"Wait!"
Hearing Guan Canghai, Lin Yu stopped once again and turned to look at him, wondering what else he had to say.
"Miss, would you like to join my guild?"
"I'm a man. Also, a guild? Does Era have a guild system?" Lin Yu found Guan Canghai's words strange. Did this game have a guild system? How come he hadn't seen it?
"A man? Another... Ahem. Era doesn't have a guild system yet, but that doesn't mean it won't have one later. I was thinking we could start a group chat and form a temporary guild now, then bring everyone into the guild when Era's guild system opens. Brother, how about joining my guild? As long as you join, you'll get an annual salary of 200,000, and the guild will provide the materials. All you have to do is focus on Potion Refining." Guan Canghai began inviting Lin Yu to join his guild.
Lin Yu noticed that when Guan Canghai heard he was a man, he seemed to remember something and wore a strange expression. He had clearly wanted to say something afterward, but had forcibly stopped himself from saying it. Did he know something? Something about Era? Did he have some kind of insider information?
It seemed as though Lin Yu had thought for a long time, but only an instant had actually passed. Looking at Guan Canghai, Lin Yu answered, "Join a guild? Sounds like a hassle, so I'll pass. I don't want to join any guild."
"I see! All right, brother, remember to contact me when you have more potions. I'll buy as many as you have." Guan Canghai wasn't discouraged by Lin Yu's refusal. He had only extended the invitation because he wanted someone with a support profession to refine potions for his guild. It would have been a pleasant surprise if Lin Yu had agreed, but it was fine if he didn't. He wasn't the only person in this Newbie Village who had chosen the Potion Refining profession. Guan Canghai could just find someone else.
Seeing that there was nothing else, Lin Yu turned and left.
Before heading to the library to read, Lin Yu planned to sweep the market and stock up on the materials he would need to refine potions tomorrow. Since this Guan Canghai had said he would buy as much as Lin Yu had, Lin Yu was definitely going to refine a huge batch and earn a few thousand silver coins from him.
The shopping spree took over half an hour. He swept up every material he needed that was currently available on the market, spending 23 silver and 10 copper in total on 5,400 portions of Vitality Grass, 3,650 portions of Magic-Infused Grass Seeds, and 500 Redblood Flowers.
After putting away all the materials, Lin Yu flew to the library.
After spending four silver coins for eight hours of borrowing time, Lin Yu headed straight for the Basic Meditation Method. What he needed to do now was relearn the magic he had already mastered.
He needed to review the knowledge behind the skills he knew and relearn what he had already learned. This time, Lin Yu wasn't reading for experience, but for the knowledge in the books.
Lin Yu took out the Basic Meditation Method and began reading. Gradually, he felt himself enter a state resembling flow.
Time slipped quietly by. In this state of flow, Lin Yu felt that his thinking speed, memory, and comprehension had all improved tens or even hundreds of times over.
In this state, Lin Yu could memorize everything on an entire page with a single glance. After reading a book once, he could understand and master everything in it and apply it flexibly in combination with the knowledge he already possessed.
Lin Yu had originally thought relearning everything would take at least several days. Instead, it took him only three hours to finish relearning every skill he had mastered. His theoretical knowledge of magic, Alchemy, Potion Refining, Forging, Rune Inscription, and several other fields had now reached the Formal level.
The reason only his theoretical knowledge had reached the Formal level was simple: Lin Yu hadn't practiced yet! He knew how to do it in his head, but his hands hadn't learned how.
That called for an explanation of the rankings used in Era's various fields.
The professional rankings in every field were divided into eight levels: Apprentice, Formal, Elite, Master, Grandmaster, Legendary, Mythic, and Transcendent. The requirements for reaching Formal level differed from one field to another.
In magic, reaching the Formal level required mastery of the combinations and arrangements of more than 30 magic runes. (Magic rankings were determined by how many magic rune combinations a person had learned, not by cultivation realm. Of course, the higher the ranking, the stronger the caster.)
In Forging, the requirement was to forge a piece of standard-grade equipment.
It could be said that every field had different requirements for reaching the Formal level.
After his theoretical knowledge of magic reached the Formal level, Lin Yu understood some things that had previously puzzled him. For example, he finally knew why the spell bonuses for the magic he had learned were all zero point something.
That went back to the origin and development of magic in Era.
Casting magic now took only two steps: use mental power to trace a magic circle in one's mental sea, then steadily channel mana from one's body into the circle to cast the spell. Powerful casters could trace the circle and channel mana into it in an instant.
But magic in its earliest form had been nothing like as convenient as it was now.
The earliest magic was better called Ritual Magic. To cast it, one had to use alchemical materials to trace a ritual magic circle in the outside world and then lay out the ritual materials. Once that was done, the caster injected their own mana into the ritual circle, which consumed the ritual materials and drew on magic power from the outside world to cast the spell.
Magic cast this way was immensely powerful, but it had several drawbacks. First, each casting consumed materials, making it extremely expensive.
Second, preparation took too long. Even the simplest spell took several seconds to set up at the fastest, while more advanced spells required hours or more of preparation.
Third, the consumption was enormous. Often, a single spell could drain all the caster's mana.
As a result, casters at the time were essentially powerless to resist in an unexpected encounter.
To solve this problem, all the top casters of the time joined forces and began researching a solution.
After decades of work, they developed Simplified Ritual Magic, the casting method used today.
Simplified Ritual Magic no longer involved drawing a Ritual Array outside the body and then using one's own mana to draw on the magic power of heaven and earth to cast a spell.
Instead, the caster used mental power to construct a simplified Ritual Array in their own mental sea, then channeled their mana into it to simulate the power of the ritual and cast the spell.
The advantages of this magic were its speed and low consumption, but its drawbacks were equally obvious. Simplified Ritual Magic lacked both the circle constructed from alchemical materials and the boost from ritual materials that assisted casting. Most of the mana went toward maintaining the ritual magic circle's existence, leaving only a tiny amount to cast the spell. As a result, one could count oneself lucky if a spell cast this way had even one hundredth of the power of one cast using a ritual magic circle.
More often, Simplified Ritual Magic had only one thousandth or even one ten-thousandth of the power of Ritual Magic.
Oh, right. Only after learning about magic did Lin Yu discover that skills like Mana Protection, Jump Enhancement, and Speed Enhancement weren't magic at all. They were merely basic techniques for using mana.