Ranking Rewards, Equipment Enchantment Book!

Dead silence!

Absolute silence!

At the edge of the urban district, there were nearly several thousand students.

The crowd also included people from various guilds, corporations, and government departments.

Every face was etched with shock and disbelief.

The Grand Exam leaderboard could be considered a symbol of the most promising talents in Cloud Sea City.

Naturally, it received exceptional attention.

Yet, right now.

First place, Qin Zhixue, an SS-Rank class, which was to be expected.

But, someone tell me what is going on with this second place?

C-Rank Shield Guard, Level 3?

Which C-Rank Class-Changer can jump two levels on the very first day?

Is this reasonable?

"Who is Chen Ming?"

"A C-Rank Shield Guard in second place? This is just too absurd."

"It's Qin Zhixue. I saw Chen Ming and Qin Zhixue returning from outside the city together just now."

"That's right, their information shows they are in the same party."

"Damn it, the thing I feared most has actually happened. Qin Zhixue really carried Chen Ming to level up."

The crowd was buzzing with various opinions.

In previous years, there had never been a situation where a C-Rank Class-Changer appeared in the top one hundred.

Yet this year, he had directly seized second place, trailing only Qin Zhixue.

At this moment, some people stepped forward to say that Qin Zhixue had not teamed up with Chen Ming to level up.

They had seen with their own eyes that Chen Ming headed toward the Breeze Jungle.

Meanwhile, Qin Zhixue had gone to the Dawn Cliff area with another young woman.

However, these voices were quickly drowned out.

"Miss, how did he do it?"

On the other side, Qin Zhixue looked at the published information, equally surprised.

The young woman behind her stared at the rankings in complete shock.

If others didn't know, how could she not?

Chen Ming had not teamed up with Qin Zhixue to level up at all.

He had been solo-grinding in the wild.

A C-Rank Shield Guard, solo-grinding in the wild and reaching Level 3 on the first day.

If this got out, no one would believe it.

"I don't know either," Qin Zhixue said softly.

With her experience, she couldn't figure out how Chen Ming had managed it.

On the way back, after clarifying the matters of mental potential and the Grand Exam rankings, Chen Ming had still politely declined her offer.

She had been a bit disappointed at first, thinking Chen Ming was resigning himself to mediocrity.

After all, she had only meant well, wanting to give him a hand during the Grand Exam.

Now it seemed she had worried for nothing.

Even without her help, Chen Ming could still reach Level 10 within the month of the Grand Exam.

"But it's fine, I'm still in third place."

The young woman patted her chest, letting out a sigh of relief.

She was Lin Wei, ranked third on the list, an A-Rank Contractor!

Everyone was busy discussing Chen Ming teaming up with Qin Zhixue, unaware that she was the one who had actually teamed up with Qin Zhixue to level up.

Elsewhere.

"Holy crap, Brother Chen, you weren't lying to me?"

Sun Yang stared with wide eyes, repeatedly confirming the ranking information.

He had already prepared a speech on how to persuade Chen Ming to face reality and stop indulging in fantasies.

Chen Ming turned around to find himself ranked second!

It turned out he was the one trapped in a fantasy.

Your Brother Chen is still your Brother Chen!

"I told you, but you didn't believe me, thinking I was just messing with you."

Chen Ming muttered helplessly.

He then looked at the panel with anticipation.

Qin Zhixue had said that the Grand Exam rewards might include rare mental-type resources.

[Ranking Reward: Gold *10, Tier 1 Fine Equipment *2 (Attribute Rune Stone +15, type optional), Equipment Enchantment Book *2 (type optional), Rare Resource (type optional)]

It was worthy of being the highest-tier ranking reward, starting off with 10 gold coins.

Looking at the reward information before him, Chen Ming's eyes lit up.

"Two pieces of fine equipment of my choice, just right."

Chen Ming did not hesitate and chose one piece of Constitution equipment and one piece of Agility equipment.

Whoosh—

A white light flashed before his eyes.

Two pieces of equipment appeared in front of him.

[Shadowless Armor, Constitution +750!]

[Feather Boots, Agility +15!]

He didn't rush to equip them, instead looking back at the reward information.

An Equipment Enchantment Book is a product that can only be crafted by the special class 'Enchanter'.

Its function is self-evident; it can grant equipment special abilities.

For example, armor-piercing, accuracy, increased elemental damage range, control effects, and so on.

These items are priceless and hard to come by on the market.

Chen Ming began to make his selections.

[Tier 1 Armor-Piercing Enchantment Book: Suitable for Strength equipment, passive ability, the wearer's attacks gain a 5% armor-piercing effect!]

[Tier 1 Accuracy Enchantment Book...]

[Tier 1 Fire Range Enchantment Book: Suitable for Strength equipment, passive ability, when the wearer releases fire-type attacks, range +20!]

Chen Ming looked at the effects of each enchantment book.

He was momentarily caught in a dilemma.

Damn, I want them all.

Except for the specific elemental ones, these abilities all looked quite useful.

"Forget it, I can get more tomorrow anyway."

Chen Ming stopped agonizing and chose enchantment books for his Constitution and Agility equipment.

They would be perfect to apply to his newly acquired gear.

He had originally wanted the armor-piercing one.

But since his long blade was only common-grade equipment, it wouldn't be cost-effective to use an enchantment book on it.

[Tier 1 Haste Enchantment Book: Suitable for Agility equipment, active ability, increases the wearer's Agility attribute by 100% for one minute! Cooldown: one hour]

[Tier 1 Stealth Enchantment Book: Suitable for Constitution equipment, active ability, allows the wearer to conceal their tracks]

Stealth paired with Haste.

A great way to launch a sneak attack!

After equipping the gear, Chen Ming checked his current stats.

[Strength]: 35

[Constitution]: 1900/2550 (20%)

[Recovery]: 169 (13%)

[Agility]: 45

[Mental Power]: 357 (19%)

"Constitution has reached 2500."

The blood-lock cap has increased once again!

He then turned his gaze toward the final reward.

It was also the most important one—the rare resources.

"Brother Chen, what kind of rare resources are there? Are they the type that sound incredibly badass just by their names?"

Sun Yang, standing to the side, asked impatiently.

Rare resources were the items every class-advancer valued most.

After all, they were directly linked to the most crucial aspect of a class-advancer: their 'skills'.

"They're alright, just standard fare."

As Chen Ming spoke, he examined the available rare resources.

[Earth Essence Stone: Constitution attribute material]

[Wood Spirit Ganoderma: Recovery attribute material]

[Emerald Cloud Fruit: Strength attribute material]

[...]

Chen Ming scanned through the items one by one.

These objects had almost no descriptions, making it impossible to judge their value.

Rare resources were essentially items infused with elemental energy, so they were generally distinguished only by their attribute categories.

It was said that determining their true value relied solely on one's personal ability.

"Found it!"

Chen Ming's eyes lit up as he finally spotted what he was looking for at the very end.

[Mind Crystal: Spirit attribute material]