Chapter 169: Talent Crystal Models

Chapter 169: Talent Crystal Models

A moment later.

Su Nan completed the sealing array.

The many-winged monster, with most of its power sealed, completely wilted. It was carried on the shoulders of a gold-gilded golem, resigned to its fate and no longer resisting.

Storing the secret puppet girl and another gold-gilded golem into the magic cube, Su Nan then approached the group at the forest cottage, his gaze landing on the Hunter.

"The transaction is complete. Now it's your turn to fulfill your promise."

Upon hearing this, Rose, the Traveler, and the others perked up, turning their heads to look at the Hunter.

"No problem."

The Hunter smiled, taking out the Dawn Elixir and the Key to the Tower of the Distant Stars, distributing them to the group.

Upon receiving the Key to the Tower of the Distant Stars, Rose and the Traveler's eyes lit up with joy.

They had taken such great risks, narrowly escaping death, all for the key to the Tower of the Distant Stars.

With this, they had a chance to advance to the rank of a wizard.

Only the Nightingale looked somewhat complicated.

The forest cottage group originally had nine members, but three of them died in this operation. The hard-earned expansion of their trading network had been set back to where it was a decade ago.

Now, they would have to find new members again.

Having obtained what he needed, Su Nan didn't linger, bidding farewell and leaving without any hesitation.

He still had a lot to do.

Watching Su Nan's figure disappear at the cave entrance, the remaining five people exchanged glances, their expressions somewhat complex.

"Who would have thought Su Nan was hiding so much."

"Rather than saying he was hiding, it's more like we never truly understood him."

"Right, I feel like Su Nan didn't even use his full strength to kill Saurol. He might have other tricks up his sleeve."

"Ugh, let's not think about it. The more I think about it, the more I feel like a failure."

The Traveler quickly ended the conversation, glancing at the sigil stone in his hand and asking the Hunter:

"Hunter, tell me honestly, how many Keys to the Tower of the Distant Stars do you have?"

The Hunter shook his head. "Apart from the ones I gave you, I have four left. Three were originally reserved for Skele, Black Forest, and Red Heart. That's all Evans gave me."

"Where is Evans?" the Scepter asked.

"I'm not sure," the Hunter shrugged. "After I drew the Immortality Society's attention away, he disappeared somewhere. But I bet he still has a bunch of Keys to the Tower of the Distant Stars."

The Traveler sighed. "It used to be so hard to get even a hint about the Tower of the Distant Stars, and now a bunch of keys have appeared. The Distant Star Royalty sure kept it well hidden."

The Scepter frowned. "I hope Evans hides well. I don't want to encounter a bunch of wizard apprentices when we find the Tower of the Distant Stars in six years."

While the current intelligence suggested that the Tower of the Distant Stars' legacy was not competitive, the resources available for each wizard's legacy were limited. The more people entered, the fewer resources each person would get.

If possible, they didn't want too many wizard apprentices entering the Tower of the Distant Stars.

If they could find Evans, they would consider capturing him and keeping him locked up for six years until they obtained the Tower's legacy.

"Six more years," the Nightingale said solemnly. "Everyone, make the most of it."

Back in Giant Eye City, Su Nan directly crossed the spatial passage, returning to Dragon Forest.

A flash of light, and he appeared in the transformation area on the thirteenth floor of the Dragon Skeleton Tower.

The three transformation areas in the Dragon Skeleton Tower each had specialized detention cells for sub-dragon and dragon species.

Su Nan found the highest-grade detention cell and threw the many-winged monster inside, instructing Butler 1 to guard it. Then, he returned to the control center on the top floor.

After the battle, it was time for the pleasant task of inventorying the spoils.

This time, Su Nan obtained seven spatial rings. In addition to the four from the Immortality Society, he also got the rings from Black Forest, Skele, and Red Heart.

The first two were taken from Saurol's body.

The last one was obtained quietly while everyone was fleeing from the many-winged monster.

He had avenged Red Heart by defeating the monster, and taking the spatial ring as payment was reasonable.

Yes, very reasonable.

Su Nan first opened Red Heart's spatial ring.

