Chapter 3: The Two-Star Void Mantis!
When Li Yao left, the job transfer ceremony was drawing to a close.
A total of seven hundred students at Yucai High School participated in the job transfer.
Among them, including Li Yao, there were two Class A frontline combat professionals, seven Class B professionals, and one hundred and forty below Class B.
For Yucai High School, these results were neither particularly good nor bad.
But with a Class A magic user in the lineup, Zhang Yi was fairly satisfied.
After the transfers ended, Zhang Yi watched as Jiang Ningyu came into his office, hesitating to speak.
“You want to talk about that Class A skill book, right?”
“Yeah,” Jiang Ningyu nodded, feeling wronged. “Fifty million is nowhere near enough to buy a Class A skill...”
“Principal, could you help me get the skill back? I owe you, and I’ll find a way to repay.”
Zhang Yi sipped his tea and said, “Don’t worry, that skill is definitely yours.”
“But didn’t Li Yao already take that badge?” Jiang Ningyu asked.
Take it? Isn’t that something you owe Li Yao?
Zhang Yi glanced at Jiang Ningyu somewhat irritably before explaining, “Have you forgotten? Li Yao is also a Class A professional.”
“By the rules, he’s entitled to a share of the Class A resource allowance.”
“As long as you perform well in tomorrow’s rookie dungeon, I’m confident I can make sure that allowance, legally and properly, ends up in your hands.”
In his eyes, although both were Class A, one was a magic user and the other a summoner.
Which was more important was obvious.
For the school to secure more resources, Jiang Ningyu, as a Class A mage, naturally deserved the investment.
Jiang Ningyu lit up with joy.
“Thank you, Principal!”
“Mm.”
Zhang Yi nodded, then spoke earnestly, “I agree with your break-up with Li Yao. Frost Masters and Summoners are ultimately from two different worlds.”
“You have a boundless future, but he would only hold you back.”
“I understand.”
The grievance in Jiang Ningyu’s eyes vanished.
Did you hear that, Li Yao?
You and I are destined to be from different worlds.
Breaking up with you was the right choice!
...
Elsewhere,
Li Yao returned home.
After casually eating something, he rushed to his room to get down to business.
Opening the system panel, he silently chanted,
“Draw Hex!”
[Drawing Hex Enhancement Runes...]
[Congratulations! You have drawn the first rune: Golden-level Rune, Combat Training!]
[Congratulations! You have drawn the second rune: Prismatic-level Rune, Hedge Fund!]
Hedge Fund!
Li Yao’s face lit up with wild joy.
Hedge Fund was the strongest early-game economic Hex rune—without exception!
He currently possessed the star upgrade talent.
He could use gold coins directly to upgrade the stars of his summoned creatures, greatly enhancing their attributes.
For him,
Hedge Fund was simply the perfect Hex rune!
To think that on his first draw, he landed a prismatic-level rune!
Hex enhancement runes came in three tiers:
Silver, Golden, and Prismatic.
[Hedge Fund (Prismatic): Immediately gain 50 gold coins; for every 5 levels the player advances, gain 10 gold coins.]
[Combat Training (Golden): Select a piece; killing monsters at or above that piece’s level permanently grants +1 Strength.]
Reading the effects, Li Yao gasped.
Even the Golden Combat Training rune excited him immensely.
The reason summoners were called the bottom feeders was simply their limited talent and weak summons.
But with Combat Training, killing monsters could endlessly increase Strength.
His summons would have infinite potential!
Later on,
he might even slay dragons with a single strike!
With this in mind,
Li Yao was eager to nurture his own summoned beast.
“First, I have to get a summoning skill book!”
He opened his computer,
accessed the StarNet site run by the Federation,
and navigated to the store section on the homepage.
There were weapons, skill books, potions—everything imaginable.
He selected skill books,
setting the filter to:
Summoning skill books; Class A; usable below level 10.
As expected,
not a single skill book appeared.
The rarity of Class A skill books was beyond what money could buy.
Using fifty million to exchange for a Class A skill was an absolute bargain!
