How much?
30 million Valis?
The moment Goddess Hephaestus’s words fell, Fati’s brain instantly stalled, his eyes glazed over.
But only a moment later, he snapped out of it.
Relying on his extraordinary calculation ability, he rapidly deduced what height this huge sum of money could push him to.
30 million Valis = 30 potential breakthrough opportunities.
Among the five basic abilities, except for Magic, the other four required 7 breakthroughs each to reach 900+ (4 categories × 7 = 28 times).
Magic currently had a higher base and only needed 5 times to reach 900+.
Total: 28 + 5 = 33 times!
In other words, with 33 million Valis, he could push all his potential to 900+!
Seeing Fati’s expression changing while he remained silent, Hephaestus mistakenly thought he was dissatisfied with the price.
“40 million Valis.”
“?”
The Goddess’s casual words were like an invisible heavy hammer, slamming into his spirit and making him dazed, completely losing the ability to think.
“Let’s make it 45 million.”
The Goddess of Forging’s tone was calm, as if she were talking about the weather.
” I’m not short on this little bit of pocket change.
As a precious research material, this price should be quite reasonable, don’t you think?”
Seeing that Fati still had no reaction, Tsubaki, who was familiar with his background, helplessly covered her face and sighed—this guy was clearly completely dazed by the money bomb her Goddess had casually thrown out.
“Tsk!” She irritably raised her foot and stomped hard on Fati’s instep!
“Ow—!” The sharp pain made Fati gasp, instantly bringing him back to his senses.
He jerked his head up, looked at the Goddess, and nodded frantically.
His voice was slightly distorted from excitement: “45 million!
Satisfied!
Very satisfied!”
“Hehe, then it’s a pleasure doing business with you.” Hephaestus nodded slightly.
“Pleasure doing business!” Fati’s voice carried an uncontrollable tremble.
Having settled the matter, Hephaestus chatted with the two of them for a few more moments before returning to the headquarters in a flurry.
The whole process was completely efficient, as if this 45-million-Valis transaction was as ordinary as a commoner buying a bag of bread.
Watching the back of that goddess who was wealthy enough to rival a nation disappear into the alleyway, Fati finally marveled as if waking from a dream:
“As expected of the main deity of the Hephaestus Familia—Goddess Hephaestus.
Just a few gold coins leaking from between her fingers is enough to keep me well-fed for a lifetime.”
“Hey!
What are you muttering about, brat?” Tsubaki unceremoniously interrupted his sentiment.
“The business is done, so hurry up and beat it.
Don’t just stand there getting in the way!”
“…”
Fati carefully tucked away the check carrying the astronomical figure.
He walked out of the workshop with light steps, completely ignoring Tsubaki’s attempt to drive him away.
“I’ll be back in a few days to pick up the armor!
See ya!”
…On the way home, Fati tried his best to maintain his usual expressionless face, not showing the slightest flaw, looking just like an ordinary bottom-tier Adventurer who had just made a small gain in the Dungeon.
However, the heart pounding wildly in his chest completely betrayed his unparalleled excitement at this moment.
It wasn’t until he stepped into his own courtyard and locked the door behind him, being alone in an absolutely safe and private space, that he let out a long, trembling breath.
*Gulp, gulp—*
He slumped onto a stone bench, grabbed a water cup, and gulped down several mouthfuls of ice water, trying to douse the heat in his heart.
Immediately after, he impatiently summoned his status panel!
“45 million Valis, plus the 12,000 Experience points accumulated through my hard work and sweat over the past half year;”
“Activate my unique talent!”
“System, let me see your limit!”
“Add points for me!”
After a chant full of ritual, Fati’s index finger turned into a blur as he frantically clicked the “plus sign.” The deposit numbers and Experience bar drained away like a flood through an open gate!
In just a moment, the preset goals were completed.
With those 33 million Valis and 3,300 Experience points consumed, the [ability values] column had undergone an earth-shaking change.
[ability values]:
Strength: G223 (G223 → S923)
Endurance: G266 (G266 → S966)
Dexterity: G278 (G278 → S978)
Agility: G258 (G258 → S958)
Magic: E411 (E489 → S989)
At a glance, the potential upper limits of all attributes had broken through their current shackles, reaching the [S] stage.
The breaking of the bottleneck meant that the door to the future had swung wide open!
His ability values now had vast room for continued growth, and there was a great possibility of touching the peak of this stage!
