The Big Sphere
Deep within the dimly lit cave, Layton touched his signature red nose and waved his wand.
After a casting delay of more than two seconds, a transparent energy pillar with a diameter of half a meter appeared out of thin air, instantly melting through the rock wall in front of it, followed by several magic projectiles flying out.
The monster hiding behind the wall didn't even have time to scream before it turned into a pile of golden solid matter.
Layton stepped forward and stood on top of the gold, which instantly vanished beneath his feet.
"Auto Pickup... Seriously, this is way too much like a game!"
He glanced at his temporary control panel.
[Temporary Panel]
[Health Points: 540]
[Gold: 130]
[Personal Correction]
[Casting Delay: +0.23 seconds]
[Recharge Time: +0.27 seconds]
[Dharma Power Regeneration Speed: +43]
[Dharma Power Mana: +178]
[Special Effects]
[Teleportation Enthusiast: Trigger a random teleport when your health drops below 25%]
"Gold drops from monster kills, but what can you do with gold...?"
As Layton was pondering, he suddenly noticed the faint outline of a magnificent building in the distance.
The presence of such magnificent architecture deep within this eerie cave is indeed perplexing.
"Let's go take a look."
He changed the Spell in his wand, replacing [Space Bullet] with [Teleport Bullet].
With a flick of the wand and a shot aimed, a silver-white magic bullet flew out at incredible speed, leaving a long trail behind it.
"A huge nerf... I don't need to go through all that trouble outside of Dungeons."
Layton had to fire several [Teleport Bullet] before finally reaching the building entrance, complained, "This restriction is too much."
Entering the ancient building cautiously, Layton's first encounter was a stone statue.
Inside the building, dappled beams of light shone from the broken dome. A stone statue remained in a casting pose, its long staff pointing towards the Void.
Continuing onward, Layton discovered a small lake with a red, heart-shaped object emitting a soft glow floating in its center.
As he approached, the red heart shattered and disappeared instantly.
Your Health Points has been increased to "690"
"Oh, so there's a way to increase Health Points."
Further ahead was a place that looked like a shop, with several floating magic wands on display.
Layton glanced at the chandeliers hanging from chains above, then focused his attention on the merchandise in front of him.
[Wand]
[Dharma Power Mana: 178]
[Casting Delay: +0.18 seconds]
[Recharge Time: +0.46 seconds]
[Dharma Power Regeneration Speed: 39]
[Capacity: 5]
[Current Spells: Freezing Spell, Gradual Acceleration, Bomb]
[380 Gold]
[Wand]
[Dharma Power Mana: 246]
[Casting Delay: +0.17 seconds]
[Recharge Time: +0.42 seconds]
[Dharma Power Regeneration Speed: 37]
[Capacity: 8]
[Current Spells: Circular Sawblade, Strong Airflow, Ping-Pong Path, Reduced Spread]
[540 Gold]
[...]
The cheaper ones cost over 300 gold coins, while the more expensive ones cost over 4,000 gold coins.
Layton looked through them all and did some calculations, and found that, generally speaking, the more expensive the staff, the better its Attributes and the stronger the Spells it carries.
"These special Spells like [Gradual Acceleration], [Ping-Pong Path], and [Reduced Spread] are really interesting... The Spells given at the start of Trait Dungeon based on the participant's own abilities don't include these special Spells."
"With my [Teleport Bullet], plus [Reduced Spread] and [Gradual Acceleration]... I can go wherever I want, right?"
Layton realized the importance of Spell combinations and began to ponder them.
After much deliberation, Layton selected a few Spells and a staff he liked, and calculated that they would cost over three thousand gold.
Layton, upon discovering he only had a little over a hundred gold coins. "..."
After all, they only sell wands here; if you want the Spells on them, you have to buy the whole wand.
Are there any places that sell Spells?
With a grumble, Layton ventured deeper into the area.
[Spell Backpack Expansion]
[100 Gold Coins]
Layton didn't hesitate and bought it directly; after all, one hundred gold coins wouldn't hurt.
The Spell bag has increased from ten to eleven slots.
Looking at the store in front of me again, it had suddenly transformed into:
[Spell Backpack Expansion]
[200 Gold Coins]
Shaking his head, Layton left the ancient building and began venturing into the rugged and strange caves to fight monsters and collect gold.
Twenty minutes later, Layton, who had raised over eight hundred gold coins, began his return to the ancient building, intending to buy a wand that suited him to improve his spellcasting speed.
Upon spotting a professional in the distance, Layton immediately fired a [Teleport Bullet] to dodge it.
Stepping into the ancient building, the scene that greeted Layton's eyes this time was completely different: the once magnificent dome had been torn open with a large hole, and charred marks were splattered across the walls and floor tiles like ink.
The stone mage statue, which had been standing Jingjing, was now completely destroyed, leaving everyone baffled.
"Who did this? So rude!"
Layton pointed his wand out the door and slowly walked into the shop.
A large, blood-red sphere was standing in front of the store, examining something.
Upon closer inspection, the large, blood-red sphere was formed from numerous blood-red shields. These shields rotated slowly around the user, but because there were so many of them, they appeared as a continuous, large sphere.
After looking at him more closely, Layton relaxed his guard slightly and went up to greet him.
"Hey! Su Luo!"
At the center of the large sphere stood a person dressed in a blue robe—it was Su Luo.
Holding her wand, Su Luo, who was casting [Blood Shield] at nearly two times per second, turned around upon hearing the sound and saw Layton.
"Hello."
Su Luo had a fairly deep impression of him; he had a lot of murals, but he seemed like a nice person.
"I didn't have anything planned for today, so I came to scout out the Trait Dungeon first. I wasn't expecting to get the special qualification right away. What are you doing here...?"
After watching for a while, Layton finally understood that the sphere was formed by Su Luo casting Spell at high speed. He hesitated for a moment.
"I came here specifically for this special spot; my Main Attribute is already at its maximum." Su Luo nodded to him.
"Wait, isn't your casting speed a bit ridiculous? What kind of wand are you using?"
Su Luo extended the wand she was holding, and a short, grayish wand sprouted from the blood-red sphere.
Layton glanced at Su Luo's wand, then at the identical one in his hand.
It's true what they say, comparisons are the thief of joy.
"Okay... but thank you anyway for backing up my post, it's very useful for the Survivors in our region."
Layton became slightly serious.
The rewards for the regional leaderboard include [Exemption Stones ], which directly suggests that Survivors can learn basic class skills and then use [Exemption Stones ] to unlock and gain early access to a small portion of the class's power.
It has been tried to varying degrees in most parts of the world, but with limited success.
One issue is the learning speed. If you try to learn the basics on your own, most people won't be able to master it in one or two weeks.
Another issue is information sharing. After learning the basics on their own, how many people are qualified and have the time and patience to write an introductory guide?
Generally, it is necessary to assign a Survivor with high learning efficiency to take a break from their regular duties and spend half a month learning and compiling an introductory guide.
Therefore, only a few regions have such introductory guide posts. As of the last District War, there were only two such introductory guide posts in the Layton region, one of which was a high-priced paid post.
As a result, in the [Essence Backup] of the last District War exchange, there were nearly eighty introductory guides by Su Luo, which directly covered the needs.