The Place Where Everything Begins

'Its rank is Mythical? So, it is indeed the same rank as my past life staff, Arondite.'

Jeremy thought to himself after inspecting Anguish's information via [Analyze] skill.

Regarding the item ranks on Ortus, there were a total of seven ranks starting from Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, Mythical, and Divine.

The first one was the ability-less one, Common rank. There was nothing much about this rank as most of the items were just normal ones.

The next rank was Uncommon, which was usually accompanied by one or two simple abilities.

The third rank was Rare, of which most of the time had two or three simple abilities and one skill. This rank was also the rank of Jeremy's Forsaken Branch. However, the Forsaken Branch was considered the top rank even among the Rare-ranked item, so it had three simple abilities and two decent skills.

.

The fourth rank was Epic, which was very hard to create and come by. It was usually accompanied by one excellent ability and some ordinary skills.

The next rank was Legendary, which most of the time had two extraordinary abilities or skills of tier-6 at the very least.

The sixth rank, Mythical; the items of this rank were all created by great and renowned crafters. It could be said that the creators of Mythical rank items were revered like a god of crafting on Ortus. They would be respected to the utmost no matter where they were.

In fact, the creators of such high-ranked items could be counted with one's hand, and they only sold their items to either Mercury, close acquaintances, or auctions in Pantheon.

Now, the last rank, Divine. The item of this rank had never been created before by any crafters and could only be found within Mercury's shop.

Even though some Divine ranked items were present within Mercury's shop, their prices were too high that nobody could afford them.

❰ How is it? Do you like the spear? ❱

Mercury inquired Jeremy while the latter was looking at the spear left and right.

"Mm... I like it," said Jeremy before continuing,

"Alright, let's proceed with our last trade."

Having said so, Jeremy promptly kept Anguish within the right glove's spatial storage. Meanwhile, Mercury, who had heard Jeremy's words, simultaneously replied,

❰ Last trade? So, you have run out of stars, huh? Tsk. ❱

"..."

Upon hearing such words coming out from a merchant's mouth, Jeremy could only shake his head slightly before saying,

"I want to buy a magic-related talent with the price of one white star..."

❰ Magic-related... Alright, I have six of them currently. Do you want to see them? ❱

"Yes, show me."

When Jeremy's voice ended, an interface containing six items suddenly appeared before him...

...

『 Mana Mania (Talent) 』

Ability: Your mana whirlpools works 230% more efficiently, making you gather and recover your mana 2.3 times faster.

『 Projection of Immortality (Talent) 』

Ability: Your mana field projection will be unbreachable as long as you have mana left within your dantians.

『 Spellshield of the Void (Talent) 』

Ability: Your mana field projection has the Transition property of the Void when projected.

『 Entangling Rune (Talent) 』

Ability: Ancient Mana Rune will be attached to each of your dantian, causing your dantians to connect to each other and become one spatially.

『 Serenity of Magic (Talent) 』

Ability: You can meditate longer and more efficiently by two times.

『 Spell Disruption (Talent) 』

Ability: Upon activating, you can disrupt the enemy's spellcasting process regardless of any defensive measures or ranks of the spell. (Cooldown 1 day)

...

After the interface was projected before Jeremy, Mercury promptly spoke up,

❰ I'm feeling terrific right now. You can take your time and choose slowly, human ❱

"Alright..."

Upon replying, Jeremy fell into deep thought as he decided to cut some choices out from the list,

'First of all, I will cut the Entangling Rune out because I don't want my three dantians to become connected. After all, I have many elements to be infused within the dantians. if they are connected, then my arsenal of spells will be reduced more than half.'

'After that, I will excise the defensive-related talents as I don't need any improvement in that area for now. Well, it will be no different for me whether I have those defensive talents or not anyway as my mana capacity is still too small.'

'So, there are Mana Mania, Serenity of Magic, and Spell Disruption, only three talents left to be chosen from.'

'Now, talking about the usefulness and utilization, Mana Mania and Serenity of Magic have outweighed the Spell Disruption for quite a margin. After all, even though it is not instantaneous like a talent, I can still cast a Spell Disruption to interfere with the enemy's spellcasting.'

'Thus, let's remove the Spell Disruption and decide upon the two talents, Mana Mania and Serenity of Magic...'

'Mana Mania, as the name suggests, focuses on mana as it will permanently boost my whirlpools by 2.3 times.'

'Meanwhile, Serenity of Magic's description is a bit more precise. However, if I look at the description carefully, I will realize the talent is divided into two parts. The first one is that I can meditate two times longer, whereas another part is that I can meditate two times more efficiently.'

'That means if the two parts are combined, it simply indicates that I can cultivate four times faster than my previous performance each day. Nonetheless, it is only applied to manual meditation, unlike the automatic Mana Mania that will spontaneously replenish my mana to a full tank.

'It's a bit hard to decide. One is about mana boost while another is about meditation boost...'

Having thought until here, Jeremy furrowed his eyebrows deeply,

'Hmm...'

'Come to think about it; I can still replenish my mana with other methods...'

'However, I cannot achieve the same result of meditation as Serenity of Magic no matter what method I use.'

Shaking his head slightly to discard the unnecessary thoughts...

'Alright then...'

Having thought so, Jeremy suddenly said into the dark space,

"I've decided; my last purchase will be Serenity of Magic."

❰ Well, confirm? ❱

"Yes..."