Chapter 100: False Wisdom and True Wisdom

The next morning, after getting six mana potions from the Slaughtered Lamb, he planned to practice the new spells he had learned - Arcane Intellect and the weakening magic stolen from the naga - with the imp, Saeuno.

In a small forest by the Mirror Lake outside Stormwind City where there were few people, Jess found an open space and made the imp stand opposite him.

"What are you going to do to me, master?" Saeuno asked, standing straight.

Jess looked at this imp with flames all over its body and stretched out his hand, saying, "Come, be my test subject."

The imp's originally smiling face immediately changed color. "No, no, no... Master, no. It's okay, but wouldn't you feel distressed if I feel pain? Can you tell me what magic you want to try on me?"

"Are you still afraid of pain?" Jess said. "I just want to try a weakening magic I learned from that naga on you. After I was hit by that magic, I couldn't even lift my hands and feet. I couldn't even walk. But I remembered its incantation."

"Anunigi, Durzala, Kana."

Jess pointed at the imp completely using the gesture for casting the Fear spell. The imp let out a startled "Wow", but nothing happened.

"Kana is not demon language, master. This doesn't sound like demon language at all!" The imp said. "If I'm not mistaken, the shadow magic used by the naga comes from the Shath'yar language of the Void Realm. This is a curse of the Shath'yar language! It sounds right!"

"Shath'yar language?" Jess hesitated a bit. He had heard of this language, but in his previous life.

The Shath'yar language is the language used by the ancient evil gods parasitic on Azeroth and their dark minions to communicate. Few NPCs in the game know this language.

In this world, Jess has never heard of this language from anyone's mouth. In the library, he can't find any relevant textbooks at all (and of course there can't be any). How can he figure out its pronunciation?

"Since you are so familiar with it, do you know the Shath'yar language?" Jess asked.

"If I knew it, I would be in trouble!" Saeuno jumped up and replied. "Those who master the Shath'yar language are either pure shadow creatures, or dark flesh born from parasites, or... shadow believers who master powerful shadow energy! And I am just a weak and pitiful creature! No one will teach me the Shath'yar language, and I don't have the power to master it either!"

Since there is no teacher at all, how should he correct the pronunciation?

Jess looked at the lake. While recalling the pronunciation of the naga, he picked up stones and skipped them on the water.

After he had recited "Anunigi, Durzala, Kana" in various pronunciations, pauses, and with adjusted accents countless times, suddenly after reciting one sentence, he felt that there seemed to be something not quite right.

Even the imp looked over here. Is it the gathering of shadow energy?

Jess confirmed the pronunciation just now and said, "Saeuno, stand over there!"

The imp hopped back to its original position. After standing still, it let out an excited roar. "I'm ready!"

Only then did it remember that it was standing here as the target of some painful magic. The expression on its face changed from excitement to discomfort.

"Try not to recite it so accurately, master."

"How could I recite the standard Shath'yar language?"

Jess teased and then, following the pronunciation that seemed to have interacted with the shadow just now, and combined with the gestures of the naga banshee in his memory... Of course, it was the gesture of one pair of hands, and pointed it at the imp.

"Anunigi, Durzala, Kana."

A burst of shadow flowed in his body, making his arms a little itchy. He saw the imp's expression start to change, and it no longer hopped around. Instead, its legs trembled.

"This is... this is..." The imp's voice became much weaker.

But Jess felt comfortable. The sudden weakness of the imp gave him a sense of superiority from looking down, a sense of superiority from torturing the weak.

After all, he is dominant in this relationship. He is the master, and the imp... is a servant, a minion, an unwavering tool. Then, reason rushed up again and made him break away from that "enjoyment". The shadow energy that brought the itching to his arms also quickly dissipated.

Jess was no longer surprised by the side effects of shadow magic.

However, this is much better than being at a loss when he first came into contact with shadow magic. Now he can already realize which part of his emotions comes from the power of darkness and which part comes from himself.

"It worked... cough!" The imp can't even stand easily now. "This is a shadow curse, master. This is a weakness curse."

"I know." Jess said, while taking out the pen and paper he had prepared and recording the pronunciation process of this incantation he finally tried on it in common language letters.

He was going to teach this weakness curse to the warlocks in the Slaughtered Lamb... Gagin and Galdes must have other incantations that they haven't revealed.

Since warlocks have the opportunity to contact the dark practitioners of the Dark Iron dwarves, it is impossible that they only heard the Fear spell from there.

When Jess went to that basement for the first time and saw Erlan and Surenna, they used the pain curse on him. Speaking of which, Jess still hasn't learned the incantation of the pain curse.

