A mage's journey begins with a battle mage.

Chapter 23 New Professions

"Why are the competition rules and venue kept secret? How are we supposed to prepare?"

Looking at the official event preview, Jiang Shuzhou felt a headache coming on. The preview was a complete waste of time, basically saying nothing useful. It was more like a notice than an event preview intended to promote the event.

The name is also rather hasty; what does "the feast of the gods" even mean?

Are we monks not qualified to be at the table? Why don't you call it a monks' carnival?

After making a few casual remarks, Jiang Shuzhou prepared to check the updated content. After all, the competition was still more than half a month away, and the updates were real-time, which would have a significant impact on him.

"We've noticed that mage players have frequently complained that the game's skill system is too complex, and we sincerely apologize for this. Although learning and modifying spells is the core mechanic of the mage class, in order to cater to players who prefer a lighter playstyle, we've decided to introduce a new mage subclass!"

"Now we will proudly introduce our new class: the Magician!"

What is that?

A magician? Then are you even a mage? Just call yourself a mage!

Others may not know, but Jiang Shuzhou does.

The term "magic net mage" was used to refer to mages when the goddess Mystra was still alive. Mystra was the person or god that mages hated most in their lives, for several reasons.

First is the Magic Net, woven and created by the Magic Net goddess Mystra herself. The prototype of the Magic Net is the veins of the world, flowing with violent elements, and is also the cornerstone upon which mages depend for survival.

Mages cultivate themselves by relying on the elements that emanate from the world's veins, and they use these elements to cast spells.

However, the goddess of magic, Mystra, changed everything. She wove the world's fabric into a magic net and bound the mages with it. From then on, mages could only learn and use standard magic and could no longer freely modify spells. Even more terrifying, the number of times mages could use spells was strictly limited, only a few dozen or even ten times a day.

This is definitely far from enough. You should know that even when Jiang Shuzhou was cutting down trees yesterday, he used the Mage's Hand technique no less than 40 times, specifically to control the direction of the falling trees and prevent them from hitting him.

It's easy to imagine how painful it is to only be able to use a spell a few dozen times.

Of course, there is something even more painful, which is the second point, and it is something that mages absolutely cannot endure.

Within the magic network system, the highest authority rests with the magic network goddess Mystra. A mage's advancement is influenced not only by their own cultivation but also by the jurisdiction of the magic network goddess.

Mages have lost their freedom. It's alright at the low and mid-levels, as Mystra isn't that free, and he has to manage even a junior mage. However, once you reach the high-level, you're in for a rough time.

Advancing to the Holy Domain is subject to control. Either you have to donate a large sum of money to the Cult of Magic, or you have to spend a lot of time forcibly advancing. According to statistics, the difficulty is more than fifteen times that of normal advancement. Unless you are exceptionally talented, it can definitely drag a young and strong high-level mage to death.

How did Jiang Shuzhou know all this? Of course, he read it from books. This stuff has become a nightmare for mages. In order to avoid repeating the same mistakes, the book contains a lot of content, all of which is the education on mages' hatred for gods. Among them, the most extensive parts, besides the collapse of the tower and the persecution by the God of Protection, are the oppression of the Goddess of Magic Network Mystra.

Every time I see Jiang Shuzhou from the Magic God Cult, I can't help but feel a little uneasy. How exactly are the words "magic" and "god" connected? When Mystra sees the name of his church, can He really keep his composure?

Anyway, Jiang Shuzhou couldn't hold back, but this also shows Mystra's incredible abilities. After all, no normal person could come up with such a name, and based on His performance, this name was probably made up by Himself.

That's perfectly reasonable and convincing.

Advancing to Legendary status is even more difficult. At this point, no amount of money can help. To advance to Legendary status, one must either receive Mystra's blessing and become a so-called "divinely gifted mage," thus becoming a lackey of the gods.

Alternatively, you could expend ten times more effort than before to force a breakthrough.

Who could stand this?

Where there is oppression, there is resistance.

After being oppressed for countless years, a mage genius emerged from obscurity. He did not submit to Mystra, but instead rose to the legendary level through his talent and hard work.

Having risen to legendary status, he discovered a method for casting spells outside of the web, freeing mages from the constraints of magical webs.

Naturally, he became a thorn in the side of the Goddess of Magic, and the gods and mages once again went to war.

The mages called this war the "Magic Web War," which ended with the successful casting of the spell "Slay the Goddess of the Magic Web."

Yes, the name is that outrageous and that straightforward.

The legendary spell "Slay the Goddess of the Web" consists of over 80,000 main runes and 1.27 million auxiliary runes. Just as its name suggests, this spell truly succeeded in killing the Goddess of the Web.

This event is also recorded in "The Tragedy of Magic".

Even now, the "Goddess of the Slaughtering Demon Network" is still preserved in an open library, showcasing the divine power of legendary magic to the world.

The legendary mage was named Roland, the inventor of the floating city, a mage who made even the gods tremble.

Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to have much interest in forming a mage alliance, so he is not the leader of the mage alliance and has not shown his face for hundreds of years. Many people speculate that he has long since left the prime plane to conduct unknown experiments or research in the astral plane or other places.

"The reappearance of the Magician Mage... could this mean... the resurrection of the Magician Goddess?"

Jiang Shuzhou's heart sank. This was not a good thing. The Goddess of the Magic Network had a notorious reputation, and it was no exaggeration to say that she was infamous. He did not want to worship such a thing.

"The Magic Network Mage casts spells using the Magic Network, simplifying the process and eliminating the need to learn various spells! Only a spell skill book is required to cast spells!"

"..."

The rest of the content is full of praise for the Magic Network Mage, but only the first sentence is true. The Magic Network Mage did lower the threshold for becoming a mage. However, how can you see a rainbow without going through the storm?

The combat power of the magic network mage is notoriously low; they are only strong in functionality and are no match for the current mages. Moreover, magic network mages need the magic network to cast spells. Even the goddess of the magic network is dead, so do you think the mages will let the magic network go?

The magic network has now been largely destroyed, at least within the territory of the Mage Alliance. The spell "Spellfire," used to destroy the magic network, is now widely known and almost all high-ranking mages know it.

Shaking his head, Jiang Shuzhou put aside his worries. The Goddess of the Magic Network was still a long way from being resurrected; she had only just begun the process.

By the time the Goddess of the Magic Network is resurrected, he might have already reached the legendary level. Who knows who will get revenge then!

Thinking of the legendary story of the mage Roland, Jiang Shuzhou felt a surge of emotion and couldn't help but sigh.

"That's what a man should do!"