secret dice.

Chapter 791 Magic Training
The next morning, Luo Jun and Mu Lanshi arrived at the Mercenary Guild to receive their reward for defeating Bloodfang.

After testing, the resurrected Bloodfang undoubtedly possesses the strength of an S-rank monster. However, as a single entity, the task of defeating it can only be considered A-rank, albeit the closest A-rank to S-rank. Furthermore, considering Bloodfang's ability to devour others for growth, its future potential as a single S-rank threat cannot be ruled out. Therefore, after comprehensive consideration, the guild has set the reward at the entry-level S-rank: a total of one thousand gold coins, two epic equipment pieces, and a top-tier skill book blind box.

The reward was quite generous, and only four people successfully returned. Jin Qiangwei and Gloria even claimed that they were the ones who were saved and voluntarily gave up the reward. In the end, the reward went entirely to Luo Jun and Mu Lanshi.

"Wow... there are actually five hundred gold coins..." Mu Lanshi's eyes lit up as she looked at the glittering gold coins in her backpack.

"The equipment is yours, the skill book is mine." Luo Jun and Mu Lanshi divided the rewards: "Don't be too happy yet. Just leveling up now costs several gold coins per level. Five hundred seems like a lot, but it will be used up quickly."

Mu Lanshi hadn't really put in much effort for this mission, and she felt guilty about even receiving a share of the money. Naturally, she was too embarrassed to take the equipment. After several refusals, Luo Jun sighed and said, "Sister Mu, you were lucky to survive this time. Without some survival skills, I'm afraid you wouldn't have even reached level 40."

"Um... alright then..." Mu Lanshi knew that her actual combat skills were worrying, so she accepted it.

As for the skill book blind box, it is a rectangular box sealed with clay, and no one knows what is inside until it is opened.

The so-called skill book blind boxes are divided into low-level, mid-level, high-level, and top-level.

[Game] Skills in the world are divided into seven levels: Beginner, Normal, Intermediate, Expert, Master, Grandmaster, and Legendary. Skill Book Blind Boxes: Low-level boxes can yield Beginner, Normal, and Intermediate skills; Intermediate boxes can yield Normal, Intermediate, and Expert skills; High-level boxes can yield Intermediate, Expert, and Master skills; Top-level boxes can yield Expert, Master, and Grandmaster skills. As for Legendary skills, they cannot be obtained through conventional means and can only be obtained by defeating powerful bosses in special dungeons.

"A top-tier blind box, with a chance to get a Grandmaster skill!" Mu Lanshi looked at the blind box in Luo Jun's hand, full of anticipation: "Open it and see..."

“In reality, the contents of this box would be pre-packed, and when or how it’s opened wouldn’t affect the outcome.” Luo Jun smiled slightly, holding the blind box. “But this is the world of the [game].

Heavenly Secret Dice!

"Unleash the abilities that best suit me!"

"Ding! Event difficulty: 100 points; final score: 77 + 30 points; event successful!"

It's done! Luo Jun tore off the seal, opened the box, and an ancient magic book made of some kind of animal hide appeared. A striking red stamp was stamped in the upper left corner, and the icon indicated that this was a Grandmaster-level skill!
"It really opened!" Mu Lanshi's eyes lit up as she looked at Luo Jun: "You've always been lucky, you don't have any luck-related skills, do you?"

"Uh..." Luo Jun smiled noncommittally. Although he knew that Mu Lanshi was just saying it casually, he was still a little fooled when his cheat ability was exposed.

"Let's see what it is first..."

Luo Jun opened the skill book. Because it was a game item, it only contained descriptions of the skills, unlike a real manual which included specific methods of cultivation.

"A meteorite falling from the sky?" Luo Jun glanced at it. "And it's a fusion magic, a fusion of earth, fire, and storm magic?"

"Use magic to summon multiple meteors from high above to strike a designated location. Each meteor deals area damage of 1200 points plus thirty times the sum of the corresponding magic level to the target."

"Basic mana cost is 1200 points, summoning ten meteors. Additional mana can be consumed to summon more meteors."

"Summoning additional meteors: up to five meteors, each requires an additional 200 mana points; from the fifth to the tenth meteor, each requires an additional 300 mana points; from the tenth to the fifteenth meteor, each requires an additional 400 mana points... and so on. For every five more meteors summoned, each additional meteor requires an additional 100 mana points, with no upper limit."

"This skill can be used once a day."

…………

"This spell is incredibly powerful," Mu Lanshi exclaimed. "But the cost is terrifying! It costs at least 1,200 points!"

