Post-Battle Reflection

Under the manipulation of force, Magic Missile ignored all concealment and defenses, guaranteeing a hit on any target.

It bypassed the iron shield in the skeleton's hand and struck the Skeleton Warrior directly.

At that moment, the Skeleton Warrior's scimitar arrived, chopping straight down at Zhao Xu.

Having just finished casting, Zhao Xu was already preparing to dodge.

But the energy-condensed Magic Missile's impact had not yet faded. The Skeleton Warrior's body abruptly froze, then vanished on the spot.

The arena fell silent once more. All summoned creatures in Arthur were projections, and upon death, they dispersed into energy without leaving a single trace behind.

Zhao Xu wiped away his cold sweat and silently counted himself lucky.

At that moment, he could already see the contents of his Character Card panel.

Player cast the first-level arcane spell "Magic Missile."

Magic Missile hit the Skeleton Warrior, dealing 1D4+1=4+1=5 damage.

The Skeleton Warrior's current HP was below 0. It had been slain.

If the summoned Skeleton Warrior's HP had not been below average, and if his Magic Missile had not happened to roll its maximum damage of 5—

Then whether he would have been struck by that blow was still uncertain.

Footsteps sounded behind Zhao Xu. Antinoa had walked over.

She looked at Zhao Xu and asked, "Are you satisfied with the result?"

Zhao Xu merely shook his head.

"It wasn't necessarily bad. Let's summarize first. Tell me what you were thinking," Antinoa said.

Zhao Xu began by laying out the information he had on the Skeleton Soldier. From estimating its HP to roughly calculating its Attribute Values, he got almost everything right.

"Very good. The first step of a Wizard's battle is intelligence preparation," Antinoa replied.

"Generally speaking, before fighting, we Wizards need to understand our enemy's information so we can prepare accordingly. Novice Wizards have few Prophecy Spells available early on for gathering intelligence, but that does not mean this task can be abandoned. Arthur has countless places where intelligence can be collected, and those sources may not even be blocked by a Wizard's spells. You made use of the advantages you players possess. That was very good."

Zhao Xu smiled. There was no information about Skeleton Soldiers on the forums yet; he had relied entirely on memories from his Previous Life.

Fortunately, Antinoa could not log into the players' forums right now. Otherwise, she would definitely have seen through him.

"The second point is self-preparation after understanding the enemy. If a prepared Wizard ambushes an unprepared Wizard, assuming they are of the same level, the odds are basically seventy-thirty."

At that, Antinoa looked straight into Zhao Xu's eyes.

"Tell me, what does Mage Armor do?"

Zhao Xu answered without even opening his Character Card panel.

"It grants a +4 armor bonus to defense."

"And its duration?" Antinoa asked.

Zhao Xu froze for a moment before answering, "One hour per Caster Level."

He took a deep breath. "After teleporting here, I should have cast that spell in advance."

Its duration was far longer than that of most other spells.

A +4 armor bonus could reduce his chance of being hit by 20%.

"Yes. So next time, remember this: as long as you can confirm that battle is about to begin, seize every moment to use spells to bolster yourself."

"Then continue. When you saw the Skeleton Warrior charging toward you, what considerations did you make?" Antinoa continued to guide him.

By now, Zhao Xu had mostly composed himself. He slowly said, "My first consideration was naturally to cast Mage Armor. That would have reduced its chance of hitting me from 60% to 40%."

Though an actual combat environment was complicated, offense and defense still honestly followed the rules of HP.

As long as attack power plus a 1D20 roll was greater than or equal to the defense rating, the attack could break through the defense and deal HP damage.

The Skeleton Soldier's attack power was only 1. Even with 1D20 added, it only reached 2 to 21.

It had only a 60% chance of breaking through his defense.

"But even then, there was still a chance I would take a hit from the Skeleton Soldier, and its damage could possibly kill me outright. So I gave up on defensive spells and chose to kill it directly."

Zhao Xu's HP was 6, pitifully frail.

A Skeleton Soldier's strike dealt 1D6+1 damage, or 2 to 7. As long as the D6 rolled a 5 or 6, it would deal just enough damage to knock him unconscious immediately.

"My second consideration at the time was Protection from Evil. It could grant me a +2 deflection bonus to defense against attacks from Evil creatures, while also preventing damage from the natural weapons of Summoned Creatures. But the Skeleton Warrior was carrying a scimitar, so that effect was useless. The benefits of casting it were inferior to Mage Armor, so I discarded it as well."

"My third consideration was Prismatic Spray, but the Skeleton Warrior's Undead Creature traits made it completely immune to the spell's effects, so I could only give that up too. As for Dimension Door, Mentor, you definitely wouldn't agree to switch places with me, so that was not worth considering either. Ray of Enfeeblement was also less useful than Mage Armor."

Prismatic Spray was actually an extremely vicious spell among low-level spells.

As long as the target failed its Will Save, creatures with 2 Hit Dice or fewer would be rendered unconscious, blinded, and stunned for 2D4 rounds, then blinded and stunned for 1D4 rounds, and finally stunned for 1 round.

By the time all that duration ran out, practically any creature would have been torn apart.

The Skeleton Warrior had 1D12 HP and 1 Hit Die, which was indeed no more than 2 Hit Dice.

But its Undead Creature traits made it immune to effects such as unconsciousness and stunning.

That left Zhao Xu rather embarrassed.

After hearing Zhao Xu's explanation, Antinoa nodded. "Among Zero-level Spells, Disrupt Undead can deal 1D6 damage. Why didn't you use it?"

Zhao Xu shook his head. "That spell requires a ranged touch attack. I would first have to overcome its defense rating, and the chance of hitting it would only be 35%. Besides, Magic Missile's expected damage is 3.5, which is actually the same as Disrupt Undead's expected damage. Of course I would prefer the guaranteed-hit Magic Missile."

"Mm. At least you weren't muddleheaded enough to think that just because it was an Undead Creature, you should immediately use trash like Disrupt Undead," Antinoa said with satisfaction.

"It was decent that you could react to all that in the blink of an eye. Today's lesson was meant to show you where the gap in actual combat lies."

"In the future, you should be wary of Undead Creatures, oozes, constructs, elementals, and plants early on. Think in advance about how you would deal with them. Elementals are somewhat better, but the other four are basically poor bastards with nothing."

Zhao Xu nodded. Although Undead Creatures had somewhat lower HP due to lacking Constitution, their vast number of immunities truly gave every Wizard a headache.

"Now, the second test begins. As long as you can hit me with a spell, there will be a reward." Antinoa spoke with a certain smile.