"Miss System, give me an upgrade! Advanced Meditation and Advanced Summoning Magic!"
Li Fei narrowed her eyes contentedly, silently issuing the call within her heart.
If she had a choice, the realms of battle-qi and meditation techniques would of course be her top priority to upgrade. After all, the buffs these two extraordinary fields of knowledge brought—physical penetration, spell penetration, casting speed, attack speed, and the like—were extremely immediate in effect, and after a period of cultivation, they would also yield very considerable permanent attribute boosts.
However, even though Miss Philanthropist had been willing to lower her moral bottom line and line her own pockets, all that had merely filled the shortfall in resources required for her custom class. Two hundred thousand Wealth Points seemed like a lot, but it was still a long way from the price tag of Advanced Furnace Battle-Qi—even the date hinted at by the Shroud of Destiny was still several months away.
She could only settle for the next best thing: spending two potential points to, for now, max out the realms of Summoning Magic and the "Five Elements Meditation." (The previous chapter undercounted the Strength +1 and Potential Point +1 from the fifteen-pull; this has been corrected.)
But in the very next second, Li Fei abruptly shot to her feet, sending up a great spray of water.
"What's wrong?"
Su Ling'er rubbed at her eyes, into which droplets had splashed, and tilted her head up in confusion.
The young madam, who just moments ago had been quietly silent, grinning to herself like a fool, was now frowning deeply, astonishment and gravity intertwining on her face.
Realizing she'd lost her composure a bit, Li Fei smoothed out her brow, casually made up an excuse, and stuck out her tongue:
"I'm just not quite used to this sudden surge of strength... It's nothing, let's keep soaking."
She sat back down in the bath as if nothing had happened, and as usual teased Little Yawen, sneaked a couple of sips of the bathwater, then affectionately led Grace and Su Ling'er back to the room arm in arm, enjoying the midnight sandwich snack on this night of her promotion.
It wasn't until the sky began to pale and her bedmates had fallen into deep sleep that the pleasant expression on Li Fei's face slowly faded, and she gazed at the ceiling, panting.
When she had requested to upgrade the realms of her meditation technique and Summoning Magic, she had received a prompt from Miss System:
Insufficient potential points.
The thing she'd worried about had, after all, come to pass—as she herself grew stronger, not only did leveling up require more and more experience points, but raising the levels of extraordinary knowledge now demanded ever more potential points as well.
"—Miss System, can't you cut me some slack? If I only upgrade one of them, would the potential points be enough?"
No response.
Miss System was like a goddess with her eyes veiled in black gauze, sitting with her cheek propped on her hand upon a divine throne shrouded in shadow, never actively answering Miss Top Courtesan's doubts—only waiting for her to explore the vastness and grandeur of the divine on her own.
In this moment, anxiety pervaded her heart, even overwhelming the joy of her Sequence rank advancement.
After wealth, yet another mountain—named experience points—came crashing down upon her heart. The heavy pressure left her somewhat flustered and irritated.
Ever since her wolf-den grass-cutting expedition had gotten onto the right track, although her stock of potential points had always been limited, this was the very first time they were truly, genuinely not enough.
And as alarm bells rang long in Li Fei's mind, she also realized another very serious problem:
Her old point-allocation strategy would have to be retired as well.
According to her previous line of thinking, Li Fei would max out her meditation technique, battle-qi, and Summoning Magic first, then flexibly raise the realms of other extraordinary knowledge based on actual need—she hadn't even been in a hurry to invest points into Natural Magic and Chaos Magic, which others regarded as core.
After all, with the Book of Knowledge, even just introductory-level Natural Magic did nothing to stop her from casting the eighth-tier spell [Dragon's Strength].
But now, given that the prompt provided by the [Shroud of Destiny] might not be reliable, Li Fei was bound to hoard Wealth Points to purchase Furnace Battle-Qi; and considering the price of fourth-tier and even higher-level Books of Knowledge... relying purely on whaling to learn spells simply wasn't realistic. Even if she worked overtime taking clients and her workers hauled lumber until they coughed blood, the Wealth Points she earned wouldn't be enough to support such extravagance... which meant Li Fei would have to learn spells through other channels.
