Uncanny Foresight

"Th-That's incredible, isn't it?" Zhao Xu found it hard to believe.

"It's not that incredible. It just costs two Feats," Antinoa explained.

Zhao Xu nodded. Some of Arthur's powerful Feats had prerequisite Feats and even Class Level requirements.

That was why so many players felt helpless in the later stages. Unless they had deliberately planned everything from the beginning, who could have known about such things?

Basically, most people who met a Feat's requirements only did so because they happened to possess its prerequisite Feat.

The ability to cast spells freely carried even greater significance.

Once Wizards had enough spells, as long as they gathered intelligence before undertaking a mission, they could arrange their spells for the day to handle most situations on site.

But everyone feared the unexpected. Being unable to cast the spell needed to solve a problem often stumped countless Wizards.

As for preparing scrolls, scrolls cost money.

Unlike Spell Slots, unused slots disappeared at the end of the day and could not be converted into cash.

If Zhao Xu could cast freely, he would truly be like a bird soaring through the open skies.

Sorcerers, for example, could cast spontaneously and freely use the spells they knew. The price was that they could only learn a few spells of each level, and it was difficult to learn more.

There were dozens, even hundreds, of spells at every level. How could six or seven spells possibly cover everything? That was why Arthur praised Wizards more often and worshipped Sorcerers with higher Charisma less.

"Mentor, I'll learn it." Without even asking for the specifics, Zhao Xu directly voiced his desire.

"Don't rush. Let me explain first."

"The Feat that allows free casting is called 'Uncanny Foresight,' but its prerequisite is a Feat called 'Spell Familiarity.'"

Antinoa then began explaining the details of the two Feats.

The Feat descriptions also appeared directly on Zhao Xu's Character Card panel for his convenience.

This was one of the benefits of becoming a level 1 professional.

Feat: Spell Familiarity

Prerequisite: Wizard level 1

Effect: Each time you select this Feat, you may choose a number of known spells equal to your Intelligence Modifier. Thereafter, you may Prepare Spell those spells without a Spellbook.

As Zhao Xu listened, this Feat seemed utterly useless. It merely meant that he could prepare certain spells without a Spellbook, as though they had been engraved into his heart.

But with Mindful Caster, he had been born able to Prepare Spell without a Spellbook.

Thinking of that, Zhao Xu could only shake his head. Calling it useless was already giving it too much credit.

Feat: Uncanny Foresight

Prerequisite: Intelligence 17, Spell Familiarity.

Effect: When preparing and memorizing daily spells, you may reserve a number of Spell Slots equal to your Intelligence Modifier.

1. As a standard action, you may use one reserved Spell Slot to cast any spell selected through Spell Familiarity whose level does not exceed the Spell Slot's level.

2. As a full-round action, you may use one reserved Spell Slot to cast any spell you know whose level does not exceed the Spell Slot's level, but the spell's Caster Level is reduced by 2.

Looking at this Feat, Zhao Xu was secretly astonished. It had restrictions, but they were all within an acceptable range.

With his Intelligence Modifier of 3, he could reserve three Spell Slots. That meant he had three chances to cast freely.

That was enough for handling unexpected situations in the early stages.

The only restriction of this Feat was its casting time.

For the few spells selected through Spell Familiarity, he could cast them relatively quickly—using a standard action.

For spells outside Spell Familiarity, he needed six seconds to cast them—a full-round action.

After half a month of training, Zhao Xu had long since understood all the basic knowledge a Wizard needed.

The casting times for ordinary spells generally fell into several fixed categories: swift actions, which were instantaneous; standard actions; full-round actions, which took six seconds; and then longer ones.

Arthur measured time in rounds, with each round lasting six seconds.

This arrangement existed because of various factors, one of them being this:

Each round, a Spellcaster could only cast one standard-action spell plus one swift-action spell, or cast one full-round-action spell instead.

The mirage spell Antinoa had cast earlier had probably used this Uncanny Foresight ability.

For an entire round, all six seconds, she had been casting.

Otherwise, Antinoa would not have gone out of her way to prepare such an illusion spell for no reason.

No matter how heaven-defying you were, you still had to follow this rule honestly.

Generally, a Wizard could only cast one or two spells within six seconds. Everyone kept that in mind when fighting.

You would not see dozens of swift-action spells fired off like a machine gun at every turn.

Otherwise, there would be no point in fighting. You might as well kneel and beg for mercy first.

The casting time for a standard action depended on one's skill. The differences were generally minor, usually a few seconds. With familiarity, it could be shortened a little further, depending on one's own ability.

As for spells with a casting time of a swift action, they were thrown out instantly. However, casting swift spells generally came at a steep cost.

That was why low-level Wizards like them often spent an entire round casting one standard-action spell and calling it a day.

Those were all beside the point.

The real problem was that Zhao Xu did not have 17 Intelligence.

He had saved three purchase points for other attributes, leaving him with only 16 Intelligence.

At this point, Zhao Xu could only look awkwardly at Antinoa, his expression clearly asking her to help him out.

Antinoa also knew he did not have 17 Intelligence. Meanwhile, the apprentice badge Zhao Xu had fantasized about back then had long since proven to be completely nonexistent.

"Now you understand that 17 Intelligence is useful, right? Compared to 16 Intelligence, it doesn't grant even one extra Spell Slot, nor does it raise Save Difficulty by even half a point, yet it can still become an obstacle in your way."

Hearing Antinoa's jab, Zhao Xu—an uncle who had already lived to thirty in his Previous Life—naturally swallowed his pride and asked for guidance.

Although even that old Wizard addressed Antinoa as teacher, Antinoa had previously said that she had received the ninth-level spell Kissed By the Ages. The growth of her mind and appearance had both remained fixed at the age she was then.

It was not rejuvenation, but rather the locking of her state at that time.

Thus, although her experiences had increased over the years, her mentality remained very young, without the traces left by time.

Otherwise, if she truly had been an old grandmother, he would not have been able to lower his pride like this.

"You have two paths now."

Hearing that, Zhao Xu only wanted to complain. He was always given two paths, but in reality there was only ever one. Still, that was better than having no path at all.

"One path is to wait until level 4 to raise your Intelligence Attribute, then gain this ability at level 6 when you receive a new level Feat."

Zhao Xu shook his head at those words. A five-level gap was far too long.

He was not the protagonist of some novel, where every adventure was arranged by the author so that all the spells he prepared would naturally come in handy.

Seeing Zhao Xu's reaction, Antinoa continued directly.

"As for the other choice... forget it, I'll take a bit of a loss. I previously promised to cast the eternal Kissed By the Ages spell on you as payment for joining our organization."

"Now, you can exchange it for one Wish Spell. I'll help you raise your inherent Intelligence bonus by 1."

PS1: There will be another chapter next.

PS2: Everything in parentheses is from the formal version players see. It obviously cannot be that colloquial. It does not matter if you cannot understand it; skipping it will not affect anything. It is only there for readers who want to examine the details.