Chapter 44: New Spells
Sitting in his small military tent, Donald had no idea what was going on inside the fortress, nor was he aware that the officer had already reported his situation, earning him the attention of the highest commander on the human side in this war. He also didn’t realize that most of the conscripts, facing the orc threat, had essentially become pawns or even sacrificial fodder for the fortress’s military forces.
With a few hours left before the dinner hosted by the war’s supreme commander for nobles and professionals, there was little time to learn new spells. Donald decided to finalize the permanent skills granted by the Truth Books at soul levels LV2 and LV3. Throughout the journey, he had been pondering how to choose, as there were countless skill options from Warcraft, and he was about to face the challenges of battle. Ultimately, between preserving his life and maximizing his ability to kill enemies, Donald favored the latter.
After all, this was the best way and timing to earn military merits. Missing this opportunity might mean waiting a long time before he could acquire his own territory. Without a territory, he couldn’t form his own private army or establish his own power base. So, the risk was worth taking.
Despite significant improvements after becoming a Demon Hunter, his mage-based physique still only equaled that of a peak Black Iron warrior—far inferior to powerful melee professionals like swordsmen or knights who had mastered the seeds of combat energy at the Bronze rank or above. In such a situation, if summoned creatures failed to provide adequate protection and he were injured, relying solely on potions to recover might not be fast enough.
Therefore, given that he couldn’t leave the battlefield, choosing a skill that could save his life while enhancing his combat power was undoubtedly the best option.
“If it weren’t for the fact that the ultimate skill of a Demon Hunter—Demonic Transformation—can’t be revealed in front of many people, this move would be the perfect skill for mass killing and self-protection. After transformation, one can unleash remote energy attacks like magical flames, with almost no downtime for mana recovery. A single strike carries the power of a level 2 offensive spell, making one as formidable as a mobile turret.”
Donald was very familiar with these skills from Warcraft, but the real world differed from the game, so he still needed to rely on the insights from the Truth Books to determine the best choice for himself.
The remaining similar skills are the Wild Transformation of the Elven Claw Druids and the ultimate skill “Divine Descent” of the Human Hero, King of the Hills. Both are undoubtedly the best ways to enhance an individual’s strength for survival in battle. However, the Claw Druids’ bear transformation talent allows them to become ferocious bears but prevents them from casting spells other than those related to druidism, rendering much of their ability useless; thus, bear transformation is not a suitable choice. As for “Divine Descent,” which is similar to the demon transformation skill, the combat power achieved after using either is almost equal. Both are innate skills that greatly increase one’s vitality and defense—one grants a temporary demonic physique, while the other provides a temporary Titan-like physique. The demon transformation also has the advantage of enabling long-range spell attacks, whereas “Divine Descent” enhances purely physical combat abilities. Relatively speaking, the demon transformation is undoubtedly more suitable for casters. Although “Divine Descent” is extremely powerful, capable of instantly elevating a Bronze-tier warrior to near-Gold-tier strength, it has a fundamental flaw for Donald. The physique it grants primarily increases pure spell resistance, which can be understood as resistance to magic. With the strength of a Silver mage, even after gaining such resistance, they might not be able to cast even the most basic spells, let alone a Blacksmith-tier mage like Donald. This ultimate skill is a blessing for warriors but a disaster for mages, making it entirely unsuitable for the mage class. If forced to choose, it would only backfire. In fact, Donald’s favorite ultimate skill is the Elemental Clones of the Neutral Hero, Panda Drunkard. This skill allows him to create clones composed of earth, fire, and storm elements, each with its own innate abilities and skills, including powerful hero-level abilities such as the Sword Saint’s Wind Step and the Orc Chief’s Rebirth. The greatest advantage is that even if the original body dies, the soul can be revived through the three clones—though after revival, it is no longer purely human but a semi-elemental being. This is equivalent to having three extra lives. If given such an opportunity, he would probably trade his Gold-tier strength for it. The Book of Truth also contains other resurrection methods, and when combined, they can achieve effects that make one practically immortal at lower Gold-tier levels.
Unfortunately, the rules of the skill “Elemental Clone” are too complex and powerful. Even after calculating using the Book of Truth, one must have a soul level of at least LV5 to create the first clone, as otherwise the original soul cannot withstand the effects of the skill. Therefore, choosing it now would mean wasting a spot that cannot be utilized for a while, so Donald decided to overlook this temptation and wait until the conditions were met.
After considering various factors and requirements, his first innate spell was the life-saving skill “Teleportation.” Thus, this time Donald decided to choose a more powerful offensive skill to compensate for his lack of effective offensive methods.
Range attacks were ruled out first. Aside from the Blood Elf Mage’s “Flame Blast,” spells like the Archmage’s “Blizzard,” the Abyssal Lord’s “Flame Rain,” the Moon Priestess’s ultimate skill “Starfall,” the Naga Sea Witch’s “Tornado,” and the Flame Lord’s “Volcanic Eruption” were indeed powerful, but they all had long casting delays, making them vulnerable to enemy ambushes during that time. Moreover, their effectiveness at his current level was likely limited, requiring gradual upgrades similar to “Teleportation,” so they were not considered for now.
Skills like the Death Knight’s “Death Grip,” the Lich King’s “Foul Swarm,” and the Lich’s ultimate skill “Death wither” all relied on dark forces to function. As a living being, Donald instinctively disliked necrotic auras, and the continent as a whole also harbored aversion toward dark entities. Thus, despite their strength, these skills were not on his list.
