Chapter 4: God-Tier Passive Skill, Mana Storm, Divine Grace Chant!

Lin Yi had already noticed a common trait among the advanced spells he currently possessed: while their power was terrifyingly immense, their mana consumption was also extraordinarily high! Moreover, the casting time was lengthy.

Take, for example, the seventh-tier spell he had just acquired—Celestial Flame Dragon’s Breath.

Celestial Flame Dragon’s Breath
Type: Active Skill
Tier: Seventh
Category: Fire Element
Mana Cost: 30,000
Casting Time: 20 seconds
Cooldown: 2 hours
Effect: Summons the blazing breath of a colossal dragon from the heavens, igniting all targets within its range, inflicting massive fire damage and applying prolonged dragonfire burning damage.
Notes: Wherever it passes, only scorched earth remains.

To cast this seventh-tier spell once required thirty thousand mana points and a grueling twenty-second chant. Lin Yi’s current maximum mana was merely a hundred points—far too low to even attempt such a high-tier skill.

Therefore, Lin Yi shifted his focus to his two passive skills, especially the one called Mana Efficiency. He hoped that upon advancement, this skill would bring him a pleasant surprise—at the very least, enabling him to cast high-level spells.

He switched his skill point allocation to Mana Efficiency and, just like before when leveling Fireball, began rapidly investing points. The continuous ringing of the prompt sounded relentlessly.

After more than ten minutes, Lin Yi received a notification signaling the final skill upgrade.

“Consuming 100,000 skill points, your Super Mana Surge has advanced. You have gained a new passive skill: Mana Storm!”

Having spent over a hundred thousand skill points, Lin Yi had upgraded Mana Efficiency to tier seven. Naturally, its name now sounded far more imposing.

Mana Storm
Type: Passive Skill
Tier: Seventh
Category: Universal
Effect 1: Reduces mana cost of all spells you cast by 70%.
Effect 2: Increases your maximum mana from all sources by sevenfold and restores 7% of your maximum mana every second.
Effect 3: Every 8 hours, grants one free cast of any spell below ninth-tier. Current available uses: 1; maximum stack: 3.
Notes: I am the approaching storm.

Lin Yi gasped sharply. A divine passive! And it happened to solve his immediate crisis. A 70% reduction in mana consumption meant his endurance in combat would greatly improve. One casting of Celestial Flame Dragon’s Breath now consumed only nine thousand mana—still steep, but no longer unattainable. Even more crucially, he had three free spell casts daily, ensuring he wouldn’t be powerless when the moment called for it.

Ecstatic, Lin Yi pressed onward, turning his attention to his final passive skill—Rapid Chanting. Another intense session of skill-point investment followed, lasting over ten minutes. He was growing weary. Though the rapid improvement was exhilarating, the endless clicking was undeniably tedious. His fingers ached.

If another class player knew of his predicament, they might be furious. They slaved away for hours in dungeons just to earn a few dozen or hundred skill points, carefully strategizing how to maximize the cost-effectiveness and gains of their upgrades. Meanwhile, Lin Yi simply poured points in blindly.

Soon, another tier-seven skill emerged.

Divine Grace Chanting
Type: Passive Skill
Tier: Seventh
Category: Universal
Effect 1: When casting spells below fifth-tier, they become instant-cast; casting time for spells above fifth-tier is reduced by 70%.
Effect 2: Your chanting cannot be interrupted by any skill below seventh-tier that causes silence, interruption, or anti-magic effects.
Effect 3: Every 8 hours, grants one instant cast of any spell below ninth-tier. Current available uses: 1; maximum stack: 3.
Notes: Divine grace protection, sacred incantation.

It had arrived—instant casting! Lin Yi had anticipated that upgrading these two passive skills would be spectacular, but he had not expected them to be so overwhelmingly powerful—and synergistic. No mana consumption plus instant casting! This was the kind of electrifying combo that set hearts racing.

Lin Yi now realized he could even instant-cast a seventh-tier Celestial Flame Dragon’s Breath on the spot. Though he hadn’t tested its full power yet, he sensed that such a fiery assault could devastate more than half of Jiang City.

But he was no anti-social madman and naturally would not act so recklessly. Yet, truth be told, the temptation was irresistible. If he couldn’t recklessly unleash high-tier spells within the city, surely he could test them out in the remote high-level training zones.

Lin Yi gathered all the alchemical potions, red and blue elixirs, experience scrolls, and town portal scrolls he had just inventoried and stuffed them into the 50-slot portable space granted by his awakened profession.

Afterwards, he stepped out and made his way to the commercial street catering to life professions in Jiang City, gathering a generous supply of food and water for free. This fully stocked his portable space.

The Great Summer Empire placed great emphasis on talent cultivation. As a newly awakened professional, Lin Yi enjoyed educational benefits. Simply declaring “I’m a student” and showing his student ID allowed him to receive a wealth of basic supplies for free.

With preparations complete, Lin Yi exited Jiang City’s inner district and headed toward the outskirts. There lay an endless grassland, caressed by a gentle breeze under a clear sky.

Looking out, he saw many peers wielding various weapons, hunting harmless creatures like wild rabbits and groundhogs. This was the lowest-level training ground around Jiang City: the Gentle Breeze Grassland.

Monsters here ranged from level one to four and were all non-aggressive. Even the weak rabbits and groundhogs fled when attacked, never retaliating. This place was a paradise for novices.

Hence, many newly awakened adventurers chose to level here. However, the training efficiency was low because players far outnumbered monsters. Most creatures were instantly overwhelmed by concentrated attacks soon after spawning.

For those seeking faster progress, or who had greater wealth and stronger classes, venturing deeper into the grasslands to challenge tougher, more dangerous monsters offered better rewards.

Lin Yi bypassed the crowded training spots in the grassland’s popular areas, pressing on toward its depths. After half a day’s journey, he exhaled upon seeing the dense forest at the grassland’s edge.

That was the advanced training zone—the Wailing Forest.

Monsters inside were generally level nine or higher, vicious and bloodthirsty, attacking proactively.