At the party, Yale only needed to show his presence, and the same worked for Wyba, the party didn't include any other service.
Yale had just turned twelve, but for everyone else, Yale was at his fifteenth birthday; it was too problematic to explain his true age to the fans due to him looking more mature than he should due to the Special Realm's essence's effects.
Excluding the elders, Julie was the only one who knew that Yale was younger than he looked, but she didn't know exactly how much younger Yale was, Yale's true age was also a mystery to her.
In fact, Yale was considered the youngest among the three of them even if everyone thought he had just turned fifteen, as Oscro and Julie had already turned fifteen before Yale.
Even if they were nearing the age limit to reach the Novice Rank, they didn't have any worries about it.
Julie was ready to advance at any time, and Oscro still lacked a bit, but he was already at the 9-star, even with his lack of talent, having enough resources and training only one Path was enough for him to recover his lost time. The money he had invested in natural treasures to improve his body and level was more than enough to buy ten Apprentice Pills.
When the notice about the Apprentice Pill's aftereffects was announced it caused quite a stir in Trade City, and Oscro himself sighed in relief because Yale and Julie had stopped him from committing a foolish act.
There wasn't any other restriction when advancing towards the Novice Rank as long one was under sixteen, but depending on how one advanced, the future prospects would differ.
The starless Novice Rank was the first level in that the practitioners stop being considered mortals, and as such, it had a huge importance in order to reach further heights in the future.
Those who simply advance without taking further preparations would have a difficult way to reach Rank 2, and higher Ranks in the future as their training speed would remain similar to the one they had in the Mortal Rank.
Training became more difficult the higher the Rank became, not only did every increase in energy or stats would require more time, but the quantity of energy required to advance also was higher than in previous Ranks.
With the speed of a mortal, the chances of becoming a true expert were almost inexistent without lucky encounters.
Although there wasn't any time limit to the next ranks, one's lifespan was the limit. The lifespan increases after reaching the Novice Rank, but the lifespan wasn't unlimited. Thus, if the increase in the Rank were slower than the increase in lifespan, the practitioner would end up meeting their end due to old age someday.
For some experts, who had lived long lives, it was enough and didn't worry about it, but it wasn't unheard of people dying before reaching Rank 3 even if they managed to achieve Rank 2 and expand their lives more.
The energy limit at the 9-star Novice Rank was nine hundred, which was ten times more than in the 9-star Mortal Rank, and to the 9-star Apprentice Rank, it was nine thousand. Thus, for people who needed five years to reach the 9-star mortal rank, even if they were following the Magus Path which doubled the lifespan in each Rank, they would still need five hundred years to reach Rank 3 while their lifespan would be only four hundred years. However, that was taking into account that their speed didn't decrease, but it did as one's body aged. Thus, the actual time they would need with the same speed as a mortal was far higher.
Increasing the training speed was necessary to be able to advance in the future without needing to rely on having too many lucky encounters, so everyone tried to gather natural resources and ask older people to set formations to assist them in the breakthrough. Usually, to increase the training speed the advances in Rank were the only chance, and the first time was the most important as it would be a foundation, changing the foundation wasn't impossible with luck, but no one wanted to risk their futures having faith only in luck.
The Origin Orb also had a similar effect on Yale when he had absorbed it, although it was far more painful than a normal improvement. However, as the difficulty for the Origin Path was higher than the normal paths, Yale only lost a bit of disadvantage.
Yale's level had increased too quickly for his age, but it was more related to the lucky encounters he had, and the Quest Menu rewards than to his real training speed.
In Trade City, it was possible to buy the help of an elder of the association to assist in the breakthrough, but that could only be asked by a founder of a Platinum Rank company or higher while paying a huge amount of money. If some employee of a Platinum Rank company wanted such help, that employee should ask the founder to ask it on his behalf.
As Julie was a Platinum Rank company founder and was ready to breakthrough, she had used her authority to ask an elder from the association to help her in her breakthrough two weeks later.
At her current age, she didn't look childish, and she didn't want to wait too much as if for some reason she missed the time to advance she would regret it forever.
Julie had already waited far too much time to advance; she even had all her stats maxed, which was quite a strange scene for anyone besides Yale as it wasn't a requirement for other paths. However, Julie has been at the peak of the 9-star for a long time and had access to a lot of resources, so for her, it wasn't difficult to reach that state.
Julie had obtained an enormous discount from the association when asking for an elder's help thanks to being affiliated with Yale. The association directly cut the price in a half.
For those who couldn't ask any elders, they could try asking other people with less strength and influence, the results would be slightly worse, but it wouldn't be something that hinders the future path like advancing without any help.
Of course, if someone was at the expert stage on formations while being at the Mortal Rank and using precious treasures, obtaining a similar effect to the help of those who were worse than the elders was possible. However, finding a mortal at the expert stage in formations was far more difficult than an expert stage in the sword or smithing.
No matter how good a mortal was in formations, it would never have more efficacy than a powerful elder.
When Ange advanced, she had the help of Sainac and her master, although Yale didn't see how the formation was as he was immersed in training at that time, and the formation wasn't set outside Ange's house either.
Sainac wasn't weak, but in the Zuatania's Merchant Association, he would be considered one of the weakest elders. However, given how well Ange's advance went, Sainac was sure that the Mysterious expert did something to help.
Yale had planned to ask Tar for help for his breakthrough when he was ready; he was sure that the chief elder would help him gladly.
Fortunately, Wyba wouldn't need any help when she advanced because the beasts didn't need anything to breakthrough as long as their bloodline restrictions didn't block them, they would still improve in the future, and thanks to Yale, Wyba didn't have any blood restriction.
At that moment Wyba was still only at the 8-star, so she would need more time to reach the Novice Rank. Wyba was about three years old, even if she was a beast and had an improved body due to Yale's Origin Qi, she was still too young to reach the Novice Rank.
Yale quickly returned to his room after the party, that kind of social event was more tiring to him than training for days without stop. He felt that he only burnt his time at the party
He went directly to practice; he stopped training his skills when they reached level twenty even if their mastery wasn't at that level, the only exceptions were Time Healing and Stone Golem.
The first was due to being his best healing skill Yale had, he put more effort to develop it, while the second was because he used it a lot, but Stone Golem only increased from level twenty to twenty-three in the period that Inferno and Freeze had reached the level twenty.
The increase in difficulty after level twenty was too great, so Yale didn't want to waste time in training his skills further than that.
He wanted to increase his strength to improve his survival chances when returning to the Revgen Empire, but he didn't want to waste too much time either as he knew that Swordmad and Ange would be worried about him even if they had a token as proof that he was alive.
What Yale wanted most at that moment, was to advance to the expert stage in Smith Mastery because at his current level increase his stats and Origin Qi was difficult, and the sub-quest reward, which would increase his Origin Points and stats was too enticing.
Edit: Chapter updated.
Chapter 8/13
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Next chapter of the day will be late.
My health hasn't improved, only worsened. Actually, being in front the computer to end this chapter had been too hard. Sorry if the chapters are a bit delayed those days, I will strive hard to be able to finish all the chapters.
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