Chapter 30: The First Draw

It was noon on the second day.

The curtains in the room were drawn shut. A rich, delicate fragrance permeated the air, and the scorching heat emitted by the flickering flames caused the indoor temperature to rise significantly.

In a small cleared area of the living room, the alchemy station obtained from the treehouse was set up. A pale purple magic crystal was embedded in its center, radiating a bright magical glow. Fueled by the crystal, azure flames rose up to heat the vessel above.

The Whispering Grimoire held its tools, stirring the liquid while observing the concoction. Indeed, after waking up this morning, both materials required for crafting the Arcane Potion had been secured. It turned out that the trade posts he had put out were effective. Given this, Qin Yuan immediately got to work, commissioning the master alchemist, the Whispering Grimoire, to start brewing for the first time in a century. Although a long time had passed, its craftsmanship had not been lost. While Qin Yuan was merely a layman, the Whispering Grimoire’s technique, at the very least, looked quite professional.

Qin Yuan sat in a chair, witnessing every step of the process.

"Done!"

With a sharp click, the flames extinguished. The Whispering Grimoire finally let out a sigh of relief and poured the successfully brewed potion into a prepared bottle. "It will be ready to use once it cools down."

"Good."

Qin Yuan examined the still-swirling potion. The Arcane Potion was a deep azure, and one could faintly see tiny, star-like specks shimmering within. This batch of materials had yielded three bottles in total.

"Is there anything else?" the Whispering Grimoire asked.

"No, that's all."

The Whispering Grimoire zipped off to the study room. The reason was simple: that morning, Qin Yuan had purchased hundreds of pounds of miscellaneous books and dumped them inside. That would be enough to keep it occupied for a while.

"Wait a minute, why do I feel like my approach was wrong?" He pondered. It seemed... perhaps... he should have... "I could have just bought it a smartphone and topped it up with some money, then let it find books to read itself. Wouldn't the options online be far more extensive? Next time, for sure!"

Qin Yuan packed the items on the floor into his backpack and pulled open the curtains. Judging by today’s experience, brewing potions at home wasn't ideal. If he accidentally caused an explosion during a future attempt, it would be a miracle if the neighbors didn't report him. Perhaps he should rent or buy a house in the suburbs specifically for potion brewing.

That idea had its merits.

Wiping away the sweat caused by the high temperature, Qin Yuan suddenly received a notification.

[A trade post you published has been completed.]
[Volcanic Stone x1 has been added to your inventory.]

"Oh?" This piqued his interest, and he checked his bag. Sure enough, a white stone with red undertones lay quietly inside. "This thing wasn't cheap..." He hoped it would be worth the cost.

He immediately retrieved the Greed Roulette from his storage bag. Looking at the slightly sinister "coin slot" shaped like bared fangs, Qin Yuan hesitated for a moment before gently dropping the material inside. The roulette’s mouth opened, swallowed the stone in one gulp, and began to chew.

After a teeth-grinding sound, the previously dull roulette seemed to fill with new energy. It hopped up from the floor and flipped onto its front. The needle, which appeared to be made of bone, began to spin rapidly.

"Is it happening...?" Qin Yuan stared intensely at the spinning needle.

After about ten seconds, as the speed gradually faded, the needle slowly came to a halt. It landed on a section marked with two simple English letters: "XP."

The Greed Roulette landed back on the floor. Immediately, a small clump of items was spat out from its mouth onto the ground. Qin Yuan quickly picked them up, and the system notification informed him of the item's function.

[Small White Experience Stone: Limited to character level 5 and below. Grants a certain amount of experience points.]

So, that section stood for experience points. Qin Yuan’s expression cleared. Following the prompt, he gripped the experience stone tightly. The stone in his palm instantly transformed into a turbulent flow of energy that entered his body. Opening his panel, he saw that the experience bar was nearly full, needing just a little more. It seemed that killing one or two small monsters would be enough to reach level five.

"Let's see... I was at about sixty percent experience, and one stone added about thirty percent." Qin Yuan nodded. This efficiency was quite good.

It had effectively saved him half a day of time. Moreover, one thing to note, according to the Whispering Grimoire, the level-up efficiency for "players" like them was completely different from that of the local inhabitants. For instance, while he might only need to kill ten of a certain monster to level up, a local player might need to kill twenty. This involved the efficiency of gaining experience points—an advantage most players likely didn't know about yet, but one that was extremely important.

Picking up the roulette again, the text had changed.

[Greed Roulette]
[Type: Special Item]
[Description: An item crafted from souls. Insert "currency" to spin the roulette and receive rewards. Can only be used once per week.]
[Note: The currency required to activate the roulette changes weekly. This week’s requirement is (Void Salt Granules ★★★). The higher the grade of the currency, the more generous the reward.]
[Time until next currency refresh: 6 days.]

After using it once with this week's currency, the roulette had refreshed. But where was he supposed to get a three-star magic material? Silently, he put the Greed Roulette away. The name was certainly fitting. It looked like there was no hope for this week; he would have to see if a lower-star requirement appeared next week.

Furthermore, during the process, Qin Yuan noticed that the roulette’s cooldown did not count real-time, but rather the time spent in the Soul Land. In other words, the actual waiting time for a refresh was even longer than described.

...

The next morning, Qin Yuan woke up early, waiting for the transition. Sitting at his computer desk, he felt a sense of melancholy. He hadn't noticed it before, but ever since he entered the Soul Land, these two days in reality felt incredibly long.

Meanwhile, while browsing the forums over the past few days, he had hoped to find magic rune paper suitable for himself in the trade posts. However, perhaps due to the players' current low production capacity, there was very little trade information on the subject. Moreover, for many of the posts he clicked on, it would already show that the goods had been sold.

"It feels like someone is buying up these things..." Qin Yuan frowned in thought, guessing it might be the Player Alliance. They were likely the only ones with the financial resources to do so.

As he pondered, the countdown neared its end. The familiar sensation of teleportation returned once again.