My health recovery is incredibly fast.

The host gestured for the audience to return to their seats, jumped off the competition field, and pulled the lever next to the competition platform.

Three layers of iron netting descended from the ceiling, surrounding the two people on the field.

Chapter 4 Xia Zuo's Promotion Plan, Scarface

1. Promotion Plan

Fabian and Jack have very similar fighting styles.

The two fought with bone daggers, learning each other's attack rhythm and habits through repeated clashes, and searching for an opening to launch a fatal blow.

A bone dagger can leave chisel marks on steel gauntlets; a scratch from it can cause anything from minor cuts to severed limbs.

They both knew this, so they were extra careful in their battles. After discovering that their opponent's style was similar to their own, they both chose to maneuver and move around.

The audience members were getting impatient.

"Hey! What are you two doing? Hurry up and get to work!? There's no such thing as a draw here."

"Host! Give us something juicy! Are we supposed to just watch a cat show here?"

The host with the goatee looked towards the VIP seats on the second floor.

The dark-skinned, chubby man sat on the soft sofa seat, rubbing his left hand, adorned with jeweled rings, in front of him, making a gesture.

The host walked to the competition stage, opened a hidden metal door, and pulled the purple lever behind the door.

"Buzz~ Zzzzz..." The barbed wire was electrified.

The host picked up a wooden stick and struck it against the wire mesh, sending up a burst of silvery-white sparks, while shouting:

"The electric current can easily turn you both into dried-up husks! Go all out! Otherwise, you'll regret it!"

Good heavens, they really don't treat people like human beings... Xia Zuo ate a piece of fruit and stared intently at the changes on the field.

Jack switched the bone dagger to his left hand, drew a bone sword from his left arm with his right hand, twirled his hands in a circle, and charged toward Fabien with a roar.

Fabien didn't hold back either, and the three-edged dagger that could cause a powerful stiffening poison appeared in his left hand, but unfortunately it wasn't long enough to reach his opponent's torso.

Jack's bone sword, only slightly shorter than his arm, gave him the upper hand.

He even scraped his tattoo with the blade, getting a layer of thick, black, foul-smelling liquid on it.

Fabian became even more wary and retreated repeatedly around the sidelines.

Perhaps panicking, he slipped and fell backward to the ground. The moment his back hit the ground, his left hand, hidden to his side, jerked violently, and a short, three-edged stimulant shot into Jack's body.

The accuracy of this blind shot was ultimately lacking.

The three-edged dagger failed to penetrate Jack's torso, only making a hole in his left forearm.

Jack's left arm stiffened instantly.

He hesitated for a second, then roared and used the bone sword in his right hand to cut off his left forearm, preventing the stiffening toxin from spreading to other parts of his body.

A small spurt of blood gushed from his left forearm, but the wound was immediately covered by a layer of grayish-white bone, and no more blood flowed out.

Jack caught up with Fabien, who had just gotten up, and thrust his bone sword at him.

"Pfft." The blade pierced Fabien's heart and emerged from the other end.

"Pfft." Jack drew his bone sword, bringing with him a spray of blood and bits of flesh.

The arena was stained red with Fabian's blood, and the blood sparked as it touched the electrified wire mesh.

The host pulled the lever, turned off the power, and announced loudly:

"The winner is the one who breaks the rocks! Jack!!"

Jack retracted his bone sword into his right palm, raised his left arm, walked to the sidelines, slapped the wire fence, and shouted at the announcer:

"Don't forget your promise! I want his bone marrow sac!"

The host waved his hand, "We'll talk about it backstage."

The audience dispersed.

Ross, who had won the bet, ran to the prize redemption counter and exchanged his lottery ticket for a large sum of money.

As agreed, he slipped the winnings from the gambling into Andrew's hands.

Andrew thought for a moment, then decided to keep the money safe for him, putting it in a cloth bag and tucking it under his trench coat. "Don't do it again, Ross. Gambling only leads to ruin. This win is enough."

“Yes, Andrew.” As Ross walked out with the other man, he glanced at the bodies of Jack and Fabian on the field—a scarred man was dissecting the corpses, putting pieces of bloody flesh into a metal box.

"Andrew, what about the bone sac? It looks like the Beast Arena wants to hand it over to Jack. Should we stop them directly, or report it to the group?"

“Let’s go to the Red Beauty Tavern for a drink. We’ll have news soon. The Beast Arena is owned by the Mishima Group. We can’t force them to hand over the bone sac.” Andrew calmly walked towards the audience passage.

Xia Zuo crossed his arms and looked back at the two of them.

