165 Advancement & Rewards

Jayde woke up early the next morning, after packing up the camp she summoned Reiko and Yinxin. After the two arrived, the three of them set off. It was long before Jayde realized that the level of difficulty had risen substantially within the Blood Tower. Not only had the number of creatures attacking them increased but the beasts were a lot stronger.

Since the three of them had never fought as a team before the first couple of battles were chaotic, but it wasn't long before the three started to work together. Yinxin provided air support, and with her earth magic, she was able to set up walls made of earth to divide the hordes attacking them into smaller groups, while Reiko and Jayde whirled through the smaller groups, Jayde's sword and Reiko's claws reaping the lives of many beasts.

After the fight, Jayde would then harvest the beast cores, although many of the lower level beasts didn't have cores, Jayde still managed to collect many cores. The earth-based cores she shared with Yinxin while the air based cores she gave to Reiko. Yinxin and Reiko didn't absorb the Qi from the beast cores like Jayde did; instead, they ate the whole of the core of the beast. The first time Jayde had seen Reiko chewing on a beast core her own teeth had ached in sympathy.

For three weeks the three friends roamed over the desert landscape falling into a comfortable routine, during the day they would hunt for beasts and in the evening's Jayde would set up camp, and the three would enjoy a barbecue. Jayde spent a couple of hours every evening absorbing the Qi in the beast cores. During the night all three would take turns to keep watch and guard the two sleeping.

Jayde and her team came across a couple of oases during this period, some had beast while a few were strangely deserted like the first oasis that Jayde found. Neither of them could sense anything at these deserted oases. Isha theorized that these deserted oases were created as safe rest spots for young mages. It was also at one of these oases that Jayde came across Scarlet Devils Thorn and Yellow Sand Thimbleberry which she harvested and sent the seeds to Isha.

With the amount of beast killed, Thorn had upgraded to level two. Jayde decided to wait until she left the Blood Tower to choose a new technique. It was during the fourth week that the three ran into a small problem. With the amount of Qi Jayde had absorbed she had reached the threshold and was ready to breakthrough to Knight of the 8th Class.

Since she couldn't leave the Blood Tower, Jayde arranged a secure ward to protect herself during her breakthrough while Reiko and Yinxin guarded her outside. Sitting in the middle of her ward Jayde knowing that Reiko and Yinxin would protect her Jayde set her mind at ease and quickly attacked the barrier. Since Jayde had already broken through previously, the barrier wasn't that strong, and it wasn't long before she broke through.

The next day the three awoke early and set off as usual. It was just after their first battle of the day that a simmering door appeared. Relieved that they had finally passed level one, Jayde summonedReiko and Yinxin back into her space before walking through the newly emerged door.

After entering the simmering door, Jayde found herself a large stone room.

"Congratulations on passing level one," the disembodied voice of the tower boomed out.

"You took thirty days to complete level one. Evaluation is average. Reward one bottle of advanced Qi gathering pills. Do you wish to continue?" the tower asked.

"I wish to continue," Jayde answered. Although Jayde was disappointed that she had only managed to achieve an average passing assessment, she nevertheless was happy to have earned a bottle of advanced Qi gathering pills as these pills were not available in the Lower Realms and it would help her with her cultivation.

A small pedestal in the stone room lit up, and on top of the pedestal, a small porcelain bottle appeared. Jayde walked over to the pedestal and picked up the porcelain bottle. Opening the bottle, Jayde poured out the contents. Ten perfect round white pill with two straight gold lines appeared. Jayde knew from her class that basic pills had no lines, while intermediate pills only had one line, master pills had three gold lines. Pouring the pills back into the porcelain bottle, Jayde stored the bottle away in her spatial ring.

The light over the pedestal disappeared, while a new light appeared above a door. Jayde walked over to the door. Opening the door, Jayde was curious about what type of world she would find herself in this time.

Stepping through the door, Jayde found herself in a densely packed jungle. Looking around her Jayde immediately determined that she wouldn't be able to summon Yinxin to help her this time, as there wasn't enough space for the dragon to maneuver, and the canopy above her was so densely packed that Yinxin wouldn't be able to provide air cover for her and Reiko.

After discussing the issue with Yinxin and Reiko, Jayde summoned Reiko. This time Jayde was determined to get a better assessment, as soon as Reiko appeared the two set off quickly. Jayde and Reiko soon realized that staying on the ground of the jungle was deadly as many of the creatures hid beneath the rotting vegetation ready to ambush the two.

The two of them took to the trees, using the interlinking branches to travel through the dense jungle. They lured out the hidden creatures on the ground to attack them, setting up many traps beforehand. Since Jayde spent most of her time fighting above the ground, she had to rely mostly on her magic. During the three weeks spent in the jungle, Jayde mastered her Blades of Fire and Summoning spells.

On Telia, Jayde had created the rune summoning spell to create a fire shadowbeast. The three weeks in the jungle allowed her to create a fire dragon as well as earth shadowbeast and earth dragons. While her summoned dragons were much smaller than real dragons, they still inflicted quite a lot of damage, and by the time the simmering door appeared Jayde was able to summon three beasts to fight alongside her.

Unfortunately, due to the two having to rest in the trees in the evening Jayde was unable to spend much time cultivating, but she did manage to accumulate quite many beast cores. Thorn was quite upset that Jayde spent most of her time using magic and he didn't get a chance to gain experience.

This time the Blood Tower gave Jayde a satisfactory evaluation, and she was awarded a bottle of advanced Qi gathering pills, a bottle of advanced healing pills, two bottles of advanced detoxifying pills as well as ten firestones.

