Chapter 44 Four Types of Jobs
Fang Xingjian gave it some thought and said, “One gold coin, which is the equivalent of one thousand copper coins. How’s that?”
That librarian said smugly, “Three gold coins, and depending on the difficulty, there may be a need to adjust the cost later.”
“Three gold coins?” Fang Xingjian gritted his teeth. As a Prefectural Champion, he was only given ten gold coins per month, while Carter would only get one gold coin per month, since he was ranked tenth.
Fang Xingjian nodded and asked, “What’s your name?”
“Manny.”
Fang Xingjian took in a deep breath and said, “Very well, Manny, three gold coins it is. Within three days, I want you to retrieve all first transition jobs which utilize the sword and focus on sword arts as the main source of power. After that, make me a copy of those records.”
Manny immediately broke into a wide smile and said, “Rest assured, no one is more familiar than me with the books in this library. I’ll start making a copy of them for you tomorrow.”
Fang Xingjian nodded, “Right, there are also books on sword arts in the library? Bring me there to take a look.”
After leaving the library, Fang Xingjian was still feeling slightly stuffy. He had considered using other options, or even threatening Manny.
However, he thought about it from another perspective. Since it was something which could be settled with money, why would he need to complicate things? Now, to him, time was the most crucial thing. After the Prefectural Selection, he was only left with four and a half years’ time and he needed to make good use of it.
Therefore, he headed straight back to the villa, and once he entered the training room, he immediately started fanatically training the Hegemonic Qi Slash of Heavens and Earth. The explosive sounds from the waves of his sword were like thunder, sounding out endlessly in the room.
The servants who passed by would all looked towards the direction of the room in awe.
…
Two days later, Manny lugged documents which were as tall as half a person’s height and arrived at Fang Xingjian’s villa.
Seeing Fang Xingjian coming out slowly from the training room baring the upper half of his body, he made himself at home, going through Fang Xingjian’s wine cabinet and said, “Wow, you have quite a lot of good wine here.”
Fang Xingjian sat on the sofa, took a stack of documents and started reading. He then casually said, “They were all given by the academy, I don’t drink them.”
“You don’t drink them?” Manny grabbed a wine bottle filled with a silvery transparent liquid and shouted out, “Do you know how much this bottle of Mountain Spring Fruit Wine costs? Since you don’t drink them, you might as well give it to me.”
“Help yourself.” Fang Xingjian’s eyes were still fixed on the documents, ignoring Manny who kept trying to stuff the bottles of wine into his pocket. He asked directly, “Which few are the most powerful amongst these?”
“I knew you’d ask.” Manny pointed to the few documents in a file with the upper right corner of their pages labelled in red and said, “These four are the strongest amongst all these jobs for the first transition. Take a look yourself.”
Fang Xingjian drew them out. The first that he saw was Void Sword Sovereign; job progression included an additional 2 points in strength, 2 points in agility, 2 points in reaction, 2 points in endurance, and 2 points in flexibility.
It was a very mediocre progression, but it came with a job skill, Sword Qi of the Void, which could utilize ether particles to launch sword Qi through gaps in space to attack enemies.
Space was a very strong existence which was hard to break through. However, it did not exist as a whole but contained numerous gaps and openings. Sword Qi of the Void could pass through those gaps, moving without a trace yet with a sharpness that was unparalleled. It was a top notch assassination job.
Fang Xingjian flipped to the next page. Starcluster Hunter: increased strength by 3 points, agility by 3 points, and reaction by 6 points. The Star Hunter focused on the reaction attribute, and with the two specialities, namely Innate Reflexes and Basic Instinct, it would give the person unbelievable reactive speed, allowing him to make the first strike almost all the time during close combat.
Next was a job called Windstorm Sword Hero. The attribute progression for this job was very simple, merely a 9 point increase in agility. It came with two specialties, the first was the Windstorm Footsteps, which could increase one’s movement speed immensely. The second was the Sonic Slash, which could increase the speed of launching one’s sword attack.
This was obviously a job which specialized in agility. The person would be able to fight and escape as he wished, and would be able to attack at the speed of lightning.
The last one was Sovereign of Ten Thousand Swords. The job progression was a 4 point increase in strength, 4 points in agility, and 4 points in flexibility. It came with a specialty known as Protection of Ten Thousand Swords, which would increase one’s body defence. There was another specialty which was the soul of this job, the Throne of Ten Thousand Swords, which would allow one to accumulate strength daily, storing sword Qi in one’s body up to thousands or tens of thousands that could be released at once if the situation called for it.
Of course, each of the four jobs had the basic abilities for a first job transition, which was to communicate with ether particles and thus display Reduced Force-Field (a universal ability which was achieved from communicating with ether particles to change life’s intrinsic quality, and which could allow Knights to display a force-field of half their strength within a ten-meter circumference.)
