Arcane Journey

Chapter 133 "The Arcanist" Brian

The world is white, not the wet, thick and icy snow in the Northland, but the blue mist floating in the boundless net woven by smooth silk threads.

These dark blue threads are big and small, twisted and trembling. There is nothing but white and blue, no sky, no horizon, no castles, and no trees.

Brian looked up at the mysterious lady in the blue and white flames.

He saw the dark blue silk thread reflecting the white void, and the thread seemed to be reflected in the void, blurring, making the blue and white flames merge together.

The goddess of magic looked down on him with a smile in the void, and the void intertwined with blue silk threads seemed to be overlooking him.

Brian and the goddess looked at each other.

There was a golden light in her eyes, and all he felt was awe, but he didn't flinch from it, let alone say a word.

Mystra, the goddess of magic, is the goddess who manages the magic net.

It is said that she taught the first spellcasters in the Realms and enabled many races to use magic.

Presumably, she weighs and judges each new spell or magic item to decide whether to allow it into the Realms.

She is most admired by wizards and those who work with magic or magical items on a daily basis.

She differs from Azuth in that Azuth is the god of mages - and in a way all spellcasters - while Mystra is the goddess of the essential power that makes all spellcasting possible.

She supplies and administers the Weave, the conduit through which mortal spellcasters and magicsmiths safely access the raw power of magic.

The goddess Mystra creates and oversees the magical web - in fact she is the embodiment of the magical web.

Due to the existence of the magical network, mortal spellcasters and magic item creators can safely use raw magical energy.

Mystra is also in charge of all things related to magic, making her one of the most powerful beings in the world of Toril.

The Goddess of Magic in front of me is the third priesthood to hold the title of Mysterious Lady and Mother of Magic since the rise of Netheril in history.

The first was Mythrael, who sacrificed herself to save the magical network due to the havoc wrought by the haughty Netherese archmage Karthus who attempted to replace the goddess.

The second mystery lady set up a large number of voters, including Elminster, Kelburn and the Seven Sisters.

In the year of turmoil, when she was trying to return to her own kingdom of God, she died at the hands of Heim, the guardian god who guarded the ladder.

When the crisis of the gods falling to the mortal world is over, a mortal wizard named Midnight takes the name of Mystra as the new goddess of magic.

Like Cyric, the god of murder, and Kelemvor, the god of death, the new goddess took a lot of time to adjust to her new identity.

It is said that in the ten years since she took office, she has been fighting openly and secretly with her old enemy Cyric. For a while, she even blocked part of the magic network to prevent Cyric and some mortals from using magic.

However, after almost being boycotted by the gods, she seems to have understood her role as balance maintainer and neutral arbiter of the magical network.

Then came the Year of the Blue Flame.

With the help and instigation of the night lady Shar, the god of murder, Cyric, sneaked into the heart of the magic goddess and murdered her, causing an unprecedented catastrophe: the Arcane catastrophe!

Even though the "Arcane Catastrophe" has passed for a hundred years, the learned sages of later generations still regard the destruction of the magic net in the year of blue flame as the end of the old world and the beginning of the terrible new world.

Seeing the sudden appearance of the Goddess of Magic, Brian had already guessed something in his mind.

Obviously, she was attracted by her arcane fire and arcanist profession.

This is understandable.

After all, in addition to the mysterious blue flame representing the essence of magic, the main material of his arcane fire is also drawn from the magic net one by one white silk thread 'strings of the magic net' representing the number of each ring.

Seriously speaking, his approach is no different from that of a thief.

Fortunately, as long as the original power of the magic net is not harmed, the goddess of magic generally ignores such behaviors of wizards.

The will of the magic net usually only gives certain punishments and warnings symbolically.

It's as if you steal something under the monitoring of the owner of the room. Although the owner will find out through the monitoring afterwards, the other party will never pursue it.

However, this time, Brian not only committed the crime against surveillance, but also bumped into the owner of the room head-on.

In this case, he was as embarrassed as he could be.

If it weren't for his long-term training, which allowed him to maintain a calm and calm expression at any time, I'm afraid he would have been eager to find a crack in the ground and forget it.

Otherwise, he wouldn't pretend to be calm and stare at the goddess of magic without knowing how to speak.

As for whether the Goddess of Magic would confiscate his Austrian Fire, he wasn't worried at all.

Although the last goddess herself belongs to the good camp, she also understands that as long as she is the god of magic, she must do her best to maintain the balance of the entire Toril world.

Therefore, although she herself hates those spells and magic items that are contrary to her philosophy, she will not prevent the development and manufacture of these spells and magic items unless they directly threaten the magic network and magic itself.

