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by Little Merger

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88. Tanky Mage System 1-32

Tanky Mage System

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While a certain young man hides in a certain Ruins City, wanting to become a tanky mage through passive farming. Mages should focus on learning more spells and magic? There is no time to invest in body strengthening? Mages are defenseless when they run out of mana? None of these are a problem for Gurney and his Passive Farming System. Through the system, Gurney trains both his body and mind at the same time, he goes beyond the limits and logic of an ordinary mage. This is a mage who casts spells while tanking hits, his recovery speed surpasses even warriors and knights. This is the journey of a vigilant and careful mage who grows tankier and tankier. … With the rising waves of darkness, the steampunk steel ship sets sail on a journey and adventure. Whales sink to the depths of the sea, sirens sing with beautiful voices, calling out to the Transcendent sailors who hunt for mermaids. The mysterious Time Hunters who obey the ancient rules search for their prey. He who bears the title of "Hero" carries the burden of fate as he steps on the road to write a new page of history. Ancient "Sealed Ones" rush to break out of their imprisonment, wanting to create and release new "Supernatural Memetics". The combination of steam technology and supernatural powers bring forth the era of "Transcendent Genetic Warriors". Infant dragons who have just hatched watch as the Dragon Slayer digs out their mother's heart from her body. Calamity level lifeforms sharpen their blades, stepping into the stage of this extraordinary era. The tides of the era surge and swirl, bringing along the mysterious fog of darkness… The indescribable existence nurtures and grows… Along with the stare of the Abyss…

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Tanky Mage System #Chapter 1 - Read Tanky Mage System Chapter 1 Online - All Page - NOVEL NEXT

A Mage Should Be Tanky!

At the border of the wilderness plain.

Sugar Ruins City.

In a wide and bright dome-shaped classroom.

"Student Gurney, what do you think is the most important thing for a mage?"

On the podium of the large domed classroom currently holding a supernatural lecture, the female lecturer Hillary Potter, a tall and proud figure with pale skin and curly blond hair, called out Gurney and asked.

Sixteen-year-old Gurney Lawrence, who had short black hair, black pupils, and was wearing a black turtleneck shirt, stood up and answered in a calm, composed manner, "I think that a mage needs to learn to be tanky. Only then can he hold his ground and be able to unleash his spells properly."

Once he had said that, the fifty Apprentice Mage students in the classroom went into a daze for a moment before someone erupted with chuckles.

Followed by someone's laughter, and finally, everyone's uncontrollable and hysterical laughter.

The entire classroom was filled with laughter.

Senior Mage Hillary Potter was also unable to hold back as she laughed along.

It was nothing but common sense; as a magic-focused Transcendent, the most important thing was to be proficient in all of the powerful spells that you knew, as well as all sorts of supernatural knowledge.

As for the idea that this student Gurney thought of — for mages to be tanky — it was way too absurd.

"Can you describe your viewpoint concisely?" Hillary Potter did not rebuke Gurney's words.

Because these students of Sugar Ruins City Academy were still young boys and girls who had yet to step into the adult world.

When they truly experienced the "blood" and "terror" of this mysterious supernatural world, they would give up on those "immature" ideas.

They would walk on the path of a mage that countless pioneering elites and genius Transcendents had created before them.

Facing his classmates' mockery, Gurney showed no changes in his expression. He did not feel ashamed because of their response; he was simply calm and composed.

After a short silence, he continued to explain, "As we all know, mages have very powerful long-range offensive methods and the extremely high power output capable of targeting a large area. These are traits that other supernatural classes cannot match."

"But in terms of defense against physical and magic attacks, we are relatively weaker, or rather, our bodies are as thin as paper. We get torn apart instantly with just one hit.

"The result is that many powerful and outstanding supernatural mages die in the hands of skilled assassins. Sneak attackers with peculiar or unique abilities might also get into close range and kill the mage in an extremely unfair manner.

"From what I know, in the history of Oasia North Continent, there had been several incidents where high-ranking Spellcasters were sneak-attacked and had their defenses broken through, causing their bodies to be torn to shreds. This was what resulted in the Black Crane incident, which led several important events to go down an unpredictable path.

"If a mage is willing to spend time and effort to train their body, to allow their body to gain greater endurance against attacks, they would still be able to survive in complex situations even if they lost their shield. They will also then be able to counterattack their enemies."

"A good viewpoint." Hillary Potter nodded slightly. "But the problem is, mages are weak in physical strength and defense, to begin with.

"Don't you think that spending that time and effort on researching spell knowledge would have far greater efficiency than raising your endurance?

"Furthermore, as your supernatural knowledge becomes deeper, you will be able to explore the Ancient Ruins, the Fog Wilderness Plain, as well as board the recently popular Steampunk Steel Ship. You will be able to survive these sea explorations and deserted island excavations, gaining more supernatural resources for yourself.

"With enough resources, you will become an even stronger mage. You will not have to worry about your own defense and vitality, instead of ending up as a weaker mage that has some sort of defensive capability."

Hillary Potter easily rebuked Gurney's words.

Next, she waved her hand to indicate that he should sit down; she did not give him a chance to argue.

As for Gurney, he was not like other teenagers who would be anxious to defend and explain their view to the lecturer either.

He sat down calmly with a tranquil expression.

It was as if the discussion earlier could not raise any emotions in his heart.

I get the logic, but as a fragile mage, survival is still the most important. Wanting to pursue greater firepower but not survivability, this sort of extreme path is not safe!

Gurney who had sat down sighed internally.

There was also a reason why Gurney Lawrence pointed out that "mages should be tanky" and "stability is key".

Mainly because he was a transmigrator, one who had a careful nature from birth.

Half a year ago, on a stormy night.

In

Summoner's Canyon

, Gurney's tanky-mage character, Wanderer, beat the opponent's fragile Mage with a 9 to 0 score.

During his excitement, Gurney knocked over a bottle and caused a short circuit. He was electrocuted. But after that shock, he received another: he had transmigrated to an alternate world.

It was a mysterious steampunk world.

When he first arrived, Gurney felt fear, uneasiness, and a sense of loss. However, after a while, Gurney started to feel excited that he was an

orphan

here; it was a good sign.

After half a year.

Gurney was finally able to accept and had adapted to his new identity — he was an adopted orphan with a decent talent as a mage.

After learning about this world's terror and danger while knowing that he was a fragile mage, Gurney, who was a careful person, naturally chose to walk on the path of the tanky mage, which suited him best.

Even though his tanky mage theory was rebuked by his lecturer, Gurney did not feel any dejectedness.

The concept of a tanky mage existed in the world of

Magecraft

; Gurney was not the person who came up with it.

However, in this world, the mainstream path for a mage was to learn spell knowledge to gain control of stronger spells. The idea of a tanky mage was too unorthodox.

It was impossible for him to try and change the ideal of supreme spellcasting that the students in the class held with just some words.

But for Gurney, the tankiness (or rather, the lack of) of other people was their own problem.

Gurney himself was careful to the limit. Naturally.

In this supernatural steampunk world, the reason why Gurney wanted to walk the path of a tanky mage was, first of all, that he had a cautious nature and loved the survivability of a strong body.

The second reason was that the idea of a tanky mage was completely feasible in his situation…

On the podium.

Hillary Potter was teaching the Apprentice Mages about various techniques and rules, among which were stories of explorations in the Steam Ruins.

Many students were listening attentively to her words.

And Gurney, who already had more avenues to this information compared to other people, knew even more supernatural information than that.

The details regarding the various mysterious ruin explorations that Gurney knew were far bloodier and crueler than what Hillary Potter was describing.

Thus, he lacked interest in the lecturer's words.

His gaze went toward the hazy window. The first thing that he focused on was the unique style of Sugar Ruins City, its color and appearance heavily resembling Byzantine architecture.

The style of this city's architecture was only similar to the Byzantine era. For the finer details, the supernatural steampunk style covered the city with beautiful mechanical lines and curves.

Large and small houses, along with high-rises and bungalows, extended to the outskirts like scales on a body.

Next, looking further, large steel-framed steampunk-styled steam factories, with their huge steel chimneys spewing dense black smoke, occupied the periphery of Sugar Ruins City.

Looking even further, one could see the supernatural steam trains on the outskirts of the city.

At this moment, a steam train was emitting a loud noise as it burned the newly excavated black iron ores and gradually traveled far away.

This was the world that Gurney was in — the Supernatural Steampunk World.

It was the steampunk era that had the supernatural steam engine as the heart, the huge steel frames as the skeleton, and the supernatural knowledge of the mystical as the flesh and blood — all progressing towards prosperity and breaking through hurdles to discover the unknown territories of the world.

Thankfully, Gurney who had transmigrated to this mysterious world was not alone: a very powerful "Passive Farming System" had come along with him.

The location of this Sugar Ruins City that Gurney resided in was the intersection point of this world's steampunk civilization and the mysterious supernatural wilderness; it was the "City of Riches" that was filled with both danger and opportunities.

As for the currently weak Gurney, he was still carefully living in this dangerous city by the fringe, quietly farming away passively.

[0] Tank – someone who takes the hits/damage for a team; a meatshield.

Orphan – because MCs often transmigrated to characters with dead or missing parents.

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Sugar Ruins City

Ding ding ding…

The bells rang, signifying the end of school.

Gurney looked outside the window.

It was currently evening. The sky was hazy and gray, and the air was filled with the sharp stench of burnt "magic-source coal". This smell would only get less pungent after a huge rain.

"Another ordinary and peaceful day has passed." Gurney stretched his body as he sighed.

The other students were all getting up and leaving with joyful chatter.

People who could enroll in Sugar Supernatural Academy were mostly those with affluent backgrounds.

And those who could join the "magic faculty" were even richer because mages had to be able to spend a huge sum of money in all aspects. Potion, alchemy, magic circle, incantation, machinery, rune, elemental… all sorts of subjects needed the foundation of great wealth and capital.

Subconsciously, Gurney touched the inner pocket of his black shirt.

He felt a metallic sensation.

His seemingly ordinary black shirt was actually worn over a powerful "black-iron soft armor" with high defense.

This black-iron soft armor was a piece of rare supernatural equipment that was "black-iron grade", and it was quite valuable.

Black-iron metal was an elementary "supernatural metal" in the supernatural-metals list.

Unlike with an ordinary metal such as iron, the supernatural metal black iron had an almost perfect trait.

Black iron was 0.62 times the density of pure iron, and its tensile strength was five to six times that of steel. It also had good ductility and toughness. These were the reasons why it could become a supernatural metal.

Through metallurgy, mixing in a small amount of supernatural black iron could turn steel into a "black-iron alloy" that had extraordinary strength and toughness.

And this was the reason why large steel structures could be built continuously in this steampunk age.

As for the black-iron soft armor that Gurney wore, it was the armor that an alchemist had created using the supernatural black-iron metal, and it possessed supernatural attributes as well.

Ordinary weapons could not even scratch the surface of this black-iron soft armor.

Normal mages often wore the supernatural mage cloaks. They would never think of wearing heavy metallic armor that would only weigh them down.

As for Gurney, he felt that wearing a mage cloak openly like that was simply broadcasting to your enemies that you were fragile.

As the super cautious advocate of the path of mage tankiness, Gurney not only had the concept of tankiness, but he even set himself as a role model.

Tankiness!

It was not just for show; he backed it with real action.

Gurney was wearing a black-iron soft armor with shocking defenses under his normal black shirt.

This soft armor had provided Gurney a great deal of help in his past battles although those were quite rare, to be honest.

After writing his notes and arranging his books, Gurney turned to leave the classroom, but suddenly, an agile figure blocked the path between Gurney's seat and the entrance door.

It was a young girl with blond hair and blue eyes wearing a blue mage cloak; she had a curvy body and an outstanding appearance.

On her cloak, there were supernatural runes all over, shining in faint blue light that could be observed at times, making her body shape even more outstanding.

This was not standard clothing; it was a genuine cloak with supernatural attributes. As a supernatural armor, it had great defensive power.

Of course, compared to the black-iron soft armor, this cloak's defense was lower.

As he gazed at the other party's pale skin and outstanding facial features, Gurney remained completely unmoved.

This young girl named Yulair Kogen was a true "whale".

Gurney had once guessed that her family owned a mine. Not long after, through some secret channels, Gurney learned that the family of this student really owned a mine, more than one, in fact. She even had aristocratic status.

In Sugar Ruins City, there were many rich people, but those who had aristocratic statuses were few.

"What is it?" Gurney looked around and asked in a low tone.

Most of the students in the classroom had left already; nobody should have noticed that he was still here.

"We have a gathering tonight. At the same old place," Yulair Kogen spoke in a clear voice. She was not loud, but her tone contained the elegance and confidence of an aristocrat.

"Got it!" Gurney nodded.

After casting a glance at Gurney again, Yulair Kogen left the room.

Compared to others, Yulair Kogen knew clearly that this guy, Gurney Lawrence, acted differently from all the other students she had ever met; he was a true "tanky mage".

She had seen firsthand his aspiration to become tanky.

Have you ever seen an Apprentice Spellcaster stand up and cast spells nonchalantly after being sent flying over ten meters by the hammer of a mutated elite goblin?

Yulair Kogen had seen it with her own eyes; this Gurney Lawrence did just that.

Gurney, who walked out of the classroom, thought about it for a while before rubbing his temple.

"I wonder what those guys found this time. A certain inheritance tomb? Some mysterious cavern? Or maybe even a corrupted underground ruin?

"I should follow them and take a look. My Passive Farming System's [Special Encounter] function may have some findings.

"After all, in my previous small explorations, I used the [Special Encounter] function of my system to get a lot of good stuff."

Yulair Kogen had told Gurney of the gathering.

It was a small exploration team that some rich aristocrat students in Sugar Supernatural Academy had created together. They shared a love of mysticism and strength. They were also adventurous and would gather when there was an event; they would even find time to go on explorations together.

After all, Sugar Ruins City was at the boundary of the supernatural wilderness and mountains, and there were many areas to explore.

Theoretically speaking, Gurney who was not from an affluent family should not have been able to join this group.

The reason why Gurney was able to join them was that three months ago, during an exploration, Gurney had saved these five people who were trapped by "curse zombies" at a certain ruin in the wilderness plain.

These young people saw that Gurney had extraordinary strength, so they naturally invited him to join the group afterwards.

And in their explorations after that, Gurney even displayed his own methods and strengths that were above the norm. This made the rich and noble students invite him for each exploration that they decided to go on.

Nobody would reject such a powerful teammate and bodyguard.

…

Sugar Ruins City was considered a relatively large city compared to the other "Ruins" Cities on the boundary of the wilderness. Its main duty was to defend the border of the Jade Orchid Empire while also expanding into new territory on the supernatural plain.

With the arrival of the supernatural steam era, the federations and empires of humanity started to step into territories that were unexplored in the past, such as supernatural plains, mountains, plateaus, and other locations that humans did not dare to step into previously.

In this process of expansion, most of the human gathering grounds were the wilderness tribes or ruins that were created by the pioneers of the ancient times or other intelligent tribes that had existed.

This was also where the "Ruins City" titles came from.

Not every Ruins City could develop successfully.

Compared to many of the other Ruins Cities, Sugar Ruins City was undoubtedly one of the most dazzling ones at the northern border of the Jade Orchid Empire.

The reason was that at the north of Sugar Ruins City, near the edge of the Alto Mountain Range, there was a huge black-iron ore mine.

After the supernatural steam railway was built, Sugar Ruins City's northern mountain range was also excavated area by area.

During this process, they found that this area once hosted at least four tribes from an ancient civilization of some size.

There were even traces of the mysterious Gnome Ruins Civilization.

Furthermore, there were often rumors spreading around that a certain adventurer group had excavated an ancient civilization ruins and found a powerful "supernatural token".

Or that a certain lucky person had found an ancient treasure.

Or that a certain adventurer was forced to jump down a cliff by his enemies and found a mysterious supernatural inheritance as a result.

All sorts of news had spread throughout the various corners of the Jade Orchid Empire.

A large number of wealth seekers, adventurers, mercenary companies, individual mercenaries, investors, and others who held dreams of success rushed to this peripheral city that was rising up in the age of the supernatural steampunk civilization.

And this was also why Sugar Ruins City, a city at the northern border of the Jade Orchid Empire, became the most dazzling city full of dreams and promised riches.

…

North of Sugar Ruins City, in the Black Map District, a large number of mercenaries and adventurers gathered.

All sorts of things were sold here — materials, high grade ores, potions, equipment, and other things.

Of course, at times, there were mysterious high-end events and auctions as well; some supernatural materials, equipment, combat techniques, spells, or even the extremely rare supernatural token would appear then.

After all, a supernatural token was the key to stepping onto the path of a Transcendent. It was known as the half-angel, half-devil key that struck fear and greed in people.

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Pharmacist Identity

After passing several streets, Gurney finally stopped before the door of Black Map District's Old Rock Street, No. 155.

Black Map District had all sorts of people; there were even many thieves and bandits. Some young and inexperienced rich aristocrats would often suffer if they went there unprepared.

As for Gurney who had lived here for 16 years and was native to the place, there were naturally no thieves foolish enough to try and target him.

If they really did so, the hand that they used would likely never be lifted again.

The past Gurney might have needed the protection of Father Cohen, but now, after passively farming for six months using his system, Gurney was no longer someone who mere thieves could provoke.

He used the key to open his door. Once he entered, Gurney picked up the faint smell of a potion.

This potion smell would not have been detected by ordinary people, but Gurney's nose could clearly sense the ingredients and preparations used for the potion, the temperature used to cook it, as well as the length of time.

Normally speaking, even high-tier supernatural Pharmacists would not have this special sensitivity and perception towards potions. And yet, Gurney, despite not being a Transcendent, had such an extraordinarily keen sense of smell.

The reason was that Gurney had the supernatural book

Bone Essence Potion Mantra

.

After half a year of passive farming, he had forcefully raised this ability to as high as level six.

Bone Essence Potion Mantra could elevate one's sense of smell, vision, taste, touch, and precision, allowing one's perception towards potions to increase, thus raising one's success rate of creating potions.

Many Pharmacists would cultivate supernatural books like potion mantras to raise their ability to control their potion concoction.

Even if one's potion mantra had not reached level one and was still at the elementary level, they would still be considered a proper Pharmacist.

Even so, out of a hundred Apprentice Pharmacists, only seven to eight of them could become true Pharmacists.

Many old Pharmacists who had spent their entire life researching potions would only be at the elementary level in their potion mantra; they could barely be considered level one.

This showed how tough potion-mantra cultivation was.

After all, a potion mantra was a genuine supernatural book; ordinary people could not even decipher their true profundity.

It was only natural that the cultivation difficulty would be very high.

Even the first level of a potion mantra was very difficult to reach. As for those people with level two or even level three potion mantras, they would undeniably be core members being nurtured by many powerful supernatural forces.

Those with level four or five potion mantras were even rarer; they were Legendary Pharmacists that would be recorded down in the history of the continent, their names well known to many.

As for Gurney, after half a year of passive farming, his Bone Essence Potion Mantra reached level six; it was going to become level seven in some time. A potion mantra of this level was definitely close to unprecedented in the entire history of the Oasia Continent.

The power of the Passive Farming System was clear with just this example.

After smelling the ingredients of this potion, Gurney identified what it was. It was the "Essence Healing Potion".

Compared to ordinary healing potions which expended one's vitality to rapidly heal injuries, the essence healing potion carried life force vitality within itself to heal the injured target.

An essence healing potion was much harder to make than an ordinary healing potion. It was one of the hardest low-tier potions to concoct; it was even harder to make than ordinary mid-tier potions.

Even Father Cohen, a Senior Elementary Pharmacist recognized by the Pharmacist Guild, only had a 50 percent success rate at it.

Gurney's success rate, however, was over ninety-nine percent!

Thus, many of the potions sold in Father Cohen's Pharmacy that were hard to create were concocted by Gurney most of the time.

Opening the secret door, Gurney walked down the stone stairs and went into the underground Potion-Alchemy Secret Room that was brightly lit.

"You're back!" The elderly voice that resounded had a trace of hoarseness.

The elderly Cohen who had white hair and wore spectacles had great spirit and energy. He was currently distilling, boiling, separating, and blending the essence healing potion, which was mixing in a large beaker.

"Yeah!" Gurney replied plainly.

Afterwards, Gurney came to the beaker that was large enough to fit his head, and he gazed at it for more than ten seconds before speaking, "The temperature is slightly too high. Lower it and add in 180 milliliters of pure water. After twenty minutes, a high-quality essence healing potion will be perfectly created."

After saying so, Gurney had already lowered the temperature of the fire below the beaker. He then opened the test tube containing pure water and poured 180 ml of it into the beaker.

The test tube contained 200 ml of pure water, but Gurney had agile hands that accurately poured in 180 ml of water; only 20 ml was left with less than one percent margin of error.

Old Cohen turned around to take a look. He was not surprised at all about this scene.

Gurney's ability as a Pharmacist far surpassed his; he knew this.

If Gurney was willing to, he could have gone to the Pharmacist Guild and taken part in the Pharmacist Examination anytime.

He could easily become a recognized Pharmacist, before quickly becoming a high-tier Pharmacist, or even a Specialist Pharmacist.

However, Old Cohen also knew about Gurney's personality.

He was not someone who would bother to do something with little benefits to himself.

"Father, the shop does not seem to lack these essence healing potions! Furthermore, we have many in stock that are diluted with pure water… Mmm, I mean those healing potions that ordinary adventurers cannot differentiate."

"Why are you making so many essence healing potions?"

"Hehe…" Cohen chuckled with his hoarse voice.

"Take a look at this…"

Cohen pointed at the Jade Orchid Steam Newspaper on the newspaper rack.

"Jade Orchid Steam Newspaper" was the number one newspaper in the Jade Orchid Empire and reported extremely accurate and updated news.

Compared to ordinary newspapers, the supernatural tablet that Old Cohen bought cost over ten times more; the information recorded on this tablet also contained something that common people could not access — supernatural information.

Gurney took the newspaper and looked at the front page.

He saw a bloody and cruel sight.

Thankfully, the newspaper was in black and white, so the scene was not as terrifying as a result.

In the image, he saw a human-sized mound made of heads.

All the heads had wide-open eyes and mouths: they showed pain, hatred, and insanity. Their blood dyed the surrounding several meters red.

It was as if they had suffered unimaginable pain before dying.

Behind the terrifying mound of heads, there were many dissected headless corpses randomly placed everywhere.

Even for Gurney, who had some understanding of the supernatural world, seeing this type of evil ritual and terrifying death scene made a chill run down his spine.

There was even a description at the bottom of the picture.

"Anko Province, two hundred people in the periphery 'Black Teeth Town' were brutally murdered and beheaded. After initial investigations, the suspects are believed to be the followers of 'Giant Deity Cult'. This was likely the Evil Deity Blood Sacrificial Ritual. Anko Province's 'Supernatural Association' has already taken over the case."

"Giant Deity Cult? Anko Province? But we're in Anko Province now…" Gurney was slightly surprised as he spoke.

"Yes. Furthermore, that Black Teeth Town is only fifty kilometers away from us. From the size of this incident, these cult members would not be few in numbers. As for our Sugar Ruins City, because we have a huge inflow of people, it would be the best hiding spot for them. Those cult members will definitely try to hide in our city. In fact, those cult members who held the evil ritual in Black Teeth Town had likely gone there from Sugar Ruins City, to begin with.

"Earlier in the morning, Baron Tram came to find me. The Fourth Garrison of Sugar Ruins City that he leads will head out and search for those cult members. There may be an intense battle ahead for them. Thus, he came here to purchase some essence healing potions.

"You know that we have a good cooperative relationship with Baron Tram."

"So we are selling him genuine potions," Gurney added quickly.

"We are selling real potions to others as well. They are just less effective." Cohen shrugged, feeling no shame toward his own unscrupulous action.

"These Giant Deity Cult members are already arrogant to this point? They dare to publicly commit a crime!" said Gurney as he frowned.

Since the time he transmigrated into this steampunk world, it had been half a year.

Even though Gurney saw lots of information from newspapers and knew that this world was not safe, it could be said to contain many undercurrents. Among the most commonly reported incidents were the vicious and cruel actions of various cults.

But most of them committed their crimes secretly and would only involve a small number of people. Most of the time, they would not create a huge commotion that would get reported on the news. Even when they did, the news would only occupy a tiny corner of the newspaper; it would often be ignored.

This time, they openly killed over two hundred people; they even dared to hold a blood sacrificial ritual.

Indeed, they were much more brazen than before.

"Not only here. According to what I heard, the other peripheral cities are also encountering the same issue, but they are just not reported," said Old Cohen as he processed the materials in his hands.

After saying so, Cohen turned to Gurney. "There may be some chaos during this period. Try not to go out if possible."

Gurney who was frowning squinted his eyes in deep thought.

A moment later, he nodded lightly. "Yeah, I know."

Old Cohen suddenly added, "Oh right, I almost forgot. I've gotten the supernatural-rated Knight Breathing Style that you wanted me to find. This is the complete version of the supernatural Knight Breathing Style."

"A supernatural-rated Knight Breathing Style that is actually complete!" Gurney expressed great joy upon hearing these words.

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Passive Farming System

Ever since Gurney transmigrated half a year ago and learned about his Passive Farming System, he started to make plans as he informed Old Cohen that his mind had become much sharper recently. His speed of cultivating the Bone Essence Potion Mantra was also improving at a faster rate.

Thus, he wanted to cultivate even more supernatural books.

After Gurney displayed that his Bone Essence Potion Mantra had advanced rapidly, Old Cohen started to find books for Gurney.

In the last half a year, Old Cohen found two spellbooks that were rated ordinary, one incomplete supernatural-rated spellbook, as well as an ordinary-rated Knight Breathing Style one.

Using his Passive Farming System, he passively raised the ordinary spells, the incomplete supernatural spell, and the ordinary Knight Breathing Style.

This was why Gurney had powerful spells far beyond an Apprentice Spellcaster and a physique far stronger than an Apprentice Knight.

Gurney knew deeply about the huge difference between ordinary books and supernatural ones.

He did not possess any supernatural token, so he was not a true Transcendent.

However, he had the Passive Farming System, which allowed him to rapidly cultivate these spellbooks.

Thus, Gurney wanted to get some supernatural spells and supernatural Knight Breathing Styles to raise his own strength. After all, despite the peaceful facade of this world, it had no lack of dangerous undercurrents. Even Sugar Ruins City with good public security had danger lurking in it.

In fact, if any supernatural disaster occurred, without a certain level of strength, anyone involved would die for sure.

Even if Father Cohen had the avenues to get near these supernatural books, in order to purchase them, he would need a vast amount of gold pounds.

Thus, Gurney used his system to first cultivate and raise his supernatural book, Bone Essence Potion Mantra, to increase his ability to concoct and create potions.

Using his extremely high Pharmacist ability, he concocted those rare and expensive potions to sell for gold pounds.

After half a year, because of Gurney's rare low-tier, mid-tier, and high-tier potions, the sales in the store owned by Old Cohen, "Jim's Pharmacy", had risen by several times the original amount.

Today, Gurney was finally experiencing the gains and benefits of his increased wealth.

A complete supernatural book of the Knight Breathing Style!

Saying so, Old Cohen walked to the edge of a bookrack at the corner and took a black sealed box — a black thorn wooden box.

At the opening of the black thorn wooden box, there were runes sealing it. As something that contained a supernatural book, the box itself was also a supernatural item.

In the supernatural world, a supernatural item that was not considered high-tier would lose its supernatural attributes as time passed. Thus, it was necessary to store them in completely sealed containers.

This black thorn wooden box was made of black thorn wood, which was very suitable for storing supernatural items.

"This low-tier Knight Breathing Style emphasizes absorbing natural origin force and using it to refine the body. You will understand the exact situation after you establish the connection and accept it completely," explained Old Cohen in a low tone while handing the box to Gurney.

"A low-tier Knight Breathing Style can absorb natural energy to refine the body directly?" Gurney was slightly stunned.

He was a mage that was prepared to walk on the road of tankiness. Thus, Gurney had done a lot of research on body refinement.

He was clear of the general cultivation methods that different tiers of Knight Breathing Styles had.

