It was an endless cycle!
Thinking about it that way, Victor suddenly felt that five hundred thousand gold coins was extremely cheap.
"Alright." He closed the system interface and looked at his minions. "That’s enough for today."
The excitement on everyone’s faces immediately settled.
"Noah," Victor called out again.
"Here."
"Don’t use the Star Meridian Potion by yourself." Victor looked toward him. "A Tier Four potion will place considerable strain on your mana circulation. Go to the advanced treatment district and find a healer at Tier Three or above. Have them supervise the process."
Noah nodded seriously. "Understood."
"Evelyn."
"Hm?"
"After you receive Shadow Assault Step, reach Beginner proficiency within three days."
Evelyn lightly raised an eyebrow.
"Three days?"
"Is there a problem?"
"No."
The corner of the girl’s lips curved upward.
"But if I reach Beginner proficiency in three days, do I get a reward?"
Victor glanced at her, and a wicked thought suddenly formed in his head. "What if you do it in one?"
Evelyn’s smile paused slightly. Several people nearby instinctively looked over as well.
Victor continued. "Reach Beginner proficiency within one day. I’ll give you an Epic Rank short blade."
The casual look on Evelyn’s face disappeared completely, replaced by pure excitement like a little kid.
"Really?"
"When have I said I’d give you something and then refused?" Victor asked back.
Evelyn stared at him for several seconds; she suddenly smiled. "Fine. Then Young Master had better prepare the money in advance."
After saying that, she turned around and immediately headed toward the skill storage district to pick up her skill.
Clearly, she was not planning to waste even a single second.
Victor did not stop her because this was exactly the result he wanted.
Resources should never be given away for free.
He wanted these people to gradually develop a clear understanding of that.
The better they performed, the faster they grew, the more they could obtain from him.
And those who could not keep up would naturally be eliminated.
Perhaps this method could not be considered gentle. But this was not a peaceful world to begin with.
A few years from now, the Abyssal War would sweep across the entire continent.
The empire itself would also erupt into a struggle for imperial power.
Anyone who could not even survive competition within the academy would only die faster if Victor kept them by his side later.
"Young Master." Bruno suddenly walked over.
Victor looked toward him. "What?"
"What about me?" Bruno pointed at himself.
Everyone else had received something. Only he had not.
Victor looked him up and down.
"You?"
"Recover from your injuries first."
"But..."
"The healer said you can’t fight at full strength for seven days." Victor cut him off. "If you rupture the mana core that was just repaired because you were rushing to level up, I’m not paying for it a second time."
The corner of Bruno’s mouth twitched.
"Understood."
"As for your resources..."
Victor paused.
As a Berserker with A Rank potential, Bruno’s actual problem was more serious than the others.
He did not simply lack a weapon. His current [Low Level Berserk] was simply too poor.
The core of a Berserker was Strength, Defense, Pain Suppression, and Combat Will.
Almost everything revolved around that state.
But Low Level Berserk not only provided weak enhancement, its duration was extremely short.
More troublesome were its severe side effects.
In the original storyline, the reason Bruno had been defeated by Ryan in only a few strikes was precisely because he entered a brief period of weakness after Berserk ended.
If Victor wanted to cultivate him, it would be best to solve the problem at its root.
"Once you’ve recovered," Victor said.
"I’ll replace your Berserk skill."
Bruno’s eyes immediately lit up.
"Rare Rank?"
"At least Epic."
"..." Bruno opened his mouth.
After a long moment....
"Young Master."
"Hm?"
"I suddenly feel like my injuries have already healed."
"Get lost."
Laughter immediately broke out nearby.
Even Karl could not help turning his head away.
The corner of Victor’s own mouth moved slightly as well.
He had to admit, compared to the bootlickers in the original body’s memories who only knew how to nod and flatter, now that these people had begun to relax around him, they were not nearly as boring.
When noon arrived, Victor left the training ground and went to the academy’s equipment repository and selected a new longsword for himself.
The original body’s weapon was naturally not poor. It was a Rare Rank fire element longsword worth nearly one hundred thousand gold coins.
In the hands of an ordinary student, it would already count as luxurious equipment.
But now that Victor possessed the King Rank skill [Heaven Burning Sword Art], the weapon had instead begun limiting the skill’s performance.
King Rank sword techniques demanded extremely high mana conductivity.
If an ordinary Rare Rank longsword were forced to endure compressed fire element mana for extended periods, it would easily become damaged.
In the end, Victor found an Epic Rank weapon in the academy equipment repository.
[Crimson Flame Fang]
[Quality: Epic]
[Level Requirement: 20]
[Type: One Handed Longsword]
[Mana Conductivity Efficiency: 87%]
[Fire Attribute Skill Power +18%]
[Trait: Flame Convergence: When fire element mana is attached to the blade, mana consumption is reduced by 12%.]
[Price: 680,000 Gold Coins]
Victor glanced at his balance.
The original body’s private account still held more than 2.7 million gold coins, which meant he could afford it.
But unlike the spending he had done that morning, he could not continue being completely casual about his own expenses.
After all, the system did not give him returns for investing in himself.
"Purchase."
[Payment Successful.]
The next second, a dark red longsword slowly rose from the equipment teleportation formation.
Its blade was slightly narrower than an ordinary longsword.
There were no exaggerated decorations on its surface. Only a single dark red pattern resembling flowing lava ran along the center of the blade’s spine.
Victor grasped the hilt.
Buzz!
Almost the instant he made contact, mana naturally flowed from his body into the sword.
The crimson pattern running along the blade immediately lit up, and a thin layer of flame emerged across its edge.
Victor’s eyes flashed. ’Good feel.’
He did not test the Heaven Burning Sword Art right away, as this was the equipment hall.
If he accidentally destroyed the testing area with one strike, he would still have to compensate the academy.
Even for someone as wealthy as him, that was something he wanted to avoid.
More importantly... It was time to go to the White Tower and meet with the Third Princess.
..
Author’s Note
The academy maintains separate storage districts for equipment, skills, potions, and other resources. Students can browse and purchase available resources through their academy interface, then collect them from the corresponding storage district.