The reason why he has never been interested in the pain curse is that he thought Surenna had heard the incantation from somewhere he didn't know.

If there is no standard source for an incantation and it can be corrected during the learning process, it will definitely become more and more distorted. Just like this weakness curse... He doesn't have the original text of the real Shath'yar incantation and doesn't know how to recite it. He can only make a clumsy imitation. Remember when the naga used the weakness spell on him, he couldn't even stand up and fell directly to the ground. Even a simple action like taking out a potion bottle from his bag was extremely difficult.

And the imp is the weakest creature he has ever seen in terms of physical fitness. Even such a little guy can't be made to fall. It can be seen how much this spell has been weakened from the naga to Jess.

It's either a problem with the spell or a problem with the casting action, or there may even be other conditions.

Jess suspected that as servants of the Old Gods, the naga might have some special advantages in casting shadow magic, but he just didn't know yet.

In any case, this second-hand weakness curse can be the first step for him to improve his status in the basement.

Especially when Gagin asked him to join this group, one of the requirements was for him to be able to contend with the strong Erlan. As a spell that weakens physical fitness, Gagin must like the weakness curse very much.

"Next, the second spell, Saeuno." Jess put away the note while taking out "Felix - Elementary Arcane Casting Techniques" given to him by Marin. After opening it, he found the chapter on "Arcane Intellect".

He flipped a few more pages and found that there were so many variants of Arcane Intellect. There were almost dozens of pages describing all kinds of Arcane Intellect, duration, continuous effects, and even offensive variants, similar to some kind of spell that disrupts the mind and makes the opponent receive so much information that their consciousness collapses.

What Marin taught him was the most conventional one - the entry-level version improved by Dalaran from the spells of the elves.

"There's a second spell?" The still trembling imp shouted loudly, "Spare me, master!"

Jess turned around and pointed at Saeuno, shouting, "Missis, Uperli, Shininger!"

A burst of arcane energy instantly surrounded the imp. The imp was so scared that it jumped up. However, before it could escape or make any other more complicated reactions, this energy dissipated.

It was still the same problem. Jess found it very difficult to find the feeling of transforming free mana into infused energy.

"What kind of magic is this, master?" The imp asked.

"Arcane Intellect." Jess said.

"Ah... Arcane Intellect. I know this spell!" The imp said. "Your method is completely wrong."

"By the way, you know Blood Pact." Jess said. "Tell me how can I transform magical energy into an enhancing spell?"

"I know it since I was born. How can I teach you?" The imp said helplessly. "But I know that Arcane Intellect shouldn't be so difficult!" The imp was right. Arcane Intellect is an entry-level magic, otherwise it wouldn't be in "Felix".

Jess felt that after learning the Light spell, he immediately wanted to pursue Mage Armor. He was too eager for quick success. He always wanted to take shortcuts and always thought that he might learn it faster according to his own understanding.

But unlike shadow magic, he didn't have any talent in arcane magic. So following the rules step by step is actually a better choice.

Opening "Felix" again, Jess compared his pronunciation and actions bit by bit according to the instructions for the basic version of Arcane Intellect on it and repeated it over and over again to find the feeling.

At this moment, he already felt a little tired.

Perhaps it was because he had consumed some energy when practicing the weakness curse before, and just now summoning a wrong burst of arcane energy had wasted some again.

Should he drink a mana potion?

These potions are hard to come by. If he wasn't extremely tired yet, he should try not to use them.

Jess stood up, forgot as much as possible the experience summed up when practicing the Light spell, and without any random thoughts, he posed properly and cast "Arcane Intellect" in a methodical way.

After the casting action was completed, he suddenly heard a crisp ring of arcane energy beside his ears, and a strange experience began. His field of vision seemed to widen a bit, as if it was wider than before.

But this is an illusion. He knew very well that it was just because his ability to recognize images in his field of vision had become stronger. His attention was no longer focused only on a circle within the central range of his field of vision as before, but expanded. This was an improvement in observation ability.

The sound of the wind between the leaves, the ripples of the lake, the chirping of birds... No, that's not accurate.

That's the chirping of a black finch.

Jess remembered clearly. When he casually glanced at the Kingdom Geography in Marin's study, he noticed the characteristics of the chirping of this common bird in Elwynn.

The original text is - three consecutive chirps from high to low like a song are the typical characteristics of a black finch.

How could he remember these details?

Is this the power of Arcane Intellect? Can this magic even extract hidden information ignored in the mind?

When he felt this memory and observation ability far beyond his normal state, Jess truly understood what Marin meant by that sentence - if Arcane Intellect is abused, one will soon split personalities and gradually begin to hate that stupid, real self.