Ivy Doom discovered several new pages inside the Book of Ruin.
Originally, the Book of Ruin had once been known as The Wizard’s Practical Combat Guide—a portable magical textbook designed to help Ivy rapidly develop combat capability.
Different pages recorded various spells particularly useful in battle.
However, since Ivy himself was a Dark Wizard capable of wielding the Killing Curse with terrifying mastery, he had never cared much for the “safer” spells written within its pages.
At most, he occasionally used them when sparring with classmates.
Later, after being influenced by Ancient Magic, The Wizard’s Practical Combat Guide transformed into the current Book of Ruin.
Now, Ivy could even see his own attribute panel displayed on the title page.
The book also allowed him to select feats.
Besides the already chosen Eschew Materials, Ivy currently had five additional feats available.
Unfortunately, because he still hadn’t taken even a single level in any DND-style spellcasting class, most of those feats seemed effectively useless.
Recently, however, several special pages had appeared within the Book of Ruin.
Mage Hand
A spectral floating hand composed of magical force appears at a point within range.
You can freely control this hand as though it were your own.
It can perform nearly anything a normal hand can do:
Turn the pages of a bookEmpty containersOpen doorsClose windows
…and so on.
Ivy swore this “Mage Hand” page had only appeared recently.
Ever since recognizing the Book of Ruin as his newest cheat-like advantage, he had developed the habit of flipping through it constantly.
Yet this page definitely hadn’t existed before.
He recognized the spell immediately.
“Mage Hand” was an iconic spell from the DND universe, though its exact functionality varied depending on the tabletop system or video game adaptation.
For example, in Baldur’s Gate 3, Mage Hand functioned as a summon capable of dealing damage.
Granted, its unarmed attacks usually couldn’t break anyone’s defenses—but that was never its true purpose.
Its force-constructed body could pass freely through bars and fences.
Its floating nature allowed it to bypass traps and spikes.
You’re trapped inside a labyrinth filled with danger.
Your scouting companions are already dead.
At that point, a simple Mage Hand could eliminate most of the remaining hazards.
You could float over pitfalls instead of stepping across your companions’ corpses.
You could disable flame traps without forcing another ally into a suicidal charge.
You could open suspicious doors remotely instead of sacrificing a teammate as the test subject.
In short:
Mage Hand prevented unnecessary deaths among your teammates…
Allowing them to die more meaningfully later.
And for a wizard, what consumable was more valuable than useful teammates?
So this spell was far more impressive than the simple description on the page suggested.
Ivy studied the page again.
It looked almost identical to a standard DND spellbook entry.
“Spell Level” referred to magical rank, ranging from 0th-level through 9th-level magic.
0th-level spells were called cantrips.
These were among the few spells DND casters could use infinitely without consuming spell slots.
“Conjuration,” meanwhile, represented the spell’s school of magic.
Besides Conjuration, there were also schools like Evocation, Transmutation, Divination, and Abjuration.
Ivy vaguely remembered older DND rules allowing wizards to select opposing schools—sacrificing access to certain magic in exchange for strengthening others.
Later editions had abandoned that concept, replacing it with Arcane Traditions that specialized in particular schools instead.
From a roleplaying perspective, Ivy thought the older system sounded more interesting.
But realistically?
If you truly were a wizard, who would willingly abandon entire categories of spells?
The more magic you knew, the stronger and more versatile you became.
Giving up spells entirely simply cost too much.
Besides Mage Hand, Ivy discovered several additional cantrips:
Green-Flame BladeMessageMinor Illusion
All of them were 0th-level spells.
Green-Flame Blade
An Evocation cantrip that coated a weapon in emerald fire, allowing attacks against two nearby targets simultaneously. Find the original chapter at g.com.
Message
Allowed the caster to send whispered messages to nearby targets.
Recipients could reply in equally quiet whispers, making the communication difficult to detect.
Minor Illusion
Created either an illusory object or a false sound for at least one minute.
Perfect for distractions or deception.
If Fred Weasley and George Weasley ever learned this cantrip, Hogwarts would probably descend into complete chaos.
Perhaps these 0th-level cantrips were the key to unlocking a true DND spellcasting class.
Ivy immediately arrived at that conclusion.
Nothing in this world happened without reason.
The Book of Ruin wouldn’t suddenly generate new spells for no purpose.
Clearly, the book was attempting to reveal the secrets of magic to its master—Ivy himself.
Judging by the pages, these cantrips didn’t appear particularly difficult.
And Ivy considered himself a magical genius.
Naturally, he had to try them immediately.
He drew his wand and began constructing the spell model for Mage Hand according to the page’s instructions.
Then he filled the structure with magical power.
For a genius wizard and Dark Arts master like Ivy, this process posed no challenge whatsoever.
Although wizards and DND mages used completely different magical systems, both fundamentally relied upon magical energy to cast spells.
So despite this being his first attempt, Ivy was certain a mere cantrip couldn’t possibly defeat him.
But then something completely unexpected happened.
The spell model—already fully constructed—collapsed at the very last moment before casting.
The dispersed magical energy caused no damage.
Other than making Ivy slowly furrow his brow.
….
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