Absolute Destiny Game
Chapter 130 - 10 Time to Accumulate Spirituality

Chapter 130: Chapter 10 Time to Accumulate Spirituality

Learning the Riding Skill was much simpler, without that many complicated test procedures.

Xiao Jie went to the stable outside the town, found the Riding Instructor, paid 10 silver coins, and with a flash of white light, he successfully learned the Riding Skill.

[System Notification: You have learned the skill [Basic Riding Skill], you can now purchase and use most ordinary mounts. However, due to your low Riding Skill level, your mount’s maximum moving speed will be reduced by 30% when you ride.]

In this game, the level of Riding Skill has little impact on the choice of mounts—with the exception of some rare and high-level mounts, most mounts can be ridden with just Basic Riding Skill.

It will only reduce the riding speed, the lower the Riding Skill, the greater the speed penalty, the higher the Riding Skill, the lower the penalty. If one could achieve Master Riding Skill—Man and Horse Unity realm, then there would be no speed penalty.

"Young fella, now that you’ve learned to ride, how about buying a horse as well?"

That Riding Instructor was actually doing a hard sell.

Xiao Jie glanced at the list and decisively declined; even the cheapest packhorse was 20 silver coins, while the best ’Fierce Warhorse’ was 120 silver coins.

With a free option available, why waste the money?

"Luobo, come here." With a call, the pet behind him scuttled over; Xiao Jie had just spent a few silver coins on some Secretly Made Vegetable Dumplings to feed it, and now it no longer acted skittish.

When Xiao Jie moved the mouse over Luobo, the ’Mount’ option immediately appeared, he clicked it, and saw his own character swiftly mount up.

Haha, now I got a horse too.

"Feng, I got a horse."

And there was I Want to Be Immortal riding a black horse, galloping towards him.

"Is it a warhorse?"

"No, warhorses are too expensive, costing 100 silver. This one is a travel horse, only costing 40 silver."

A travel horse is pretty good too, definitely better than a packhorse.

"Let’s go, let’s run a lap." The two of them spurred their horses and started to gallop around the stable.

Due to the low Riding Skill and the ordinary quality of the horses, both of them weren’t running very fast, but they were still much faster than walking. Xiao Jie estimated that it was at least a 50% increase in speed compared to a player’s running speed, and his own horse was a bit faster, likely increasing the speed by around 60%.

And running as a player also consumes Energy, soon you wouldn’t be able to run anymore, whereas the horse’s energy bar was much larger, allowing for a much longer sprint at one time.

Haha, great, now I won’t fear long-distance travel.

After a lap, the two players were familiar with the operations of their mounts, and overall it was similar to the riding system in Mount & Blade, requiring a bit of skill but not hard to master.

Returning to the town’s entrance, both dismounted; I Want to Be Immortal’s horse immediately vanished.

Xiao Jie’s horse, on the other hand, was still standing there, snorting.

That’s the difference between a pet that doubles as a mount and a real mount. What I Want to Be Immortal bought was actually a Horse Whistle, just like Ye Luo’s Donkey Whistle, blowing it will summon the mount, and it disappears on dismount, very convenient.

Of course, even if it’s a summoned mount from a whistle, if the mount dies, it really dies. In this regard, the game is quite fair.

However, Xiao Jie’s Luobo didn’t have this feature.

Strictly speaking, Luobo isn’t a [Mount], but only a [Pet] with the capacity for mounting. Although they both look like horses, they’re completely different in the system’s assessment.

It also can’t be traded like a mount.

Unless the other party also has the Beast Taming Skill, once you dissolve the bond with the horse, it becomes a wild creature again, able to be killed for its meat and hide.

Xiao Jie was also feeling a bit of regret, the game’s freedom wasn’t enough. If these horses could be caught and traded, it would be perfect, just catching and selling horses could make a fortune. But thinking about it, with so many Beast Tamers in the game, if such an exploit existed, it would have likely been overused by now.

"Let’s call it a day for now; tomorrow we’ll find a place to level up."

"Not going to turn in the Demon Talisman first?"

Xiao Jie explained, "We could go turn it in now, but think it through—this Demon Talisman can only be turned in once; that chance is only once.

If you can increase your Spiritual attribute a bit more, maybe you can seize the opportunity to become a disciple when turning in the talisman. With the game’s high level of freedom, there certainly is room to maneuver.

But if your Spiritual is too low, what will you do if the Taoist takes the talisman and gives you some random reward and sends you off? You might miss the opportunity altogether."

I Want to Be Immortal considered this as well.

"Then, Feng, what do you think is a good amount of Spiritual?"

"The higher the better, but I think at least 30 points. Of course, it’s still up to you, I can’t be completely sure. The Demon Talisman is yours, if you want to go early, I can go with you, or we can accumulate more and go when we’re level 19."

The reason for this judgment is that when Ye Luo changed his profession to Nightwalker, he added 20 points to Perception, and his initial Perception must not have been low, at least 10 points. So, 30 points in Spiritual seems like a reliable number.

Also, normally for learning Combat Skills, the requirement for attribute points is usually in such whole numbers like 15/20/30. Thirty is a reliable number; of course, it might work with 20 points as well. But with such things, if you decide to do it, it’s best to go all out. If one wants to play it safe, aiming for 40 or even 50 points is not impossible.

But attribute points are precious, and Xiao Jie wasn’t completely sure. If he were to rack up 50 Spiritual points and then fail to gain a Magic profession, it would be a total loss, as good as ruining the entire account.

