Chapter 105: The Costly Price of Training Skills

Mage Legend Without Ads

To practice their skills, Lin Jia and the others tried many methods. For example, they took a piece of paper and folded it into a thicker small square, then set the skill they wanted to train to the F1 hotkey. They wedged the paper between the F1 and F2 keys to prevent them from popping back up. This way, their characters would continuously use the skill without Lin Jia having to press the keys repeatedly. They could just comfortably recline in their sofa chairs, occasionally double-clicking potions to replenish their MP.

After extensive experimentation, Lin Jia discovered that the boss’s skeleton could also be charmed. However, it couldn’t be summoned as a mage’s companion, nor would the skill value increase. Yet, the fact that using Charm Light on mutated skeletons would leave them stunned and motionless was cleverly exploited by Lin Jia in PvP tactics. Imagine, during a battle when a mage is relentlessly chased by a Taoist, suddenly using Charm Light to immobilize the Taoist’s skeleton companion—known for its formidable physical attacks—and then turning around to relentlessly strike the Taoist with lightning. What a scenario that would be.

A level 20-something Taoist in an open field is virtually unable to withstand attacks from a mage of the same level with high magic power. Take, for instance, the boss’s level 24 Taoist and Lin Jia’s level 24 mage. Both are the same level, with comparable high-end gear. If the boss’s skeleton were fixed in place by Lin Jia, the Taoist with less than 200 HP would absolutely be unable to endure the mage’s level 3 lightning spell. With Lin Jia’s average damage of 40 HP per hit, the boss could be defeated within 5 or 6 strikes. Even with healing spells and HP potions, the Taoist would barely cling to half health, exhausted and struggling to survive.

Some might suggest poisoning, using talismans, and close-range physical attacks. But what if the mage casts a firewall on the ground? Even if the mage stands firmly in the flames, enduring the heat, the Taoist would likely be the first to falter. If the mage moves within the flames, it becomes even harder for the Taoist to keep up. Pursue? Fire and thunder! Don’t pursue? Lightning and thunder! In the end, the Taoist usually runs out of HP potions and flees or dies, while the mage’s healing and potions cannot keep pace with the damage inflicted when the Taoist pauses to recover.

Of course, this advantage depends on the mage player’s high level of skill. Otherwise, the Taoist could rely on entanglement tactics to slowly wear down the mage. When the skeleton is charmed, the Taoist immediately throws a soul fire talisman! Just like wild monsters, a charmed skeleton marked as hostile can regain mobility after being attacked. Even if the mage tries to charm it again, the Taoist’s poison can continue to drain the mage’s health, while throwing flying talismans and wielding sharp blades remains a serious threat.

In summary, setting aside equipment and level differences, the deciding factor in victory is the players’ skill.

How agonizing is it to fight against a mage player who can run around while quickly opening their inventory to use potions without slowing down? How dangerous to fight a mage who can always accurately target and hit you amid chaos? How fast were the hands of that “micro-control prodigy” mage who was once called “a micro operation freak” by comrades during StarCraft days? These factors determine the outcome of a battle.

After a week of grinding, spending a great amount of gold, time, and effort, Lin Jia finally maxed out two practical skills: Resist Fire Ring and Charm Light. To train Charm Light, after wandering across the mountains and rivers of the Allied Continent for 2 or 3 painful days, Lin Jia discovered that charming the archers near the city’s safe zone also increased skill points. So he spent another 4 days to reach level 3, the cap for Charm Light.

Resist Fire Ring was easier to train. Lin Jia found an innocent little goat outside the Earth City and pushed it all the way from Earth City to a secluded corner in a canyon near Sabac City with the fire resistance ring. In this narrow and hidden spot, the goat had nowhere to escape, and there were no idle players to kill the goat Lin Jia used for training. Plus, buying potions was convenient.

For several days, those who knew Lin Jia was training skills felt relieved, while those unaware thought he was abusing animals. The little goat trapped at the secret passage entrance outside the upper left corner of Sabac City was stuck in a triangular narrow space. With a button pressed, the blazing red circle on Lin Jia never stopped glowing and flickering.

In reality, Lin Jia and the others wasted a lot of money—about 2 million gold—training skills. In Legend, HP and MP potions do not instantly refill but restore points gradually. Using too many potions at once does not stack; generally, using 2 to 3 strong mana potions in succession can accumulate, but more than 4 in a row results in wasted potions.

While half-asleep during training, Lin Jia and company sometimes lazily used 3 or 4 potions at once, or even dozed off on the desk, blindly clicking potions by feel. Upon waking, they’d find more than half the potions in their inventory gone, forcing them to buy more. Most of the potions were consumed like soda.

Lin Jia’s Charm Light and Resist Fire Ring training was relatively economical, costing only 600,000 gold. Meanwhile, the boss spent 1.5 million gold—80,000 of which was on a Ghost Shield—to train his skeleton skill. The reason was that this lazy woman was prone to sleepiness and impatience. When drowsy, she’d mindlessly click potions, hoping they’d last longer so she could nap more, but she didn’t consider that her level 24 Taoist only had about 200 MP. One strong mana potion was enough, two was wasteful. Even Lin Jia, a dedicated mage, had only around 300 to 400 MP.

Lin Jia did not plan to train Firewall for now. He intended to improve it gradually during leveling. Using Firewall consumes dozens of MP points each time, and one strong mana potion only lasts a few uses. To level up the 10,000+ skill points of level 1 Firewall would cost an enormous amount of potion money.

The boss did not want to train Poisoning skill but had no choice. Although they had nearly 20 million gold in assets, poison powders were too expensive. A small package usable 50 times sold for about 10,000 gold, while medium packages went for nearly 20,000 gold.

Most importantly, the system shop did not sell poison powder. Players had to kill small monsters like venom spiders, cave maggots, or carnivorous plants to gather materials for making poison powder or buy from other players. Since Taoist players made up the majority of the player base in Legend, even poison powders costing 10,000 gold per small pack were often in short supply and hard to find.

Consider this: one small pack of poison powder usable 50 times only increases skill points by 1 to 3 per use. At best, a pack might yield less than 100 skill points. Since leveling to level 1 requires several thousand, even up to tens of thousands of skill experience, training Poisoning to level 3 without millions of gold would be impossible—assuming unlimited poison powder supply.

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