22: Chapter 22 Procurement and Reinforcement

Lin Yan checked the time, turned around, and headed toward the Federal Trading Hall in the school.

Located on the west side of the school, the Federal Trading Hall was an independent three-story grey-white building. The walls were embedded with relief sculptures of the Federal Star Shield emblem, and a continuously refreshing electronic billboard hung next to the main entrance, scrolling with the day's reference prices for material recycling and inventory alerts for popular equipment.

It was never short of people from morning till night. Awakened who had just come out of a Dungeon squeezed toward the counters, carrying their exhaustion and backpacks full of materials. The sounds of bargaining and the alert tones from identification devices mixed together, as noisy as a large bazaar.

The first floor was the material trading hall, where the air was filled with a faint metallic scent and the strange, fishy odors emitted by various monster materials.

There were seven or eight lines in the hall, each with a recycling counter in front of it. Behind the counters sat recyclers in federal uniforms, with identification devices and computing terminals at their sides.

Lin Yan did not go to the regular recycling counters where there were the most people; ratings of A-Rank and above could use the express lane, so there was no need to queue.

He scanned the hall and quickly found the priority channel in the corner. It was a separate counter with an electronic sign hanging above it that read "Exclusive Channel for A-Rank and Above Ratings." Behind the counter sat a middle-aged woman wearing glasses, who was organizing the inventory list for the previous batch of materials.

He walked over and began taking things out from the storage space of his carapace belt.

First were the low-rank dimensional crystal. One thousand one hundred and thirty crystals were spread out on the counter, glistening in the light to cover a small area.

Then came the various materials saved up from the Dungeon: five Rift Ant eggs, one Queen acid gland, several Fire-pattern python scales, fragments of burrowers grasp and bone tumor fragments, and that pale gold Rift core fragment.

He took them out one by one, and a small hill soon piled up on the counter.

The middle-aged female recycler pushed up her glasses, her fingers tapping rapidly on the computing terminal, while the identification device beeped beside her.

She picked out the Rift core fragment to look at it twice more before quoting the price. The recycling price for each low-rank dimensional crystal was ten star coins, and with all the materials included, the total came to thirty-four thousand three hundred star coins. Lin Yan nodded and raised his wristband to confirm the payment.

Lin Yan did not want to become an equipment manufacturer, alchemist, or any other sub-profession; he only wanted to follow a pure combat route. Therefore, there was no use in keeping these materials, so it was better to sell them to the Federation to maximize their utility.

Lin Yan raised his wrist and checked his information wristband. With over 500,000 star coins, he decided to buy some equipment and skills to prepare for the next Dungeon.

He left the material area without rushing to find equipment.

He first opened his attribute panel for a look. His health was 30,000, and because he still had 55 free points that he hadn't added, his other attributes were relatively average for this level, except for his health. His physical defense was two hundred, magic defense was one hundred sixty, and his physical attack was a pitiful twenty points.

He had to make full use of his health advantage; his output had to be supplemented, and the way it was supplemented had to be linked to his core route.

The output he needed to add had to be linked to his health in order to maximize the advantage of his 30,000 health pool.

He walked along the circular corridor of the trading hall to the second floor. The skill area was much quieter than the material hall downstairs; most of the Awakened who came here had clear goals, unlike the people squeezing in front of the counters in the material area.

As soon as Lin Yan walked into the skill area, a male salesman wearing the uniform of the Federal Procurement Center walked up to him. His name was printed on the badge on his chest, his smile was a standardized professional curve, and his gaze quickly scanned the equipment on Lin Yan.

"Hello, sir. What type of skill books do you need? The second floor is divided into combat skill areas, defense skill areas, support skill areas, and special skill areas. If you have a clear direction, I can take you there directly."

"I need skills that convert Constitution or health into damage, green quality or higher."

"Understood, please wait a moment." The salesman turned and walked into the encrypted shelf area behind him, quickly taking out three skill books glowing with a pale green light and lining them up on the counter.

Each skill book was supported by a transparent display stand, and the green aura on the edges of the pages flowed slowly under the light.

"The first one is 'Blood Burning Strike', green quality, active skill. Consumes 5% of current health to add physical damage equal to 2 times the consumed health to the next attack. Cooldown is 60 seconds. Price is one hundred forty thousand."

"The second one is 'Titan Strength', green quality, passive skill. For every 1000 points of maximum health, Strength increases by 0.5. Price is one hundred sixty thousand."

"The third one is 'Thorns Skin', green quality, active skill. When activated, it reflects magic damage equivalent to 10% of your own defense to the attacker when receiving physical damage. Price is one hundred forty-five thousand."

Lin Yan's gaze paused on the first and second books. Blood Burning Strike: consume 5% of health to deal two times the damage. He had 30,000 health now, so at full health, he could deal 3,000 damage in one hit, perfectly making up for his current lack of damage.

Titan Strength: for every 1,000 maximum health, Strength increases by 0.5, and physical attack increases by five.

With his current 30,000 health, that translated to fifteen points of Strength and one hundred fifty points of physical attack. It didn't need active triggering, didn't need to consume health; it was a purely permanent bonus that was perfectly linked to his health attribute.