So when it really comes to making a choice, it all depends on personal preference, and he couldn’t bear such responsibility.

After pondering for a while, I Want to Be Immortal said, "Feng, I think 30 points is just right, alright, let’s level up tomorrow. By the way, Feng, what about you? Are you going to stack Spiritual too?"

"Of course."

Xiao Jie had also given it a lot of thought. His Faith was only at 7 points, and to stack faith would mean losing an entire level’s worth of attributes, while perception seemed to be related to ghost curse class magic, which did not interest him much. All that was left were Immortal Techniques, Daoist Skills, and Demon Arts, which all required stacking Spiritual; therefore, stacking Spiritual was something he had to do sooner or later unless he decided not to follow the Magic System path.

But with the opportunity to achieve immortality and attain the Dao, how could Xiao Jie settle for being just a Martial Arts expert? He was determined to give it his all.

So, stacking Spiritual was naturally better done sooner than later; the earlier he had high Spiritual, the more chances he would have to encounter the opportunity to learn spells.

Not adding to Spiritual before was for the sake of stability, after all, it was too dangerous without a profession ability. Now that he had learned Martial Arts, Inner Power, and Qinggong, and had the Beast Taming Skill, he had the ability to protect himself, so naturally, it was time to start stacking Spiritual.

He had 5 free attribute points right now; by leveling up three more times, he could increase his Spiritual to over 30.

"Let’s both level up to 13, and then go submit the Demon Talisman. If we’re lucky, we might even get entry-level at the same time," said Xiao Jie optimistically.

Actually, the chances of them both achieving entry-level together were not great since the Demon Talisman could only be submitted by one person, but one still had to try; after all, there was nothing to lose if they failed.

What if they managed to both get in.

"Great! Then we’ll start leveling up again tomorrow and go to learn spells together!" I Want to Be Immortal agreed excitedly. Both of them had learned various Martial Arts and even had mounts, so they were no longer afraid of going out to level up.

After they had agreed on a plan, Xiao Jie said goodbye to I Want to Be Immortal and found an inn to check into and log off.

Exiting the game. The excitement in Xiao Jie’s heart had not subsided; in fact, it grew even stronger.

The power inside the game was fake, but power in reality was real.

No matter how powerful he was in the game, it was ultimately through a screen. Only by mastering it in reality could he truly feel the charm of the game.

Spells and such were still a bit too far off, but he now had Inner Power at hand.

He couldn’t wait to start circulating his Inner Strength.

(No, this mentality is not suitable for practicing. Calm down, just calm down a bit.)

Xiao Jie tried hard not to let the euphoria and excitement in his heart affect him.

He first drank a glass of chilled apple cider to calm down and steady his emotions.

Then he drew the curtains, locked the doors and windows, switched off his phone, and turned off his computer, ensuring there would be no sound and he would not be disturbed.

Only then did he return to his bedroom and sit cross-legged on the bed.

Taking a deep breath, Xiao Jie closed his eyes and began to sense the changes within his body. Inner Strength—where was the Inner Strength?

Indeed, it was at the Dantian. A reserve of energy was accumulating and revolving there.

With a thought from Xiao Jie, that energy began to flow as if searching for an outlet.

Xiao Jie focused, sensing the pulses through the method of introspection, feeling his own meridians and vital points.

He found it—Ren Meridian—the Foot Three Yang Meridians...

With a sudden effort, Xiao Jie turned his Inner Strength, and instantly, a warm current began to circulate within the meridians.

Indeed there was Inner Strength! Carefully pushing this warm current, Xiao Jie felt the meridians being cleared and stimulated by the flowing Inner Strength; each cell became more active, and in turn, this gave back even more energy into the flow of Inner Power.

This was true Extraordinary Power; no matter how high the agility, how strong the strength, or how good the constitution, they had not transcended the capabilities of a normal person.

But at this moment, the faint Inner Strength in the Dantian made Xiao Jie truly realize that he had become a being beyond ordinary people.

After the Inner Power had cycled through once and returned to the Elixir Field, Xiao Jie could feel a slight increase in the Inner Strength within the Dantian.

So that’s how it is, Inner Power grows stronger with practice? The Dantian is the storage for generating Inner Power, but every meridian, acupuncture point and cell in the body can produce Inner Power, albeit minutely. It needs to be continuously circulated and stimulated through the meridians to generate more Inner Power and then transported into the Dantian to steadily increase the total amount of Inner Power.

The Dantian is akin to human muscles, which can be slowly expanded by continuous accumulation and enhancement, but the risk of shattering the Dantian arises with a one-time input of too much Inner Power...

Xiao Jie slowly opened his eyes and stretched, feeling a tingling sensation in his meridians, which he knew to be the result of his meridians being expanded by Inner Power, similar to the soreness of muscles after exercise—not a bad sign at all.

By gradually increasing the duration and intensity of his practice each day, he would eventually be able to cultivate strong Inner Power.

Just the thought of having strong Inner Power in the future, the ability to fly and scuttle, leaving no trace in the snow, bounding up buildings with a single leap, and roaming the world with a sword, excited him.

Of course, he couldn’t miss out on having a match with Liu Qiang in the game, to fight for life and death...

Inner Power can be practiced alone in the room, but saber techniques and Qinggong are not quite suitable.

He might as well make use of the remaining daylight and head up Huqiu Mountain for some practice.