Chapter Ninety: Preparations Before the Entrance Exam, Part One (Seventh Update, Please Subscribe)

“Add some points first.”

Chu Cheng glanced at his current attributes and the seventy-five free points remaining. After a brief thought, he distributed them in the ratio of thirty, thirty, and fifteen: thirty to Constitution, thirty to Strength, and fifteen to Agility.

With the points allocated, his attributes changed as well.

Name: Chu Cheng.
Race: Human.
Level: 27.
Talent: Spatial Refraction, Level 2.
Traits: Extraordinary Constitution (Epic), Extraordinary Agility (Epic).
Primary Attributes: Constitution 152, Strength 158, Agility 107, Perception 44, Intelligence 37, Spirit 37.
Secondary Attributes: Tenacity 20, Reflex 16, Will 3, Life Regeneration +16 per second.
Health: 2520 points.
Stamina: 1520 points.
Mana: 370 points.
Melee Attack: 293/199 (slash), 286/198 (thrust).
Ranged Attack: 185 (thrust).
Physical Defense: 10% + 40.
Magic Resistance: 33%.
Movement Speed: 247.
Skills: omitted.

“Not bad!”

These attributes were already stronger than those of many elite professionals, and the more Chu Cheng looked, the more satisfied he became.

After finishing the allocation, he stroked his chin and decided to buy a few gems.

He could forget about epic-quality gems; cut ones cost fifteen gold each, far too expensive.

Uncommon ones would do. Cut, they were three gold apiece, and he needed ten.

As for the type, he settled on dense azure sapphires, all boosting Constitution.

Each one added five extra points of Constitution, for a total of fifty from ten stones.

(Note: Gem attributes have been adjusted. The original setting had uncommon-grade gems adding ten points, but that felt excessive later on, so it has now been reduced to five. Don’t accuse me of contradicting the earlier setup.)

There was no need to go to the market for them; he could buy them directly from the school.

With so many dungeons, the school harvested plenty every month, and it also employed specialized high-level jewel cutters, so everything could be done in one step.

For a total of thirty gold, he obtained ten dense azure sapphires and had them embedded one by one into his equipment; even his weapon, Icebound, was fitted with a Constitution gem.

It looked rather odd, but in truth this was very common.

Gem inlay was extremely flexible. If one wished, every socket could be filled with gems that boosted Intelligence or Spirit.

The reason it was so casual was that gem inlay was not permanent. Once a socket had been set, the gem inside could be removed and replaced with a new one.

For example, all twelve sockets were now fitted with dense azure sapphires, each increasing Constitution.

As long as he had money, he could remove them at any time and reinsert gems that increased Strength or Agility.

However, any gem that had already been used would be ruined if dug out, making them single-use items.

“Over three thousand health now!”

Chu Cheng’s health and defenses had already made him a very qualified tank.

“The next step is to replace the Demon Lord’s Will accessory with an epic one-handed weapon, and then I can wait for the college entrance exam.”

He checked the time. There were a little over two months left until the exam, and at most one more major lecture session. It was even possible there would be no more classes at all. Based on previous years, the next two months were usually free for independent activity.

He could stay at school and practice various weapon skills, or enter dungeons to accumulate more gains.

However, school dungeon access was hard to obtain. At this time, dungeon runs were usually for individuals or small teams, no longer for entire classes, and the school did not have enough dungeons for everyone to apply for.

So if he wanted to build up more gains, he would either have to enter public dungeons or have a private family dungeon.

Public dungeons were out of the question. As for private family dungeons...

He definitely could not get a medium or larger one. Small dungeons would yield limited returns at his current strength, and Chu Cheng felt that spending a month on that would not be as worthwhile as training his weapon skills.

With a month, he could raise several weapon skills from beginner to proficient.

With a little over two months, nearly three, he would have enough time to bring all his newly learned weapon skills up to proficient.

“Then it’s settled.”

It was worth mentioning that Chu Cheng had used up all of his attribute points, but not a single skill point.

First, the skills he had were already more than enough, so there was no need to rush upgrades.

Second, once he was admitted to a higher institution, he would certainly find a way to obtain a hero profession. At that time, he would need to reset his points and redistribute all his attributes; his skills would be chosen according to the hero profession he eventually acquired.

Some skills could be kept, but others might not be compatible with the new class and could be removed.

But skill points spent would not be refunded after a reset, so before his profession was fully determined, he did not dare waste the hard-earned points.

Early the next morning, Chu Cheng posted a listing on the school network, offering the Demon Lord’s Will accessory in exchange for an epic one-handed sword of the same rank.

He also asked his homeroom teacher to keep an eye out for anything that met the requirements.

After that, he focused entirely on training his weapon skills.

This time, however, he could not enter the advanced training room and had to make do with an ordinary one.

Fortunately, his cheat-like ability had advanced a tier and become stronger, so even the ordinary room’s training effect was no worse than the old advanced room.

One-handed hammer, beginner.

Two-handed hammer, beginner.

Two-handed axe, beginner.

Scimitar, beginner.

Curved great blade, beginner.

Staff, beginner.

Crossbow, beginner.

Javelin, beginner.

Polearm, beginner.

Exotic weapon, beginner.

Ten weapon skills in all. Roughly three days to go from beginner to competent, seven more from competent to proficient; in ten days, a single weapon skill could be ground all the way up to proficient.

He plunged into the training room and began training day and night without pause.

Time passed, and day and night blurred together.

Only three interruptions occurred. Once, Zhang Chunlei invited him to form a team for dungeon runs. Together with more than a dozen others, they successfully applied for a small dungeon and wanted to drag him in for a big push.

He had no interest at all and politely refused.

The other two times were inquiries about the Demon Lord’s Will that he had listed on the school network.

To avoid trouble, he had set it so that only those with epic-grade equipment could inquire, which was why only two people had come forward so far.

Unfortunately, epic equipment was too rare, and not a single one-handed sword met his requirements.

The school’s stock of more than twenty epic items also contained no second epic one-handed sword.

The final message came from He Xiao, the homeroom teacher of Class One, who asked whether Chu Cheng was willing to sell the Primordial Heroic Mark in his possession. Someone was willing to pay an outrageously high price of fifteen hundred gold.

He refused without hesitation.

If he had guessed correctly, it was most likely Sun Yu who had asked He Xiao to inquire.

What was interesting was that Sun Yu’s last joint-exam result had been revoked, and he no longer even ranked in the top ten.

Yet after the exam ended, no one knew what price he had paid, but as soon as it was over, he successfully reapplied to enter the Golden Wasteland again, that mid-level dungeon.

The Golden Wasteland had a three-month cycle. From now until the college entrance exam, there were exactly two months and twenty-six days left. If he squeezed the time a little, he could still clear it once.

The joint exam had cost a True Realm Stone worth one thousand gold.

And he was still willing to spend fifteen hundred gold to buy the Primordial Heroic Mark from Chu Cheng.

Applying for the Golden Wasteland certainly required paying a considerable price. All told, the total investment was probably no less than three thousand gold. Chu Cheng could only marvel at how terrifying the power of money truly was.