The next day.
The circus was about to bid farewell to the city where a new Fire-breather was born.
Before the caravan set off, Xia Zhou carried his Potion Leather Case onto the third carriage.
Originally, he wanted Audrey to keep it safe, but the first carriage was too packed, there was no room at all.
Then, it had to be placed together with Farns' leather case.
The shape of the two cases was different, so they wouldn't be mixed up. Xia Zhou's case was new, while Farns' was old, and the locks were also different.
He handed over the key to Audrey and started reading the "Fire Breathing Training Essentials" on the carriage.
He spent the entire day following Audrey to practice spitting fire the day before. The taste of Fire-breathing Potion was bitter, but he could tolerate it and even learned some very simple alchemical operations.
When he held Audrey's Style Weaker Mixed Fire-Breathing Potion in his mouth, he would enter a continuous "Blood Return" mode, where the speed of health deduction was just balanced with Blood Recovery Speed.
For Xia Zhou, other than a numb mouth and wanting to drink water, there were no other effects.
Once fire-breathing was successful, he could gain loads of experience!
"Complete 1 fire spitting training, lasting for 2 seconds, and earn 0.002 points of [Experience]."
According to the calculation of getting 0.001 points of [Experience] per second, he would earn 1 point of [Experience] with a total of a thousand seconds of fire spitting.
If he could spit a three-meter-long flame in the future, he wondered how much [Experience] it should give him.
Plus, the rewards for performing fire-breathing for the audience...
Tsk, tsk, tsk~ Xia Zhou sat on the floor of the carriage, and couldn't help but smile.
"Little guy, hey, you're in a good mood." His roomie, the Strongman Bo Pai, grinned at him from the side.
The carriage started to move, and both their bodies leaned back for a second, then instantly recovered.
"I think, I'm really suitable for Fire Breathing Performance. I can already spit flames, even if it's only for a short while."
Xia Zhou gave a slight smile, then took out the Elastic Ball to enhance his strength.
After gaining 1 point of strength using this tiny thing, he would have to complete 1 million rounds of training to gain the next point, and the number of training rounds required was tenfold, and the upgrade experience that could be received decreased by 50%, only 5 points in total.
Bo Pai also took out his Elastic Ball, "Haha, training Fire-breathing with Big Sis Audrey's help, you're going to be as good as Farns."
The two figures, one big and one small, were squeezing their Elastic Balls in the carriage, their bodies swaying with the bumpy ride of the carriage.
...
Two months later.
The circus entered the southern part of Rosak Province.
Xia Zhou's ruined hometown was a bit further to the south, near the border of the kingdom.
Ever since bandits took over this area, it had never been peaceful.
In taverns that they passed by, rumors about villages being looted or burned to ruins were always heard.
The circus made a stop at Piyec, a city-fortress in southern Rosak Province.
This was the midway point of their trip, a place to change directions.
Big Sis Audrey had no intentions to go any further south, to avoid encounters with the bandits. After performing in this fortress, the circus would head north and return to the city of Rosak via a different route.
However, on the day of their arrival, unexpected good news totally disrupted their itinerary.
The city-fortress of Piyec was not just a city, but also a military fortress. Aside from ordinary citizens, it was also home to military troops.
With the raiders going rampant under their jurisdiction, the army was constantly battling and eradicating these villains, leaving the soldiers physically and mentally exhausted, they desperately needed some performances to boost their morale.
The arrival of Audrey's Circus Troupe was precisely what the commander of the fortress needed.
Big Sis Audrey came back from the fortress beaming from ear to ear, announcing some good news:
The circus had accepted the invitation from the fortress commander, and they would stay in Piyec for about a month and perform for the soldiers who were coming back to the city for rest!
This was an absolutely reliable deal! There was no reason to refuse at all.
The city-fortress of Piyec was not privately owned by the commander; it was, like the city of Rosak, a city under the control of the Rosak Parliament.
The performance fee of the circus here would be directly funded by the Rosak Parliament, not paid out of the commander's pocket.
There was absolutely no chance of them not paying up.