This is like when Karthus, the great arcanist during the Netheril period, was researching and casting the twelve-ring magic that led to the destruction of the empire, the first goddess of magic, Mystril, not only did not stop it, but was curious to know What is the effect of this magic.

The result can be imagined, Mithrael ate melons and ate herself, and the rules of the magic net have been completely changed since then.

Besides, his Austrian Fire isn't anything evil.

Well, this is also the first time he met the goddess of magic on such an occasion in his previous life and this life, so it is a bit intriguing.

"I salute you, Ms. Mystery." Brian finally chose to speak proactively, "Excuse me, what can you do for me?"

"I've been paying attention to you for a long time." The mysterious lady said quietly, her voice seemed to be singing, her eyes were mysterious and unpredictable,
"A long time?" Brian looked at her suspiciously. "The so-called long time, when exactly?"

"The ancient evil thing that destroys the world and the death star." She smiled slightly, and raised a tender and translucent jade hand, and suddenly a ball of flames appeared out of thin air, emitting a blue-white light.

Looking at the familiar flame, Brian was startled, and suddenly found that the arcane flame that had merged with his soul had just disappeared, and was quietly stripped out by the goddess of magic with her raised hand.

He forced himself to remain calm, recalling what she had just said.

The other party said that since the ancient evil death star, he has noticed himself.

At this point in time, he must be in the small world of rebirth, and jointly performed a powerful magic ritual with the will of the plane to temporarily divert attention from the ancient evils that threatened the small world, delaying time to save the world.

At that time, with the temporary disappearance of the threat of the ancient evil, this small world, which was not connected to the magic net, was sensed by the will of the magic net, so that the wizards in this world could learn to master the simplest zero-ring tricks .

"This flame carries the original power of the magic net. If you don't use it carefully, it will definitely cause a big mistake." The blue and white flame shone in the palm of the mysterious lady, and she looked at Brian. Pleasant to have too much power."

"So." Brian summoned up his courage, interrupted her, and looked at her challengingly, "Are you afraid?"

He didn't think the other party would be afraid of a trivial thing.

"So, may I ask, what is too much power?"

He continued to ask, "Or does mastering powerful magic represent evil? After all, possessing great power can easily condone the evil of mortals."

"No." The mysterious lady said to him in a soft voice: "I just hope that before you master this power, you must carefully consider its true use. Let me ask you, is a sword evil?"

"No." Brian was stunned for a moment, and replied, "Because the sword itself cannot think."

"That's right. Although the sword is not evil, it can be used by evil people. The same is true for this flame."

Brian frowned, feeling uneasy in his heart.

The mysterious lady looked at him, and continued, "If I gave this flame with the original power of the magic net to some other kind wizards, would you have any objection?"

Hearing this sentence, Brian suddenly felt very angry. This was undoubtedly stealing his own research results.

The high goddess of magic in front of her seemed to treat him like a fool and a toy. She could kill him with a wave of her hand, but she played with him like this here.

"Ma'am, please forgive me." He took a deep breath and said calmly:
"What you are doing is undoubtedly stealing other people's research results. If you insist on doing this, you are undoubtedly pushing a spellcaster who is pursuing the truth of arcane magic into the abyss of evil."

He knew that as a good alignment, and also the goddess in charge of the magic net, he would never be so cheap as to snatch something from a mortal spellcaster.

In other words, there must be a deeper reason for this, perhaps simply to test him.

"For a young man, your words are sensible and calm." The mysterious lady said softly, "Most young people, and most spellcasters, think that they are born smart and omnipotent."

"Ma'am, you should know that I am a spellcaster from another world."

Brian's expression eased slightly, "Wandering in a world threatened by ancient evils, I need to use arcane power to save the damage caused by ancient evils to the world."

"What if magic can't save your world?" the mysterious lady asked again softly.

"If I can't fight against fate, then I can only try my best to be an explorer of arcane truth." Brian replied truthfully.

"Then will you make yourself the master of the world?" The mysterious lady looked at Brian with interest.

"I'm not supposed to be a good ruler."

Bryan thought about it for a moment, then shook his head slightly, "Because I can't have so much energy to distract myself. If I can meet someone who is truly suitable to rule the world, I will stand firmly behind the scenes, give guidance and advice, and build The ideal magical kingdom. I think this is what a spellcaster should do."

After hearing this, the lady smiled sweetly, and her whole body exuded a dazzling light.

Brian felt infinite power surge out of the air suddenly, surrounding him with hunting noises, causing his hair to fly in the wind, and his skin felt a slight electric sensation.

