The Archmetamagician: The Weave Collapses Again

[Class: Paladin]

Primary Abilities: Strength and Charisma.

Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, Insight.

Weapon Proficiencies: Simple and martial weapons.

Armor Training: Light armor, medium armor, heavy armor, and shields.

”Arcane Resonance” triggers; you choose the evocation spell ”Guiding Bolt.”

You gain the class features: [Lay on Hands], [Spellcasting], [Weapon Mastery].

[Lay on Hands]: Your touch overflows with blessing and can heal wounds.

You gain a pool of healing energy, which automatically refills after each long rest; current reserve: 5.

In addition, you may also use 5 points of healing to remove the poisoned condition from a target.

[Spellcasting]: You have learned how to prepare and cast spells through prayer and meditation.

[Weapon Mastery]: Long-term rigorous training has made you proficient in the use of longswords and shortswords.

...

A series of messages swept through Anser’s mind. He slowly woke, the things before his eyes gradually coming into focus as his consciousness fully returned.

He was both the Paladin who had trained bitterly for many years and a Sorcerer of draconic bloodline.

’So real.’

He even suspected that the dice had thrown him into an illusory world to train for decades, and then erased the traces of time.

He hurried downstairs and, from the fourth-floor room, took out the Dragon Gold Slashing Swords obtained from the half-dragon. The moment he gripped the hilt, a familiar feeling filled his entire body.

The sound of wind suddenly rose. He moved through the room wielding the longsword, his steps shifting swiftly—back and forth with slashes, cuts, and thrusts. The movements were simple, but fast and precise.

After a moment, he stopped, somewhat dissatisfied.

’Too little Strength!’

His Strength was only 12, Dexterity 13—unworthy of such well-honed melee techniques.

Besides that, he could also wear various kinds of armor at will.

However, medium armor and heavy armor were somewhat cumbersome. He preferred light armor, paired with a shield and longsword—it would not interfere with spellcasting or movement, and his survivability would increase greatly.

Compared to melee capability, he valued the Paladin’s Lay on Hands and spells more. The former could detoxify and heal wounds; the latter also possessed irreplaceable uses.

Paladins are different from Wizards and Sorcerers. Divine magic does not require ”learning”; after taking the class, one can ”sense” sacred magic through the power of an oath.

All Anser needed to do was prepare the spells he wished to use each day through prayer and meditation, and release them when necessary.

This method wasn’t very flexible, but it also meant that the number of spells available to him skyrocketed—spells like Detect Evil and Good, Protection from Evil and Good, and Ceremony were all open to him.

For example, the 1st-level divination spell ”Detect Evil and Good” can locate any aberration, celestial, elemental, fey, fiend, or undead within 9 meters. It can also sense whether there is an activated hallow in the area and determine its location.

Detect Evil and Good isn’t as useful as Truesight, but the cost is very low—it’s only a 1st-level spell, and its base duration is ten minutes, so using it freely doesn’t hurt.

It can be used to search for Intellect Devourers and Mind Flayers.

”Protection from Evil and Good” is a 1st-level abjuration spell. After it is cast, it can grant the target creature protection against the following creature types: aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead—but it requires holy water.

If the target is possessed by one of the above creatures, or is affected by the charmed or frightened condition, it will most likely be able to help them succeed on the saving throw to shake it off.

Protection from Evil and Good hard-counters Intellect Devourers and can easily force it out.

”Ceremony” has many uses and can also produce holy water.

”Guiding Bolt” was the pleasant surprise brought by ”Arcane Resonance.”

It is a 1st-level evocation spell. Its base casting range is 36 meters. On a hit, it deals 4d6 (4–24) radiant damage, and it can also mark the target to guide the attack, giving the next Attack Roll advantage and making it easier to hit.

Radiant attacks are relatively special, and Guiding Bolt could enrich Anser’s means of attack.

What truly excited him was the triggering of ”Arcane Resonance”!

’If that’s the case…’

He sank into his mind, summoned the character sheet, and clicked the Paladin section.

[Do you want to level up?]

”Yes!”

The experience points in the pool drained away rapidly. Anser didn’t even dare look—his heart ached.

[Level Up: Paladin Level 2!]

[You master a new Feat. You gain new class features: ”Fighting Style,” ”Divine Smite.” You can learn an evocation spell.]

Anser could no longer suppress the smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Extraordinary Talent was effective—he gained an additional Feat!

After the Paladin level increased, his Hit Point and attributes did not increase, but as long as he could trigger the adventure trait, it wouldn’t be a loss even if it cost several times more experience points.

However, this method could only be used at low levels. After level 4, the experience points required for Multiclassing levels gradually became absurd. Doing it like this could easily delay the advancement of his main class, making the loss outweigh the gain.

After thinking for a moment, he chose the general Feat [Elemental Adept].

[Elemental Adept]: General Feat.

You gain the following benefits:

Ability Score Increase: Your Intelligence increases by 1 point, up to a maximum of 20.

Energy Mastery: Choose one of the following damage types: acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder. Spells you cast ignore resistance to the chosen damage type.

In addition, when you cast a spell of that damage type, your Damage Roll can never be 1.

Current chosen damage type: fire.

This Feat is essential for a spell artillery build. With it, his Fireball could finally be considered complete—damage, range, and area, all properly covered.

Melee Feats could be added later; after all, Sorcerer was his main class.

’In the future, I should try to choose Feats that increase ability scores or can increase attributes, and try to raise the second attribute to 20 to unlock the third class.’

It would be somewhat difficult. By that time, he might already have stepped into the ranks of high-level adventurers, and a low-level class would provide him with only limited improvement—but Feats were always scarce.

Fighting Style: You gain a Fighting Style Feat.

After thinking for a moment, Anser chose Protection.

While holding a shield, he could use his reaction to block attacks, causing all Attack Roll made by the enemy to have disadvantage. It could protect himself and also protect the people beside him.

Under normal circumstances, he would not rely on melee to kill enemies; survival was the main objective.

”Divine Smite” was the signature ability of a Paladin. Without needing to prepare spells, he could cast Divine Smite at any time.

In addition, he could cast Divine Smite once per day without consuming a spell slot or Magic Power, equivalent to a spell-like ability.

’Much stronger than I expected.’

He forcibly suppressed the urge to level up and did not continue to invest experience points, deciding to pause for the moment.

Leveling up could be addictive; one had to know restraint, otherwise the distance to ninth-level spells would only grow farther and farther.

Even as a level-2 Paladin, there were still many things to explore. Trying to do too much at once would only make things worse.

For example, would Magic Power Mastery work on divine magic? Could a metamagic Divine Smite work? Would using transformation together with melee be stronger? How would innate magic spellcasting be compatible with Paladin spells?

These were things he would have to test slowly. Having one more class was not as simple as gaining a few more abilities.

Classes were independent, but all abilities belonged to him. He had to bring them under unified control.

’Take it slowly… maybe choosing Intelligence for the next maxed attribute would be better…’

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