Big Sis Audrey speculated that, as long as they performed well and boosted the soldiers' morale, there might be additional rewards from the commander of the city-fortress.
This assumption was quite reasonable.
The fortress commander had not only placed a large order using military funds, but also did something popular among the people out of his own pocket.
When Audrey came back, she brought a bag filled with coins.
The commander of Piyec City-fortress was a benevolent, generous ruler who cared about people's livelihoods.
He paid a sum of money to reserve all the performances of the circus on Fountain Square, and let the citizens of the fortress watch the performances.
In the next six days, any resident could line up to watch the circus performance, and the order on the spot was maintained by guards.
When Xia Zhou took that hefty bag back to his room to count the coins and keep records...
His heart and hands.. Both were trembling. Not because there was too much money...
But...
This.. This large sum of money, didn't give him any experience at all.
Seemed like ticket revenue had to be collected directly from the audience by him before it counted.
In the 10 silver coins and hundreds of copper coins brought back by Big Sis Audrey, the total experience was about 14 after conversion.
Xia Zhou didn't get a single bit of experience. He then looked at the information on his character template:
[Level] LV.5
[Experience] 0.9/200
He had just leveled up a few days ago.
To level up from 5 to 6 needed 200 points of [Experience], which was four times that of level 4 to 5.
Doing a rough calculation, he would probably level up after performing in five or six places under normal circumstances, and the next level up was something that would only happen three months later.
This time, during their month of stay in the fortress, they would perform for both civilians and soldiers.
The money for the civilians was paid by the fortress commander.
The money for the soldiers was paid by the Rosak Parliament.
...These two bursts of income were tricky, and not a single point of experience was gained.
Without the experience from ticket income, relying only on reading, doing odd jobs, and practicing fire-breathing, the efficiency of gaining experience for the next month will be extremely low.
After Xia Zhou finished his accounts, he didn't immediately send them to the head sister, but sat at his desk in deep thought, pondering if he should step onto the stage early.
In the past two months, he has continually been exploring ways of fire-breathing that suit him, wanting to upgrade steadily and safely.
The hacker calculates the experience according to the length of time of fire-breathing and the size of the flame.
For a two-finger long flame, every second gives you 0.001 points of experience.
Now the success rate has reached 100%, with a mouthful of fire-breathing potion, it can last for about 20 seconds.
For a 0.5-meter long flame, every second gives you 0.002 points of experience.
The speed of the airflow is faster, a breath can only last for 5 to 7 seconds, sometimes it gets choked or is interrupted by other accidents, the success rate is above 90%.
For a flame exceeding 1 meter, Xia Zhou's success rate is very low, mainly because of insufficient lung capacity, it's hard to maintain the flame length over 1 meter, each second gives 0.003 points of experience.
Farns can maintain a 3-meter large fireball for almost 10 seconds, besides practicing lung capacity and the help from the fire-breathing potion, it mostly depends on the Breathing Spell.
In teaching fire-breathing classes, the head sister completely revealed the matter of the Breathing Spell without reserve.
18-year-old adults, men and women, can take tasks from the Warrior Guild, and use the points rewarded from completing tasks to exchange for Breathing Spell practice courses.
The most accessible task is joining the army.
The soldiers in Piyec's fortress are almost all there to complete tasks.
The majority of soldiers will not use their points to exchange for Breathing Spell practice courses after completing their tasks, but instead choose a position with a more generous package, or exchange for military rank rewards and continue to scramble up in the army.
There are only a few who would spend their points on the highly unstable Breathing Spell.
Anyone, on their first time practicing the Breathing Spell can use auxiliary potions, to have an extremely small chance to strengthen a certain part of their body permanently, at the cost of irreversible non-malignant mutation in another part.
This process is called potential development or potential mining.
Whether or not they trigger random strengthening or mutation, the physical quality of all practitioners will gain a full-scale upgrade.
The ones who trigger random strengthening, as long as they use the Breathing Spell, they will be able to use the strengthened body part smoothly. The faster it's used, the more obvious the strengthening effect.
