Chapter 40 - All-New Skill Tree
A hogtooth plodded along the periphery of the forest while hauling a common cart. The ground it trod on was paved with sand and gravel and dappled with sunlight.
Hogtooths were creatures with a Level 2 hunting level. They resembled wild boars that had their bodies stretched. They were one of the more common livestock nurtured due to their gentle character, delicious meat, and superior reproductive ability. Moreover, their excellent strength and endurance also allowed commoners to use them as a means of transportation.
The hogtooth currently walking along the forest originated from a small village at the foot of Rockdoor Mountain.
The cart driver was a bearded villager in his 30s called Old John by the other villagers. John had been working as a cart driver for nearly 20 years now. Whenever people in the village needed to head to the city for business or to deliver something to the city, they would almost always rely on his cart.
Currently, though, the ones on the cart weren't ordinary villagers or goods. Instead, it was the mysterious magician who had saved their village three times in a row!
In addition, Alyssa and Tio, the silver-haired girl who had come to the village with Alyssa yesterday, were also riding the cart.
Early this morning, Old John found the Lord Magician, together with the two little girls, on his doorstep. Apparently, the Lord Magician wanted to make a trip to Horador City.
Heavens! That was the city the fief's lord resided in! Just entering it required ten copper coins per person!
However, since this was a request from the Lord Magician, Old John had no choice but to obey. He had truly been shocked by Zwei's performance against those soldiers from before and simply didn't dare go against Zwei's godlike strength.
Moreover, even if the sky were to fall, he would still have the Lord Magician's protection on this trip.
With such thoughts in mind, Old John quickly pulled out his cart and set off with Zwei's group without hesitation.
In Zwei's honest opinion, the cart wasn't really a comfortable mode of transportation. Let alone bumpy roads, even when traveling across smooth and flat roads, the cart jolted and creaked all the time. He couldn't help worrying that it would suddenly fall apart. Riding the cart also made him reminisce about cars back on Earth. No, even riding on a tractor would be more comfortable than riding on this thing!
As for Alyssa, this was the first time the girl was traveling far away from the village. Currently, she was so immersed in her surroundings that the bumpy ride did not affect her in the slightest. However, aside from the distant villages and farmlands on one side and the forest on the other side, there really wasn't much to see.
Tio, on the other hand, leaned against Zwei as she sat on the cart. And as she clutched Zwei's robe with her right hand, she started dozing off bit by bit.
According to Alyssa, Tio could be at ease only when Zwei was beside her. As a result, she hadn't slept well at Alyssa's house yesterday.
Zwei, however, felt that the girl was just suffering from motion sickness.
Although Tio was still young, Zwei could tell that she was a beauty in the making. In terms of appearance, she even looked slightly more refined than Alyssa. With her eyes closed, she looked just like an exquisitely crafted porcelain doll, giving the impression she would shatter with the slightest bit of force. Her long eyelashes and the scattered sunlight that fell on her body made her look particularly lovely and charming. Her body even had a faint milky fragrance.
This must be the so-called moe.
Zwei secretly applauded in his heart. He then returned his gaze to the back of his right hand.
After clearing the Honing Tower's First Floor yesterday, Zwei didn't obtain the Moving Cast he desired the most. Instead, he drew the Traction Anchor.
Traction Anchor was a reasonably practical second-circle spell that allowed him to launch his mana and link it with an object. Afterward, he could either drag himself toward the object or vice versa. The spell somewhat resembled Spider-Man's web-shooting ability.
Although he could achieve a similar result using Mage Hand, Traction Anchor's mana consumption was extremely low. If it weren't for the lack of skyscrapers in this world, Zwei would most likely pretend to be Spider-Man now.
After he became a Basic Magician, the layout of the Magic Book panel had changed. Instead of just one page, he now had access to eight pages.
First-circle spells still took up the first page. As for the subsequent pages, second-circle spells belonging to the water, fire, wind, and earth elements each took up a page.
This was normal. After all, from the second circle onward, the various elements would further branch out into numerous factions.
In the case of the fire element, there was the Ash faction that advocated high temperature and burning effects and the Destruction faction that advocated explosions.
In the case of the water element, there was the Ocean Ripple faction that advocated water magic and the Ice Crystal faction that advocated ice magic.
In the case of the wind element, the differences between factions were even more drastic. There was the Heart of the Storm faction, which focused on controlling the atmosphere, and the Sword of Crackling Cloud faction, which focused on controlling lightning.
In the case of the earth element, though, the differences between factions were much tamer. The earth element was only split into the Protection faction and Transformation faction.
After entering the third circle, all these factions would split into even more branches. However, this was a story for another time.
In short, these various factions all had spells unique to them. Thus, each major element ended up with a page of their own.
Aside from elemental magic, there was also arcane magic that relied purely on mana to cast.
Unlike the world of D&D, this world placed mana's priority below the various elements. Hence, elemental spells were often superior to arcane spells. This was also why the development of arcane magic lagged behind that of elemental magic. However, this didn't mean one should underestimate arcane magic.
In fact, Zwei currently valued arcane spells more than elemental spells. After all, to maximize the potential of elemental spells, he needed to raise his elemental affinity and mastery, which was a slow process. In contrast, once he fully mastered an arcane spell, all he needed to do was fuel the spell with more mana to increase its power.
Meanwhile, to Zwei's surprise, after arcane magic came light and dark magic, two advanced elemental magic. However, the number of second-circle spells available for these two elements was quite low; both of them combined were just enough to fill a single page.
Light magic's factions were very direct: Life and Sacred. Spells belonging to the former category were used to save people, whereas the latter faction's spells were used to impose judgment on enemies. To put it simply, it was the carrot and the stick.
As for dark magic, the differences between its factions was a little indistinct. Aside from the Undead faction, which had its own category, the Shadow and Curse factions shared quite a few spells.
Lastly, after light and dark magic came combat magic.
Although combat magic sounded cool on paper, that wasn't actually the case. Setting aside the Combat Magicians that summoned various objects to aid in battle, the Magic Swordsman class was basically an excuse for magicians that lacked the necessary talent to become actual magicians.
Meanwhile, combat magic could be split mainly into the Enchanting and Mana Driving factions. The Magic Book's skill tree wonderfully depicted this point.
After perusing all the available skills, Zwei silently shed a tear once more.
Every skill listed looked plenty amazing. There was a large variety of skills as well. However…
Can't you give me more Proofs of the Strong?! Otherwise, letting me look at all these skills is simply torture!!