The four jobs each had their advantages and disadvantages, but all of them far surpassed that of the first transition jobs the instructor had shared with them.
Fang Xingjian looked at the jobs’ materials with gleaming eyes and said, “For these four first transition jobs, there are no instructors in the academy now who can provide full guidance?”
“You’re speaking the obvious. If not, you think that the instructor wouldn’t tell you?” Manny’s clothes were bulging after having stuffed in quite a number of wine bottles. He even made clanking sounds while he was walking. “Be it specialties, or skills, or prints, or mental cultivation methods, there is no one who can teach the prerequisites for these jobs. This means that if you want to transition into one of these four jobs, there are many areas in which you’ll have to self-study.
My advice is that even if you want to pick a unique job, you should take a look at others as well. There aren’t many people in the course of the Empire’s history who have achieved success in these four jobs.
Hehe, are you satisfied?” Saying this, Manny rubbed his hands fawningly as he looked at Fang Xingjian.
Fang Xingjian took out three gold coins, but when Manny reached out his hands, he pulled them back.
“What is the meaning of this?” Manny said anxiously.
“I’ll give you two gold coins first.” Fang Xingjian said, “To get the remaining one, you’ll need to find me some other materials.”
Receiving the two gold coins, Manny glared at Fang Xingjian. However, it was as Fang Xingjian had expected. The other party’s mania towards money was sufficient to let him take this lying down.
“What do you want?”
“For these four jobs, I want all the details for all those who have completed the first transition for these jobs in the Empire’s history, the more detailed the better.”
…
The next few days, Fang Xingjian attended class with Jack and Anthony in the day to learn about the seventeen types of jobs the academy provided them with. During the other time, he would stay in the training room to practice the Hegemonic Qi Slash of Heavens and Earth while studying the materials Manny had provided him with.
The days passed, and seven days later, Fang Xingjian had already reached level 12 for the Hegemonic Qi Slash of Heavens and Earth, which gave him an additional point in strength and 1 point in agility.
Another thing was that he would practice the Hegemonic Qi Slash of Heavens and Earth fanatically. He would accumulate potential for techniques in the training path, then expend the over 120,000 potential points until there was only about 20,000 left. Because of this, his strength had also increased by 3 points.
In these days, he depleted a massive amount of potential in one go. The 3500 potential points he accumulated daily through the practicing of nurturing techniques were completed depleted after he expended four to five thousand potential points daily. From there, he started to practice the Hegemonic Qi Slash of Heavens and Earth for one to two hours daily to deplete the 3,500 potential points he accumulated daily.
Other than training, Fang Xingjian also took in various nourishing medications and ferocious beasts’ essence, bringing the effects of his training to an even higher level. His muscles and bones continued to grow, providing nourishment for potential.
There would be people who would bring hot water, clean water and a change of clothes so that he no longer needed to pay heed to his hygiene.
And after the past half year of training, his body had also continued to grow. His height grew to over 1.9 meters, and in his blue Knight’s suit, he appeared to be big and sturdy, with a sharp gaze, and his muscles and bones were twisted together to be as tough as steel. His skin and flesh was like a layer of steel, protecting his body, while his black hair swayed in the wind like fiery flames.
This made him appear like one of the legendary battle gods.
Compared to half a year ago, the Fang Xingjian now was a world away from the one before.
And his attributes had changed too.
Name
Fang Xingjian
Age
16
Occupation
Warrior’s Squire
Level
9
Strength
38
Agility
43
Reaction
23
Endurance
30
Flexibility
32
Techniques:
Single-handed Sword Grab
Level 20
Cross-slash
Level 20
Grizzly Bear Sword Technique
Level 30
Eagle Sword Technique
Level 30
Tenauer-Style Body Strengthening Sword Technique
Level 30
Nine Yang Divine Sword Technique
Level 20
Chaotic Strike
Level 20
Silver Moon Prayer Sword Technique
Level 20
Descent of Holy Light
Level 10
Tresia-Style Foundation Sword Technique
Level 20
Nine-Headed Dragon Sword Technique
Level 1
Hegemonic Qi Slash of Heavens and Earth
Level 12
Specialities:
Genius Swordsmanship,
Survival Instinct,
Internal Healing,
Internal Training,
Sword Specialist
On this day, when he entered the classroom again, he immediately felt a tight tension. No one spoke. Not even Jack, who usually appeared the most relaxed, and who loved to joke. Jack’s lips were tightly shut, and his gaze gave away the fact that he was pondering.
It was the day of the last class of the job planning curriculum. It was also the day when everyone would have to fill in their application forms to decide what their first transition job would be.