Chapter 26: Starfall Staff

The next day.

"Sizzle!"

A dense ball of flame quickly engulfed an Abyss Spider. Its thick fur acted as the perfect accelerant. With a mournful cry, the massive body of the Abyss Spider, nearly three meters long, collapsed to the ground.

A notification chimed at the right moment.

[Notification: You have slain an Abyss Spider (LV4)...]

[You have reached level 4. Detecting your class as "Mage," and influenced by the power of the "Soul Spirit" contract, you may choose one of the following three magic runes to acquire.]

[Heal★ (Common): Condenses a healing aura on your palms to rapidly mend wounds. Consumes a high amount of mana. Cannot be cast upon yourself.]

[Lightning Shock★ (Common): Active skill. Releases a swift bolt of lightning, dealing electrical damage. Has a long cooldown.]

[Summon Bear Spirit (Rare)★: Consumes a large amount of mana to summon a Bear Spirit (LV3) to assist in battle. The Bear Spirit's level scales with your mana intensity. Lasts for one hour if not in combat. Cooldown: twelve hours.]

Three options appeared before him once again.

"A rare spell?" Qin Yuan looked intrigued.

"You're quite lucky," the Whispering Grimoire chuckled. "Generally speaking, most of the early choices are entirely common skills. You usually wouldn't see a rare spell choice until you reach level 8."

Qin Yuan nodded and asked, "Come to think of it, is there a big difference between rare spells and common spells?"

Although he possessed the rare-level Blink, he had never seen a common version, so he wasn't entirely clear on the specific power gap.

"Of course. Common spells are divided into one to five stars, but that is just a broad classification. Spells are further divided into four sub-tiers: Common, Rare, Epic, and Legendary," the Whispering Grimoire explained. "The improvement brought by each tier is very significant. For example, take the Blink spell. If it were a common version, not only would the casting wind-up be longer, but the teleportation distance would be significantly shorter. I haven't seen an Epic-tier Blink, but it should have significantly improved casting speed and teleportation distance, and might even possess effects missing from lower tiers."

"Sounds pretty good..." Qin Yuan carefully studied the effects of the summoning spell, feeling eager to try it out.

The Whispering Grimoire thought for a moment and added, "Furthermore, these 'God-granted spells' can be re-refined after you change classes, using a special potion to better suit your new profession. Therefore, having a high-tier spell gives you an additional advantage for a short time after your class advancement."

Although tempted, Qin Yuan briefly reviewed the other two skills. He wasn't very interested in Heal, especially since it was useless on himself; it was purely a utility skill that didn't fit his style. Lightning Shock was a pure damage skill, but he already had the Small Fireball, which served a similar purpose, so the demand wasn't that urgent.

Thus, even if this had been a common summoning spell, Qin Yuan would likely have chosen it anyway—let alone the fact that it was Rare.

He hesitated no longer.

[You have learned the spell—Summon Bear Spirit (Rare)★.]

[When you reach level 6, you will be able to select another magic rune.]

Feeling the surging power from his level-up and the new pool of mana, Qin Yuan couldn't wait to test his new spell. He gathered a massive amount of mana in his palm, and a complex blue rune was fully ignited. With a wave of his hand, a large ball of magical radiance condensed beside him.

With the naked eye, one could clearly see the silhouette inside the light expanding rapidly, taking shape within seconds. Finally, it swelled into the ethereal form of a giant bear.

Qin Yuan inspected the summon. It was nearly two meters long and looked quite ferocious. Just by looking at its sturdy limbs, it wasn't hard to imagine the astonishing power contained in a single swipe. As an ethereal summon, it wasn't fully physical, but it had a certain tactile sense when touched. It sat somewhere in between.

He quickly discovered that there were many differences between the Bear Spirit summoned by magic and the Feather summoned by his whistle. First was the mana cost; using this skill required a significant amount of mana, draining nearly 40% of his current pool. Furthermore, the casting wind-up was longer than his other spells, meaning it could be interrupted in the heat of battle; it was best prepared in advance.

It was worth noting that this wasn't a real creature, but a fictional construct of magic. It lacked intelligence, couldn't communicate, and couldn't think independently; it could only execute his commands in a stiff, mechanical fashion. In these aspects, it was completely outperformed by the Owl Whistle, which required no mana and had almost no wind-up.

However, there were some relative advantages. Its spirit was tightly linked to his own, allowing him to issue commands in an instant.

As a test, Qin Yuan focused his mind and ordered it to "Charge."

The next moment, the Bear Spirit let out a low growl and dashed forward in the pre-set direction. Its massive size kicked up a cloud of dust, slamming into a nearby tree trunk like a speeding car. With a roar, the trunk snapped in half and crashed to the ground.