The third level was a swamp. Jayde again decided to leave Yinxin in her space while she and Reiko battled the creatures. At least this time she was able to fight on the ground and Jayde spent the time mastering using her martial and spell together. The most significant benefit to this area was the number of rare herbs that Jayde managed to find and send to Isha.

It was just as well that Jayde had been rewarded two bottles of advanced detoxifying pills as the swamp was filled with poisonous plants and insects as well as many venomous snakes. By the time the simmering door appear Jayde only had a couple of the detoxifying pills left and she had used half of the healing pills awarded.

Since Jayde had managed to complete level three within sixteen days, the tower's evaluation was good, and Jayde was awarded a phoenix cloak. The Blood Tower informed Jayde that the cloak would protect Jayde from all adverse weather conditions as well as from spells, it would also hide the person's aura while wearing the cloak and would make the user invisible during the night.

Lifting up the cloak Jayde examined the cloak. While the tower said it was a phoenix cloak, the cloak wasn't made out of feathers instead the cloak was a shimmering black. The material was paper thin and felt softer than the most beautiful silk. From Isha excited chatter Jayde realized that she had been awarded a rare treasure. Jayde immediately stored the cloak in her spatial ring.

Jayde had been in the tower for seventy-one days since she still had forty-nine days left, she decided to enter the fourth level. Exiting the door, Jayde found herself in a frozen landscape. Quickly activating her fire shield to protect her from the icy winds, Jayde rummaged through her spatial ring to retrieve the Phoenix Cloak.

Slipping the cloak on Jayde immediately felt warm. When Jayde lifted the hood she noticed that the hood came with extra material to cover her face, even her eyes were covered with a see-through material that would protect them. Jayde realized then that the rewards given had something to do with the next level mages were going to face. In level two she had been given detoxifying pills which had helped her in level three and now she had the phoenix cloak which would help her navigate this level. Jayde realized that without this cloak there was no way she would have been able to survive in this frozen landscape.

Since this area was so cold, Jayde decided to leave Reiko and Yinxin in her space, neither one of them would be able to stand this chill for very long. Although both made her promise to summon them should she run into trouble. Since Jayde was alone, while this time the monsters were more powerful, she didn't run into swarms of them.

The creatures that she did run into though looked like ancient drawings she had seen of the abdominal snowman and yetis. While powerful built, they were slow — but their thick hides and fur made injuring them difficult. Each battle was long and drawn out as Jayde had to cut them numerous times to tire them out before defeating them.

While none of the beasts had fire cores, Jayde did manage to collect many earth, water, and light cores. Each of the cores was high grade which made them valuable. Jayde didn't have to summon Yinxin or Reiko, but during the ten days she was stuck in level four she didn't get much sleep either as she was continuously attacked every evening.

By the time the simmering door appeared Jayde was exhausted, she had used up all her healing potions to heal from the numerous injuries she had received. She had used the last of her wood two days earlier and had not been able to a fire the night before, even though her phoenix cloak kept her warm she had still spent a miserable night huddling in her worn out tent. The last eighty days had taken its toll on her tent, and she would need to replace next time she was in Aeris.

"Congratulations on passing level four," the voice of the tower called out as Jayde stepped into the stone room.

"You took ten days to complete level four. Evaluation is excellent. Reward one master grade fire spell and one divine light. Do you wish to continue?" the tower asked.

"No, thank you," Jayde said. Divine light, what the hell is that Jayde thought. Not even registering that she had just been awarded a master grade fire spell.

As soon as Jayde finished speaking, a pure golden light enveloped her. As the golden light sunk into Jayde's skin every ache and pain that Jayde was feeling disappeared. All the damage done to Jayde's body vanished, and at the same time, pure Qi filled her dantian and her meridians. As the golden light traveled along her meridians, it nourished, widened and reinforced her meridians.

Jayde was so shocked by the light it took her a couple of seconds before she realized what the golden light was doing to her body. Jayde couldn't help grinning as she took notice of how her meridians were expanding. By the gods, White was right the rewards given are amazing, she thought. The changes to her meridians would only benefit Jayde's cultivation in the long run.

Unfortunately, she would only earn rewards again for redoing these levels if she gained a higher assessment, and since she had won the highest evaluation for level four, she would never receive any rewards for repeating it. Sadly Jayde would have to redo this level as once she left the tower it would reset and she would have to redo level four if she wanted to gain access to level five.

After the golden light faded, Jayde walked over to the pedestal and picked up the scroll containing the magic spell, opening the scroll Jayde read through the spell. Jayde was so shocked when she read the spell that she nearly dropped the scroll, it was then that Jayde realized that she had a master level spell in her hands.

The scroll contained the spell for {Fire Wings} a transmutation spell. This spell would create two great wings made out of fire on her back, which would allow Jayde to fly. Transmutation spells were considered gold level spells, and usually, only a high-level mage could cast them.

[Isha will I be able to use this spell?] Jayde asked hopefully.

[Yes, the tower would never give you a reward that you can not use, but you will only be able to create wings for a short time, as the magic required to keep them active is great so the drain on your magic will be vast.]

While Jayde was happy that she had learned the Art of Sword flying technique, she could not help being thrilled by the idea of having her own wings. Ever since she was a child Jayde had always dreamed of flying through the air, she often had dreams of having great wings on her soaring through the skies. Jayde always figured it was a secret desire to be free of the Xi Corporation, but even on Doha she still had dreams of her flying through the skies.

Storing the scroll away in her spatial ring Jayde left the tower, a small delighted smile on her face.

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