That being said, potential was just potential; not everyone could realize 100% of their potential.
Realizing 70%-80% already made one a one-in-ten-thousand genius;
Those who could fully realize it were all monsters.
Such people had explosive natural talent, were extremely hardworking, had firm willpower, and possessed a clear sense of purpose.
He didn’t consider himself that kind of person.
Mainly, he didn’t have a goal that he must achieve by “giving everything and using any means necessary,” nor was his spirit that obsessive.
“Fortunately, I have a cheat.”
“Awesome—!”
Fati jumped up in excitement and threw three fierce punches at the sky.
“Consumed 3,300 Experience, about 8,600 left.
That’s it for now.”
“As for the attributes…”
He pondered for a moment and finally shook his head.
“I won’t waste the remaining Experience and deposits on adding points for now.”
“Now that my ability values are still low, they can increase naturally and rapidly through training and combat, plus the assistance of ‘Scholars Learning Heart’…”
“When the values approach the bottleneck and natural improvement becomes difficult, I’ll use precious Experience and currency to ‘fill the gaps’ and maximize resource utilization!”
“This will save an astronomical amount of currency.”
Based on these two practices, Fati already understood the system’s point-allocation formula.
Breaking the potential limit (per 100 points of potential): Consumes 100 Experience + 1 million currency.
Directly increasing ability values (per 1 point): Consumes 1 Experience + 10,000 currency.
With his current ability values limit, if he wanted to max out all attributes directly, he would need to consume another 3,300 Experience and 33 million currency.
Fati was simply unable to bear such a huge expense.
[Experience and currency] were his most important core resources, and even operations like ‘Development Ability’ could be performed.
But the price of 10,000 Experience and 100 million currency per level made him hesitate.
“Fortunately, I met Goddess Hephaestus…” Fati sighed with lingering fear, “If I had just found any goblin merchant or an appraiser from the Adventurer’s Guild, I’m afraid I wouldn’t even have bone fragments left after being swindled!”
This is the power of knowledge, vision, and connections.
Fati knew its weight well; besides exploring the Dungeon to make a living and improve his strength, he never neglected his daily studies.
But he was, after all, only a Lv.1 lower-class Adventurer, and much high-level, secret knowledge was far beyond his reach.
“It seems…
I’ll have to frequently ‘check-in’ at the Babel Library and the Guild’s archives.
This time was a vivid lesson!” he warned himself inwardly.
After spending the money to gain a huge boost, Fati’s restless mood calmed down a lot.
Drinking the remaining fresh water in the cup in one go, Fati forced his boiling blood to cool down slightly.
He got up and returned to the room, spreading all his remaining assets on the table and beginning to count:
“The Drop Item sold for 150,000.
After deducting 30,000 for equipment repair costs, 120,000 is left.”
“Yesterday’s income was 6,700.
After paying Amide’s treatment fee of 5,000, there’s still 1,700 currency.”
“There’s 1,500 currency left from previous savings.”
“Plus the 12 million in reserve funds left after recharging the system…”
“Total assets amount to 12,123,200 currency.”
Toying with the gold coins, Fati thought about his next plans.
“Now that I’ve acquired magic, my combat mode has shifted from warrior to Mage.
My previous dagger is also scrapped.
I happen to have the blueprint for a staff and the ‘great sacred tree branch’ I picked up by accident.
I’ll take out part of my savings to customize a staff.”
All resources were for the sake of improving combat power.
“Tsk, plans can’t keep up with changes.”
Originally, the matter of customizing a staff was not in his considerations at this time at all.
Who would have thought his hands would suddenly become so flush with cash, catching him off guard.
“If I had a handy staff, then when fighting monsters with the same potential as a War Shadow, my Scorch could kill them instantly, without needing a third of a second of charging to increase the attack.”
“That’s what I’ll do, but customizing a staff…”
A realistic problem surfaced, making Fati look conflicted.
“I still have to find a ‘Mage’; I don’t have many connections in this area.”
“Sigh…
what a pain.”
Feeling the constraints, Fati ruffled his hair into a mess, feeling frustrated.
This was the disadvantage of not having the backing of a large Familia.
If it were an established large Familia, the advantages in terms of networking resources, logistical support, the passing down of Experience from veterans to newcomers, broadening horizons, and secret intelligence were all incomparable to small Familias.
“No choice, I have to go to the Wheat Hall again.”
“To find that woman.”