"World Tree Seed... a spiritual power catalyst for meditation?"
Reyn knew almost nothing about meditation techniques and was hearing about spiritual power catalysts for the first time.
Viola patiently explained,
"We humans, due to the curse, have insufficient talent and can't directly extract mental energy, or 'mana,' from meditation like other races. So we rely on catalysts to develop spiritual power, achieving the same effect as mana.
Reyn noted she said "we humans." "This half-elf must have grown up in the Empire and fully considers herself human," he thought.
"Do mages of the School of Seals of Law and School of Soul Lords need spiritual power catalysts too?"
"Of course.
Viola nodded.
"The spiritual power catalyst of the School of Seals of Law is called Soul-Shattering Diamond. It's used not only for meditation practice but also helps mages extract arcane elements from demonic souls to create magic seals. Thus, the Soul-Shattering Diamond is an indispensable item for mages of that school.
"And the spiritual power catalyst of our School of Soul Lords is the Soul Gathering Tower. Combined with meditation, it lets us ignite the soul flame, nurture demonic souls in the Tower, and either let them possess us or summon them into the outer world.
Reyn listened intently. Such knowledge was hard to access for non-supernaturals.
According to Viola, each of the three great mage schools had its own spiritual power catalyst: Soul-Shattering Diamond, Soul Gathering Tower, and World Tree Seed, also known as Soul Fusion Seed. All were alchemical items, usually crafted by mages of the respective schools, containing the corresponding meditation technique.
After the Soul Transformations ritual, simply integrating the catalyst into one's soul naturally granted mastery of the embedded meditation technique, making one a mage.
This greatly simplified things—no more need to hunt for a meditation technique.
"So, Lord Reyn, have any thoughts on the Soul Fusion Seed?" Viola asked again.
Reyn glanced at her involuntarily. "Is this Soul Fusion Seed so hard to sell that she doesn't want it sitting on her hands, pushing it so insistently?" the thought flashed.
After a moment, he asked,
"The Violet House must have catalysts for all three mage schools, right? What's their price?"
Tarini, standing nearby, answered,
"Soul-Shattering Diamond and Soul Gathering Tower are more common, so cheaper—just two hundred gold shields. All spiritual power catalysts in our shop are personally crafted by mages no lower than mid-rank, using the best materials. Our alchemy quality in Longsand is guaranteed the highest.
"Two hundred gold shields..."
Reyn whistled. Just a spiritual power catalyst cost so much! The price of becoming a mage was exorbitant!
Were all mages that rich?
Without his windfall at the Iceberg estate, he couldn't have afforded such an expensive item.
Rarity determined value, so the Soul Fusion Seed's price would surely be higher. Curiosity piqued, Reyn asked,
"And how much for the Soul Fusion Seed?"
Tarini hesitated, as if unsure how to state the price.
Viola answered for her,
"The only Soul Fusion Seed in our shop I got by chance a few years ago. It's of the highest quality and extremely rare.
"Lord Reyn, you've surely heard of the World Tree—the sacred tree of forest elves. Soul Fusion Seeds are made precisely from World Tree seeds. Each year, the World Tree bears hundreds of fruits, i.e., seeds. The vast majority are ordinary, but one fruit is golden—called the Golden Seed.
"The Soul Fusion Seed I have was made from a Golden Seed of the World Tree. And the alchemist who crafted it wasn't ordinary either. I suspect it was a Battle Mage at least legendary level, possibly higher.
"I had a legendary mage appraise it. This Soul Fusion Seed's effect is astonishing: it can increase demonic soul fusion affinity by at least ten percent!
"Ten percent increase!" Reyn exclaimed in shock.
Even if just ten percent, seeming small, it was actually incredible.
Each demonic soul fusion damaged it due to mutual conflict.
Taking the soul's power in undamaged state as baseline, post-fusion under thirty percent spiritual power meant all elements lost—failure.
Success required over thirty percent spiritual power retention.
Thirty to fifty percent: low fusion degree, what most supernaturals got. Fifty to seventy: medium, quite successful. Seventy to ninety: high fusion; achieving it once in life brought years of joy.
Over ninety percent retention? Super-high fusion—like winning the jackpot.
One such fusion could vastly outpace same-level peers!
If Viola wasn't lying, and her Soul Fusion Seed truly boosted fusion by ten percent, it was an incredible rarity. Any mage aiming for the School of Battle Mages path would fight to the death for it.
"How much?" Reyn asked directly.
"Fifteen hundred gold shields," Viola quietly stated.
Though mentally prepared, the astronomical sum stunned him. He nearly spat out his tea, tempted to say, "Sorry, I think I'll go!"
Fifteen hundred gold shields—what did that mean?
A Longsand factory worker, toiling fourteen hours a day without days off, earned no more than eight hundred copper yuan monthly—not enough for one gold shield.
An ordinary family, husband and wife with decent jobs, monthly income around three thousand copper yuan, could exchange for three gold shields.
Reyn's father's Mill in their town practically monopolized grain and oil trade plus milling for over three thousand residents. Annual income: under fifty gold shields. After deducting Reyn's academy fees and daily needs for a six-person family, little remained.
