Chapter 3

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

He didn’t say anything but simply strolled around the shop.

The shop that sold magic staves was not big. It was only about 80 square meters in total. There were three display cabinets with all kinds of magic staves.

Some of them had a rough surface and were quite heavy when lifted.

Others were embedded with gemstones, yet they only weighed a few hundred grams.

Just as he was choosing thoughtfully, an ethereal voice suddenly rang out in his mind.

“Ethereal elements have been detected. Your basic meditation skill has been nourished, and its automatic cultivation progress has increased by 30%.”

When the voice suddenly rang out, Bai Ze stopped in his tracks. He looked curiously at the magic staff entwined with purple motifs in his hand.

The staff was no more than 70 centimeters long, and its overall shape was similar to a thin sword. However, its surface had been severely weathered and looked quite ancient.

Upon hearing the system prompt, Bai Ze was slightly surprised, but his outward expression remained calm. He knew that in this black market, once the buyer showed interest, the next thing he would face was the store’s sky-high price.

So he put the magic staff back and started to check the surrounding staves, but the system didn’t respond anymore.

“How is it, little buddy? Did you take a fancy to that staff?”

The middle-aged boss was thin, but his eyes were extremely sharp. He stared at Bai Ze as if looking at a fat sheep.

Bai Ze calmly took down the thin sword-like staff and then asked casually,

“Boss, what’s the background of this staff?”

The black market’s boss saw that the young man seemed interested and immediately said, “Little buddy, you have good taste. This is a good item in our shop. It’s called the Ethereal Magic Staff, a relic left behind from ancient times.”

“Look at the purple motifs on the staff. Each line represents around a hundred years, which means it’s at least ten thousand years old. And it’s a staff used by a Holy Archmage. It contains infinite magic power!”

“I can see you’re fated to be with this staff, so I won’t ask for more. I’ll give you a discounted price of 3,500 bucks on account of our friendship.”

The black market boss said this with a pained expression and then glanced at Bai Ze.

“Tsk, tsk.”

Bai Ze sighed without a trace.

He thought to himself, “There’s really no such thing as an honest merchant. He pretended to be distressed outwardly, but in reality, he treated me like an idiot to be conned.’

“Your price for this… should be a zero.”

Bai Ze didn’t cut the other party any slack at all and immediately stated the price he had in mind.

When the black market boss heard this, he immediately frowned and said with a pained expression, “Ah? 3,000 bucks then. I’m just running a small business…”

When the boss said this, his heart was extremely excited. He only needed to pay around 100 bucks for this kind of staff. Selling it for 3,000 bucks was equivalent to 30 times the profit. It was simply too satisfying.

However, before he could finish his words, Bai Ze immediately interrupted his daydream.

“What are you thinking? Zero! If I had 3,000 bucks, would I still come to you?”

“Uh… How about 350?”

The boss’s forehead creased with worry lines.

He found it hard to accept such a huge difference, but he could still make a profit at 350 bucks.

“35…”

Bai Ze made a hand gesture, and the boss’s face completely froze.

“3,500 is reduced to 35. You call this zero?”

The boss looked at Bai Ze in disbelief, thinking that he hadn’t done anything wrong recently, so why did he bump into such a living King of Hell?

The two of them exchanged words fiercely, and finally, Bai Ze got the Ethereal Magic staff for 130 bucks.

Before he left, the boss’s eyes were still filled with resentment.

“Don’t look at me like that. If others didn’t know, they’d think I slept with you. ”

Bai Ze shot him a scornful retort, then left the black market with the staff.

Bai Ze quickly returned to the apartment, then sat cross-legged on the sofa, wanting to see how much his meditation had improved.

[Your basic meditation skill has sensed the Ethereal Magic Staff. In jubilation, the cultivation progress has increased by 100%.]

[Your proficiency has reached Beginner’s level 2… level 3.]

Sensing the increase in his meditation skill’s proficiency, a trace of joy was revealed in the corners of Bai Ze’s mouth.

He stroked the staff in his hand. At this moment, there was still a steady stream of magic particles in the air that were being absorbed, helping Bai Ze to improve his magic power.

This was the power of automatic cultivation. Even if Bai Ze was walking and eating, his meditation skill would still be cultivating, which saved him a lot of time.

At six o’clock in the afternoon, when Bai Ze finished his dinner, the system prompt rang out in his mind again.

[The proficiency of basic meditation skill has broken through the Beginner’s level 9. Successfully advanced to the Fluent level. The sea of magic power has awakened!]

At the same time, Bai Ze suddenly felt a burning sensation in his dantian. He looked surprised.

Bai Ze, who had scored full marks in cultural studies, naturally understood this feeling. It was a sign that the sea of magic power was opening up!

When the meditation skill had advanced to the higher proficient levels, the body would have accumulated enough magic power, and a sea of magic power would open up in the dantian location. The magic power drifting in the four limbs and various bones would gather there and condense into richer magic power.

Only by awakening the sea of magic power could one be considered a true mage and be able to unleash some simple magic.

However, this was only the beginning in the field of magic. If one wanted to reach a higher level, he had to condense six magic rings. Only with such strength would he be respected by thousands of people in society and become an indispensable part of the country.

In the entire Maplewood City, there were less than a hundred mages who were at the level of sixth ring and above.

After all, this was only a third-tier city. Those who were stronger would have long since leaped out of this small world and gone to a more progressive place to develop further.

Bai Ze slowly opened his palm and manipulated the magic power in his body according to the control method he had learned before.

After a few breaths, a ball of luminescent light appeared in his palm. That was magic, the mainstream element of this world!

Taking a deep breath, Bai Ze withdrew the magic power back into his body.

Now that he had successfully opened up the sea of magic power, he had met the conditions for the cultivation of the rules.

Tomorrow, he would submit his request to go to the Manuscript Library to his teacher.

Only by learning the rules could one be considered a true mage. Otherwise, it would still be useless to guard one’s magic power without being able to utilize it.

At ten o’clock in the evening, Bai Ze washed up and went back to bed.

The night passed uneventfully. When Bai Ze woke up from his deep sleep, the sky outside had already turned bright.

He excitedly initiated the system interface, wanting to see how much his meditation skill had improved after one night.

The dark blue system panel emerged, and a message was reflected into Bai Ze’s eyes.

[System message: After one night of practice, F-class basic meditation skill has been upgraded to the Familiar level.]

It was only now that Bai Ze finally realized the system’s power. In just a dozen hours, his basic meditation skill, which had been stagnant for more than a year at the Beginner’s level, had advanced to the Familiar level!

Furthermore, he had also opened up the sea of magic power last night. If he did not rely on the system, he would not be able to achieve this in five or even ten years.