From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 251 Juggernaut (1000010000)

The White Council ended hastily. Saruman disappeared after assigning the tasks, leaving no time for others to refuse.

Although Ivy was forced to undertake a seemingly dangerous mission, he actually did not feel that he would be threatened in Dol Guldur.

After all, he is a stranger to Sauron. Look at the other members of the White Council: Saruman the White, Gandalf the Grey, Elrond, Lord of Rivendell, and Galadriel, who is half-blooded of the three elven royal families. Which one of them is not a threat to Sauron?
Even if Ivy appeared with them, his attention would only be focused on these old opponents who had successfully defeated him once, so Ivy would not worry about Soran at all.

As for the threat from Saruman the White, Ivy didn't take it seriously. He was the chairman of the White Council and the leader of the white forces in Middle-earth. As long as he didn't take off his disguise, Saruman would never attack Ivy openly. Otherwise, how would the other people in the White Council see him? Especially when Ivy didn't show any dark tendencies. Let alone others, the grey wizard Gandalf would definitely protect Ivy, otherwise how would Ivy repay the favor of squeezing Saruman for him?

This is called a gentleman can be deceived by tricks, and so can a hypocrite.

Since Saruman cannot attack openly, the means he can use are very limited, nothing more than mental attacks and black magic. Ivy has the Ravenclaw crown, which is immune to non-divine mental attacks. He is a master of black magic. Even though wizard magic is severely suppressed in the Arda world of Ilúvatar, he can still defend against the black magic targeting Ivy. As the saying goes, if you know one method, you know all methods. Since they are all black magic, then logically they should not be much different.

Besides, does Saruman know any advanced black magic? Can he release a large green lightning to kill 20 or 30 people with just one word? Can Saruman do it? If he could do it, the Valar of Valinor would have scattered his ashes without Avy's help, and he would not have come to Middle-earth by ship.

So Ivy understood that she needed to be on guard against Saruman, but she didn't have to worry about this man in particular.

For Saruman himself, the most important thing is to find the One Ring lost near the Golden Iris Swamp (Isildur was attacked here, and the One Ring was lost in the nearby Anduin River, and was later found by the Hobbit Smeagol, who was influenced by the Ring and turned into Gollum) before Sauron's men. Moreover, he has learned that the Ringwraiths appeared near Dol Guldur, which is very close to the Golden Iris Swamp, and Sauron must have known the whereabouts of the One Ring.

Saruman did not want other members of the White Council to notice Sauron, mainly because he did not want them to set their sights on the One Ring and thus create an opponent for himself. That was why he repeatedly obstructed Gandalf's actions. Now, under the pressure of Ivy, he had to personally give orders to Gandalf to lead the exploration of Dol Guldur. It was really a helpless move. But he did not believe that Gandalf would obediently go to Dol Guldur when he was focusing on the mission of Lonely Mountain. Based on his understanding of Gandalf, going to Lonely Mountain to meet the dragon Smaug was what he would do.

If the mission in Lonely Mountain was successful, Saruman could punish Gandalf on the pretext of disobeying orders, and if it failed, Saruman would not have to worry about Gandalf anymore.

----

After speaking up to help Gandalf at the White Council meeting, the grey-robed old man became closer to Ivy.

He even taught him many tricks on how to use spells while fighting with a sword.

Finally, before the half-month period agreed with Thorin, Ivy mastered a new profession - Sword Master.

The Swordmaster combines spellcasting ability with the skill of using specific weapons, and is a combat master who perfectly combines spells and melee combat. Through meditation, the Swordmaster can perfectly combine his magical power with the weapons he has mastered, gaining extraordinary and top-notch combat capabilities that even the best warriors cannot match.

[Swordmaster] This profession is different from all the professions Ivy has come into contact with before. Although he still has a very powerful spellcasting ability, the number of times he uses spells every day is strictly limited, because the Swordmaster is more focused on the weapon in his hand, and magic is only to make the weapon more lethal.

When a profession is limited in one area, it means it has to make up for it in other areas.

The swordmaster can get a feat at level 5, and then get another feat every two levels, that is, at all odd levels, the swordmaster can get a new feat. In addition, the swordmaster can get an additional bonus feat every six levels after level 5, that is, the swordmaster has a total of two feats available at level 11, 17 and , but these feats are limited to combat feats, item manufacturing feats, metamagic feats and swordmaster secrets. Even so, this is the profession with the most feats Ivey has ever seen.

It can be said that this is a profession that Ivy needs very much now. As a new profession obtained in Middle-earth, Ivy does not have to worry about it being restricted like other professions. It can fully play its strongest point. Moreover, Ivy has just completed the primary ancient ritual of the Beast Bite Sword not long ago, so he can use the ancient elven curved sword as his own swordsman weapon.

