Chapter 11: Problems with the Soul

Since spilled milk is already spilled milk, Rezen can only complain for a moment before moving on. But in his mind, he already labeled the system as 'stingy' a thousand times

"System, use the blessing points!" He ordered and his blessing points that were originally 101/100 instantly dropped down to only a single point

Rezen can feel a mysterious force engulfing his body. It felt so marvelous and wonderful, especially in his elixir field where this mysterious force gathered

He doesn't exactly know what this force was doing to his elixir field but he can feel his elixir field was undergoing a transformation that 'upgraded' it

[Ding! Blessing successfully redeemed! Congratulations to the Host for increasing his talent! The Host can now absorb 2% mana of resources he consumed!]

Rezen almost jumped in joy because of that. For real? There was actually such a miracle?

He had never heard of any item or ritual in this world that would increase a person's talent!

If he redeemed 98 more blessings wouldn't that mean that he would have the legendary talent? No, he would even exceed that as at most, legendary talents can absorb 99% of mana

"But still... the system is really stingy. It only increases my talent a single percent!"

Considering that a single blessing costs 1,000 mana stones, Rezen still needs 98,000 mana stones

That's almost a hundred thousand mana stones and how much is that when converted to credits?

Poor! He is still too poor!

"With the situation now, I can only risk it. Sigh... I have to upgrade my art of acting and trickery. I hope people think that I am too little and puny to possess many treasures and that they actually came from a high-level mage or something"

If Rezen merely sell his vismian grasses every few days, his own progress would be impeded and he does not want that

"If only everyone is as good as that Fierce Fire or my good soldier brother... wait..."

Rezen thought that he just had the best idea

Claude is clearly a person of justice and virtue. He is even so kind as to want to donate the magic beasts he killed to the military for free

That kind of person would definitely not hurt Rezen for his treasures, right?

"Of course, this is not because I want to see that cool brother again" Rezen muttered with a slight blush on his face

With that matter 'settled', Rezen returned to his house to see the mess inside it

The wolves really did him dirty!

"I'll clean later, increasing my power is the priority!"

With that, Rezen entered his room. Since even his bed suffered, he just placed a towel on the floor before sitting on it

Rezen take out more vismian grasses and swallowed them as if they were nothing

He was about to focus on absorbing as much mana as he can when...

"Eh? My elixir field is automatically absorbing them?" Rezen was surprised

Although he already knows that his elixir field can do that, the efficiency is still much lower!

But now, he can feel his elixir field automatically absorbing 2% of the mana from the vismian grasses, and in an instant at that

"Is this also the effect of the blessings?" Rezen thought that since his elixir field is not like this prior to receiving the blessing, it might have been because of that

Of course, he wouldn't complain as he is more than happy for such a result since he doesn't need to boringly focus on absorbing mana

Rezen willed it and the mana that he had absorbed gathered into his mystic gem embryo, increasing its size

Since his elixir field now has an automatic function, he just opened his eyes and decided to go clean the mess in his house

He also has to make an inventory of the things that the wolves destroyed that he has to buy

Rezen stood up as he started tidying his bed when he staggered as a heavy sensation bore down on his mind and elixir field

"What is it now?" He complained before checking his elixir field

He found out that although he still had quite a lot of mana, the embryo stops absorbing them, or more like it can't

A pressure bore down on both his elixir field and soul

Rezen thought for a moment before he recalled another basic information about cultivation

To have all sorts of mystic gems in the world is both impossible and possible

A mage does have the potential to condense mystic gems of every power available but that is on the premise that their elixir field can hold the mystic gems

From what Rezen knows, the mystic gems are like the crystallization of the universe's laws

Of course, they were like tiny fragments of the entire laws

These gems resonate with the natural laws and let the mage use magic spells to create a supernatural phenomenon

Without a mystic gem, no matter how much a person comprehended the mysteries of fire, they still wouldn't be able to use fire-type spells

Since the mystic gems are that special, every gem puts pressure on the soul and elixir field

For normal people, one ungraded mystic gem wouldn't make them feel any discomfort

However, if a person with a soul that hasn't been tempered and trained were to try and condense a second mystic gem, that would put an enormous burden on their souls and elixir field

The stronger the soul is, the stronger the elixir field!

Realizing the reason for his sudden discomfort, Rezen smacked his forehead. To think that he would actually forget such a basic piece of information!

If not for the problem in the soul, wouldn't everyone just condense hundreds or thousands of mystic gems?

"The vismian grasses wouldn't help with my problem. Seems like I need to make a trip to the city. I recall that there are soul-nourishing pills though they are more expensive than mana pills"

"I'll try to buy some seeds of spirit plants that nourish the soul. I can only hope that they would grow on my farm even if the seeds are not bought in the system shop"

Rezen already felt that he was poor, very poor, but now, he has another thing to spend money on

Really, no wonder that people and organizations would only nourish people with at least a superior grade talent

Just the amount of resources for low-level mages might already put them in bankruptcy!