Gold and silver coins, gems, wizard tomes, potions, materials—these were common items in a wizard apprentice's spatial ring.

Su Nan had extensive experience with this, quickly inventorying and categorizing the items.

What disappointed him slightly was that there was nothing particularly eye-catching.

The most valuable item might be a bottle of high-grade sub-dragon blood.

Unfortunately, Su Nan was in no short supply of that.

Next, he opened Black Forest's spatial ring.

Compared to the previous one, this spatial ring contained a lot more materials.

There were quite a few rare magical plants.

However, there wasn't much that was truly surprising.

Until he opened the spatial ring of the Wraith, Su Nan's eyes finally lit up a bit.

Soul Crystals!

Hundreds of them!

Although they were all micro soul crystals, they were still incredibly valuable.

"Now I have the materials to synthesize a medium soul crystal!"

Synthesizing a medium soul crystal required about a hundred and twenty micro soul crystals.

Su Nan had spent a long time accumulating micro soul crystals to synthesize the medium soul crystal needed for his secret puppet.

Now he had the materials to synthesize a second medium soul crystal, and once he gathered enough mithril, he could craft a second secret puppet.

The powerful combat ability of the secret puppet had been demonstrated perfectly in today's battle.

Without a doubt, this would be the puppet Su Nan would focus on researching and crafting in the future.

Besides the soul crystals, what truly delighted Su Nan was finding a wizard's manual on how to create soul crystals in the spatial ring.

Although it only detailed the process for creating micro and small soul crystals, it was more than enough.

With the Synthesis Cube in hand, he could even synthesize legendary-level soul crystals if he had enough micro soul crystals.

With renewed excitement, Su Nan immediately began reading the manual.

With his powerful mental energy, he finished the entire book in less than half an hour, furrowing his brow in contemplation.

"Only a third-level wizard apprentice can extract souls to form crystals?"

This meant he would have to do it himself.

After all, there were no other third-level wizard apprentices in the entire base besides him.

"Soul sources are not lacking. The Star Alliance has many native tribes and city-states around it. A small-scale war to eliminate a tribe can yield at least a few dozen soul crystals."

"If it's a war on the scale of eradicating a city like Giant Eye, producing hundreds of soul crystals is no problem, and even a few small soul crystals."

A legendary-level soul could produce a small soul crystal.

While legendary-level creatures were not common in the vast underground world, they were far from rare.

"From now on, I won't have to worry about a shortage of soul crystals."

Su Nan's frown eased, and he smiled.

With enough soul crystals, he wouldn't need to use a large number of stone golems to synthesize first and second-tier legendary puppets. He could directly use steel golems to replace elite stone golems and synthesize elite steel golems to replace higher-tier stone golems, significantly reducing costs.

Putting aside the Wraith's spatial ring, Su Nan opened the spatial ring of the Eternal Society with a pleased heart.

There were no unexpected gains from the spatial rings of Ember and Stone Scorpion.

Eira's spatial ring was similar, though it contained some wizard manuals on illusions that piqued Su Nan's interest.

He took these manuals out and set them aside, planning to study them when he had time, before finally looking at Saulo's spatial ring.

"As the founder of the Eternal Society, he should have quite a few valuable items."

Upon opening the spatial ring, Su Nan's face immediately lit up.

As expected, Saulo's spatial ring was a treasure trove.

Just the gold coins alone were estimated to be around seventy to eighty thousand, and the various gems numbered in the two to three thousand, including many high-quality ones.

These two items alone were worth over a hundred thousand gold coins!

In addition, there were numerous magical plants, rare metals, and other materials.

There were also plenty of potions and soul crystals.

To Su Nan's surprise, he even found a medium soul crystal.

He wondered how many legendary knights Saulo had killed to gather enough souls to create this medium soul crystal.

Or perhaps it wasn't from legendary knights but from the souls of wizard apprentices?

Smiling, Su Nan accepted the medium soul crystal.

After inventorying all the wealth and materials, he was left with over a hundred wizard manuals.

The manuals that Saulo had specifically stored in his spatial ring were naturally not ordinary.

A quick check revealed several that piqued Su Nan's interest.

"True to form, the founder of the Eternal Society has a wealth of rare knowledge."

