Chapter 13: Job Change

Audrey's tone was incredibly frigid, her teeth tightly clenched, eyes flashing a cold light and her body trembling slightly, as if she was filled with a great disgust for Farns.

Xia Zhou had rarely seen her so intensely dislike a person and quietly asked,

"Boss, what's the matter with Farns?"

Audrey brushed away the hair on her forehead, revealing a helpless smile.

"Little guy, who do you think makes the better Fire-breathing Potion, me or Farns?"

That question..

Xia Zhou didn't even need to recall the information gleaned from the Detection Spell. His skills as a Fire-breather were enough to discern the difference.

"Of course, it's yours, Boss! The effects of both Fire-breathing Potions are similar, but the one you mixed has much less toxicity!"

A smile appeared on Audrey's face, her expression changing from cloudy to sunny as she regained her composure. She seemed very satisfied with his answer.

"Then guess why mine is better than Farns?"

"Because of the fire resistance oil!"

Xia Zhou answered without hesitation.

A spark of realization flashed through his mind!

He exclaimed in sudden understanding, "I think I get it. Boss, when you initially hired Farns, you used the fire resistance oil and a new Fire-breathing Potion formula as conditions, didn't you?"

Audrey's smile froze for a moment, then blossomed even brighter, clearly the boy had hit the mark.

"The fire resistance oil must be expensive...Boss, you really went all out."

Xia Zhou could tell from Audrey's expression that his conjecture was correct.

"You're quite a smart one. What's in that head of yours? It's no wonder you can keep accounts so clearly."

Audrey held the boy's face, kissed him on the forehead and said earnestly,

"That Farns...Hmph. I gave him the formula and promised to cover half the cost of the fire resistance oil. But he used that money to buy an addictive pain-relief potion. Sneck and the others knew about Farns' addiction long ago, but due to the status of Fire-breathers in the circus, they put up with a person addicted to it."

A thought seemed to cross Audrey's mind.

She gazed into the boy's eyes, her tone serious.

"Xia Zhou, you must promise me, unless absolutely necessary, never to use pain-relief potion. And never use it before fire-breathing. Farns relies on the pain relief potion to deal with the side effects of the Fire-breathing Potion, he will soon ingest the Fire-breathing Potion and it will almost kill him."

Xia Zhou laughed, "Of course. I absolutely won't need that stuff. You see my recovery ability is so strong, it's even faster than the effect of the pain-relief potion."

Audrey laughed at his remark. "That's right, you are simply born to be a Fire-breather."

She paused a few seconds, her lips tightening, her tone firm,

"I've made up my mind. Once the performance in Piyec City's fortress is over, I'll kick Farns out. You'll replace him. The circus's income will decrease, but it's better than putting up with someone who could cause a disaster. I don't want to be left cleaning up his mess."

Once she had finished speaking, Audrey's eyes seemed slightly unfocused.

She fell silent for a moment, whispering almost to herself,

"I used my own points to redeem the formula and fire resistance potion for Farns, and never deducted his rewards... Xia Zhou, have I not been just and fair?"

"Yes, Boss."

Xia Zhou nodded emphatically, "I even think you were too lenient with him. There was no need to make such sacrifices for an addict. Farns is an adult, and he must take responsibility for his actions."

He met Audrey's increasingly clear gaze and said solemnly, "With me, the circus will soon recover."

Under the moonlight, the two planned the next day's performances, then returned to the performance site to continue rehearsing.

...

The next day.

Audrey's Circus Troupe officially began its performance.

The news about the city commandant inviting townsfolk to watch the performance had spread to every tavern in town the previous night.

By morning, every household knew that they could watch the performance for free.

With bandits rampant, the townsfolk had been living in fear for some time. This kind of free opportunity had not come for a long while.

By early morning, before 8 o'clock, Fountain Square was filled with bustling crowds.

The commandant was generous but seemed to underestimate the extent of people's enthusiasm for free things.

Before the performance started at 9 in the morning, a messenger from the fortress hurried over with a letter and a money bag for the troupe's boss.

After reading the letter and checking the contents of the bag, Audrey turned to her troupe members and laughed out loud.

"The Commander has granted us an additional batch of ticket fees! Everyone, pull back the tent curtain by a third. We're adding more seats today!"

