Intelligence 16

Inside the stone door, Zorana sat on the ground with her back against the wall, her face pale and her lips pressed tight.

Her robes had been hiked high, exposing her long, snow-white legs.

But now, that perfect work of art was stained red with blood, and a massive slash ran diagonally from her hip to her knee.

There had been too many enemies today, and they had been too strong. Even as an eighth-level mage capable of casting fourth-circle spells, she had suffered badly, her thigh wounded by a bearded devil's infernal cleaver.

She had not prepared any purification spells, and she had used up all her holy water during the battle, leaving her helpless against the wound that would not stop bleeding.

She could only take a sip of healing potion whenever the blood loss left her unbearably weak, forcing herself to hold on and delay as long as possible while waiting for rescue.

If I still had my magic tattoos, how could I possibly have been injured today...

Zorana suddenly regretted her decision back then.

Of course, that was merely a despondent thought born from being trapped in danger.

She naturally understood that every gain came with a loss.

Fortunately, Marvin had arrived in time and given her hope.

However, the overly cautious mage outside the door did not immediately rush in to save the princess like a knight from a novel.

After learning of her situation, he actually asked some ridiculous question about what she had eaten and drunk during her previous visit.

Zorana was momentarily speechless.

Fine. She was a smart person too, and after a moment's thought, she understood that it was a test.

Marvin actually still suspected whether she was truly Zorana Infennar!

After silently grumbling about Marvin a few times, Zorana answered, "There was no tea or pastries. You served me iced lemonade."

"Oh, and I wanted less sugar in my lemonade," she added at the end.

After a while, Marvin finally replied through [Message], "I'll find a way to open the stone door and rescue you. Please forgive my caution. I encountered devils on my way to the Druid Herb Garden.

"You know how sinister, cunning, and skilled at deception and disguise devils are. So I have to be careful."

What could the Red Wizard lady say? She could only hope that Marvin would move a little faster.

To make the overly cautious mage outside hurry up, she had no choice but to promise a generous reward. "Mr. Marvin, if you can rescue me, I can give you a spellbook from the Infennar Family. It records six first-circle spells, four second-circle spells, two third-circle spells, and one fourth-circle spell.

"I believe it will be very valuable to you."

"To be worthy of that reward, I'll give it everything I have, Miss Zorana," Marvin said, instantly motivated.

At present, Marvin had three ways to learn new spells.

Learning them through the system upon leveling up was naturally the most convenient.

The second was buying spell scrolls to learn from. This was the most common method, but it had one major drawback.

The spells on scrolls carried the personal traits of their scribes and might even contain various flaws, causing one to learn them incorrectly or go astray.

The third method was to learn from spellbooks written by various academies, families, and renowned archmages.

The spell knowledge recorded in these spellbooks had often been compiled by one or more famous mages and was suitable for most mages to study.

After all, if you were buying textbooks, you had to go with a legitimate publisher.

Though the Infennar Family's centuries of accumulated knowledge had mostly been lost during Thay's civil war, what remained was still not to be underestimated.

Miss Wuke's spellbook was indeed highly tempting to Marvin.

To hold onto him as her lifeline, Miss Wuke had been willing to pay such a heavy price. As the family head, she certainly had courage.

However, even if Miss Wuke had offered no reward, Marvin would still have saved her.

They had some history together, after all, and opening the stone door would cost him nothing but a little thought.

After agreeing to Miss Wuke's request, Marvin did not move. He simply stood before the stone door.

Miss Wuke, who watched this through [Arcane Eye], could not help urging him, "Mr. Marvin, you'd better hurry. I only have half a bottle of healing potion left. At most, I have half an hour before I bleed out."

"Miss Zorana, I know your life is in danger and that you're anxious. But please don't worry. I'll open the door very soon." Marvin's voice remained utterly calm, as though everything were under control.

With no other choice, Miss Wuke could only watch through [Arcane Eye] as Marvin continued to stand there in a daze.

Of course, Marvin was not wasting time meaninglessly.

He was merely waiting for "Slicked-back Hair" to gather enough herbs.

An hour had already passed since Marvin entered the mountain. The herbs required for the quest should have nearly all been collected.

Under the system's assessment, Marvin and "Slicked-back Hair" belonged to the same party.

That meant if another party member completed the quest, it counted as Marvin completing it as well.

Sure enough, another minute later, a pleasant notification sounded.

This quest's rewards are definitely going to be good. After all, I raised the success rate to 430%!

Ding!

"Total success rate has reached 100%. You have received the base reward: Choose one proficient-level skill to upgrade to master-level. Then upgrade one trained-level skill to proficient-level."

There was nothing to consider. Marvin upgraded his proficient-level [Arcana] skill and trained-level [Investigation] skill by one level each.

With that, he should be able to break the magical mechanism on the stone door and open it.

Ding!

"Total success rate has reached 200%. You have received the additional reward: 2 Intelligence Fragments."

Ding!

"Total success rate has reached 300%. You have received the advanced reward: 3 Intelligence Fragments."

"You have collected 10 Intelligence Fragments. Would you like to combine them?"

Was that even a question?

"Combine!" Marvin's voice was filled with impatience.

A cool sensation swept through his mind, leaving Marvin with a clear, enlightened feeling.

When he checked his character panel again, he found that his Intelligence attribute had become 16.

If Miss Wuke's [Arcane Eye] had not been watching him, Marvin would have wanted to clench his fists and raise his arms in celebration.

Ding!

"Total success rate has reached 400%. You have received the final reward: 500 experience points."

The final quest reward notification sounded.

The number in the experience section of his character panel had become 1382/900.

"You have met the requirements to level up."

He could now choose to continue raising his [Scribes Guild Mage] level, or take up the [Elemental Artificer] profession.

Both were Intelligence-based spellcasting classes. Both used the mage spell list, and their caster levels were fully counted toward total caster level.

[Elemental Artificer] was an advanced class, and the abilities and feats it provided were more powerful.

However, [Scribes Guild Mage] was already level 2. If he raised it by another 2 levels, he would have an opportunity to freely choose a general feat and increase an attribute by 2 points.

He could then raise his Intelligence to 18.

But after giving it some thought, Marvin decided not to level up for now.

He should help Miss Wuke open the door first.