First, Andrew mentioned the Mishima Group.

The emblem of Mishima is three islands.

Do they correspond to three industries?

Gambling, pubs, dance halls?

Secondly, Ross mentioned "reporting to the group".

This suggests that these two individuals come from an organization, which could be the Sword of the Golden Merchant or the Different Plant Group.

Which one specifically…

Xia Zuo scratched his head and manipulated Servant No. 1 to go into the corridor to carefully examine the advertising posters.

The pubs and dance halls that sell addictive items and offer special services are all controlled by the Mishima Group. Each poster features a picture of "three islands" in the lower right corner, which is consistent with the emblem on the city hall sign.

He walked back and forth in the corridor twice, but did not see any advertising posters put up by Yizhu Group.

They did discover intelligence about the Golden Merchant's Sword. This organization seems to specialize in weapons sales and has opened several weapon workshops in the city that sell knives and firearms.

Judging from Andrew and Ross's appearance, they are probably not from the Golden Sword, and there is an 80% chance that they come from the Different Group.

So... what does the Yizhu Group do?

Xia Zuo has some leads, such as the connection between the Yizhu Group and the Bone Sac, but the scope of the Yizhu Group's business cannot be fully determined yet...

He put Servant No. 1 back onto the ceiling of the arena, waiting for Servant No. 4, attached to Andrew's collar, to send useful information.

When Andrew arrived at the Red Glamour Bar, he sat at the bar, drinking and watching the dancing. Ross, on the other hand, sat down at a large round table and played cards with a group of strangers.

Xia Zuo moved the view of minion number 4 to the upper left corner of his field of vision and turned off the view of the other blood elemental minions.

He planned to take advantage of this break to look at the items needed to advance to the next level as a high-ranking mage.

Upon opening the metal box, a parchment scroll lay horizontally above the elemental bottle, containing detailed information about the ascension ceremony.

Xia Zuo read it carefully, and the information from his cheat system came to his mind:

"The system has detected that the host has obtained information related to the advancement to a high-level mage. Character template updated."

...

[Identity] Mage Temple Mage

[Status Level] Formal Mage

Promotion Requirements

1. The mental attribute value reaches 50 points.

2. Complete the Curse Master Assessment

3. Advance to Master-level Poison Alchemist

4. Can accommodate at least 100 small elements

5. Can contain at least one large element.

6. Condensing a complete basic elemental shell

Alternatively, use the [Poisonous Crystal] meditation method to seal all the obedient elements within the ocean of consciousness.

7. Accept the ceremony of loyalty (achieved).

8. Serve in the designated position for at least 5 years.

...

With the Light Element, you can gain 0.01 points each night through meditation.

With a current Spirit attribute value of 20 points, to increase it to 50 points without using free attribute points, you need to meditate every night for 3000 days.

This step dispelled the idea of ​​most formal mages wanting to advance to a higher level.

Without the aid of light elements in their meditation, their daily increase in mental attribute is less than 0.001 points. If they only meditate at night, it would take at least 90 years to gain enough mental attribute points…

Xia Zuo calculated that, assuming he completes the 8th condition and starts deep meditation day and night from the 6th year onwards, while simultaneously creating more than 200 elemental bottles to condense an elemental body, it would still take him nearly 10 years to meet all the advancement conditions.

The major element mentioned in the fifth promotion requirement is contained in a bottle inside the metal box.

It is ten times the size of a small element, looks like a grain of rice, and each one can provide 10 points of a single attribute power, occupy 5 spirit slots, and can be sealed with expert-level elemental toxins.

There are prerequisites for applying for the Curse Master assessment:

You need to learn the existing five curse spells to the advanced level, and at the same time learn one more advanced curse spell.

Sluggishness, Slowness, Vulnerability, Disruption, and Decay—these five curses are of the formal spell rank, with the initial stage after learning them being the basic stage.

A spell that is one grade higher than a regular spell is a high-grade spell, and its initial stage is already high-grade.

Shazo can choose one of four high-level curse spells to learn.

They are the Curse of Doom, the Curse of Exposure, the Curse of Detection, and the Curse of Crimson Poison.

【Curse of Misfortune】brings bad luck to the target, but the specific spell mechanics are currently unknown.

The [Exposure Curse] makes the target more easily detectable by their enemies.

The target of the 【Anti-Detection Curse】 is the caster himself. It will automatically initiate the curse spell specified by the caster when the caster is detected by someone with unknown intentions.

【Crimson Poison Curse】is a perfect match for the Poison Alchemist.