Rezen wants to go to the city now but the pressure in his soul and elixir field made his mind tired and he decided to sleep first

Anyway, the city wouldn't run away. There is still tomorrow!

——-

The next day, Rezen woke up. He felt a bit refreshed but he can still feel the pressure of condensing a second embryo to a large extent

Sure enough, just because he slept soundly doesn't mean that the pressure on his soul would vanish

"This bed... I need to buy a new one" Rezen complained since one of the grey wolves yesterday attacked the innocent bed with its claws, ripping a part of it

Thinking of his plans, Rezen happily took the business card that Claude gave to him and excitedly dialed the number in it

He was excited about the money and absolutely not because he wanted to talk with the cool Claude or something!

The phone rang for a few moments before the call was accepted

"Brother Claude!" Rezen greeted happily

"Who is this?"

"Rezen! Rezen Virion!"

"I-I'm sorry but I don't know any Rezen"

Rezen was stunned at that but he then realizes that Claude didn't ask for his name and he also didn't give his name

How stupid!

"Brother, it's me, the guy that you saved yesterday from the beast tide!"

"Oh, I see. Are you alright? Is there another beast tide?"

Really! What a kind soldier, worrying for the country's citizen's welfare immediately!

"No, it's nothing like that brother. I have a business proposal with you!"

"Business proposal?"

"Yes, I have some spirit plants to sell!"

"Oh that, you can just go to the branch of the military department. They would buy your goods if the price is reasonable"

"But brother, I want to sell all of them to you directly!"

"T-that... I am a bit busy with the investigation..."

"Have you got any lead now?"

"N-no... my apologies..."

"Then it's fine! You can come here now since you haven't got any leads yet. What if the wolves attacked my house again?"

"T-that..."

"Alright, I'll wait for you brother!"

Rezen was satisfied with himself. He's quite persuasive, right?

As expected, Claude Preston was not able to ignore a citizen in possible danger as in just less than half an hour, he already arrived

"Brother! You're here!" Rezen said excitedly as he guided Claude inside his house

Seeing the mess inside... Rezen almost killed himself. How can he forget about the state of his house?!

"T-that... I'm sorry brother, I haven't had the time to clean yet..." Rezen said embarassed

At first, Claude was wondering why Rezen wants to make a direct deal with him. But after seeing this mess, he thought of a plausible reason

The wolves destroyed Rezen's things and he might have wanted to make a deal with Claude to get a high price from his goods to buy the things that the wolves destroyed

As a citizen loving man, Claude felt pity for Rezen and he even patted him on the head

"It's fine, I don't mind"

'Brother, don't pat me. I don't want to have a sexual crisis!'

Rezen had Claude sit on the small couch that miraculously was not affected by yesterday's fight and he handed him a large Tupperware with 200 blades of top-grade vismian grasses inside

Yesterday, with the kind uncle, Rezen only used a hand towel. But for his 'kind and cool brother', he used a Tupperware

The 'difference' in treatment can be seen!

"Brother, these are top-grade vismian grasses, 200 blades in total! You can count them!"

'This kid... how greedy' Claude thought in surprise

To think that this kid would 'trick' him. But still, people that are desperate would also make desperate actions

Since Claude has the money then even if Rezen sell a thousand blades of top-grade vismian grasses, he still has the money to buy them all

"Alright, alright, I will give you 2,000 mana stones for all of them. Use them wisely, alright?"

Rezen's eyes almost popped. 50 blades of vismian grasses were bought by the kind uncle yesterday for 400 mana stones and that is considering that a large part of it was because of the uncle's 'goodwill'

By that price, it would be 1,600 mana stones. But of course, that is not the real market price, it would be lower than that

But this kind of soldier would actually buy 200 blades for 2,000 mana stones? Are soldiers in this world paid greatly?

Claude waved his hand and 2,000 mana stones in total appeared

"Here, use them well, alright? It would be better if you buy a house inside the city but if this place is really important to you, at least invest in defense to keep you safe. I will go now, I still have to continue investigating the Ratois Mountain"

With that, Claude left the stupefied Rezen while placing the Tupperware of vismian grasses inside his void storage

Claude returned to the mountain where his subordinates were waiting for him

"Captain, where did you go?"

"I just had something I dealt with. Oh right, take this and donate them to the military"

Claude handed the Tupperware to his subordinate that creased his forehead

Really... out of all containers... a Tupperware...

The subordinate was weirded out by that but he just stored the Tupperware on his own void storage

"How is the situation now?"

"Nothing different, Captain. The grey wolves in the mountain are still acting weird. There were wolves all over the mountain that would suddenly attack the other wolves"