As she spoke, she glanced at her mana: "I only have enough for two basic uses..."

To be honest, Mulan Shi's magic power was already quite high. Although Luo Jun didn't know how magic power was calculated in this world, it was clearly linked to the amount of vital energy. Mulan Shi's current health was only a little over a thousand points, but her magic power was already close to three thousand, making her a cultivator with considerable spiritual potential. As for ordinary NPCs, and even most mercenary players, at her level, their magic power was probably only a few hundred points, generally lower than their health.

As for Luo Jun... he smiled slightly after seeing the skill description. Hadn't he just walked right into the line of fire?

"Speaking of which, how much magic power do you have?" Mu Lanshi asked curiously, noticing Luo Jun's smile.

"Once your Eye of Insight reaches a certain level, you'll be able to see it, won't you?"

"Don't give me that..." Mu Lanshi glanced at Luo Jun's health bar, which was marked with three question marks above his head: "What method did you use to hide the information?"

"You wouldn't understand even if I explained!" Luo Jun smiled slightly, picked up the book, and prepared to study: "How do you use this thing?"

"When you check it, there should be a pop-up window..." Mu Lanshi said, "Just select 'Learn'."

"A pop-up window?" Luo Jun tried it, and sure enough, the option to learn appeared, but the option was grayed out and could not be activated, indicating that Luo Jun had not yet met the requirements to learn the ability.

"Requirements? What other requirements do you want?" Luo Jun asked, looking puzzled.

"You didn't learn the prerequisite skills, did you?" Mu Lanshi immediately guessed Luo Jun's question.

"This thing has prerequisite skills?" Luo Jun frowned and said, "I drew it randomly, how would I know which prerequisite skill it is?"

“Isn’t it written here?” Mulan Shi said, “This is a fusion spell of fire, earth and storm. To learn this, you naturally need to understand these three spells.”

As she spoke, Mu Lanshi turned to the next page of the skill description: "Aren't there training requirements too?" Luo Jun looked and, sure enough, it said that the training requirements were to cultivate fire magic and storm magic to the master level, and earth magic to the grandmaster level.

"How do you cultivate this?" Luo Jun asked, puzzled.

"Of course, we use skill points!" Mu Lanshi looked at Luo Jun's puzzled expression. "You haven't opened the skill interface since the tutorial, have you?"

Indeed... Luo Jun only had two innate talent skills, which were enough for him. He hadn't thought about learning any others, so naturally he hadn't paid attention to them. Upon opening the skill interface, he saw that the upper right corner displayed 153 skill points.

"Level 30+? Over 100 skill points?"

"Skill points: below level 10, you get 3 points for each level up; from level 11 to 20, you get 4 points per level; from level 21 onwards, you get 5 points; from level 31 onwards, you get 6 points. You are level 36 now, so that's more than 150 points."

"In this [game] world, besides the skills we come with, if you want to learn abilities here, you must first learn the corresponding basic abilities. For example, if you want to learn magic, you need to increase the level of the corresponding magic system. If you want to learn assassin-type abilities, you need to increase the level of the assassination skills, and the same goes for learning combat skills."

"Basic skills can be learned at the corresponding guilds and associations, which are all in the city. You can learn them by spending money and consuming a little skill point. To improve, you need to use skill points. When you first learn a skill, you are at level one. To upgrade to level two, you need two skill points, level three requires three points, and so on."

"When you first learn, you're at the beginner level. Once you reach level four, you can go to the association or find a teacher to further your studies and improve your skill evaluation, going from beginner to ordinary. At level seven, you can become an advanced person, level ten is an expert, level fifteen is a master, and level twenty is a grandmaster..."

"In other words, to upgrade a skill to the Grandmaster level, you need at least 210 skill points and a lot of money. You don't have enough skill points to train a Grandmaster skill." As she spoke, Mu Lanshi frowned: "This fusion magic does have high requirements. Let alone the two of us who are new here, even experienced mercenaries can't reach it... But it's understandable, after all, its power is there."

Luo Jun looked at Mu Lanshi: "You didn't arrive two days earlier than me, how do you know the situation so well?"

"Because gathering information and integrating resources is my job," Mulan Shi said, shrugging.

"Impressive, impressive." Luo Jun clasped his hands in a fist salute, opened the panel, and recalled the damage calculation when he wielded his sword: strength multiplied by swordsmanship multiplied by the weapon's base attack power... It seems that swordsmanship is improved through skill points!
If one could improve their swordsmanship to the level of a grandmaster, wielding a Muramasa sword, they could deal six or seven thousand damage with a single strike!

