Chương 117: 116 - Window Shopping

It didn't take long for Alexandra to find the new page in her journal. The system called it the contribution point shop, and it was surprisingly empty. There was nothing written on the page, except her current point balance, which was naturally at zero. Alexandra waited a few seconds and even went back to her status to check if she'd selected the right perk. She clicked her tongue, unsure of how to proceed.

Since Contribution Points was supposed to change her quest rewards, she flipped the pages of her journal to check on them. Event Quests: Format Education: Graduate as a Keeper of the Iron Ink (0/1). Reward: 5, 000, 000 contribution points Failure condition: Leave the Iron Library's academy before reaching Platinum rank. She blinked. It was there. The epic skill reward had been swapped out for five million contribution points.

"Okay. An epic skill is worth five million contribution points," she whispered, moving on to check on her Training Quests. Basic Enchantment Training Quest: Enchant an item (0/1) -> 20 contribution points"Only twenty?" She quickly read through all her training quests and found that the contribution point reward scaled with level and skill rarity. Still, even the reward for levels five to six of Giant Slayer, her only rare skill, was priced at 2, 500 contribution points.

That was far from enough to afford an epic skill. She ran a few calculations and concluded that rarity multiplied skill level prices by five. She didn't have enough skills to map out the price of each level, but a higher level was always more expensive, and the prices seemed consistent for all skills. Alexandra returned to the contribution point shop and tried working with her intent. She wanted to see what she could buy. Words appeared on the page.

Skill Level Skill She opened the skill level tab and confirmed that the rewards she got from her quest perfectly translated to the price of the skill levels. If she completed a Training Quest to get a skill from level one to level two, she could pay for it to happen through the shop. It was as the perk description advertised, but she was relieved to know she hadn't ruined her quests by picking it. Next, she moved on to the skill tab.

Common Skill: 5, 000 contribution points Uncommon Skill: 50, 000 contribution points Rare Skill: 500, 000 contribution points Epic Skill: 5, 000, 000 contribution points Note: 10% discount on skill quests.

"What the hell are those prices?" Expensive. Everything was expensive. She gave up on the idea of buying a rare skill anytime soon. She could maybe afford an uncommon skill depending on how the rewards for Giant Slayer's Training Quest progressed, but even then, it would take a while. Common skills, however, were affordable. Looking at her level thirteen uncommon skills, their Training Quest rewards had already scaled up to 1, 800 contribution points. Once she recovered her mana, she could start farming those.

Common skill quests were also rarely difficult, so she could take advantage of the discount and save 500 contribution points for each skill. She tried prompting her class art to buy a common skill. Alexandra wanted to know how much control she had over what skill she would receive. For all she knew, the system would be the one in control, but she hoped that she could at least influence the outcome. Unfortunately, her intent crashed into a wall that made it clear she wouldn't find out until she could afford to pay.

She tapped her fingers on the page. She estimated the price of taking a common skill from level one to level ten to be a bit less than one thousand contribution points. Extrapolating on her skill leveling speed, she figured that she could maybe extract about three thousand points from a skill before it reached the level cap. Not enough to self-sustain. But not far. She closed her journal, stood up, and left her room for the library. She found Kam in the lifeforce alcove.

He was sitting in his usual spot, reading a book he'd probably read many times. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Kam, I need to check something with your class art." He looked up from his book.

"It won't take long," Alexandra said, stepping next to him.

"And you stand to benefit."

"Okay." Kam stood up and put the book back on its shelf. Then, he moved to the center of the alcove and rolled up the left sleeve of his robes. Alexandra wondered how the boy's class art worked. She didn't even know his class. Kam wouldn't volunteer the information, and it was the sort of thing she'd learned not to ask. Kam dug into his pocket with his right hand and took out a scalpel. Before Alexandra could stop him, he sliced his left arm open. Blood trickled on the floor.

"You could have warned me," she said.

"It's not urgent to the point you need to hurt yourself." He shrugged.

"I'm used to it." His eyes showed a rare reaction of surprise.

"I see. Contribution point shop."