And for one Soul Fusion Seed, that worker would need to labor, without eating or drinking, 156 years.
Even Reyn's family would take thirty years to save.
Fifteen hundred gold shields was colossal for any commoner—maybe never seen that much in life.
Reyn was dazed for seconds, then spread his hands and chuckled,
"Lady Viola, do I look like someone with fifteen hundred gold shields?"
"I know you don't have that money now," Viola replied calmly. "Now doesn't mean never. If you want this Soul Fusion Seed, we can work something out. Say, pay part now, rest later.
"No, I don't want it," Reyn firmly shook his head, refusing.
He thought he got it. Viola's Soul Fusion Seed had sat for years, and now seeing someone with mage potential, she was pushing hard to sell.
She was even offering installments just to recoup some costs.
Obviously, fifteen hundred golden shields was no small sum even for Viola, otherwise she wouldn't be in such a hurry.
Reyn assumed he wasn't the first to learn about this Seed. Perhaps someone had shown interest, but the price scared them off.
"Fifteen hundred golden shields—that's one and a half million copper yuan! With that money, you could buy a luxurious villa in the Silverstar district. In my previous life, I couldn't afford an apartment, and now, after transmigrating to another world, I still can't afford a house, let alone spend so much on some seed."
Lack of money was one side of the coin. The other—was it even worth becoming a battle mage at all?—remained in question.
To be honest, Reyn did have some thoughts about the battle mage profession.
He had the Soul Eye, which allowed him to directly see the souls of any beings and sense the effects of their elements. This was a huge advantage—at least, he was more certain of it than others.
However, he couldn't be sure that battle mages were truly that strong. If he misjudged one day, the losses would be irreparable.
If he chose the path of a battle mage and went into debt to Viola, what would happen with future demonic souls?
What use was a mere conduit of spiritual power if he still had to buy demonic souls?
Reyn had seen deals for demonic souls on Brent Street several times. Even the cheapest soul of a Basalt Rhino, farm-raised and containing only one common element "Stone Skin," used for becoming an Iron Guard, cost more than twenty golden shields!
Yet battle mages had to fuse the best demonic souls to unlock the advantages of their profession.
And those souls containing multiple elements—didn't any one of them cost an astronomical amount?
Any of them could easily cost a hundred golden shields or more. If the rank of the demonic soul was higher, a price exceeding a thousand golden shields was perfectly normal.
Unless he hunted demonic souls himself, which wasn't easy.
Reyn pondered for a long time but still couldn't make a decision. "Fine, I'll do the Soul Transformation Ritual first. Mages of the Schools of Law Seals and Schools of Soul Lords aren't bad either, plus their conduits are cheaper, and I have enough money to buy one."
He no longer mentioned the Soul Fusion Seed. Viola was a bit disappointed but didn't press and continued to courteously share her knowledge of supernatural professions.
The assortment of goods in the "Violet House" was indeed very wide, and Viola's knowledge was extensive, which greatly impressed Reyn.
For example, Viola told him about an extremely rare supernatural profession—Dragon Blood Sorcerer!
Sorcerers were also pure casters, only slightly inferior to mages, but their spellcasting method was different.
Sorcerers' talent wasn't as great as mages', so they had to rely on more spiritual power conduits and use their blood's power to support spells. Besides fusing demonic souls, sorcerers also had to fuse blood related to those souls, then activate hidden elements with runes to cast spells.
Thus, the official name for sorcerers was Blood Sorcerers; sometimes they were also called Rune Sorcerers.
The blood of most beings with it belonged to various magical beasts, whose soul elements mainly related to elemental spells. Therefore, Blood Sorcerers' spells were limited to elements.
Ordinary sorcerers could master one or two elemental bloodlines. Those who mastered three or more became Catastrophe Sorcerers and reached at least legendary level. Rumors spoke of sorcerers who mastered four or more bloodlines, equal in power to Holy Soul Mages and called Destruction Sorcerers!
Blood Sorcerers had some rare branches too, like Demonologists, as well as the Dragon Blood Sorcerers Viola mentioned.
Dragon Blood Sorcerers specialized in fusing the blood of draconic beings, granting them extraordinarily strong abilities in both close combat and spells.
In this, Dragon Blood Sorcerers resembled battle mages, only with even stricter limitations.
No draconic being was easy prey. Acquiring their demonic souls was incredibly difficult. After reaching legendary level, Dragon Blood Sorcerers had to go dragon hunting practically every time they advanced!
At the end of her story, Viola, beaming brightly, told Reyn that her shop had recently received a demonic soul from a young fire-breathing dragon along with a vial of its blood.
Since demand for Dragon Blood Sorcerers was low, they were on sale now: the soul of a young fire-breathing dragon and its blood—for just a thousand golden shields. She asked if Reyn was interested?
Reyn didn't dare listen further.
Though conversing with such a beauty was extremely pleasant and a feast for the eyes, prices in thousands of golden shields gave him a slight pain in the liver. So he hastily stood to bid Viola farewell:
"I'm sorry for the bother. Goodbye."