Mystra, the goddess of magic, waved her hand lightly, allowing Brian's arcane fire to suspend in mid-air.

She strolled in front of his eyes, "Brian, will you kneel down and swear to submit to my practice?"

The words of the mysterious lady made Brian feel as if he had been hit hard. From such a close distance, he could clearly see that she was so beautiful, but also so dangerous.

Her eyes and hair shone with magic.

He was so suppressed by this force that his whole body trembled, his legs trembled, and he couldn't help but want to kneel down on the ground.

Brian gritted his teeth, stood up straight with great difficulty, met the mysterious lady's shining golden eyes, forcibly suppressed the awe in his heart, and summoned up the courage to say, "I don't want to."

The mysterious lady was slightly taken aback, and there was a little dissatisfaction in her words, "You want to disobey my will?"

"That's right!" Brian nodded firmly, and said to her:
"There are two things in the world that can shake a person's heart: one is the lofty moral standards in the heart, and the other is the brilliant starry sky above the head. Everyone wants to reach out to the night sky to catch the stars that belong to them, but But very few people know exactly where their star is."

In fact, he knew what this meant, but he also knew one sentence very well: All gifts given by fate are secretly priced.

Throughout history, the Goddess of Magic has had many electors, the most famous of which include Elminster, Kelben and the Seven Sisters.

But none of these voters ended up happy.

The human archmage Elminster, known as the greatest mage among mortals, was burdened heavily the moment he became the chosen one of the goddess of magic.

This archmage not only shoulders the responsibility of taking care of three of the seven children left by the goddess of magic in the material world and making them adults, but also needs to travel around the mainland to solve countless problems caused by the distortion of the magic net. disaster.

In the end, he was jointly besieged by five ghost princes in the battle against the night goddess Shar's magic net.

This battle turned Elminster's mage tower into a pile of ruins, and he escaped into Bator Hell due to serious injuries, and was controlled by a powerful devil lord, who carried out fancy tortures, just to get silver. The secret of fire.

Kelben Blackrod Orothan, the masked lord of Waterdeep, tried to rebuild the City of Hope on the High Wilderness under the instruction of the Goddess of Magic, and finally sacrificed his life.

The Seven Northland Sisters, the daughters of the Goddess of Magic, are no exception.

The eldest sister Shiron died protecting Shadow Valley from the raging red dragon.

Alustriel, the former Lord of Silvermoon City, sacrificed his life for preventing the elder of Netheril, a lich who had lived for thousands of years, Lalock's ascension ceremony.

Dove Hawkhand, a Ranger of the Northland, died with a Prince of Shadows in the City of Shadows on his way to the Valley of Shadows for support when the magic net was torn apart by followers of Shar.

The smallest drow elf, Kuilu, followed the dark girl Eilistraee in the battle of the Spider Queen.

After such a simple analysis, it can be seen that while the electors of the goddess of magic gained great power, they also accepted a heavy responsibility.

To put it mildly, they are called electors, the spokesmen of the goddess of magic in the material world, and at worst, they are the servants of the goddess who are always on call.

So, that's not what Brian wants.

Think rationally.

If he really became the chosen one of the Goddess of Magic, he believed that he would definitely become the focus of the City of Shadows, trying to kill him in the bud.

He has no time to develop at all, and the countless troubles brought about by this heavy responsibility will restrict his freedom.

Taking a step back, none of the above conditions was a problem for him.

But he knew that the goddess of magic also had a special hobby when testing whether a person would become a voter.

Women don't have any influence. If you are a man, you must transform into a woman during the test, so that you can observe the world and understand everything from a woman's perspective.

That is to say, even if he agreed, he would not obtain powerful power immediately.

This is naturally impossible for him, because he simply has no time to do these tedious things.

"So, you know where your own star is." The mysterious lady's words were full of curiosity.

"That's right." Brian nodded again, and said in a firmer tone, "My goal is to explore the truth of the arcane and the inaudible eternity."

"I am the sect of ten thousand arts, the only arcane art in the field of magic." The mysterious lady snorted displeasedly, and continued to ask, "Then, what is your inaudible eternity?"

"Excuse me, ma'am."

Brian took a deep breath and met the deep eyes of the goddess of magic.

He knew that what he said next might offend the goddess, but he still couldn't help but want to say it.

"I admit that a mortal's life is very short and his knowledge is very limited. It is obviously impossible to use such limited knowledge to exhaust the eternal mysteries. After all, there are still many unknown things in the world." He sighed softly With one voice, empatheticly said:

"The torrent of history runs through hundreds of years and thousands of years, and a short life of a person is just a few hasty summers and a few small winters. We mortals look up at the mountains and call them eternity, because they seem to be so.