A single-digit aptitude, at a Magic Academy where the average person was a one-in-a-thousand talent, was still not even good enough to scrape the bottom; mastering spells through her own effort was nothing but a pipe dream.
Under such circumstances, the Spell Altar became the most crucial channel for mastering spells—altars like the one in Folded Space D-07, through which Li Fei had once mastered [Fireball].
Compared to a Book of Knowledge, the advantage of a Spell Altar was that, so long as you paid enough resources to activate it, you could use it multiple times; the drawback was that you had to have mastered the prerequisite extraordinary knowledge!
Want to master a fourth-tier spell through a Spell Altar? First raise the relevant extraordinary knowledge to Advanced!
Under such restrictions, the priority of investing points into Natural Magic—and even Chaos Magic—in Li Fei's mind was suddenly bumped up to a level on par with Summoning Magic, second only to battle-qi and the meditation technique.
"So rough."
The more Li Fei thought about it, the bigger her headache grew, her face knotting with worry.
The massive amount of experience points needed to gain potential points from leveling up, plus the great many fields of extraordinary knowledge clamoring to be fed, were already enough to make one's head ache—and on top of that, during this period, Viranean had stopped bringing in any experience points...
Not to mention, if money and experience were this scarce at merely the mid-Sequence level, how was she supposed to get by at the high Sequences?
Suddenly, something soft and faintly steamy with moisture brushed against her cheek.
She turned her head and met Miss Grace's gaze.
The latter said nothing, merely cradling Li Fei's face quietly, her clear azure eyes carrying a hint of concern, silently asking her, "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing."
Li Fei lowered her head, and the two of them rubbed the tips of their noses together: "I just feel a little lost about the road ahead."
Grace, shorter than Li Fei and more slender of frame, hearing this, wriggled her body up a bit, arched her waist, and wrapped a pair of lotus-root arms around Li Fei's neck, bringing warmth to Li Fei with the snug little harbor that fit within a single grasp.
The corners of Li Fei's mouth curved upward, and she took hold of the foot that Grace had timidly rested upon her lower belly. It felt slightly cool and smooth to the touch, and as her fingertips kneaded, she could still feel the lingering tooth marks:
"No need to worry, there's nothing that can stump me."
"Mm."
As always, Grace placed her complete trust in Li Fei.
"When do you plan to set off for the Land of Inheritance?"
Li Fei quickly changed the subject.
Those who tread the extraordinary path inevitably have to gallivant all over the world.
Back when Li Fei first became acquainted with Lady Annie, Lilith had been out seeking an opportunity to break through to Sequence 7, and more recently she'd even left without a word.
There was also Irena, who'd suddenly vanished after the exchange match, and Qin Zhihua, who was away on business...
Grace could be no exception either.
A few days ago, Miss Grace had told Li Fei that she had sensed the guidance of that black-and-red bow, and needed to journey to a Land of Inheritance where spells and battle techniques belonging exclusively to the [Chaos Archer] lay buried, and where part of the seal on her inheritance weapon could also be unlocked.
A Land of Inheritance could not be entered by others, so Grace could only set out alone; the good news was that Loxibrook had a teleportation route named [Maw of the Old Beast], which led directly to [Remish], a fortress of the Strength alignment. If all went smoothly, Grace might even make it home before Madam Zhihua returned.
The bad news was that, when she came back, the person she longed for might not be there to welcome her home.
Because Li Fei had already made a certain decision.
Amid their soft, murmuring exchange, Miss Grace—worn out from being teased—drifted quietly off to sleep. Only, at some unknown point, she had once again curled up into Li Fei's embrace, and even clamped her ankle around Li Fei's calf.
Li Fei, meanwhile, gazed at the System Panel, a faint weariness in her eyes—but she could still hold on.
Clearly, two people's worth of cuddling was no longer enough to knock out Li Fei, whose constitution had broken past a hundred and who had endured three weeks of succubus-abyss-style grueling training—let alone make her faint early.
"Miss System, Advanced Meditation."
She made another attempt.
This time, her potential points dropped from 3 to 1.
