Absolute Death Game

Chapter 57 Finally Got a Blue Stripe

Although learning this was indeed somewhat baffling to him, for someone living between the online and the real world, texts like the Tao Te Ching were quite abstruse. However, having overcome so many difficulties before, Xiao Buli absolutely would not allow himself to be stumped by such a challenge.

Therefore, Xiao Buli began his journey of learning the Dao. He quickly discovered that this task admitted no shortcuts because Xuanxu Zi would quiz him from time to time. If he could not answer, the Tao Te Ching skill experience would not increase in the slightest. Correct answers could raise the experience by about 50 points each, and consecutive correct answers would grant bonus experience.

To advance from LV0 to LV1 required 100 points of Skill Experience, LV1 to LV2 needed 200 points, LV2 to LV3 needed 300 points, and so on.

In one hour, Xuanxu Zi questioned him a total of ten times. If all were answered correctly, reaching LV3 would not be a problem; even answering half correctly should at least allow him to reach LV2. However, Xiao Buli only answered correctly two or three times, gaining just a small increase in experience, barely enough to reach LV1.

Xuanxu Zi seemed to sigh in disappointment, "Alas, it seems your comprehension is too lacking, ultimately not cut out for learning the Dao. Let's stop here for today; we will continue tomorrow."

Upon leaving Mingwu Hall, Xiao Buli did not feel disheartened. Today's failure was merely due to his lack of preparation. But now that he knew that the so-called foundational theory of Taoist magic was the Tao Te Ching, things seemed much easier.

He was a determined and tenacious person. Once he recognized the importance of something, he often could make great efforts and put them into action. Thus, he simply went back to his dormitory, downloaded an electronic version of the Tao Te Ching from the internet, and spent an afternoon memorizing it.

Fortunately, the book was quite short, containing only around five thousand characters, so it wasn't too hard to memorize.

The next day during the lesson, his answers were much more confident. Toward the end, he almost seemed to reply with ease, and as a result, he leveled up the Tao Te Ching skill to LV3 within one hour.

Xuanxu Zi said with satisfaction, "I didn't expect your comprehension to be quite impressive after all. It seems I didn't make a mistake taking you as my disciple. Now that you have memorized the Tao Te Ching, starting from tomorrow, let's begin discussing its specific meanings."

It seemed it wasn't over yet. Xiao Buli thought. Luckily, the version of the Tao Te Ching he had downloaded came with a translation. He figured he could just answer according to that when the time came.

But the next day, he realized he had been a bit presumptuous. Because of the time limits, often he didn't have enough time to search for the answers before time was up, and so on the third day, he only got two or three questions right again.

It looked like he had to return to his old methods! Xiao Buli thought.

Of course, this old method wasn't about memorizing the entire book verbatim. The original text was short enough, but the translation was well over a hundred thousand words—far from easy to commit to memory in ten days to half a month. Xiao Buli's solution was to use the computer in his dormitory to write a small plugin over a few hours, specifically for this task.

Even though it couldn't be installed in the game, he could use it on his own laptop. This meant that by inputting a line from the Tao Te Ching, he could get the answer within seconds.

By the fourth day, Xiao Buli once again demonstrated his power. With the combination of a laptop and a search plugin, answering questions flowed naturally for him. The skill experience for the Tao Te Ching soared, increasing at a rate of about 1.5 levels per day.

Apart from studying the Dao, Xiao Buli did not stay idle. At Qingfeng Mingyue's, there were many daily quests available, including mining, planting medicinal herbs, lumbering (bamboo), cutting grass, and breeding, quite similar to those in the village. Xiao Buli took on the tasks of cutting grass and breeding. Working diligently each day, he was able to earn about 10 Contribution Points each day.

Meanwhile, as he was ardently studying the Tao Te Ching, Li Baocheng and Han Baiqiang were also making progress. After changing professions, Li Baocheng learned several advanced combat skills only available post-class-change, and with support from the White Tiger group, he was able to start leveling by hunting monsters near Nine Dragons City.

