This time, Bob went ahead and tore apart the skill scrolls one after the other without stopping. It was only after the two techniques and one skill had been integrated into the system panel that he finally stopped.
The system panel also changed, due to the addition of the techniques and a single skill.
[Name: Robert Milton
Age: 20
Power Level: Level 4 Commander
Techniques: Crimson Vortex Sutra (Epic), Spear Mastery (Epic), Human Weapon (Epic), Basic Alchemy (Common), Shadow Step (Common).
Skills: Phantom Veil (Epic), Phantom Thrust (Epic), False Mirror (Epic), Mirage (Common).
Divine skills/abilities:
Current skill points: ∞]
Bob had actually decided on alchemy instead of production of weapons and armor. He realized that engaging in such a business was going to be quite time-consuming, and more complex.
During the time that he was moving around the market before deciding on the shop where he sold the demon crystals, he realized something. This was also something that he had noticed when he was going through the display book.
It seemed that the thing that brought most money was not selling weapons, but instead, it was actually through medicinal pills. The pills could be used for healing, increasing someone's explosive strength, or increase in the speed at which someone accumulated the arcane energy in their bodies and many more.
And more than that, pills did not take up that much space. That implied that he would not need to be worried about getting a bigger place in order to start the plan that he was having.
Bob's current plan was to start refining pills, then he would be able to sell them. By selling the pills, he would be able to get the star coins and other resources that he wanted.
But more than that, he could also use those pills and potions in order to increase his own power level. This way, he would be able to get stronger faster, and at the same time, the number of dangers that he could encounter would also begin reducing.
So, he had the intention of finding a shop within the market area. The price of the pills was high, and Bob had no intention of venturing deeper into the stronghold, where he could sell higher quality pills.
The current amount of money that he had would obviously not be enough for him to be able to get a foothold deeper into the stronghold. And since that was not his intention, it did not matter at all.
The information that he had received the moment that he learned the basic alchemy technique, it was mainly the basic information about alchemy. He finally understood what alchemy was, and he received several pill formulas for different types of pills that were considered as Common tier.
The categorization of pills was the same as the techniques. They ranged from Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Epic. But Bob believed that there were definitely higher level than these.
But the above categorization was just in terms of quality of the pills, and not the level. Each power level had pills of the categories mentioned above. It was just that there was no any further categorization below the one that depended on the ranks.
There were only soldier rank pills, but no level 1 or level 2 pills. The only difference would be in terms of quality, and the greater the quality, the greater the effectiveness of the pills and potions, together with the toxins contained, which depended on the quality. The higher the quality of the pills and potions, the lower the amount of toxins contained.
Currently, with the basic alchemy technique, Bob could only refine pills that were in the common tier. But he could refine pills from the Soldier realm, the Captain realm, the Commander realm, and finally, the Master realm.
According to the understanding that he had gained, it was clear that the Common tier technique could only allow him to refine Common tier pills. In order to refine higher quality pills, he would require a technique of the same tier.
In the information contained about alchemy, Bob understood that the reason why he could refine pills of different levels was mainly dependent on his power level.
The higher his power level, the higher the rank of pills that he could refine. And actually, the ingredients that were required in their refinement process were the same as long as it was the same type of pill that was being refined.
All that changed was the quality of the ingredients, implying that the higher the rank of the pill to be refined, the quality of the ingredients had to match. But more than that, demon crystals were also used in alchemy, as the energy within the demon crystals was used in making sure that the refinement process was completed.
Bob had decided on taking this route, and the reason why he wanted something that could be used to hide his power level was also this. As long as he could hide his power level, he could sell pills of a higher grade.
Most of the pills that could be found within the market area were in the Common tier and Uncommon, with the Uncommon being quite a few. As for those that were in the Rare tier, in all the stores that Bob had visited, he had not found even one.
For the Epic tier, now that was legendary. Not to mention seeing them, while venturing within the market area, Bob had not even heard about that. One could already imagine how difficult it was to get those pills.
And actually, it was just as difficult to be able to find a Common tier alchemy technique, not to mention those of a higher tier. The only reason why he found this alchemy technique was because of the attendant of the store in which he had acquired it.
When he asked about the possibility of finding an alchemy technique, that attendant seemed to be hesitant. Then, he revealed that he possessed information about the technique.
Having been on earth for quite a while, Bob understood what was happening. So, he promised that if he could get the technique, he would be giving this person 1% share of the profits obtained for the first 2 months.
It was only because of this that the attendant revealed that he was actually the one who had the alchemy technique. He had been entrusted to sell it, but he didn't want to buy it himself.
The position of an attendant was like that of sales persons back on Earth. There were commissions for selling things, but there are also tips. The tips that this guy received, he believed that they were better than spending a long time refining the pills.
It was also during the conversation between them that Bob realized something. When he acquired the skill scrolls before, even now, he had not noticed anything. Even the system did not display it on the panel.
Through the attendant, Bob realized that there was actually another categorization of skills apart from the tier categorization. They were initiate, intermediate, advanced, expert, and finally ultimate.
If a person got a skill from a skill scroll, it would be in the initiate level. They would need to train or use that particular skill or technique continuously in order to be able to advance and understand it more. Most of the people could only train the skill to the advanced level. This was after they had spent quite a lot of time practicing.
And for those that reached the expert level of mastery, they were extremely rare. As for the ultimate mastery level, that was something that was legendary. It was known to exist, but they had never heard of anyone who had reached that level. At least the attendant had never heard of that.
So, the attendant did not want to spend a lot of time training as an alchemist, in order to master the five levels. The level of mastery of a skill would determine its power. As for the technique, like the basic alchemy technique, behind the mastery, the higher the success rate.
At initiate, the success rate was 20%. Intermediate was 40%, advanced was 60%, expert was at 80%, and ultimate was 100%. That was the reason why alchemy was expensive, but it was just as rewarding due to the difficulty of performing alchemy.
Bob was not sure if he always mastered the skills to the ultimate level or below it. But regardless, he always felt that he had mastered the skills and techniques that he had learned to the maximum level possible within the particular tier.
It seemed that in order to find out his level of mastery, he would have to try out alchemy. But considering that he did not have the ingredients or somewhere to use for refinement, it was impossible for the time being.
Still, Bob began with the upgrade of the alchemy technique. This time, to upgrade the alchemy technique to the Uncommon tier, he had to actually spend 100 skill points. It was a good thing that he had an infinite number of that.
There was a difference after the upgrade this time. The name of the alchemy technique did not change that much. Instead of being changed to another name, it was just named alchemy.
In the system panel, in front of alchemy, there was the word Uncommon in the brackets, indicating the tier.
Bob continued with the upgrades until he reached the Epic tier. And as usual, with each and every advancement, information would be injected into his mind.
And just like that, Bob felt that his understanding of alchemy had improved by a considerable margin. He understood herbs and many other ingredients that were used in alchemy, understanding even the basic properties of each of them.
It took Bob quite a while to process all that information, before he finally decided to focus on another technique, Shadow Step.