A new concept

Kai's eyes widened as he glossed over that section of the Upgrade category. Skill fusions were always a useful thing, most of the time they brought out some hidden potential of the skill that always ended up being extremely useful.

Heck, most of the time the fused skill just unlocked a new feature that always made it ten times more useful.

However, the price of these skill fusions were nothing to scoff at, especially when looking at the Legendary rarity skill fusion.

Legendary Skill Fusion Bead (Heroic) - 500000

And like the Weapon Upgrades, these skill fusions came with the similar overcomplication of not having the rarity of the skill upgrade match the rarity of the item.

They also came in the form of beads this time, which Kai thought was a little strange.

However, just because of that insane price that didn't shake Kai off in the slightest, he shifted his gaze to one of the lower rarity versions of the item.

Rare Skill Fusion Bead (Epic) - 100000 points

This bead has the ability to fuse any two skills of your choice as long as they are both beneath Epic rarity. To use, simply bite down on the bead and say the names of the two skills you wish to fuse in your head.

Oh Kai had big plans for this. And nearly all of his skills were below Epic rarity anyway, only making this even more appealing.

But there was two skills that Kai was focusing on that he was nearly certain that he would fuse, and when he did fuse them, one of his most useless skills would instantly jump to one of his most useful skills.

But Kai would come back to that later, he was still on a timer after all. Closing that section of the shop, Kai mentally took note of the skill fusion bead and moved onto one of the more mysterious sections of the shop.

Limb Enhancements.

Kai honestly didn't know what to expect when he opened this section of the shop, he wasn't really sure what limb enhancement. Would he be able to spend points to make one of his arms stronger or something?

Turns out, that's basically what it was.

Right Arm Enhancement (Rare) - 75000

Left Leg Enhancement (Rare) - 75000

Fingers Enhancement (Epic) - 150000

Toes Enhancement (Rare) - 50000

Genitals Enhancement (Legendary) - 250000

Those were just some of the options offered, yet Kai couldn't help but grimace.

He glanced down at the now sleeping shopkeeper, wondering why the hell they were selling genital enhancements.

And also wondering how the enhancement would work.

And why the enhancement was Legendary...

But in all seriousness, who would buy something like that? Unless there was some Succubi or Incubi that also had to take part in tutorials, Kai didn't see anyone buying that Limb Enhancement.

However, this section of the shop was a little weird, as if it already wasn't enough by selling genital enhancements.

But no, what was strange was that it wasn't just limbs it offered to enhance, it was nearly all parts of the body. It didn't need to be a limb, it just had to be there.

Heart Enhancement (Legendary) - 200000 points

Muscular Tissue Enhancement (Epic) - 175000 points

Liver Enhancement (Epic) - 150000 points

Brain Enhancement (Legendary) - 250000 points

Any and every part of Kai's body was available to be upgraded, be it his skin, muscles, bones, eyes, ears, throat-

Kai wasn't sure what direction a throat upgrade would go, do he quickly forgot about that option.

-Kidneys, blood, muscles, anything and everything.

However, to Kai's disappointment, there was no Soul Core Enhancement, that was the only one he would have even contemplated buying.

At least, that's what Kai had thought before he caught a glimpse of something else.

You see, veins were also one of the options to be upgraded, coming in the form of an Epic rarity enhancement.

Vein Enhancement (Epic) - 100000 points

But there was also another option under it that had caught Kai's eye, and it was to do with a concept he had no idea existed.

And it was something that intrigued Kai quite a bit.

Mana Vein Enhancement (Epic) - 100000 points

Now, what the hell was a Mana Vein, that was the question manifesting in Kai's mind. Throughout the last month, he had nearly always been using Mana. His fusion with Umbra cost Mana, borrowing Esurient's stored abilities cost Mana, even just using his innate ability normally cost Mana.

So then how did it work if Kai had no idea that Mana Veins were a thing?

Luckily, there was a perfectly suitable candidate to answer Kai's question.

And unlike when he had to do it to Umbra, Kai felt no guilt when waking up the sleeping cat.

Kai reached over the rickety stand and poked the white cat in its side with one of his fingers, waiting foe a few seconds as he watched the cat wake up.

"Excuse me, but what's a Mana Vein?"

The cat yawned softly before lifting up its cute head. It glanced up at Kai, as if it had forgotten that he was there, before answering the question.

"A Mana Vein? How to explain this easy enough for you to understand..."

Kai's smile twitched as he watched the cat go deep into thought, taking this task to explain it to Kai seriously.

"Normally, as far as I know, some subways in your world would have two tracks, a subway in one track would travel one way and the one on the other track would travel in the opposite direction.

Now, as you know, those tracks were separated by that place where you humans would stand and wait.

Mana Veins and normal veins follow the same system.

Normal veins circulate blood around your body and are even visible from the outside of your body in certain areas, like your wrist.

But Mana Veins are imperceptible, at least, until you get a much higher Mana stat or increase the rank of your Soul Core. You can't see them, but they are there. Mana Veins are found beside your normal veins like the tracks of a subway, just you won't be able to see them.

As for what they do? Your Mana Veins dictate the potency and the efficiency of the Mana you're using. Have a skill that uses Mana? A low leveled Mana Veins would have a much worse compatability with it when compared to someone that had a high leveled Mana Veins."

Kai frowned as he listened to the cat's description, which did actually make a lot of sense.

"There's different levels to Mana Veins?"

The cat shrugged.

"There isn't a definitive level chart, it's mainly based on the talent of the individual when they're born.

Imagine there are two royals in training, they're both the same age, same stats and are using the same skill, fireball, for example.

Both of them had the same training and the exact same stats, but one of the royals fireballs was more powerful than the other royals, that's because of the difference in their Mana Veins.

Honestly, if someone had weak Mana Veins then their journey on becoming a mage is ten times harder. It's still possible, but the number of mages who had weak Mana Veins and went onto become gods can probably be counted on one hand."

Kai sighed. If all that was true, then did he have weak or strong Mana Veins? How was he even meant to know?

"Then how does the Mana Vein enhancement work? Does it enhance them by the same amount even if someone had weak Mana Veins and someone had strong Mana Veins?"

The cat stretched it's body, contemplating how to answer that question.

"Sort of, someone with Weak Mana Veins would definitely feel the bigger increase, but even if someone already had strong Mana Veins the Mana Vein Enhancement is still a worthwhile choice. After all, the only way to increase the level of your Mana Veins is through external methods, no one so far has managed to increase the rank of their Mana Veins just by training."

Kai sighed again, yet another complicated thing that he was going to have to learn about.

To be honest, Kai was always going to think about buying that enhancement. Failure had made it abundantly clear in one of their meetings that Kai should focus on his Mana stat as it was one of the cores of his innate ability. And while he had sort of been neglecting it for the last while in favour of raw power, enhancing his so called Mana Veins would probably make up for that.

After making up his mind, Kai nodded his head at the cat and made a mental note about the Mana Vein Enhancement.

"Alright, thanks for that explanation, I appreciate it."

The cat simply went back to cleaning its body, even though it would probably just transform after Kai left this place.

"It's no bother, it's my job to convince you to buy things so putting in a little effort into answering questions is no trouble."

Kai smiled softly. At least this cat wasn't trying to swindle him.

But now the question was where to go with this. So far, if Kai was to add up all the items he had taken a mental note of then he would have spent seven hundred and fifty-five thousand points, meaning he had a little under a hundred thousands points left.

There was still a little over thirteen minutes left in this tutorial shop, and Kai still had his choice of a free item, so he went back to searching the shop for anything that he could potentially buy.