Chapter 48: Custom-Made

Lu Renjia surmised that a freshman would be concerned about cost and value. He quickly replied. “Enchantment is a very advanced course and there’s a wide variety of types, involving many other related courses such as Alchemy and Elementology. Not even graduate students would dare claim that they’ve mastered all kinds of enchantments. At most, they’d choose several specific areas for in-depth study.”

“In other words, these are the only enchantments you have?”

“You could put it that way! Higher-ranked enchantments are available too, but higher-ranked enchantments cannot be applied to lower-ranked weapons,” Lu Renjia continued to explain. “In fact, the practical value of these enchantments is really good. Your monthly exam is coming and a good weapon can definitely help out a lot.”

“But I noticed that none of the wands you sell have any skills attached? Don’t they have enchantments for those?” Xiao Lin was still not satisfied. He had Slashing as his physical attack, but nothing when it came to spells. The admissions test had clearly demonstrated to him the difference in damage between brute force and actual skill.

“...”

“What’s wrong?”

Lu Renjia smiled bitterly. “Well, let me briefly explain that there’s a fundamental difference between enchantment and enhancement. I won’t speak about it in too much depth because you’ll know soon enough when you take these courses in the future. Simply put, enchantment is when you carry out fine-tuning and upgrading without changing the structure of the equipment itself. Enhancement is when you adjust the equipment’s structure in order to achieve a higher strength.”

“In other words, weapons with skills attached to them must undergo enhancement?”

“Bingo!”

“Then make me an enhanced magic wand that comes with skills attached!”

“...” Lu Renjia once again used a series of ellipsis to express his speechlessness.

“What’s the matter now?”

“I’ve taken the courses related to weapon enhancement, but I haven’t completed any weapons yet. I must admit that having skills is very important for freshmen in the early stages, especially when it comes to the monthly exam. But frankly speaking, it’s not worth enhancing the skills of a novice weapon! There are a lot of materials needed for enhancement, and many of them don’t come cheap. Therefore, the price of a finished product is so high that it’s practically unaffordable for freshmen!”

Xiao Lin understood. Lu Renjia explained at length, but he only had one main point: weapons with skills were so expensive that Xiao Lin could not afford them.

Xiao Lin felt disheartened and asked hesitantly, “How expensive are they?”

“It depends on the customization requirements. A novice magic wand is not valuable itself, but its value lies in the embedded skill stone. The price will double if you want to enhance it, on top of the existing enchantment.” After all that explaining, Lu Renjia casually stated a figure. “It’ll be at least three or four hundred.”

Xiao Lin became suspicious. “But the novice magic wand randomly assigned to us in the admissions test also comes with an energy bomb. It can’t be that expensive!”

“You’re so naïve, kid! Do you think the academy is so charitable to give freshmen weapons worth hundreds of dollars for free? Haha, don’t think for on second that Dawn Academy is a welfare institution!”

After a pause, Lu Renjia continued, “The energy bomb is the most amateur of hand spells. It’s not even Black Iron-rank. The damage is limited, and a novice magic wand with the energy bomb is both flimsy and cannot be repaired. Hehe, you understand now, don’t you? That thing is actually an expendable item. It’s probably only barely enough for you to pass the admissions test.”

Xiao Lin started to believe it a little bit. As Lu Renjia mentioned earlier, freshmen who were given the novice wand would have blatantly taken advantage of it. In addition, he also noticed that the sophomores who sold outdated equipment in the trading zone did not sell any novice magic wands.

Magic damage, which caused more harm than physical damage, came at the cost of being an expendable item. Whether it was worth it was besides the point. After all, the casting of a spell was not completely dependent on a magic wand.

Xiao Lin thought for a while and decided to call Gu Xiaoyue. She had just finished lunch and was on the way to the meditation room. After hearing Xiao Lin’s question, she pushed her glasses and said naturally, “I found out when I checked the equipment’s attributes after the test. Not to worry, you can learn energy bombs when your Basic Meditation reaches level three.”

“Huh? You can learn spells at level three? I didn’t know that.”

“Oh, you weren’t in that particular meditation lesson.”

Xiao Lin wiped his sweat after remembering the meditation lesson. It was the same lesson he was forced to skip after eating Department Head Song’s iron comb chicken and falling unconscious. He hurriedly asked, “What about other skills? What’s the minimum Meditation level requirement for learning skills? That little Loli—ahem, I mean, did the teacher bring it up?”

Gu Xiaoyue was a good student who paid lots of attention in class. She thought about it for a moment and replied, “Level three in Basic Meditation is the minimum requirement, but you can only learn a few low-powered spells with it. This is considered entry level. Real Black Iron-rank spells require at least level five.”

In-depth discussions about all things magic brought out the talkative side of Gu Xiaoyue, but when Xiao Lin switched the topic to other areas—such as why her life span was only two years—Gu Xiaoyue immediately reverted back to her cold and aloof persona. Xiao Lin snickered and had no other option but to end the call.

Xiao Lin desperately needed a skill-attached magic wand and was already making preparations for the monthly exam in three weeks. Many factors would be considered in the final exam after three months–including his physical fitness, results of each subject, and the most importantly: the results of the monthly exams!

In the short term, his physical fitness paled in comparison to the others. If Xiao Lin wanted his official appointment to go smoothly after three months, he had to pay special attention to his monthly exam results.

“Even if I replicate Senior Sister Wu Qin’s level 10 Basic Meditation every week, my own meditation level still wouldn’t reach level five in three weeks.”

After making that consideration, Xiao Lin made up his mind too.

Before returning to the computer, Xiao Lin replied Lu Renjia with determination, “If the skill-attached novice magic wand is only three or four hundred redemption points, I’ll buy it!”

“... ” Lu Renjia was speechless again.

“What spells can I choose?”

“...”

“Black Iron-rank spells should be fine. What about higher levels, like Bronze-rank spells?”

“Wait! Are you really going to buy it!”

“I’m serious.” Xiao Lin actually felt rather disheartened. It was very expensive, especially when some of the ubiquitous Black Iron-rank wands were slightly cheaper than that.

Xiao Lin had to spend his redemption points one way or another. The true value of a skill-attached weapon was that it could be used by freshmen right away. The enchantment and skill enhancement of the weapon did not change the usage requirements of the weapon itself. The cost of it was still acceptable, given that he would be getting a novice weapon that was on par with one of Black Iron-rank.