I was an apprentice in Ferren

Chapter 128 Buy, buy, buy

Thinking about this, DuPont couldn't help but consider something.

Should I take on the roles of thief and ranger?
He has now passed the most difficult growth period, and he now has more than 11400 gold coins in his pocket, which is enough to obtain a new profession through this money-grubbing system.

If he works part-time, those 20,000 experience points would probably bring his total level to 15.

But the same problem remains: as your overall level increases, the experience points you gain from killing monsters decrease, not to mention that high-level monsters are harder to find.

I'm afraid I'll only be able to stay at home and gain experience points through studying.

Killing a troll yields more experience than learning for a week, and the troll hide can be sold for hundreds of gold. It's obvious which method is more profitable.

It just takes time to find these monsters.

To gain more experience at level 15, you must hunt monsters with a challenge level of 8 or higher. These monsters are significantly more dangerous, and finding them is much more troublesome than finding other players of similar strength.

For example, there were many professionals of similar caliber in his college, and his homeroom teacher was Benjamin.
DuPont was suddenly startled by his own thoughts.

This idea is quite dangerous.

The professors in the academy are all high-ranking social elites. If they dare to commit crimes, they will be exposed sooner or later. They will probably be wanted by the police and will have to go to several countries to make a living.

If Harua treats its apprentices with such malice, one can only imagine how evil the kingdom is.

If you want to be safe, you could stage an accident or use entrapment to lure adventurers out and kill them. As long as the frequency of these crimes is low, there's a high chance they won't be discovered.
Thinking of this, DuPont suddenly remembered the fake mage he had just stabbed to death.

Holy crap, could that person in the cave be one of my colleagues?

The probability of the other party being a time traveler is relatively low, but the famous Son of Slaughter is able to grow rapidly through killing, which is why the entire Faerûn is in a state of panic.

If his memory serves him correctly, the appearance of the Child of Slaughter seems to coincide with a famous year of turmoil, when the Goddess of Magic will die, the magic network will be in turmoil, and spellcasting will become a highly dangerous task.
Holy crap, what do we do?
Long-term and short-term strategies each have their advantages and disadvantages. What's really bothering DuPont is that, as a tabletop role-playing enthusiast, he only remembers that the turbulent years were around 13XX, but he doesn't have any recollection of the exact year.

However, now that we've seen a possible Child of Slaughter, it shouldn't be far off.

Time is of the essence.
Is there anything that allows me to continue hunting and improve my strength without increasing my overall level?
There's still a lot to think about, like buying equipment, buying scrolls, and so on.
Wait, I can also buy special skills!
He remembered that when he bought the Warrior class, he purchased the Combat Style and Aura, which did not count towards the feat list. He should still calculate the cost of purchasing feats based on 1000 gold coins.

You can now purchase expertise related to your current job.

[Due to the user's limited spending, currently only Origin Feats, General Feats, Mega Magic Feats, and Warrior Style can be purchased. General Feats will be unlocked after accumulating over 3 gold coins in spending, and Advanced Feats will be unlocked after spending 10 gold coins.]

Upon checking, DuPont found no special skills that could improve attribute values. He thought that this might be a spot that could only be obtained after spending 30,000. However, even among the general special skills, there were some pretty good options.

For example, he bought spell penetration without any hesitation.

Spell Penetration: When you cast a spell against the target's spell resistance, you gain a +2 bonus on your caster level roll.

If a spell fails a spell check, the spell will not take effect. For example, if a spell is within range, it can usually deal half the damage. However, spells that affect control will be saved directly, which is equivalent to wasting a casting time and a precious spell slot. This is undoubtedly unacceptable for mages in actual combat.

Therefore, spell penetration can almost be said to be an essential skill for mages, and it was also one of the highlights of mages in the old system.

However, the new system no longer teaches these kinds of special skills. Before level 5, college mages are only taught how to quickly learn spells and a mana regeneration technique called Arcane Recall, in addition to learning a subclass. You could say that they've maxed out the speed-learning skill.

To learn these specialties, one can only pursue further studies at an academy after graduation, paying exorbitant fees and learning from high-ranking mages or even archmages.

The same applies to super magic techniques.

DuPont didn't mind spending 1,000 gold coins, but the next time he bought a special ability, it would cost 2000 gold coins.

DuPont carefully selected several.

Mastery of First Strike: Increases your first strike chance by 4.

Evasion: Your defensive capabilities gain a 1-point evasion bonus.