In the end, Donald chose “Frost Nova” and “Life Drain” as the second and third innate spells granted to him by the Book of Truth. The Lich’s “Frost Nova” was an extremely effective control skill that created a frost explosion originating from a target location and spreading outward, dealing damage to all nearby enemies while slowing their movement and attack speeds. Its advantage lay in its instant activation, which surpassed spells like “Blizzard” and “Flame Rain.” While the Blood Elf Mage’s “Flame Blast” caused high damage over a large area and lasted longer, its casting process was slower and required preparation time. In contrast, “Frost Nova” could be cast instantly, restricting enemy movement within its range while inflicting significant damage through its icy power.
With this skill, even in a dangerous situation of being completely surrounded by enemies, he could fight his way through the chaotic battlefield and even control his summoned creatures to fight back. If he used skills like teleportation to escape the battlefield, some might try to frame him for avoiding combat; if he avoided punishment, he couldn’t expect any credit.
For the third innate spell, Donald initially hesitated between two heroic skills: the Dark Ranger’s Life Drain and the Blood Elf Prince’s Magic Siphon. Both of these special skills had powerful effects. From Donald’s perspective as a mage, it seemed impossible for professionals in this world to master such miraculous spell skills before reaching the Gold rank.
One of the innate spells allowed him to drain enemies’ life force to replenish his own, enabling him to recover from severe injuries. The other allowed him to steal enemies’ magic power to temporarily increase his own magic capacity—a truly formidable ability for a mage.
However, he realized that Magic Siphon shared some similarities with the Demon Hunter’s Mana Burn effect. While Mana Burn couldn’t replenish one’s own mana, he could always exchange potions to restore it using the Book of Truth. Some effects of Life Drain were beyond even restorative potions—after all, no matter how potent a potion, it could only heal injuries, whereas fresh life force drawn from enemies could infuse his own body with vitality.
Thus, Donald wisely chose Life Drain.
……
Before the banquet, taking advantage of the sunset, Ansel family, the supreme commander of the military on the northwest border, gathered the troops and delivered a pre-battle speech before many nobles and common soldiers summoned by order.
As one of the audience, Donald was fortunate enough to witness the Ansel Holy Sword Legion, reputed to be one of the kingdom’s strongest armies. This private legion, with over a thousand full members, was indeed a well-organized and formidable force. As rumored, each member possessed the strength of at least a peak Black Iron swordsman, with a few even being Silver Swordsmen of such prowess that they imposed a sense of pressure on Donald, a Black Iron mage.
What surprised Donald the most was that the current leader of this army, who was giving the speech, was a very young general—only two or three years older than him.
But through telepathy, Donald sensed that this young general’s strength was no small matter; he was likely at least at the mid-Brass rank or higher.
“Truly worthy of being a descendant of the Ansel family—exceptionally outstanding, as expected.”
Then Donald realized that, as the private army of the Marquis Ansel family, the Holy Sword Legion was officially listed under the kingdom’s military command and nominally under the king’s authority. In reality, however, it was entirely under the control of the Ansel family—without their orders, not even the king’s commands could move a single swordsman in the legion.
The ancient Ansel family had already been a noble house of the Ancient Magic Empire, on par with the Celt family even before the collapse of the Banai Empire. In fact, they held even more influence among the empire’s elite than the Celt family. This was because the Ansel family possessed a strong lineage of swordsmen, with many of its members serving as guard swordsmen for the empire’s high-ranking mages. The Celt family, on the other hand, was originally a merchant family. Despite their vast wealth, the Ansel family, coming from a lineage of mage followers, was clearly more valued by the mage-dominated Ancient Magic Empire.
Due to various coincidences, after the collapse of the empire, these two noble families of the Ancient Magic Empire ended up in the sparsely populated northern lands of the continent. The Celt family, ambitious, hoped to rise to power in those chaotic times and rule a region. The Ansel family, disheartened by the fall of the Banai Empire, had no desire to compete for dominance over the continent. Thus, they reached an agreement: the militarily powerful Ansel family would support the Celt family in establishing a nation, in exchange for which the Ansel family would be granted a territory to settle in, allowing them to survive together on this vast, unexplored land in the north.
In this way, these two noble families of the Ancient Magic Empire established themselves in the north in different ways, founding the Celt Kingdom alongside groups of refugees who had fled there due to war.
However, as King Celt VII rose to power and the royal authority and strength grew significantly, the Ansel family, whose actions did not cross any limits, began to arouse increasing suspicion. After all, this family was too powerful—powerful enough to undermine the foundations of the Celt Kingdom and overthrow the royal supremacy.
It was only because one of the kingdom’s three strongest military forces, the Order of the Glory Knights, was directly under royal command, and although the Celt Tower Mage Corps was under the control of the Mage Association, it generally did not refuse royal requests—thanks to an alliance established many years ago—that the situation remained stable.
With a two-to-one advantage, the royal family is stronger than the Ansel family, but they still feel uneasy, which is why there have been marriages between the Celt royal family and the Ansel family throughout the generations. It is said that the current Marchioness of Ansel is the king’s sister, the Princess Crown. Not to mention the blood ties between the two families in the past. It can be said that almost all members of the Ansel family have half Celt royal blood. Otherwise, how could the current Marquis of Ansel have the fifth in line to the throne?