Ivy had discovered a few new pages in the Grimoire of Destruction.
The Grimoire of Destruction had originated as the Wizard's Combat Guide, a portable magical textbook designed to help Ivy quickly build combat prowess. The pages contained various spells that were incredibly useful in battle.
However, since Ivy himself was a Dark Arts master who excelled at using "Avada Kedavra" and other curses, he wasn't particularly interested in the less dangerous spells listed on those pages.
He would only use them occasionally during his skirmishes with classmates.
Later, under the influence of ancient magic, the Wizard's Combat Guide evolved into its current form as the Grimoire of Destruction. Ivy could still see his status panel on the title page, and the Grimoire even allowed him to choose specializations.
Aside from the "Spellcasting without Materials" specialization he'd already chosen, Ivy now had five additional specializations available. But, since he hadn't yet taken on any D&D-world spellcaster classes, these choices seemed to be somewhat irrelevant.
Recently, though, Ivy had discovered some exciting pages in the Grimoire of Destruction.
———
Mage's Hand
Level: Cantrip
School: Conjuration
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 30 ft. (increases with caster level)
Duration: 1 minute (increases with caster level)
A ghostly floating hand (created from a magical force) appears at a point you choose within range. You can control this hand as if it were your own, and it can perform any task that your hand can do, such as: turning a page, emptying a container, opening a door, or closing a window…
———
Ivy swore that the page about "Mage's Hand" was a recent addition. He had long considered the Grimoire of Destruction his newly acquired cheat code, so he would frequently skim through it. But only recently had it added this new page.
Ivy recognized the spell: "Mage's Hand" was a classic spell from the DnD universe, appearing in various video games and tabletop games in different forms.
For example, in Baldur's Gate 3, a popular game before Ivy's time, Mage's Hand was a summoned creature that could cause damage. Although its unarmed strikes typically couldn't bypass armor, that wasn't its true purpose.
The Mage's Hand, made of a force field, could pass through barriers and float across traps and spikes. Imagine this scenario: you're lost in a labyrinth with dangers and obstacles everywhere. Your teammates have already exhausted all their useful resources. A simple "Mage's Hand" spell can clear most of the hazards!
You can have it float over pits instead of walking over your teammates' bodies; you can use it to close a trapdoor rather than have a teammate make a suicidal dash; you can open a suspicious iron gate without forcing a teammate to play the part of the unlucky one…
In short, it prevents unnecessary sacrifices, making your team's survival more valuable. What could be a more valuable consumable for a wizard than a useful teammate?
So, "Mage's Hand" was far more impressive than what the simple page in the Grimoire of Destruction suggested.
Ivy stared at the page again; it was the same as the description in the DnD spellbook.
"Level" referred to the spell's level, ranging from 0 to 9, with 0 being a cantrip. This meant that this spell was one of the very few that DnD spellcasters could cast infinitely with no cost.
The "Conjuration" school indicated its origin. Aside from Conjuration, there were other schools like Evocation, Transmutation, Divination, and Abjuration. Ivy remembered that after reaching a certain level, a wizard could choose to give up one school in exchange for enhancing spells from another.
However, in later rules, this mechanic seemed to have been replaced, with wizards now choosing an Arcane Tradition and gaining specific benefits for spells from that tradition.
From a role-playing perspective, the latter was less interesting than the former, but in the real world, no wizard would want to give up any spells, would they?
The more spells you knew, the stronger and more versatile your abilities became, and giving up spells was too costly.
Apart from "Mage's Hand", Ivy found several other spells in the Grimoire of Destruction.
They were "Emerald Flame Sword", "Message", and "Minor Illusion", all of which were cantrips.
The Emerald Flame Sword was an Evocation cantrip that imbued a weapon with emerald flames, dealing fire damage to two nearby targets in melee range.
Message allowed you to send a message to someone nearby, and they could respond. Both messages would sound like whispers, making detection unlikely.
Minor Illusion, a spell from the Illusion school, created an image or sound that could last for at least a minute, perfect for misdirecting or distracting others. If Fred and George learned this cantrip, Hogwarts would be in chaos.
Perhaps these 0-level cantrips were key for a DnD spellcaster's profession!
Ivy immediately made that assumption.
There's no such thing as love or hate without reason, and there's no such thing as new spells appearing for no reason in the Grimoire of Destruction. This book was passing on the secrets of magic to its master—i.e., Ivy!
Based on the information on the page, these 0-level cantrips didn't seem too difficult. And since Ivy considered himself a magical genius, he was eager to try them out.
Ivy drew out his wand and began to construct the Mage's Hand spell model according to the instructions on the page, filling its framework with magic. For Ivy, a genius wizard and Dark Arts master, this wasn't a difficult task.
Though wizards and spellcasters were two different systems of magic, both relied on magic to cast spells. Therefore, even though this was his first time trying, Ivy was confident that this 0-level cantrip wouldn't be a challenge.
But then something unexpected happened.
The spell model, which had been perfectly constructed, failed at the very last moment. The dissipating magic didn't harm Ivy in any way, except for making him furrow his brow.
"Ah, shoot, I messed up the release time…"