Specialize in spells: Choose a school of spells, and you gain a +1 bonus on all saving throws when casting spells from that school.

Weapon Specialization: Choose a weapon, and your attack rolls increase by 1.

Lightning Reflexes: Your reflexes are enhanced, Dexterity checks +2. Both are very useful. DuPont thought about it and bought Evasion, bringing his Defense rating to 22.

In the blink of an eye, 3000 gold coins disappeared from his savings. Seeing that it would cost 4000 gold coins to buy more, DuPont felt a pang of heartache.

He risked his life for this little bit of wealth, although most of the money was extorted, but using his brain cells was also a loss, and this was all hard-earned money.

Furthermore, rare-grade equipment generally costs around 4000-5000, and a pair of agility gloves provides a much greater boost than buying a feat. Clearly, buying equipment is more cost-effective for increasing strength.

However, considering the powerful general and advanced perks, DuPont still bought the Mastery First Strike perk.

Many general perks can increase attribute values, although most only increase by 1 point, but that is still a basic attribute increase, so it's worth buying.

Advanced feats can upgrade important feats like spell penetration, resulting in exceptionally powerful effects.

After seeing that the gold coins for the Super Magic Specialty and the regular Specialty did not stack, DuPont spent another 1000 gold coins to buy a Super Magic: Spell Delay skill.

Spell Delay: When you use a spell slot one level higher, the duration of your spell is doubled.

Honestly, this ability doesn't improve DuPont much. He only knows 2nd-level spells now, and he doesn't need Mage Armor anymore. This skill at most increases the duration of "Grease the Foot".

But 1000 gold coins is relatively cheap, so I'll just buy it. Once I become a third-ring mage, I can extend the duration of Fox Wisdom, which will further increase my spell learning speed.

They're rich and powerful, that's how they act.

The 8000 gold coins vanished in an instant, leaving DuPont with just over 3000. He decided to stop for the time being.

It usually costs 8000 to buy another specialty, which is unaffordable now.

Buying the combat style feat again would cost 2000 gold, but the improvement is rather small, so let's ignore it for now.

DuPont looked at his system panel.

Name: DuPont

Race: human

Age: 14
Current Faction: Chaotic Neutral

Classes: Mage (Battle Mage) lv4 / Barbarian lv2 / Warrior (Arcane Knight) lv3
属性：力量14/敏捷19（+5）/体质18（+2）/智力22（+4）/感知10/魅力16
Languages: Common, Elvish, Dragon, Dwarven, Orcish, Celestial, Infernal
Spell strengths: Necromantic spells, Transmutation spells
Specialties: Scroll copying, Tenacity, Earth and Wood Mage proficiency, Evasion, First Strike proficiency, Spell Penetration, Barbarian Weapon proficiency

Magical Arts: Architecture, Golem Studies, Engineering, Necromancy
Super Magic Ability: Spell Delay

Special Abilities: Eccentric Chef, Berserk, Arcane Deflection, War Mind, Chi, Unarmored Defense, Reckless Attack, Danger Sense, Turbulent Movement, War Connection

Combat Style: Giant Weapon Combat
0-ring spells: Freezing Ray, Four Symbols, Repair Building, Repair Construct, Message, Wizard's Hand, Light, Trick

1st Ring Spells: Find a Familiar, Featherfall, Alarm, Mage Armor, Shield, Grease, Emulsify, Summon Skeleton Minion, Magic Missile, Hand of Fire

2nd Ring Spells: Dagger Cloud, Invisibility, Spider Walk, Mechanized Mind, Fox Wisdom

Magical Equipment: Dexterity Gloves, Vitality Belt, Healing Staff, Mask of Deception, Phoenix Crown, +1 War Wand, +1 Eastern Longsword, Elven Boots, Elven Cloak

Looking at his current state, DuPont couldn't help but feel very satisfied.

He had only been in this world for a few days, almost a month, but his strength had undergone a tremendous transformation, an improvement so great that even the instructors in the academy couldn't believe it.

And this was all without them knowing they possessed a warrior level.

If I could raise my intelligence to 20 points in a short period of time, my tutor would probably think I made a deal with the devil when I took the test.

Once I sell all the chainmail and cloak I have, I can buy some magic equipment I like and take on some silver-level adventure quests without much trouble. I can start thinking about leveling up after I've accumulated six figures of experience points.

Anyway, the experience points can be used at any time, so delaying a little longer is always a gain. I'm determined to be a rat in this mess!

(End of this chapter)