Chapter 409: Fermentation (1/2)

Zac quickly discarded the thought of letting his anger take the wheel. That felt like a great way to become a raving lunatic, especially with the splinter still in his head. He would gladly take the upgrades it provided him, but he didn't want to rely on it any more than that.

The splinter only helped with a scant few of his skills though, and a few other skills showed disappointing progress. Inquisitive Eye was still stuck on early proficiency, which didn’t really surprise Zac. He no longer used it since it had essentially become superfluous for him. There was no point in using it on weak enemies, and strong enemies were too powerful for the skill to work on them.

He had tried to purchase the ocular skill Galau used, but the youth didn’t possess the actual crystal. He had bought the skill from a Skill House on his home planet, which essentially was like an open Dao Repository.

Warriors short on cash could spend some time working in conjunction with the inscribers of the Skill House to produce skill crystals, and the remuneration would depend on the quality of the skill and the number of uses the crystals contained in the end.

The subject of Skill Crystals had always made Zac a bit confused, especially the high price they commanded. He had always wondered why they weren’t cheaper. Couldn’t you just copy the skill a thousand times and sell it across the multi-verse? Such a thing would no doubt push the price down from the exorbitant prices they had today.

But it was through Galau he finally realized that creating skill crystals was extremely arduous. First, it needed the owner of the skill to have completely mastered it. Just reaching the peak of the skill wasn’t enough, one needed to know its ins and outs completely to the point that it almost came like breathing to them.

Secondly, it required a skilled inscriber to translate the insights of the warrior into an inscription embedded in the crystal. The two had to work together for months, sometimes even years for high-grade skills, to create the crystal, creating a huge opportunity cost.

Of course, this process could be somewhat sped up if the inscriber and the warrior were the one and the same. In fact, many wandering cultivators learned the basics of inscriptions for this very reason. If they ever found themselves hard on cash they could spend some time refining a skill crystal or two. It wasn't as good money as hunting powerful beasts, but it also didn't put your life at risk.

Some even traveled the multiverse collecting popular skills in order to learn them and resell crystals at other planets for a profit. The fact that skill crystals usually only lasted for a couple of uses guaranteed a constant demand as well, as long as the skill was strong enough.

Inheritance crystals like the one in his Dao Repository were far rarer, and they required extremely expensive materials to not deteriorate after a skill fractal was extracted. It also required a peak D-Grade inscriber at the least, and it wasn’t something some hobby inscriber could create. The Inheritance Crystals in the Tower of Myriad Dao was no doubt the result of a labor of love that took the original Brazla centuries to complete.

As for the other lacking skills like [Forester's Constitution] and [Hatchetman's Spirit], Zac wasn't really sure how to progress them. Forester's Constitution had only upgraded once, and it was while he ran through the corrupted forests of the Dead Zone. Since then there had been no improvements in the skill, making Zac believe it might need constant exposure to various forests to progress.

Unfortunately, that wasn't something he could train on command, and he could only hope that some of the following levels would take place in locations that would benefit the skills. As for [Hatchetman's Sprit], he had no idea how to improve it just yet.

For now it looked like he was done with his training session, and it would probably be more efficient to delve deeper into his Daos on the higher floors. Zac got back to his feet and quickly made his way back to the small town some distance from the valley that the Church had turned into a temporary command central.

“How goes the investigations?” an acolyte standing guard asked as Zac approached.

“I think I may have found a lead,” Zac answered off-handedly. “But I need to confer with my associates.”

“That’s great!” the acolyte exclaimed. “Your colleagues are currently meditating in your courtyard.”

Zac nodded and walked toward his courtyard, where he found Galau going over the haul from the past floors while scribbling in a book. His focus was so great that he only noticed Zac’s return when he stood right next to him.

“Oh? You’re back?” Galau asked. “Are you taking a break or are we done with this level?”

“I have accomplished what I needed here. I will probably go higher if I want to improve my other skills,” Zac said. “Where’s Ogras?”

“He’s out back with the barrels. He might actually have a talent for brewery,” the youth said.

“Who knows?” Zac smiled. “He might change vocations as well.”

“Did you find anything about the corruption?” Galau asked.

“I found a spot in the valley with much denser energies compared to the rest, the source is probably around there, but we might need your eyes to pinpoint the source. I also have an idea of how to deal with it,” Zac said as he walked toward the back of the house.

But he suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned to Galau.

“Are you familiar with mastery-skills?” Zac asked.

“Of course, why do you ask?” Galau asked with confusion. “I have the [Sword Mastery] due to my class.”

“I just reached peak proficiency and was shown a bunch of visions. But I didn’t gain any Dao insight from it. Is that because of the Tower?” Zac asked, some worry creeping back into his heart.

“Dao vision?” Galau repeated before he shook his head. “No, the mastery skill doesn’t provide that. The visions simply give various examples of how you can further your studies, but it’s not required to follow. If you have a Heritage you’ll simply follow that instead.”

Zac sighed in relief, realizing he had been correct with his guess. He thanked the youth and went around the back of the building the church had allocated for them.

“What the-“ Zac exclaimed the moment he walked around the corner, as the whole backyard was filled with over a dozen massive barrels, each holding hundreds of liters of liquor.

“Just how much did you buy in the Base Camp?” Zac asked with shock as he walked up to a vat to smell the fragrance.

“Half of it was bought inside the Tower, remember the 21st level? It was dirt cheap over there,” Ogras smiled. “I am experimenting and trying to improve my odds of keeping my stuff.”

“How’s so?” Zac asked with interest.