Which meant that once an extraordinary knowledge's realm touched the Advanced tier, it would consume double the potential points—and at the high Sequences, perhaps even more.
But the gains were equally remarkable.
Advanced "Five Elements Meditation" (the Enhanced "Five Elements Meditation" unlocks after promotion to Sequence 6):
All-element casting speed +80%; all-element spell effect +20%; all-element spell penetration +50%; mana recovery speed +40%; increases meditation efficiency, mana affinity, and spell resistance.
Can enter a meditative state, in which mana recovery speed is increased by 100%, and which gradually raises intelligence, charisma, experience points, mana ceiling, and perception.
Note: Advanced "Five Elements Meditation" can raise intelligence by up to 50 points, charisma by 20 points, and the mana ceiling by 500 points.
As the meditation technique's realm broke through, Li Fei distinctly felt the transformation of the mana within her body.
Although there was for the moment no change in total quantity, the gaseous mana drifting freely within her body now gathered in her cerebral domain like all rivers running to the sea, forming a churning, ceaseless mass of azure mana mist, exceptionally dense.
Drip, drip...
Clear, pleasant sounds of water echoed within her skull, as droplet after droplet of liquid mana fell from the mana mist, soaking her soul, and the spell models in her sea of consciousness were likewise soaked, glittering radiantly.
Liquid mana was a domain that, by rights, only mid-Sequence Transcendents could set foot in—yet Miss Witch of Bliss, relying on her exceptional aptitude, had with a low-Sequence body mastered the Advanced meditation technique, causing her mana to liquefy ahead of schedule and evolve into a half-mist, half-liquid state. Compared to gaseous mana, this kind of mana was more nimble and more refined, capable of fundamentally elevating her casting ability.
An astonishing buff effect—nearly double the boost of the Intermediate meditation technique.
—Two potential points well spent.
Li Fei savored her own transformation in fine detail, feeling refreshed and clear-headed, her very soul brimming with surging power.
As the saying goes, you can know the whole leopard by glimpsing a single spot—from the meditation technique's effects alone, Li Fei could roughly judge just how vast a gulf lay between low-Sequence and mid-Sequence Transcendents.
Only after her mana had stabilized did Li Fei begin her next action.
She still lay on the bed, her left arm cradling Grace, her right arm entangled by Su Ling'er, her body hard to move—but her fingers could.
Li Fei crooked her fingers, and a wisp of mana seeped out from between them, forming a rope that looped around the Mind-Clearing Pill she had prepared in advance, then carefully lifted it before her face.
It was said that certain powerful high-Sequence mage-ladies could, without using any spell at all, beat a mid-Sequence Transcendent to death by sheer, tempestuous, billowing mana alone.
As for Li Fei, because her aptitude was simply too dreadful, even though she'd mastered the Advanced meditation technique and undergone three rounds of constitution transformation and triple Bloodline Witchification—greatly boosting her mana affinity—her level of mana control remained her weak point, unable to rival a true genius like Miss Grace.
This meant that even something as simple as a telekinetic retrieval like this still required Miss Spell Encyclopedia to put in six or seven points of focus; it couldn't exactly be called effortless.
But fortunately, diligence can make up for clumsiness.
As the vial tilted, Li Fei—sandwiched between the two beautiful girls—opened her mouth to catch the pill tumbling down, then closed her eyes to meditate, intending to digest as quickly as possible the rapid period of strength growth that had arrived in the wake of her meditation technique's realm advancement.
Then, in peak condition, she would take a trip into the Folded Space to see exactly what kind of world that dark-gold-grade coordinate marked.
Hopefully the natives there could provide richer experience points than the orc tribe—otherwise Miss System was going to fall out of favor, hee hee.
War Academy.
"Sssss... you really do love biting people, huh."
Kova clutched tightly at his ceaselessly bleeding neck, the rolling sweat soaking into the wound, bringing a fiery, searing pain.
"Isn't the essence of combat to bring out the maximum lethality of every part of your body?"
Li Fei lay sprawled on the ground, grinning, the line of her lips dyed crimson with blood.
Of course, in her bout with Kova she had taken minor injuries too—her left leg had been kicked and broken, and she couldn't get up again; threads of tea fragrance wafted along with her glistening, dripping sweat throughout the furnace-like multifunctional gravity training chamber.