Normally speaking, low-tier supernatural Knight Breathing Styles could increase the strength of the body through high-intensive training. Making the body stronger through training was something logical and feasible.

Mid-tier supernatural Knight Breathing Styles would start to use energy to refine the body. And this Knight Breathing Style that Gurney obtained, while low-tier, had the method of a mid-tier book!

So it was either extremely difficult to cultivate, or it had some sort of flaw that was unknown to others.

"By the time I accept and use this book, I will know why this book with mid-tier traits is only classified as low-tier." Gurney was feeling joy after obtaining a supernatural Knight Breathing Style.

Old Cohen spoke, "I still need a hundred and fifty essence healing potions. I've already made those apprentices complete the elementary processing of the materials for you."

"No problem, I will place the potions into the storage after I am done concocting them." Gurney nodded.

"Okay!" After this acknowledgment, Old Cohen turned around and left.

Concocting potions required intense concentration, as well as lasting stamina and endurance.

Old Cohen was too old now, so after giving the task to Gurney, he went back to rest.

When Old Cohen reached the other stairway of the Potion-Alchemy Secret Room, Gurney suddenly recalled something as he asked, "Has the thief who stole that batch of potions been caught yet?"

A week ago, a batch of potions that had been stored for a long time in the Potion-Alchemy Secret Room's storage went missing.

If not for Gurney's outstanding memory, nobody would have noticed the batch of potions going missing.

"We found him," replied Old Cohen as he continued to walk up the stairs without turning back. "It's that kid Sibol. He is a good kid… but… what a shame!" There was a slight sigh in his tone.

Old Cohen then disappeared into the shadows of the stairs, before the sound of shutting doors could be heard.

"Indeed, what a pity." Gurney also shook his head slightly.

In Jim's Pharmacy, other than Gurney who mostly concocted potions, there were also three Apprentice Pharmacists who helped him with the chores.

The fourteen-year-old boy named Sibol was an intelligent kid; he had some talent and was one of these apprentices.

Old Cohen was not an ordinary person. He had a deep background and held his principles firmly; his methods were quite ruthless as well.

After confirming that Sibol was the culprit, by now, he should have already been dealt with.

His corpse might have been thrown into the sewers, or he might be imprisoned in a certain person's laboratory for a supernatural experiment. He could even have had his blood extracted and heart removed. The heart transplant surgery, due to the development of supernatural studies, had become increasingly successful.

Those aristocratic transcendent knights who wanted stronger bodies and needed more hearts to supply them blood would definitely spend the gold pounds to get themselves a young and strong heart.

Gurney looked at his watch.

The time was 5:35 p.m.

"The gathering usually starts at 8:30 p.m. With three hours left, I can finish one hundred and fifty essence healing potions in one and a half hours, and I will still have ample time to learn that Knight Breathing Style."

While thinking about this, Gurney had already started making the essence healing potions.

…

Slightly over an hour later.

All of the materials and ingredients were turned into finished products.

In front of Gurney, there were 162 essence healing potions.

Different Pharmacists would have different ways of handling the materials, which would cause differences when extracting the potion contents.

Gurney, in terms of utilizing the materials, was undoubtedly an expert among experts in this world.

When using 150 potions-worth of materials, in the hands of normal Pharmacists, the quantity produced would vary from 145 to 155 potions. But in Gurney's hands, the quantity would vary from 160 to 165, and the potions made would have the best quality among potions of similar types.

He placed the 155 potions into the potion storage.

As for the extra seven potions, they went into Gurney's pocket.

After solving the matter of the potion, Gurney went back into his cultivation room.

…

In the dark and silent secret room.

Gurney sat cross-legged.

"Breathe in… Breathe out…"

A few minutes later, Gurney, who had calmed and focused his mind, opened his eyes.

"System!"

As Gurney willed, a blue screen appeared in front of his vision.

The square screen that glowed blue looked very realistic. The text was very clear, and he could even manipulate the system's interface directly with his mind.

Even though he could look at this system interface in his mind, Gurney still preferred to materialize it in front of him.

Looking at this Passive Farming System, there were two functions.

[Passive Farming] and [Special Encounter].

[Passive Farming] worked as follows. One had to first obtain or learn books. Next, they could place the cultivation book in a "passive-farming slot" to start gaining the experience points necessary to raise the book's level.

As long as he placed the book in the farming slot, the system would be able to cultivate non-stop for 24 hours a day; it could automatically break through and level up on its own.

There was no need for Gurney to interfere.

Furthermore, from the knowledge and comprehension obtained through passively farming the books to the proficiency and control of various spells he owned, as well as the elevation of his physical body from cultivating breathing styles — all would be perfectly applied to Gurney.

Everything that he obtained from passive farming would be the same as Gurney undergoing countless sessions of cultivation and training.

And… there were no side effects in doing so.

The cultivation of this incomplete supernatural spellbook would normally cause pain in the soul and could even make one see some illusions created by certain mysterious forces.

The training of certain Knight Breathing Styles would also expend a lot of stamina and energy, placing a burden on the body.

However, when the system underwent passive farming, Gurney would not suffer any of these side effects or negative drawbacks.

Other than this powerful [Passive Farming] function, [Special Encounter] was also very impressive.

In the supernatural world, there were bound to be rare and valuable supernatural items, especially when there were pioneering adventurers or adventurous groups exploring the wilderness plains.

In the current era, steampunk ships had started an era of sea voyages.

To a large extent, they were also searching for treasures and resources.

The function of this [Special Encounter] was to display those unknown opportunities and special encounters to Gurney within a certain limited range.

In one of Gurney's trips when exploring the wilderness mountains, he happened to trigger this [Special Encounter] function.

Because of that, he obtained the first fortuitous encounter of his life.

Gurney found a supernatural fruit, a "dragon-source fruit" that was three hundred years old.

Because of this dragon-source fruit, Gurney's body could now adapt to the ordinary Knight Breathing Style's cultivation after growing stronger rapidly in a short period of time.

Right now, at least in physique, Gurney could rival those average supernatural Shield Knights who emphasized training their physical body.

Along with the first [Passive Farming] function, the second one, [Special Encounter, had appeared later.

This made Gurney realize that it was likely his Passive Farming System had more than just two functions. It was likely that this system had more functions waiting for him to unlock.

After browsing the system's content, Gurney held up the black thorn wooden box.

"Even though the ordinary Knight Breathing Style has a good effect, compared to a genuine supernatural Knight Breathing Style, its upper limit is just too low. The upper limit of an ordinary one likely cannot even match the lower limit of a true supernatural Knight Breathing Style."

Thinking so, Gurney's gaze flickered with interest as he looked at this black thorn wooden box.

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Supernatural Knight Breathing Style

Opening the black thorn wooden box, he saw a sheepskin parchment scroll that emitted a silvery-white light.

On the scroll, simple lines were drawn depicting many little people who were sitting down.

If one watched closely, they would find that these little people's bodies drawn from lines had translucent lines as veins that were flowing slowly throughout the body.

As for the light, it flickered along with the flow of the translucent lines along the veins.

This was a genuine supernatural book.

If one tried to comprehend it through the drawings, they would not be able to truly unlock or understand the content within this supernatural book.

Any sort of supernatural information could only be obtained through an interaction with a medium or catalyst, this process was known as "catalyst acceptance".

Gurney was an Apprentice Mage prepared to walk on the path of a "Spellcaster".

Gurney's catalyst was the spell runes that he possessed.

Lowering his head slightly, Gurney started to chant using the Lanemian language.

Every syllable that Gurney chanted in Lanemian would cause a slight spell fluctuation in his surroundings.

As Gurney continued to chant, the light on the sheepskin parchment scroll that contained the Knight Breathing Style started to move like fluid water as it flowed towards Gurney's forehead, connecting with him.

The light continued to enter Gurney's mind.

For normal Apprentice Spellcasters, when accepting a low-tier supernatural spell or other types of low-tier books, they would need to spend at least thirty seconds; some with lower mental strength would need 40 to 50 seconds.

But Gurney quickly cut the connection with the scroll after less than ten seconds.

In just seven to eight seconds, Gurney had completed the perfect catalyst acceptance of this supernatural Knight Breathing Style.

After receiving it, Gurney quickly placed the sheepskin parchment scroll back into the black thorn wooden box, locking it with the runic seal again.

Very little energy was expended. This can be used once or even twice more. I can sell this to those supernatural knights in the academy for quite a handsome sum

, Gurney thought to himself.

Soon after, Gurney started to inspect the Knight Breathing Style in his mind.

A moment later, Gurney understood why this supernatural Knight Breathing Style had the trait of a mid-tier breathing style but only had the effect of a low-tier breathing style.

The reason was, this Devotion Knight Breathing Style was not a pure body-breathing style.

It was a type of breathing style that involved both the body and the soul.

If he was a knight or warrior with deep faith or an ascetic who had a firm and tough mind, this Devotion Knight Breathing Style would have great effectiveness.

With the rise of the steam revolution in the Oasia Continent 300 years ago, supernatural studies had flourished and grew rapidly. The mystery and power of religious faith were constantly being unraveled by a large number of supernatural researchers.

These religious powers were also confirmed to be a type of supernatural power as well. After religion lost its mystery, it also lost many devotees and followers.

Along with the rise in power of the empire that started the steam and machinery revolution, the imperial ruler also started to suppress the religious factions.

In fact, some extremist organizations even proclaimed the theory of deity parasites. They claimed that deities were just parasites that leeched off humanity's faith. Even though the various churches debunked these theories, it was undeniable that the power of Churches and divine faith was dwindling.

Thus, the number of Paladins who joined the Churches also fell.

Naturally, the number of ascetics who held firm faith also dwindled in numbers.

And now… back to the current topic!

"A strong mind and a strong body, this is a dual breathing style?" Gurney showed a smile on his face. "This… is simply too suitable for me."

As a mage, Gurney's soul and mind were undoubtedly very strong.

As for Gurney's body, he was on par with supernatural Shield Knights.

This Devotion Knight Breathing Style seemed to suit Gurney perfectly.

He opened the system's [Passive Farming] interface.

The passive farming menu had several rows of farming slots now, each row had five slots.

As for the first row's five farming slots, the first four were currently lit. The fifth one was still accumulating energy; before long, this fifth farming slot would light up as well.

Currently, in his four passive farming slots.

1: Bone Essence Potion Mantra.

2: Fire Arrow.

3: Ring Explosion.

4: Raging Bull Breathing Style

These were the four books that were currently being passively farmed.

Every 10 seconds, they would gain 1 EXP.

Taking this Raging Bull Breathing Style for example, Gurney had already reached level four in it.

Each time the Raging Bull Breathing Style gained experience, the amount gained would be 5 EXP.

The gain of 5 EXP meant that Raging Bull Breathing Style's own rate of experience gain had increased.

At the same time, it meant that Gurney's body was undergoing training similar to the amount of experience gained through the Raging Bull Breathing Style.

Currently, having obtained a supernatural breathing style, it was time for this Raging Bull Breathing Style to retire.

Gurney took down the Raging Bull Breathing Style at the fourth slot and placed Devotion Knight Breathing Style into it.

Ten seconds later.

In the passive farming slot, there was a sheepskin parchment scroll representing the Devotion Knight Breathing Style.

The number "8" appeared rapidly and vanished just as quickly.

The newly obtained Devotion Knight Breathing Style directly gave 8 EXP from the start.

It should be noted that Gurney had cultivated the Raging Bull Breathing Style for three months already before he reached level four in it, finally gaining five experience points per increment.

Yet, this Devotion Knight Breathing Style was giving eight experience points right from the start.

When its level rose in the future, it would become 10 or even 20.

Furthermore, the upper limit of the body refinement that Devotion Knight Breathing Style had was far higher than that of Raging Bull Breathing Style.

"Breathe in… Breathe out…"

After one circulation, Gurney's joyful expression vanished, he returned to his original state of calmness.

"After getting experience multiple times earlier, I can clearly feel that my body's absorption of the natural origin force has increased. This effect is so immediate, as expected of a supernatural Knight Breathing Style.

"If I wait for half a month and this Devotion Knight Breathing Style reaches level two, my body will reach a whole new level of strength. Only a strong body can ensure that I remain standing. Only by standing can I have the capability to fight against my enemies."

His gaze swept past the incomplete supernatural spell "Ring Explosion", one of his two ordinary spells including "Fire Arrow".

Gurney fell into contemplation.

"Ring Explosion is level five, and Fire Arrow is level four. They both have considerable strength.

"To kill a normal Spellcaster, one spell will suffice. In fact, if I can sneak attack those mid-tier Spellcasters, provided they do not detect me and have no effective defensive methods, I can directly kill or at least heavily injure them.

"But… I am still not a supernatural Spellcaster after all. I cannot deepen my training as a Spellcaster. All of the signature traits that a Spellcaster possesses, like origin pool, silent cast, quick cast, and multi cast, are also things I cannot further develop now.

"Father Cohen does not have information about any Spellcaster's supernatural token either.

"The supernatural road is really not easy to step onto!" Gurney sighed lightly.

"If I cannot find a supernatural token before I graduate, maybe, I might need to display my ability as a Pharmacist in order to join the Jade Orchid Supernatural Association. They will definitely have a supernatural token for Spellcasters," Gurney who rubbed his fingers together said to himself.

But if possible, Gurney would want to avoid a huge organization like the Jade Orchid Supernatural Association.

…

After cultivating quietly for some time, Gurney left his cultivation room.

He could not miss the gathering at eight o'clock.

Adventuring was one thing.

There was also the fact that these rich descendants of aristocratic families were people with a huge amount of resources.

Simply put, they were children of wealthy families, and Gurney had been able to exchange for many useful resources from them in the past.

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Mysterious Key

Riding in a horse carriage, more than ten minutes later.

Gurney left the carriage when he arrived in Sugar Ruins City's south area, the Antoine District, right in front of Dolan Club of Dolan Street.

The moment he left the carriage, Gurney saw that not far away, a youngster with a muscular body, wearing a thick black iron armor suitable for a tank, was getting off a black-scaled supernatural horse.

Because this black-scaled magic horse was a tamed supernatural beast, it was able to carry the heavy weight of this youngster.

This youngster had the terrifying height of roughly 2.2 meters after all.

With such a peculiar and eye-catching appearance, many people in the surroundings turned their gaze towards this youngster.

The muscular youngster seemed to be used to such a situation; he did not mind anyone's attention.

Instead, he was looking around, searching for something.

At the next moment, he cast his gaze on Gurney.

"Sir Gurney." The muscular youngster nodded at him.

"Good evening, Sir Philosophy Knight." Gurney nodded back.

Gurney knew this youngster quite well; they had done many transactions in private.

His name was Pavel Korchagin, an aristocrat with the behemoth bloodline. He was also one of the members joining this gathering.

Even though he seemed tall, sturdy, and muscular, giving people a feeling that he was rash, he was actually someone who was shrewd and scheming. His demeanor was quite unique to himself.

The two went into Dolan Club together.

Showing their membership card, they entered the club.

They walked towards the Sand Dragon Discussion Room that the group had booked in advance.

"What news is there regarding today's gathering?" Gurney asked along the way.

Shrugging his shoulders, Pavel shook his head. "You know that Avery guy… Even though he is not strong, he has a tight lip. Until the final moment, he will not tell us anything, not even a word."

"That's true." Gurney lightly laughed. Afterwards, he lowered his voice. "A complete supernatural Knight Breathing Style, any interest?"

Pavel was stunned when he heard this. After all, a month ago, Gurney was asking him if he knew any supernatural Knight Breathing Styles.

Even though he had a Knight Breathing Style that was mid-tier himself, he did not have any Knight Breathing Style books with him that could be sold.

But after just some time, he was actually selling a supernatural Knight Breathing Style.

"He really is a fellow that is hard to decipher," Pavel muttered under his breath.

"What type is it?" Pavel asked.

Most supernatural books were expendable items: there was no way to make a second copy of the original.

This meant that the quantity of supernatural books tended to be low. In fact, at certain times, the lack of supernatural books in the market would cause a surge in price.

Thus, if one found a book that suited them, they would not give it up unless necessary.

"It is a breathing style focusing on both body and soul, with soul being the priority. In terms of importance, the soul is sixty percent while body strength is forty." After passive farming Devotion Knight Breathing Style for some time, a vast amount of information had entered Gurney's mind. His understanding of Devotion Knight Breathing Style rose by quite a lot.

"It is suitable for Faith Knights and Ascetics. Of course, the most suitable ones are the Spell Knights and Elemental Knights who already possess certain spells and elemental magic. Even Spell Warriors and Elemental Warriors are quite suitable."

Back during the supernatural religious era, the Church controlled the supernatural powers and the relevant authorities.

Thus, the advancement of supernatural classes was rigid, stale, and fixed. Even after a thousand years, there had been no creativity and development.

But now, it was the supernatural steam era. All sorts of supernatural powers and classes were combined to create many different new supernatural classes that had never been seen before.

Like what Gurney had mentioned earlier, there were Warriors, Darkwalkers, and Spell or Elemental Knights, some even with the power to make contracts.

They were the new Transcendents that were different from the old era.

Among the new supernatural classes, there were also those which seemed glamorous but were actually weak, while others displayed great effectiveness during this steampunk supernatural era as well.

The classes that Gurney mentioned earlier were some of the most exceptional new classes in this current era.

But be it Spell Knights, Elemental Knights, Spell Warriors, or Elemental Warriors, they needed strong souls and tough bodies.

The main problem was, these new supernatural classes did not have the experience of predecessors to guide and help them. These newly created supernatural classes were experimenting themselves.

Thus, in comparison, their numbers were not high.

This also meant the market value of Gurney's Devotion Knight Breathing Style would not be too high either.

"Body and soul dual breathing style?" Pavel thought for a while before nodding. "Sounds pretty good. I will consider collecting it."

Gurney: "…"

"How many times can it still be used for catalyst acceptance?"

"If the soul is strong enough, it can be used for at least two or three times."

"That's a small number, but it is still better than nothing." After pondering for a while, Pavel gave a suitable price. "Two hundred gold pounds."

Two hundred gold pounds…

Gurney thought about it for a while and then nodded in agreement. "Deal."

Normally speaking, the price for one catalyst acceptance of a low-tier supernatural book was around a hundred gold pounds.

Since it only had two or three tries left, the price of two hundred gold pounds was quite good already, considering that this supernatural book was not going to be very popular either.

In Jade Orchid Empire or even the entire Oasia Continent, the gold pound was an important unit of currency.

One gold pound could be exchanged for 10 silver dragons.

One silver dragon could be exchanged for 100 copper coins.

And the purchasing power of a copper coin was roughly around "one dollar" in Gurney's previous world, or slightly less than that.

For the working class, a month's salary was around twenty silver dragons, which was two gold pounds. This would be considered a pretty good salary in a small town.

If one could earn three to five gold pounds a month, they would live a considerably comfortable life.

And a supernatural book that could be used two to three times for catalyst acceptance was valued at 200 gold pounds.

This showed how valuable and expensive supernatural items were.

This was a price that ordinary people could never even afford in their lifetimes.

Even Gurney, after half a year of accumulating potions and going on adventures to collect materials, only had about slightly less than a hundred gold pounds' worth of funds.

At this moment, the sale of this Devotion Knight Breathing Style was giving him 200 gold pounds.

Gurney would not reject it of course.

With so many gold pounds, Gurney could push forward that plan of his.

After deciding on the transaction date, the two went into the discussion room of their group.

At this time, four people had already arrived.

Other than Yulair Kogen, there was also a youngster with short hair wearing black leather armor; it was the young but mature-looking Avery.

There was also the person who was rumored to have completed the supernatural token inheritance, Blue Shire, who had pale red hair, a red robe, and a molten crystal staff in both hands.

The last of the group was Black Dill, who did not like to speak and had a cold personality. However, he had an extremely strong Mage talent and was preparing to become an Elementalist.

Seeing Gurney and Pavel's arrival, Avery first inspected the safety of the surroundings before sitting down and speaking, "Since we are all here already, let's start today's meeting."

Everyone was already used to Avery who would purposely lower his voice to sound more adult-like, so they did not show much of a reaction.

"This time, our target is in the direction of which this special key is pointing to."

Saying so, Avery waved his hand as a black thorn wooden box appeared out of nowhere. It was exquisite, and the outer layer of the box was covered completely in runes.

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Mysterious Key

Avery was able to make something appear out of nowhere.

The reason was that Avery had a spatial storage-type supernatural treasure. This type of treasure was very rare and uncommon.

Everyone's gaze shifted toward this exquisite black thorn wooden box.

Gurney wondered about the "special key" that Avery was referring to.

"A special item?" Black Dill who rarely spoke took the initiative to ask.

"Yes, but not really," Avery answered in a low tone. "Two months ago, through my connections, I met with the lucky sole survivor of an adventurer group. This group had a real Transcendent in it, but even then, almost all of them had died near Howling Canyon."

Howling Canyon.

Everyone heard this with a grim expression.

The supernatural wilderness was not a place where anyone could step into.

Not only were those areas dangerous, just the supernatural insects or beasts with various special abilities, or even those supernatural spirits that only specific methods could exorcise, would be enough to kill a normal person in three days with no corpse remaining if they foolishly wandered into the supernatural wilderness.

And within Alto Mountain Range, on top of the dangerous land, there were also the remnants of the Gnome Ruins Civilization.

These civilizations and ancient ruins were all located in supernatural areas.

Among which, Howling Canyon was a special place with supernatural power in it; it was also the ruins of one of the four great ancient civilizations.

Supposedly, many adventurer groups went deep into Howling Canyon and went missing without a trace in the end.

Howling Canyon was a highly dangerous territory. It was said that deep within Howling Canyon, there was a mysterious house called Howling House. It would appear at unimaginable places, opening its mouth and waiting for adventurers to enter. Once an unlucky adventurer went inside, it would shut its mouth.

When it opened its mouth again, the adventurer would be completely gone. In his place, a new accessory or furniture would appear in the Howling House; it could be a painting, flower, or even a new towel.

These completely unfathomable and strange "special entities" existed in these supernatural areas.

It was not a place where a typical supernatural team could enter. Even they did not dare to enter, not to mention Gurney's group, which was made up of apprentices.

"The guy who managed to escape with his life has lost all his guts. He no longer dares to get close to Howling Canyon. Thus, he sold this special key to me. It is their group's only gain in Howling Canyon. We went through an official transaction document. He signed it with his own blood. This key is real and not a counterfeit."

Hearing Avery's words, everyone's expression turned to shock as they looked at each other.

Adventure and exploration, but that did not mean they were seeking death. Even though the few of them were adventurous and had a desire to explore mysterious lands, they were still clear about their incapability to explore places that were extremely dangerous or threatening to their lives.

At this moment, even Gurney was slightly shocked.

Towards the north of Sugar Ruins City, the huge area of mountains and plains was part of the supernatural wilderness. When the group went on explorations, they would avoid those truly dangerous supernatural areas.

Even so, when they explored ordinary supernatural wilderness areas, they still met with a lot of danger. They had experiences of escaping with heavy injuries.

Even an ordinary wilderness area was like this…

Now, they were trying to head to a supernatural area that had an extremely high probability of death! This was simply asking for a one way trip to the afterlife!

Everyone was silent; the atmosphere was quite tense and gloomy.

As his gaze swept past everyone's faces, Avery, who had a tight expression, suddenly smiled.

"There is no need to worry," the smiling Avery said. "I am clear about our group's strength. Why would I be so foolish as to enter a supernatural area?" The young but mature Avery had a good grasp of reality; he was not a foolish youngster with unrealistic dreams.

"You guys know this too. The periphery of Howling Canyon is no different from those ordinary supernatural wilderness areas, and this special key points to an area that is at the outer edges of Howling Canyon. Even though it is still dangerous, our group is not weak either. In fact, we are not any weaker than a supernatural team. We will also have the key's guidance for directions. I believe that the danger of this exploration is not high. Even if it is, we can still retreat in time. Also…"

Avery paused before softly speaking again, "We all know that even with our families supporting us, those supernatural tokens are still very few in number… Even if our families possess those supernatural tokens capable of allowing us to walk on the supernatural path, we are still not the priority. They will be used on the most capable inheritors.

"Our goal in taking the risk to explore the wilderness plains was to find these supernatural tokens and equipment, or those special items that are even more valuable than tokens. This is a very good opportunity that is also quite promising for us.

"How about it?" Saying so, Avery looked around.

After some silence, Yulair answered first, "If it is only the periphery, we can go and explore it. If we need to enter deeper than that, I will disagree."

"I hold the same thought," Pavel added.

"Same," Gurney said succinctly.

Everyone else also pointed out their opinion.

Everyone wanted to get their supernatural token. Even if the likelihood was not high, they had to try their luck first.

"Hmm, since everyone agrees, we will go on this exploration! Next week, we will be having the wilderness plain practical lesson that lasts a week. As usual, I will be requesting for our group to take independent action. At that time, we will explore the mysterious land that this special key points to."

Half an hour later, after the details were explained, everyone got up and ended this group meeting.

By the time they left Dolan Club, it was already late at night.

The yellow and red gas streetlights on the side of the road illuminated the surrounding area in a slightly distorted way, but it was still bright enough for people to see what was going on around them.

Avery, who wore noble clothing, got onto his family's horse carriage. Along with the sounds of wheels grinding against the stone floor, he quickly left everyone's sight.

Under the shade of a nearby lamp, Gurney who watched the entire scene rubbed his temples.

"I feel like something is wrong, but I cannot say for certain what it is," Gurney muttered.

A gust of wind blew in this night sky filled with darkness and mist. Gurney felt a slight chill. He pulled up the collar of his shirt.

"I need to make more backup plans. There is no harm in being prepared against any situation."

"There are only ten days until the wilderness plain practical lesson. It will be enough time for my Knight Breathing Style to raise my physique to a certain level.

"Over at Teacher Ourock's side, I have almost enough points now. Even though that method to develop the origin pool is not the true cultivation way to expand it, it will be sufficient to allow my body to store up more origin-force energy. After all, my body is extraordinarily strong. Once I have enough spell origin force…"

Gurney's lips curled up into a smile.

"Have you ever seen… a human turret?"

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Spell Runes

With the arrival of the steampunk industrial revolution, the most dazzling thing was definitely the supernatural steam alchemy that carried the traits of the current era.

A large number of machines were continuously being created by alchemists.

Among them, the ones with the power to kill were "guns" and "cannons".

When enemy troops carried sufficient guns, bullets, cannons, and tanks, it ended the age of knights and horses, replaced by the new era of steel and iron.

The rise of the supernatural steam revolution also brought a rise of interest in supernatural powers. Many new extraordinary supernatural classes had entered the stage of history.

Similarly, some ancient classes also stepped onto the new stage, radiating with light that had never been seen before.

Mages were such existences.

According to the different sources of power, mages were classified into four specializations: Elementalist, Summoner, Spellcaster, and Priest.

Elementalists gained their power from natural elements. They were able to sense and manipulate all sorts of elements. They could even use the natural power of the world to form powerful elemental spells. At this point, some would realize…

Indeed, in the olden days, Elementalists had been akin to mages.

The Summoner used contracts, spiritual bindings, summons, and other methods to call forth strong lifeforms from other worlds to fight for oneself.

Through the possession of powerful, peculiar, and mysterious spells, Spellcasters could use their own origin pool as the source of energy to unleash powerful and quick attacks.

And finally, there were Priests. Other than those devotees who were nurtured by the Churches, nobody would pick this path of their own accord. Priests relied on their contribution and faith to gain the power granted by deities.

Even though they could obtain extraordinary power in a short period of time, become extremely quick at recovery, or even have great strength granted by deities, borrowed power still had lots of limitations after all. Together with the suppression of the imperial ruler and other supernatural forces towards them, more and more people avoided the path of faith.

As for Gurney, he was obviously going on the path of a Spellcaster.

…

Sugar Supernatural Academy.

Ourock Tower, sixth-floor classroom.

Compared to the normal dome-shaped classroom, this Ourock Tower's sixth-floor classroom was narrower and smaller.

There were only 16 students here.

Ourock, who had white hair, presbyopia glasses, and was wearing a gray wizard's hat, was talking intently about the unified theory of spells.