Furthermore, after learning it, Rend and burrowers grasp could also be learned and equipped. His health would only get higher in the future, and the benefits of this skill would also grow continuously.

"I want both of the first two."

The salesman confirmed the price and projected the bill onto the light screen on the counter: "Three hundred thousand star coins." His smile didn't change, but when he carefully sealed the two skill books into the special seal boxes one by one, his movements were clearly lighter and steadier than before.

Lin Yan raised his wristband and paid.

[Obtained active skill book: Blood Burning Strike]

[Quality: Green Excellent]

[Skill effect: Consumes up to 5% of current health, adds physical damage equal to 2 times the consumed health to the next attack, cooldown 60 seconds.]

[Learning conditions: Level > 5, Constitution ≥ 8]

[Obtained passive skill book: Titan Strength]

[Quality: Green Excellent]

[Skill effect: For every 1000 points of maximum health, Strength increases by 0.5.]

[Learning conditions: Level > 5, Constitution ≥ 8]

Adding the previously learned skills, he now possessed three passive skills and one active skill.

Lin Yan turned and went to the third floor. The layout of the equipment zone was more open than the second floor. Various armaments were displayed by category on showroom-style shelves, with each piece of equipment enclosed in a light sphere of the corresponding color, accompanied by detailed data labels and quotes below.

Awakened walked between the shelves in twos and threes; some were repeatedly comparing prices against the labels, while others were holding weapons in the fitting area to perform slashing tests.

A saleswoman walked up to him. Her smile was also a standard professional curve, and her gaze paused for a moment on the bone tumor breastplate and ant bone bracers on Lin Yan, quickly making a judgment: "Hello, sir. What level and what part of equipment do you need? The third floor is divided into the weapon area, armor area, and accessory area."

"No need, I'll look around myself." His armor was already very complete; replacing everything with level 10 gear would only give him an extra one or two thousand health, which wasn't a huge improvement, but it would be much more expensive.

Lin Yan had a clear goal and went straight to the accessory area.

The accessory area was an independent semi-circular space with bright but non-glaring lights. The accessories displayed in the counters were clearly a grade higher than the goods on the shelves in the material hall downstairs.

Lin Yan took a rough look. Most of the level 10 green equipment only provided some basic attributes, so he focused on the equipment that provided special effects.

"Level 10 green ring, Life Ring. Maximum health +800. When health drops below 20% after taking damage, it automatically triggers a life shield, absorbing damage equivalent to 20% of maximum health. Cooldown is six hours. Price is seventy-five thousand." This one wasn't bad, but he didn't really need it.

"Level 10 green necklace, Guardian Pendant. Health +500, physical and magic defense +25. When single damage received exceeds 25% of your maximum health, the excess part is reduced by 25%. Price is seventy-two thousand."

"Level 10 green ring, blood rage ring. Health +1000. Can store lost health, storing up to 10,000, and deal an equal amount of damage. Price is one hundred thousand."

Lin Yan's eyes lit up; this was it. It could also be combined with [Blood Burning Strike]. He didn't hesitate and transferred the payment directly.

[Obtained equipment: blood rage ring · Level 10]

[Quality: Green Excellent]

[Effect: Maximum health +1000, stores lost health within one hour, up to 10,000, and deals an equal amount of damage. Cooldown 1 hour.]

[Wearing conditions: Level ≥ 10, Health ≥ 10,000]

Then he went to repair his equipment and bought 5 bottles of Super health potion. Each bottle was 20,000 star coins, restoring 1000 health per second for 10 seconds. Advanced health potions only restored 300 per second, which wasn't very useful for him with his current health.

Lin Yan opened his attribute panel and confirmed the data refresh:

[Current Level: 10]

[Current Attributes: Constitution 9, Strength 16.5, Agility 1, Spirit 1, Luck 1]

[Current Health: 31535 / 31535]

[Current Mana: 100 / 100]

[Physical Attack: 255]

[Magic Attack: 10]

[Physical Defense: 200]

[Magic Defense: 160]

[Speed: 14] (Bonus 40%)

[Talent: F-Rank Weak Constitution]

[Skills: Hardened Skin (fixed reduction of 40 physical damage), Blood Burning Strike, Titan Strength (increases physical attack by 155), Rend]

[Equipment: iron scale legguards · Level 5, ant bone bracers · Level 5, bone tumor breastplate · Level 5, Fire-scale boots · Level 5, blood rage ring · Level 10, burrowers grasp · Level 5]

[Current Experience: 300 / 5000]

[Free Attribute Points: 55]

[Items: Super health potion × 5, intermediate health potion × 9, intermediate mana potion × 2, some food]

[Hex: None]

Walking along the circular corridor of the trading hall, the bill record on his wristband stretched out long.

Material realization was over thirty-four thousand, skill books were three hundred thousand, equipment was one hundred thousand, potions cost one hundred thousand, equipment repair cost twenty thousand; five hundred twenty thousand star coins were spent in less than an hour.

There was about ten thousand star coins left on the books, enough for daily expenses. With another fifty thousand star coins coming in every month, his combat power would only roll larger like a snowball.