Qin Yuan proceeded to test every aspect of the summon, gaining a deeper understanding of the skill. Although it was said to last sixty minutes, that was under ideal conditions. Once it entered combat, especially after sustaining heavy damage, the construct would shatter, force-dissipate, and enter a twelve-hour cooldown period.

Nevertheless, there was no denying that the Bear Spirit possessed decent combat power; both its strength and resistance were quite excellent. Qin Yuan even felt that if it were to fight him, he could kite it indefinitely with Blink if he kept his distance, but if they were close, he wouldn't be so sure. After all, if he made a mistake and got hit, his fragile mage body would be torn to shreds.

For the rest of the time, Qin Yuan focused entirely on grinding monsters.

[Notification: You have slain an Abyss Spider (LV4)...]

[Notification: You have slain an Abyss Spider (LV3)...]

[Notification: Your spirit pet Feather has slain an Abyss Spider (LV3)...]

A higher level meant more experience was required for each level-up. A full day of high-intensity grinding filled two-thirds of his experience bar. He wasn't far from level 5 now. Constant battle also honed his combat techniques, significantly improving the speed and accuracy of his spellcasting.

By evening, exhausted, he returned to Ironstone Village via a teleportation crystal.

...

After dinner, Qin Yuan went to the alchemy shop.

"Is the customer here to collect the wand? Of course, it's ready!"

The exquisite face of the Magic Mirror Elf emerged from the mirror on the counter. As it spoke, it immediately extended a phantom arm and pulled a delicate wand from behind the counter.

Qin Yuan took it gently and examined it carefully. It was a blue-purple wand, about thirty centimeters long and as thick as a thumb. The tip was inlaid with a rune-inscribed stone—his star-meteorite—though he could see traces of where it had been cut and polished. He tried waving it; it felt light and comfortable in his hand, without being too airy. The overall balance was excellent.

The Eye of Revelation provided the details.

[Star-Meteorite Wand★ (Rare): A magic item crafted by a magical artisan.]

[①: Your casting speed is slightly increased (White).]

[②: While holding this wand, your danger perception is significantly increased (Blue).]

Like rune paper, wands were divided into four tiers. Common meant it had only one white entry; Rare meant it possessed a blue entry on top of that, and so on. Naturally, the higher the quality of the entry, the stronger the effect.

Normally, crafting with standard magic materials would only yield a Common-tier wand. The reason this wand reached the Rare tier was that Qin Yuan had provided a small portion of Mana Embers★★ as an auxiliary material when commissioning the work. A small amount of this special magic material could boost the quality during crafting, though it could only reach the Rare tier at most. The more precious Epic and Legendary qualities could not be obtained through a magical artisan; they could only be found through rare and unique opportunities.

Just as he was about to channel mana into it to test a spell, he felt a strong sense of resistance, and no matter what, he couldn't pour any mana in.

"What's going on?"

At that moment, the system's notification chimed.

[The wand has not yet established a magic item usage contract; it cannot be used.]

"Oh, right, I almost forgot to give you this."

The Magic Mirror Elf blinked, suddenly realizing something, and quickly pulled a small jar of powder from a drawer and handed it over. Text appeared before his eyes again.

...

[Contract Powder★ (Magic Material): A byproduct of the successful creation of certain magic objects; can be used to establish a contract with a magic item.]

...

"Apologies, apologies..."

"Magic items must have a contract established before they can be used. You can only be contracted to one wand at a time. This small jar of contract powder is on the house."

"So that's how it works..." Following the Magic Mirror Elf's instructions, Qin Yuan rubbed the powder on his hands and then wiped the wand.

Immediately, a new system notification rang out.

[Contract with the wand successful!]

[Note: You may cancel the contract with the current item at any time, but there is a three-hour cooldown before you can contract a new item.]

Holding the wand again, a sensation of seamless control washed over him, as if it were an extension of his own limb. It felt much more intuitive.

Who came up with this design? Requiring a contract just to use a wand... it's too troublesome. It seems they don't want mages switching wands at will during combat. Although the rule felt inexplicable, he couldn't change it and could only grumble internally.

Experiment complete, Qin Yuan took the opportunity to exchange three mana crystals for gold coins.

After the transaction was finished.

"Um, that, that..."

The Magic Mirror Elf stared at him, its eyes flickering. Qin Yuan understood and gave a thumbs-up. The image on the mirror slowly changed.

"Positive review successful!"

"Thank you! Thank you so much!"

Qin Yuan: "..."

*Sigh*, the life of a struggling worker...