"The most important core of a Spellcaster is to strike quickly and efficiently. As for how we can achieve this… Yulair, come and explain the three basic aspects." Ourock's gaze swept past everyone and landed on Yulair.

"Silent cast, quick cast, multi-cast," Yulair got up and answered without having to think.

"Mm! This is the basics. It is also the truth that you must engrave into your souls." Ourock nodded, waving his hand to indicate that Yulair could sit. "When a Spellcaster chants his spells, time is needed. If you do not want your enemies to approach you and slit your throat while you're chanting, you need to use the soul power inside your soul and create sufficient silent-cast runes, quick-cast runes, and also multi-cast runes. That will be the key factor deciding your life and death."

Gurney who was at the corner listened and wrote notes while thinking to himself,

Even though we all know that quick-cast, silent-cast, and multi-cast runes are important… The difficulty of creating these runes is not even close to easy at all!

The supernatural class, Spellcaster.

They wanted to use powerful and fast spells.

Thus, quick-cast, silent-cast, and multi-cast runes were all necessary.

Among which, silent-cast runes were the most important among the three runes; it was the core rune in fact. The effect of a silent-cast rune was to reduce the chanting of spell syllables.

A standard low-tier supernatural spell had four syllables, and each syllable took roughly 0.25 seconds to chant. Thus, a low-tier supernatural spell would take one second to chant, aim, and fire.

But if your mental strength was high enough and you had sufficient talent in magecraft, you could create a silent-cast rune.

Then congratulations were in order. This silent-cast rune would allow you to chant one fewer syllable of the spell. When you complete the chanting of three of the four syllables of this supernatural spell, the silent-cast rune would automatically light up and complete the chanting for you. Thus, you would only need 0.75 seconds to complete the chanting, aiming, and firing of the spell.

And if you had two silent-cast runes, in theory, your low-tier supernatural spell would only take 0.5 seconds to cast.

And if you went further to create three silent-cast runes, then this low-tier supernatural spell would only take 0.25 seconds.

It was already very fast to cast one low-tier supernatural spell in 0.25 seconds.

But if you went one step further on this basis…

Well, what would happen if a person had four silent-cast runes?

Indeed, their spell would cast instantly!

There would not be a need to chant the spell. With just a thought, the spell could be cast.

Instantly casting low-tier supernatural spells, it was something that every Spellcaster dreamed of doing.

But the problem was, were silent-cast runes easy to create?

The answer was, even though many Spellcasters wanted to achieve the dream of instant casting, it was too far beyond their sights.

Gurney thought to himself,

That incomplete supernatural spell scroll was damaged, so it had the effect of torturing and refining my soul, causing me to benefit instead and obtain an extraordinarily strong soul. It was also because I have a pretty good talent in magecraft.

These four months, after painstaking cultivation, I managed to create four silent-cast runes. In this classroom, other than those talented two, the affluent Yulair and Yanny, who had created one or two silent-cast runes, everyone else does not even have a single silent-cast rune. With sufficient talent and resources, they should be able to create one or two quick-cast runes. As for those without talent or resources, they can only walk on the despairing path of multi-cast runes and slowly develop themselves.

Yes.

Even those affluent aristocrats with sufficient resources could still face immense trouble when trying to create silent-cast runes. Furthermore, it got harder as they progressed.

There was still hope for one or two runes, but three or four of them was basically impossible.

Silent-cast runes were very useful without doubt, but they were also extremely hard to create. Compared to creating the highly difficult silent-cast rune, quick-cast and multi-cast runes were much easier.

The quick-cast rune. As the name suggested, it could increase the speed of casting spells. Each quick-cast rune could raise the speed by a certain percentage. More specifically, each quick-cast rune could raise the chanting speed by 10%. Ten quick cast runes could raise the chanting speed by 100%; that was the same as cutting the chanting time in half.

However, no matter how many quick-cast runes were created, it was almost impossible to reach instant cast.

Thus, the trait of the quick-cast rune made it inferior to the silent-cast rune, but this did not mean that they were not useful.

Taking the Spellcaster class as an example, quick-cast runes far surpassed silent-cast runes in practical use. Because in the Spellcaster class, low-tier spells had four to six syllables; mid-tier spells had six to 10 syllables, and high-tier spells had 10 to 14 syllables.

Evidently, even those high-tier Spellcasters or even the Grand Spellcasters who were tier seven and above could not create six or seven silent-cast runes, not to mention 10.

But if you had 10 quick cast runes instead, along with four silent-cast runes, then for a peak high-tier spell with 14 syllables, the four silent-cast runes would first eliminate four syllables, while the 10 quick-cast runes would raise the chanting speed by 100%.

Then, this peak high-tier spell would only need five syllables worth of time (or 1.25 seconds) to cast. That was quite good as well.

Runes were not independent of each other from the start; they were meant to be used together.

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Cybona Origin Pool

Compared to quick cast runes and silent cast runes, multi-cast runes emphasized long-term effects more.

Silent cast and quick cast runes had effect the moment they were created, but multi-cast runes had no effect if one or two were created. Even after making nine of them, there would be no effect at all.

However, the moment you made 10 multi-cast runes, a qualitative change would occur. The 10 multi-cast runes would fuse together in the depths of the soul, creating a "multi-cast soul".

At that time, the Spellcaster would gain the highly desired ability to dual-cast spells.

A Spellcaster with dual-cast talent was able to chant two spells at the same time, and the two spells were independent and would not conflict with each other. The two spells could have the effects of silent cast and quick cast runes as well.

One person could simply be treated as two people. This was the powerful effect of multi-cast runes.

But the problem was, one or two multi-cast runes were not hard to create, but to make 10 of them, one not only needed to have talent, they also needed time, perseverance, and effort, as well as a vast amount of resources. It was most suitable to say that it was a long-term investment.

Regardless of whether it was silent cast, quick cast, or multi-cast, these three runes made up the most important and fundamental cores of a Spellcaster.

Even though there were other runes as well, compared to these three, the effects were much weaker.

Of course, Gurney had heard of very rare or unique runes before, but their information was not recorded in common supernatural items.

In fact, the information would disappear with time.

Gurney held anticipation towards obtaining these kinds of special runes as well.

The lesson involving spell runes ended after Teacher Ourock finished his explanation, "…the gains are not small."

From this class, Gurney learned a lot of new knowledge; he also gained a new understanding of his existing knowledge.

The Passive Farming System was currently farming Bone Essence Potion Mantra, Knight Breathing Style, and the incomplete supernatural spell scroll that tortured and refined Gurney's soul at all times. (He doesn't feel the side effects when it's in the farming slot.) It made Gurney's soul much more sensitive and perceptive; his memory and comprehension level also rose by a lot.

"Gurney, come to my office." Before Gurney finished packing his books into his bag, Teacher Ourock had already given instructions to him.

Good timing. I need to speak to Teacher Ourock for some matters as well,

Gurney thought to himself.

…

Minutes later.

Ourock Tower, ninth floor.

There were six rows of bookshelves in Ourock's office. Gurney stood inside while waiting for him.

Not far away, sunlight penetrated the glass and landed on the pots of plants on the balcony.

There were three pots on the balcony. They were scarlet red and smelled like blood; they were the supernatural plant "Red Bite Man-Eating Flower" that looked like two hands clasped together.

A branch that was about the length of an arm could be seen moving at an observable rate. The blood-colored teeth in the mouth-like part resembled sharp needles. These Red Bite Man-Eating Flowers were easily able to chew off a piece of flesh from a human body.

At the moment, Ourock was busy attending to these three flowers on his balcony.

Ourock was able to move casually around these three Red Bite Man-Eating Flowers.

However, if others went closer, they would lose pieces of their flesh; in fact, some might even be turned into food for these plants.

And this Red Bite Man-Eating Flower was only the weakest type of supernatural plant. It could barely move and had limited attack range; in the eyes of Spellcasters, it was basically an immobile target.

As for those supernatural lifeforms that had extremely strong survival traits, even powerful Transcendents did not want to face them.

After attending to them, Ourock turned around and smiled at Gurney. "It will be winter soon. The weather is getting colder, and these young ones are getting harder to feed. When winter arrives, they will likely hibernate."

Gurney smiled lightly as well.

"You…" After sitting down, Ourock observed Gurney carefully again. "You seem quite different from a month ago."

Ourock spoke vaguely, but Gurney understood his words.

Because a month ago, Ourock seemed to know that Gurney had three silent cast runes.

In this regard, Gurney did not conceal anything. After all, the silent cast runes were not his greatest secret.

"I managed to succeed luckily. It placed a great deal of pressure on my soul," Gurney replied honestly.

"Mm, this means you have four now. You are already able to instantly cast most low-tier spells. You have to know that even for many mid-tier Transcendents, they are still not able to achieve this. Your talent is far more impressive than I thought." Ourock's eyelids twitched subtly. "Pressure on your soul is a common thing. After all, you are not a true Transcendent yet.

"By the time you become a true Transcendent, the pressure on you will become much smaller. By then, you will be able to create one or two more silent cast runes.

"If you are willing to, you can bring my recommendation letter to Dragon Tidal Mountain's White Tower. They will open their doors to someone like you. Furthermore, I am recommending you to some very exceptional teachers. They will treat you as a core member and nurture you. It will not be a problem for you to become a supernatural Spellcaster there.

"In fact, you can obtain even rarer and more special Spellcaster tokens there. You would become a very unique Spellcaster. You need to know that the dream of many Mages is to enter Dragon Tidal Mountain's White Tower. Most of them aspire to become one of those special Spellcasters." After saying so, Ourock passed the recommendation letter to Gurney.

This situation had occurred four times already in the last few months.

Dragon Tidal Mountain's White Tower…

It was a very powerful force that was independent of the various empires. It focused on supernatural research and studies as its goal, maintaining neutrality and not joining in the conflict of the various forces.

There were many forces that were just like it in Oasia Continent.

In the past several times, Gurney had directly rejected the invitation from Ourock, but this time, he did not reject the offer immediately.

After thinking about it, Gurney went up and took the wax-sealed letter. He then replied, "I will consider it after graduation. If it is suitable for me, I will head to Dragon Tidal Mountain's White Tower. After all, I know that it is the cultivation sacred ground for Mages."

"Very good!" Seeing that Gurney took the letter, Ourock finally showed a smile on his wrinkled face.

After waiting for some time, Gurney asked tentatively. "Actually, I have something that I want to—"

"You want books regarding the opening of the origin pool and its cultivation method, correct?"

Gurney had mentioned it before. Ourock naturally knew what he was going to request.

"Yes, teacher."

"You are not a true Transcendent now. You have yet to experience the truth of being a Transcendent. Even if you obtain the [Bona Origin Pool] that you desire, you are still unable to open the origin pool now. At most, you will gain the capacity to hold more origin force. Even though I can sense that your physique is stronger than the average Spellcaster, which would allow you to contain more origin force, it will still not be a lot. However, since I already agreed to it, I will give you what you want." Raising his hand, Ourock's robe fluttered in the air.

A book with an ancient design and a special temple cover constructed with rune seals appeared out of thin air; its pages quickly turned on their own.

This was the "Book of Memory Hall" that was constructed by a supernatural researcher.

Everything that one could remember, see, hear, perceive, feel, and even think would be perfectly recorded on the pages of this book.

Furthermore, this Book of Memory Hall could automatically classify and organize fragmented information.

"Let me see…" Ourock inspected his book while speaking. "[Bona Origin Pool] costs twenty points, and you have accumulated… hmm… twenty-one points in these few months." Ourock looked at the points recorded on his Book of Memory Hall as he nodded slightly.

Waving his hand, the Book of Memory Hall then vanished into specks of light.

"Student Gurney Lawrence exchanges twenty points for the supernatural book [Cybona Origin Pool," Ourock said softly.

The Book of Memory Hall seemingly recorded this information down on its own.

"[Cybona Origin Pool]?" Gurney was stunned.

[Bona Origin Pool] was a low-tier origin pool book that cost 20 points.

As for [Cybona Origin Pool, it was a mid-tier origin pool book that was valued at fifty points at least.

"Teacher, did you make a mistake?" Gurney was stunned as he asked.

"No mistake there." Ourock smiled lightly. "You have good talent. This [Cybona Origin Pool] is more suitable for you."

After thinking about it, Gurney bowed towards Teacher Ourock.

"Thank you, teacher!"

Mersha Lawrence

As a Mage, as a Spellcaster, the cores of oneself were the mind, origin pool, and spells.

The strength of the mind determined one's control over spells, the power they could unleash, and their own tier. A weak mind meant that casting spells became a larger burden, and using powerful spells consecutively would cause the mind to become fatigued. But with a strong and sturdy mind, even if one used powerful spells, they would still remain alert and perceptive of their surroundings.

As for the origin pool, it was much simpler; it was akin to mana. The size of the origin pool would determine the quantity of origin force, which would determine the number of spells one could use. A Spellcaster without origin force would be the same as a fish on the chopping block.

This time, Gurney obtained [Cybona Origin Pool] from his teacher. This would expand the size of Gurney's origin pool!

Next were spells.

The tier as well as the level would determine the power of the spell. The higher the tier, the more syllables the spell would have, and the stronger they would be.

In terms of the mind, because of that incomplete supernatural book in his farming slot which constantly refined his mind and soul, it caused Gurney's mental strength to be simply terrifying. And this was the key to why Gurney was able to create four silent cast runes while still being an Apprentice Spellcaster.

The three spells that Gurney possessed, due to the farming of his system, had high levels.

Low-tier supernatural spell: Ring Explosion, level five.

Ordinary spell: Fire Arrow, level four.

Ordinary spell: Arc Lightning, level four.

For a Spellcaster, the way to raise the level of a spell was to continuously use and comprehend it, making minor adjustments to the spell based on one's own experience.

This required a lot of time and effort.

Thus, to raise the level of a spell by one, years would often be needed. But for Gurney, he could gain one cultivation experience point every 10 seconds.

This highly efficient farming that had no expenditure made Gurney's spell levels very high. And with the rise of each level, there would be a minor qualitative improvement in the power of the spell.

This meant that Gurney who had level-four and level-five spells was terrifyingly powerful.

And this was also the reason why Gurney dared to explore the supernatural wilderness plain with his companions.

…

The night descended.

Within the underground Potion-Alchemy Secret Room.

After concocting his potion, Gurney let out a light sigh.

Next, the two Apprentice Pharmacists, Belle and Hawk, had to put them into bottles and seal them before placing them into the storage.

Belle and Hawk, who were around Gurney's age, worked with great efficiency and proficiency as they sealed the bottles.

They both had good talent as Pharmacists. If they were willing to put in the effort to cultivate a potion mantra, they might be able to become true Pharmacists in the future.

After sealing the bottles, Gurney, who was resting at one side, recovered his stamina and mental energy as well.

Several days had passed since he started farming the Devotion Knight Breathing Style. Gurney could clearly sense that his physical body was getting stronger.

Furthermore, in terms of stamina and mental recovery, it also far surpassed the ordinary Knight Breathing Style he had used earlier.

After the potions were placed into the storage, Belle and Hawk did not leave; instead, they approached Gurney.

"Sir Gurney." The two of them were very respectful to Gurney because they knew that this youngster who was around their age was a true super genius as a Pharmacist. His current attainment was already at a height that they could never reach in this lifetime.

"Recently, I met with some problems when blending potions," Hawk said in a careful tone.

"Oh, what problems?"

Regarding the two Apprentice Pharmacists' questions, Gurney could easily understand and answer them.

After ten or so minutes, the two left in satisfaction.

"They are very hardworking. They're also improving rather well. I have to say, Father Cohen's foresight is really unique. Come to think of it, Father Cohen is a Transcendent too, right? Otherwise, how could he have gathered so many talented children with just a keen sight?"

"For example, I, or rather the former me, was an orphan that Father Cohen picked out from the homeless children."

In the memories of the young Gurney, he mostly recalled starving or getting bullied.

Until Old Cohen adopted him.

"But he gives off a feeling that is not like a Transcendent."

While Gurney was thinking, he heard footsteps walking down the stairs.

"Hmm?"

Gurney looked towards it.

"Heavy and light footsteps together. Someone else is here?"

Soon, Old Cohen, who had white hair and who wore a round hat and a black robe, walked into the Potion-Alchemy Secret Room. At the same time, there was a little girl, roughly twelve years of age, who wore dirty tattered clothes and had messy hair hiding behind her head.

The girl's face was covered in dark soot. Who knew if it was for a certain reason or not?

"An adoption? Or?" Gurney squinted; he was shrewd and did not ask the question out loud.

Gurney knew some things about Old Cohen; he would not ask him about it.

"From today onwards, she is your little sister. Furthermore, I have already made arrangements for her to attend school at Sugar Supernatural Academy."

"A newly adopted… little sister?" Gurney's heart jumped a little. "Mm, I got it. Before I graduate, she won't have to worry about anyone bullying her."

Looking at the girl's scared expression and movement, Gurney knew that she would get bullied once she attended school.

After all, Sugar Supernatural Academy was not a kindergarten for children. It was a supernatural school that emphasized strength and power.

Personal grudges and conflicts, even getting your arms and legs broken, were not things that rarely happened.

In fact, certain little girls were dragged into the woods behind the school for vicious deeds.

"Mm, she is going to enroll in darkness studies. If you have time, help her out in school," Old Cohen said in his hoarse voice.

"Darkness studies?" Gurney's brows lifted as he smiled wryly and looked at the little girl.

As expected, the alert little girl hid behind Old Cohen's shadow; Gurney could no longer see her at all.

"I will take note of her. If anyone bullies her, they will be punished accordingly." Gurney nodded.

"What is your name?" Gurney walked over and looked at the little girl.

The little girl who could not avoid him anymore felt nervous. Her arms grabbed onto Old Cohen's clothing as she stared at Gurney in alertness, and also some fear.

Eventually, the little girl mustered her courage. "Mersha… Lawrence."

"Mersha Lawrence, it's a good name." Gurney Lawrence nodded.

Next, Gurney squinted his eyes and asked, "You seem to be afraid of me?"

"…mm…" The little girl nodded weakly.

"You… are very scary!" The little girl was on the brink of tears.

"Her supernatural sense… is very strong!" Gurney muttered to himself.

Supernatural sense!

It was a type of ability that surpassed logic or reasoning.

For example, the sense of danger, the sense of death from the unknown, as well as the sense of wariness towards evil and others' gaze.

An outstanding Shadower might not be very powerful, but their supernatural sense could be considered top-tier.

"Alright, stop teasing her," Old Cohen said hoarsely. "From today onwards, she will also be an Apprentice Pharmacist."

"Got it."

A moment later, through the other stairway, Old Cohen left with Mersha.

Gurney, who watched them leave, pondered for a moment before laughing to himself lightly.

Old Cohen had adopted many people.

In Gurney's memories, before him, Old Cohen had adopted at least five orphans.

But after those adopted orphans grew up, Old Cohen sent them all away.

In Gurney's opinion, Old Cohen was acting like a "Supernatural Scouter"; he would nurture certain children with outstanding talent.

As for what these people were sent to do, Gurney had no idea.

But soon, Gurney would find out.

…Because he was three months away from graduating.

"Everything has been settled. It is time to try out the effects of my new supernatural book, [Cybona Origin Pool].

"Teacher Ourock knows that my body is tougher than most Spellcasters, but he does not know the extent of my physique. I am simply overflowing with physical strength. I am really looking forward to using this [Cybona Origin Pool]!"

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Human-Faced Flower

Cultivation secret room.

Gurney looked at his Passive Farming System while seated.

All along, the strength of Gurney's mind had been refining and improving because of the negative drawback of the incomplete supernatural book Ring Explosion.

Gurney's spells were all in passive farming slots.

As for Gurney himself, his origin pool was not opened yet. Meaning, he did not have an origin pool to hold his origin force.

Thus, Gurney's origin force was stored in his physical body instead. The method that Gurney used to achieve this was an ancient type of "meditation".

This meditation was not in the form of a book. It was only a method, and thus, it could not be placed in the passive farming slot.

When meditating and concentrating one's mind, the person could use mental power to extract the origin force of the world and infuse it into their bodies. Through continuous extraction, the body would adapt to the origin force and become capable of storing a portion of it.

This method had low efficiency and was not as fast as cultivating using a book.

However, because of Gurney's strong mind and tough body, and after laboriously cultivating this method for some time, Gurney managed to store up a sizable sum of origin force. Due to the high levels of his spells, Gurney would only need a very little bit of origin force to unleash relatively powerful spells, thus enabling him to sustain a long battle.

Nonetheless, this could not hide the fact that Gurney's origin force was not high in quantity, yet now, this weakness was about to be resolved.

He could not get an origin pool opening method from Old Cohen, but he managed to get one from Teacher Ourock.

1: Bone Essence Potion Mantra.

2: Fire Arrow.

3: Ring Explosion.

4: Devotion Knight Breathing Style.

Gurney looked at the four books and took out Fire Arrow.

This Fire Arrow was just an ordinary spell, and after reaching level four, it was nearing its limit.

Next, Cybona Origin Pool was placed into the now vacant slot.

6!

6!

…

Experience was constantly being gained after this Cybona Origin Pool's book was placed into the passive farming slot.

After the number 6 appeared several times, Gurney could feel that there was a slight flow of origin force gathering in his body. This body was also absorbing and digesting the origin force more quickly.

This speed of growth was simply too fast compared to meditation; one day of passive farming was akin to half a month of cultivation.

Furthermore, as Cybona Origin Pool's level rose, the cultivation speed would get even faster.

If Gurney had a Transcendent body, then this Cybona Origin Pool would absorb the origin force while helping him to open the origin pool.

Gurney did not have a Transcendent body just yet.

Thus, the current Cybona Origin Pool was helping Gurney's body absorb the origin force and store it throughout his body.

The system always adopted the most optimal method of cultivation. Gurney did not have to worry about any problems occurring with passive farming.

A week later, I will go and test how much my origin-force capacity has grown. It will also show me the effect of this Cybona Origin Pool,

Gurney thought to himself.

…

Gurney studied in the day and concocted potions at night, while passive farming all the time.

Soon, a week passed just like that.

Life was still simple, safe, and comfortable. This peaceful and calm state only existed on the surface.

Jade Orchid Steam Newspaper was constantly posting news of Transcendent murder cases, as well as the vile actions and crimes of cultists on the supernatural tablet.

Below, undercurrents surged fiercely, continuing to grow stronger…

What made Gurney happy was that Mersha had quickly adapted to her new environment. This saved Gurney a lot of effort in guiding and teaching her.

On the second day, when Mersha wore new clothes and appeared before Gurney, he almost failed to recognize her.

He was also shocked to find out that Mersha's talent as a Pharmacist was quite high. In fact, she was likely to be even more talented than that young Sibol. Of course, a large portion of her talent was based on her "supernatural sense".

"Maybe in the future, she will become an outstanding Shadower." This was Gurney's initial evaluation.

Compared to how fearful she was towards Gurney, it did not happen when she met Belle and Hawk.

The three of them soon got a lot closer.

Mersha's arrival was a rare source of vitality and energy for the Potion-Alchemy Secret Room that had just lost Sibol.

In the Potion-Alchemy Secret Room.

Bubble, bubble…

Within the beaker, sticky red fluid was boiling.

From time to time, red bubbles would appear and pop on their own.

Gurney who stood beside the table took a look and nodded his head slightly.

The fire was well controlled. After the beaker was boiled for fifteen minutes, the fire was put out.

This liquid would become 32 bottles of the mid-tier "Rage Potion".

After drinking it, even high-tier Transcendents, which was about tier five or six, and regardless of whether they were warriors or knights, would enter a berserk state.

In their berserk state, their reflexes, speed, and strength would rise sharply, but the cost was that after 20 minutes, they would enter a weakened state, lasting for about an hour.

In crucial moments, this potion could be used to save their lives.

Gurney had read in the newspaper that in the southern wilderness plain, many tribes would use enhancements similar to these rage potions when resisting the armies of the empire. Sometimes, the armies would lose many soldiers as a result.

Unlike the intense battles at the southern wilderness plain of Oasia Continent, the Jade Orchid Empire's northern expedition did not face the resistance of many wilderness tribes. Instead, many people died while exploring the supernatural areas.

Gurney was still waiting for the potion to cool down when he heard footsteps on the stairs.

From the sound, he could tell that it was Mersha.

A moment later, Mersha appeared by the stairway, but she did not walk any closer to him, standing far away.

"Am I really that scary?" Gurney muttered to himself without turning around as he rubbed his chin. "Isn't it just a stronger mind and slightly more powerful spells?"

"What's the matter?" Gurney asked softly without turning to look at her.

This lass was very wary of him. If he showed excessive enthusiasm, her fear towards him would increase instead.

After hesitating for some time, Mersha mustered her courage. "Our teacher in charge of the supernatural lifeform class asked us to nurture some supernatural plants and observe them often. This way, it can train our perception and patience."

Gurney turned around.

At the stairway, the twelve-year-old Mersha wore a flowery one-piece dress. Her short hair was clean, and her face was slightly thin. Her clear eyes still looked very warily at Gurney.

"Do you want me to go buy a supernatural plant with you?" Gurney asked in a calm tone.

"I have a classmate who gave me a human-faced flower seed."

"Human-faced flower seed?" Gurney rubbed his fingers lightly. "So, you want to plant a human-faced flower?"

"Yes! But the book also says that human-faced flowers grow best when planted in winter. The best time will be when it is snowing."

"Now is not that season yet, but if we use an ice-attribute potion and submerge the flower in it for a few days, we can plant the seed," offered Gurney.

"Can I…?" Mersha looked at Gurney pleadingly.

"No problem. Come here tomorrow night. I will make the ice-attribute potion for you."

"Thank you!" Mersha instantly smiled with a beautiful and cheerful expression.

The human-faced flower.

It was a rather common flower in the supernatural wilderness plain, but within the stamen of the flower, there was a life-like human face that looked extremely real; thus, it was called the human-faced flower.

These human-faced flowers often grew in a group, creating a sea of flowers.

Compared to the red bite man-eating flower that had some offensive traits, planting a human-faced flower was much less threatening and harmless.

However, when in the wild, between the red bite man-eating flower sea and the human-faced flower sea, one would pray that it was not a sea of human-faced flowers.

A sea of human-faced flowers would often have a terrifying existence, the human-faced flower king. This human-faced flower king was born with the ability to confuse, create illusions, and even manipulate souls and deep emotions.

When facing a human-faced flower king, one would fall deeply in love with it, becoming its puppet. One would willingly be enslaved by it, even exposing all of one's knowledge and secrets to it.

Thankfully, just one flower was not a problem.

Hearing the footsteps of Mersha who was leaving, Gurney fell into deep contemplation.

"Human-faced flower, huh?" Gurney muttered.

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Blue Ice Princess

The following day, at the break of dawn.

Gurney arrived at Sugar Supernatural Academy.

Today's classes were all by Teacher Ourock, so Gurney did not dare to be late. After all, he was not an ordinary teacher; he was a Transcendent teacher. These people had the authority to expel students who were not hardworking.

By the time Gurney arrived on the sixth floor of Ourock Tower, several people were already seated; even the person that Gurney wanted to meet had already arrived.

"Good morning, Yulair!" Gurney casually said his greeting.

"Good morning!" Yulair replied subconsciously, but soon, she turned her head around in shock. In her memory, they had already been classmates for four years, but this was the first time he took the initiative to greet her in the morning.

Seeing his clean, short hair and thin but firm face, Yulair felt slightly nervous as her heart palpitated.

"I have something to ask you, may I?" Gurney lowered his voice.

"What is it?"

"I remember that you mentioned your sister is in the Darkness Department, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Then, does the Darkness Department have a habit of raising plants to nurture one's observation skills and patience, or rather, a method that practices this?"

"Oh! You mean that! From what I remember, my sister said that supernatural plants will move mildly on their own, so one has to be attentive to notice such small changes through this dull process of observation. It can indeed raise one's patience and endurance. This is very important for a Shadower.

"My sister also grew some 'mosquito-repelling grass'. You know that during summer, those bugs are very annoying, but once you have mosquito-repelling grass growing, the entire room will be devoid of such bugs."

