36

Harvesting so much wood in one day was far beyond Cheng Yang's expectations. He could see just how desperate everyone was today.

Cheng Yang was very clear on what he would build with this wood. First would be the Lumber Mill. If he didn't, he would constantly be anxious. No one knew how many large pieces of wood were left in Huimin, and if they didn't find enough to build the Lumber Mill tomorrow, they would be stuck scavenging the rest from scrap.

The second building would be the Alchemy Tower. The role of potions wasn't necessarily more important than the other types of equipment, but they were absolutely vital if they wanted to reach Cloud City.

As for the remaining 20 cubic meters of wood, Cheng Yang was going to upgrade his Meditation Hall instead of leaving it for tomorrow. As the Lord of Phoenix Village, he should at least be able to enjoy this small luxury. The effect of the Standard-Grade Meditation Hall wasn't that much better, but an extra 6.5% was still an increase.

After making this decision, Cheng Yang immediately built all three buildings.

For some time, the village which had already become dark, was suddenly lit up by the three curtains of light that appeared.

This scene shocked the people brought from Huimin. Most of them hadn't even seen a class change ceremony and had no idea what this curtain of light represented. All they knew was that an incredible event was happening right in front of them.

After the light curtains dissipated, two new buildings could be seen. Cheng Yang's Meditation Hall had also expanded.

The physical difference between the Low-Grade and Standard-Grade Meditation Hall was quite large. The Low-Grade buildings were a single room covering twenty square meters and inside, five beds surrounded a brazier. In comparison, Cheng Yang's Meditation Hall now had two stories, covered an area of forty square meters and had individual rooms. If the Low-Grade Meditation Hall was the equivalent of a university dormitory, the Standard-Grade one would be a single-family house. The only real difference from a typical house was that it was made from wood, not brick.

Cheng Yang knew that two stories was the limit for Meditation Halls. Even after being upgraded to High-Grade, it would still only be two stories. As for when he would get the chance to upgrade his home, he didn't know.

Although the Standard-Grade Meditation Hall was familiar to the citizens of Huimin, the other two buildings were totally strange. While they were strange to other people, Cheng Yang had seen those buildings in those locations every day for months. Seeing them standing there again just made him feel more at home. In this life, however, they were completely owned by him.

Cheng Yang ignored the gawking crowds and entered the Alchemy Tower.

The manager of the Alchemy Tower was dressed in the same clothes as the one Yuan Jianzhe had met. Unlike the commander, Cheng Yang wasn't surprised in the slightest to see a human inside. He already knew that there would be managers in each of the buildings and that they weren't from this world. He didn't know everything, however. He wasn't sure if they were fully sentient or just managers created by god.

Many people in his last life had tried to answer this question, hoping to find out from the managers, what kind of existence that supposed god was. They made almost no progress by the time Cheng Yang died. No one had even successfully lured one out of their building. They would only fulfill their duty of selling goods and teaching related Profession skills.

Of course, the managers in the safe zones could only sell goods.

"My Lord, what do you need to buy?" The woman said, figuring out Cheng Yang's identity at a glance.

"Let me take a look at your catalog. If I see anything decent, I'll buy it." Cheng Yang replied respectfully.

"Of course." The manager said gently. She reached under the counter and handed a book to Cheng Yang.

Cheng Yang took a look inside and saw a simple list of potions. Cheng Yang had found a Low Grade Mana Recovery Potion which recovered 30 Mana the day before, but the catalog had the more powerful Standard and High-Grade versions. Potions at that level would be more than enough for Cheng Yang to use for a long time.

Mana Recovery Potion (Standard-Grade): Restores 30 Mana instantly and then 8 Mana every second for ten seconds

The catalog also had Health Recovery Potions that had an identical effect except that it affected Health. As well, unlike the Mana Recovery Potion's regeneration effect which would stop when you used a skill, Health Recovery Potion's regeneration effect would stop if you took damage.

Those two types of potions were the only ones useful to Cheng Yang. Although there were others, they weren't useful for fighting. After all, this was a Low-Grade Alchemy Tower. You couldn't expect too much.

