The next day, Eldryn went to the Mercenary Hall to submit his task. He handed his bronze token to the attendant for registering his new task and updating the point in his token.
The attendant verified the mission, then handed over the materials for the next task and returned Eldryn's bronze token. With a smile, she said, "Congratulations on becoming a rank 8 mercenary! To upgrade to rank 7, you'll need 50,000 points. All the best!".
"Thanks," Eldryn said with a smile.
After that, he walked towards the reward section. This time, there were two people receiving their rewards, so he waited for about 10 minutes until their exchanges were complete.
"Young master, what items are you wishing to exchange for?" The attendant, a girl around 18 years of age who looked a little timid, asked.
"I came to collect my package, Package number FG3457," Eldryn said with a smile.
"Okay, wait a moment," the attendant replied as she retrieved a package from her storage ring. "Can you give me your token?"
Eldryn nodded and handed over his token. She rubbed the package and token together before giving them back to him.
"Here is your token, young master. Thank you for your patience," the attendant said with a smile.
Eldryn nodded and said, "Thanks." He then looked at his bronze token, which now showed a balance of 5 merit points.
Over the next 4 days, Eldryn spent most of his time cultivating his battle skills and helping Nathan and Amelia with their task of creating talisman paper.
The following day, the trio went to the Mercenary Hall. After submitting their tasks, Eldryn's merit point balance surged to 405. He exchanged this for 2 low-grade fire star stones. Meanwhile, Amelia purchased 3 low-grade metal star stones, and Nathan bought 3 low-grade earth star stones and 3 low grade star stone.
This time, they did not take any new tasks, as all three planned to focus on cultivating with the resources they had acquired over the next two weeks. Nathan, in particular, was determined to awaken his second affinity, so he intended to use the resources to refine his body and soul.
With excited expressions, the trio began their cultivation.
Eldryn returned to his room and opened the package. Inside, he found 10 low-grade space star stones, which were deep purple in color. He then looked at his information on the first page of the Chaos Book.
Cultivation techniques: Chaos Resonance (25/5000) intermediate
Skills: Chaos Surge Assault (131/2000) intermediate , fingerstrike cleave (609/1000) Expert , Faint float(278/1000) Expert
Affinity: - Space(88.82) ,Time(40.23), Fire rank1 (37.89)
Aside from improvements in the skills column, there were only minor advancements in the other columns.
Eldryn calmed his mind before starting his cultivation. He took a space star stone and began to operate the Chaos Resonance. As he cultivated with the space stone, space power poured into his body, which he used to strengthen his body and soul.
The cultivation session lasted around 4 hours before the first space star stone turned to dust. Eldryn continued his cultivation, fully absorbing 2 more space star stones, until they too were reduced to dust, tempering his body and soul throughout the process.
After completing his 12-hour cultivation session, Eldryn relaxed by tending to the petal flowers and practicing common rank talismans.
The next day, after cultivating near the blaze petal, Eldryn returned to his room. After practicing talismans for an hour, he took a space star stone and began cultivating. This time, instead of tempering his body and soul, he focused on nourishing the space seed in his dantian.
Approximately 3 hours into his cultivation, a cracking sound came from within his body. Knowing he had broken through to rank 1 in space affinity, Eldryn continued until the space star stone turned to dust.
Eldryn then inspected his dantian, where he saw a small purple sapling with two sturdy leaves, a red sapling with two leaves, and a silver seed with just a root. After examining the state of the seeds, he looked at his information in the Chaos Book.
[The Heavenly Chaos System]
Name : Eldryn Emberheart
Age: 5
Cultivation: -1 star warrior
Cultivation techniques: Chaos Resonance (28/5000) intermediate
Skills: Chaos Surge Assault (131/2000) intermediate , fingerstrike cleave (609/1000) Expert , Faint float(278/1000) Expert
Affinity: - Space-1(2.05) ,Time(40.23), Fire-1(37.89)
After reaching rank 1 in space affinity, Eldryn cultivated using one space star stone a day for 6 days with his remaining space stone. During the first 4 days, he tempered his body and soul, while the remaining 2 days were focused on nurturing his space seed.
Thus, Eldryn cultivated for only 5 or 6 hours a day, spending the rest of his time learning and drawing talismans.
During these 9 days, Eldryn created around 130 talismans for his mission. He decided to draw the remaining 170 talismans before using the fire star stones for cultivation. Eldryn set a goal to complete these 170 talismans in 6 days, as his 6th birthday was approaching in 8 days. He wanted to enjoy his birthday rather than focus on talismans and cultivation, so he worked relentlessly over those six days and completed the task.
The following day, Eldryn used the two fire star stones to temper his body and soul. Afterward, he went to the Mercenary Hall, submitted his task, and exchanged all 3,000 merit points for 11 fire, 2 metal, and 2 earth star stones. This brought his merit point balance back to 5 points, while his total merit points increased to 9,405.
As Eldryn arrived at his villa from the Mercenary Hall, he saw Julia and Julian returning to their home with Gary after their cultivation session near the Aqua and Oakheart petals.
"Hello, young warrior," Gary greeted Eldryn, glancing at his daughter and son, who in turn said, "Good day, Brother Eldryn."
Eldryn merely nodded in response. Over the past month and a half, he hadn't seen them much, as they would cultivate near the Aqua and Oakheart petals and leave even if Eldryn was not present.
Eldryn then called out, "Mr. Gary, please wait."
Gary turned around, looking puzzled and hesitant. "Is there an issue, young warrior?" he asked.
"Mr. Gary, since you are one of the rank 3 warriors in Seastone Town, you likely know the cost of these talismans in town. Can you tell me if anyone might be interested in buying these with low grade star stone?" Eldryn said, pulling out one each of the Firestorm, Emberstorm, and Flamebound talismans.
Gary looked at the talismans in Eldryn's hand and said, "Young master, these three types of talismans are sold for around 100 to 105 gold coins in our town. In the city, the standard price is 100 gold coins. The standard price for a low-grade star stone is also 100 gold coins, but the exchange rate from gold to low-grade star stones is around 130 to 150 gold coins per star stone."
"So, if you want to exchange these talismans for low-grade star stones, you should sell them to merchants or businessmen in the city," Gary advised.
"Mr. Gary, have you ever been to Blue Rock City or other cities?" Eldryn asked.
"Young master, I have indeed been to Blue Rock City, but I haven't visited other cities," Gary replied.
"It's like this, Mr. Gary. Can you help me sell these three types of talismans in the city?" Eldryn asked.
"Young master, even though I am a rank 3 warrior, it would take me about two weeks to travel back and forth between Blue Rock City and Seastone Town, and the journey is filled with dangerous star beasts. Therefore, I can only decline your offer," Gary said.
"But I heard you can use 1000 bronze merit points at the Mercenary Hall for a round trip to the city with their escorts," Eldryn said.
Gary's voice grew uneasy and slightly angry. "Young master, those points are my—"
Before Gary could finish, Eldryn interrupted with a smile, "How about this, Mr. Gary? I will give you around 1,000 of these talismans within a month. For every 4 talismans, I need 2 low-grade star stones, so I require 500 low-grade star stones. The remaining talismans can be considered as compensation for you. You can think about it and give me your answer within the week."
Gary, now excited, responded, "No need to wait that long, young master. Just give me a date, and I will apply at the Mercenary Hall."
Eldryn nodded and then walked into his villa.