Battle Frenzy

“It’s just like how most of the stronger wards masters in the Holy City come from the Mystic Sect. Their main occupational research on the soul and arcane skills has allowed them to accumulate a lot of experience on the soul and dimensional mysteries. These two aspects are exactly what wards masters need in terms of their traits. Wards, souls and arcane skills are rather closely linked.

“Whereas for us Tyrants, we are the cradle of alchemy. At least half of the alchemists in the Holy City’s Alchemy Union are from the Tyrants. The most powerful alchemists, such as the Great Teacher Kenso and the Great Teacher Murphy, are all members of the Tyrants! Us Tyrants research and transform the body, especially in the Smelting Faculty. Our experience with various alchemy substances is incomparable to any other profession, and this is indeed our advantage. I believe that everyone here already has a certain understanding of alchemy. Maybe some people will be afraid of the high threshold of alchemy and think that the resource consumption is too large. As such, they dare not start on it, but this notion is completely wrong, and I will never allow my students to act like this!” Arudiba then scanned the entire lecture hall, making eye contact with everyone around him. “You can try out other subsidiary jobs if you have other talents, but if you do so because you are afraid of the difficulties in the early stage of alchemy, you can get out of my lecture hall. The Tyrants don’t need wastrels that are afraid of difficulties.”

The class remained completely silent, but waves of excitement could be seen on many apprentices’ faces. Arudiba always had the ability to mobilize the students’ emotions inadvertently, develop their sense of belonging, and make them feel honored for being part of the Tyrants.

“Of course, such difficulties will not be permanent.” Arudiba paused before he began speaking slowly. “For alchemy, as long as you can enter the industry, you can easily earn your initial investments back. It is also the one in which you can earn the most profits and the one with the highest demand out of the three major professions. You never have to worry about the lack of a market for your products, as long as they have quality.

“Lastly, for the Sparta Clan, gourmets are considered their brand.” Speaking of Sparta Clan, the corner of Arudiba’s mouth revealed a slight smile. Frankly, the Tyrants had always looked down on the Sparta Clan. This was a long-accepted fact. “The entry threshold for gourmets will be slightly lower than the other two subsidiary professions. Of course, don’t underestimate gourmets because of this. Any gourmet is an expert in manipulating poison. This is also a must-have component for a mature team. At the same time, gourmets will also produce unique gourmet poison masters and gourmet pharmacists. Their ability to make poisons and refine pharmaceutical agents is very good. We also have alchemy pharmacists among our alchemists. The difference lies in the materials and refining methods, so there are certain differences in toxicity and treatment. Of course, this is very abstruse, but you will understand it in the future.”

“These are the detailed descriptions of the three subsidiary professions, but your final choice is mainly up to you. It is not true that the apprentices of the Tyrants will definitely excel in learning alchemy or that the Tyrants will not be able to produce a powerful wards master. It is just that it would be a little more difficult relatively, and it actually also varies from person to person, so you don’t need to make an immediate decision for your subsidiary profession. This is related to the source of your resources for your cultivation path in the long run. You have to try everything and try out specific operations so that you can pick the one that suits you best. I will say no more about this.”

“Our main task for today is to choose our own weapon,” said Arudiba as he took out a red crystal from the podium. “Compared to choosing your subsidiary profession, I believe this is more important and urgent for everyone here.”

“Let’s put it this way. Although reaching the peak of the Heroic Soul Stage is the most important job for all newcomers and some newcomers can reach the peak in just one or two years, that will certainly need a lot of resources. Do you think these resources will fall from the sky or appear out of thin air? It is up to you to risk your life to gain these resources. Otherwise, you can only accumulate them slowly day by day. If you wait for a long period, say three to five years, you will only lose more in the process. Therefore, in theory, it is the best choice to reach the Peak of the Heroic Soul Stage first, but in fact, this has a prerequisite as well. That is, you have to live till then. Choosing a weapon that suits you will undoubtedly greatly increase your survival rate during exploration missions.”

As soon as Arudiba stopped speaking, many whispers of excitement suddenly erupted in the originally extremely quiet hall. Although they did not dare to speak openly, it was okay to whisper secretly when they were excited.

Weapons were no longer a new topic of conversation among newcomers but rather, a popular one. Many people were already discussing them and exploring their choices. After all, most newcomers had already joined the Dimensional Hostel, and, regardless of their status in their respective teams, many of them had already heard of several legends regarding those various grand and powerful soul tools. A good weapon was a Holy Disciple’s key to surviving exploration missions.