Make no mistake—at the War Academy, a missing arm or broken leg really did count as only a minor injury. Unless one was a special talent, even noble-track and war-track students couldn't get through a day without beating someone bloody or being beaten bloody—and this was no "slacking off," but a blood-soaked lesson left behind with their lives by countless assassinated nobles and decapitated generals.
In a world of sword and magic, even those at the leadership level couldn't have combat ability too weak; at the very least they needed a degree of self-preservation, lest they be one-shotted before their guards could arrive to rescue them. Such people, no matter how brilliantly resourceful or grandly talented they'd been in life, were no different in a Transcendent's eyes from those exquisitely talented women of the lowly caste in feudal society—to be toyed to death however one pleased.
Apart from the two of them, there were other students in the gravity chamber—after all, the venue was vast, and every single second the gravity chamber stayed running was burning money. Unless students were willing to pay a large amount of credits, it was nearly impossible to specially activate the gravity chamber for just a few people.
The reason Li Fei was here was that among the exchange-match rewards the War Academy had promised its lower-year students, one was that the teams ranked "top ten within the school" could receive special training in the gravity chamber free of charge, for a period of three days—and although Miss Try-Hard loathed remedial sessions to the bone, she'd still brandished her War Academy silver brooch and very enthusiastically signed up to join the make-up training. After all, chances to freeload off the gravity chamber didn't come around often.
The content of the special training was also extremely crude and simple, mainly just two things:
Beat the hell out of your classmates!
Overload your physical conditioning!
After yet another round of paired slaughter, the scalding floor was soaked with sweat and blood—some people had even had their bladders kicked open and the contents leaked out, and the smell was not pleasant at all, yet no one paid the slightest mind to such a stench.
As students collapsed one after another, two Life-discipline mages—graduates of the Magic Academy who'd been hired by the War Academy—stepped across the slick, greasy floor, nimbly treating each and every wounded student. They knew very well how to heal injuries by the most efficient, most mana-saving means—it was just that the process was a touch inhumane, rivaling an interrogation.
For instance, if a bone was broken, they would first grab hold of the twisted limb with their hands, stack the broken bone back together amid howls of agony, then cast the third-tier "Bone-Mending," combined with the second-tier [Heal Minor Wounds]—the effect was in no way inferior to the fourth-tier [Holy Light Chant]; though the process was juuust a teeny bit painful, it really did save mana.
It was hard to imagine just what these two senior sisters had gone through after taking up posts at the War Academy, to transform from beloved, kind, and considerate "Bridal Class" students into the kind of glacial domineering beauties they were now—their faces stained with the blood of the wounded, yet still not changing expression as, amid spine-chilling "crack" sounds, they popped dislocated bones out and pieced them back together, and coldly told a student crying out in pain, "Quit your wailing."
Fortunately, toward Li Fei—a wholesome, true-blue little Magic Academy junior—they were still rather gentle, willing to spend a bit more mana and chanting time just to nurse her comfortably and properly, and even flashing her a rare smile.
"What are you still lying around for? Up, up!"
Once the wounded had all been treated, the bald dean, Barrett, kicked and shoved the outstanding students—who lay strewn every which way all over the floor—back to their feet.
Then, his carrot-thick fingers pointing at a heap of heavy metal armor, he bellowed at the top of his lungs:
"Put it all on!"
At his words the students hurried over, and Barrett, still feeling dissatisfied, planted a kick on his own son's backside:
"Run! Move fast, and look sharp doing it!"
Amid the clanging clatter of metal collisions, the thick armor weighing over a hundred catties was donned, and factoring in [Triple Gravity], it came to several hundred catties.
Some teetering, ashen-faced students had already been unable to keep from igniting their battle-qi.
"Push-ups. Five hundred of them."
The moment Barrett finished speaking, there came another burst of clanging metal, and the students didn't even have the leisure to complain before, groaning miserably, they dropped to the ground, not daring to dawdle for an instant—otherwise the corporal-punishment-loving dean might get "itchy hands and feel like finding someone to practice on."
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