However, in the long river of time, the sea has changed, and the world has changed.Mountains rise and fall, rivers change course, stars fall from the sky, cities sink into oceans, and even gods live and die.

Excuse me, how can you claim so confidently that you are the sect of ten thousand arts, the only arcane art in the field of magic? "

In fact, in his opinion, wise people who understand this truth are sometimes more crazy than ignorant people.

They will take risks at all costs in order to break through their small self in the limited time and space like him.

After all the vicissitudes of the world and the changes in the world, in the long river of time, no one can see where they come from and where they go.

Even though Brian has a good understanding of the multiverse, he still needs to explore, trying to understand the nature of everything.

In this case, he may not be able to fully see through until he perishes.

This is the real reason why he chose Arcanist in the first place.

After all, no matter in the span of time or space, a person is very small.

In the long river of history, in the cosmic starry sky, a legend of destiny, and even gods seem insignificant.

Then, if you want to understand the multiverse, you must have enough knowledge, so much that you can't learn it in a lifetime.

Therefore, his pursuit of the mysteries of the universe is not to pursue the so-called eternity.

In Eastern terminology, it means: jump out of the Three Realms, not in the Five Elements!

After a long silence, Mystara, the goddess of magic, sighed softly, "As expected of a descendant of Netheril, your tone of voice is too similar to that of the great arcanists of the past."

"Excuse me, ma'am."

Brian looked at her apologetically, "After all, there are too many unknown things in the world. In the face of nature and the long river of time, in fact, we mortals are no different from ants, they are all the same insignificant, I don't want to Allowing myself to be addicted to the past and unable to extricate myself, that's all, this is the truth of my search for the arcane."

After these words were spoken, he suddenly felt that his goal became much firmer.

"Madam, I confess my disrespect to you."

Brian looked at her fixedly, bowed and saluted, "I swear in the name of arcane arts, I will still respect you, fear you, and love you as before."

Mystra, the goddess of magic, looked at him for a moment, and couldn't help smiling, her eyes sparkling, "I haven't seen someone as interesting as you for many years."

But soon, her face became solemn again, her eyes were lingering, and she said in a low voice:

"Love magic itself, don't just think of it as a weapon that can change the world at will. Remember, magic is not just a technology, so as to reveal true wisdom.

Remember, the more powerful you are, the less you need to use magic, because magic often turns out to be very different from what it was placed on and hoped for.

Magic is an art, a gift of the Goddess to mortals, and those lucky enough to possess it enjoy the highest privilege.

Remember the above teachings, you should be modest and prudent in dealing with others, and avoid arrogance.Use this art wisely and effectively, not recklessly.Be in constant pursuit of learning and creating new magic. "

Brian felt himself being gently touched by the goddess of magic.

Immediately afterwards, tens of thousands of flames blazed around him immediately, and thunder and lightning struck his heart violently.

He felt as if he had fallen into Bator's Hell. He subconsciously wanted to scream, but he couldn't scream because it was stuck in his throat.

He seemed to be thrown into the bottomless abyss by a powerful force, and he fell hard to the ground, his whole body was full of pain.

The darkness invaded again in a blink of an eye, and Brian couldn't help but bumped his head, as if he wanted to knock out this endless illusion, but the darkness was so hard, like an iron wall.

He couldn't bear it anymore, and his consciousness gradually became blurred.

In the end, my eyes went black, and I passed out completely.
Gradually, the surroundings cooled down, and Brian woke up slowly.

He looked around subconsciously, wanting to see if the fierce flames were still burning, but found that his consciousness had already returned to his body, and he was in the study.

Although it was quiet and dark all around, he felt that the magic power was still faintly surging in the air. Although it was invisible and untouchable, the power was always spreading.

"I wish you always be kind and humble. If you have a chance, please go to Shadow Valley to find a bard named Storm Silverhand."

In a trance, Brian heard whispers from around him.

Just when he was wondering, the crisp and pleasant system prompt echoed in his heart:
"Advanced Arcanist" succeeded! "

"The Arcanist profession has been upgraded to level 1!"

"Occupational characteristics: Extraordinary Arcana, Magic Position Mystery, Master of Magic!"

"The sixth layer of magic net of arcane fire has been opened!"

"The arcane imprisonment has been lifted!"

"Successfully contacted the deep magic net structure!"

"Successfully connected to the magic net in the arcane circuit!"

"The magic net feature has been copied successfully!"

........................

　Let me ask, do book lovers dislike reading this kind of brain-burning chapters?

　　
　
(End of this chapter)