"So that's it. I understand now." Gurney nodded slightly.

"Why are you asking this?"

"Because a Knight who does not want to be a Shadower is not a good Mage," Gurney replied as such.

Yulair froze for a moment before laughing to herself uncontrollably.

Taking a glance at Gurney, Yulair's ears turned red.

This guy is always able to think of some nonsensical sentences in his head.

As he arranged his textbooks at his seat, Gurney thought to himself,

This Mersha… it seems I was overthinking it. My victim paranoia is getting more severe.

Gurney rubbed his temples lightly.

As someone who was born with an alert and wary nature, Gurney often looked at everything around him with the preset notion that they wanted to harm him even if the other party was truly harmless.

"But I still have a bad feeling. Maybe it is this upcoming expedition… or the cult members of that Giant Deity Cult from some time ago…? Those cult members who believe in the Giant Deity had gone completely silent after that incident. Are they storing up energy now to make a big move later?

"Sigh… my strength is still too weak. For now, I need to become a true Spellcaster first. Only then can I survive against the upcoming tides of the mysterious supernatural world and not become a sacrificial pawn who dies silently."

…

At night, in Old Rock Street, No. 155, within the underground Potion-Alchemy Secret Room.

"Huff…"

Looking at the three blue bottles containing "Blue Ice Princess", Gurney let out a soft sigh.

The precious low-tier ice potion, Blue Ice Princess.

One bottle would make one feel like they were submerged in the icy river.

Two bottles would make one feel like they were frozen in ice.

Three bottles would make one's soul go directly to heaven.

Of course, that was the case for normal people.

For an Ice Elementalist, this potion would be able to replenish their elemental force to a great extent when it started to run out. It was akin to an Ice Elementalist's "mana potion".

"This is… Blue Ice Princess?" Mersha who was at the side stared with wide eyes as she looked at this blue potion that was being poured into the test tube.

"You recognize it?"

"They said that this Blue Ice Princess was one of the best potions to use for cultivating human-faced flowers. I've seen its picture before," Mersha replied softly.

"What you made is much better than the one in the picture." Mersha pointed at the empty space above the potion bottle as she said, "So many small snowflakes flying around, it's so cute."

Placing the three Blue Ice Princess potions into the bag, Gurney handed it to Mersha and said, "Be careful. Don't touch this Blue Ice Princess directly. It is very cold."

"I got it. Thank you!" Mersha expressed her gratitude to Gurney. She also performed an inexpert curtsy.

After Mersha left, from the dark corner of the stairway, Old Cohen walked out.

Gurney had sensed Old Cohen's arrival long ago. Even though Mersha possessed an outstanding "supernatural sense", she had not received sufficient training yet, so she did not discover him.

"Is anything the matter?"

"Mm." Gurney nodded as he packed up the equipment on the desk and said, "Next week, the school will be having an outdoor practical lesson lasting a week. Since I will not be around for a week, regarding the potion concoction…"

"Recently, the sale of potions has been rather low, and you have made many potions these past few days, so there is no need to worry," Old Cohen said in his hoarse voice. "Instead, I obtained news that the members of Giant Deity Cult have been moving around Sugar Ruins City recently. There seem to be other forces at work too.

"So be careful when you go out. I know that you have some strength, but you need to know that against those truly powerful Transcendents, your methods will not have much effort. After all, you are still not a true Transcendent yet.

"Fortunately, within Sugar Ruins City, there are powerful Transcendent teachers. You won't need to worry about attacks by cult members there. However, once you enter the supernatural wilderness, those supernatural plants and lifeforms will be the true threats that you need to guard against."

"I will be careful," Gurney replied.

Regarding the exploration of the supernatural wilderness, Gurney had some experience, and with his personality, if he really met a supernatural plant or lifeform, it was uncertain which side would suffer a loss.

…

Late at night, inside the secret room below Gurney's room.

After ensuring that lock, door, and secret tunnel were safely secured, Gurney lay down on his wooden bed at the corner, relaxing while holding the

book that he had borrowed from Sugar Supernatural Academy, and started to read.

As a proper Pharmacist, Gurney needed to have a deep knowledge of all natural plants, supernatural plants, their many subspecies, and all their medicinal effects.

Otherwise, when exploring mysterious and supernatural areas, if he did not recognize those valuable plants and missed them, it would be a severe loss.

…

Late at night, moonlight pierced through the thick clouds, scattering and landing on Mersha's thin window.

Before the window, Mersha carefully placed the finger-sized yellowish human-faced-flower seed into the bottle of Blue Ice Princess potion.

Staring at the human-faced-flower seed that was submerged in the Blue Ice Princess liquid, Mersha opened her mouth and muttered, "Little flower, little flower, quickly grow up!"

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Increased Origin Force

A deep-black spherical dome, a sharp and mechanically beautiful spire, and the extremely tall tower itself.

Even from 10 streets away, one could see this black tower.

This was the most famous infrastructure in Sugar Supernatural Academy.

The Famed Hall of Sugar Academy's students and Transcendents.

In addition to commemorating historical figures who had made significant contributions to Sugar Supernatural Academy and who had conducted significant research in the field of supernatural studies, the Famed Hall also had many functions and services. For example, the origin pool capacity testing machine.

At this moment, a group of four — Yulair, Blue Shire, Black Dill, and Gurney — had gathered before the origin-force capacity-testing machine.

Standing before the four of them was a tall and skinny youngster. This skinny figure together with the loose shirt that fluttered with the wind looked really peculiar. The youngster's skeleton-like palm was placed on a black crystal that was the size of a basketball.

After a moment, there was a sound.

On the screen, the number 24 could be seen.

Seeing the number 24, the skinny youngster nodded in satisfaction.

The number indicated on this screen was indicative of the person's origin-force unit.

The amount of origin force in one "origin-force unit" would allow the person to cast one standard low-tier spell with four syllables.

Thus, 24 here meant that the youngster could cast a four-syllable spell 24 times. However, this was a standard calculation disregarding additional origin-force potions. In critical battles, one would obviously not have time to drink potions.

At that time, the person would desperately draw out the lurking origin force in their body. In that case, the stronger the body, the more one could endure and muster.

As for this skinny youngster, with his physique, he would go dry after three to five times.

However, having 24 origin-force units as a non-Transcendent was already quite impressive.

After testing, the youngster who was satisfied with his number did not leave; he stood at one side.

Casting a glance at the youngster, Gurney knew why he had stayed. He was trying to… show off!

This skinny youngster with 24 units… did he really think he was strong?

Yulair was the first among their group to walk up and use the machine. After her palm was placed on the black crystal, a number appeared after a moment.

42.

Seeing this figure, Yulair frowned.

"It seems that I have been slacking off too much. My progress has been too slow recently," Yulair muttered to herself.

Yulair, work harder! This is no time to rest!

Yulair clenched her tiny fist as she said to herself internally.

At this time, the skinny youngster who wanted to show off stared with bulging eyes. Her origin force capacity was completely on another level than his.

Gurney who walked at a constant pace also went up to place his palm on the black crystal.

With a soft sound, a number appeared.

64.

Seeing this number, the skinny youngster could not take it anymore; he left dejectedly.

At this moment, Yulair, Blue Shire, and Black Dill also looked at Gurney in shock.

In fact, many of the mages queuing up who were part of the Spell, Elemental, or Summoner departments also started to discuss among themselves.

Even Gurney was slightly shocked. A month ago, his origin force capacity was still at 44. But now, it rose to a high number like 64. Evidently, this was the powerful effect of passively farming Cybona Origin Pool.

"As expected, a mid-tier origin-pool book is really amazing. Cybona Origin Pool's cultivation method along with my powerful physique had a strong effect after all! Fifty units of origin force is considered the most-basic capacity of a tier-one Spellcaster, and looking at this growth speed, I am not far from 100 units. That is the entry level for a tier-two Spellcaster. Furthermore, I have yet to open my origin pool. Once it is opened…"

Gurney squinted as he showed a smile on his face.

"Some time ago, I obtained an origin pool cultivation method. My progress has been rapid so far," Gurney muttered to himself. It seemed like he was talking to himself, but it was actually for the others to hear.

"What a scary guy."

Soon, Blue Shire and Black Dill also did their test.

Blue Shire had 82 units of origin force. This was not a shocking number to the rest of them because Blue Shire had used a supernatural token already. Even though she was not a true Transcendent, she was still considered half a Transcendent. It was normal for the value to be higher than others.

Black Dill also had a decent number of 38 units; it was quite impressive.

…

After 10 minutes.

Under the teacher's lead, over sixty mage-faculty students ascended the steam train that was bound for the northern mines.

Compared to the width of the rail in his previous life that was 1,435 millimeters wide, being determined by the size of two horses' butts, this supernatural world's supernatural railway steam train's width was determined by the size of the supernatural beast, Black Horn Bull. Its width was a total of 2,655 millimeters.

Undeniably, sometimes, history tends to be similar.

The rail tracks that were 2,655 millimeters wide caused the width of the steam train carriages to be five meters wide.

As a result of that, the height was at 5.5 meters, and the length was 45 meters, or even 50 meters depending on the segment.

Each carriage was huge and could contain many things. Half a carriage could accommodate all of the students in fact.

"Chuuuu…" The deep, melodious sound of the whistle started to blare.

Clang clang…

The super steam train started to move.

The students either talked and laughed together, or played games like Call of Cthulhu.

As for Gurney, he looked outside expressionlessly towards the wilderness plain.

In his previous life, people could casually drive into the wilderness to appreciate the wild lands, mountains, valleys, snowy peaks, or even deserts and the wide ocean.

But this was a supernatural world. The supernatural wilderness plain was not a place that humans could casually enter or live in. All sorts of powerful supernatural plants or lifeforms, even evil spirits and strong wilderness plain tribes, lived there.

If humans entered unprepared, they would become dinner.

Each time the academy organized a wilderness plain practical lesson, it would be a wonderful time for Gurney to appreciate the natural beauty of this supernatural world.

"Hey, Gurney, what are you thinking about?" Pavel, who was in the same room, patted Gurney's shoulder and asked.

Gurney moved his arm away subtly while replying plainly, "You can tell me directly if you want to test my physical strength. Later, we can have a spar."

"Hehe…" Pavel, who had his objective exposed, smiled sheepishly. "I don't know what you mean."

Pavel Korchagin!

Holding the title of the Philosophy Knight, his philosophy was,

My fist is the truth

.

His favorite sentence was, "When my hammer smashes your dog head, you will know it is time to apologize."

This sentence had created many problems for him, but because of his behemoth bloodline, rich family, and aristocratic status, even after causing problems, they would be quickly resolved.

However, this fellow with the behemoth bloodline did not manage to gain any advantages over Gurney.

Within this group, Pavel Korchagin emphasized his defense, which was bolstered by the behemoth bloodline; he was also a knight who had supernatural equipment.

Avery was a top-tier Shadower in the academy; he was skilled in concealment and assassination.

Blue Shire had half a Transcendent inheritance, so she had abundant origin force.

But among everyone in the small group, Gurney was undoubtedly the strongest person.

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Hound Rabbit

It was almost 11 p.m.

The train arrived at the north of Sugar Ruins City to Sugar Black-Iron Mine.

The moment they left the train, Gurney heard the thunderous sound of steam-hauled mining engines.

Looking over, the entire Sugar Black-Iron Mine was a busy scene of laborious work.

Tall steel steam cranes moved back and forth to transport the excavated ores to the supernatural steam locomotives.

As for the several huge mines that were 20 meters high, the supernatural high-pressure steam engines, through mechanical wheels, moved the tracks and transported a large amount of ore from the depths of the mines.

On one side, there was a supernatural steam pump continuously pumping out the water inside the mine.

Excavation, water pumping, transportation, and a series of other operations were carried out by steam-powered machinery.

In his previous life, coal fuel and steam could hardly provide the huge and complex mechanical energy needed by the entire era.

However, this world was not his previous world. This was a world with supernatural powers, special metals, and unique energy sources.

Firstly, the water in this world was mixed with a special energy called "water element". The water vapor formed by combustion would expand under high pressure with a proportion and intensity that was terrifying.

The incinerator built with supernatural metal could lock in the energy from burning coal so that it could be used to heat up the water vapor instead of escaping.

Secondly, the magic source coal formed by mixing with the special energy called "fire element" would attach the element of fire and cause the heat released from the combustion to be extraordinarily high.

In fact, Gurney learned that the high source coal formed by mixing in fire element and wood element in a certain proportion would release an even more terrifying energy. The new efficient energy source and utilization was the reason why the great era of supernatural steampunk could be realized.

Looking at the steampunk steel machinery, Gurney could feel the vigorous power of these machines and the rugged beauty of the domain of steel and iron.

Not only Gurney, but the other students also stopped to watch although most of them were not seeing this for the first time.

…

After lunch.

While the other students were still making preparations to enter the wilderness under the guidance of the teacher, Gurney's group was one step ahead of them, having entered the wilderness already.

After passing a mountain ridge, the sound of machinery from the mine was already very soft.

Deep in the forest, the mountain trails were hard to move on.

A group of six, each with their own bags, moved forward vigilantly.

The muscular and strong Pavel Korchagin held a sharp blade and walked at the front as the vanguard. At the back was Shadower Avery, while Gurney and the three girls walked in the middle.

The six of them were very careful and vigilant; they did not speak excessively as that would waste their concentration and energy. They kept up with Pavel who was at the front as they quickly moved.

The six of them with exploration experience clearly knew that the moment they entered the wilderness, many supernatural lifeforms had already noticed them.

These were many wilderness lifeforms, and while supernatural lifeforms might be quite few in number, half-supernatural lifeforms were not.

For example, a certain eagle species had the same physique as normal eagles, but they would have an extraordinary sense of sight.

Or for example, a certain group of wolves that had the same body as the others would have an even stronger and fiercer biting force.

Or some mountain apes that looked normal would have intelligence not lower than humans.

Against these half-supernatural lifeforms with certain abilities, if one was not alert, they would likely get lightly or heavily injured, or even lose their lives.

…

Not until around 4 to 5 p.m. did the group arrive at the foot of the mountain that had a cluster of ancient trees with thick, low, sharp branches and buds that were higher in number than leaves.

"It will be dark soon, so we will rest here today," Avery quickly said after scanning their surroundings and returning to the group.

It was not the first time that everyone had entered the wilderness, so they naturally knew what each of them was tasked to do.

The division of labor among the six of them was this: the three ladies would fetch water, and the remaining three would take care of the rest of the hard labor.

The division of tasks was similarly simple and straightforward.

Gurney, who was about to go to gather wood, suddenly thought of something as he passed by Avery.

"Those two wilting-grass wolves that were tailing us, have they been dealt with?" Gurney lowered his voice and asked.

The wilting-grass wolves were half-supernatural lifeforms; their fur resembled withered grass, and they shed their hair and changed color with the change of seasons, completing their seasonal camouflage. They were quite a perfect half-supernatural species in the wilderness plain.

Most of the time, the wilting-grass wolf only appeared before humans in the desolate season of autumn. Thus, they were given such a name.

There would be a wilting-grass wolf king among a group of wilting-grass wolves too. The wolf king would be a true supernatural species; it was as strong as a bull and as fast as the wind. With a single bite, it could easily tear apart a person's skull.

Even Gurney was not willing to face a supernatural tier-one wilting-grass wolf king.

While they were moving in the mountains today, Gurney had sensed that two wilting-grass wolves had been tailing them for a long time.

"I killed one, while the other escaped. Wilting-grass wolves will not approach again after they have been taught a lesson," Avery replied.

"That's good." Gurney nodded.

While staying alert, Gurney collected wood nearby while his gaze swept through those corners that would be hard to figure out if something was hiding.

From time to time, Gurney would enter those relatively hidden locations. After he came out, he would have a new herb in his hand.

This herb would appear like magic in Gurney's hand; right after, he would quickly process it and toss it into the black thorn box. The entire process would last less than ten seconds.

As a Pharmacist and someone who had a level-six Bone Essence Potion Mantra, along with Gurney's own experience in handling a large amount of herbs in this half a year, Gurney was completely proficient with the techniques of handling such herbs.

Inside this ancient tree forest.

Behind an ancient tree, after having just processed a herb, Gurney was first stunned before he rubbed his fingers together, a faint smile appearing on his face.

"Interesting."

At the next moment.

Swoosh!

Sparks flew as a gray figure charged out from a location that was 10 meters away from him. The speed was too fast to react to, and the figure reached Gurney in almost an instant.

It was a plump gray rabbit, but it was as strong as a hunting hound. It had four sharp fangs and a vicious face; its eyes showed a cruel light that wanted to tear its prey apart.

When the fangs were aimed towards Gurney's neck and wanted to deal the fatal blow, against this sneak attack, Gurney only moved his legs slightly and dodged this attack with an agile movement.

At the same time, he snapped his fingers.

Bzzzzz!

The moment his fingers snapped, purple lightning instantly gathered at Gurney's fingertips.

Arc Lightning, an ordinary spell.

It could be cast with just two syllables. For Gurney, who had four silent cast runes, he could cast it with just a thought.

Different from the average Arc Lightning that could only emit thin thread-like sparks with quantity and density that was quite sparse, Gurney's Arc Lightning was as thick as a person's arm, and the sparks weaved together like a woolen ball; it was also extremely dense and packed.

Each time the level of a spell went up, its power would rise by quite a lot, and Gurney's level-four Arc Lightning had undergone several upgrades.

Even for an ordinary spell with two syllables, after some upgrades, it would become quite powerful and ferocious.

Buzz!

The Arc Lightning went entirely into the body of the lifeform that Gurney had avoided earlier.

Buzz buzz buzz…

The lifeform flew away as sparks jolted around it.

After landing on the ground and rolling for some distance, its four legs twitched for a while before stopping; it was no longer alive.

If Pavel and the rest saw this Arc Lightning, they would have been shocked.

How could this be Arc Lightning?! This was clearly even stronger than the Lightning Bolt spell.

"I was worried about the others not getting enough prey, but to think it would come to me on its own," Gurney said lightly.

His gaze swept through the surroundings before Gurney finally relaxed; there were no other supernatural beasts observing him in the area.

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Observation

Walking forward, Gurney examined the dead hound-like rabbit; it was the wilderness lifeform "hound rabbit".

Its body had brownish-yellow fur that was almost completely burnt. The Arc Lightning had split a part of its body open, revealing the charred rabbit meat inside.

Opening the lips of this hound rabbit, he saw four sharp and dangerous teeth. The teeth were yellow, and there were black markings forming around the roots of the teeth.

"It has already started to supernaturalize. It should be considered a half-supernatural species. In another two to three years, it would have become a true supernatural hound rabbit. If it really became a supernatural hound rabbit, its size would double, and its speed, strength, and attack power would also rise to new levels. Even its fur would be able to resist spells to some extent.

"By then, if it sneak-attacked me, I would have needed to dodge in a more unsightly manner. It is a pity… there will be no such opportunity for you.

"The Arc Lightning did not cause too much of a char. With just a little more work, it can be quite delicious too."

Holding wood in one hand and hound rabbit in the other, Gurney returned to the campsite.

Passing the ridge, he saw that several people in the camp had already started a fire; they were boiling water currently.

"A hound rabbit?" Seeing that Gurney had returned, Avery's gaze was attracted to what was in his hand.

"I thought that we would need to eat rations tonight. To think that you actually hunted a prey…"

"This hound rabbit came to me actually." Gurney shrugged and laughed.

"We are in for a treat tonight. This hound rabbit's meat is quite plump and delicious." Saying so, Avery took the hound rabbit.

While the two of them got closer, Gurney's expression changed slightly as he said in a subtle manner, "Be careful when you dissect it. There might be other half-supernatural beasts in this wilderness."

"I got it." Avery nodded in a steady manner.

Avery who held the hound rabbit turned around and went to the river stream to clean the corpse.

Meanwhile, Gurney held the small rock that Avery passed him when he took the hound rabbit earlier while having a slight stir in his mind.

"Avery found out too. At least I am not the only person who is alert in our group." As his gaze swept over the surroundings, Gurney was vigilant but not anxious or frustrated.

In the supernatural world, there were many peculiar methods to peek or observe secretly.

In order to not let the enemies get more information from their observation, the members of the group had created many secret signs that only they knew.

For example, secretly passing a small rock meant that there was an enemy or enemies observing them in the dark.

If someone told a scary story, that would mean the enemy was about to attack, and they would need to escape.

If someone shouted, "We are all going to die in battle here today." It would mean, "We can't win! Quickly escape!"

There were many other signs.

"I knew that this wilderness plain exploration would not be simple," Gurney said as he rubbed his temples lightly.

"Currently speaking, the enemies are observing us in the dark. They are clearly trying to probe and gain information about us, so they are not confident of attacking yet. Earlier, when I used Arc Lightning, if they were observing me, they would know that we are not to be trifled with."

Displaying one's strength appropriately at times would have a great deterrent effect on the enemy. After all, Gurney did not want to engage in meaningless combat.

A battle between Transcendents would usually cause collateral injuries or even death as they fought.

Of course… there is the possibility of another situation. If that happens, this exploration would… it would be quite dangerous

, Gurney who thought about this rapidly kept up his alertness.

Sitting beside the boiling water, Gurney sniffed but did not smell anything weird. He became slightly assured.

As the user of the level-six Bone Essence Potion Mantra, Gurney had an extremely strong sense of smell when it came to all sorts of potions or ingredients.

If the other party tried to disperse potions that would cause fainting or poisoning, Gurney would be able to easily decipher the attack.

Next, Gurney started to toss the herbs that he had gathered during the day into the pot of boiling water.

"What are these herbs? What use do they have?" Yulair Kogen who was at the side asked curiously.

"Some licorice stalks and some roots of the three-leaf sunflower. These things are effective in restoring strength and energy, as well as restoring a portion of the body's stamina. When consumed continuously, it can be very helpful on long journeys as well as in battle.

"Compared to making potions, turning these into food ingredients may have a weaker effect, but there should be no other drawbacks. They can still be easily digested and absorbed by the body. It is a pity I did not get any aged herbs along the way. These are mostly three to five years old or, at most, seven to eight years old," Gurney said.

"You need older herbs?" Pavel who was at the side felt slightly surprised. "I remember that Pharmacists have little requirements regarding the age of the herbs when making potions!"

Gurney stirred the pot while adding in supplementary ingredients.

He started to explain, "Long ago, during the era when the religious churches ruled, Pharmacists were just side jobs that many mages took. Their main purpose had been to create magic potions that could recover mana.

"But now, with the supernatural steam trains and the exploration of the wilderness plains, humans have started our expansion into the wild. A large amount of herbs, as well as Pharmacists, emerged as a result. The deeper theories of potions had also been probed. Different from the low-tier, mid-tier, and high-tier potions that you know of, there are also many other potion theories that are being written and published. Do you know the advanced theory of potion studies — the secret mark potion?"

Everyone was stunned.

"I know about secret mark spells. They are spells that are even higher than high-tier spells. They are very powerful. But what are secret mark potions?"

Everyone was curious.

"Don't tell me that the relationship between secret mark potions and ordinary potions is the same as supernatural spells and secret mark spells. They are of different levels?"

They discussed among themselves.

"Yes… but not really." Gurney pondered for a moment before elaborating, "General low-tier, mid-tier, and high-tier potions are all one-time consumable items."

"For example,"—Gurney moved his hand, and a low-tier energy-recovery potion appeared—"after using this bottle of energy-recovery potion, we will recover some amount of energy, which will allow us to have sufficient mental energy and stamina to do things. Or for example, a rage potion will allow us to gain speed, strength, and attack power for a short period of time. As another example, the essence healing potion is used to heal injuries and help the body recover.

"But… can there be potions that can be used to permanently increase our physical strength, the durability of our soul, our origin-force capacity, our body's agility, or even our cognitive speed?" Once Gurney said that, everyone looked at him with dumbstruck expressions.

"Permanently raising one's strength and durability? This—" Pavel's mouth was still open.

"It sounds too unrealistic and unimaginable, right?" Gurney smiled lightly. "The truth is, the Pharmacists of some forces that I know are already starting to explore this aspect. Through extremely complex concoction methods, together with those supernatural plants of a high age usually over a hundred years since ordinary plants cannot live so long, they will be able to concoct the extremely rare 'secret mark potion'.

"Different types of secret mark potions would have differing effects. Some could directly raise our physical strength, mental power, origin-force capacity, or even the endurance of the body. In fact, some high-end secret mark potions could directly raise one's Transcendent tier.

"With the excavation and advancement of secret mark potion studies, in the future, this high-end potion will have a huge impact on the development of humanity's supernatural power. It can even cause a revolution."

"If this type of potion is really successfully researched, then this society, and even the entire Transcendent world, will undergo an extraordinary change." Philosophy Knight Pavel nodded.

Gurney squinted as he said softly, "In this era full of change and revolution, not only did the colossal but clumsy steampunk train or steamship appear, but even the potion, alchemy, and supernatural equipment that we will wear in the future are also being revolutionized. This can be said to be the worst era. Everything is filled with the unknown, and the future is uncertain and hazy. But this is also the best era because the abundance of unknowns will lead to infinite possibilities."

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Blood Magic Grandmaster

Everyone looked at Gurney in a daze. After a long while, they retracted their gazes.

As the children of rich families, with some even being aristocrats, the information that they could obtain from their family far exceeded that of the average person; they had a wider vision as well.

Ever since the arrival of Oasia Continent's steampunk era, the mysterious cultists had been causing havoc rampantly. Strong and ancient supernatural classes were discovered and revitalized with unprecedented vitality. New supernatural classes were also being created constantly, including the existence of peculiar magical items that had never heard of previously. And right now, occasionally on the newspaper, one could even see news of high-end supernatural meetings.

Steam trains, steam wheels, guns, cannons, and even alchemy, potions, and rune formations… they appeared one after another unceasingly. The unpredictable changes of the era were already unfolding before their eyes.

As for what the future would be like, no one could say for sure.

Without a doubt, this was indeed the worst of times, as Gurney had said, but also the best era there was.

"Haha… Having said all that, of course, in our case, improving our own strength is the most important thing." Gurney laughed as he broke the silence of the group.

"Indeed, raising our strength is the most important matter at hand."

Meanwhile, Avery also came over with the prepared hound rabbit. As he had heard Gurney's words, he responded while walking, "This is the reason why we are exploring deep into the supernatural wilderness this time."

At this time, Gurney's soup was already prepared. The diced hound rabbit meat was poured into the pot. After the fire was made bigger, the pot soon boiled intensely with steam rising from it, and the fragrance of food started to spread.

"The five of you should take a good rest. I can guard the camp tonight," Avery said at a slow pace while cooking the hound rabbit meat.

The others had no objections. Avery was an Apprentice Shadower.

Gurney heard that he possessed a mid-tier supernatural book "Shadow Origin Force", which was not something that ordinary aristocrats or affluent families could get their hands on.

The extraordinary shadow origin force could allow him to recover his stamina and mental power when he was enveloped by darkness.

For the other apprentice classes like mages or physical combat classes, they still needed to sleep at night to rest, but for a Shadower, the darkness was their most comfortable bed. Cultivating in the dark was much more nourishing for their mind, body, and origin force compared to sleeping.

After filling their bellies and putting out the fire, everyone went into their tents to rest for the night.

Uuuuu…

The winds of the forest started to blow as the night slowly descended.

Soon, pure moonlight shone down on the entire wilderness.

"Aawooo… awooo…"

"Howl…"

"Grrrr…"

All sorts of cries of wild beasts or supernatural lifeforms could be heard around the area. Put together, this became the theme song of the supernatural wilderness plain.

In the gray tent, Gurney sat and cultivated in silence.

Avery was able to use his shadow origin force to cultivate in the darkness without needing rest, while Gurney was able to sit and cultivate because of his immense mental power; he could rest like this without needing actual sleep. Having a strong mind and a powerful body, this was simply an easy task.

While sitting, Gurney calmed down and observed the spell runes in his body.

Silent cast, quick cast, and multi-cast.

The three most basic types of runes for a Spellcaster.

At this time, inside Gurney's body, there were not only four silent cast runes but also three multi-cast runes. In contrast, Gurney had no quick cast rune.

