Task Hall

It was nearly evening now, and there would not be much time left to spend at the library. Lynn decided to sort out the Death Knight's equipment first.

He arrived at the Apprentice Market and found Thomas, who was running a stall in a corner of the market.

Thomas was staring mournfully at a bone plate, clearly having run into a difficult problem.

Two shadows blocked the faint glow cast by the Soul Stones on the wall, darkening Thomas's vision. He could not help looking up.

One of them was the familiar Lynn, his handsome face calm and indifferent.

The other was an Undead entirely shrouded in a black hooded robe, its badly decayed face adorned with two ghostly green flames of Soul Fire.

"Thomas, got a job for you! Set up some equipment for my Undead guard."

Lynn got straight to the point and slapped two Magic Stones down in front of Thomas.

"Oh, oh... good evening, Lynn."

Thomas hurriedly rose to his feet, walked over to the Death Knight, and examined it closely, exclaiming in amazement.

"Whoa... top-grade stuff! It's only been a few days, and you've already got yourself a Death Knight!"

Although Death Knights did not impress Gregor, they were still formidable among Wizard Apprentices and counted as premium goods.

They were far stronger than the likes of Skeleton Soldiers, Wraiths, Zombies, and Stitched Monsters—a true stat monster.

If it could be equipped with a suitable mount, the strength it could unleash would be even greater.

Thomas took out a "measuring tape" made from the sinew of some unknown creature and carefully measured the Death Knight's arm span and various physical dimensions.

Then he pulled out a bone greatsword from his stall and cobbled together a crude set of bone armor.

"My little stall doesn't have much suitable equipment. This is the best I can put together. What do you think?"

Lynn inspected it and found that although the equipment looked like trash picked up from the roadside, its defensive capabilities were exceptionally good.

The bone greatsword would have a hard time breaking through the bone armor, and every area that needed protection was protected.

He immediately equipped the Death Knight with the bone greatsword and crude bone armor. It fit fairly well.

After putting on the mismatched bone armor, the Death Knight's overall quality immediately dropped several levels, making it look like a cross between a Zombie and a Bone Beast.

Lynn nodded at Thomas, agreeing to the deal.

Thomas accepted the two Magic Stones, officially declaring Lynn completely broke.

Most of the equipment at this stall consisted of leftovers from his teacher. He was merely selling them on his behalf and would have to hand over a large portion afterward.

After the transaction was complete, Thomas brought up his great research again and casually complained about the difficulty of the Metal-Undead Fusion project—the conflict between energy circuits caused the Undead core to overload and collapse.

As Lynn listened to his description, he glanced at the bone plate on the table. The panel in his mind had already begun its analysis and deductions.

Then he seemingly offered a casual suggestion:

"Why not try a Negative-Energy Insulating Coating? Add an insulating layer where the metal framework connects to the Undead core. Start by slowly fusing them with low-power Soul Fire instead of forcefully pumping in energy."

Thomas froze for a moment, then suddenly slapped his forehead, his eyes widening round.

"That's right! Insulation! Start low and slow! Why didn't I think of avoiding the conflict instead of forcing a head-on clash? Lynn, you're fucking genius!"

The way he looked at Lynn immediately changed.

Lynn did not care about the praise and asked directly, "Do you know any fast ways to earn Magic Stones or Contribution Points?"

Lynn was now penniless, with only a pitiful nine Contribution Points left—not even enough to pay next week's "living expenses."

He had to find a way to earn some money. He wanted to see whether Thomas had any leads; otherwise, Lynn planned to copy out some tricks and sell them.

Thomas thought for a moment, then pointed at Lynn.

"Since your brain works so well, why not go to the Task Hall and take jobs like 'troubleshooting' or 'model optimization'?"

"Each task may not give many Contribution Points, maybe only five or ten, but they're much safer and easier than those fighting-and-killing jobs!"

Lynn's heart stirred. That really was an idea.

He had the Analysis panel as a cheat. Many difficult problems that others could not see through could yield answers after analysis.

Moreover, the Analysis panel could optimize them as well, with one hundred percent accuracy!

This had potential!

But... the Analysis function also needed to rely on the knowledge contained in the Memory Library as its foundation.

His knowledge reserves were not deep enough yet. Could he really guide others?

Even his mentor had said that all of his ideas were too "idealistic."

Especially since many apprentices had immersed themselves in their respective fields for years, the problems they encountered probably would not be easy to solve.

Forget it. He would enrich himself first, then go take a look at the Task Hall.

Over the next few days, Lynn practically lived on the first floor of the Bone Vault.

Using the panel's scanning function, he frantically absorbed every piece of general knowledge he could access—Overview of Basic Elemental Particles, Compendium of Common Magical Material Properties, Analysis of Low-Level Rune Configurations, Bestiary of a Hundred Otherworldly Creatures...

Whether it was useful to him or not, he would record it first!

Vast amounts of information were recorded, analyzed, archived, and integrated into his ever-growing knowledge base.

By the time all the knowledge on the first floor had been collected, the restrictions in the first floor's "paid area" had only been analyzed to 4%.

Who knew how long it would take to analyze them all.

He stopped analyzing the restrictions and instead placed two First-Ring Sorceries on the Analysis panel alongside the optimization of his meditation method.

Once he felt sufficiently prepared, Lynn left the Bone Vault and stepped into the bustling Task Hall for the first time.

The moment he entered the hall, he saw a massive bone plate standing in the center, covered in all kinds of tasks written in the common language.

If someone took an interest in a task, they could use the task number and their identity Nameplate to accept it at the corresponding task window.

Quite a few apprentices were selecting tasks in the Task Hall, and many seasoned veterans were also loitering there.

They had claimed advantageous positions early. The moment simple and easy "daily" tasks appeared, they snatched them up, leaving new students with no chance to compete.

Lynn carefully studied the enormous bone plate, where countless task listings scrolled past.

"Clear Corpse Rats from the sewers. Reward: 1 Contribution Point."

"Assist in exploring the outskirts of the Rotten Abyss. Reward: 200 Contribution Points. Requirement: Third-Class Apprentice or above."

"Feed the beasts in the Wailing Beast Pens. Reward: 30 Contribution Points."

"Collect 10 Wraith Crystals. Reward: 20 Contribution Points."

"Gather Moonlight Moss. Reward: 60 Contribution Points. Requirement: Second-Class Apprentice or above."

The Contribution Point rewards were tied to difficulty. Tasks that generally required leaving the Academy were highly dangerous and offered correspondingly high rewards.

Tasks like clearing sewers had basically no danger, so they only offered one or two points.

And once Lynn left the Academy, his danger level would not be low. After all, exceptional talent was an extremely rare "material."

He should stay safely tucked away in the Academy. Unless absolutely necessary, he would never leave!