After entering the exchange badge code, dozens of exchangeable items instantly popped up on the screen:
[Tiger Claw Phantom Lizard · Summon], [Red Horn Bull · Summon], [Goblin Grand General · Summon]...
Though there were many Class A skill books, Li Yao already had a target.
His talent was the strategist.
As long as the pieces were not all defeated, they couldn’t attack him directly.
Combined with Combat Training, killing monsters would permanently increase Strength.
So, his first summon had to be a physically resilient creature.
After filtering,
only one skill book met Li Yao’s criteria.
[Void Mantis · Summon]
Without hesitation, Li Yao chose to exchange it.
Via the StarNet’s special teleportation, the skill book appeared before him.
He immediately used it.
[Congratulations, you have formed a contract with Void Mantis, which has now gained the piece’s fate!]
With a flicker of thought, and after deducting 50 mana points,
a pale purple mantis appeared before Li Yao.
[Piece · Void Mantis]
[Level: 1 (increases with summoner’s level)]
[Rank: Class A]
[Bond: Assassin · Void Creature]
[Star Level: 1 star (requires 15 gold coins to upgrade Class A pieces)]
[HP: 350/350]
[Strength: 12]
[Spirit: 6]
[Agility: 23]
[Endurance: 7]
[Skill 1: Void Strike—Hide in the void, enter stealth level 2; the first basic attack after stealth deals 200% physical damage; cooldown: 12 seconds]
[Skill 2: Taste of Fear—Deals 200% physical damage to the target; if no enemy units are within 2 meters, damage is doubled; cooldown: 5 seconds]
Truly a Class A skill book.
Li Yao was very satisfied with the Void Mantis’s base stats.
Moreover, its skills inflicted high percentage damage.
It synergized perfectly with Combat Training!
Judging by current stats alone, even a Class A professional like Jiang Ningyu would likely lose in a one-on-one against the Void Mantis.
However,
for ordinary summoners, summons could not advance.
At most, when they reached second transfer, Class A professionals would surpass Class A summons.
That explained why summoners weakened in the late game.
Their growth ceiling lagged far behind other professionals.
But Li Yao possessed the star upgrade talent, so he didn’t worry about this at all.
“System, upgrade!”
As the words left his mouth,
the Void Mantis inside the summoning array suddenly swelled.
Its original size of less than half a meter now expanded to about 1.2 meters, still squat due to its hunched posture.
But for an insectoid creature,
1.2 meters was huge.
Its nearly half-meter-long forelegs were like blades, intimidating anyone who dared to underestimate it.
The entire body took on a menacing aura.
Its stats shifted accordingly.
[Piece · Void Mantis]
[Level: 1 (increases with summoner’s level)]
[Rank: S Class]
[Bond: Assassin · Void Creature]
[Star Level: 2 stars (requires 40 gold coins to upgrade S Class pieces)]
[HP: 1150/1150]
[Strength: 31]
[Spirit: 12]
[Agility: 43]
[Endurance: 23]
[Skill 1: Void Strike—Hide in the void, enter stealth level 5; first basic attack after stealth deals 300% physical damage; cooldown: 9 seconds]
[Skill 2: Taste of Fear—Deals 300% physical damage; if no enemy units are within 2 meters, damage doubles; cooldown: 4 seconds]
“Not bad!”
Li Yao looked at the Void Mantis’s attributes and nodded with satisfaction.
All stats had increased dramatically.
HP over 1000 at level 1 was already boss-level health.
Keep in mind,
Strength equaled attack power on a 1:1 ratio.
Endurance represented defense and HP.
Ordinary rookie professionals, wielding standard rookie weapons, had at most 15 Strength.
At 15 Strength attacking 23 Endurance, they would only deal 1 point of true damage.
With 1150 HP, even taking hits from those rookies wouldn’t reduce the Void Mantis’s health more than its own healing.
At this moment,
Li Yao had truly distanced himself from those professionals by a vast gulf.
What remained now
was to level up as much as possible tomorrow.
At level 5, the Hedge Fund would reward him gold coins, allowing further upgrades for his Void Mantis.
Then,
Li Yao could barely imagine how powerful his Void Mantis would become!