Mage Hand Is Great—Gotta Learn It!

After a brief rest, Liana led the Flaming Fist in investigating the underground space, hoping to determine why the mind flayers had sent their servants to occupy this place.

Meanwhile, Marvin began sorting through the various reward notifications that had appeared after completing the mission.

Mission: Explore the unknown underground area beneath Friendly Arm Inn and eliminate potential enemies

Successfully completed.

Beginning reward calculation.

Ding!

"Total success rate reached 100%. You have received the basic reward: Enhance one cantrip of your choice."

Ding!

"Total success rate reached 200%. You have received an additional reward: Choose one of the following feats to learn: Toughness, Luck, Light Armor Training."

Ding!

"Total success rate reached 300%. You have received an advanced reward: 4 Intelligence Fragments."

Ding!

"Total success rate reached 400%. You have received the final reward: Spell-like Ability: Anchor Teleportation."

Marvin began with the basic reward.

"Enhance one cantrip of my choice..."

He carefully examined the long list of cantrips the original owner had spent ten years learning.

Quite a few of them were useful.

For instance, the four cantrips that controlled the four basic elements—[Wind Dance], [Mold Earth], [Control Fire], and [Shape Water]—had no offensive power, but they were highly practical.

They had played important roles whether fighting gelatinous monsters or wiping out packs of Cranium Rats.

[Message], [Guidance], [Mending], [Friends], and others were also very useful in everyday life.

But after considering it for a while, Marvin still chose to enhance [Mage Hand].

This cantrip allowed a mage to summon a floating energy hand at a designated point within casting range.

The energy hand lasted for one minute, could move within a range of thirty feet, and could carry up to ten pounds.

During adventures, Mage Hand could be used to open doors and chests, trigger traps, manipulate mechanisms, and more. In the hands of an imaginative mage, it could be used in countless creative ways.

In everyday life, Mage Hand was an essential spell for the lazy.

Moreover, under certain special circumstances, Mage Hand had some "wonderful" uses.

Marvin recalled a joke the original owner had read in some risqué little booklet while working in the mage tower:

Three legendary adventurers—a warrior as sturdy as a hill giant, an incomparably handsome bard, and a learned mage—had ventured into the 570th layer of the Abyss, the domain of Malcanthet, Queen of the Succubi.

Though the three legendary adventurers were powerful, they were still no match for the Succubus Queen. They were defeated and captured.

The Succubus Queen intended to toy with these mortals, so she proposed a challenge: the three would each spend a night with her in turn. So long as one of them could satisfy Her Majesty, not only would they all live, but they could also safely return to the Prime Material Plane with the generous reward bestowed by the queen.

On the first night, the warrior exhausted every ounce of his physical potential and transformed into a pile driver.

Movements like crashing waves! Extra Attack! Second Wind!

Superhuman Fortitude! Unstoppable Assault! Powerful Recovery!

Yet after a whole night, the legendary warrior still admitted defeat. Like chewed-up sugarcane pulp, he did not recover for an entire month.

On the second night, the bard took the field.

He was a rare half-blood, possessing the innate charm of the celestial race known as the Asmo, as well as the [Radiant Bloodline] granted by draconic blood. From the moment he was born, he had been irresistible to all.

The performance and social skills he had honed over countless years allowed this bard to persuade even a gold dragon and a red dragon—sworn enemies—to sit down and drink tea together.

He knew he could not conquer the Succubus Queen through physical pleasure, so he hoped to make her fall through the power of his personality.

Yet after the night had passed, when the Succubus Queen appeared while leading the bard on all fours, his two companions discovered in despair that the one who had fallen was the bard himself.

On the third day, it was the mage's turn.

The warrior and bard had already given up all hope.

Judging by his appearance, this mage was merely a shriveled old man with a thick white beard, utterly devoid of appeal to the opposite sex.

Yet the next morning, the warrior and bard's jaws dropped. The Succubus Queen was clinging to the mage's arm like a delicate little bird, her face flushed with bliss...

After the three adventurers returned to the Prime Material Plane with the generous treasures gifted by the Succubus Queen, the warrior and bard could no longer hold back and asked about the details of that night.

The old mage merely smiled faintly and said calmly, "I have studied [Mage Hand] for over a hundred years. I gave Her Majesty the Queen an entirely different experience..."

At the end of the story, an unknown author had left behind a conclusion:

So Mage Hand is great—gotta learn it!

A true mage must master Mage Hand!

Although Marvin believed the story was most likely fabricated, Mage Hand truly was one of the most practical cantrips.

"Enhance [Mage Hand]."

"Cantrip enhancement complete. You have obtained [Enhanced Mage Hand].

This is a first-circle conjuration spell. After casting, it summons four energy hands with simple intelligence. Duration: one hour. Maximum carrying capacity: 30 pounds."

After reading the spell description, Marvin immediately seized on the key points: a duration of one hour, and simple intelligence.

If I used this spell in bed... Well, it seems that vulgar joke really has influenced me quite a bit. Marvin smiled, shook his head, and gathered his thoughts again.

How to develop this spell's uses would require gradual exploration.

He could not possibly use it for handiwork during lovemaking, could he?

Marvin continued on to the next system reward.

Descriptions of the three feats appeared on his retina.

Toughness: Your vitality doubles. When you level up in the future, you will also gain additional vitality.

Luck: In battle and adventure, you will receive the favor of the Goddess of Luck. Either luck will be with you, or danger will turn to safety. Takes effect once per day.

Light Armor Training: Your Dexterity increases by 1 point, to a maximum of 20. You gain training in light armor.

Using elimination, Marvin first discarded the [Light Armor Training] feat.

The Dexterity it provided meant little to a mage.

As for "light armor training," it allowed a mage to cast spells in light armor without affecting their success rate.

But with a mage's frail little body, could wearing light armor really let him go to the front lines?

The first-circle spell [Mage Armor] could provide an unarmored target with protection equivalent to a chain shirt, so why bother going out of his way for it?

Then Marvin gave up on the [Luck] feat.

A feat that relied on gambling with fate simply did not suit his style of seeking certainty and never acting without absolute confidence.

"I choose [Toughness]."

The moment Marvin made his decision, he immediately felt the changes brought by the new feat.

A warm current spread from his chest through every limb and bone, beginning to transform his body.

Though the loose mage robe concealed any outward change, Marvin knew that his previously ordinary physique was undergoing a complete transformation.

There were no numerical values like HP in reality.

The most obvious changes brought by the [Toughness] feat's increase in vitality were that his body became leaner and more athletic, his stamina more abundant, and his energy more vigorous.

As for whether it would let Marvin withstand two more slashes, he had no desire to test it, nor did he hope he would ever have the chance.