Chapter 59 The Taste of Poverty

Drizzle: Meeting at 4:00 PM.
Ye Mingqiu: Received.
...
He glanced at the time—a little past three. Heading straight to the school now for the meeting would be just right. On the way, he could pick up a pair of headphones from a shop near the campus, making it convenient to study the principles of spellcraft at any time in the future.

Under normal circumstances, psionicists at his stage would frantically practice their specialized traits, spamming skills to grind proficiency, raise their levels, and thereby increase their strength.

But Ye Mingqiu was different. He believed that practicing specialized traits in a comfortable environment was highly inefficient, and that honing skills through life-or-death combat on the battlefield was the best and fastest way to grow.

Training specialized traits in a comfortable place was simply a waste of time!

As for the levels of occupational and general skills, there was even less need to grind them, because he had directly used psionic points to max them out to level 3—the current level cap for psionic advancement. The returns from continuing to comprehend and upgrade them further were very low.

Therefore, Ye Mingqiu had formulated a simple study goal for himself:

Spell Comprehension and Firearms Mastery.

These were the things he should be studying during this period.

If he were to study spells, practicality definitely had to be the core. He should learn some practical spells first—for instance, start with a simple illumination spell... He didn't keep a staff, but that wasn't a major issue. The blood spear could serve as a simple disguise; after all, a spear and a staff looked somewhat alike, and the blood spear itself possessed a weapon spirit that could slightly alter its shape.

Should be fine, right?

Although the blood spear was a melee weapon, it actually contained immense blood-type energy within. Using it to cast blood magic and healing magic would also yield a certain boost, though this amplification could only be enjoyed when recognized by the weapon spirit.

Just like absorbing the blood energy from the Crimson Recluse through combat to enhance vitality—this was an ability that the psionic interface didn't list, but the blood spear possessed nonetheless.

That was the ability of the weapon spirit.

Only...

The blood spear came with built-in sanity erosion. The healing spell cast using the blood spear... wouldn't it also come with a sanity-eroding effect? It actually seemed quite possible...

...

In the afternoon, at 3:40.
Tang Ruobing's exclusive training room.

Ye Mingqiu pushed the door open and stepped inside. Sweeping his gaze around, he found Tang Ruobing sitting cross-legged in meditation.

Seeing this, a ripple stirred in his heart, and he silently thought: Meditation, it's meditation! I am currently only studying theory and trying out practice, without having learned any meditation techniques yet. Will my efficiency in growing stronger this way be too low?

On the other side, sensing someone enter, Tang Ruobing slowly halted her meditation and cast a stealthy side glance.

This guy is here...

She gently bit her lower lip, took repeated deep breaths, and finally made up her mind. Turning her head, she said:

"Re... Return some psionic points to me."

"Huh?"

Ye Mingqiu was momentarily stunned.

Isn't this tone a bit too weak? Why does it sound like she's borrowing psionic points from me? Clearly, I'm the one who owes psionic points, right?

Could it be...

The one who owes psionic points is the boss?

However, he quickly understood. Tang Ruobing was probably taking into consideration that he had only recently become a psionicist, didn't have many psionic points to spare, and still needed them for many things, which was why she felt somewhat embarrassed to ask him for repayment.

If that was the case, her current situation was probably a bit tight; otherwise, given her personality, she certainly wouldn't have initiated this conversation with him.

"How many do you need?" Ye Mingqiu asked.

"200. 200 psionic points will do."

"200?"

Ye Mingqiu blinked in surprise—not because the number was too big, but because it was too small. He couldn't help asking, "With this few psionic points, wouldn't selling some miscellaneous loot alone be more than enough?"

"Sold out... They're all sold out."

Tang Ruobing replied in a low voice, her lowered gaze lifting upward in a peek. Noticing Ye Mingqiu's strange look, she quickly explained, "Don't overthink it. I just had rather high expenses for boosting my strength recently, and I happened to run out of psionic points right now! Just this once! There won't be a next time!"

"Alright, I'll transfer them to you."

[Prompt: You have initiated a transfer of 200 psionic points.]
[Stardust has received them.]

Seeing the increased balance of psionic points, Tang Ruobing's expression relaxed considerably. She turned her head and said with utmost seriousness, "You are not allowed to tell anyone about this."

"Alright."

Ye Mingqiu nodded in response.

For some reason, he felt as though he had caught a familiar scent on Tang Ruobing—that scent... was the scent of poverty. She had become poor, yet she had also grown stronger.

"I have a question about spells that I'd like to ask you."

"Go ahead."

"When casting spells, I found that every spell has a limit. Once the psionic energy injected exceeds that limit, it's impossible to continue increasing its intensity... Yet in reality, many spell-slingers are able to draw out tremendously powerful effects from basic spells. How on earth do they manage that?" Ye Mingqiu asked, puzzled.

"A bottleneck?"

Tang Ruobing frowned and asked, "Cast a Fireball for me to see."

Ye Mingqiu reached out his hand, closed his eyes, and mentally focused on his psionic energy, guiding it to his palm. In his mind, he constructed a specific spell template for the psionic energy, converting it into the fire attribute and fashioning the shape of a fireball, which burned fiercely in the palm of his hand.

Immediately after, he opened his eyes and poured more psionic energy into the Fireball spell, causing the fireball to grow larger in volume, deepen in color, and rise in temperature.

However, not long after, the color and volume of the Fireball stopped changing; instead, numerous fire elements overflowed from the vicinity of Ye Mingqiu's palm, turning into tiny sparks that fell to the ground.

"This is the limit of the basic spell formula. To transcend the limit, you must modify the formula. Most basic spell formulas are universal ones—simple, convenient, and easy to learn, but their drawback is that the ceiling is too low, and you must constantly conduct in-depth research to break through."

Tang Ruobing paused, looking at Ye Mingqiu with a somewhat strange gaze as she asked, "Wait, although basic spell formulas indeed have a limit, at the very least you need to use over 100 psionic points before you can discover it. Could it be... your current psionic limit already exceeds 100?"

"Just sheer luck," Ye Mingqiu replied.

Tang Ruobing frowned but didn't ask further. She simply continued, "Spells are divided into two types of formulas. One is the universal formula, which has low learning difficulty but a ceiling on its intensity. The other is the advanced formula, where through the permutation and combination of knowledge, different formulas are pieced together for different situations, selecting the optimal solution for each scenario."

"If you want to continue learning spells, I suggest starting with universal formulas. Advanced formulas have a higher difficulty and aren't suitable for early-stage learning... What kind of spells do you want to learn? I can help you look for some universal formulas."

"What kind of spells could it be? I'm a support class, so I naturally have to prioritize learning healing, amplification spells, or functional spells," Ye Mingqiu answered as a matter of course.

Of course, being a support class was secondary. The main reason was that his combat style didn't rely on spells for primary output—that would be too much of a waste of mana for him. It was better to maintain sufficient mana to sustain the 30% strength and agility boost from [Psionic - Overflow].

Thus, the most suitable spells for him to learn were amplification spells and functional spells. Amplification spells could add buffs to enhance combat power, while functional spells could provide functional assistance in various situations, such as casting an illumination spell when fighting in the dark.