Chapter 21: God of Magic |
In almost an instant, Allen realized who the person before him was.
White hair, a youthful face—this combination of features wasn't common in Azeroth.
Archmage Khadgar.
That young mage who served as an apprentice under the Guardian Medivh, whose hair turned white overnight due to Medivh's curse magic during the process of killing him.
Why did he always run into major figures in taverns? Did they just love drinking that much?
Before he could even open his mouth to try and get friendly, the white-haired young mage suddenly reached out, grabbed Allen's wrist, and forcefully turned it over!
He lowered his head, his gaze fixed intently on the inside of Allen's wrist, as if searching for some mark.
However, he saw nothing.
"Ah! You're hurting me, sir!" Allen cried out in pain, trying to pull his hand back forcefully.
Allen rubbed his reddened wrist, "Alright, sir, I forgive you. So, can you answer my question?"
The white-haired young mage raised an eyebrow, a sly smile appearing on his face,
"I haven't seen the person you're talking about. But... I'm very good at divination. If you can give me one gold coin, I can divine his location for you."
Allen was stunned. The tables had turned; scamming me now, huh?
Fine.
I'll show you what real scamming looks like.
Allen's expression instantly crumbled. His eyes began to redden, his lips trembled slightly, his whole person seeming to have had all strength drained from him.
"Sir..." his voice choked up, "You don't know..."
The white-haired young mage's smile froze.
Allen raised his eyes, those eyes already brimming with tears, glistening under the dim oil lamp:
"Our family... are fallen nobles of Alterac. Once quite prominent for a time, but when the war came, everything was lost. My little sister, little Amy..."
He sniffled, tears sliding down his cheeks.
"She's wanted to be a mage since she was little, dreamed of it. She's so smart, so hardworking, she finally managed to get into Stormwind's mage tower as an apprentice. But... but our family is too poor, we can't even afford the tuition. She hasn't eaten for days, yet she grits her teeth and keeps studying..."
"I have no choice, I can only take on bounties everywhere, any job at all. The bounty for this fugitive I'm tracking is my sister's only hope to continue her studies. If I can't find him, if I can't get the bounty..."
He choked up, unable to speak, and lowered his head.
Then, he lifted his tear-streaked face, carefully pulling out a piece of emerald-green stone from his chest.
"Sir, this is the most valuable thing I have on me, a piece of malachite. Can I use it to pay for your divination?"
「Deception Check: 20 points, Critical Success」
「Khadgar is utterly convinced you are that person, but strangely, your wrist lacks that mark. So, even with ninety-nine percent certainty, he cannot be sure. Therefore, he chose to believe you.」
That person?
Allen's heart stirred. Who was the "that person" the system mentioned? What mark on the wrist?
Khadgar shook his head and took out his staff.
"Forget it," he said. "Although this piece of malachite of yours isn't enough for me to perform a divination—"
He paused, a smile curling at the corner of his mouth:
"But it can be exchanged for a blessing."
He raised his staff and recited a string of incantations.
Allen felt the air around him begin to flow.
Blue-purple arcane energy surged from the tip of Khadgar's staff, swirling and coiling around Allen's body.
It slowly seeped into Allen's body.
The energy finally converged above Allen's head, coalescing there into an illusory blue eye. The eye slowly opened, looking down at Allen below, then slowly closed and dissipated into the air.
【You have gained the beneficial effect: Arcane Intellect】
【Intelligence +100, Duration: 24 hours】
Allen was stunned.
Then, the world changed.
This feeling...
Was indescribable.
His brain felt as if it had been suddenly flooded with countless clear streams. Those usually fuzzy memory fragments were now arranged with crystal clarity in his mind. He remembered every detail of his past life, every game quest he had ever played, every single line from every book he had ever read.
He saw the chains of causality.
He saw himself entering the tavern, saw Khadgar sitting in the corner, saw himself asking questions. The cause of every action, the consequence of every choice, all extended and intertwined before his eyes like transparent threads.
He could foresee every possible scenario that might happen next, could deduce the future branches each choice would lead to.
The world had become a book.
A book spread open before him.
Every page was written clearly, every word was plain to see. He flipped through it at will, controlled it arbitrarily.
He saw the hut where Stalvan was hiding, saw every path leading there, saw what kind of armor Lupos's fur would be made into, saw the expression on Wen Lei's face when he received the leather armor.
He even saw a more distant future—
Varian becoming king, Stormwind flourishing and prospering; Morgan reuniting with his family, enjoying a peaceful old age; Khadgar fighting a bloody battle in the Blasted Lands; and...
That image flashed by too quickly to catch.
He lowered his head, looking at his own hands.
These hands, which had just been trembling while wiping away tears, now seemed to hold the entire world.
【Hidden Quest: Wisdom Beyond the World - Completed】
【Intelligence Attribute: 118/99】
The system's gentle, hollow female voice sounded in his ear, now carrying a certain indescribable excitement:
【Con... Congratulations!】
【Ordinary people find it difficult to attain wisdom beyond the world. An intelligence exceeding 30 points already steps into a realm unattainable by ordinary mortals—that of a great sage, a legendary mage, a once-in-a-millennium genius.】
【And you—】
【Your intelligence exceeded 99 points in an instant.】
【This has already surpassed the category of "genius," surpassed the realm of "sage," surpassed the limit of what mortals can comprehend.】
【You are a god.】
【The God of Magic.】
【Even I bow down to you!】
Allen stood where he was, motionless.
Because all of this... he had already "seen" it.
He had foreseen the system's reaction, foreseen these lines, foreseen his own silence at this moment.
He knew everything.
Everything...
Allen looked at his hands. Unbeknownst to him, his hands were now covered in blood dripping from who knows where. He felt dizzy, swaying unsteadily.
【Quest Reward: Random 9th-level Spell x1】
【Drawing...】
【Drawn: Meteor Swarm】
【Level: 9th】
【Effect: Designate four different locations within your spellcasting range that you can see, and cause blazing meteors to plummet vertically onto their ground.
Then, the falling meteors will annihilate everything!】
【Note: You are a god!】
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