Many of the newcomers present were already considering their first soul tool, but what Arudiba referred to was obviously not the grade of the weapons. “It is just like choosing your subsidiary profession. You can’t just choose one that looks good. You have to choose the one most suitable for you. Then, you can give scope to your strength.”

The choice of weapons also had quite iconic boundaries among the three supreme forces, and it was even more obvious than the scope of subsidiary professions.

The Holy Disciple in the Mystic Sect often chose long-range weapons or arcane soul tools, such as power staffs, scrolls, or crystals, etc. Oscar’s ‘Trisson’s Catastrophe Vest’ was an arcane soul tool as well. This mainly depended on the direction of cultivation in the Mystic Sect. Their focus on Soul Power and arcane research decided the type of weapons they could choose.

On the other hand, the Tyrants mainly chose cold melee weapons, and they viewed the weapons as an extension of the body. After all, the Tyrants still relied mostly on their bodies. As for Sparta Clan, when Arudiba came to them, he used words like ‘can be ignored.’ It could be seen that Arudiba really despised the Sparta Clan.

It was indeed not easy to explain. The Sparta Clan’s weapon choices were relatively complicated. They had long-range weapons, arcane weapons, melee weapons, and even hot weapons. There was no clear scope. In the eyes of most powerful people, having no distinctions signified mediocrity. Frankly speaking, the Sparta Clan was actually not very different from the Earth’s Federation in their eyes. Whether it was the Tyrants or the Mystic Sect, certain individual radicals would even exclude the Sparta Clan from the so-called three supreme forces of the Holy City.

The red crystal on the podium was a prop prepared by Arudiba. It was said to have a certain psychedelic effect. As long as one focused their gaze on it for about two or three minutes, the crystal could determine what kind of weapon was suitable for one according to the fluctuation of one’s mind.

Everyone in the class quickly began the test, and Wang Zhong also tried to do it. He actually had no clue what kind of weapon was suitable for him. The one he found most handy was actually the crosswheel, but frankly, the crosswheel would always bear Laforgue’s personal label and would not belong to anyone else. Also, Wang Zhong loved it because of its complexity and its unlimited stacking ability of his 200 Grassos when he was at the Casted Soul Stage. Previously, it was very suitable for him as he had weak Soul Power, but now that he had entered the Heroic Soul Stage, the strong Soul Power foundation in his body might have caused the nature of his combat to change greatly. The crosswheel’s effect was purely physical superposition. Even though it could still have incredible combat power during the Heroic Soul Stage, it might not be able to continue adapting to higher-order battles. Wang Zhong had understood this point more clearly, especially after experiencing the two recent secret realm missions.

It was just like what Lan Daier said. He should not be confined to the mindset of the Casted Soul Stage; he should jump out and take in this new world.

However, even though Wang Zhong did the test with great anticipation, the result made him speechless. He didn’t know whether he was too resistant to illusions or whether this so-called weapon selection method was unsuitable for him… He stared at the red crystal for a long time, but he didn’t even see a kitchen knife appearing. Absolutely nothing happened.

On the other hand, Mo Ling, who was sitting next to Wang Zhong, had a look of surprise on his face. With his eyes closed, he seemed to have seen the direction of his future battles.

“What weapon did you see?” Wang Zhong was a little curious. He recalled that Mo Ling used a nine-rings monk staff in the CHF once.

“Boxing gloves.” Mo Ling recovered from his daze, looked down at his fists, and squeezed them tightly. The choice of the crystal did not disappoint him and fitted his inner thoughts rather well. His fists were indeed his most familiar weapon. “How about you?” he asked.

Wang Zhong rubbed his nose and spread out his hands. “Air.”

Mo Ling froze for a couple of seconds before he snapped out of it. But he obviously misunderstood the situation. There was a smile of understanding on his face, and he did not continue to ask further. He assumed that Wang Zhong knew too much and couldn’t pick from his sea of choices.

Soon, it was the end of the lesson. Today was just a trial run. Arudiba did not make everyone share their choices. Instead, he just gave out an assignment. “I’ll give you two weeks. Next lesson, I expect to see each and everyone’s weapons. I don’t care whether you bought them or made them yourselves.”