Xia Zhou gave a mental thumbs-up. Fantastic! Although he couldn't gain 'experience' from the ticket revenue, he was thrilled that the audience doubled for his debut performance.

Audrey delegated the warm-up and programme announcement tasks to Xia Zhou, which greatly relieved the Clown Siblings.

While the other performers were busy setting up the stage, it was Xia Zhou's job to engage the audience enthusiastic, preventing the atmosphere from becoming cold and boring while they were waiting.

Though this wasn't an official performance, he still put forth a hundred percent effort.

Knowing he was a little shorter than average, Xia Zhou slipped on shoes designed to make him taller.

To make himself stand out more in the eyes of the audience, he swapped his outfit for colourful clown attire.

About ten minutes later, five rows of spectators filled the stand. Men, women, and children were whispering to each other excitedly, making the scene rather noisy.

Xia Zhou poked his head out from backstage curtain.

His fluffy green wig and the huge, red-painted laughing face immediately attracted the attention of the children.

"Beep~~ beep~~ beep~~"

Blowing a whistle, Xia Zhou strutted out to the center of the stage in an exaggerated manner.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!"

Xia Zhou drew the audience's attention to himself.

The spectators laughed delightedly at the sight of the clown with legs spread into a 'V' shape.

"Friends of Piyec castle! Before the official performance, let us praise the generous and kind Commander!"

Xia Zhou raised his arms high, his painted face serious.

"Praise the commander~"

The spectators followed suit by lifting their arms and shouting in unison.

"And let's thank him for inviting everyone for a free show~"

A cheer came from the crowd, followed by good-natured laughter. "Haha, we welcome more shows like this~"

Amidst the sea of laughter, Xia Zhou suddenly drooped the corners of his mouth and drew 'tear' marks beneath his eyes.

"Wu wu wu~ do you know? The generous Commander has made me jobless~"

A brief moment of silence descended on the scene, as the audience puzzled over the clown's sudden turn of sentiment.

"I used to be a ticket collector, taking money with one hand and giving out the tickets with the other."

Xia Zhou beamed, lifting the corners of his mouth. Abruptly, he brought out an exaggeratedly fat bag from behind him, which was filled with coin-shaped items.

He swaggered about, "The generous Commander gave me all the money~ Oh~ it's so sad that I couldn't even sell the tickets before my job was done~"

"Boo~"

The audience mockingly 'disdained' the clown's show-off.

Xia Zhou tossed the fat bag of coins backstage to Audrey.

She signalled back: Strongman Bo Pai and the others needed 30 more seconds to get ready.

Xia Zhou winked his left eye in acknowledgment, "Got it."

He pulled out a torch from behind him and positioned himself about three meters away from the spectator stand:

"Hey~ ladies and gentlemen. As you can see, I'm an ambitious ticket collector. I don't want to lose my job due to the generous big spenders, so I learned some tricks. Let's see how I'm doing."

Xia Zhou lit the torch with a matchstick and took a mouthful of the Fire-breathing Potion.

"Phew~"

"Whooosh~" A tiny flame appeared before him, emitting a stable glow.

Xia Zhou raised a finger, asking the audience to count for him.

"1"

"2"

"3" The children stared at the fire, their childish voices assisting the clown in counting.

"4"

"5"

"6" Some of the adults joined in as well.

…

"13"

"14"

"Goodness, he can breathe fire for so long."

Gasps of amazement came from the audience, as if some kind of switch had been flipped, everyone joined in the count:

"15, 16, 17, 18! 19! 20! 21!"

Xia Zhou closed his mouth, and the small flame disappeared.

He rested his hands on his waist, leaning his upper body backward, making a face as if expecting compliments, "How did y'all like my performance?"

"Applause!"

"Roar~ Clown, you're really good!"

The shrieking voice of a child stood out in the applause.

"Very good~ Do it again!"

"Do it again~"

"Thank you for your compliments."

Xia Zhou bowed, his head reaching his knees, taking the opportunity to look at the curtain behind him.

Audrey was half-hidden behind the curtain, her eyes full of admiration, her right hand making the "all ready" gesture.

Xia Zhou jumped up and cheered:

"Hooray! Next up, we have a performance by Strongman Bo Pai and the Clown Siblings...explode, Big Colorful Ball!"

With Sneck's cheerful drumbeat, the female clown took the stage first.