Snake Dancer Sneck, at the cost of his skin turning its color to dark, randomly gained a special vocal part, allowing him to communicate with snakes.
The Clown Siblings, at the cost of their emotions being exceedingly excited, gained a very good sense of balance.
Strongman Bo Pai, exchanged his muscular strength with his brain not being too useful.
Audrey was lucky, she gained exceptional vision, at the cost of changing from her original slim figure to her current voluptuous figure.
In a way, as long as she likes her current figure, it's as if there were no costs...
Farns was originally not able to become a fire-breather.
When he developed his body potential with the Breathing Spell, at the cost of losing most of his facial expression function, he gained the control over his lungs.
Which allowed him to expel all the air stored in his body, and set foot on the path of a fire-breather.
Being bald and without a beard are just the side effects of a training accident.
The advantages and disadvantages of the Breathing Spell are not just limited to this.
The first time using the Breathing Spell to mine potential, it will cause permanent physical damage, leaving behind hard-to-heal injuries.
Performing the Breathing Spell to use enhanced abilities, the mutated part will not mutate again, but it will intensify the internal injuries in the body, affecting the user's lifespan.
That's why we have body healing potions.
Each bottle sells for 200 copper coins, the effect lasts for 30 days. Not only can it heal internal injuries, it also can lower the lifespan reduction effect caused by performing the Breathing Spell.
The price is low, and it lasts long.
This potion was developed by the Warrior Guild, specifically purposed for the welfare of practitioners of the Breathing Spell.
For Xia Zhou, who just turned 15, the Breathing Spell is something for after turning 18, still three years till he can practice.
Currently, the only way to enhance the experience gain efficiency in a short time is one!
If you want to bypass the lengthy process of practicing lung capacity and directly spit out a stable 1-meter-long flame, you can only start with the fire-breathing potion.
Like Farns, adding the red potion into the mixture that will help to strengthen the flame.
While reading "Fire Breathing Training Essentials", Xia Zhou found the description of this potion.
"Flame Enhancer Solution, can enhance flame power. After this solution is mixed with the fire-breathing potion, each drop can increase the flame power by 20%, and increases toxicity by 20%."
Xia Zhou did a simple calculation.
He's currently using Audrey's Style Weaker Mixed Fire-Breathing Potion, a mixture of fire prevention oil and weak effect fire-breathing potion, hold it in the mouth for 3 seconds to form a fire-proof layer, protecting the safety of the mouth.
While holding it in the mouth, each hour reduces 3 points of blood, and can stably spit flames.
During practice, fire-breathing and rest are alternated, the actual blood reduction speed is approximately 1 point per hour.
When performing on stage, the times taking the potion are fewer, the holding time is shorter, basically it will be spit out within 10 seconds, the actual blood reduction speed is around 0.5 points per hour.
If you want the length of the flame to reach 0.5 meter, you need to add 5 drops of Flame Enhancer Solution, the flame power will increase by twice, blood reduction speed will also double.
In other words, during performance, the blood reduction speed will reach 1 point per hour.
[Blood] 20/20 (Healthy)
On the character template, there's only blood, the blood recovery speed cannot be seen.
Xia Zhou estimates that, when fully fed and watered, the blood recovery speed per hour is around 0.8, the blood recovery speed doubles in deep sleep.
The current vitality is 4 points.
He asked the hacker in his mind how the blood recovery speed is calculated, only receiving silence as a reply.
However, this isn't trouble for him.
Simply combine the 4 vitality points, and the blood recovery speed of 0.8 points/hour, a loose conclusion can be made:
Add 1 vitality point, can increase the blood recovery speed by around 0.18 points/hour, reaching 0.98 points/hour.
If you want the blood recovery to neutralize the blood reduction from holding the fire-breathing potion in the mouth, then at least add 1 vitality point.
Xia Zhou calculated it once, confirming there's no problem.
He focused his attention on the plus sign next to the vitality attribute, clicked it once with his thought.
[Vitality] 4+1→5 points.
[Blood] 22/20+2→22.