The private room was on the second floor.
It was quite spacious and did not feel cramped.
Sofas, tables, bookshelves... all the basic furnishings were there.
"Sir, what resources would you like to exchange for?"
Hoven poured Ian some tea as he asked. "I'd like to exchange for some grayrock stone ore and see how many contribution points it costs," Ian said.
"Grayrock stone?" Hoven finished pouring the tea and sat down, his brows furrowing.
"Sir, what you're asking for is an intermediate zero-ring resource, and a relatively high-quality one even within that category. Production is limited, so the price is steep—roughly fifty contribution points per standard unit."
Ian fell into thought.
One standard unit was one kilogram.
Given his current situation, if he wanted to maintain the same rate of progress as with the Tide Rune, he would need at least four units a month.
That meant two hundred contribution points a month.
It was manageable. His laboratory work earned him around a hundred contribution points a month. If he took on some assignments, he could just about scrape together the rest.
But he could forget about anything else.
There was no helping it, though. Mental power took priority over everything.
He still remembered what Seamus, the wizard who had assessed him for the Secret Source Department, had said.
Apparently, advancing to third-rank wizard apprentice within three years brought other benefits.
Ian was determined to secure those.
His previous entry into the cultivation sequence had earned him a better Meditation Method.
He just did not know what benefits advancing within three years would bring.
As for explaining it afterward, there would always be a way, whether through potions that forcibly increased mental power, a fortuitous encounter, or a flood of resources...
Low-level wizards could still be raised by pouring