Chapter 169: Talent Crystal Model

Moments later, Sunan completed the sealing array.

The winged creature, with most of its power sealed away, became completely lethargic and was shouldered by an adamantine golem, no longer resisting.

After storing the secret puppet and the other adamantine golem back into the cube, Sunan approached the members of the Forest Cabin and looked at the Hunter.

"The deal is done. Now it's your turn to fulfill your promise."

Hearing this, Rose and the Traveler perked up, turning their gazes to the Hunter.

"No problem."

The Hunter smiled and took out the Dawn Potion and the keys to the Starlight Tower, distributing them to everyone.

With the key in hand, Rose and the Traveler's eyes lit up with joy.

They had risked so much, barely escaping with their lives, all for the Starlight Tower key.

With this, they had a chance to ascend to become a formal wizard.

Only Night Owl looked a bit complicated.

The Forest Cabin had only nine members, and this operation had cost them three lives. The scale of their hard-earned trade had reverted to what it was ten years ago.

Now, they had to find new members again.

Having obtained what he wanted, Sunan wasted no time, bidding them farewell and leaving.

He had much to attend to next.

As Sunan's figure disappeared into the cave's exit, the remaining five exchanged glances, their expressions complex.

"Who would've thought Sunan was hiding so much."

"Rather than hiding, it seems we've never truly seen through him."

"Indeed, I feel like Sunan might not have even used his full strength to kill Saulo. He probably has other trump cards."

"Ugh, I'm done thinking about this. The more I think, the more I feel like a failure."

The Traveler quickly changed the subject, glancing at the sigil stone in his hand and asking the Hunter:

"Hunter, tell me honestly, how many Starlight Tower keys do you actually have?"

The Hunter shook his head. "Besides the ones I gave you, there are only four left. Three were reserved for Remains, Black Forest, and Red Heart. That's all Ivans gave me."

"Where is Ivans?" the Staff asked.

"Not sure." The Hunter shrugged. "After I diverted the Immortals' attention, who knows where he hid. But I suspect he still has plenty of Starlight Tower keys."

The Traveler sighed. "It was once hard to even get a hint of the Starlight Tower, and now so many keys have appeared. The Starlight royalty hid it well."

The Staff frowned. "I hope Ivans stays hidden. I don't want to find a crowd of wizard apprentices when we reach the Starlight Tower in six years."

Although current information suggested the Starlight Tower inheritance wasn't competitive, every wizard inheritance had limited resources. More people meant less for each individual.

If possible, they didn't want too many apprentices entering the Starlight Tower.

If they could find Ivans, they'd probably lock him up for six years until they secured the Starlight Tower's legacy.

"Six years to go," Night Owl said seriously. "Let's all prepare well."

Back in Giant Eye City, Sunan went through a spatial passage to Dragon Forest.

In a flash of light, he appeared in the modification area of the thirteenth floor of the Dragon Skeleton Tower.

Each modification area in the Dragon Skeleton Tower had specially built detention rooms for holding dragon types and dragons.

Sunan found the highest-grade detention room, tossed the winged creature inside, instructed Butler No. 1 to guard it well, and then returned to the control center at the top floor.

After a battle, naturally came the pleasure of tallying the spoils.

Sunan had acquired seven space rings in total, from the four Immortals members and the rings of Black Forest, Remains, and Red Heart.

The first two were taken from Saulo.

The latter was taken quietly when the group was fleeing from the winged creature.

He avenged Red Heart by defeating the winged creature, so taking the space ring as compensation seemed fair.

Yes, very fair.

Sunan first opened Red Heart's space ring.

Gold and silver coins, gems, wizard tomes, potions, materials—all typical items found in a wizard apprentice's space ring.

With ample experience in this area, Sunan swiftly categorized everything.

To his slight disappointment, nothing particularly stood out.

The most valuable item was probably a vial of high-grade draconic blood.

Unfortunately, that's what Sunan had plenty of now.

Next was Black Forest's space ring.

Compared to the previous one, this ring had more materials.

There were many rare magical plants.

Still, nothing too exciting.

It wasn't until he opened Remains' space ring that Sunan's eyes lit up.

Soul Crystals!

Over a hundred soul crystals!

Though they were all miniature, they were still incredibly valuable.

"Now I have the materials to synthesize a medium soul crystal!"

Synthesizing a medium soul crystal required about 120 small soul crystals.

Previously, Sunan had spent a long time collecting miniature soul crystals to synthesize the medium soul crystal needed for the secret puppet.

But now he had the materials for a second medium soul crystal, just waiting to gather enough mithril to create another secret puppet.

The secret puppet's powerful combat abilities had been vividly demonstrated in today's battle.

Undoubtedly, it was the puppet that Sunan would focus on studying and crafting in the future.

Aside from the soul crystals, Sunan was pleasantly surprised to find wizard tomes related to creating soul crystals in the space ring.

Though it only detailed how to make miniature and small soul crystals, it was enough.

With the synthesis cube, as long as he had enough miniature soul crystals, he could even synthesize legendary soul crystals.

Delighted, Sunan immediately delved into the tome.

With his powerful mental strength, he read through the entire book in under half an hour, frowning in contemplation.

"Only third-level wizard apprentices can extract souls to condense crystals, huh."

This meant he'd have to personally create soul crystals.

Currently, he was the only third-level wizard apprentice in the entire base.

