141: The third level of magic and martial arts, a new direction of professional genre

Looking at the dark, glowing crystal ball in front of him, Ye Xiao's previous gloom vanished, replaced by a smile.

He hadn't expected that the treasure chest reward for becoming the Rookie King would contain a core item for the Magic-Martial style—a Magic Weapon.

Ye Xiao had known for a long time that after the Third Advancement, upon entering the beginner area, combat for any Profession would no longer be a simple matter of him casting skills and me dodging, nor would it be a simple comparison of who dealt more damage to guarantee a win.

As for how Ye Xiao was able to instantly kill the five Black-Clad Deacons of the Zhao family in Path of Exile earlier...

Firstly, those five were merely henchmen of the Zhao family; their Talents and strength were generally mediocre. After all, who truly powerful would become an anonymous dog for another family?

Secondly, at that time, Ye Xiao's attributes and skills were indeed at a bug-level, so naturally, those five were no match for him.

However, later, when Ye Xiao encountered Zhao Changlin and other Eighth Advancement powerhouses from the Zhao family, he didn't dare to face them head-on.

Even in a one-on-one against Bai Shanhe, he still relied on the ability of Heaven Sealing Demon Banning to trap him, never daring to confront him directly.

After all, after the Third Advancement, every Profession could learn core skills from various different Professional styles.

And Professionals who reached the Eighth Advancement, regardless of their individual strength, at least possessed a complete style system.

A complete style's combat power could be several times stronger than simply casting skills, and some rare styles could even be dozens of times more powerful.

In fact, before obtaining this Magic Weapon crystal ball, Ye Xiao hadn't decided which specific style he would pursue after the Third Advancement.

The Mage Profession itself was rarely chosen.

Consequently, the skill styles developed by Mages throughout history were far fewer than those of other Professions.

Originally, Ye Xiao thought that since he possessed the Infinite Skill Bar and could continuously stack skills, he was more inclined towards a violent style like the Heaven-Shattering Meteor style.

However, now with this Magic Weapon, coupled with his recent surge of over 20,000 Strength points, Ye Xiao had a clear direction.

The Magic-Martial style!

This style, in the history of the Eternal World, actually only appeared once, thirty years ago, developed by a newcomer named Qin Wuming.

However, it is rumored that this Qin Wuming later met with an accident, and since then, no one has ever heard any news about him.

As a result, the Magic-Martial style also became a lost art.

Over these thirty years, many people tried to piece together and analyze Qin Wuming's past experiences, only to conclude that for a Mage to pursue the Magic-Martial style, the most crucial item was a Magic Weapon, but how to obtain this Magic Weapon remains unknown to this day.

If Ye Xiao hadn't found this Magic Weapon item in the Rookie King's treasure chest, he probably wouldn't have thought of pursuing the Magic-Martial style.

Taking the crystal ball in his hand, Ye Xiao carefully examined it.

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【Magic Weapon (Bound): Each time a magic skill is cast, 10% of its skill power will be returned and stored within the Magic Weapon. Your next normal attack will then deal the combined total of all stored skill power. There is no upper limit to the number of stored skill power instances, but if unused for more than 10 seconds, the skill power will dissipate.】

【Note: This item is a special item, cannot be traded, cannot be dropped, and will automatically decompose and disappear upon the death of its wielder.】

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Looking at the description of this Magic Weapon, Ye Xiao finally understood the true meaning of the Magic-Martial style.

Clearly, that Qin Wuming must have also obtained this Magic Weapon from the Rookie King's treasure chest, which led him to ingeniously conceive the Magic-Martial style.

Ye Xiao understood this.

According to the effect of this Magic Weapon, pursuing a melee Magic-Martial style was indeed the most suitable option.

The combat method of this Magic-Martial style was actually not complicated: within 10 seconds, cast as many combat skills as possible to stack the power within the Magic Weapon to its maximum.

Then, in the last second, unleash all the stored skill energy with a melee basic attack.

Although only 10% of the skill power is stored each time, if you can cast twenty or even thirty skills within 10 seconds, then the power of your next melee basic attack would be equivalent to two to three times the skill power.

Of course, the power of different skills varies, so the calculation isn't that simple, but the principle holds true.

Thus, to pursue the Magic-Martial style, a large number of high-frequency skills and high cooldown reduction effects would be needed to quickly stack damage.

However, these considerations were for ordinary people; Ye Xiao faced almost no such worries.

Currently, one of his Fireballs consisted of 600 individual projectiles, with each projectile dealing a staggering 89,723 points of damage.

Since the Magic Weapon only stores 10%, the total skill power stored from 600 Fireballs would still amount to a massive 5.38 million.

And within 10 seconds, Ye Xiao could cast more than just this one skill.

Furthermore, his current pure Strength alone was as high as 25,000 points, allowing him to deal considerable damage even against magic-immune units.

This way, he also effectively solved some counter-related issues.

All in all, if he pursued the Magic-Martial style, the single-target damage Ye Xiao could inflict every ten seconds could only be described with astronomical figures.

Such terrifying single-target damage was something ordinary people absolutely could not withstand; even a boss would be a one-shot kill for him.

Thinking of this, Ye Xiao finally realized that this Magic-Martial style seemed to be tailor-made for him.

Now, his safety when heading to the beginner area was even more assured.

Ye Xiao looked at the distant sky, filled with confidence.