"Give me twenty Mana Recovery Potions and five Health Recovery Potions, all standard-Grade." Cheng Yang said after browsing the catalog.

"Standard-Grade Recovery Potions are eight Experience Fragments each." The manager said with a smile, "Your total is two hundred Experience Fragments for twenty five."

Cheng Yang didn't hesitate to pay for his goods and received them in a complementary cloth bag. Low-Grade Recovery Potions were much cheaper at two Experience Fragments each, but their effect was just too poor for someone at Cheng Yang's level. It would be too cumbersome to carry enough Low-Grade potions to match the effects of twenty Standard-Grade ones.

"I plan to learn how to make potions and become an Alchemist." Cheng Yang said putting the bag's strap over one shoulder, "May I know what the conditions to become one are?"

"Becoming an Alchemist is quite simple, just pass a small test. However, I urge my Lord to consider this carefully as you can only have one Profession and will not be able to switch later. " The manager replied with bright eyes.

"I am sure of my decision. Since I wasn't able to become a Priest, the only way for me to save lives in this world is to become an Alchemist. I hope you will help me fulfill this wish."

"That you would do such a thing when you are the Lord of this territory shows you have a righteous soul. Phoenix Village is truly blessed to have you rule it. Since you have such great ambition, I can naturally help you. The test you take to become an Alchemist can either be Easy, Difficult or Hellish. The quality of your Alchemy Talent will be decided by the level of difficulty you choose. Which one would you like?"

After listening to the manager, Cheng Yang hesitated. The real reason he had chosen to become an Alchemist was the reward for being the first Alchemist in the world. Although other Professions had their own rewards, the Alchemist one was perfect for a front-line fighter. Cheng Yang also didn't want to pick a useless Profession such as Logger or Farmer. Although they had good rewards, there was no way to benefit from the Profession itself, whereas an Alchemist could refine their own potions, saving them Experience Fragments.

The Easy difficulty wasn't hard to pass at all, but the difficulty sharply spiked with each increase in difficulty. Although the Hellish difficulty might be hard beyond belief, even if you died during the trial, you would revive in the Alchemy Tower again. Of course, the penalty for failure was that you could not retake the test for three months. If he was able to pass the test now, he could absolutely guarantee that he would be the first Alchemist in the world but at that point, the chances of Cheng Yang becoming the first Alchemist were slim.

In his previous life, fewer than thirty people in the world had announced that they had cleared the Hellish difficulty test. Those numbers alone showed just how hard it was to complete the trial. It was exceedingly difficult to complete higher difficulty trials, but there was a correspondingly huge reward. Those that had completed the Hellish difficulty test were comparable to the people that had unique classes. Although clearing the Hard difficulty was only as good as having a rare class like Priest, they were still leagues above people that only cleared the Easy difficulty.

After a fierce internal struggle, Cheng Yang decided to take the Hellish difficulty test. If you didn't have the spirit of adventure, you wouldn't go far in this world!

Cheng Yang hadn't made that decision out of arrogance or because of how high level he was. Instead the choice had been made after carefully considering his past knowledge.

As time passed in his old life, the Profession tests got harder and harder. This was because the actual content of the test wasn't tied to the difficulty but the number of people who had entered a Profession, the average level of people in the Profession, the highest level of someone in the Profession, and the average level of the world's Professionals. That is to say, each time someone took the test, it would get slightly harder. The difficulty levels were each scaled off of this general difficulty.

It was widely believed that god did this so that people wouldn't be able to increase the number of people who passed the Hellish difficulty, as they learned more about the tests and the Profession itself.

What would that mean for the difficulty of Cheng Yang's test? There were no Alchemists currently and the average level definitely didn't exceed Low-Grade Apprentice. Cheng Yang being at the High-Grade Apprentice level was truly unique. Since that was the case, even if the test was nearly impossible for a normal person, for Cheng Yang who had the knowledge of his past life and a high level, it should be difficulty but not exceedingly so.

"I choose the Hellish difficulty test." Cheng Yang said, "Please administer one for me."

"It seems I wasn't wrong about my Lord's ambition!" The manager praised.