In the afternoon, there was a small gathering of the newcomers of the Wanderlust Team. This was planned days before today. It just so happened that Mo Ling and Wang Zhong could head to the place together. Just after they exited the lecture hall, someone hurriedly caught up from behind. “Old Wang! Little Mo!”

Once these ridiculous names were heard, one did not need to look back to know who it was. Noraba’s favorite thing to do seemed to be giving people nicknames.

“You guys have really been very busy lately. I heard that you guys joined the Wanderlust Team and even participated in missions? Whoops, is it time for you guys to give me a treat now that you guys are rich?” Noraba’s voice was still as loud as before, but it was obviously not his goal to ask these questions. While he spoke extremely loudly, he suddenly lowered his voice and muttered the main point at fast speed. “There may be someone in the Tyrants who is targeting you. Old Wang, you seem to have offended someone. Be careful.”

Wang Zhong and Mo Ling were both people with fast reactions. They grasped each other’s thoughts almost immediately and replied to Noraba with some courteous but useless words before they parted ways.

Noraba was one of the newcomers that were doing well in the Tyrants. This guy’s casual temperament was rather suited to the tastes of several senior brothers in the Tyrants. With them treating him differently, the treatment he received in the Tyrants was naturally different as compared to other newcomers; even the circles of dimensional humans were accepting of him. If there was any news in the Tyrants, the first newcomer to get the news would definitely be Noraba. If he said that someone in the Tyrants was out to get Wang Zhong, that would certainly not be a groundless rumor.

“It doesn’t make sense.” Mo Ling frowned as they left the place. Although Wang Zhong was not very popular in the Tyrants, it was unlikely to be at the level of hatred. This guy’s time in the Tyrants’ classes was definitely the least among all newcomers, and no one had heard about him contracting enmity. “Do you think it’s because of the newcomers’ rank-advancement competition?”

After thinking about it, it seemed that there was only this one thing where Wang Zhong would intersect with other people in the Tyrants, but this was still several months away. Besides, the competition was just a matter of the weak serving as prey to the strong and the weak getting replaced. If talking about offending someone else early, it would not be Wang Zhong, as he was the one getting challenged.

Wang Zhong was also rather confused, but in the Holy City, there were many people with all kinds of weird habits. It was rather easy to offend people inadvertently during social intercourse. It might be because of the incident with Okuyama Domoto. It was said that he was a cadre of the Alchemy Union, and the union obviously had inextricable links with the Tyrants. However, Wang Zhong didn’t care. He would take any kind of trouble that came knocking. He hadn’t cared much about these things before, and he was not about to start now.

Wang Zhong didn’t take the matter very seriously and ignored it after exchanging a few casual words with Mo Ling.

At the Queen’s Bar, Grai, Sharmie, and the others had already arrived. The previous mission had obviously made these people’s lives a lot better as all of them wore radiant faces. There were many things in the Holy City that were easy to resolve as long as one had money. This was true at least for the newcomers.

Napier had changed back into his clown costume once again. This way of dressing seemed to make him feel the most comfortable. Before that, he had to abandon a part of himself due to the pressure from his family members and some seniors from the Sparta Clan. But now that he had joined the Wanderlust team, he was free of all these restrictions. As long as one was financially independent, one could have quite a lot of freedom in the Holy City. Besides, he was a second-class apprentice who managed to get on the observation list of a Great Teacher. As such, his family was not in a position to force him to change his habits. With that, he did whatever he wanted.

On the other hand, Mario and Sharmie behaved like an inseparable pair, which made all the single people feel like lightbulbs. Also, Sharmie’s boobs seemed to have grown bigger again. It was said that women’s boob sizes were proportional to their Soul Power. It seemed like her recent progress was not small… Mario, who was shy about holding hands previously, seemed very experienced now. The way he sat there hugging Sharmie seemed to reflect how skilled he was. No matter how far he traveled in his path of cultivation, as long as there was Sharmie, everywhere would be paradise for Mario.

It seemed like everyone had changed, at least a little. The only exception was probably Grai. He sat down, drank beer quietly, and responded to the jokes of Sharmie and the others, seemingly rather carefree and content. Sometimes, even Wang Zhong admired Grai’s skill of self-affirmation. He had been soaking every day in a big dye vat, aka the Sparta Clan, but he never let anyone affect him. This was indeed a very powerful skill.