In Gurney's case, his objective was to instantly cast spells, so he wanted to create more silent cast runes; thus, there was no need to get any quick cast runes if he could instantly cast his spells anyway.

As for the multi-cast runes, he was making preparations to dual cast in the future.

During this period of time, while Cybona Origin Pool and Devotion Knight Breathing Style were passively farming away, Gurney could feel his body growing stronger at a rapid rate. Even though his size did not increase, his body mass had increased by five percent from before.

His body density was increasing, and the density of his flesh body was the greatest proof that it was getting stronger.

Low-tier Transcendents were tiers one and two. Their bodies would turn from ordinary flesh slowly into Transcendent bodies.

Mid-tier Transcendents were tiers three and four. Their Transcendent bodies would enter a growth spurt.

High-tier Transcendents were tiers five and six. At this time, their Transcendent bodies would become more stable and powerful; they would gain many supernatural abilities involving just their bodies.

As for Transcendents that were tier seven, eight, or nine, they were known as "Transcendent Grandmasters." Transcendents of these tiers were authoritative figures in any force.

Guns and cannons might hold a certain threat against low-tier, mid-tier, and high-tier Transcendents, but against a Transcendent Grandmaster, they were not even close to being a threat.

Thus, even though guns and cannons were developing into the mainstream weapons for the current supernatural era's wars, these truly powerful Transcendents were still unstoppable when going against them. Only an expert of their level could fight them.

"Breathe in… Breathe out…"

After one cycle of breathing, Gurney focused his mind.

"It has already been some time since I created a silent cast rune. I feel like I am close to making my fifth one."

…

The night was dark.

Deep in the dense forest filled with the sound of insects.

On a bare piece of black volcanic rock, a young man of a different race wearing a brownish-yellow cloak with a Tree of Life Totem embroidered on his chest was standing here quietly.

His face was white as snow. He was slender and handsome, while his ears were sharp and red at the tip.

This was a Blood-Eared Elf.

Beside the blood-eared elf, there was a tier-two supernatural lifeform, the Kermo Giant Wolf.

This kermo giant wolf was as large as a horse. Its body was filled with wildness and the power to slaughter, and it had snow-white fangs that were eerily shining under the moonlight. Yet this kermo giant wolf was actually obedient to this young male blood-eared elf who wore a cloak.

Behind this young blood-eared elf, leaves fell from the tree.

A tiny female blood-eared elf stepped on these falling leaves and agilely landed beside the male blood-eared elf.

"How is it?" The young man asked in a polite and gentle tone.

"They did not notice that anyone was observing them," the petite female elf Ximo said in a clear voice, "but that Shadower is very alert."

"No worries, Shadowers are born with very strong supernatural senses. It is normal for them to sense something in advance. After all, my 'secret soul specter' is following them all the time."

Thereafter, the two fell into silence.

A moment later, the one named Ximo said hesitantly, "We spent so much effort and used that key to trick an adventurer group here. Is it really worth it?"

Hearing the girl's words, Sheron smiled lightly.

"The top-tier Transcendent, Blood Magic Grandmaster Gog, has the power of blood magic and a dragon bloodline. His power is beyond your imagination."

"Even if he died three hundred years ago, the methods he left behind can still easily kill us."

"After all, you are only tier one, while I am still a tier-two Transcendent."

"Blood Magic Grandmaster Gog, is he really that terrifying?" Ximo turned around and said with surprise.

"Not just terrifying!" Sheron's expression was slightly dazed; he seemed to have recalled something as his voice became low and deep. "He is simply a disaster that strikes despair in others!"

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Vigilance!

"In the past, in the secret realm of our clan, that Blood Magic Grandmaster Gog's 'blood magic domain' was a forbidden ground that nobody was allowed to enter. Later on, in order to search for powerful magical items, Gog left our clan's territory and never returned again.

"For the last three hundred years, the clan has not opened the blood magic domain, but thirty years ago, the clan members wanted to explore and develop our clan's secret realm. The elders lost their patience, and they opened the blood magic domain.

"Initially, nothing happened. But soon… peculiar things started to occur. The blood-eared elves who entered the domain started to experience a condition where their vital energy depleted, including the tier-seven Transcendent Grandmaster elder. Because of this unknown condition, they continuously lost fresh blood from their bodies. It was as if an invisible bat was attached to them, drawing blood at all times.

"Soon, this first batch of over twenty blood-eared elves died of vital energy depletion. By the time they died, they were dried corpses that looked extremely terrifying. Of course, the rank-seven Transcendent elder was not spared either.

"During the entire affliction, no matter what method was used to inspect their bodies or the healing attempts that were tried, including ancient rituals as well, there was no effect on them. There was no way to investigate the depletion of vital energy, nor could they find any way to save them. The only solution was blood transfusion, but even blood transfusion could only delay their inevitable death.

"Eventually, the result of exploring this blood magic domain was that over two hundred blood-eared elves who entered died one after another."

Hearing this story, Ximo's eyes sparkled with curiosity and fear. Such mysterious methods, if they were used on her, she would truly be sent into despair. "This is why the blood magic domain is still currently sealed, and nobody is allowed to open it?"

"Yes!" Sheron nodded lightly.

"But to think that…" Sheron smiled.

"This time, near this Howling Canyon, using the key that they took out from the blood magic domain, we actually found the resting place of Senior Blood Magic Grandmaster Gog." When saying so, Sheron's eyes flashed with blood-colored light; there was some excitement surfacing on his face.

He continued, "It is said that Grandmaster Gog was defeated by another Transcendent Grandmaster who used a magical item. To take revenge, he went looking for other magical items, and he left the clan. I heard that Gog managed to collect many magical items later on, but he went missing without a trace soon after. It is likely that this resting place here is the final resting place of Blood Magic Grandmaster Gog. In that case, at the deepest part of this resting place, there will definitely be countless magical items or even supernatural equipment.

"According to that Blood Magic Grandmaster's nature, such an important place will definitely have traps, arrangements, and fatal rooms. Entering without preparation will lead to disaster most of the time." After speaking so much, Sheron paused slightly before continuing, "The competition in our clan is very intense. In fact, some talented clansmen will also face hidden threats and assassinations occasionally.

"If we can get these magical items or even high-tier supernatural equipment, our strength will rise sharply. We will at least be able to defend ourselves against others. Thus, we need to be very careful inside the resting place of this Blood Magic Grandmaster. The best way is to spend a lot of effort and make the most arrangements possible. Otherwise, with just our strength, going inside abruptly is just seeking death."

"Indeed!" The petite Ximo could not help but show a solemn expression. This Blood Magic Grandmaster's terrifying and strange methods made her shudder internally.

The Black-Iron Alloy Dagger in her hand, which incorporated a certain amount of black-iron metal, was already very sharp, and with the continuous nourishment of the shadow origin force, it was increasingly smooth and natural to use.

But she knew that this was just an alloy dagger that was close to black-iron level.

Above the black-iron-level equipment, which were sharp and durable, there was also the "magic copper level" equipment that had stronger supernatural traits, as well as the "mystic silver level" equipment that had immense destructive and defensive power.

If she could obtain a magic copper level dagger or boots, her overall strength would rise to a new level.

And if she could obtain a mystic silver level dagger, her strength would definitely rise by a huge amount.

This was the Blood Magic Grandmaster's final resting place; it was definitely their best opportunity to obtain such precious items. After all, this Grandmaster Gog was an expert with deep attainment in alchemy.

"Blood Magic Grandmaster Gog." Ximo memorized this name in her heart.

Soon, Ximo looked at Sheron, who spoke, "That group is not that strong. If they come out, we can easily exterminate them."

"But what if… they fail to come out?"

"If they fail to come out," Sheron said as he looked towards the forest, his expression still as calm and composed as always, "then it means that our effort in creating this situation to let them enter first is correct, right?"

Ximo realized at once that if these people did not come out, it would mean that there was some immense threat inside that they could not resist. These people who were lured into this were just scouts who were meant to die.

"Regardless of the result, after this, I will use the sealing formation to disguise and seal the entrance again. After Lord Savage Saint's plan ends in Sugar Ruins City, we will come back and make a long-term plan again. After all, the resting place of Blood Magic Grandmaster is at a level where we cannot explore it entirely in a short period of time even if we have cannon fodder going in to scout for us."

"Mm!" Ximo nodded obediently.

Then, Ximo asked out of curiosity, "Is Lord Savage Saint's plan really as important as the elders say it is?"

Sheron, who had a deep and bright gaze, raised his head and looked up at the sky. The starry night sky was brightened by the stars and moonlight.

He then finally spoke, "This plan… is likely more important than we imagine. Giant Deity Cult, Human-Faced Flower Cult, Soul Priest Cult, and even the various wilderness tribes including our blood-eared elf clan are participating in it. If we succeed, Jade Orchid Empire will pay a terrible price. We will even devastate their ambition and ability to expand towards the northern mountain ranges. Jade Orchid Empire and those Dukes are too ambitious after all."

"What if we fail?"

"Fail?" Sheron laughed lightly. His expression quickly turned calm as his voice became low and deep; he spoke like he was chanting an ancient tune. "You need to know, Lord Savage Saint, he… he is the hero born for this era!"

…

The next day.

The hazy sky was slowly becoming brighter.

Inside the tent, Gurney let out a sigh.

I am still a bit of distance away. In at most a week's time, this fifth silent cast rune will be properly created

, Gurney thought to himself.

The growth speed of my soul has been rapid in this period of time. I wonder if it is due to the Devotion Knight Breathing Style or the Cybona Origin Pool?

The incomplete supernatural book Ring Explosion was flawed and caused the cultivator to experience intense pain in the soul at all times. If one cultivated it under normal circumstances, they would likely experience ill changes in the soul, and it might even collapse on its own.

Fortunately, the Passive Farming System completely ignored the negative effects, and only the good effects remained. The intense pain and threat of soul collapse no longer existed. Instead, he only experienced rapid growth in the strength of his soul through an extended period of refinement. The power of the system allowed the irrational and illogical growth speed to happen on Gurney's body.

This was also the reason why Gurney was able to create four silent cast runes in just four to five months; he was even about to create the fifth rune now.

Opening the tent flap, Gurney noted that the hazy and dim forest was exceptionally quiet. He quickly looked around in the surroundings. His sensitive perception and senses allowed Gurney to have a clear sight of what was around him.

Avery was nearby on the branch of an ancient tree that was three meters thick. He held a black-iron-level double-edged dagger in one hand and a block of red wood in the other, seemingly carving something.

If one wanted to truly become a Shadower Grandmaster, they would need flexible and agile hands. Evidently, through carpentry, Avery would learn to control his dexterity and strength even better.

"How was it?" Gurney walked over and asked.

"Very safe. A hungry jackal passed by at night, but I chased it away."

"Mm!" Gurney nodded lightly.

By the time the first rays of sunlight shone on the campsite, everyone had already packed up their stuff and were ready to move out.

Avery, who walked at the end, said in his mature but young voice as usual, "Howling Canyon is not far away now. We are, at most, two hours away from arriving. We need to be careful along the way. We should guard against accidents happening."

Everyone responded positively.

The sunlight shone on Gurney's face. It was slightly warm and beaming with vitality.

Gurney held the small rock that Avery passed to him earlier. His heart sank to rock bottom, and he felt a chill internally.

Last night, when Gurney was trying to create his silent cast rune, he was also alert against potential attackers. If any enemy got close, Gurney would unleash his terrifying spells on them instantly.

However, the enemy did not make a move. And earlier, when the group was packing up and leaving, the vague sensation of being watched surfaced again in Gurney's perception.

The worst-case scenario could not help but linger around in Gurney's mind.

This time, it was likely that someone was onto them. In other words, they had fallen into someone's trap already. This exploration was a trap, and others had dug this trap for them to jump in willingly.

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[Special Encounter] Function

Regardless, if the enemy does not show up, it will be hard for us to deal with them. We will continue with our original plan and remain alert against the enemy's potential sneak attack.

After we get the treasure indicated by the special key, I don't believe that they won't show themselves.

Or maybe… that place is very dangerous… but I still have my system's [Special Encounter] function. As long as there is a treasure there, be it any treasure, I will be able to decipher it completely. I will also be able to perceive any related threats or danger.

Rubbing his temples lightly, Gurney moved along with the group as he calmed down and regained some sense of assurance.

…

Two hours later.

The group had gotten through a thorn forest that was hard to move in.

In the midst of the lofty mountains, a majestic, vast, unending canyon appeared before everyone's eyes. There was a canyon passageway that was either narrow and rugged, or flat and uneven, or treacherous and unpaved, or winding and secluded.

In any case, there was a dense fog that would remain thick all year round.

In addition, there was often a strange and grotesque cry in the depths of the canyon that resounded throughout, and anyone inside could hear it. This was the origin of the name "Howling Canyon".

Avery who was at the back of the group walked to the front now.

Waving his hand, he took out an exquisite black thorn box. Next, he took out the long ancient copper key that was blood-red in color.

After checking for a while, Avery looked towards one direction and said carefully in a soft voice, "This way. Follow me."

They all moved rapidly, with Gurney being positioned at the end of the group.

At the same time, Gurney also opened his Passive Farming System secretly.

When Gurney expanded the page for [Special Encounter].

As expected.

The originally empty [Special Encounter] page had a lot of words and pictures now.

[Special Encounter: Noble Inheritance of the Blood Magic Grandmaster

Special Encounter Content 1: Alchemy Storage Room

Special Encounter Content 2: Blood Magic Totem

Special Encounter Content 3: Destiny Gold Coin

There were a total of three special encounter contents, including the detailed information that could be read if he expanded the respective titles below the "Noble Inheritance of the Blood Magic Grandmaster".

"As expected…" Gurney squinted slightly as a sharp light flashed in his eyes. "This is a genuine place filled with special encounters and treasures!"

Special encounter!

Regardless of whether it was a traditional cultivation world, a magic fantasy world, a

Xuanhuan

martial universe, or the current steampunk world that Gurney was in — be it a talentless cripple or a super genius of the century — in order to make it big in life and surpass all others, special encounters were no doubt necessary.

If one lacked special encounters, they would not even be qualified to talk to the main character.

As for the [Special Encounter] function of Gurney's Passive Farming System, it was able to display the entire content of any special encounters that were within a certain range of Gurney.

Even though the range was not big, this special encounter function was still quite terrifying.

Blood Magic Grandmaster? Having the title of grandmaster means he is a powerful existence of at least at tier seven or higher.

The system calls it the "Noble Inheritance of the Blood Magic Grandmaster". This means that the Blood Magic Grandmaster died in this place, and his works were left here deep within the special encounter area.

Gurney's gaze quickly swept through the three special encounter contents.

Alchemy Room, Blood Magic Totem, and Destiny Gold Coin? Which one is the noble inheritance of the Blood Magic Grandmaster? Since it is termed as noble, then this treasure must be quite extraordinary.

Gurney did not continue guessing; he directly clicked the "detailed information" tab below the three special encounter contents.

A moment later, Gurney gained a good grasp of this exploration's overall benefits, the ways to gain said benefits, the places to avoid, as well as the information of that Blood Magic Grandmaster's inheritance.

This [Special Encounter] function was simply the compass that would lead him to treasures.

As for these so-called treasures, small ones could bring some wealth or rise in talent.

Big ones could allow him to prosper; he would be able to defy fate and change his life.

"Huff…" after browsing through, Gurney let out a light breath.

My Transcendent road finally has some direction now.

Rubbing his fingers together, Gurney quickly collected his thoughts after pondering through this situation.

Even though he knew the information of the special encounter in the "Blood Magic Cave", this place where the Blood Magic Grandmaster died in was filled with all sorts of danger, traps, and even fatal grounds that would cause death to anyone who entered.

Even though he knew the method to obtain that treasure he wanted, Gurney still needed to be very vigilant and careful in his methods.

If one really thought that the system was omnipotent and foolproof, then disaster would soon follow. He would not even know why he died in the end.

With the key's guidance, together with this being the periphery of Howling Canyon, the road that they walked on was quite safe.

More than ten minutes later, at the end of a narrow and twisted tunnel within Howling Canyon, the six of them stopped in their tracks.

"It's here," Avery said in an exceptionally low voice.

Howling Canyon was a supernatural area. There were some genuine supernatural lifeforms here, and the group would only be able to deal with those tier one or tier two ones.

But if a tier three came, or even a tier-four, mid-tier supernatural lifeform, everyone would need to run for their lives; they might even lose some members.

Thus, Avery was very careful now.

Shutting his eyes, he held that special key and sensed the direction that it pointed to.

Avery opened his eyes, and there was confusion in their depths. "The general direction points here, but the key does not give the exact location. Let's look around for now."

Just when the group was about to search the place, Gurney had a thought, so he spoke: "Let me try."

Everyone looked towards Gurney.

Avery was not very hesitant; he directly threw the key to him.

Within the group, Gurney's mental power was the strongest; that was without a doubt.

The terrifying strength of Gurney's spells was still deeply etched in their memories.

Holding onto the special key, Gurney sensed a formless power that directed him to this area. This sense of direction came from the depths of his mind, and it was extremely clear.

It was no wonder that Avery concluded there was a treasure here.

On the surface, he was holding this key and sensing the location.

In truth, Gurney was currently looking at the dynamic map of his [Special Encounter] function.

The key could not give him an accurate direction, but the system directly pointed out the location of the Blood Magic Door in Gurney's dynamic vision with a visual indicator.

Looking at this door, it was as if he had a transparency cheat; he could even see the exact distance of the door and the incantation needed to open it.

Yes, the system even wrote out the incantation that was needed to open the door!

Even without this key, Gurney would still be able to open the door using this incantation that the system provided.

After sensing it for some time, Gurney walked away from the group.

He arrived at the grayish mountain wall.

Next, he held up the key and stabbed it into an inconspicuous hole, before turning it.

Crack crack…

With a soft mechanical sound, a thick stone door slowly opened itself.

Xuanhuan – a Chinese genre, literally meaning "mysterious fantasy".

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Spatial Origin Space

"Such shockingly powerful mental power!"

At this time, everyone was filled with admiration and slight surprise.

Looking at their expressions, Gurney immediately understood what they were thinking.

The door was right there. What you guys lacked was something to find the door — a cheat!

Gurney thought to himself internally.

As the stone door opened, what they saw was a blood-red veil that was flowing like a waterfall.

"This…"

"Yes, this is a Spatial Origin Door. It leads to a special space behind it."

"It's actually a Spatial Origin Small Realm…!"

Seeing the flowing blood-colored veil, everyone was stunned before quickly revealing expressions of joy as they chattered on.

They even forgot that they were in a dangerous supernatural area and needed to keep their volume down.

Spatial Origin Areas were places like "rabbit holes", "small secret realms", or "mini grotto-heavens".

Such a Spatial Origin Area could only be controlled and used by great existences, which meant to say that this land of treasures was the inheritance ground of a great person.

How could they not feel excited about it?

Even Avery who was mature and shrewd could not help but show an expression of joy when he saw this. But soon, his joy faded away and was replaced by intensified worry and doubt, because he knew that they were likely the cannon fodder this time.

Discreetly looking towards Gurney, he saw that Gurney had a calm expression without any signs of peculiar emotions. Seeing Gurney in this state, Avery also calmed down by a lot.

After all, in their previous explorations into the wilderness plain, Gurney had used his powerful strength and methods to alleviate all the crises that they faced. As long as Gurney did not act flustered, it meant that the situation was still under control.

Pulling out the key and giving it back to Avery, Gurney did not enter first.

He spoke lightly, "Who knows how many years this space has been sealed already? Let the air flow in and out first. That way, when we enter, we will not be poisoned by the unknown gases inside the sealed space. At the same time, we need to rest and prepare first. After all, behind this Spatial Origin Door lies the resting place of that great existence."

Everyone nodded; they had this much common sense at least.

While everyone rested, Gurney thought about the situation rapidly in his mind,

Even at this point, they are not doing anything, but just observing us. In fact, with the dangerous scenarios that my system listed, they are likely waiting for us to enter… as cannon fodder.

These people are truly trying to make full use of us. They are not even treating us as people when they set up this trap!

Gurney's eyes surged with killing intent, but on the surface, he was still calm as ice: there were no emotions on his face.

It is a pity that they do not know we can enter and obtain the treasures safely. Because of this, I can definitely create a plan to lure them and counter-kill them.

Considering the enemy's inactivity and their observation of the situation, along with his own strength, Gurney quickly came up with a series of plans for the future.

…

About an hour later.

Gurney who was seated opened his eyes and stood up.

The others also sensed Gurney moving and looked at each other.

"The airflow is smooth now. It is time to enter." His voice was not loud, but the surrounding people could hear him clearly.

Everyone stood up.

After making preparations, Gurney took the lead into this veil that resembled a blood waterfall.

The distance of one step brought him into a whole new environment.

Outside was hazy and misty.

Inside was dark and moist, and the air had the faint smell of mold and rot.

Even with the system, Gurney was very careful and vigilant. After all, the system had pointed out the treasures and the method to obtain them to Gurney, but it would not tell him if a puppet or guardian would jump out at the doorway to attack him.

Once he landed, with Gurney's strong spiritual sense, he quickly looked around the place and eased his anxious inner heart.

The surroundings were safe. If there really was a powerful supernatural lifeform or even a supernatural puppet, at the very first instant, Gurney's spell would have been cast and blown everything to bits.

After all, Gurney was able to instant-cast his spells now. Even when instant casting was possible, the Spellcaster would face another problem; that was the "one-second stacking" problem of spell casting.

In simple terms, it was the number of spells one could instant-cast in one second.

At this time, the factors would be the mobilization of origin force, the capacity of the soul, and the most-important cognitive speed of the soul.

Normally speaking, without any external influences, five spells in one second was the level that most Spellcasters could reach with instant casting.

As for Gurney, due to the effects of that incomplete supernatural spell Ring Explosion, when Gurney unleashed his full potential — that is, casting spells without moving or thinking about anything else — he could reach a terrifying 12 spells in one second.

When he was in combat mode, while moving around and dodging attacks, Gurney would still be able to use six to eight spells per second.

Whether Spellcasters used incantations or instant casting in combat would result in two different fighting styles.

The former was the fighting style of most Spellcasters.

The latter was something only a very small number could do.

Waving his hand lightly, Fire Arrow was instantly formed and ready to attack. It was about an arm's length and a finger's thickness; the pure black arrow appeared beside Gurney. At the same time, all over the arrow, there was a thick and intense flame burning continuously, lighting up the surroundings.

After creating this fire arrow, Gurney did not unleash it. The burning arrow continued to float beside him.

If it was the four-syllable supernatural spell Ring Explosion, Gurney would be unable to cast it without shooting it right after.

As for this two-syllable ordinary spell, Fire Arrow, Gurney could cast it and hold it back without much issue.

As he gazed around, Gurney found himself in a rugged tunnel that had clear signs of being man-made. This proved that an expert had once lived here.

As Gurney stretched out his hand towards the blood-colored veil, he indicated for them to come over.

Next, Pavel, Avery, and the rest came in.

After the few of them entered, they first noticed the meter-long arrow that was one and a half meters in front of Gurney, floating silently.

"He can actually cast but not release it!" Yulair gasped loudly but quickly controlled her emotions.

Blue Shire and Black Dill were also quite surprised. They could not look away.

Casting but not releasing ordinary spells was not something an average tier-one Transcendent could do. This was something that only tier-two or tier-three Transcendent Spellcasters with immense mental power could do.

As for Gurney, he was still an Apprentice Spellcaster. Once Gurney became a true Spellcaster, then…

What a terrifying fellow.

Pavel and Avery were not Spellcasters, but they too knew about the immense mental power needed to cast but not release such spells.

Soon, everyone controlled their expressions, but their gaze could not help but move towards that floating fire arrow.

After observing the location for a while, Gurney nodded at Avery.

Avery sighed in relief. Now that they were inside this Spatial Origin Realm, they were isolated from the outside. That feeling of being watched had vanished.

"Everyone!" Avery spoke softly.

Everyone looked over at him, not understanding the situation.

"This exploration is a trap, and we… are the unlucky ones who have unknowingly stepped into it."

What?!

Everyone else showed expressions of shock and confusion.

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First Special Encounter Point

Really?

Everyone looked towards Gurney subconsciously.

Right now, Gurney also nodded with a solemn expression.

Gurney could act more freely and relaxed now, but he felt that it was better to give them some pressure. After all, be it the guys ambushing them outside or the upcoming exploration, they were tricky situations to deal with. When facing pressure, these students would also be more vigilant.

"Yesterday afternoon, at our campsite…" Avery described his findings to them.

This was not too far from Gurney's perception.

After Avery finished his explanation, the three female mages all showed a nervous expression on their face.

The enemy was hiding in the dark, while they were exposed. Furthermore, they had entered this mysterious Spatial Origin Realm, and their exit was now blocked by the enemy. This was truly a dangerous situation.

"Even though the enemy's plan seems wonderful, we are not without a chance to fight back. And that chance to counterattack lies here," Gurney said in a slow manner.

"Counterattack? Retaliate against them?" Avery was slightly surprised. Looking at the situation, his original plan was to stall for time!

Currently, the enemy's goal was to lure them into exploring this dangerous territory. If they died here, the enemy would know that it was dangerous inside; they would not come in.

If they had some gains and left, the enemy would ambush them outside and kill them, gaining the benefits without taking the risks; they could kill two birds with one stone.

Right now, the enemy had not realized that they knew this was a trap, so what they could do was to wait at the entrance of the cave and not go in to seek death. After all, they brought sufficient food with them, and as Apprentice Transcendents, they were able to endure hunger much better than ordinary humans.

After staying here for half a month, the enemy would think that they were already dead. By then, they would be able to leave safely.

Even though this solution would take a long time, it was secure and safe.

Avery simply did not think that Gurney would directly come up with a plan to counterattack.

Counterattack…? Could they succeed?

Gurney rubbed his temples as he slowly explained, "The enemy is waiting for us to end our exploration before killing us outside. Too bad for them, they do not know that we have already seen through their plans. Thus, we can definitely go and explore this cave. We can find those things that are useful to us, and if we can get supernatural tokens, we will be able to advance and become Transcendents immediately.

"Afterwards, using the information advantage we have, we will set a trap near the entrance and lure them to us before killing them. Of course, we still need to analyze the exact situation. If we cannot get anything useful, we will stall for time and leave safely later." Gurney described his plan as everyone felt more assured.

Avery who was listening to him showed a worried expression. "The enemy's objective is to get us to explore this place. If we enter deep inside… I am afraid that…"

Avery's worry was not without reason.

If Gurney did not have his system's [Special Encounter, he would not enter deeply either. He would endure the hunger and wait for time to pass as it would be the safest measure.

But with his system, the situation was different.

Gurney had already come up with the speech to convince them.

"Opportunities often come together with danger," Gurney said in a tone that was slightly deep. "This is the bait that our enemy is using, but it is also a chance for us to get stronger. Am I right?"

These philosophical theories were usually the most convincing.

Even though Avery sensed something weird, seeing Gurney's confident tone, he did not interrupt.

Meanwhile, the Philosophy Knight nodded and muttered to himself, "This is indeed a great chance for us to seek opportunities amidst danger."

Gurney cast him a quick glance while thinking,

I am only giving them some motivation, but you are thinking too deeply into it.

Next, Gurney looked towards the depths of the ragged tunnel. It was completely dark inside, and even with the light of Fire Arrow, they could not see much further.

"I will take the lead. Avery will guard the back. Everyone, follow me closely. Remember not to wander off on your own."

"Got it!" Everyone responded positively.

Gurney gave such instructions simply because the blood magic domain that the Blood Magic Grandmaster created using this Spatial Origin Realm was very dangerous.

Deep within the ragged tunnel.

Gurney controlled the Fire Arrow that he had created, using it as a torch three meters ahead of him. Even though he could position it further, that would cause a greater strain on Gurney's mental power.

They moved along carefully. After just advancing a hundred meters, the group had already avoided two traps along the way.

A fork in the path appeared in front of them. This forked path led to a left path and a right path, and both looked the same.

However, Gurney knew from the details given by the system regarding these two forked paths. The left one was a genuine dead end; there would be many blood leeches nurtured within. They were mystical lifeforms that had no form or shape and existed in another plane.

