Chapter 200: 1st Tier Arena

{You returned the covenant partner. Cognitive rationalization modification completed. Current duration: 25 hours. Cost: 12, 25 Paradise Points.

The Paradise Points required for the Great Five Elements Auspicious Beasts Scripture are only ten thousand, but as Chu Danqing predicted, it requires an A-rank evaluation.

Chu Danqing made no evaluation; this scripture could only return with Guo Ming.

As for dragon materials, the Guo family has again located a dragon suspected to meet the requirements and has dispatched personnel to kill it.

Several dragons suspected to meet the requirements have already been killed, but the materials brought back failed to meet fine quality standards, so they were temporarily taken back.

Moreover, he simply could not keep the dragon materials even if he wanted to.

The quality is too high, still marked with a question mark; keeping them would require an evaluation.

He then entrusted Guo Ming to help locate superior-quality summoning equipment.

Originally, he thought fine-grade would suffice, but then he realized the next meeting would be inside a trial world.

He would accumulate more Paradise Points anyway; since all costs are at base price, it was better to go straight for superior-grade rather than settle for fine-grade.

As for the equipment he wore, he did not hand it over to Guo Ming—he could only discard it after replacing it; he was still wearing it, so how could he discard it?

Chu Danqing glanced at his remaining 31, 59 Paradise Points and felt it was tricky.

By convention, he would keep ten thousand Paradise Points as reserve resources.

"Xiong Zhigang's consumption is minimal; under the reduction from Mastery of Command and Command Proficiency, 25 hours cost only 25 points."

"Guo Ming is far more expensive—500 points per hour, with only 16 points reduced, directly consuming 12, 00 Paradise Points."

"At this stage, only 21, 00 are disposable," Chu Danqing muttered.

The remaining change would be used for procurement—he had stayed so long in the last trial world; he couldn't have consumed nothing.

He needed to replenish daily supplies to ensure comfort in the next trial world.

Why endure wilderness survival when he could live better? He wasn't a masochist.

After handling these matters, Chu Danqing took Da Bao and Da Bai to the Skill Chamber, intending to upgrade his skills.

"Dragon Phoenix Bearing requires five thousand points????" Chu Danqing attempted to upgrade Dragon Phoenix Bearing first, only to discover that leveling it to level 1 required 5, 00 Paradise Points.

Chu Danqing could only temporarily skip it; with the Nine Tripods Diagram and his innate charm, he now had 32 charm points.

He would upgrade it later when converting attribute points into skill points.

So this time's targets were the Mountain River Covenant and Bodyguard skills.

{Mountain River Covenant (Active) LV. →10: Cost (1/90/900/1800) Paradise Points to summon (1 tier lower/same tier/1 tier higher/2 tiers higher) covenant partners to fight for you. Hourly maintenance cost during existence: (no cost/1/90/450) Paradise Points. Maximum covenant count: 11. Initial covenant rank limit: 3rd tier. (Consumes 7 Basic Skill Crystals + 2, 00 Paradise Points)

{Bodyguard (Active) LV. →10: Spend 50% of maximum mana to gain an equal-value shield. Forcefully summon a designated summon to your side, granting it a 10% boost to all attributes. All summons moving toward you gain +20% movement speed. Lasts 10 minutes. (Consumes 9, 00 Paradise Points)

{Summon Enhancement (Passive) LV. 0→15: Summoned creatures gain +15% to all five stats, +15% HP, +15% MP, +15% attack, +15% defense, +15% negative effect resistance. (Consumes 10, 00 Paradise Points)

"So expensive—the cost to upgrade skills learned before ascension didn't change despite tier progression." Chu Danqing's eye twitched; levels 1–10 required only 1, 00 Paradise Points, but beyond that, each level-up cost 2, 00.

"Perhaps because they were already inside me before ascension."

"Fortunately, Mountain River Covenant is powerful—it reduces Paradise Point consumption upon leveling up."

"Each level-up reduces the original cost by 1%, but clearly, beyond the 1-tier-lower maintenance cost—which is free—the cost becomes nonzero from same-tier onward."

Free rides were impossible; even at level 10, summoning a covenant partner one tier lower still cost 1 point, proving it had reached its limit.

The increase of one covenant slot was entirely ignored by Chu Danqing.

A single slot increase at level 10 was likely a difficult-to-upgrade trait.

Yet Chu Danqing currently had only two covenant partners; reaching full capacity remained uncertain.

"If only there were a skill to reduce transaction fees," Chu Danqing sighed.

In truth, the main cost of Mountain River Covenant wasn't summoning—it was each transaction.

But such skills were probably unattainable; fine-grade was certainly out of reach, and even superior-grade might not exist.

Only special skills or basic skills might offer such effects.

"I still have 759 Paradise Points; use 59. First, procure supplies, then head to the arena."

Chu Danqing rose and left the training room, heading toward the Adept Plaza.