"Soul sources aren't lacking; there are plenty of native tribes and city-states around the Star Alliance. A small-scale war to exterminate a tribe could produce dozens of soul crystals."

"If it's a war on the scale of Giant Eye City, hundreds of soul crystals could be made, maybe even a few small soul crystals."

A legendary-level soul could create a small soul crystal.

In the vast underground world, legendary-level creatures weren't common, but they weren't rare either.

"At least I won't be short on soul crystals anymore."

Sunan's frown eased, a smile forming.

With enough soul crystals, he wouldn't need to consume a large number of stone golems to synthesize first- and second-level legendary puppets. He could directly use iron golems to replace elite stone golems and synthesize elite iron golems to replace advanced stone golems, saving significantly on costs.

Setting aside Remains' space ring, Sunan happily opened the Immortals' space rings.

There were no surprises in Ember and Stone Scorpion's rings.

Ira's ring was similar; only some illusion-related wizard tomes piqued Sunan's interest.

He set the tomes aside for later study and finally looked at Saulo's space ring.

"The founder of the Immortals should have plenty of good stuff."

Opening the ring, Sunan's face lit with joy.

As expected, Saulo's space ring was a treasure trove.

Just the gold coins alone numbered seventy to eighty thousand, with two to three thousand gems, many of high quality.

These two alone were worth over a hundred thousand gold!

In addition, there were numerous magical plants, rare metals, and various other materials.

There were also plenty of potions and soul crystals.

Sunan even found a medium soul crystal inside.

Who knows how many legendary knights Saulo had killed to gather enough souls for this medium soul crystal.

Or perhaps they were souls of wizard apprentices?

With a chuckle, Sunan accepted the medium soul crystal gleefully.

After inventorying all valuables and materials, over a hundred wizard tomes remained.

The tomes Saulo kept in his space ring were naturally not ordinary.

After a rough inventory, Sunan found many tomes of interest.

"As expected of the Immortals' founder, he had many rare knowledge inheritances."

Sunan smiled.

When he picked up the last tome and read the title, his eyes brightened further.

"The Model Construction of the Talent Crystal 'Killing Intent'"

Talent Crystal!

Sunan quickly opened the book to read.

The three major standards for becoming a wizard—star rings, mental power, and the most crucial, talent crystal!

Once the number of star rings and mental power met the requirements, a wizard apprentice faced the hardest step to becoming a formal wizard—constructing the talent crystal model!

A talent crystal model is essentially an aggregate of runes.

Different types and numbers of runes result in talent crystal models that produce different abilities.

A talent crystal is a wizard's most important combat tool, crucial for future growth potential and combat strength.

Talent crystals are divided into upper, middle, and lower levels.

To break through to become a True Spirit Wizard, one must construct at least a middle-level talent crystal.

Wizards with lower-level talent crystals have a slim chance of becoming True Spirit Wizards.

In fact, even those with middle-level talent crystals have less than a one percent chance.

Aspiring to become a True Spirit Wizard is a goal only wizards with upper-level talent crystals can realistically pursue.

Saulo's book detailed the model construction of a lower-level talent crystal called 'Killing Intent.'

Wizards who ascend with the 'Killing Intent' talent crystal can release a domain of killing intent, where all creatures within suffer constant killing intent shocks, easily driving weaker-willed beings into a frenzy.

Moreover, the wizard can slightly recover physical and mental strength through killing, exemplifying the concept of growing stronger with each battle!

One can imagine the terror a wizard with such abilities would bring to a knight's battlefield!

And this was just a lower-level talent crystal!

It highlighted the formidable power of formal wizards!

"Too bad it's just a lower-level talent crystal model."

Sunan felt a slight regret.

He intended to aim for a True Spirit Wizard, so his target was undoubtedly an upper-level talent crystal.

Lower and middle-level talent crystals were not considerations.

Constructing a talent crystal involves three steps.

The first is deciding on the talent crystal model to construct.

Talent crystal models are typically further refined and deepened from original models.

The simplest and most common is using a spell model as the original model for refinement.

Alternatively, one could replicate and extract a magical item's characteristics to serve as the original model.

The last option is using a bloodline ability as the original model.

This option is usually chosen by wizard apprentices following the bloodline wizard path.

For instance, the 'Killing Intent' talent crystal model was clearly refined from the Carlos Python bloodline ability.

Wizard apprentices with the Carlos bloodline who ascend with the 'Killing Intent' talent crystal, due to the high compatibility between the crystal and their bloodline, would have higher combat strength and potential than other lower-level talent crystal wizards.

Initially, bloodline wizards have more advantages than True Spirit wizards.

In some ways, this can be seen as trading potential for immediate benefits.

In summary, when choosing a talent crystal model, apprentices can select models left by predecessors or create new ones.

The former saves time and effort, and since the model's feasibility is proven, there's no risk of unexpected outcomes.

The downside is that these models might not fully suit the individual.

Each model was originally created based on the creator's conditions.

No two people's souls and bodies, no matter how similar, can match perfectly. Differences will exist.

This results in imperfect compatibility between the successor and the model, causing varying degrees of impact.

Initially, this might not be apparent, but it will become a barrier to higher realms in the future.

Thus, all ambitious wizard apprentices invariably choose to create their own models.

Even those bound by family bloodline traditions will adjust and modify ancestral models to better fit themselves, never accepting them without alteration.

Naturally, Sunan planned to choose the second path.

In fact, he had already decided on the original model for his talent crystal.

It was his most powerful trump card—the magic core!

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