Fortunately, the attribute point rewards from the system could help him completely skip those tedious practice stages.
After returning home, the minotaur boss sent over his salary, minus the cost of the medicine.
100,000.
Staring at the number, Bai Xiaodu rubbed his eyes and counted the zeros several times.
100,000.
If he remembered correctly, Xin Hai'an had only signed a half-month contract, training for only about two hours a day.
Given how busy transcendents usually were, she might not even show up half the time.
An amount he would have to save up for a very, very long time was just pocket change she threw around casually.
Once he confirmed there was no mistake, Bai Xiaodu's resolve to become a transcendent grew even stronger.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Before his newly received salary could even warm up in his account, Bai Xiaodu logged onto several of the Federation's largest shopping websites.
The ranking of spells was very simple. First came basic spells, also known as cantrips.
Formal spells after cantrips were divided into the First to Ninth Circles; the higher the Circle, the more powerful the effect.
He had heard there were even divine spells beyond that, but in truth, Bai Xiaodu had barely even come into contact with First Circle spells.
Commoners could also purchase the Federation's transcendent resources.
However, the merchants' willingness to sell them was the result of meticulous calculations.
If you bought a single-use spell scroll, you would have to pay a hefty price to buy another one once it was used. If you bought a basic class manual, you would have to spend a massive amount of resources to raise your attributes...
And so on. Transcendent-related goods were often structured like a series of interlocking traps designed to hook you, with each step becoming increasingly expensive.
Compared to the probability of a commoner successfully rising through the ranks by studying transcendent knowledge, those who were squeezed until not even their bone dust remained were as numerous as the water in the sea.
Someone had once compared this phenomenon to a carrot on a stick dangled in front of a pig.
He kept scrolling down the interface.
Bai Xiaodu was looking for something that could help him learn cantrips.
The more he scrolled, the tighter his brow furrowed.
What he wanted was the kind of spell scroll that, once viewed, could directly generate a rune pattern within his sea of consciousness.
Compared to carving it stroke by stroke—which even a fool who only played toxic characters in video games while praising their own "hard work" could manage with enough effort—this was far more efficient.
Bai Xiaodu was confident he could learn even faster.
But in the product listings, they either directly listed blatant turn-off prices like several million, or cheap ones like ten to twenty thousand.
This kind of pricing was like a fake inventory listing on Steam; the merchant provided it, but as for what issues lay within—such as whether the scroll was crafted by some evil spirit or a legitimate major clan, or how the scroll's engraving method would actually carve itself into your sea of consciousness—as long as it didn't blow up on the spot, they wouldn't guarantee a single thing.
Life was hard; this little fox could only sigh.
Bai Xiaodu turned his attention to discs.
Compared to magic scrolls that directly formed runes, discs were far inferior.
These items, known as spell recording discs, detailed the entire process of a spellcaster engraving a rune from scratch, along with their feelings and insights afterward.
Furthermore, this thing was played directly inside one's sea of consciousness. It was single-use and self-destructed upon completion; if you wanted to watch it again, you had to buy another.
For those with poor talent, it was perfectly normal to buy thirty discs in one go and still fail to learn the spell, just as it was normal for the engraved runes to be crooked, resulting in incomplete spell power.
But this was his best option.
Bai Xiaodu thought about it.
To advance to a Warlock transcendent, one had to master at least three cantrips.
If he wanted to form a complete combat system of his own, he would need to master three major categories of spells: utility, offense, and defense.
Having finished his deliberation, Bai Xiaodu decided that the first cantrip he would learn would be of the offensive category.
The word "artillery" was the perfect definition of a Warlock.
Moreover, an offensive spell would give him confidence when undergoing actual combat training.
Ultimately, two cantrips caught his eye.
【Freezing Ray】
Ice elements would manifest in front of the caster, persisting until the spell ended.
When attacking, it would strike the target in the form of a beam.
It came with a high probability of causing 【Slow】 and a low probability of causing 【Freeze】.
【Ignite】
Flames would flicker in the caster's hand, persisting until the spell ended, granting the caster the abilities of 【Illumination】 and 【Ignition】.
When attacking, the flames would be thrown at the target, triggering an explosion.
It came with a chance of causing 【Burn】 and a low probability of causing 【Stun】.
Bai Xiaodu hesitated for only a few minutes before making his choice.
【Freezing Ray】
The Federation was no medieval hodgepodge of ancient races; it was a legitimate interstellar colonizer whose military was equipped with power armor for every soldier.
It was only because their technology tree hadn't advanced enough to mass-produce the most powerful armor that they didn't have a situation where everyone was an Astartes.
Uh, if you did the math, that would mean a society of Astartes who could all use psionics and had maxed-out close combat skills. Just thinking about it was terrifying.
When enhanced by power armor, 【Ignite】 would become nothing more than a simple projectile, whereas 【Freezing Ray】 possessed the capability for both single-target elimination and area-of-effect strafing.
He placed the order. At 45,000 credits per disc, he ordered two.
Even robbing a bank wouldn't make money this fast.
Bai Xiaodu's face contorted with physical pain.
Now, he only had 70,000 credits left on hand.
When he thought about the matching power armor, spell ray guns, magic-amplifying gloves, chainswords, and mana recovery potions he would need after learning his spells...
...he felt like he was practically dead already.
The discs were delivered by drone, so they would arrive very quickly. Bai Xiaodu didn't waste the intervening time; he got to work setting up his virtual helmet.
The Federation's technology was highly developed across all fields, and in terms of gaming and entertainment, virtual worlds had been created long ago.
They even featured sensory feedback.
Of course, Bai Xiaodu wasn't using the helmet because of a sudden gaming addiction.
According to his usual schedule, Bai Xiaodu typically worked part-time at the gym in the morning, spent his afternoon until midnight at the night lounge, and immediately took gaming companion orders until around two in the morning after returning home.
In many virtual world games, players could upload their own appearances. If they didn't want to use their actual faces online, they could make minor adjustments.
Bai Xiaodu had uploaded his original appearance but tweaked it to create an avatar that was only eighty percent similar to his real face.
In fact, he had tried using his actual appearance before, but many clients suspected he was using heavy filters or had uploaded a stylized anime face, which made them think their gaming companion was dishonest.
Left with no other choice, the remaining twenty percent of the adjustment was actually used to uglify his facial contours.
Bai Xiaodu held his helmet, calibrating it.
Recently, a game with official Federation backing called 【Myriad Worlds】 had become quite popular. It was a cooperative dungeon-crawler that claimed all its maps were scanned from real-world locations, and all enemies possessed real-life parameters.
Bai Xiaodu really liked the complete realism it offered.
This game was something that could truly be used for actual combat training.
While it was certainly far inferior to professional instruction, as long as one had the equipment, the base game itself was completely free.
Indeed.
Bai Xiaodu planned to learn from one disc as soon as they arrived, and then practice in the game while working as a gaming companion.
Killing two birds with one stone was the best way forward.
Rate on N.U.
