Points, Oh Points

After submitting the sales review for the adamantine, Benjamin could not help but feel smug for quite some time.

He had already begun imagining himself making a fortune from adamantine, then using the points he earned to improve himself, forming a perfect cycle of resources, and ultimately becoming an unrivaled powerhouse.

Whenever he occasionally saw apprentices running themselves ragged for points, Benjamin revealed nothing on the surface, but inwardly, he could not help feeling a sense of self-satisfaction.

"Sure enough, without unique technology and means of production, you can only be exploited. This kind of work is heavy and pays so few points, not even a dog would—"

"—do it! If dogs won't do it, I will. I fucking love doing tasks!"

In the area around Distillation Tower No. 3, Benjamin's expression was somewhat twisted.

The air here was thick with a pungent, nauseating mixed stench, like rotting plants blended with spoiled Magic Potions.

Benjamin wore a heavy protective suit, tightly sealed goggles and a mask, and carried the long-handled scraper issued by the Workshop along with a rag soaked in acrid solvent.

His task was to clean the abnormally enormous metal distillation tower before him, which was at least ten stories tall.

No one knew what had been done in it before, but its interior was coated with black, tar-like viscous residue.

It was said that this stuff was extremely sensitive to energy particles and could not be completely removed with witchcraft, so it could only be handled through sheer manual labor.

He had to climb into the cramped interior and scrape, wipe, and wash it away bit by bit...

As for why he had come here to take on this task, the more said, the more tears there were.

He had once believed that after refining adamantine and finding one of the materials Wizards needed most, he could solve his resource problems once and for all.

But reality had once again dealt him a blow to the head.

The worst possibility Benjamin had envisioned was that no one would care about the adamantine he put up for sale, and it would vanish without a trace amid a heap of similar isolation materials.

But the truth was even harsher than he had imagined—he had not even reached the selling stage!

The "White Iron-based Isolation Material" he had submitted displayed an eye-catching status in the Workshop's Magic Network system: "Awaiting inspection."

No matter how many times he checked it each day, that status did not budge, as though it had been forgotten in some corner.

Without passing inspection, it could not be listed for sale. He did not even have the right to be rejected, much less earn points.

This hidden road to wealth he had stumbled upon by chance was now firmly jammed by an unforeseen accident.

Yet Benjamin's need for points was as urgent as breathing.

As his studies progressed, his demand for points only grew greater.

Want to continue practicing shaping after class with other special materials?

Fine. Go exchange points at the materials depot for a fresh allotment.

Want to try analyzing an unknown ore with the knowledge you had just learned?

Sorry, the more detailed Material Properties Catalog required points to unlock viewing access.

Want to find a slightly better crucible with mental-power assistance functions for more complex experiments?

No problem. Please pay points through the Magic Network Terminal to rent one.

Everything in the Academy revolved around points!

The Alchemy Workshop did not keep idlers.

They provided basic food, lodging, and knowledge, but anything more had to be exchanged for through labor and results.

"Damn it, what kind of fucking inefficient bureaucracy is this?!"

Benjamin cursed angrily under his breath, but he could only obediently put on his protective suit and prepare to work.

The work was monotonous and grueling.

The protective suit blocked most of the smell, but it also made his movements sluggish and cumbersome. Even with Benjamin's physique, the extreme heat inside the distillation tower was hard to endure.

Sweat steamed inside the suit, while the piercing screech of scraper against metal echoed through the tower.

"This is fucking exhausting..." another apprentice beside him muttered in complaint. His protective suit was covered in a layer of grime that was difficult to remove.

Benjamin nodded in agreement. He did not complain aloud, merely repeated his movements mechanically, as though the arduous labor had tortured away all interest in conversation.

But in truth, his powerful mental strength was quietly at work.

He carefully perceived the distillation tower's internal structure: the complex way its pipes connected, the inscriptions of its energy transmission runes, the joins between different metal materials... all of it was living, breathing teaching material.

He swiftly fed the information he perceived back to the Great Dao Library, having it search for similar knowledge based on the information he provided and conduct comparative research.

"This energy interface design... has the same marvelous effect through different approaches as the basic artifact-refining techniques in the Great Dao Library. It also seems to make use of spatial folding principles... but its core is still runic energy conduction. I need to commit more of that to memory. It looks like I have to start studying Runology alongside everything else as soon as possible."

In such harsh surroundings, Benjamin endured the tedium and exhaustion while integrating this knowledge from the Wizard World into his understanding of the Immortal Cultivation System.

After a full day of work, Benjamin returned to his dormitory and collapsed onto his bed.

Though he felt extraordinarily exhausted mentally, his body did not feel overly fatigued. In fact, the True Essence within him had become even more condensed.

More alarmingly, he could feel the energy within his body accumulating frantically. The barrier to the first layer of Qi Refining had become unbearably fragile and could be broken through at any moment!

He climbed out of bed, assumed a meditative posture, and looked into his Spirit Sea.

Within that seemingly boundless ocean, three intricate patterns radiating dazzling light occupied three points along its edge, continuously drawing elemental power from the outside world into his body.

Over the course of more than a month, he had unknowingly inscribed three Truth Runes within his Spirit Sea. He had completed all the runes representing the core concepts of Alchemy—"Transformation," "Fusion," and "Refinement"—and his Meditation Method had reached the peak of a Level 1 Wizard apprentice in the Wizard System!

His Spirit Sea had expanded by more than twice its original size since he first entered the Academy, while his mental strength had become condensed and active.

Next, as long as he successfully meditated upon and inscribed the fourth Truth Rune, he could officially become a Level 2 apprentice.

But at the same time, the reserve of mental strength granted by Benjamin's "talent" had been completely exhausted.

Now, he could only continuously absorb elemental power from the outside world through the Meditation Method, replenishing and accumulating more mental strength to support his attempt at the next rune.

This was also the advantage of geniuses. Someone with talent like his could rise to become a Level 1 Wizard apprentice without any effort at all. Benjamin guessed that top geniuses with talents rated eight or nine might not exhaust their innate mental reserves until they became Level 2 Wizard apprentices.

The accumulation of mental strength could not be achieved overnight, so the progress of his Meditation Method was not something Benjamin needed to worry about right now.

The real trouble was that Benjamin's Cultivator cultivation was also on the verge of a breakthrough!

It had not even been two months since he broke through to the first layer of Qi Refining, yet now advancing to the next layer was already imminent.

The energy in his body could no longer be suppressed, as though it would explode the very next second.