Chapter 64: Armed to the teeth

There was a third path, Shane could choose. but before, he wasn't sure if he should pick it.

But reconsidering the other possibilities, Shane thought that it might be the best path to pick in order to improve faster.

Short-term investing.

One could consider it as an investment that would soar in price within a short time, while Shane wouldn't be able to hold it for a long time, because it would turn useless with time passing.

After the efficiency of his 'investment' decreased, he would be able to sell it once again.

Shane wasn't a merchant and didn't want to become one, as it was too time-consuming and less productive for the overall future development he imagined for himself.

He was neither good nor bad with business and would let others take on such occupations.

Instead, Shane liked to be a hunter and cultivator, striving for power and adventures.

Through his last fight with the purple furred wolves, Shane understood that his equipment was too bad and he would have to improve it sooner or later because the only weapon he used was the shiolite dagger from his dad.

Considering that it was a [Tier-1 (Rare)] Dagger, Shane could use it to kill peak elite stage beasts, but that was it.

Even so, it was still an extremely good weapon, he could use for another few months.

After that, he would have to change his weapon evidently, due to its incapability to pierce through higher staged beast hide.

Shane knew of this fact and he pondered if he should directly purchase a Tier-2 weapon with low quality, but that wouldn't really increase his combat prowess by much, while his shiolite dagger was enough for his current opponents.

With 11 days left until the academy would roughly start, it was even more important for him to decide what he should pick because he knew that the first day was already enough to determine who the hunter and prey was.

Shane wanted to be the hunter that annihilated his foes and instilled fear within them, in order to obtain one spot for the dimension-spheres to learn some lower quality skills.

These skills would increase his combat prowess once again and in the end, Shane wanted to reign supreme within the academy to earn a spot for one of the tier-3 dimensional spheres, if their efficiency overweighted the effort he had to put in.

Tier-1 and -2 skills were already expensive to purchase and obtain but Tier-3 skills were even rarer.

Without being at the Master stage, Shane would be unable to learn the tier-3 skill, but it didn't matter as long as he could learn the knowledge within the dimensional sphere.

Once he entered the Master stage, he would immediately learn the Tier-3 skill by combining the information in his mind and obtain a starting skill while entering the intermediate primordial dimensions, would definitely be helpful.

He still didn't really like to go to an academy, but now he was with peers instead of older classmates and he wouldn't let anyone bully him, without returning the favor hundredfold.

Searching through the Primordial Shops, Shane couldn't find many items he was searching for within the human section.

The only thing he found were Tier-1 [Trash] mana stones for 5 gold coins.

Their price was five times higher than Mortal-[Uncommon] mana stones, but Shane was sure that he could use them well, as the mana required for his [Mytic] body refining seemed to be extremely vast if the information imprinted in his mind were correct.

Shane estimated that body refining until the 7th Mortal stage would be relatively fast compared to the last three stages and he purchased 5 Tier-1 [Trash] mana stones for the beginning.

Considering that only he himself would use them without Umbra absorbing the mana within them Shane was sure that five fist-sized mana stones were enough for the beginning.

Umbra could absorb the mana crystals he mined within the elemental crystal cave and there were more than enough for the time being.

In the end, Shane was sure that the mana crystals were more than enough for Umbra to fill his evolution progress rate multiple times.

Due to the transfer fee, Shane had to pay 27 gold coins and 50 silver for his first purchase.

Unfortunately, the mana stones he found were the only material he found useful for his current cultivation as Tier-1 nutrition solutions were rather harmful to a normal Mortal stage physique.

As such Shane was forced to use the shops of other races with their horrifying surcharge of 15%, turning his mood sour once again.

This surcharge decreased his possible purchases by a lot and Shane had to think more carefully about what to purchase with 210+ gold coins.

There was definitely a need for nutrition solutions but the requirements from his [Mythic] body refining only allowed nutrition solutions with a [rare] or [extraordinary] quality, causing him to frown deeply.

There was not a single rare or extraordinary quality nutrition solution within human shops and he even had to search within the elves primordial shop section to find them, which Shane found extremely stupid.

'Why did we even form a trading agreement with the elves, if we don't even trade such basic body refining resources?' He was extremely angry as the price for [rare] nutrition solutions at three gold coins while [extraordinary] nutrition solutions were priced for 7 gold coins.

One would think that price was cheaper if the increase between an uncommon and rare nutrition solution was just three times, but that was without the transfer and racial surcharge.

In the end, Shane forced himself to purchase four [rare] nutrition solutions and one [extraordinary] nutrition solution for 23 gold coins and 75 silver.

During the last few days, he was extremely dissatisfied with the injuries he sustained while fighting and them hindering his movements due to the constant pain.

As such Shane wanted to purchase a leader armor that could adjust its size to the wearer.

Alone this magical circle inscribed into the hide would increase the price and it was useless for him to purchase a Mortal stage leather armor.

In the end, Shane purchased a Tier-1 (Common) leather armor for 30 gold coins from a human shop, which surprised him.

The Tier-1(Common) quality leather armor could protect him from most elite stage beasts with a few dreadful existences as an exception, while particular razor-sharp claws, talons, and fangs were also excluded.

Due to the transfer fee, Shane only had to pay 33 gold and it was even cheaper than the extraordinary quality Ambrulite-pickaxe he purchased before in the elemental crystal.

But that was mainly due to the effect extraordinary items provided and it was only normal for high effective effects added to weapons and tools to cost more than normal weapons in Shane's opinion.

As such he didn't mind the price of the leather armor he purchased and rather than that, he was satisfied with his current purchase.

Now, Shane had slightly more than 150 gold coins left, as he began his research for a satisfying weapon.

Even though he already owned a dagger, one of his hands was still empty and in Shane's opinion, an unused hand could also be considered wasted.

As such, he wanted to purchase another dagger for his empty hand, as he remembered his most apparent weakness during the fights against the scaled lizards with their elemental attacks.

`Even though I was fast enough to evade their long-range attacks, It was extremely dangerous and my advance was hindered multiple times, causing me to jump into the lion's den which was extremely dangerous` Shane concluded as an idea popped into his mind