Stinginess

Admission Notice for Guaranteed Entry to Monte Higher Academy

For the nearly one million students in the Crimson Soul Principality who took the entrance qualification exam every year, this was a massive opportunity.

But Lizer felt it was just so-so. However, Lizer didn't throw it in the trash; he kept it purely as a souvenir so his old man could use it to brag.

Beneath the admission notice was a certificate:

This is to certify that student Lizer has won first place in the provincial unified examination of the year 3729 of the Crimson Soul Calendar.

According to the relevant rules and regulations of the Department of Education, he is entitled to a one-time, 7-day exploration right in an official Zero-Ring low-level resource secret realm within the Monte territory.

Certified by the Department of Education of Monte Province.

This certificate was much better than the stingy admission notice; it was a tangible benefit.

Due to their environments, these resource secret realms were rich in various rare resources that were difficult to find on the market.

Some unique pharmaceutical and alchemical raw materials were much easier to find in these resource secret realms, such as sorcery recording crystals.

Later, when Lizer needed specific resources, he could simply choose a suitable low-level resource secret realm to explore.

Lizer picked it up and set it aside, his mood growing increasingly excited...

Stinginess

We are poor, and many hope to become richer, but I seek stinginess instead. -- Verst

This line was written on the title page of the meditation technique. At first glance, Lizer didn't quite understand its meaning, but it left him deep in thought.

[Detected rare meditation technique "Stinginess" (Fragmented/Apprentice). Consumes 1000 energy points to analyze.]

Holy crap!

This was the first time Lizer had encountered a skill that cost so many energy points.

Fortunately, since the exam, Lizer hadn't used any gold coins unless absolutely necessary.

His income of over 400 gold coins from the past few consecutive weeks had all been saved. After consuming a portion just now, he still had over 200 gold coins left.

If he didn't have enough gold coins and couldn't analyze it immediately, Lizer felt he would definitely go crazy.

Thank goodness!

Lizer took a deep breath and chose to analyze. Over 1000 energy points rapidly drained away like flowing water.

About two hours later, Lizer, who had been immersed in the meditation technique, regained his senses and understood the meaning on the title page.

Most sorcerers pursued higher spiritual power and more powerful sorcery effects.

Yet this powerful sorcerer of unknown name and rank had embarked on a path to find a balance between spiritual power consumption and sorcery consumption.

To achieve the same effect with less spiritual power, and to achieve a stronger effect with more spiritual power.

The upper limit of the stability of the consciousness space shaped by the meditation technique invented by this sorcerer was increased by nearly a factor of two.

Just the apprentice-stage portion alone could already withstand the intensity of a First-Ring sorcery model.

More importantly, this meditation technique had two bizarre special effects that forged its immense power:

Special Effect 1:

Stinginess

By learning the "Stinginess" meditation technique, a sorcerer can achieve the same sorcery and sorcery artifact effects using less spiritual power or fewer materials. At the entry level, consumption can be reduced to 80 percent.

Special Effect 2:

Generosity

Extremes breed reversals. By learning the "Stinginess" meditation technique, a sorcerer can achieve higher sorcery and sorcery artifact effects by using more spiritual power or materials.

The entry-level effect consumes 1.4 times the spiritual power or resources, which can increase the overall effect by 20 percent.

As expected of a special meditation technique, these two special effects were absolutely mind-blowing.

Moreover, they didn't just apply to sorcery; they were applicable to all of a sorcerer's crafts, including alchemy, potion-making, runic arrays, and so on.

It truly lived up to its concluding remark:

Because I am stingy, I am strong!

Having familiarized himself with the meditation technique's special effects and confirming that it could apply to everything a sorcerer did, Lizer suddenly had a hypothesis:

The special effects might work on his innate soul ability, [Pay-to-Win]!

Lizer hurriedly gave it a try:

[Consumed 3.2 energy points, Meditation Technique "Stinginess" (Fragmented/Apprentice) proficiency +1. Current proficiency: Entry-level 21/100]

Originally, the proficiency of his basic meditation technique was Entry-level 90/100. After replacing it with the Stinginess meditation technique, his proficiency plummeted to 20/100.

However, this result made Lizer ecstatic!

The meditation technique's special effect indeed worked on the [Pay-to-Win] ability. This was freaking awesome!

If he had obtained this meditation technique earlier, he probably would have saved hundreds of gold coins by now!

Unfortunately, he was currently out of gold coins!

According to the analysis prompt, if he wanted to upgrade it to the proficient level to further enhance the meditation's special effects, he needed 40 gold coins to increase his proficiency and 20 gold coins to promote its tier. With the special effect applied, he would still need 48 gold coins.

What a pity. He could only wait until next week!

Lizer licked his lips, still wanting more, and excitedly rushed out of his meditation room.

He had been in the meditation room for a whole day and reaped massive rewards. He had to find Felina to celebrate.

Like a little boy who had just received his favorite toy, he shouted in the apartment:

"Felina! Felina!"

In her meditation room, Felina, who was studying the "Corpse Interrogation Spell," was deeply engrossed in mysterious sorcery knowledge.

This unique sorcery involved knowledge of soul studies, human anatomy, necromantic energy particle studies, and more.

It was not just a new Zero-Ring sorcery, but also a further perfection of her knowledge system in necromantic sorcery.

Unfortunately, just like the sorcery knowledge she obtained from the academy, it was restricted from being leaked to anyone else, otherwise, she definitely would have taught these spells to Lizer.

She had already been studying this sorcery in the meditation room for a day.

Thanks to her long-term dedication to necromantic sorcery, learning this Zero-Ring sorcery wasn't as difficult as she had imagined.

She estimated that she would be able to grasp the basics of casting this sorcery within a sorcery week.

However, the effects of a newly learned sorcery were unstable, and the spiritual power consumed would be artificially high.

If she wanted to stabilize the sorcery's effects and reduce the spiritual power consumption, she would need at least one to two months of continuous study and tireless practice.

And if she wanted to further hone this sorcery, enhancing its effects and lowering the spiritual power drain even more, it would require years of research.

Felina's progress was actually already quite excellent.

But she had a monstrous husband who could learn anything at a single glance, and Felina didn't know whether that was a blessing or a curse.

Thinking of this, Felina looked up at the window of the meditation room; the horizon was already tinged with a faint twilight.

Their intimate interactions over the past few days had given her an instinctive reliance on his presence.

When Lizer's voice drifted over, her fingertips trembled slightly, and a soft throb rippled through her heart, making her breathing grow a bit lighter.

She subconsciously gathered the hem of her skirt. When she stood up, her footsteps carried a hint of urgency, and her voice held a subtle, sweet softness:

"Hubby, I'm right here."

Both heard each other's voices and quickly rushed toward one another, wanting to share their joyous souls...

...

Once they had calmed down, Felina kissed Lizer's cheek and asked softly:

"The final exams are over, and we have a month and a half of vacation.

Darling, what are your plans?"

Lizer thought about it; of course, he wanted to take Felina out for a trip.

In addition, his new sorcery potion "Spirit of Swiftness" required raw materials to be gathered, and the setup of the Zero-Ring energy-gathering array also needed raw materials.

I won't be able to gather all of these at Grey Mist Mountain. I'll have to make a trip outside...