Picking up the silver coin in front of him, the old man looked at Lin Yu, who was floating in midair before him. "How long would you like to borrow them for, one hour or two?"
"One hour!" After a moment's thought, Lin Yu decided to borrow them for an hour first and see what it was like.
As Lin Yu finished speaking, the old man put away the silver coin. The next moment, a pile of copper coins appeared out of thin air on the table in front of Lin Yu.
Lin Yu reached out and put away the copper coins, adding fifty copper coins to the inventory.
Just then, Lin Yu noticed a countdown in the upper-right corner of the panel that only Lin Yu could see. Without a doubt, it showed the remaining borrowing time. Watching it tick down second by second, Lin Yu turned and flew quickly toward the nearest row of bookshelves without hesitation.
Lin Yu pulled out the nearest book and began flipping through it.
It was a book about Gathering. As Lin Yu read, a progress bar appeared in an inconspicuous spot in the lower-right corner of the pages. A small box after the bar read "Learning efficiency: 20000%."
As Lin Yu read, the progress bar climbed rapidly.
Lin Yu stopped watching the progress bar and continued flipping through the book. In just over ten seconds, the bar filled up.
[Completed a learning session. Acquired the skill "Gathering." Experience +20]
The experience bar immediately filled, and Lin Yu rose straight to level 1.
After glancing at the five free attribute points gained from leveling up, Lin Yu put them all into Spirit without hesitation.
With the points assigned, Lin Yu's Spirit reached 21.
Lin Yu felt a sudden clarity of mind, and even the speed of thought seemed to double.
Paying no further attention to the attribute changes from leveling up, Lin Yu quickly put the book aside and pulled a new one from the bookshelf.
[Completed a learning session. Acquired the skill "Logging." Experience +20]
After just over ten seconds, the progress bar filled again.
[Completed a learning session. Acquired the skill "Mining." Experience +20]
[Completed a learning session. Acquired the skill "Carving." Experience +20]
[Completed a learning session. Acquired the skill "Fishing." Experience +20]
After completing five more readings, Lin Yu leveled up again.
Once again, Lin Yu put all the free attribute points into Spirit, bringing it to 37.
Feeling the same clarity as before return, Lin Yu confirmed a suspicion.
The first time Lin Yu leveled up, the speed of thought had noticeably doubled. After this second level-up, the sensation was even more pronounced.
Pulling out another book and continuing to read, Lin Yu found that the ability to remember everything at a glance seemed to have appeared. With just one look, Lin Yu remembered everything on the entire page.
Now wasn't the time to study those changes. What Lin Yu needed to do was read as quickly as possible and grind experience and levels through reading. Everything else could wait until the hour was up.
Time passed second by second, and the stack of books beside Lin Yu grew higher and higher.
The moment the countdown in the upper-right corner reached zero, the progress bar in the lower-right corner stopped growing, and the contents of the pages vanished into thin air as though rubbed out with an eraser.
Looking at the stalled progress bar, Lin Yu put down the book and stretched. After an hour of repeatedly picking up books and flipping through them, Lin Yu's body felt a little stiff.
After moving around a little, Lin Yu finally had time to feel the changes brought about by leveling up.
First was calculation speed. Lin Yu felt it was now more than ten times faster than before. The change was extremely obvious, with a huge improvement at every level. Lin Yu guessed it might have been due to the increase in Spirit.
Next, it was time to see what had changed over the past hour.
With a thought, Lin Yu opened the character panel.
[Character panel] Nickname: I'm Just Passing By Race: Mixed-Blood Fairy Gender: none Class: Scholar Level: 7 (660/1000) Main attributes: Strength: 6 (growth rate 0.1) Constitution: 6 (growth rate 0.1) Agility: 6 (growth rate 0.5) Spirit: 117 (growth rate 3.2) Health: 6/6 Mana: 100/100 Stamina: 6/6 Satiety: 71% Hydration: 49% Physical attack: 0.6 Spell power: 374.4 Defense: 0.075 (0.15) Spirit resistance: 187.2 Speed: 0.3 Dexterity: 3 Reaction: 3 Luck: 8 (6+2) Appearance: 97 Traits: small size, Magic Life, flight, Lucky Star Talents: Heaven's Jealousy of Geniuses (special), Mortal Body, Divine Mind (special), Analysis Eye (A) Status: fragile Skills: Gathering, Logging, Mining, Carving, Fishing, Medicine Making (...), Potion Refining (...), Alchemy (...), Forging (...), Smelting (...), Repair, Maintenance, Weaving (...), Disassembly, Scroll Crafting, Rune Inscription, Weapon Enchanting, Construction, Manufacturing (...), Cultivation techniques: Items (4/10): silver coins ×4, bread ×5, waterskin ×1, copper coins ×50
In just one hour, Lin Yu had already reached level 7. Was this what a special talent was worth? Seven levels in an hour, plus a whole bunch of skills. Lin Yu had learned most logistics skills, and toward the end, almost everything Lin Yu picked up had been various recipes.
Lin Yu could only say that special talents had been somewhat underestimated before. Their cost was indeed high, but the bonuses they gave were powerful enough too.
It was just that Lin Yu's panel was still far too lopsided. Spirit was already over a hundred, yet Strength, Constitution, and Agility were still in the single digits. As for whether Lin Yu had considered putting points into those three attributes, the answer was no.
With those three attributes' absurdly low growth rates, adding points would probably make little difference. Either way, Lin Yu was destined to be killed in one hit. It was better to keep adding points to Spirit and make the most of that advantage.
"Oh, I almost forgot I needed to learn cultivation techniques and skills. I haven't learned a single spell yet." Smacking that forehead, Lin Yu finally remembered the matter of learning cultivation techniques and skills. Lin Yu had been so focused on learning skills and leveling up that the cultivation techniques had been forgotten.
Looking at the surrounding bookshelves, Lin Yu didn't rush to start a second borrowing session. First, Lin Yu should find the shelf holding cultivation techniques, then find the one with magic books. That way, no time would be wasted searching after the borrowing session began.
With that thought, Lin Yu immediately got moving.
With a thought, Lin Yu flew up and quickly weaved between the nearby bookshelves, searching for cultivation techniques that might be there.
"Found it, Basic Meditation Method. This is it." Before long, Lin Yu found the target. After looking around and confirming the location of the Basic Meditation Method, Lin Yu flew toward the front desk.