Once the Swordmaster has chosen his weapon, he will automatically gain the two abilities [Weapon Focus] and [Smart Defense]. The former allows the Swordmaster to use the selected weapon as flexibly as his own arm, while the latter is a reflection of the Swordmaster's superb swordsmanship, allowing the Swordmaster to gain an Armor Class skill bonus equal to his Intelligence bonus.

With Ivy's current attributes, his armor level is equivalent to 10+3+6=19 points, of which 3 is the agility adjustment value, and 6 is the skill bonus brought by [Smart Defense]. If the additional armor level brought by the mage armor is taken into account, Ivy's defense ability is basically equivalent to that of an adult dragon. It is very difficult for ordinary weapons to break through his defense. As long as he has a sword in his hand, he can rush around the battlefield like a dragon, and he doesn't have to worry about being hurt by other people's attacks.

In addition to these two abilities that enhance melee combat, the Blademaster will also convert part of his magic power into an arcane power pool that can enhance weapons at any time. This is very similar to the magic points used by Ivy [Dazzling Warlock] for super magic, but arcane power is used to enhance the power of Ivy's weapons. He can use arcane power to add various additional abilities to the Beast Bite Sword, such as cool elemental effects, or the "Dancing in the Air" feature that automatically flies up to attack the enemy, or the explosive damage after creating a heavy blow. In short, arcane power is the Blademaster's iconic ability.

In addition to arcane power, the Swordmaster also has the professional ability of [Spell Combat], which allows the Swordmaster to cast spells like other spellcasters and combine spells with melee skills. In simple terms, it is to hold fire in one hand and a knife in the other, chopping and burning at the same time.

Moreover, the sword master's casting speed in between sword swings is unmatched by other magic users. Any spell that an ordinary wizard needs to complete within six seconds can be released by the sword master with just a wave of his hand, and he can also cut twice in the process.

That's right, the Sword Master also has the ability of multiple attacks. At level 8, the Sword Master can attack twice in one round, and at level 15, he can attack three times. This represents the improvement of the Sword Master's swordsmanship ability and his extraordinary reaction ability.

However, as a price, the swordmaster is extremely short of spell slots. He can only have two highest-level spell slots he can cast, and two lower-level spell slots. In other words, a level 3 swordmaster has two 2nd-level spell slots and two 1st-level spell slots, while a level 17 swordmaster only has two 8th-level spell slots and two th-level spell slots. However, all spells cast by the swordmaster will have the effect of raising the level of magic.

With the help of the experience points accumulated from the battles before entering the Valley, Ivy was able to directly upgrade the Sword Master's professional level to level 6.

This gives him three feats and a bonus feat, two swordmaster secrets, and two new class features.

He chose [Graceful Slash], [Combat Reflexes], and [Combat Alertness] respectively, and left a slot for [Backhand Strike].

[Graceful Slash] allows him to use his agility to determine the attack effect of the beast bite sword. [Combat Reflexes] increases his number of opportunity attacks. And [Combat Alertness] doubles the range of his opportunity attacks.

Ivy made this choice because of the "Fearful Slaughter" ancient ability of the Beast Bite Sword, because when the enemy is running away due to fear, it can trigger a melee opportunity attack. Therefore, it is very necessary for Ivy to increase the number of shots in a round of action.

After all, there is nothing in the world that cannot be broken by martial arts except speed.

The space was left open because Ivy did not meet the prerequisite for [Backhand Strike]. This feat required Ivy's Agility to be at least 18 points, and she must have two feats or professional abilities, [Combat Reflexes] and [Weapon Focus].

The effect of [Backhand] is that after an enemy's melee attack against Ivy misses, Ivy can make an opportunity attack against the missed enemy. Combined with the Swordmaster's superb swordsmanship ability, this ability will become another specialty that greatly enhances Ivy's melee ability.

The two new occupational features are [Full Slam] and [Spell Strike]. The former allows the swordmaster to pay a little arcane energy to directly cause maximum damage after hitting the enemy with his weapon, and directly double the damage multiplier when hitting the enemy. The latter allows the swordmaster to transfer spell power through the weapon, and the spell transferred through the weapon can enjoy the bonus of the heavy strike along with the weapon damage, which is equivalent to the spell effect completing the heavy strike. However, this ability limits the spell transferred by the weapon to the "touch" range, that is, the spell must be touched by the hand. Ivy has not learned any similar spells yet.

Because for traditional mages, casting distance means a sense of security.

For the two Swordmaster secrets, Ivy chose [Wand Mastery] and [Enduring Blade].

The former allows Ivy to hold a staff in one hand and a sword in the other like Gandalf, using the staff to enhance the ability of [Spell Combat]. The latter allows the arcane attached to the weapon to last longer to cope with more battles.

In this way, if Ivy encounters a large number of orcs chasing her again, she doesn't have to run away at all. She can just stand where she is and kill them all by herself.

　Press the line!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)