Su Nan's face broke into a smile.

When he picked up the last manual and saw the title on the cover, his eyes lit up even more.

"Model Construction of the Talent Crystal 'Killing Intent'"

Talent Crystal!

Su Nan eagerly flipped through the book, reading it carefully.

The three key criteria for advancing to a full wizard are: Star Rings, mental power, and most importantly, the Talent Crystal!

Once a wizard apprentice has reached the required number of Star Rings and mental power, they face the most challenging hurdle in their journey to becoming a full wizard: constructing the Talent Crystal model!

The Talent Crystal model is essentially an aggregate of runes. Different types and quantities of runes ultimately form different Talent Crystal models, each granting unique abilities.

The Talent Crystal is arguably the most crucial combat tool for a wizard, influencing their future growth potential and combat prowess. Its importance cannot be overstated.

Talent Crystals are ranked from highest to lowest as High, Medium, and Low.

To have a chance of advancing to a True Spirit Wizard, one must at least construct a Medium Talent Crystal.

Wizards with Low Talent Crystals have a very slim chance of becoming True Spirit Wizards.

In fact, even wizards with Medium Talent Crystals have less than a one percent chance of achieving this feat.

Becoming a True Spirit Wizard is a goal reserved for those with High Talent Crystals.

Saulo’s book details the construction method for a Low Talent Crystal called 'Killer Intent.'

Wizards who advance using the 'Killer Intent' Talent Crystal can unleash a Killer Intent Field centered around themselves. All creatures within this field must endure constant waves of killer intent, and those with weaker wills are likely to fall into a state of frenzy.

Additionally, these wizards can slightly restore their physical and mental energy through killing, making them prime examples of warriors who grow stronger in battle!

One can imagine how terrifying such a wizard would be on a knight’s battlefield! And this is just a Low Talent Crystal!

This demonstrates the true power of a full wizard!

"Unfortunately, it’s just a Low Talent Crystal model," Su Nan said, a hint of regret in his voice.

He was determined to become a True Spirit Wizard, so his goal was to construct a High Talent Crystal.

Low and Medium Talent Crystals were not even worth considering.

Constructing a Talent Crystal involves three main steps:

1. Deciding on the Talent Crystal model to construct.

2. Improving and deepening the chosen model.

3. Finalizing the construction.

Talent Crystal models are typically refined and deepened from an original model. The simplest and most common method is to use a spell model as the base and then improve and deepen it.

Another method involves selecting a characteristic from a magical item and replicating it as the base model.

The final method is to use a bloodline ability as the base model, a choice usually made by apprentices on the bloodline wizard path.

For example, the 'Killer Intent' Talent Crystal model is clearly an improved version of the Carlos Python’s bloodline ability. Apprentices who have integrated Carlos Python’s bloodline and advance using the 'Killer Intent' Talent Crystal will have higher combat potential and growth compared to other Low Talent Crystal wizards due to the perfect compatibility between the Talent Crystal and their bloodline.

In the early stages, bloodline wizards often have more advantages over True Spirit wizards.

In a sense, this can be seen as trading potential for immediate advantages.

In summary, when choosing a Talent Crystal model, wizard apprentices can opt for pre-existing models left by their predecessors or create new ones themselves.

The benefit of using pre-existing models is that they save time and effort, and since these models have been proven effective, there is no risk of unexpected failures.

However, these models may not be perfectly suited to the individual.

Each Talent Crystal model is initially created based on the creator’s own conditions. Even if two individuals are very similar, there will always be differences in their souls and bodies.

This can lead to a less than perfect fit between the apprentice and the Talent Crystal model, affecting their performance to some degree.

Initially, these differences might not be noticeable, but they will certainly become obstacles when striving for higher realms in the future.

Therefore, all ambitious wizard apprentices choose to create new models themselves.

Even those who follow the family bloodline path and must use ancestral Talent Crystal models will make adjustments and modifications to better suit themselves, rather than accepting them wholesale.

Su Nan, of course, intended to take the second path.

In fact, he had already decided on the original model for his Talent Crystal.

It was the Magic Pattern Core, his strongest trump card!

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end