On the morning of the sixth day, when Lin Yuan returned from the wilderness, his pockets were cleaner than his face.
Wait, that was backward.
His pockets were bulging, and his face was clean.
He had gone on a killing spree in the wilderness over the past five days.
From Tier 1, Level 2 Gray-skinned Jackals to a Tier 1, Level 7 Wind-patterned Leopard, and even a Tier 1, Level 8 Rock-armored Giant Scorpion that he had managed to take down by a stroke of luck yesterday evening.
The core of that scorpion alone had sold for nearly two thousand, and its carapace had been snatched up on the spot by a passing blacksmith for the high price of ten thousand.
Sitting on the bed in his small house in the Old City District, Lin Yuan dumped the past few days' gains onto the sheets with a clatter.
Twelve monster cores, various monster materials, and plus the B-rank ability card from Zhao Tianyu that he hadn't sold yet—it all added up to about 70,000 to 80,000 Huaxia coins.
For someone who was so poor five days ago that he could only afford an E-rank spear, this was already a fortune.
But Lin Yuan knew he couldn't hold onto this money.
He had a place to go today.
The Donghai City Ability User Association was located in the most prosperous part of the city center.
It was a five-story gray building with dark gold magic runes embedded in the outer walls. Two uniformed guards stood at the entrance—both were ability users of at least Tier 2.
Lin Yuan had only passed by this place before; he had never entered.
It wasn't that he didn't want to, but that he couldn't.
To put it nicely, the Ability User Association was a service center for ability users; to put it bluntly, it was a money pit.
Pills, equipment, techniques, information—they had everything, and everything was ridiculously expensive.
A month's savings for an ordinary monster hunter would vanish after a single lap inside.
Lin Yuan pushed open the glass doors of the association, and a scent mixing medicinal fragrance with the smell of metal hit him.
The lobby was spacious. To the left was the equipment area, to the right was the material trading area, and the stairs directly ahead led to the second floor—where pills and techniques were sold.
People came and went in the lobby, most of them ability users in hunting gear, gathered in small groups talking.
Lin Yuan had a clear goal and went straight to the second floor.
Behind the counter in the pill area stood a young female clerk with a ponytail, organizing the shelves.
Seeing Lin Yuan approach, she gave a professional smile. “Hello, how can I help you?”
“Bone Tempering Pills.”
The clerk blinked. “Our Bone Tempering Pills come in three grades: low-grade for three thousand each, mid-grade for eight thousand, and high-grade for twenty thousand. Which would you like?”
Lin Yuan silently calculated his total net worth in his head.
“Low-grade, five of them.”
The clerk didn't show any hint of disdain. Anyone working at the association knew that those who dared to buy Bone Tempering Pills, whether low or high grade, were not ordinary characters.
She efficiently took out a small blue porcelain bottle from the counter and poured out five pills about the size of a fingernail, each shimmering with a faint jade-like luster.
“That will be fifteen thousand in total.”
Lin Yuan paid the money, tucked the five Bone Tempering Pills away, and turned to go downstairs.
He didn't leave in a hurry. Instead, he found a seat in the lounge area of the first-floor lobby, pretending to read the mission announcements on the wall while actually observing the people passing through.
Since the cultists could sneak into the city, there was a high probability they would also operate in a hub of information like the Ability User Association.
In the past few days, he had discovered two more monsters with implanted rune stones in the wilderness, both killed near the city limits. This indicated that the cult's monitoring range was shrinking toward the city.
However, his main purpose for coming here today wasn't to investigate the cult, but rather—
Lin Yuan squeezed the small porcelain bottle in his pocket.
Bone Tempering Pills.
In this world, an ability user's strength was determined by three major components.
First was the rank and realm of the ability itself; second was physical strength; and third was the ability user's mental power.
Improving an ability relied on cultivation and awakening, physical strength relied on things like bone tempering, and mental power relied on natural treasures or gravity mental chambers.
So-called bone tempering involved using pills and special techniques to refine the bones and tendons of the entire body.
With each completed round of tempering, the strength of the bones and tendons would rise to a new level, and the ability load they could withstand would increase accordingly.
It was considered decent for an ordinary person to reach three rounds of tempering.
Those with better talent, aided by high-grade pills, could reach five rounds.
The core scions of great families, built up with resources from childhood, could reach six rounds.
As for eight rounds, there weren't even dozens of people in the entire Dragon Nation who had achieved it.
And nine rounds—that was a legendary realm. It was said that only the supreme powerhouses standing at the peak of humanity had ever reached it.
But Lin Yuan had seen a line of small text in his system.
【Bone Tempering: Current Round 0】
【Tip: After tempering to 9 rounds, the hidden option 'Ten Rounds as One' can be triggered.】
Ten Rounds as One.
Those four words alone made his heart skip a beat.
The problem was that normal bone tempering required a massive amount of pills and time.
The medicinal power contained in one low-grade Bone Tempering Pill was, at most, enough for an ordinary person to complete one-third of the first round.
The medicinal power required grew more terrifying the further one went, and every round carried a risk of failure. If one failed, not only were the pills wasted, but the bones and tendons could also be damaged.
Furthermore, everyone only had two chances to fail at bone tempering. Once someone failed twice, they could never undergo bone tempering again.
Their bone tempering realm would be locked at its previous state, which was why most people stopped at four or five rounds.
But Lin Yuan had the system.
He returned to his small house in the Old City District, locked the door, and drew the curtains.
Five low-grade Bone Tempering Pills were lined up on the table, shimmering with a warm jade light under the lamp.
【Detected Low-grade Bone Tempering Pill ×5. Consume Ability Points to perform tempering and enhancement?】
“Yes.”
【Enhancing each pill to Peak Grade requires 50 Ability Points. Confirm?】
Fifty points each; five pills meant two hundred and fifty points.
Lin Yuan glanced at his Ability Points balance—accumulated from his frantic monster hunting over the past few days, it totaled 412 points.
“Confirm.”
As soon as he spoke, the number of Ability Points in his palm jumped five times, dropping from 412 to 162.
Meanwhile, the color of the five Bone Tempering Pills on the table began to change.
The original jade luster gradually deepened, turning from pale green to dark green, and then from dark green to a rich hue almost like black jade.
Fine golden patterns appeared on the surface of the pills, like naturally formed meridians, with faint light flowing within them.
Lin Yuan picked one up and held it to his nose—there was no medicinal scent at all.
For a Peak Grade pill, the medicinal power was completely contained within, without a single drop leaking out.
“Let's begin.”
He sat cross-legged and placed the first Peak Grade Bone Tempering Pill into his mouth.
The pill melted instantly, and a wave of warm power plunged from his throat straight into his dantian before exploding outward, spreading through his limbs and bones.
It hurt.
It wasn't a sharp, stabbing pain, but a deep, aching soreness that went into the very marrow of his bones, as if someone were grinding sandpaper back and forth against them.
The veins on Lin Yuan's forehead bulged instantly, and cold sweat poured down his cheeks.
But he gritted his teeth and didn't make a sound.
Rate on N.U.