If Gurney guessed correctly, this Blood Magic Grandmaster must have used a certain method to summon it from another world, or maybe he just found it from his explorations.

Once a person came into contact with the blood leech, it would enter their blood vessels and draw blood continuously until the person died from a lack of vital energy. After they died, they would turn into dried corpses. It was a truly terrifying thing.

If they chose the wrong path, the outcome would be a complete wipeout.

This 50 percent chance of annihilation was clearly displayed before Gurney's eyes.

"The left path cannot be entered. I sense a great danger from it. It is likely also a dead end." Since he could not explain why, the reason became his instinct.

As expected, once Gurney said that, everyone's expression turned solemn, but they were in agreement.

Looking at the left path again, everyone showed signs of fear and worry.

Under Gurney's lead, they went into the right tunnel and progressed vigilantly.

As they continued to move, Gurney was able to experience the true value of this [Special Encounter] fully on this trip. Along the way, Gurney easily avoided several traps and forked paths that could have wiped them out.

Without this special encounter function that gave them a way to advance without encountering danger, Gurney felt that it would have been a miracle if they could even get to the first special encounter point.

…

Half an hour later.

Gurney looked through his system repeatedly before closing it.

At this time, the group had already arrived in a wide stone hall.

Under the light of the blazing Fire Arrow, everything around was in full view.

To the left and right, there were a number of darkness-attribute plants in pots, but because they had not been taken care of for so long, the pots were in ruins, and the darkness plants were instead growing everywhere; the scene was slightly messy.

After looking at these disorganized darkness-attribute plants, a flash of joy appeared on Gurney's face. Then, under everyone's gaze, Gurney picked out a purple pole-like plant about the length of a chopstick and the thickness of a finger from a bunch of purple thatch-like plants.

Before anyone could see clearly, Gurney used a dazzling array of methods to process it. He then put it into the black thorn box and stuffed that into his backpack.

"What is that?" Everyone looked toward him curiously.

"A material needed for a type of invisibility potion, it has decent value," Gurney lightly replied.

Along the way, whenever possible, Gurney would collect these herbs. Nobody minded his actions. After all, when they bought potions from Gurney, the price would be much lower than the market rate.

But in fact, this purple pole-like plant was roughly estimated by Gurney to be over two hundred years old; it was a genuine supernatural treasure, and it could really be used to make invisibility potions. However, its greater use was to create a secret mark potion, a type that could increase one's sensitivity.

Thereafter, everyone looked towards the end of this hall.

There was a "Supernatural Door" that had supernatural runes carved on it. Supernatural Doors were often used as seals, and they could not be opened without specific methods.

In others' perception, this was a Supernatural Door. However, Gurney knew clearly that behind this door was the first of the three special encounter contents that the system had described, the Alchemy Storage Room.

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Special Encounter Gains

Yulair also had classes in "Supernatural Formation Studies".

After walking over, she started to examine that black Supernatural Door. Five to six minutes later, Yulair turned around.

"This is a Supernatural Door that is locked by an incantation code. It can only be opened with the original owner's incantation code. My supernatural formation attainment and my own abilities are unable to open this door. If we want to break it open by force, with our current strength, I am afraid… it would be impossible," Yulair explained.

Many of them started to feel disappointed about the Supernatural Door that such a person created and the secret room that existed behind it. They would often use special methods to reinforce the door.

For the people present, this was really like an unclimbable mountain. In such a case, they would all return empty-handed.

This Spatial Origin Realm was originally someone else's resting place. All the good things would already be kept locked up by that Blood Magic Grandmaster. The fact was that nobody would place their treasures casually and randomly all over the place.

Avery was not willing to give up yet. He held the key and went to the door, wanting to open it. Unfortunately, after several minutes of tinkering with the door, he gave up in the end.

"It seems that we can only continue to stall for time with those enemies," Avery shrugged and said.

Everyone's expression turned slightly dark. The treasure was right before them, but they could not get it; it was truly stifling.

"Why don't we—?"

Looking at the dejected and disappointed group, Gurney suddenly spoke, "Let's try the code?"

"What code?" The group looked at him with confusion.

"The rune code of such Supernatural Doors would normally use Lanemian language. After all, it is the language at the essence of magic incantation. A learned person constructed this place, so this Supernatural Door will likely use a Lanemian code as well."

"Even if we know it is Lanemian, the language is too complex. It is almost impossible to use trial-and-error for this code," Yulair thought and said.

"Theoretically, yes. But if we have some special methods, the result would be different."

Special methods?

Everyone looked at Gurney with surprise.

Under everyone's gaze, Gurney walked towards the Supernatural Door that was five meters tall and three meters wide.

Searching around in his bag, Gurney took out a palm-sized mechanical object.

Even though Gurney had his system's storage space that was as large as four cubic meters, Gurney had never shown anyone that he had an ability or method to create a storage space.

After attaching the small box-like metal object to the formation constructed by the supernatural runes inscribed on the door, Gurney closed his eyes and gently perceived it.

At the same time, slight spell fluctuations continued to stir around Gurney's body. There was even a weak shining light that flickered within the palm of Gurney's hand.

Right now, Gurney appeared to be in a very mysterious state.

But in reality, this box-like metal mechanical creation was just an ordinary climbing tool. It was able to stick to walls and had no function beyond that.

In fact, he was just checking his own system while pretending to be in deep concentration. The rune code needed to open this Supernatural Door was clearly shown on the system menu. Gurney only needed to memorize and then enter the code on the door.

Seven or eight minutes later.

Gurney opened his eyes and quickly put away his "climbing tool", as if he was afraid that others would take a second look at it.

In a matter of seconds, Gurney had already memorized the Lanemian code set by the Blood Magic Grandmaster, but in order to show how difficult it was for him to crack the code, Gurney stood there for seven to eight minutes.

As Gurney made a movement, everyone looked towards him, showing nervous expressions.

Gurney did not hesitate any longer. He put one hand on the Lanemian language rune, gradually injecting origin force to light up the corresponding Lanemian rune.

After sixteen Lanemian runes were lit—

Whoosh!

There was a dull sound, and the Supernatural Door opened slightly.

Next.

Crack crack…

The Supernatural Door that the Blood Magic Grandmaster created opened on its own.

Seeing this, everyone revealed expressions of joy. Their breathing became more rapid.

As light shone into this ancient and silent Alchemy Storage Room, the reflection from many weapons and equipment of various colors were displayed before the eyes of the ones standing outside.

On the racks made of black thorn wood, there were supernatural weapons, armor, boots, robes, and helmets placed in an orderly manner.

Some had the metallic luster of black-iron.

Some had the dark color of dense magic copper.

Some had the mysterious glow of mystic silver.

In one glance, there were at least twenty pieces of supernatural equipment.

They knew that this was a treasury, but Gurney did not think that there would be so many supernatural equipment here.

"So many…"

"These are all supernatural equipment…"

"Oh heaven…!"

Even for these rich aristocrat kids who were well accustomed to valuable artifacts, seeing this scene before them, they could not help but exclaim out loud.

Seeing was just seeing.

This treasury contained items that now belonged to them; it was the fruit of their adventure.

Quickly looking through these treasures with his gaze, Gurney was also slightly stirred internally.

This [Special Encounter] is truly the shortcut to endless wealth.

Slightly rubbing his fingers together, Gurney also felt joy and happiness in this situation.

Black-iron supernatural equipment would sell for 100 to 200 gold pounds. The black-iron soft armor that Gurney wore cost 20 gold pounds for just the processing fee, not including the materials needed to make it.

Magic copper equipment were priced higher at about 400 to 600 gold pounds. Non-Transcendents would find it hard to even purchase them. Furthermore, magic copper equipment had supernatural traits. If one could control them, the power of such equipment would be formidable.

And above that were the mystic silver equipment. They were priced at 1,000 gold pounds at least; superlative mystic silver equipment could even be sold to an extreme price of 3,000 gold pounds. After all, mystic silver equipment had extremely strong destructive and defensive properties. As for how they could be utilized, it would depend on the wielder's nourishment.

Black iron! Magic copper! Mystic silver! And even the higher level "magic gold". These were the four classifications of equipment in this supernatural era.

Regarding the allocation of loot, everyone was quite experienced about it; the rule was simply allocation according to contribution.

After some discussion, Gurney took 40 percent of the overall gains. Avery took 20, the remaining four took 10 percent each.

After more than ten minutes, the things in this Alchemy Room were completely looted by the six of them. Everyone obtained at least a thousand gold pounds of loot.

Even though they were from rich families, having obtained so much loot from their adventure, they were all excited internally.

Because Gurney had priority in choosing his loot, Gurney took two mystic silver equipment and one magic copper equipment. Of the two mystic silver equipment, one was a mystic silver wand.

Compared to the staff that was over a meter long, this mystic silver wand that resembled a chopstick in appearance was much easier to carry around; it was also less eye-catching. Of course, the most important reason was that this was a great hidden weapon against others.

The other item was a pair of mystic silver shoes. If Gurney could activate the powerful supernatural trait of these mystic silver shoes, he would be able to walk on water, climb walls, and run rapidly with unnatural agility and flexibility.

It was a pity that the current Gurney did not have any way of using the supernatural traits of these powerful equipment.

And finally, the magic copper equipment was a rarely seen magic shield necklace. By injecting and replenishing origin force, he would be able to create a magic shield that could protect him in critical moments. Even as a magic copper equipment, if it was used properly, it could potentially save his life.

Having such great gains all at once, Gurney did not wear these supernatural equipment immediately. The reason was that magic copper and mystic silver equipment had relatively stronger supernatural traits. He needed to undergo magic contact first to understand the trait before nourishing the equipment with origin force; only then could he wear them.

If he wore them abruptly and had yet to adapt to the supernatural trait, it would affect his own origin force circulation instead.

In fact, for some powerful equipment, if their trait was too strong, without first undergoing magic contact and nourishment, it would cause the equipment's own supernatural trait to be eliminated; it would be a huge loss.

Black-iron equipment had weak supernatural traits. Thus, they could be worn right after obtaining them, but magic copper and mystic silver equipment were different.

Unless of course, the user was a powerful Transcendent in the first place.

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Blood Tentacle

This Blood Magic Grandmaster should also be an Alchemist. Otherwise, he would not have left all these here

, Gurney thought to himself after checking his gains and gathering them into his bag while secretly putting them into his system storage at the same time.

And this Blood Magic Grandmaster should not just be an Alchemist. Just from the "noble inheritance", it shows there is something else beyond this.

Gurney cleared his throat and spoke up, "Everyone…"

At this time, everyone had already kept away their newly gained equipment.

In fact, some black-iron equipment were already being worn now after an initial magic contact.

Black-iron equipment were supernatural equipment and were far better than those black-iron alloy equipment. If used well, they could raise one's strength by a large degree.

"We've already gotten some good gains here, but our adventure is not over." Gurney pointed towards a tunnel.

Unlike before, where the ground was only paved with twisted rock fissure channels that had naturally formed, this was an artificially excavated tunnel.

Evidently, the owner of this place should have traveled frequently between the two locations.

Under the illumination of Fire Arrow, everyone could see the deep, dark tunnel.

"Let's go!" Gurney was the first to carefully find his way out.

The rest did not hesitate and followed after him.

Compared to the dangerous tunnel that they went through earlier, this area where the Blood Magic Grandmaster often moved around in had fewer defensive mechanisms. The path was smooth sailing as they moved for over fifty meters.

Then, a large underground hall that resembled a living room appeared before everyone's eyes.

Even though the era was from long ago, there were still many items left behind from the time of the original owner — stone tables and benches, as well as wall lamps, chandeliers, decorative potted plants, and decaying fresco picture frames. There were also some glassware items that were completely covered in dust.

Gurney's eyes quickly glanced around the corners.

Using the cheat-like dynamic map and tracking function of his system, he had already found out the location of that "Destiny Gold Coin", which was termed a "noble creation".

The Destiny Gold Coin was behind another Supernatural Door, and other than Gurney, nobody could open it.

There were three special encounter contents — Alchemy Storage Room, Blood Magic Totem, and the noble creation, Destiny Gold Coin.

Gurney did not mind sharing the first two contents, but for the final one, Gurney had no intention of letting them in on it.

His gaze continued to look around. Gurney's gaze was locked onto the Supernatural Door that contained the Blood Magic Totem.

Using the information related to the Blood Magic Totem special encounter, Gurney was already aware that it contained danger. As for what danger it was, Gurney did not know. If it was dangerous for Gurney, then for the others, it was a threat that could be potentially fatal.

After investigating the surrounding area, the group joined up again.

"There are two Supernatural Doors," Avery stated.

"There are also three tunnels connecting to other places. We do not know if any of those tunnels connect to the outside world."

"I'm guessing the answer is no."

"Of course, the most important thing now is those two Supernatural Doors."

Mentioning the Supernatural Doors made everyone's expression change slightly. After their first experience with one, everyone had already gotten a taste of the benefits.

These two Supernatural Doors, however, were not as large as the one earlier.

But…

This was likely the living area, so the more important treasures would likely be placed here instead. This place was likely to contain even more important treasures.

Everyone's gaze shifted to Gurney.

Gurney did not waste time either.

"This place gives me a peculiar and dangerous feeling," Gurney said in a low tone. "When I open the door, stay alert. There was no danger earlier, but it does not mean that we are safe now."

"Yeah!" Everyone nodded as their expressions turned serious.

Holding that "climbing tool", Gurney stood before the Supernatural Door containing "Blood Magic Totem".

Placing the climbing tool on the door, Gurney chanted as he lowered his head. Mild spell fluctuations began to stir around Gurney again as white milky light flickered in his hands.

After 13 to 14 minutes, Gurney placed the climbing tool back into his bag rapidly.

Seeing this, everyone focused their minds quickly.

"Be careful, I am opening the door," Gurney said.

"Yes!" Everyone nodded in unison.

As Gurney lighted up a total of 12 Lanemian rune codes…

Rumble rumble.

The sound of friction could be heard as the door moved rapidly.

Gurney also took a step back.

Once a gap appeared in the Supernatural Door, the thick, sticky, and revolting odor of blood gushed out from behind the door.

Swoosh!

A blood-colored tentacle shot out through the gap in the door, moving rapidly. It was so fast that it could not be guarded against, and it was aimed directly at Gurney's chest.

Thankfully, Gurney was prepared for this; otherwise, he would have suffered a huge loss when facing such a quick attack. While retreating, he unleashed three Fire Arrows.

Compared to releasing different spells at the same time, casting a single type of spell was much faster.

This Fire Arrow was his strongest offensive method against an individual target, and it was also most effective against an enemy with speed that Gurney could barely react to.

Ring Explosion and Arc Lightning could not block the tentacle.

Only Fire Arrow could resist it for a while.

The power of instant casting was displayed in full view at this moment.

Pew! Pew! Pew!

Three sharp burning arrows tore through the air, piercing the blood-colored tentacle that had attacked abruptly.

Boom… boom…

At the point of impact, bright red fire started to spread rapidly.

Gurney could see that the Fire Arrows had pierced the blood-colored tentacle. Even so, the tentacle still went past the blockade of three Fire Arrows to land on Gurney's chest.

Bam!

Gurney was sent flying like a bolt out of a crossbow.

The other three mages had already prepared their spells. Once they saw that Gurney was sent flying by that blood-colored tentacle, their spells were shot out at once. Such spells that were prepared beforehand could naturally be unleashed instantly.

Three spells landed on the tentacle at different times, exploding on impact.

Earlier, Gurney's three Fire Arrows had already torn apart the blood-colored tentacle.

Right now, with the power of these three spells exploding on it, the injured tentacle shook in the air before exploding into a splatter of blood.

"Ooooouuuu~~"

Seemingly resembling the angry growls of a monster, the wounded tentacle retreated back to the area beyond the Supernatural Door.

Gurney, who had been blown back over ten meters, rolled three to four times before standing up.

Touching his chest, the area that the tentacle had struck was covered in thick and sticky scarlet blood.

The black shirt that he was wearing had been shredded, and the black-iron soft armor that he wore was exposed.

The blood on him was from the blood-colored tentacle, this was not Gurney's blood.

At this moment, Gurney could not help but feel glad about himself.

Thankfully, I was prepared and used three Fire Arrows to tear apart that blood-colored tentacle. It reduced the impact greatly. At the same time, I am wearing black-iron equipment that blocked most of the impact of that powerful hit. Therefore, I did not suffer any fatal damage.

Cough cough…

Gurney coughed heavily as blood seeped out of his mouth.

But I still got injured.

It seems that from now on, I cannot underestimate the "certain danger" that my system warns of. Otherwise, I might die next time.

As the tentacle retreated, everyone also gathered around Gurney.

Coming to his side and seeing his chest covered in blood, they could not help but show a change of expression. If anything happened to Gurney, they were very likely to be unable to deal with that mysterious blood-colored tentacle.

Avery cast a shocked glance at Gurney's bloody chest as he frowned and said, "How are you feeling? If it is severe, we will retreat."

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Ring Explosion

Looking at the blood magic door that was gradually opening, Gurney had a grim expression.

Bubble bubble…

The sound of thick bubbling liquid was becoming clearer.

Quickly taking out an essence healing potion, he gulped it in one mouthful.

Gurney then quickly explained, "Don't worry, this is not my blood. It belongs to that mysterious blood-colored tentacle. This thing seems to be unable to get far away from the Supernatural Door. Let's kill it together using our spells."

At the same time…

Bubble bubble bubble…

Behind the Supernatural Door, scarlet-red blood flowed out rapidly on the ground. Within the flowing blood, many string-sized tentacles were struggling continuously. The entire flowing blood river looked very creepy and peculiar.

Seeing this, Gurney's expression changed.

"Quickly attack it. It's coming out," he quickly willed.

Fire Arrows shot out fiercely like he was using a cheat.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh…

In one second, eight fire arrows had been shot out by Gurney.

Gurney's ability to fire spells instantly at high intensity was not a secret to the few of them.

Pew pew pew…

These eight fire arrows landed accurately before the Supernatural Door. The sharp shafts of the Fire Arrows stabbed into the ground, forming an entire fence of Fire Arrows.

Buzz buzz buzz…

The fire that had high heat burned the flowing blood and caused sizzling sounds; even traces of blood-colored smoke could be seen.

Fire Arrow was a level-four spell. Even though it was only ordinary grade, its power was far greater than the average low-tier supernatural spell.

Many attempts by the tentacle to break out were thwarted by the intense flames of the Fire Arrows.

"Sssss… Rrrg…"

Deep within the Supernatural Door, angry growls could be heard.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh!

Yulair and the rest were also rapidly casting spells without falling behind.

Apprentice Fire Elementalist Blue Shire tossed her Fireball into the Supernatural Door, but once it entered, it was quickly extinguished.

By using the light of the Fireball, Gurney was able to see the sight within the Supernatural Door.

Besides the overwhelming blood waves that were surging and bubbling, there was a huge sinister and vicious face made of blood.

"What in the world was this Blood Magic Grandmaster raising in there?"

It seems that if I do not use my true strength today, I will not be able to kill this thing.

Thinking so, Gurney stopped hesitating.

Ring Explosion!

Gurney willed in his mind.

This time, Gurney did not use an ordinary spell. He used the level-five supernatural spell — Ring Explosion.

Supernatural spells were vastly different from ordinary spells. Each time a supernatural spell leveled up, it would obtain a greater elevation in strength.

At this moment, the level-five low-tier supernatural spell Ring Explosion had power that was rather terrifying.

The only downside was…

This Ring Explosion attacked in a rather "awkward" manner.

Gurney had finished his chant.

Bzzz!

An intense spell fluctuation rippled around Gurney's body, and even his black shirt was moving around in the absence of wind.

A pure black wheel that was about two meters tall appeared before Gurney. Instead of calling it a wheel, it was more appropriate to call it a giant hula hoop.

Except this hula hoop was extremely thick; it had about the thickness of Gurney's leg.

This was the level-five supernatural spell, Ring Explosion.

The initial-leveled Ring Explosion was only half a meter tall, with the thickness of a normal hula hoop.

And now, at level five, it grew to this size.

When this two-meter-tall black Ring Explosion appeared before everyone, they were stunned.

"This…"

"Ring Explosion?" Yulair who was also a future Spellcaster realized it at first glance.

"Yeah!"

"This Ring Explosion… Why is it so big?" Yulair shot out a sharp spear rapidly while comparing it to the large Ring Explosion with a stiff expression.

"Of course the answer is that its level is high." Gurney did not conceal the truth. Because he had already used this spell, there was no point in hiding it.

"Its level is… high." Yulair's expression was pale.

This Ring Explosion was a supernatural spell. The difficulty of learning and training in this spell was very high; a lot of time, energy, origin force, and resources were needed.

She had three supernatural spells: two of them were level-one low-tier supernatural spells. As for her mid-tier supernatural spell, she could already cast it smoothly and successfully. This was a sign of initial mastery.

Being able to use two level-one low-tier supernatural spells and even starting to master a mid-tier supernatural spell that was not far from reaching level one… this was called exceptional talent.

However, in front of Gurney who was able to instant-cast ordinary spells and have a supernatural spell that was level three or even level four, her talent was simply too inferior; it paled in comparison.

Not only was Yulair thinking that, but the sensitive and young Blue Shire and Black Dill also had similar thoughts.

Releasing the Ring Explosion that looked like a wheel, it slowly rolled forward.

Everywhere it went, the ground below it cracked. In its aftermath, a groove with the thickness of an arm was created on the cracked ground.

There were all kinds of spells in the world.

But for Spellcasters, their focus was mostly on offensive spells that could be used quickly. For example, Fire Arrow and Arc Lightning were able to reach tens of meters in an instant.

Using the terminology of the spellcasting world, that was the "projectile speed" of a spell.

These rapidly cast projectile spells that could travel a distance were often able to move more than a hundred meters a second.

If a spell moved slowly, then it would be much harder to hit the target.

If a spell could travel a hundred meters in an instant, then the enemy would have a tough time trying to dodge it.

Quick and easy, slow and heavy. These were things that a mage needed to consider when they created new spells.

Quite unlike Fire Arrow, Arc Lightning, Sprint, and some other spells, this Ring Explosion was undeniably the opposite type.

Ring Explosion was a super bomb that slowly rolled towards the enemy. Ring Explosion might not be able to unleash rapid attacks on the enemy, but it was most skilled at slowly attacking stationary targets.

Elementary Ring Explosion did not roll slowly on the ground; it moved at 10 meters per second.

However, compared to a Fire Arrow or Arc Lightning that moved at 100 meters per second, it was much slower.

Gurney had already raised this Ring Explosion to level five through passive farming. Thus, its speed had also risen to 20 meters per second, and it was already quite an improvement.

By the time the first Ring Explosion had moved for about ten meters, the second Ring Explosion was already formed in front of Gurney.

When Gurney made the third Ring Explosion, the first one had already reached the Supernatural Door.

Approaching the Fire Arrows that Gurney made earlier, Ring Explosion completely ignored the arrows that blocked its path.

It rolled right over them.

Crack crack!

The crushed Fire Arrows exploded at once, and flames spread around the entire Supernatural Door.

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Blood Magic Totem

Ring Explosion had unstoppable might, and it went straight for the Supernatural Door.

The blood liquid that got rolled over emitted loud screeching noises. After the wheel passed over it, the liquid would lose all signs of life.

"Wuuu… Grrr…"

The blood-colored thing behind the Supernatural Door seemed to have sensed the threat of this Ring Explosion wheel, and six thick tentacles shot towards the Ring Explosion wheel at breakneck speed, with only their after-shadows being seen.

Each of these six tentacles was thicker than the one that attacked Gurney earlier.

If these had been used to attack him, Gurney's injuries might have been more severe.

Pew pew pew…

The six tentacles slammed into the Ring Explosion wheel.

Boom—

An unimaginably loud explosion resounded at once.

Then, the entire underground cavern started shaking.

Rock fragments, dust, and other particles fell from above them; shock waves were emitted all over the place.

Everyone felt themselves going deaf momentarily from this shocking explosion.

"This spell is actually so powerful!" At this moment, everyone had such a thought. They were relieved but fearful at the same time.

Compared to the rest who only felt the shock waves and momentary deafness from the aftermath of the clash, the peculiar lifeform behind the Supernatural Door had endured the full extent of Ring Explosion's power.

Even though Gurney could not see what was happening behind the pitch-black door, from the fluctuations of the explosion earlier and from the amount of splattered blood on the ground now, that peculiar lifeform definitely did not have a good time.

This low-tier level-five supernatural spell was even more powerful than the average high-tier spell in terms of raw power.

That peculiar lifeform, despite being tier three or even tier four, would still take huge damage from it.

"Wuu… ho… hoo…"

The peculiar lifeform that resembled red liquor let out a strange wave of noises.

It did not sound like begging. Instead, it was some form of extremely angry cursing.

Next, the second Ring Explosion followed the trail left by the first one as it rolled over at a steady pace.

Boom—

The third one.

Boom—

Fourth.

Fifth…

One after another, the Ring Explosion wheels entered the Supernatural Door, and an artistic explosion continued to be displayed at set intervals.

Each hit caused the interior of this Spatial Origin Realm to shake intensely.

Thankfully, this was a Spatial Origin Realm, an isolated and enclosed world; it was far sturdier than an ordinary underground cavern or tunnel.

Gurney was not afraid that the explosions would cause a cave-in.

By the time the 10th Ring Explosion detonated, Gurney had already stopped casting his Ring Explosion spell.

At this time, behind the Supernatural Door, there was dead silence in the darkness.

Everyone looked at Gurney, showing strange expressions. This consecutive wave of endless explosions refreshed their understanding of Gurney once again. This Gurney had far more hidden methods than they knew, and his actual strength was simply unfathomable.

Waving his hand, Gurney started to create Fire Arrows.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh…

An endless barrage of Fire Arrows was tossed into the Supernatural Door like they were torches.

In just a moment, Gurney had already tossed more than thirty Fire Arrows into the Supernatural Door. These Fire Arrows were radiating with red fire, causing the area behind the Supernatural Door to be clearly seen.

For these Fire Arrows, Gurney had focused on the flame duration. Thus, they could burn for over ten minutes.

At this time, the situation behind the door could finally be clearly seen by everyone.

It was like an underground secret room that was the size of a normal room. The walls, ground, and rock layer had been reinforced.

The Ring Explosion wheels had moved 10 times along the same trail from outside, creating a deep pit with half a leg's depth that could be seen by everyone.

But behind the Supernatural Door, inside the secret room, even though the 10 Ring Explosion wheels detonated 10 times, there was no damage done to it.

The methods of a Transcendent Grandmaster are truly incredible,

Gurney thought to himself while looking at the ground that was completely intact.

There were no issues inside the supernatural secret room.

The blood monster that had the ability to create powerful tentacles had already disappeared.

Or maybe… it did not.

Everyone who was standing at the entrance of the Supernatural Door looked inside.

The most eye-catching thing inside the secret room was the central area where there was a three-meter-tall totem pillar that had the thickness of a stone mill. Carved on the stone pillar was a strange lifeform the size of a basin; it had fangs, wings, and scales.

Around the totem stone pillar, there was a pool of blood, three meters in diameter. The totem stone pillar stood within the pool of blood.

The peculiar blood, which had been blown up and scattered all over the walls and roof, was now trickling down and then moving along the ground that had deep indents; the blood was gathering in the central blood pool.

Gurney felt uneasy.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh…

Four Fire Arrows quickly shot into that blood pool that yet had to be filled.

Bubble bubble bubble bubble…

The supernatural fire caused this blood pool to boil and bubble; nothing out of the ordinary happened.

Seems like… it's dead!

Gurney thought to himself.

But it's not possible to feel completely at ease about this. After all, certain fake-death methods, revival, or some other way to hide itself are not impossible.

Rubbing his temples, Gurney stepped into the room while being extremely vigilant and careful.

A moment later, the six of them gathered by the side of the stone pillar.

"Blood Magic Totem!"

Seeing this stone pillar that was three meters tall, they inspected it carefully but did not know how deep it really was.

