"Only three BIO Species were still alive? All the others died with that old woman Kradashi? What a waste."
Xia Xiu held a red pendant in his hand, sensing the messages coming from it through its activation runes. He channeled 5 units of EVE particles into the pendant and summoned all three BIO Species.
Three malformed, wolf-shaped creatures stood before Xia Xiu;
They had sharp teeth, and green liquid dripped constantly from their mouths. The most horrifying thing about them, however, was the eight single-lens eyes atop their heads.
[BIO-202 model] [A special interactive model manufactured by the [Midnight Worm]. Tough, able to take a beating, and easy to feed. One standard Thaumaturgy Stone provides a month's rations.] [Abilities: bite, liquid toxin, supernatural vision]
"Just what I needed to get through the early days when I'm short on traits."
Xia Xiu summoned his Flesh Supremacy Lineage, then drew a Reverse Summoning Array on it. Through the array, he stored all three BIO Species in the lineage. The reverse summoning cost him 15 units in total.
The Reverse Summoning Array was a basic array commonly used by stage-one Measurers. It could store certain supernatural creations in a lineage's communal containment service area, and thaumaturges had to pay the corresponding amount of EVE particles each time they stored or summoned something.
Array Studies was one of the most important fields of knowledge besides supernatural traits, and Xia Xiu was quite fond of it.
In gaming terms, these things did not take up skill slots. As long as someone knew how to draw them and had EVE particles, they could use them directly.
Xia Xiu casually drew a summoning Magic Circle on the lineage, then clicked save.
[Communal storage (living creatures): BIO-202 (3)] [Command summon: 5 units per creature]
Once he finished, Xia Xiu clapped his hands in satisfaction. Then he raised a hand, and the Mark of Ya'en appeared on it.
[Mark of Ya'en-Vortex] [Effect: EVE Particles recovery efficiency +30%]
Praise Yarn!
Next, Xia Xiu inspected the details of the Flesh Sculpting trait.
[Flesh Sculpting] [Effect: allows basic flesh manipulation and flesh synthesis rituals.]
Flesh Sculpting was a vocation skill of the Third Return. As one of the Eight Flesh Classes, the Third Return had three paths: resurrection (necromancy), transformation, and protection.
Flesh Sculpting was clearly a transformation-path Class skill. Presumably, because Xia Xiu had obtained his human form through a ritual conversion from a BIO Species, Adabos, the Flesh Supremacy think tank, had given him the transformation path's core technique directly.
Xia Xiu did know how to obtain and combine several transformation traits in the Flesh Supremacy Lineage. He also knew where to find creatures that could provide the DNA templates needed for transformation.
For now, however, his most pressing concern was learning about his surroundings.
Since he had spent the month after his transmigration quietly biding his time, he had learned the approximate locations of several small treasure caches in Kradashi's residence. He spent the next while searching for her collection.
An hour later.
In Kradashi's library, ten bundles of banknotes lay on a table, all in denominations of one hundred. These were [Youyang Currency]. One unit of Youyang Currency could buy a bag of sliced bread at a supermarket, and that bag contained enough to feed an adult man for two days.
Besides the Youyang Currency, there were fifteen dark-green, cube-shaped stones. These were standard Thaumaturgy Stones (10 cubic centimeters), each containing 100 units of general-purpose EVE particles.
They could be used for non-spiritual casting or to replenish a thaumaturge's EVE particles.
"One hundred thousand in Youyang Currency and fifteen Thaumaturgy Stones."
Xia Xiu smiled in satisfaction at these alluring little treasures. He loved things like these-the more, the better.
After taking stock of these basic assets, Xia Xiu turned his attention to several envelopes in the library. Most contained payment statements, while a few concerned miscellaneous, unimportant matters.
One news bulletin among them happened to catch Xia Xiu's attention.
[Wand People Communications] [Brief ①: "Three Portlands," one of the world's ten great paranormal enclaves, recently sailed out of the Chaos Sea. It has now passed through the Dublin region and is expected to make landfall in the Fog City region this month. The Fog City Clock Tower will handle matters related to Portlands' arrival in Fog City.] [Brief ②: Three Portlands Deer College has publicly announced a new recruitment event. This recruitment drive will take place across the twenty-six countries of the Youyang Alliance.] [Brief ③: The Oletin Empire and the Diva Empire are conducting joint military exercises. During these exercises, the Diva Empire's Gear Orthodox Church presented some of its new Mechanical Golems to the public.] [Brief ④: Detailed provisions regarding the opening of new sea routes...]
The Wand People were a group of transdimensional journalists and archivists. They sought to explore the multiverse and uncover its secrets while disseminating and preserving knowledge.
Put simply, they were Terra's supernatural press corps.
Xia Xiu carefully read the bulletin again, particularly the third and fourth items. He paid such close attention to those two because they were connected to the game's third and fourth expansions.
The game's third expansion was called "Opening of the New Sea Routes: Lost Lands," while its fourth was "War of the Nations."
A great many people had died in those two expansions. Youyang, Diva, and Aolieting had practically beaten one another senseless. The mass deployment of thaumaturgical applications had contaminated all of Terra with Aether Radiation, laying the groundwork for the game's fifth expansion.
Still, all of that was far in Xia Xiu's future. From the calendar, he learned that it was February 3, 1589 of the Terra calendar, eleven years before the Unification War. At most, Aolieting and Diva were currently expanding their armaments. They were still nowhere near actually coming to blows.
Xia Xiu rubbed his chin and began to think. His original plan had been to become an adventurer, then search Youyang for ways to grow stronger using his memories. He had estimated that his travels would take a year.
He had chosen a year because the game's first expansion, "Reprise Performance," took place in Terra Calendar year 1590. He intended to spend that year advancing to stage two while also raising his lineage rank. Only then could he secure the corresponding benefits during the first expansion.
At this point, a brief overview of Terra's supernatural history was necessary.
In Terra Calendar year 221, people discovered Thaumaturgy Stones.
They discovered that Thaumaturgy Stones could connect them to the source of the supernatural: the [Ether Sea].
But Terra's greedy inhabitants were not satisfied with casting thaumaturgy through external objects. They wanted to make direct contact with the [Ether Sea] and seize its supernatural power for themselves.
Thus, Terra's people developed various thaumaturgical systems. Through these systems, they could cast thaumaturgy directly without relying on Thaumaturgy Stones.
Terra entered a golden millennium. Thaumaturgical systems continued to be developed, and exploration of the [Ether Sea] grew ever deeper.
In Terra year 1020, thaumaturges were divided into five stages according to their power. Terra's thaumaturges accepted this systematic classification.
Those five stages were:
Stage 1: [Measurer] Stage 2: [Manifestor] Stage 3: [Dominion] Stage 4: [Crown] Stage 5: [Miracle]
These five stages applied to every lineage. Whether it was Heaven, the largest lineage, Flesh Supremacy, an Anomaly Spectrum lineage, or a minor lineage with only a single normal state, all used these five stages to classify their thaumaturges.
Lineages shared the same stage classifications, but their rank structures differed.
Take Heaven and Flesh Supremacy, for example;
Heaven had three tiers, nine grades, and twenty-six Classes,
While the Flesh Supremacy faction had six ranks and eight major Classes.
Rank represented the corresponding permissions, computing resources, think tank assistance, and so on that one could obtain within a lineage...
For a thaumaturge, stage represented hardware, while rank represented software.
(End of chapter)
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