Chapter Sixty-Six: Grade B Skill! Ice Barrier!

Learning how to make money is a difficult task.

But learning how to spend it seems to be an innate skill for most people.

Yi Shen had initially thought that this ten million would last him a long time, but to his surprise, after just a tour of the major trading houses, he already felt his funds were running low.

—High-level equipment and skill books were simply outrageously expensive, almost akin to daylight robbery.

A random D-rank skill book started at five thousand, with better ones easily fetching over ten thousand.

And from C-rank upward, the prices for advanced skills rose dramatically, with even the lowest negotiations starting at fifty thousand!

For B-rank, the lowest normal selling price was two hundred thousand contribution points, and there were only a handful available; most skill books were so rare they could only be sold at auction.

As for even higher A-rank skills, besides requiring contribution points, there were often restrictions—sold only to internal guild members or put up for bidding within the main group! By the time any made it to the open market, the price would either be astronomical or the item would be such utter trash that no one wanted it.

Yi Shen received nearly ten million contribution points from his mother, with the primary goal of quickly upgrading his equipment and skill books, converting them into personal strength.

After a Herculean effort and spending over four million—including a slight premium—he barely managed to find some suitable mage skill books. This was only possible because he was a relative of Peach Blossom Manor; otherwise, many of these skills would have been inaccessible to him, monopolized in a different way.

From the money left, Yi Shen reserved over a million for various materials to study decomposition, and set aside two million to see if he could win some good skill books at upcoming auctions.

Piece by piece, the ten-million allocation was soon exhausted.

Of course,

after all these preparations,

Yi Shen’s strength soared to new heights once again!

At the very least, with this financial backing, many of his previous ideas could now be realized and put to the test!

First, concerning his old skills: after research, purchases, and upgrades, his lowest-ranked skills were now all at D-rank, and he had filled out his skill set.

For instance, in summoning, besides being able to call water and wind elementals, he had now learned to summon fire, lightning, and earth elementals, as well as a rare skill to summon the Ice Queen!

With these skills upgraded to D-rank, he could now summon three of each elemental, with their durations extended from one to three minutes.

In other words, Yi Shen could now summon up to eighteen creatures at once in a short span!

These summoned creatures

inherited a portion of Yi Shen’s attributes.

For most people, summoned creatures were usually too weak to withstand a few attacks from monsters.

But Yi Shen’s own stats were absurdly high for his level, so his summons likewise boasted ridiculous attributes—at least ten times higher than the average posted on the forums, easily allowing him to realize his vision of a miniature summoner’s army.

This was what it meant to be a true summoner mage!

Moreover, with enough research points in the future, he could continue upgrading these skills. Once they reached C or B rank, the number and power of his summoned creatures would be further enhanced!

Next, in terms of new skills, Yi Shen had spent a fortune to purchase several highly valuable skill books.

There were four main skills worth mentioning:

[Frost Barrier (B)], [Mirror Image (B)], [Spell Counter (C)], and [Holy Nova (B)].

———

[Frost Barrier (B): Consumes 1,000 mana. Summons a barrier of frost around the mage, granting immunity to all damage and effects for ten seconds. During this time, the mage cannot take any action, and will suffer a debuff from the low temperature, preventing recast of Frost Barrier for 30 seconds. The mage may cancel the effect at any time. Cooldown: ten minutes.]

[Mirror Image (B): Consumes 2,000 mana. Summons five mirror images by your side, with a maximum of five existing at once. Each mirror image inherits 20% of your stats and lasts three minutes. Cooldown: ten minutes.]

[Spell Counter (C): Consumes 200 mana. Counters an enemy’s spell. Cooldown: twenty seconds.]

[Holy Nova (B): Consumes 3,000 mana. Causes a holy energy explosion centered on the caster, dealing 500 base energy damage plus an additional 20% of intelligence and spirit as bonus damage to all targets within a ten-meter radius, and healing all party members within ten meters for 1,000 base energy plus 20% of intelligence and spirit as bonus healing. Cooldown: two minutes.]

———

Of these four skills, Frost Barrier was another god-tier mage ability.

This skill only appeared at C-rank or higher, and the B-rank version cost Yi Shen a full million to acquire!

Frost Barrier had but one effect: invulnerability!

And it granted invulnerability for a full ten seconds!

Though the mage could not move during this time, it allowed one to evade most area and lethal attacks.

Mages were a class defined by their reliance on cooldowns; with these ten seconds of invulnerability, their tactical options expanded greatly.

Of course, Yi Shen himself had no cooldowns or resource limits, and could operate at full capacity at all times, so this Frost Barrier was simply an extra layer of protection.

Mirror Image was a duplicating skill for mages, allowing five magical clones to appear at once. When combined with his summoned creatures, it could thoroughly confuse opponents. The B-rank Mirror Image inherited about 20% of the original’s stats and lasted a bit longer. The price wasn’t high, so Yi Shen snapped it up as soon as he saw it.

Spell Counter was only a C-rank skill, mainly filling a gap in Yi Shen’s toolkit—he’d long wanted a counterspell.

In combat, Spell Counter could be highly effective: not only could it interrupt a monster’s casting, but also break the enemy’s spellcasting when facing other explorers—crucial in his current situation, surrounded by foes on all sides.

Even more importantly, while this skill had a twenty-second cooldown for others, for Yi Shen it was completely free of cooldown or limits!

When facing other magic users, he could use Spell Counter endlessly, disrupting all their channeled spells; at best, they could only use instant-cast skills against him! Unless they had special anti-interrupt abilities, or their level was so high as to overpower and negate his skill, this advantage was nearly insurmountable in PvP encounters!

The last skill, Holy Nova, was not a mage skill but belonged to the priest’s holy branch. Yi Shen had previously learned a healing spell, so when he saw the B-rank Holy Nova, he bought it without hesitation.

This skill allowed Yi Shen to instantly restore more than six thousand health at once, while also unleashing a holy attack against enemies—a very fine addition to his arsenal.