understood Os's meaning.

Deities of the Destiny lineage were not strong against deities of equal standing. Their divine power could not influence the destiny of other gods. However, they held absolute sway over mortals.

This was because deities of the Destiny lineage could see future existences that could threaten them, thus they were able to intervene in worldlines to eliminate them.

And the Goddess, who combined part of the Destiny Divinity, besides the immense power of her own divinity of magic, also possessed a partially forbidden Time Divinity.

This Goddess could find the most suitable worldline among countless worldlines.

Even if all worldlines were not suitable, she could trace back time, sever timelines, and restart from a certain point.

This was also why the third Goddess of Magic, after ascending, no longer perished like the previous two.

This level was already close to immortality.

However, what kind of crisis could force a deity to require a mortal's intervention to meet her past self?

If Zhao Xu posed a threat to the Goddess, let alone killing him now, even if Zhao Xu grew into a Legendary mage, the Goddess of Magic would still have the ability to travel back in time and eliminate the weaker Zhao Xu of the past, thereby slowly weakening and destroying the powerful Zhao Xu of the future.

If she needed Zhao Xu's power, she could also wait for a future worldline and manipulate it then.

Instead of making Zhao Xu intervene in her extremely private worldline.

"Then there is only one explanation: that Earth adventurer, Mr. Midsummer, is the key to breaking the Goddess's dead end. He is the only possibility among all impossibilities. The Goddess needs him as an anchor to change her own worldline trajectory," Os said.

"The above content will be recorded as the Association's ninth level of urgent top-secret information and sealed," Os declared.

"Received, Jacques has recorded it," a construct golem standing silently at the doorway said. Enlightened by the Enlightenment spell, it was far more intelligent than an ordinary person.

Seeing that everyone had accepted his explanation, President Os continued, "Before proceeding with the interrupted agenda, I would like to submit an application."

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

"We had previously planned to arrange for him to advance as a 'Spell Guardian' on his divine magic side."

"It was originally intended for his arcane side not to advance, but now it seems insufficient. Therefore, I propose—"

"'Archmage'?" Nu Feng raised his slightly graying eyebrows. As a mage from the East, he naturally held no reverence for deities.

Therefore, he was not aligned with the faction represented by President Os within the Association, the Final Scroll lineage.

"I agree to his advancement as 'Spell Guard,' that is within your authority. However, the title of 'Archmage' has always been bestowed upon mages with outstanding contributions to the Association. I don't object to you granting it to Midsummer, but at least let him accumulate enough merit first," Nu Feng said.

A mage's spells have a certain duration, ranging from a few rounds (6 seconds per round) to a few turns (1 minute per turn), or even several hours.

However, once a spell could last for an entire day.

Its strategic significance was completely different.

A day was precisely the recovery cycle for a mage's spells.

This mage would no longer need to hastily cast various protective buffs on themselves when encountering unexpected situations before launching a counterattack.

Even various beneficial buffs become permanent, allowing a Mage's combat power to be pushed to its absolute limit, directly transforming them into a war behemoth.

Mages empowered with various spells can deal physical output even better than Warriors; this is no empty claim.

The "Spell Endurance" Feat is precisely the key to achieving 24-hour casting.

However, pairing this Feat comes with a tremendous cost. Through a specific stacking process, an Archmage can suppress this cost to almost nothing.

Therefore, the Mage Association always approaches granting the Archmage advancement with extreme caution.

The combat power of any Archmage is several times greater than a pure Mage of the same level, making them nearly unstoppable.

Choosing Mage from levels 11-20 grants only two specialization abilities for metamagic.

However, choosing Archmage from levels 11-20 grants four metamagic specializations and six to seven powerful abilities.

It's a complete stomp.

"No, the advancement I plan to grant is different."

Os looked into everyone's eyes and said word by word, "It's one with a lower cost—Archmage of Arcane Shaping."

Archmage of Arcane Shaping, the number one advancement in the arcane!

This chapter explains why only the protagonist will have such a game-breaking advancement in the future.

The next chapter returns to the main storyline. After the protagonist finishes learning the Feat, he will undertake quests.