Gurney immediately felt some signs of joy internally. The reason was that this Blood Magic Totem was the second special encounter point, and it was a genuine supernatural token. It was a precious treasure that could allow an Apprentice Transcendent to become a Transcendent.

Gurney's goal was to become a Spellcaster, and this Blood Magic Totem could lead one to become a Bloodcaster, which was a type of special class in the Spellcaster archetype.

Yes!

"Bloodcaster" was not an ordinary supernatural class.

It was a special supernatural class. It was rarer and more powerful than an ordinary supernatural Spellcaster.

"This Blood Magic Totem…" Within the silent secret room, Black Dill, who was a person of few words and had rarely spoken on this trip, opened her mouth and explained.

Blood Magic Totem?

Everyone gathered their gaze on Black Dill.

Gurney also looked at her.

Through the system, Gurney knew that this Blood Magic Totem was a special supernatural token that could be used to guide people to a new supernatural class.

As for the Blood Magic Totem's exact details and the traits of the supernatural class, Gurney was unsure.

However, it seemed that Black Dill knew a lot about this Blood Magic Totem.

Black Dill who was covered in a black cloak spoke at a steady pace, "Regarding this Blood Magic Totem, I need to first talk about a powerful Blood Magic Grandmaster from three hundred years ago named Gog."

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Powerful Bloodcaster

Black Dill continued, "Blood Magic Grandmaster Gog was a talented and ambitious Transcendent Grandmaster. His most famous achievement was the development of the supernatural class Bloodcaster. Before Gog, this supernatural class, Bloodcaster, existed, but it was neither famous nor powerful. But in the hands of Blood Magic Grandmaster Gog, this class that was quite peculiar started to display its terrifying power."

Black Dill who was a star student had the air of a "scholarly" teacher. She had a lot of information regarding the supernatural classes, the traits of rare classes, their historical background, and their related events.

Gurney guessed that this Black Dill had already created her own Memory Hall.

Once the Memory Hall was created, one could browse their past memories without fear of forgetting details. It was a truly enviable ability, but Gurney knew that the price of creating a Memory Hall was that the person would need to spend a portion of their mental power to construct it.

This was a type of ability that was suited for supernatural researchers. It was not suitable for someone like him who was combat-oriented.

"The core trait of any supernatural class is to pursue greater strength. It could be the strength of the individual or the depth of their knowledge, or even an exceptional survival skill," Black Dill explained to them in a calm and composed tone. "And the methods to become stronger are very different. This is the key to classifying the various supernatural classes.

"For example, physical combat classes focus on strengthening one's body. Spell-related classes focus on their offensive power. Darkness- and shadow-related classes focus on their own agility and survivability. This description is in essence the most fundamental trait of the supernatural classes.

"And right now, with the advancement of our research, everyone has already understood deeper things. To obtain even greater strength than ordinary Transcendents, one would need to have an even more profound trait in some aspects. The more profound and in-depth the trait is, the stronger the class will be. This is the consensus that is currently recognized in the researcher world. I don't know if Gog knew this or not, but he inherited a predecessor's Bloodcaster class and innovated with it, creating a new Transcendent Bloodcaster archetype that perfectly coincides with this theory. The core focus of the new Bloodcaster class that Gog made was 'blood'."

"Blood!" Hearing Black Dill's description, everyone could not help but turn around to look at the blood pool gathering below the totem.

Currently, the arrows that Gurney made via Fire Arrow were still burning the blood in the pool.

"Compared to the average Spellcaster who strengthened his mental power and Transcendent body using origin force continuously, Bloodcasters can do the same, but at the same time, they are able to use even more of their power on their blood.

"The Bloodcaster class has an unparalleled supernatural trait when it comes to blood. They can strengthen their own blood, allowing it to contain immense recovery ability, and once the body gets harmed or injured, the blood would flow there to rapidly heal it. In other words, the blood of Bloodcasters is on par with healing potions of the same mass and quality.

"At the same time, Bloodcasters are able to raise the strength and activeness of their blood. This allows the blood to have its own supernatural trait and activity, which means that the blood of the Bloodcaster can seemingly come alive. It is like how we saw those blood tentacles taking form and moving on their own earlier.

"When ordinary Transcendents get injured, their blood would flow out. If they lose too much blood, they would die, but Bloodcasters would not. As long as they were willing, they would not lose even a single drop of their Transcendent blood.

"The logic that destruction of the body would cause death in regular combat is not something that is easily applied to Bloodcasters. Or more accurately speaking, when the organs of the body are destroyed, when the bones are cracked completely, when the vitality of the flesh is gone, these are all fatal injuries to other Transcendents. But it is not so for a Bloodcaster. Destruction of the body would not lead to death. The best way to deal with a Bloodcaster is to crush the skull completely and destroy the soul entirely."

After hearing Black Dill's description, everyone had excited expressions.

"It sounds like this Bloodcaster class is really powerful." At this time, Yulair looked at the Blood Magic Totem with starry eyes; she sighed deeply and expressed her true feelings.

The others were also having similar thoughts.

Yulair and Gurney were both Spellcasters in the mage faculty. That was to say, she could use catalyst acceptance to obtain the inheritance of this powerful Bloodcaster class.

How could she not be moved by such a powerful class?

"Indeed, Bloodcaster is a very powerful class," Black Dill said. "In fact, in the supernatural research world, Bloodcasters are considered a type of rare supernatural class, and its star rank is not low."

"It is a special class with how many stars?" Gurney asked out of curiosity.

"Four stars!" Black Dill answered immediately.

There were many supernatural classes among the various archetypes.

Some had gone missing as a result of historical reasons.

Some were created in this new era and had rapidly risen in popularity.

Some had been passed down through inheritance for countless generations without fail.

The various supernatural classes, as long as they were not too sidelined, would be recorded down by the supernatural researchers. Next, some Transcendent researchers would classify them through various means before giving them a certain ranking.

Ordinary supernatural classes were not particularly different in ranking; they were mostly one star.

Two-star supernatural classes were already considered the entry-level of rare classes.

Three stars would be those powerful classes with few inheritors.

The higher the star rank, the stronger the supernatural class, traits, and abilities would be, and the quantity would also be much smaller as the ranks went up.

However, the classification through star rank was only the evaluation and status that professional researchers had given to the class. The actual situation of the supernatural world was that strength depended on the Transcendent himself, not the class.

Gurney pondered for a moment before asking, "Four stars, such a powerful class is only four stars? Does it have some sort of weakness or drawback?"

Black Dill turned around to look at Gurney and nodded lightly. "Indeed, this Bloodcaster class has a fatal weakness. Without it, this class would be at least six-stars or even a top-tier seven-stars class."

At this moment, everyone's gaze gathered on Black Dill. They waited for Black Dill to explain the fatal weakness of this Bloodcaster class.

"The Blood Magic Grandmaster Gog did a special transaction with a mysterious existence, causing the Bloodcaster class to erupt with unprecedented special power. But precisely because of this transaction, the Bloodcaster class had also contracted a mysterious curse. Whenever it is a Full Moon Blood Night, the blood of the Bloodcaster would enter a boiling state. During this time, the Bloodcaster's strength would fall to its weakest level, the depths depending on the ratio of physical strength and blood power.

"However, the curse contained within the blood is very powerful. Even if one has an exceptionally strong body, their strength would still fall by half, and that is the best-case scenario.

"Spellcasters rarely had strong physiques, so in most cases, during a Full Moon Blood Night, the Bloodcaster would lose almost all of their strength although this situation would only last for several hours."

"But… you should all know this. If your enemies know that you are a Bloodcaster and hate you to the core, then you will likely not live beyond several Full Moon Blood Nights."

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Death!

After hearing Black Dill's description of the Bloodcaster's most fatal weakness, Yulair felt a chill like cold water was poured all over her.

A Bloodcaster was very strong indeed, but this fatal weakness was too fatal as well. Furthermore, her body was not very strong.

During the Full Moon Blood Night, if she was a Bloodcaster, she would lose all her battle strength.

A strong body?

Her gaze swept towards Gurney's face subconsciously. At this moment, the light of the fire shone on Gurney's face, showing his handsome and calm appearance. It seemed like the Bloodcaster's fatal weakness would not be a big worry for him.

That's right. This Gurney is very strong, and his body is also… similarly terrifying. In his case, this might not be a fatal weakness at all

, Yulair thought to herself.

This weakness is truly detrimental

, Gurney who showed no expression externally also sighed to himself internally.

But regardless, this is a powerful supernatural class. Furthermore… it is not impossible for me to get rid of or suppress that curse.

Gurney who had a system was confident of suppressing that curse in the future.

To obtain strength, one must put in sufficient effort!

Gurney recited this philosophical quote in his mind.

After some time, Gurney spoke to the others, "Guys, I am prepared to accept the inheritance of this Bloodcaster class."

Nobody felt surprised at his words. They had all witnessed Gurney's strength with their own eyes. Furthermore, they had also seen the toughness and strength of Gurney's body. It was likely that during the blood-moon curse period, Gurney would only be weakened to half of his full strength. In that case, he would still retain considerable battle strength.

After all, Bloodcaster was a powerful class, to begin with. Someone with exceptional talent like Gurney would not refuse it.

"Earlier, Black Dill said that this Bloodcaster class is very powerful and special. Furthermore, there is a mysterious curse within the blood power itself. Even though I am confident in my own mental power and my body is not weak either, we need to avoid unnecessary injuries or deaths when I undergo catalyst acceptance. In the event that I see illusions and lose control of myself, I would like everyone to leave first. Go to the previous treasury and wait for some time. Once I complete the inheritance acceptance, I will go over and inform you guys."

Everyone listened to that and held no objections.

The inheritance of a supernatural token was usually filled with danger. It was normal for peculiar situations to occur afterwards, like loss of control, mutation, illusions, mania, or even death.

After all, humans were not supernatural lifeforms, to begin with. Trying to obtain greater strength would usually lead to necessary risks.

"You need to be careful when you are alone. If you need help, shout out loud, and we will come over. But I believe in your strength. This small supernatural class inheritance should not trouble you," Avery said relaxedly. However, his facial expression was nowhere near relaxed.

"Once you complete the supernatural class inheritance, the difference between us will widen once again," Philosophy Knight Pavel said softly.

"Then you need to work harder," Gurney returned.

"Haha… Of course I will catch up to you soon." Pavel laughed as well. He spoke in a carefree tone, but he could not conceal the lack of confidence in his heart.

Soon, everyone else returned to the tunnel and vanished into the darkness.

"Huff…" Seeing their figures fade into the darkness, Gurney let out a deep sigh after some time.

Once Gurney found out that the second special encounter point would have a supernatural class inheritance, he started to plan a way to gain the third special encounter content, the Destiny Gold Coin.

Using the inheritance as an excuse to send them away so he could open the Supernatural Door containing the Destiny Gold Coin, this was Gurney's plan.

After returning to the Blood Magic Totem room and walking one round around it, Gurney then left the room.

Arriving at the living room, Gurney willed more than ten Fire Arrows to block the entrance of the tunnel. The burning flames could block out the sound of the Supernatural Door when it opens.

Arriving at the door that guarded the Destiny Gold Coin, Gurney quickly input the Lanemian runes on the door.

Crack…

There was a soft sound of friction.

After the door was opened, he saw a small study room that was more like a secret room. All three walls that he saw had decaying bookshelves, as well as a large number of decayed books. Hundreds of years had already passed here, so it was not strange for these ordinary bookshelves to be decaying like that.

In contrast, the environment here was quite clean, so there was not much dust.

Using the system, Gurney saw the coin immediately; it was termed as the noble creation, "Destiny Gold Coin". This gold coin could be said to be the most important thing in this special encounter. After all, the main theme of this special encounter was the "Noble Inheritance of the Blood Magic Grandmaster".

Walking forward, Gurney picked up the Destiny Gold Coin that was lying unassumingly at the corner of the wall. If one did not take a closer look, one would not even notice this noble creation.

I should toss it, and check out my luck!

The moment Gurney held this Destiny Gold Coin, that strange thought surfaced in his mind.

In fact, Gurney had a strong urge to quickly toss this Destiny Gold Coin.

"I cannot do that." Gurney immediately became alert. He strengthened his will, and this Destiny Gold Coin got stored inside the system storage space. At the same time, the strange thought vanished.

"There is some kind of powerful mental suggestion. Thankfully, I was alert and knew this thing was special. Thus, I was not controlled by this urge. If I did not know this Destiny Gold Coin's true identity or if my mind was weaker, I'm afraid… I would've really tossed it. Then… what would've happened the moment I tossed this Destiny Gold Coin?"

He looked around in this seemingly empty study room.

Gurney had some guesses in his heart.

"Destiny Gold Coin, it is not simple at all, but it was left at a corner of this room so casually. That means its original owner, Blood Magic Grandmaster Gog, had already… fallen victim to it.

"Was it caused because he tossed this Destiny Gold Coin? If so… then this Destiny Gold Coin is truly a powerful and extraordinary magical item. If I have time, I want to research it thoroughly."

Now was not the time to explore the secret behind the Destiny Gold Coin.

While thinking, Gurney had already shut the Supernatural Door of this study room.

Since he had already obtained the Destiny Gold Coin, it was now time to take the inheritance of this Bloodcaster class.

Bloodcaster!

Returning to the room with the Blood Magic Totem, Gurney inspected the totem stone pillar. After confirming that there were no issues, he felt slightly assured.

He placed his palm on the stone pillar.

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

Three runes started to vibrate.

The runes that represented "communication" and "medium" were formed in Gurney's palm.

At the next moment, Gurney connected the communication medium between him and the supernatural token, Blood Magic Totem.

When obtaining supernatural books or trying to use supernatural equipment, one needed to establish a connection. Similarly, when trying to accept the guidance of a supernatural token inheritance, one had to establish the medium of connection as well.

Once the connection was made, an indescribably twisted evil curse that was filled with darkness, blood, greed, and terror spewed out like a broken dam, gushing into Gurney's body.

This evil curse that had been nurturing for hundreds of years went into Gurney's body and soul at the same time as the Bloodcaster inheritance.

"Oh no!"

The moment the connection was made, Gurney sensed something amiss. When Gurney wanted to cut the connection with this supernatural token, it was already too late.

The dark and twisted curse's power had already poured into the depths of Gurney's soul.

His body twisted, and he screamed shrilly and peculiarly like he was in deep pain.

"Aghhhh…! Aaaahhh…!"

Gurney who was in deep pain felt his body contracting, and all of the blood in his body was boiling because of this curse.

His entire body inflated rapidly like a balloon.

Gurney's heart, at this very moment, was pounding crazily like it had gone haywire.

Thud-thud-thud-thud…

It was beating more than ten times a second.

"Ugh… ugh… save…"

This sudden change of event made the calm Gurney fluster as he turned fearful.

"Am I about to die…. but I have a system…"

In the depths of Gurney's eyes, there was despair and helplessness.

Bam!

Suddenly, Gurney's heart exploded with an intensely loud sound.

In the next moment, Gurney's pupils lost all signs of life. His entire body was like a collapsed pillar as he lay within the blood pool of the Blood Magic Totem.

His expression was twisted.

The appearance of his corpse was unsightly!

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Reincarnation!

I died just like that?

Gurney looked at this sight in disbelief.

At this moment, upon death, his vision seemed to be fixed at 45 degrees downward.

The scene before him was gray-white, and there was an overwhelming quantity of mist and fog around him.

The scene that he was seeing was the Blood Magic Totem room that he was in when inheriting the Bloodcaster class.

Right now, because of the peculiar curse of the Blood Magic Totem, his blood boiled, and his heart exploded. He was now a corpse lying in the blood pool.

Looking at his own corpse was truly a strange sight.

I died earlier, but now, I became like this.

Gurney wanted to look around but he found that he was completely immobilized.

Is it due to the system?

System!

Gurney willed.

Immediately, the system page materialized before Gurney's eyes.

As expected!

After looking at it, Gurney sighed to himself.

At this moment, on the system menu, Other than the two functions, [Passive Farming] and [Special Encounter, a third function had appeared — [Reincarnation].

Back then, when I was near the three-hundred-year-old dragon source fruit, I awakened the [Special Encounter] function.

And right now, it seems that after dying… I awakened this [Reincarnation] function!

Reincarnate!

Gurney held some anticipation and joy as he pressed on the page of this [Reincarnation] function.

[Reincarnation]

By "reincarnating" after death, one can turn all negative conditions, curses, memetics, mutations, or even abnormal symptoms of the regular body into one's own supernatural talent, and obtain corresponding resistances against them.

After revival, one's mental power, physical body, origin force, and all things related to strength will be condensed and purified. However, one's own power level will fall by a certain extent.

Current Number of Reincarnations Left: 6

…

After repeatedly looking at this [Reincarnation] function, Gurney could not help but praise it internally,

This is… another heaven-defying function!

Undeniably, this [Reincarnation] was a powerful function not inferior to [Passive Farming] and [Special Encounter].

Or in some sense, [Reincarnation] was even stronger.

Firstly, it could be used as a type of revival or resurrection. This was already confirmed by what happened earlier to Gurney. Just this alone was heaven-defying. After all, even in mythologies and legends, when the various Pantheons faced the Twilight of the Gods, they sank into demise without being able to revive.

Even legendary existences could not revive, but Gurney could. And other than revival, the comprehensive ability of this function was also extremely powerful.

[Reincarnation] was able to turn negative effects into the user's own "supernatural talent". There was nothing else to say; just this point alone would allow Gurney to walk on the unrestrained path of doing anything he wanted.

Of course, with Gurney's nature, he would not toy around with his life, but this would give him enough confidence to face those mysterious existences or supernatural disasters.

Even though there was the slight drawback of losing his current level of power, but regarding the point of "mental power, physical body, origin force and all things related to strength will be condensed and purified", Gurney thought about it and immediately realized the power of this aspect.

In many passive farming games, the point of reincarnation is to convert all of one's current level and stats into bonus attributes when the character is stuck at a certain stage. That way, when restarting, the amount of time needed to farm would be much lower.

The condensation of mental power carries the same logic for a Spellcaster like me.

In the future, as I continue on my Transcendent road, I can use this [Reincarnation] function to condense and purify my mental power, allowing it to cross certain bottlenecks and hurdles more easily. Crossing those hurdles is the life-long dream of many Transcendents.

After inspecting, thinking, and analyzing the situation, Gurney had fully calmed down.

This reincarnation function was his greatest hidden trump card at this moment. If he had not died once, he would not have unlocked it.

Calming himself, Gurney looked at the description of this reincarnation function again.

Converting curses into my own talent?

Earlier, that terrifying bloody and dark curse had great power. It was simply too overwhelming, directly destroying my heart.

That twisted and evil curse of darkness should not be the same as the Bloodcaster curse.

In that case, this means that the Bloodcaster class's own blood curse had already been inherited by my body earlier. Which is to say, my body contains two curses now. One is the Bloodcaster curse, and the other is the bloody and dark curse.

And after I died, I should "automatically reincarnate" now.

In that case, the terrifying curse that killed me as well as the blood curse would both be converted by my system into my own supernatural talents. This means that the Bloodcaster curse has also been resolved.

This is truly out of my expectations.

Gurney smiled as he thought of something else.

But others do not know that I have resolved the Bloodcaster's curse. If they really think of attacking me during the night of the blood moon… I can make use of it.

Even though he could revive immediately… Gurney did not do that.

He waited at this spot where he was floating in a fixed place with a fixed vision.

After more than ten minutes, Gurney looked at his surroundings vigilantly.

The gray fog has gotten much denser than earlier.

This reincarnation function is not without limit. I need to use it within a certain time frame.

I wonder what will happen if I died from dismemberment or got eaten by some wild beasts. Or even, if someone turned me into ash and scattered my remains into the sea, what would happen?

With the system's power, it would likely use a logical method for me to revive. I can only explore the details in the future.

Next, Gurney pressed the button beside the number "6" on the [Reincarnation] tab.

Gurney's vision started to move closer to his body.

Six reincarnations coincide with the six months that I've been in this world. Through instinct, I know that this reincarnation number can be increased. This is great news!

Inside the blood pool of the Blood Magic Totem.

Tick tick…

Gurney who was bathed in blood stood up abruptly.

"Cough cough…"

When he died, he fell into the blood pool, so a lot of blood went into his nose. Thus, after reviving, Gurney felt terrible.

After coughing for some time, Gurney could finally breathe normally again.

After slightly cleaning up his body which was bathed in blood and looked terrible, Gurney inspected his own condition.

The spells that were placed in the farming slots had no change in level.

He had four silent cast runes; there were no changes.

He had three multi-cast runes; there were no changes as well.

However, his mental power, physical body strength, and origin force had changed.

"My origin force has clearly fallen by about twenty percent, but the density of my origin force has evidently increased by ten percent. Raising the capacity of one's origin force is relatively easy, but the density of the origin force is extremely hard to raise. Many Transcendents are unable to create dense origin force, but I can do that through reincarnation. This is really a powerful effect.

"Similarly, my body's physical strength has also fallen. Even including my flesh density, they have all fallen by around twenty percent, but my physical body feels extremely refreshed now. Even my movements are more agile than before. This is because my body's talent has risen.

"With the rise in my body's talent, when I undergo passive farming, the growth of the body will become even faster. The upper limit has been raised too.

"And finally…"

Gurney's expression became much more serious.

"The most important thing is my mental power."

Gurney rubbed his temples lightly.

Mental power, in today's supernatural research world, had been sub-classified into many different attributes.

Among which, the most important ones were mental power quality and mental power quantity. Mental power quality represented the fragility and hardiness of one's mental power. High-quality mental power was like a metal bowl; it could not be easily destroyed. Low-quality mental power was like tofu, easily smashed to bits.

Mental power quantity very obviously meant the quantity of mental power that one had. It was not to be underestimated. If someone had an extremely high quantity of mental power, it would overflow and create a "spiritual consciousness", greatly raising the person's perception.

At the same time, with a strong spiritual consciousness, the person would have precise control over their spells. In fact, even after casting spells, they could slightly adjust the flying direction, causing attacks to become more accurate.

As for those who had a low quantity of mental power, they could not become mages.

Right now, Gurney's mental power quality and quantity had both fallen by 20%, but he did not feel uncomfortable at all.

"My origin force and body have sacrificed the less important attributes through reincarnation to raise my potential and elevate the core traits.

"As for mental power, in terms of quality and quantity, they are extremely important aspects of mental power, yet they were still weakened. That is to say, whatever potential that got elevated is something deeper that I cannot currently sense or perceive regarding my mental power.

"Even though my mental power quality and quantity fell by twenty percent, I can feel that my senses and perception have gotten clearer than before. At the same time, the seven runes that are inscribed through my mental power are giving off even less pressure now, and I can handle them with greater ease.

"Other than that, the powerful curse has been converted into my body's supernatural talent, as well as gaining some sort of resistance. I cannot perceive the increase in talent for the time being. It will only make itself known after some time when I've undergone more cultivation and learning.

"As for the supernatural resistances, they will only be displayed when I face an attack of the corresponding negative trait.

"In conclusion… this reincarnation caused my 'quantity' to fall, but my 'quality' has risen. This is also in line with the trait of reincarnation. After all, quality is far more important than quantity.

"My strength has not fallen by too much. Of course, this might be because I was relatively weak to begin with. In the future, when I get stronger, each reincarnation will weaken me more severely."

After closely inspecting the changes in his body, Gurney's last bit of worry and doubt vanished altogether.

"Regardless, the revival through [Reincarnation] can only be kept as a trump card. I cannot try to abuse it and disregard my own life.

"I need to be more stable. I need to be more careful!"

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Bloodcaster

Beyond the dark and silent tunnel.

Avery, Pavel, and the rest looked towards the other end of the tunnel with great concern and worry.

At the end of the tunnel, the row of Fire Arrows that Gurney made had already been extinguished, and the path ahead was completely dark.

More than ten minutes ago, they had clearly heard Gurney's terrifying cry and anguished screams, so they were worried.

Inheriting a supernatural token was very dangerous. After all, humans were lifeforms with blood and flesh, while supernatural tokens were involved with extraordinary powers that were mysterious and peculiar.

An ordinary human trying to grasp extraordinary powers through their flesh body, it was obviously very dangerous. If one lacked will or sufficient supernatural talent, they would suffer soul injuries, or their minds might get corrupted, or their bodies might mutate, or they might lose control over the entire situation.

Even though Gurney had immense talent and they were very confident in him, after hearing that pitiful cry earlier, their confidence could not stop them from worrying about him.

Ta… ta…

Ta… ta…

Strange footsteps could be heard from within the darkness.

The few of them became serious and alert immediately, with the three mages having already prepared their spells in secret.

A moment later, a human bathed in blood appeared before the group, his appearance being lit up by their torches.

Seeing this bloody person, the mages almost unleashed their spells.

"It's me!" Gurney spoke immediately as he appeared, preventing that from happening.

"What… what happened to you?" After looking at Gurney closely and confirming that he was the real deal, Avery became less worried.

"When I came into contact with that Blood Magic Totem earlier, there was still some sort of spiritual power left inside. It should be the remnants of the blood lifeform that we killed earlier… I was caught off guard and fell into the blood pool."

The few of them looked at each other.

"Thankfully, I had my backup plan and managed to kill that thing. Afterwards, I obtained the supernatural class, Bloodcaster, successfully." After saying so, Gurney pretended to let out a sigh of relief.

Everyone had complex emotions as they heard his narration.

Transcendent!

This was their current goal, and Gurney had already achieved it.

These rich aristocrat kids were very clear of it. In order to gain sufficient status and power in their families, they needed to be a Transcendent. In fact, in some families that had intense internal conflicts, if you were not a Transcendent, you might lose your life.

Other than strength and wealth, a Transcendent also had a lifespan that far exceeded the normal person's.

An ordinary human who worked laboriously throughout his life would be fortunate to live for over fifty years. For aristocrats, their lifespan ranged from around sixty to seventy. However, after fifty, their vital energy would dwindle, and their minds would become dull, leaving an ordinary illness to easily take their life away.

In this supernatural world filled with mysterious powers, ordinary lifeforms were as fragile as paper. But if one became a Transcendent, even if they were an ordinary tier one or two Transcendent, they would easily live beyond a hundred years. Even when they grew old, they would still have a decently sharp mind and a strong Transcendent body.

The higher the Transcendent tier, the higher the lifespan they had. A longer lifespan was also one of the main goals of many people who wanted to become a Transcendent.

While thinking, Gurney looked at Yulair. "You also want to inherit this Bloodcaster class?"

Yulair was also trying to be a true Spellcaster, and she was qualified to accept the inheritance. Regarding this problem, she had already given it careful consideration.

"Yeah!" There was no doubt in her mind as she nodded.

Even though Bloodcaster had a weakness, that could not hide the fact that it was a very powerful class.

Many curses are resolvable. If I am sufficiently strong, I can even suppress the blood curse instead. In the worst case, I can still rely on supernatural items,

Yulair thought to herself.

"Even though I exterminated that evil thing, you still need to be careful when you go there."

"Yeah! I know."

Breathe in… breathe out…

Taking a deep breath, she calmed her palpitating heart.

Yulair walked in the tunnel alone, and she was soon engulfed in darkness.

After Yulair was completely submerged in the darkness, Gurney looked at the rest of them.

"Who has extra water?" The blood in the blood pool was very strange. It was sticky and oily, and the feeling of being covered in it was extremely uncomfortable.

"Sorry." "Not me." "Me neither." Everyone said convincingly.

Shrugging his shoulders helplessly, Gurney went to the side and sat down to meditate.

Opening the system in his mind, and looking at the [Passive Farming] page, Gurney smiled.

The fifth farming slot has finally opened!

At this moment, on the [Passive Farming] page, after such a long time, the fifth slot had finally been unlocked.

Putting away his joyful emotions, Gurney started to inspect his supernatural class — Bloodcaster.

Currently, Gurney had already completed the catalyst acceptance, so he was now a Bloodcaster. Thus, Gurney was no longer an Apprentice Spellcaster now.

Of course, he was not a tier-one Spellcaster either. He was considered half a Spellcaster.

After Gurney opened his origin pool, his soul would undergo a qualitative transformation and push through the boundary of tier one. Then, Gurney would become a genuine tier-one Transcendent Bloodcaster!

