Chapter 18: Credits, Oh Credits

After submitting the sales review for the Essence Gold, Jie Ming couldn't help but feel smug for a long time.

He had already begun to imagine the scene of him making a fortune through Essence Gold, then using the earned credits to improve himself, forming a perfect resource cycle, and finally becoming a supreme powerhouse.

Occasionally, when seeing those apprentices struggling for credits, although he didn't show anything on the surface, Jie Ming couldn't help but feel a sense of self-satisfaction in his heart.

"Sure enough, without unique technology and means of production, one can only be exploited. This kind of work that is both heavy and low-credit, is really not even for dogs..."

"... to do! If dogs won't do it, I will. I freaking love doing missions!"

In the No. 3 distillation tower area, Jie Ming's expression was somewhat twisted.

The air here was filled with a strong, nauseating mixed odor, like rotting plants and spoiled potions mixed together.

Jie Ming was wearing a heavy protective suit, wearing tight goggles and a mask, holding a long-handled scraper issued by the workshop and a rag stained with pungent solvent.

His mission was to clean this exceptionally huge metal distillation tower in front of him, which was at least ten stories high.

No one knew what had been done before, but a black, sticky substance like tar remained inside the distillation tower.

It was said that this thing was quite sensitive to energy factors and could not be cleared by wizardry at all, so it could only rely on pure human labor.

He needed to climb into the narrow internal space and scrape, wipe, and wash bit by bit...

As for why he came here to do missions, it was a long story full of tears.

He had once thought that by refining Essence Gold and finding one of the materials most urgently needed by wizards, he could solve his resource problem once and for all.

But reality gave him another blow to the head.

The worst possibility Jie Ming had originally thought of was that the Essence Gold would have no buyers and would be lost among a pile of isolation materials of the same type.

But the reality was even harsher—he hadn't even reached the step of selling!

The "white iron-based isolation material" he submitted showed an eye-piercing "Detection in Queue" in the workshop's Magic Net system.

No matter how many times he checked every day, this status remained motionless, as if it had been forgotten in some corner.

Without passing the detection, it could not be listed for sale, and it didn't even have the qualification to be disliked by others, let alone obtain credits.

This secret path to wealth he had discovered by accident was now firmly stuck by an unexpected accident.

And Jie Ming's need for credits was as urgent as breathing.

With the progress of his studies, the demand for credits grew increasingly high.

Want to continue practicing shaping with other special materials after class?

Fine, go to the material warehouse and redeem new rations with credits first.

Want to try analyzing an unknown ore with the knowledge just learned?

Sorry, the more detailed "Material Characteristics Illustrated Guide" requires credit to unlock viewing permissions.

Want to find a slightly better crucible with spiritual sense auxiliary functions to conduct more complex experiments?

No problem, please pay credits to rent it at the Magic Net terminal.

Everything in the academy could not bypass credits!

The alchemy workshop did not keep idlers.

They provided basic food, housing, and knowledge, but more was needed from you in exchange for labor and results.

"Damn it, what kind of inefficient bureaucracy is this!!"

Jie Ming cursed angrily in his heart, but he could only honestly put on his protective suit and prepare to work.

The work was monotonous and hard.

The protective suit isolated most of the odors, but it also made movements slow and clumsy. The ultra-high temperature inside the distillation tower made even Jie Ming's physique feel uncomfortable.

Sweat steamed inside the protective suit, and the harsh sound of the scraper rubbing against the metal echoed in the tower.

"So damn tired..." another apprentice nearby complained in a low voice, his protective suit covered in a layer of grime that was hard to remove.

Jie Ming nodded in agreement, not complaining out loud, just mechanically repeating the movements, looking as if he had been tortured by the heavy work to the point of losing interest in talking.

But in fact, his powerful spiritual sense was active in the dark.

He carefully perceived the internal structure of the distillation tower, the complex pipeline connection methods, the depiction of energy transmission runes, the splicing of different metal materials... these were all living textbooks.

He quickly fed the perceived information back to the Great Dao Library and let it find similar knowledge based on the information he provided for comparative research.

"The design of this energy interface... has the same effect as the basic artifact refining techniques in the Great Dao Library, and it seems to have utilized the principle of space folding... However, the core is still rune energy conduction. This aspect needs extra memorization. It seems I must hurry up and study rune studies as well."

In such a harsh environment, Jie Ming endured the boredom and exhaustion while integrating these Wizarding World knowledge into his own Cultivation system cognition.

After a day's work, returning to the dormitory, Jie Ming collapsed on the bed.

Although he felt exceptionally exhausted mentally, his body didn't feel too tired, and even the True Essence in his body became more solid.

What was even worse was that he could feel the energy in his body accumulating crazily. The barrier of the first level of Qi Condensation was already fragile and could be broken through at any time!

Climbing up from the bed and assuming a meditation posture, Jie Ming looked at his spiritual sea.

In the seemingly endless ocean, three complex patterns emitting brilliant light occupied three points around the ocean, and a steady stream of elemental power was sucked into his body from the outside world.

In over a month, he had unknowingly engraved three Truth Runes in his spiritual sea, completing the depiction of the "Transformation," "Fusion," and "Refining" runes that represented the core concepts of alchemy, and his meditation progress had reached the peak of a first-level apprentice in the wizarding system!

His spiritual sea had also expanded more than twice since he first enrolled, and his spiritual sense was condensed and active.

Next, as long as he successfully meditated and engraved the fourth Truth Rune, he could officially become a second-level apprentice.

But at the same time, the spiritual sense foundation brought by Jie Ming's "talent" was also exhausted.

Now, he could only continuously absorb elemental power from the outside world through meditation to supplement and accumulate more spiritual sense to support him in impacting the next rune.

This could also be considered the advantage of geniuses. With his talent, he could easily rise to a first-level wizard apprentice. Jie Ming speculated that those top geniuses of the eighth or ninth level might not exhaust their innate spiritual foundation until they were second-level wizard apprentices.

The accumulation of spiritual sense was not achieved overnight, so the progress of meditation was not a problem Jie Ming needed to worry about now.

The real trouble was that Jie Ming's cultivator cultivation base was also on the verge of a breakthrough!

It had only been two months since he broke through the first level of Qi Condensation, and now his breakthrough to the next level was imminent.

The energy in his body could no longer be suppressed, as if it would explode in the next second. ===== CHAPTER 19 =====