With her high-pitched shouts and sexy dance to the accompanying music, she caught the attention of the audience.

Xia Zhou quickly walked behind the curtains.

"Kid, you performed very well."

Audrey slightly hugged Xia Zhou's shoulder, gently pinched his shoulder, and said softly:

"Rest up, you'll be needed to warm up the crowd later."

Xia Zhou glanced at Farns, who was busy preparing the fire-breathing potion, two empty bottles were placed next to his case.

This bald guy performed high-risk fire-breathing shows by forcing himself with painkillers, putting himself in an endless cycle.

Addiction demands money, money comes from performance fees, getting rewards to buy drugs, after taking drugs, the addiction gets stronger, simply perform dangerous acts while on drugs, thereby earning more rewards to buy more drugs…

Without the marked improvement in physical fitness from practicing the Breathing Spell, this drug addict would have collapsed long ago.

Xia Zhou helplessly shook his head, sat down on his stool, and began to review the information in his mind.

"Successful Fire Breathing Performance."

"Fire Breathing Strength: Sparks"

"Fire Breathing Duration: 21 seconds"

"Audience: 45 people"

"Average Audience Satisfaction: 80%"

"Total experience gained: 0.756 points."

..

[Level] LV.5

[Experience] 0.9+0.756→1.656/200

..

A short 21-second fire-breathing performance gave as much as 0.756 points of experience!

According to the schedules set by the troupe leader, he can perform about 10 times today, which equates to at least 5 points of experience.

Leveling up from Level 5 to Level 6 is within reach!

The information inside his head fluctuated briefly, then became clear again:

"The host's [Identity] has changed, the character template has been updated, and new advancement entries related to [Identity] as well as new entries related to [Resistance] and its advancements have been added."

..

[Personal Template]

[Name] Xia Zhou

[Sex] Male

[Age] 15 years 2 months

[Identity] Civilian→ Fire Breather

[Identity Level] Trainee Level.

Breathing sparks can gain 100% experience, breathing small flames(0.5 meters), medium flames(1 meter), strong flames(2 meters), and fireballs(3 meters) can gain an additional 10% to 40% experience bonuses.

Cooking, selling tickets, and other behavior related to civilian identity decrease the experience gained by 95%.

Experience gained from reading and other training related to attributes remains unchanged.

[Promotion Conditions]

Perform the act of breathing small flames for over 15 seconds in front of at least 20 strangers, receive an average audience satisfaction score of over 80% three times in a row to be promoted to a Beginner Level Fire-breathing Performer.

[Identity Bonus]

Level 1 Fire Resistance, increase in Fire Resistance by 0.5%. (This bonus will be converted into a character trait when changing identity)

[Level] LV.5

[Experience] 1.656/200

[Health] 22/22 (Healthy)

[Blood Recovery Speed]

[Basic Blood Recovery Rate] 1.11 points/hour.

[Real-time Blood Recovery Speed] 1.11 points/hour.

[Average Health Recovery Speed] 1.11 points/hour.

[Resistance]

[Fire Resistance] 0.5% (Reduction of damage and abnormal effects from fire by 0.5%)

[Strength] 3

[Agility] 2

[Stamina] 3

[Vitality] 5

[Perception] 3

[Will] 3

[Spirit] 1.1

[Charisma] 3

[Free Attribute Points] 3

[Character Traits]

[Immortal Body]

Even if hit in vital spots before health reaches 0, you won't die and any injury will auto-repair as health is restored.

[Character Skills]: [Detection Spell]

[Knowledge Reserve]: Miscellaneous knowledge on books and fire-breathing potions.

..

Upgrading the level of the Fire Breather identity can increase fire resistance!

Hacker emphasized that switching identity will not remove the bonus from the Fire Breather identity, but will convert it into a personal trait!

Doesn't that mean the bonuses from having multiple identities can stack!

If I can get all the bonuses from the Fire Breather identity, and then find some other identities related to fire, perhaps I could stack fire resistance to 30%? 50%?

Xia Zhou forcibly concealed his excitement-induced trembling by drinking water.

Audrey wrongly assumed that the boy had been pretending to be calm earlier during the performance and was actually very nervous, only revealing it now.

She chuckled and stroked Xia Zhou's hair, "Drink slowly, kiddo."