This wasn't the first time Antonya had presented him with a dilemma, then revealed that it wasn't a problem as soon as he had reached an agonized decision.
Zhao Xu had learned his lesson and wouldn't fall into the same trap so easily next time.
But when Antonya talked about this matter, it made so much sense.
It was so reasonable that it hit exactly where it hurt him the most.
"Mentor, then why didn't that elderly wizard called Mocar receive this spell when he became a middle-aged man?" asked Zhao Xu.
He could still remember the way that elderly wizard had gazed at him back at the ceremony.
There was a strange emotion in those eyes.
If a rookie like Zhao Xu could still tell that there was an emotion in his eyes even after this elderly wizard had lived for so many years, then that emotion was probably just way too intense.
"It's very simple. He's just not eligible," replied Antonya.
Zhao Xu was stunned for several moments when he heard this response. "But that can't be right. Right? Mentor?"
"There's nothing that can't be right. It's true that there's more than one way to attain immortality. Besides being a wizard, there are other possibilities within the other character classes, and some prestige classes can help you to attain immortality as well."
"Everything comes with a price. Mocar used to believe that he could become a Legendary Wizard someday, so he didn't want to give up and didn't want to use any other methods. And so now, the methods he can still use are limited."
When she reached this point, Antonya looked at Zhao Xu and said, "Remember, the purer your path is, the more easily you will break through the wall to become Legendary."
In his previous life, Zhao Xu had never really come into contact with any wizards higher than Level 10, much less a Legendary one.
But after he had been sent to the floating city, Antonya had already 'reminded' him about several matters related to a Legendary Wizard.
It was wonderful for others to call you Legendary.
But the process of reaching that stage was strenuous.
"Then why didn't any of you go ahead and give immortality to that wizard, Mocar, since it doesn't cost you anything?" Zhao Xu couldn't help but ask.
"He can't see past his own heart, and he's a weakling who's been stuck at Level 14 all his life. He thinks that only he knows about those useless thoughts of his," said Antonya in a mocking voice.
"Basically, from the moment each of you steps into the floating city, the Wizard Association will create a form for you. It will be filled with analysis of your advancement as well as an archive of all the experiences you've been through. The stupid things that Mocar has done make all the bigwigs of the association look down on him."
Zhao Xu felt the urge to protest.
Mocar was a Level 14 Wizard, and to the players, he was a super high-level character.
"Mentor, didn't he respectfully greet you as his teacher?" Zhao Xu suddenly remembered this.
"Hoho, I was the one who brought his batch through the ceremony back then, so I ended up with the title. He's called me 'teacher' for so many decades now and it really drives me mad."
"He's always thought in his mind that if I had been his mentor, then he would definitely have become Legendary a long time ago," said Antonya.
Zhao Xu finally understood. So that emotion that he saw was actually jealousy.
Zhao Xu and Antonya didn't keep chatting for long. After a while, she received a notification from a Message spell, and she disappeared via teleportation again.
Before leaving, she passed Zhao Xu a blank book that was sealed with silver. After he wrote his name on the cover, he added a drop of blood onto it.
According to her, she had input spirituality into the two feats, Spell Mastery, and Uncanny Forethought, and they were inside this book now. Zhao Xu just needed to read the book and its contents would appear.
Antonya wanted Zhao Xu to take some time to study by himself, then log off and sleep.
Once he had enough sleep, he could come back online to prepare spells, then he could start on wizard battles.
The feat Spell Mastery wasn't difficult for Zhao Xu at all because he already had the class feature of Enlightened Spellcaster.
He completely digested this feat, which had apparently stumped other players for several days, in just a few minutes.
He spent nearly the rest of the day trying to read and understand Uncanny Forethought.
But Zhao Xu didn't have any spell slots, and he was unable to actually test it out by himself, so he could only try to imagine it for himself in order to learn it.
Finally, when it was nearing 11PM, he suddenly felt a strange and empty feeling inside his brain.
He suddenly realized that on his character stats, the two feats, Uncanny Forethought and Spell Mastery had now appeared in his two Natural Flaw Feat fields.
Zhao Xu smiled comfortingly to himself. That meant that he had already grasped the basics of these two feats, and now he was left with perfecting them.
After that, Zhao Xu left himself on the obelisk and logged off, then woke up directly in the real world.
At the time, two of his dormmates were both wearing their VR helmets and were still fighting inside Arthur.
The last one was preparing for his post-grad course, and still hadn't returned to the room yet.
At this point, Arthur hadn't reached the peak of its popularity and wasn't really considered a huge hit yet.
But a lot of his classmates were already playing the game.
A university was like that. Once a few people started playing a particular game, then, as long as it was interesting, it was very easy to attract their classmates to start playing as well.
Many of his classmates had wanted to prove themselves at first, but after they had gone through the grueling process of becoming spellcasting class, especially a wizard, they all quietly decided to switch character classes.
Zhao Xu picked up a pouch of lemon tea and walked to the balcony of the dormitory. He stuck the straw in and started drinking.
He was finally a Level 1 Wizard.
Tonight, he was going to sleep a full 8 hours. Then, when he logged into Arthur again the next morning, he would finally have spell slots.
In his previous life, he had fallen ill and had to find some sort of doctor who had a higher level of the skill, Medicine, to help. And there was no guarantee it would work either.
But a Level 3 Remove Disease spell would have been able to get rid of most illnesses.
Spells were really able to do too many things that humans were simply unable to.
Zhao Xu didn't put the pouch in his hand down until he started sucking air out of it.
His thoughts were already distracted by the battle that was going to happen the next day.
Antonya had talked to him about it before she left.
As long as he could pass the test, then she would give him a magic item as a gift for becoming a Level 1 Wizard.
Would any item from the almighty Miss Antonya be worth less than 10,000 gold pieces?
Zhao Xu didn't think so.
If he could get equipment that was worth 10,000 gold pieces at such a low stage, then this could be considered a sort of Artifact among the players on Earth already.
But he wasn't clear on how this wizard battle test was going to be conducted.
Zhao Xu couldn't help but start to wonder about it.
Zhao Xu remembered his spell slot list.
Cantrips spell slots: 3=3 (Wizard)
Level 1 spell slots: 2=1 (Wizard) +1 (Intelligence)
He had a total of 5 spell slots. 3 of them were for cantrips and 2 of them were for Level 1 spells.
He also had 3 Intelligence modifier points, so he could leave three slots without any prepared spells and choose which one to use only when he needed to cast them.
So of course he was going to leave those for his Level 1 spells.
He just needed to think about which two cantrips he wanted to prepare.
Suddenly, Zhao Xu thought of something else.
Antonya had left in a hurry and had taught him two feats.
But he still had the feat that came with being a Human, and his Level 1 character feat. These two feats were still unconfirmed.
Did the selection of those two remaining feats hinge on the result of tomorrow's battle?
Zhao Xu couldn't help but worry. He had been learning everything through a test so far. It was true that things didn't come easily in a large organization.
But his gaze also slowly became more determined.
He was very good at these two things—working hard and persevering.