Chapter 2: Forbidden Archmage!

Chapter 2: Forbidden Archmage!

‘Success!’

The two ladies were quite furious at this moment, but Louis was extremely excited. The joy and smile on his face almost made Helen and Ocris faint from anger.

Ocris pointed a trembling finger at the door and said, “Get out!”

Suppressing his excitement, Louis bowed respectfully and left the bedroom.

Outside the bedroom was a small living room. He sat on a chair and casually picked up a small mirror from the table.

His appearance had hardly changed—black hair, brown eyes—except he seemed younger now.

Yet Louis felt as if he had aged considerably. It was as if, in the moment he became the Forbidden Archmage, thousands of years had suddenly passed in the world.

Louis began flipping through the Storybook floating before him and found that ‘Louis’ actually had his own dedicated page. There was a special description on it. Squinting, he saw it was the system’s evaluation of his personal status.

[Louis]

[Title: Forbidden Archmage]

[Presence: 0.2]

[Level: Lv1 (0/100)

Strength: 0.9 Dexterity: 1.3 Mana: 3.1

Life Force: 9/9

Magic Power: 31/31]

[Linguistics: ALL (You know all languages)]

[Magic Spell Studies: ? (You have not learned any spells yet)]

[Theoretical Magic Knowledge: Very Solid]

‘What does Presence mean?’ Louis shook his head. This ‘Presence’ needed further understanding. For now, though, the number seemed a bit low.

As for Level and Attributes, they were likely part of the leveling system given by the system. From earlier narration, it seemed he would have chances to gain things like ‘Random Attribute +1’ in the future.

But from the memories the Storybook gave him, this world didn’t have any ‘Forbidden Archmage’. The wizardry system here was somewhat similar to Harry Potter. A wizard’s magic power was predetermined from birth, and it was very hard to change later. Whether a wizard was powerful mainly depended on how potent the spells in their arsenal were.

Yet it seemed he could level up. He could only attribute this to the ‘custom identity’ feature.

The narration had said ‘This world began developing in an unpredictable direction. And the identity was for him to choose himself.’

Louis had chosen ‘Custom’ and created this identity for himself within the story.

He seemed to have succeeded.

The moment he spoke about his situation earlier, a batch of new memories surfaced. He felt as if he had grown up studying at a place called the ‘Forbidden Sanctum’ since childhood, and later studied abroad at the Holy Oak Academy for six years.

But these memories were all very hazy. The only clear thing in his mind was knowledge.

Louis suspected this Forbidden Sanctum corresponded to his academic years back in his hometown. The Storybook, referencing these learning experiences and knowledge level, had infused him with a lot of magic knowledge.

Louis didn’t know what level his knowledge represented. But judging by the state of this world, they didn’t seem to have reached the point of universally understanding concepts like ‘universal gravitation’ in magic. In other words, many wizards here, if placed in the ‘Forbidden Sanctum’, wouldn’t even compare to a middle school student.

And he was a PhD.

Louis continued reading.

According to the book’s setting of Louis’s personal reputation, Louis had very poor relationships with the students at Sacred Oak. The reason was he always looked down on his classmates. In Louis’s eyes, those classmates were like kindergarteners and elementary school kids.

But in everyone else’s view, over these six years, ‘Louis’ had only been all talk. He always claimed to be proficient in all languages and magic, yet hadn’t cast a single spell.

This invited a lot of laughter, mockery, and ostracism.

The only one who got along relatively well with him was Helen.

This was probably a minor side effect of the ‘Strongest Wizard’ custom setting.

But Louis felt he wasn’t as bad as people said.

He truly didn’t know any spells, but that was simply because, in his backstory, he had never bothered to learn them.

He had a feeling that his foundation in magic theory was extremely solid. While he hadn’t mastered these spells, he was only a thin paper’s breadth away from doing so.

There were several books and a nice-looking backpack on the table. Louis casually picked up one book and started looking through it — he could understand the text. He could also understand the incantation text inside, though it wasn’t ‘proficiency’ as he had told Helen earlier, but more like ‘familiarity’.

Yet he felt like he was reviewing something.

While deciphering a spell, Louis suddenly had an epiphany.

[Your years of accumulated knowledge finally bore fruit. You comprehended the ‘Quickly Refill’ Spell Lv1 (0/10).]

Louis now noticed that under Magic Spell Studies on his character sheet in the Storybook, the ‘Quickly Refill Spell’ had appeared.

Raising an eyebrow, Louis picked up a rather cute-looking cup from the table, took a big gulp of water from it, then picked up a Wand lying beside the book. He waved it at the half-full cup and recited the spell according to the book.

Immediately, Louis felt he used up a point of Magic Power. The half cup of water in the cup gradually began to rise, and a moment later, it was full.

[Your understanding of the ‘Quickly Refill’ Spell Lv1 (1/10) has deepened.]

‘Exactly! Accumulated knowledge! I have this feeling: Even though I’ve never glanced at these spells in these six years, I already possess all the prerequisite knowledge to understand them! Mastering them now is as simple as solving elementary school addition and subtraction problems!’

‘Thank you for the gift of knowledge. I think this is way more useful than a few extra attribute points!’

Louis closed his eyes and pondered for a moment, then flipped through the book in front of him. He found he could instantly understand many spells at a glance. With a bit of practice to get familiar, he could probably perform all sorts of variations with them.

The spells that students at Holy Oak Academy had studied for a long time were like simple arithmetic to him—he could figure them out instantly.

This was the effect of deep, long-term accumulation finally paying off.

Louis poured out the water from the cup. After repeating the practice over a dozen times, he discovered the spell didn’t necessarily need to be chanted out loud. Based on his theoretical understanding, as long as he adjusted the elemental structure correctly using his Mana, the magic would form naturally.

But at Holy Oak Academy, only the Grand Wizards could cast spells without chanting or even without a Wand.

Louis snapped his fingers, and the cup slowly filled with water again.

He poured it out and tapped the cup with his Wand. This time, the cup filled with water instantly.

‘It seems using a Wand makes spellcasting more powerful.’ Louis glanced at the Storybook and saw that his Quickly Refill Spell was now Lv2 (3/100).

Ten practice sessions had reached the level of casting silently and without a Wand. A hundred sessions would be Lv3 — Lv3 was probably the level where a mere thought could form the magic.

Judging by the standards of this world, even Ocris’s Quickly Refill Spell was only around Lv3. And when she cast these minor spells, it wasn’t just a thought; she had many little habits, like quirking her lips.

Louis had a feeling that if his understanding of magic deepened a bit more, for a spell like Quickly Refill, he might only need to practice it a dozen or so times to reach Lv4.

Lv4 likely meant being able to fill a large pool. And beyond that, it probably meant being able to block rivers and summon wind and rain.

Louis flipped through the book a bit more and realized this book seemed to be Helen’s Magic Notes. From some comments, he could tell she had extremely high talent. Many spells came easily to her; she could learn even the difficult ones in a few weeks.

However, having stayed at the academy since childhood, she had practiced these spells thousands of times. Yet she still couldn’t cast spells without a Wand, let alone without chanting.

In everyone’s eyes, it seemed casting without a Wand or without chanting was something only super-witches like Ocris, who were born knowing magic, could do.

Louis suddenly looked up.

That so-called Prince and old Faerie were probably the highest-tier starting options.

He hadn’t chosen the cuckolded Prince, nor any old Faerie. But even now, the character template he had ‘customized’ himself was still top-tier.

Because he had allocated all his build points to the most valuable thing for an apprentice—potential.