There's also this Meteor Shower ability, which lists the damage of each meteorite. In addition to the base damage, it adds thirty times the sum of the three skill points... Assuming the minimum requirements are met, two Masters and one Grandmaster would be fifty points, and thirty times that would be 1,500 points! In other words, the moment this ability is learned, the base damage of each meteorite would be 2,700 points.

Moreover, according to the description, reaching the Grandmaster level in skills is not the end; you can continue to add skill points if you're willing to do so. However, once the benefits reach the point of diminishing marginal returns, it's no longer worthwhile.

That's really impressive... No wonder there's such a big difference between experts and novices.

"Wait a minute..." Luo Jun did a rough calculation: "So, reaching level 100 would only give you a little over 700 skill points, which is enough to advance you to the Grandmaster level three times?"

"So you have to be careful when learning skills. Of course, I've heard that there are other ways to gain skill points besides leveling up, but in general, you can't just waste them." Mu Lan sighed, "And it's not just combat that requires skills; there are corresponding skills everywhere in life here. However, life skills consume relatively few skill points. It seems that skill points are only increased after your rating is improved. For example, level one, two, three, and four each cost one point, but it starts to cost two points from level five onwards, and only a little over sixty points when you reach the Grandmaster level."

As she spoke, Mu Lanshi glanced at the magic book in Luo Jun's hand: "I was so happy when I saw you draw a top-tier skill book that I forgot about the prerequisites for the skill. Now it seems you might not be able to learn it in the end. You might as well sell it for some money..."

"No..." Luo Jun shook his head: "I want to learn!"

"Huh?" Mu Lanshi blinked. "Don't even mention the magic consumption, the prerequisite skill points alone are over four hundred. You'd have to reach level seventy or eighty just to level up, and you can't learn anything else. It's too difficult..."

"Then I want to learn it too!" Luo Jun nodded. He drew this skill using dice, and if the dice thought it suited him, it must be very useful. Moreover, an ability with no upper limit based on magic points would indeed be a powerful weapon in his hands!
"Why?" Mulan Shi couldn't understand at all.

"Because it's cool!" Luo Jun said seriously, turning around and snapping his fingers with his back to Mu Lanshi. He then turned his head to the side and said, "Don't you think it's incredibly cool to summon a meteorite with just a snap of your fingers?"

"Huh?" Mu Lanshi was even more confused: "Is this how boys think?"

"Let's go, Sister Mu!" Luo Jun said with a smile, "The portal will be open for a whole day, let's use this time to learn some basic skills!"

As the capital of the Gulf Province, Harbor is a bustling metropolis, naturally teeming with various magic guilds. Luo Jun visited the Earth Magic Guild, explained his purpose, and was met with a asking price of ten gold coins!
"I'm only learning the beginner level, and it's already this expensive?" Luo Jun asked in surprise.

"This is our guild's membership fee." The person in charge of greeting us was a cute young lady wearing a pointed hat: "As long as you join the guild, you can learn introductory-level earth magic for free."

"What about the subsequent normal advanced levels?" Luo Jun asked tentatively.

"You still need to pay tuition."

"Isn't it still the same? It's just tuition!" Luo Jun complained.

"It's different," the young lady smiled. "After joining our guild, you can get a 20% discount when purchasing magic books, and you'll also be eligible to buy advanced magic books. Our membership is valid throughout the entire continent!"

“Alright, I have to learn it anyway…” Luo Jun obediently offered ten gold coins, then consumed one skill point to learn Earth Magic.

Just like the training ground upgrade, it was over in an instant, and he didn't feel any improvement at all. However, the panel did show that he had learned the basic skills of earth magic and could now learn beginner-level earth magic.

Being a beginner is definitely not enough. Luo Jun leveled up his skills to level 10 in one go, consuming 55 skill points, intending to upgrade directly to expert level right here.

Upgrading from beginner to ordinary requires thirty gold coins, and from ordinary to advanced requires one hundred gold coins. However, when Luo Jun tried to upgrade to expert, he was told that the earth magic guild here could only help him upgrade to the advanced level.

"If you want to upgrade to the expert level or above, please go to the guild headquarters in the capital to obtain certification. There you will find the guild's best mentors who can teach you the most advanced magical techniques!"

The guild's young lady tilted her head and answered Luo Jun in a cute tone.

(End of this chapter)