The core ability of a Bloodcaster was blood. As Gurney sat down calmly, at this moment, he could clearly feel the bubbling and movement of the blood in his body.

Blood was produced in the bone marrow; it would flow into the veins, before being pumped throughout the body by the heart to supply energy. In the core inheritance of the Bloodcaster class, the most important thing was the strengthening of one's blood. The stronger the blood, the more it would nourish the body, and the stronger the body would get.

The Bloodcaster class can strengthen the blood to raise the strength of the body. This suits my tanky-mage route very well. A tanky mage not only needs to have a supreme defense in terms of equipment, they also need to have a strong body.

This Bloodcaster class suits me so well!

Gurney sighed to himself internally.

When he inherited the supernatural Bloodcaster class, he discovered that at the core of this inheritance, there was also a method to strengthen the blood, and it was called the Blood Pool Codex.

Blood Pool Codex?

Looking at this supernatural book, Blood Pool Codex, Gurney fell into deep thought.

It seems that Blood Magic Grandmaster Gog had made an agreement with a powerful and mysterious Blood Demon or Blood-kin. Thus, he managed to create this Blood Pool Codex that is able to strengthen one's blood.

Feeling the vast depth and profundity of this Blood Pool Codex, Gurney knew that this was an extraordinary supernatural book. The mid-tier supernatural book Cybona Origin Pool that Gurney had placed in his passive farming slot was not even ten percent as complex as this Blood Pool Codex.

While thinking about it, Gurney placed this Blood Pool Codex into the newly unlocked fifth passive farming slot in his system.

[Passive Farming]

Slot 1: Bone Essence Potion Mantra (Level Six)

Slot 2: Cybona Origin Pool (Level One)

Slot 3: Ring Explosion (Level Five)

Slot 4: Devotion Knight Breathing Style (Level One)

Slot 5: Blood Pool Codex (Level Zero)

All five of them were supernatural books.

During this period of passive farming, Cybona Origin Pool and Devotion Knight Breathing Style had both risen to level one. For other people, they would need to spend months or even years of training to level their supernatural books; in Gurney's case, it was just a few days of farming.

After Blood Pool Codex was placed in the slot, and once 10 seconds had passed…

15!

The number 15 appeared above Blood Pool Codex before quickly vanishing.

The experience gain is so high?

Seeing the two-digit experience gain, Gurney could not help but feel stirred internally.

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Staring from the Abyss

After farming so many books, Gurney had already understood some of the mechanics behind it. The higher tier the book was, the more starting experience it would gain compared to lower-tier books. However, their level would rise relatively slower compared to those lower-tier books.

Evidently, the better the book was, the more time this [Passive Farming] function would need to raise it.

Relatively, lower-tier books also had a lower upper-limit in terms of level.

For example, ordinary books like Fire Arrow or Arc Lightning reached level four after two months of farming, but even though they continued gaining experience afterwards, their level was still fixed at four.

As for the supernatural book Ring Explosion, even though it leveled more slowly, but after a long time had passed, it had actually managed to reach level five.

And right now, regarding this Blood Pool Codex, it had 15 experience points from the start. One had to know, even the mid-tier book, Cybona Origin Pool, only gave 8 initially. The extraordinary power of Blood Pool Codex was evident with one glance.

The stronger the better,

Gurney thought to himself.

Currently, even though I only have this Blood Pool Codex, as time passes and my tier rises, my corresponding Bloodcaster abilities will also awaken gradually as I get stronger. I am really looking forward to those extraordinary abilities that the Bloodcaster class has. I wonder if these supernatural abilities can be put into the passive farming slot. According to the system's powerful characteristics, it should be possible.

I am a Bloodcaster! This powerful class will display its brilliance in the most dazzling manner in my hands.

While waiting, everyone felt concerned and worried about Yulair who was currently accepting the inheritance.

Gurney was not worried because, before he came over, Gurney had already inspected the Blood Magic Totem. The peculiar curse had been entirely used up to kill Gurney, and none was left on the totem.

Yulair only needed to deal with the blood curse that was originally within the Bloodcaster class.

It was not a problem.

While waiting, half an hour passed quickly.

Within the darkness, footsteps could be heard.

Everyone turned to look.

Next!

Yulair who was bathed in blood walked over to them in a pathetic state. She had a look of embarrassment.

"I… earlier… I too…" She lowered her head, muttering to herself as her voice got softer.

Everyone: "…"

As the first person exploring this inheritance, it would be normal to fall into the pool, but her… she had also fallen into it…

"Do you have water?" Yulair asked softly.

"I have a bottle." "I have some left." "I can give you some." They quickly said.

At the corner, within the dark shadow, Gurney's smile slowly faded from his face.

…

Half an hour later.

After cleaning up, Yulair's face returned to its pristine state.

She then described the danger that she experienced during the inheritance, "The sound of boiling blood was accompanied by soft whispers, making it hard for my willpower to materialize. And that flowing sound resembles demonic words. It lingers in my mind and cannot be ignored. Initially, I almost lost control.

"But now, I feel much better. In the case of supernatural inheritances, the moment when the power and body start to merge together is the most crucial. You guys need to watch out when it's your turn." Yulair told them about her genuine insights from this inheritance without being stingy.

Gurney listened with much interest.

Whispering? Was there? Bubbling and flowing sounds that cannot be ignored?

The problems that Yulair faced were not an issue for Gurney.

After she finished her words, Gurney spoke, "There is another Supernatural Door. Let's take a look at it."

Nobody had any objections.

Soon, they arrived in Blood Magic Grandmaster Gog's living room.

While everyone stayed alert, Gurney opened the Supernatural Door that previously contained the Destiny Gold Coin.

"It seems to be a study room, but it is a pity that the books have all decomposed," Avery spoke softly after inspecting the place. "Otherwise, if we could bring back these books, we would have been able to learn a lot more."

"Indeed."

After checking the room, they confirmed that there were no valuables left.

They then returned to the living room.

"Other than these two Supernatural Doors, there are also three tunnels. I wonder where they lead to. Do you guys want to explore it?" Avery seemed to be asking the group, but he was actually looking for Gurney's opinion.

"There is no need to explore them, or rather, we cannot go." Gurney immediately rejected the proposal.

Forget about the potential danger there. Just with the fact that those locations were not considered special encounters by the system, there would be no value in exploring them.

Moving around in this dangerous place without sufficient knowledge, wasn't that a death wish?

It was possible that those locations might contain valuable things.

For example, other books, scrolls, or important information that was stored elsewhere. These things were not useless, but currently, they had already obtained the three contents that were listed and earned a fortune. It was time to curb their greed.

Gurney had also prepared his reply already. "From the style of that Transcendent Grandmaster, he would seal his treasures behind Supernatural Doors and keep them close to his resting room. We can try to peek into these tunnels, but we cannot enter them deeply."

Everyone nodded in agreement when they heard Gurney's words.

"I will take a quick look. If there is danger, I will leave immediately. You guys can stay here and rest first," Avery said.

"Be careful." Gurney did not stop him as that might lead to suspicions.

While everyone rested, Yulair quietly went towards Gurney.

"Did you sense it?" Yulair spoke in a soft tone that carried traces of fear.

Gurney thought rapidly in his mind; he understood what she was referring to.

"The curse?" Gurney answered softly.

Yulair seemed to be scared and spoke in a shivering tone, "Yes, the terrifying existence, 'it' is staring at us from the abyss!"

From Yulair's hoarse and shivering tone, Gurney could sense her deep fear.

The extraordinary power of Blood Pool Codex was evident with one glance, but that meant the "noble" existence behind it was also powerful, terrifying, and mysterious.

Sadly, the curse of that noble and mysterious existence had already been forcefully absorbed by the system and converted into Gurney's supernatural talent and resistance. Gurney did not even have a chance to face that terrifying existence.

If 'it' dared to stare at him, he would stare right back. It was a pity that the system did not give Gurney such a chance.

"That is only a curse," Gurney said. "The best solution is to quickly find a way to suppress or resolve the curse."

"Yes!" Seemingly affected by Gurney's tone that was heavy and stable like a mountain, Yulair's mood also improved and stabilized.

After a while, Yulair asked, "You… aren't afraid?"

Gurney smiled as he said, "I think the one who should be scared is not me."

Yulair stared at Gurney in a daze. She opened her mouth slightly, her stunned expression spread over her delicate face.

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Trap

A while later, Avery who had entered a small section and inspected the three tunnels came back.

Because he did not go deep into the tunnel, there was no danger involved in his investigation, but he also had no additional gains.

"Right now, we have already opened all the Supernatural Doors here. We've probably already taken what we can. Then…"

Avery's tone became more cautious. "We need to discuss how we're going to kill those enemies camping outside and waiting for us."

Once Avery finished his words, everyone's gaze shifted towards Gurney subconsciously.

Earlier, the person who suggested that they counterattack was Gurney after all. He had already thought of a plan to retaliate.

"We will do this. First…" Gurney lowered his voice and explained his plan.

…

Howling Canyon.

The fog was still dense with no signs of lifting. In fact, the fog was even thicker now than before.

About fifty meters away from the Spatial Origin Door, in a corner, the blood-eared elves, Ximo and Sheron, were waiting quietly.

At the side, the tier-two supernatural lifeform kermo giant wolf was lying on the ground, resting with its eyes closed.

While waiting, Ximo asked, "Almost a day has passed. Have they already died inside?"

A day's time was quite long for the exploration of such a small "Spatial Origin Realm".

"It is very likely," Sheron nodded lightly and said. "After all, this is the resting place of a top-tier Transcendent Grandmaster. Even though this group of Apprentice Transcendents might have some strength, in the face of real danger, the chance of death is still very high. It is not strange that they would get completely wiped out.

"Let's wait for another day. If they do not come out tomorrow, we can basically confirm that they are already dead. By then, I will use a sealing spell to hide the entrance. Nobody will find out about this place for the time being." Sheron had already made the main plans for the future.

Suddenly.

From the dense fog, there was some commotion.

It sounded like footsteps.

Next, there was a loud sound as if a huge thing had fallen to the ground.

This commotion immediately alerted the two of them.

With the Summoner Sheron's eyes, blood light flowed as he quickly communicated with his contracted lifeform, the tier-two "secret soul specter".

The secret soul specter had been summoned from deep within another spatial world by Sheron using a special contract ritual, and they had signed a contract with each other.

Secret soul specter was born with the ability to "void walk".

And this tier-two supernatural spiritual lifeform was the thing that Sheron sent to spy on the group.

After communicating with Sheron, he could perfectly see what the secret soul specter saw.

Before the Spatial Origin Door, on the ground.

A muscular young man was lying down on the ground in a pathetic state. His body was covered in thick sticky blood.

The young man was still struggling. He continued to cough out blood, and his aura was extremely weak. Even in this pathetic state, the young man continued to grab onto the longsword in his hand that seemed to shine with a mystic silver light.

"A mystic silver longsword?! They obtained treasures!" Seeing this, Sheron could not help but feel happy.

But he did not take action immediately. He used the secret soul specter to watch as he continued waiting.

After five to six minutes, other than this severely injured muscular young man whose aura was growing weaker, nobody else came out.

"It seems… the rest have all died inside."

Sheron let out a deep breath and walked out from the corner. The kermo giant wolf and Ximo followed him.

An Apprentice Knight that was near death could not be of any threat to them.

Mystic silver weapons have very high value. This can be sold for at least 1,500 gold pounds. It would be enough for me to buy some supernatural materials and ascend to tier three. I can even change to a new mage robe. The resting place of this Blood Magic Grandmaster is… really a treasury.

Thinking of this, Sheron started to fantasize about the future in his mind.

After I get all those treasures, I might even be able to reach the level of a high-tier Transcendent…

While Sheron was feeling excited about his bright future, the situation suddenly changed.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh!

Several sharp Fire Arrows shot out of the fog, piercing right through it, and these sharp arrows were all aimed at Sheron.

The Fire Arrows were so fast that by the time Sheron managed to react, the first Fire Arrow had already reached his chest.

Whoosh!

There was a dull sound, and the force of the Fire Arrow exploded around Sheron's chest.

Boom!

However, a hazy black light spread around Sheron's chest, forcefully blocking this Fire Arrow that had been launched at him in surprise.

Summoner Sheron actually had such a defensive method.

Next, the second and third Fire Arrows arrived; they were similarly hard to react to and defend against.

Bam!

Bam!

Two level-four Fire Arrows exploded near Sheron's chest, and flames blazed around him.

Sheron, who had managed to react already, quickly dodged to the side, but the moment he had just moved away slightly, the fourth Fire Arrow arrived before him.

After being attacked by three level-four Fire Arrows, the hazy black light that protected Sheron seemed to have reached its limit. Due to the power of this fourth Fire Arrow, the black light shattered.

Swoosh!

Next, the Fire Arrow directly tore Sheron's cloak and pierced his chest.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh!

A chain of Fire Arrows was unleashed at him, and they all stabbed into his body.

In just less than a second, Sheron was pierced by more than eight Fire Arrows in his chest.

The flames continued to burn, filling Sheron's vision.

Instant-casting spells are too fast.

This was his last thought.

Bam!

Sheron fell to the ground.

This sudden change of event was just too fast. Shadower Ximo had reacted the moment she saw the Fire Arrows, but Sheron's reaction speed was much slower than hers. Thus, he was shot to death by the Fire Arrows.

With more than ten Fire Arrows in one second, he easily shattered Sheron's "defensive spirit". This is a powerful Spellcaster.

Seeing that Sheron was killed, sadness and anger filled Ximo's heart; the intense feeling of revenge made her want to kill the attacker.

However, Ximo's logic and fear towards the powerful enemy still controlled her body.

I need to escape. Otherwise, I will die.

After making one agile roll, she quickly retreated backwards.

Even though she wanted to escape, the enemy within the fog did not seem to want to let her off.

Bzz bzz bzz…

A large arc of purple lightning formed with dazzling light. The arc lightning spread for five to six meters. It was simply like a huge web made of electricity.

This lightning was too powerful! If she was hit, she would not be able to escape.

"Awoooo—"

There was a pitiful cry.

The Arc Lightning had directly landed on the kermo giant wolf's body.

Ximo had escaped to the back of the kermo giant wolf.

At this moment, the kermo giant wolf got hit because it was used by her as a shield. It was quite unlucky.

The kermo giant wolf's master died, and it also got hit by such a powerful spell. After making a pitiful cry, the kermo giant wolf quickly ran away with its tail tucked between its legs.

During this period, Ximo who had concealed her traces vanished into thin air.

The secret soul specter that had lost its contract owner also left.

The battle… had ended in the blink of an eye!

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Green Leaf Bracelet

At the entrance of the blood-colored Spatial Origin Door, Gurney looked with an expressionless face at the blood-eared elf who was pierced by the Fire Arrows within the fog.

After sensing his surroundings, Gurney confirmed that the specter spying on him had truly vanished. He let out a sigh.

"Alright, get up." Gurney kicked Pavel who was on the ground.

With a flip of his body, Pavel stood up in a lively manner.

At the same time, behind the blood-colored Spatial Origin Door, Avery, Yulair, and the rest came out.

Looking at the corpse that was currently being burned by the Fire Arrows, Avery praised, "Truly a spectacular battle."

"We were prepared and caught them unguarded. It was no wonder they lost," Gurney explained calmly. "Be careful. That female assassin escaped. She might return to exact revenge."

"Yes!" Everyone nodded lightly; they did not let down their guard.

Their plan was simple, but the actual effect was pretty much perfect.

Pavel drank an aura-concealment potion; together with the huge amount of blood they had access to, he easily pretended to be on the verge of death.

Next, Apprentice Light Elementalist, Black Dill, used her "Light Illusion" spell on Pavel. It cast an illusion on the area around Pavel after he came out. That way, Pavel could put up a show to lure the enemies into coming out, allowing Gurney's counterattack plan to take form.

The plan carried certain risks, but from the results, it was rather successful. They managed to kill the blood-eared elf that was a tier-two Summoner.

If the enemy had managed to put some distance between them, the peculiar spiritual lifeform and the tier-two kermo giant wolf that had high physical defense, along with the Transcendent Shadower who escaped, could have caused the group to suffer casualties; they might even get wiped out.

The only pity now was that the Shadower escaped.

Blood-eared elves have high agility to begin with, and that woman is a Shadower too. It's not surprising that she escaped. Unless I become a genuine tier-one Bloodcaster, or even a tier-two Bloodcaster, trying to kill them at the same time was always going to be very difficult. Even then, the fact that I managed to kill a tier-two Summoner was already quite good.

Regarding this result, Gurney was quite satisfied.

He went over to the body of the tier-two Summoner. The fire arrows made from his spell had pierced his chest, and they were burning intensely.

Sheron, who had plotted against Gurney's group, had eventually fallen prey to Gurney's trap.

Looking at this blood-eared elf's body, the cloak had already been torn by Gurney's spell, so it had no value remaining. However, this blood-eared elf did not have a bag or even a sack.

After searching the body for a while, Gurney found a light green metallic "Green Leaf Bracelet" on the right arm.

"A supernatural storage bracelet?"

Everyone's gaze shifted towards him.

Supernatural storage equipment was very rare, and they had high value too. They were normally as valuable as mystic silver equipment.

Among these rich aristocratic kids, only Avery had supernatural storage equipment; the rest did not have one.

Under everyone's gaze, Gurney quickly took out many things from this green leaf bracelet — water, food, low-tier potions, some mid-tier potions, as well as some supernatural materials. But the value of these materials was not even ten percent of this green leaf bracelet.

Even though Gurney had his own system storage, having this supernatural storage equipment as a concealment was a great idea. Plus, it might have some huge effect in certain situations.

"This green leaf bracelet has a cubic meter of space internally. It is valued at around 800 to 1,000 gold pounds. Counting the things inside, we will value this at 1,000 gold pounds. According to our battle distribution, I should be able to claim over sixty percent of the loot. After we return, I will pay you guys 400 gold pounds."

Gurney had priority pick, and nobody had an objection to him taking the green leaf bracelet and compensating them with gold pounds instead.

…

The night descended.

In the valley, at the side of a small mountain river stream, a fire was burning intensely.

After washing up and cleaning himself thoroughly, Gurney, who now felt extremely comfortable about his cleanliness, walked towards the fire with his hair dripping water.

At this time, several people had gathered around the fire, laughing and talking amongst themselves.

"Has Avery returned yet?" Turning around a corner, Gurney then saw Avery who was sitting by the fire.

Earlier, after leaving the Howling Canyon that was covered in dense fog, the group moved first, while Avery stayed at the back, defending against the Shadower if she chose to return.

Right now, with Avery's return and everyone's joyous mood, it seemed that the female Shadower did not follow them. After all, she would have had to face a mysterious person who easily killed a tier-two Transcendent and almost took her life.

If that female Shadower knew her limits, she would not approach or even tail them.

Arriving by the side of the fire, Gurney asked, "How was it?"

"I traced the aura of that blood-eared elf. She seemed to have escaped immediately and had no intention of following us."

"Hmm, she understands the situation at least." Gurney laughed. Frankly speaking, the current Gurney was not afraid of that tier-one blood-eared elf attacking him.

With their crisis resolved, everyone became happier and more relaxed.

"This exploration has ended. Then, we should head for our next target, the Ancient Architecture Ruin Grounds." While talking, Avery started to plan for their next step.

That Ancient Architecture Ruin Grounds was a cursed land that bred countless skeletons — skeleton soldiers, skeleton wolves, skeleton boars, and all sorts of skeleton creatures.

Even though those skeletons possessed some combat ability, the group did not intend to enter deeply, so there should be no danger.

In the past, the group had fought against the skeletons at the periphery.

Also, when they went into a supernatural wilderness, they would keep an eye out for resources while training their bodies to fight against supernatural lifeforms.

Fighting against these skeletons would be an extremely good form of training.

For the following journey, it would be a fun experience for them. Except, Gurney would take on the role of a "bodyguard" now.

Currently, having inherited the Bloodcaster class, I have already stepped onto the Transcendent road. My mental power seems to have broken free of a certain restriction. In just one day, I felt that it increased by a certain amount.

Hmm… it is said that after becoming a Transcendent, there would be a "puberty" phase where one's power will grow explosively. That does not seem to be a lie.

At the same time, my Cybona Origin Pool is starting to open the origin pool in my body.

Devotion Knight Breathing Style is able to quickly raise the strength of my body as well.

As for that Blood Pool Codex, it is also raising my supernatural trait — meaning my blood — rapidly.

Body, blood, and soul, I have three aspects of growth. By the time I return from this trip to the wilderness plain, my strength will have grown by a lot.

In that case, I will need to search for even more supernatural spells to raise my strength. The stronger the supernatural spell, the more gold pounds I would need to buy them.

Gurney rubbed his temples lightly.

As expected, every Transcendent's growth is an endless pit when it comes to money.

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Eye of the Storm

The week of practical lessons in the wilderness had ended.

Unknowingly, time passed just like that.

Sugar Black-Iron Mine.

Oooo~~

Accompanying the sound of the supernatural steam train, the class that had completed their week-long practical lesson started on the journey back to Sugar Ruins City.

Inside the mildly shaking train carriage, Avery, Pavel, Yulair, and others interacted with the rest of their classmates excitedly about their experiences and insights from this practical field lesson.

As for Gurney, he wore a coat and leaned against the wooden wall, shutting his eyes while resting.

After leaving Howling Canyon, the rest of the journey was completely without fatal danger.

Even though there were some incidents that occurred…

For example, facing the assault of monkeys tossing hard fruits.

Or getting targeted by wolves at night; the group had to rely on the terrain to force the wolves away.

Or even within the ruin grounds, the unlucky Pavel had taken an arrow to the knee by a skeleton archer.

But on a whole, it was relatively safe.

Gurney wore a black coat and seemed to be sleeping, but in reality, he was collating his gains from this trip. After these few days of passive farming, Gurney's strength had risen by leaps and bounds. Mental power, origin force, physical body, and even blood — they had all grown significantly.

With this rate of growth, in half a month, there would be no issues with Gurney advancing to become a tier-one Bloodcaster.

At the initial stage of becoming a Transcendent, the supernatural trait would nourish one's ordinary body. Thus, it was normal to experience rapid growth during the first two months.

Other than his own growth, Gurney also got to wear the three new supernatural equipment that he obtained after using "magic contact" multiple times on them.

Normally speaking, magic copper equipment needed at least six to seven magic contacts before it could be equipped. Otherwise, forcefully equipping them when they did not match the user's supernatural traits would cause them to get damaged.

However, Gurney found that he could wear the equipment after just two magic contacts.

He was already able to wear that magic copper equipment and magic shield necklace. As for the two mystic silver artifacts that would normally require half a month to equip, Gurney could wear them after just five days of magic contact.

Regarding his special situation, there was only one explanation.

"Supernatural talent!"

The powerful curse that managed to kill Gurney and the blood curse that originated from the mysterious entity in the abyss were both converted into Gurney's supernatural talent. Thus, he had gained an outstanding talent in terms of resonating with supernatural equipment so that they could be used quickly by him.

At this moment, Gurney was wearing the mystic silver boots. This was a pair of mystic silver short boots that resembled the classic European style and gave off a vintage feeling. They were not eye-catching at all when worn by Gurney.

As for the mystic silver wand that was of a size similar to those in the Harry Potter movies, it was already placed in the pocket of Gurney's coat.

Supernatural equipment needed the nourishment of origin force, and by using magic contact on them constantly, the user would be able to adapt and unleash their supernatural trait more extensively.

Or in the words of some "romantics": "One should treat their supernatural equipment like their lover. They need care and concern to display shocking power that exceeds the norm."

And that was true in this case.

Without deeply understanding and nourishing the equipment, even a Transcendent Grandmaster would not be able to display the true might of magic copper equipment. In contrast, even for a low-tier Transcendent, if they could nourish their mystic silver equipment to a deep level, they would be able to display great might with it.

Gurney's supernatural talent was so outstanding now, and if he did not stop nourishing his mystic silver and magic copper equipment, they would be able to unleash considerable power for him in the future.

Instead of these supernatural equipment, one thing appeared in Gurney's mind the most.

It was that noble creation, the Destiny Gold Coin.

During the practical lesson, Gurney did not have any private time to himself; thus, he had delayed the matter.

But today, he was going to return to his secret room. It was time to start exploring the information of the Destiny Gold Coin supported by Gurney's [Reincarnation] function that would allow him to take risks.

His current reincarnation chances had already been restored to six. Thus, Gurney did not fear the Destiny Gold Coin or the negative drawbacks it could have.

Even if this Destiny Gold Coin had something that terrified most people, its "supernatural memetics"…

"Destiny Gold Coin," Gurney muttered softly to himself.

…

Sugar Ruins City, outskirts.

Ooo~~

The supernatural steam train that came from Sugar Black-Iron Mine stayed at the train station for several minutes before sounding off and leaving again.

Old Rock Street, No. 155, third floor.

The walls were covered with runes created by ritual magic, and the ground, four walls, and even the ceiling were completely sealed and isolated. One could say that the third floor was completely separated from the outside world.

Old Cohen's gaze swept past the outskirts and the steam train that just went past. He pulled down the curtains in the window.

Sitting on the sofa, Old Cohen drank a mouthful of the cheap freshly brewed "desolate leaf" coffee.

He raised his head and looked at the middle-aged aristocrat who wore a white suit and was carrying a pocket watch in his hand. His walking cane and top hat were placed by the side. This was Baron Tram.

"Want a cup?"

For the Empire's Baron who held a Title, his own territory, and a personal mine, asking him to drink this coffee could be seen as a form of "insult".

However, the current Baron Tram did not have the demeanor and attitude of an aristocrat who was facing other aristocrats.

Indeed, he held up the coffee pot and poured a cup for himself. The brewed coffee was still boiling hot, but Baron Tram drank it in one gulp regardless.

"It tastes fine." Baron Tram laughed.

"So… what's the matter today?" Old Cohen was the one who spoke.

Baron Tram leaned on the chair as he smiled and said, "Can't I find my old friend for a chat?"

"If you wanted to chat, you would have gotten your servant to bring me to 'Autumn Winter Light Café' instead of coming here to my house," Old Cohen said in a calm and slow tone.

Baron Tram laughed heartily. "Indeed, I came here for some matters."

Old Cohen held his coffee cup. He drank it while waiting for Baron Tram's following sentence.

"That fellow Nigel is going to reach Sugar Ruins City in some time."

Old Cohen's coffee cup froze in the air for a moment before he drank all of the remaining content.

"You told him?" Old Cohen raised his eyebrows.

Baron Tram shrugged. "When you gave those high-tier potions to them in a large batch, it was already impossible to hide it. You know it too. That Nigel fellow is not someone we can assess with common sense. Furthermore, he seems to have made some advancement in tier six. We cannot afford to provoke him."

"I'm going to speak honestly."

"Don't tell me you do not want to give up that monstrous Pharmacist!" Baron Tram laughed.

Then, while rubbing his chin, Baron Tram said, "To have such a high efficiency and success rate at concocting high-grade potions, he is at least a Specialist Pharmacist. In fact… he might be near the boundary of being a Pharmacist Grandmaster. If such a monstrous Pharmacist leaves, it is a huge loss to us."

"It is not that I am unwilling to part with him, but he is still a child. He is not prepared yet," Old Cohen said softly.

"Thus, the reason why I came here today is to ask you to, if possible, get that Gurney to accept the inheritance of a supernatural class. Even though Gurney is still young, he has outstanding Transcendent talent, so it should not be a problem. Right now, before the commotion begins, Gurney still has some time to gain sufficient strength to protect himself. If we really wait until those guys start the commotion, it will be too late then."

"I know. I am already considering it. But I did not expect Nigel to come personally." Old Cohen shook his head.

"As for the supernatural class, I will try to obtain it soon."

"Oh right!" Old Cohen suddenly thought of something. "Is Nigel coming to Sugar Ruins City for that mysterious incident or for Gurney?"

"Both," Baron Tram said in a relaxed manner. "Furthermore, that mysterious incident has a far greater range and implication than we imagined.

"Cohen, this time, Sugar Ruins City is in the eye of the storm."

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