As a ranged profession, following along meant he could still gain a substantial amount of experience.

He even joined the group in clearing a common difficulty, color-white dungeon, and fought two rare Elite Monsters that spawned in the wild.

Because of the game's death penalties, players typically only engaged monsters and dungeons they could easily overpower, ignoring anything slightly stronger or even equal in strength. Even though the dungeon and the Elites weren't that powerful, after a few days, he still managed to obtain a few decent pieces of equipment.

Every time he met Xiao Buli, Li Baocheng always made a point to show off his gains, but noticing Xiao Buli's consistent lack of reaction over time, eventually gave up.

Han Baiqiang took on several Forging tasks, supplying equipment to NPC armies of the Nine Dragons Legion in Nine Dragons City. His Skill Experience also skyrocketed, and it seemed as though the Xuanwu Group had already set their eyes on him. At least from the outside, it appeared that among the newcomers, he was the only one who seemed to be making almost no progress.

But Xiao Buli didn't care, his concern for the few thousand dollars difference in monthly salary had long since been trivial in his eyes, and as long as he learned spells, he was sure his treatment would definitely not be poor.

By Saturday, Xiao Buli had earned more than 70 Contribution Points, and the "Tao Te Ching" finally reached LV10.

As the last Q&A session ended, a flash of golden light suddenly enveloped Xiao Buli.

System Notification: After a long period of dedicated research, your spiritual power has increased by 1 point.

System Notification: After a long time studying and contemplating the "Tao Te Ching," you have comprehended 'Taoist Heart' with a current skill level of LV1.

System Notification: Since you have comprehended the 'Taoist Heart' skill, you have advanced in your basic profession to 'Taoist' and unlocked the Mana system.

When the "Tao Te Ching" reached LV5, his spiritual power had already increased by one point, so Xiao Buli was not surprised by the first notification, but the next two caught his attention.

He hurriedly checked the description of the Taoist Heart skill.

Taoist Heart: By comprehending the 'Way,' you have grasped the fundamental laws of the world's operation. With this skill, you are able to learn or comprehend more supernatural abilities—this is a pre-requisite skill necessary for learning Taoist magic.

Looking below his Energy Bar, sure enough, there was a new blue value bar. Seeing that blue bar, Xiao Buli couldn't help but smile; at last, he had become one of those 'blue bar is king' characters from the Mage Professions.

At this time, the skill exchange system also opened up. Talking with Xuanxu Zi, he discovered that he could now use Contribution Points to exchange for skills.

He hadn't spent a single Contribution Point these days, saving up for this very moment, and quickly opened the skill exchange list next to Xuanxu Zi.

There were hundreds of exchangeable skills in the list, and like equipment, exchanging skills required Contribution Points and Prestige, in addition to prerequisite skills—none of the three could be missing.

Although there were many skills, there were not many that met his current standards. After summarizing a bit, Xiao Buli listed out the skills he could learn—there were about a dozen. These low-level spells required at least 20 Contribution Points, with the most expensive being 40 Points. If he were to learn all of them, it would cost nearly 450 Contribution Points.

If he had enough time to earn Contribution Points, Xiao Buli could completely learn all these spells before leaving the Mystic Hollow Palace, and he felt that if he explained the situation to the company, there should be no problem.

But the problem was that he didn't want to tell the company about the goings-on within Mystic Hollow Palace; he needed to protect his secret, so he would have to learn as many spells as possible before the month was up.

He calculated a bit; including Sunday, there were only 7 days left in the month. Subtracting the day it would take to travel to Nine Dragons City, at most he could earn another 70-80 Contribution Points. This meant he would have a total of 140-150 Contribution Points to use, enough to learn 6-7 spells, which meant he had to make some choices.

PS: It seems I really spent too much ink on Mystic Hollow Palace, and some readers are getting impatient. But don't worry, the protagonist is about to come down the mountain soon, and even more exciting stories lie ahead.