"You have access to it directly?" she asked. Willow and Louis had never been able to access her quests directly, only the rewards. Though she supposed her party would need a way to spend their contribution points.

"What about quests? Can you see them?"

"I can," Kam said.

"Elaborate."

"First, there's a quest to graduate from the academy. Then…" He paused.

"I'm counting thirteen smaller quests. The rewards aren't as good." Alexandra counted her skills. It matched.

"What do the quests say?"

"Only an objective, and a contribution point reward." After asking a few more questions, Alexandra concluded that the thirteen quests were indeed the Training Quests for her uncapped skills. Kam's class art wasn't telling him which skill they were for. It was a good thing, as she didn't want to broadcast her skills to all her party.

"Can you try completing one?" she asked. He nodded.

"Done."

"Already?"

"The enchantment quest had no requirement on the quality of the enchantment." He waved his scalpel. Alexandra checked her balance. Her heart skipped a beat. Contribution Points: 2"Do you still have access to the quest?" she asked. Kam shook his head.

"It's there, but it seems like there's a cooldown."

"How long?"

"I don't know." Alexandra pursed her lips. This wasn't quite a loophole, but it was good. She was taking ten percent of her party members' contribution points, and it seemed like they would be able to repeat the quests eventually. It still wasn't going to make a massive difference in the short term, as ten percent wasn't a lot, and more valuable quests would be harder to complete. But every point counted.

"Alexandra," Kam said.

"Yes?"

"The reward from the graduation quest is a lot." Five million contribution points. This put into perspective the value of an epic skill, and almost made her want to stay. Or, at least, to leave a party member behind. She wasn't sure if she'd get the reward if Kam was the one graduating, though. Back in Esmera, she'd actively participated in the completion of the event quests. So, even if Louis was the one to kill Lucius Merinus, she had done her part. She couldn't be sure if the reward would be shared this time.

"I know it's a lot," she said.

"But I always know that." Putting a number on it changed her perspective, but not the value of the reward. She needed to be alive and free to enjoy her five million points. Otherwise, what was the point? She agreed to meet Kam later and left the library. She would look for Willow, but she had no idea where her friend was, so she decided to focus on her own progress.

While Alexandra was eager to gather 4, 500 contribution points as fast as possible to see how the shop worked, she didn't think it would be a good use of her time. She wasn't confident farming her rare and uncommon skills without her mana, and the few common skills she could train without mana would take too long to get her there. She also had Light and Mana Persuasion's skill quests waiting for her, so she didn't need to rush.

What she needed was to get her mana back, and with Raymond's advice, a plan had started to bloom in her mind. She passed by the armory, grabbed a spear and a few aetherveil potions, and climbed down the stairs to Kator. This time, she traveled south of the city along the seashore. Unlike in the north, there was a road running along the coast, linking Kator to a few fishing villages, and beyond them, more towns administered by the Keepers. The southern shoreline was more rugged than the north.

Short hills and stone cliffs rose and fell into the sea. She left the main road to follow a narrow game trail. The path sloped sharply downward, twisting through overgrown briars opening into a secluded creek. The water here pooled into dark eddies beneath the shadow of overlapping crags. The silence of the ravine was complete, broken only by a faint, low hum that vibrated through the damp air. Hovering just above the surface of the creek were dozens of translucent shapes.

They drifted through the mist like floating lanterns, their long, pale tentacles trailing through the water below. Alexandra stepped onto a wet stone ledge, lowering her center of gravity. As she drew closer, the faint static of ambient mana prickled against the skin of her face. The creatures were actively oozing magic. Most were pale blue, carrying the faint, weak signatures of the Iron rank. Further down the creek, where the water deepened into a black pool, larger anomalies drifted with a heavy, steady pulse.

Bronze ranks, and even a single, shimmering creature that carried the distinct pressure of a Silver rank. The creek was isolated, enclosed by vertical rock faces that blocked the wind, but the air felt charged, almost heavy enough to breathe. Alexandra unbuckled her pouch and pulled out the first vial of aetherveil potion, her thumb resting on the cork. She looked at the closest Iron-rank jellyfish drifting toward her ledge, its tentacles whispering against the stone. This was going to work.