The Arena was an internal competition system introduced by the Paradise after reaching 1st tier.

Achieving a certain rank granted corresponding title rewards.

The top three received particularly rich rewards.

Theoretically, if one's strength sufficed, all three rewards could be claimed.

This marked the Paradise's beginning of cultivating adepts' PVP capabilities.

Reserve-class adepts were still in training; only PVE in dungeons was required.

But at 1st tier, adepts would face not only native inhabitants of trial worlds, but also intra-camp rivals and enemies from the other four camps.

Besides rankings, there were Arena Points.

After each match, Arena Points were awarded based on ranking progress.

Losers received a small amount as well.

Additionally, upon returning from each trial, Arena Points were granted based on your evaluation and Arena ranking.

Arena Points allowed adepts to exchange for items in the Arena Shop.

After procurement, Chu Danqing went directly to the Arena.

The Arena had an enormous number of adepts.

After a round of strengthening and learning, most systems sought to convert knowledge into power as soon as possible—and practice was the best method.

The Arena provided this convenience: not only practice, but rewards too—naturally, a popular zone.

Upon arrival, Chu Danqing opened the corresponding interface.

{1st Tier Arena Ranking Rewards}

{1st Place: Title—Arena King, 1 randomly selected Basic Skill Scroll, 10 Basic Skill Crystals, 10, 00 Paradise Points}

{2nd Place: Title—Arena Master, 1 randomly selected Superior Skill Book, 9, 00 Paradise Points}

{3rd Place: Title—Arena Expert, 1 randomly selected Fine-grade True Spirit Weapon (enhanced +12, 10 traits fully awakened), 5, 00 Paradise Points}

{4th–10th Place: Title—Arena Skilled, 1 randomly selected Fine-grade Equipment matching your system, 1, 00 Paradise Points}

{11th–100th Place: Title—Arena Fighter}

{101st–1000th Place: Title—Arena Enthusiast}

Six tiers total; the top three were a massive leap.

"Wait—if I reach first place, then drop to fourth, can I farm the rewards repeatedly?" Chu Danqing suddenly wondered.

{Arena titles adjust with ranking. Ranking rewards can be claimed only once.

The Paradise had already set the rule: no repeating rewards. Each adept could claim each reward only once.

Secondly, tier restrictions applied.

If you failed to reach first place in 1st tier before ascending to 2nd tier, your ranking reset to the initial 2nd-tier rank.

The 2nd-tier Arena had its own ranking rewards; missed 1st-tier rewards would not be compensated.

This meant permanently losing the 1st-tier ranking rewards.

But for most adepts, this was normal.

Not to mention the top three—even the title "Arena Enthusiast" among the top thousand was rare.

The total number of 1st-tier adepts had never been counted, but from Chu Danqing's nearly ten-billion ranking number, it was clear.

Most importantly, when an adept dies, their number is recycled. Even so, the Paradise's numbering system keeps growing.

This meant the adept population was steadily increasing.

Chu Danqing's number was recycled, not newly appended at the end.

In other words, encountering the same adept twice in a trial world—without using a binding item or maintaining contact—was as unlikely as winning the lottery.

Under the massive base and generous benefits, mid- and low-tier adepts were indeed weaker in personal combat than those in Fantasy City, Nightmare Realm, War Domain, or Death Kingdom—but compensated through sheer numbers.

In high-tier combat, one-on-one, most still couldn't win—but the Paradise always relied on overwhelming numbers.

Not only were mid- and low-tier numbers large; high-tier combatants were numerous too.

In survival rate and growth rate, the Paradise ranked first.

In the other four camps, failing a mission meant outright erasure.

In the Paradise, even if your Paradise Points dropped negative, they'd still give you a chance—the penalty for mission failure was well known.

Thus, many late-blooming, slow-burning, late-stage adepts emerged.

In the other four camps, such people wouldn't even survive the early stages, let alone develop later.

"Let's see how far I can climb in these remaining days," Chu Danqing muttered.

He intended to climb to first place, but this trial wouldn't give him the chance.

To challenge the top three, he needed to reach the top ten first.

Beyond tenth place, the system matched opponents based on Arena Points, number of matches, and win rate.

Winning would raise his rank according to the system.

Thus, a last-place adept could never directly challenge the first-place one.

Progress had to be gradual.

{Arena Points: 0, Arena Matches: 0, Arena Win Rate: 0%}

{Arena Ranking: 99741036584}

{Begin matching Arena opponent}

Chu Danqing stared at his eleven-digit ranking—there were this many adepts in 1st tier alone, and he was certain he wasn't the last; many more lay behind him.

This confirmed that the number of Reserve-class adepts would be even greater.

After all, not all preparatory-level individuals can survive to advance.

Chu Danqing suspected that each rank encompassed more than one region; otherwise, how could it accommodate so many people?

【Match completed. Entering the arena.】

(End of chapter)