[Bursting Fireball Technique (Tier Two Entry Level)] 0/1000

[Blast Flame Skill (Tier Three Entry Level)] 0/1000

Learning two Fire Element Magic skills drained all of Li Wei’s savings.

He now only had 4 Gold Coins left.

Li Wei had carefully considered his choice of these two Magic skills.

The Bursting Fireball Technique leaned toward explosive power and dealt relatively high physical damage.

Li Wei hoped to fuse the characteristics of the Bursting Fireball Technique to give his Charged Fireball even greater explosive power.

That way, even against enemies with high Fire Resistance, he could rely on the explosive power to blast them to death.

The Blast Flame Skill leaned toward Magic Damage, fully unleashing the Flame Power of the Fire Element.

Li Wei also hoped to fuse the Blast Flame Skill to make his Charged Fireball even more powerful.

He wanted it to have both immense explosive power and immense Flame Power.

It sounded a bit contradictory.

In reality, it wasn’t.

Li Wei already had an idea.

The explosive power would be an area-of-effect attack, while the Flame Power would be a focused attack.

Simply put, the center of the explosion would generate extremely high temperatures, inflicting massive flame damage to targets in a small area.

The explosive power, on the other hand, would inflict massive physical damage to enemies over a large area.

This was one potential solution.

If that proved impossible, Li Wei would opt for a second method.

He would develop two branches: one leaning toward explosive power, and the other toward flame damage.

Compared to the first method, the second was easier to achieve.

However, it would sacrifice some of its power.

The immediate priority was to first grind the two Magic skills to the Small Success Level.

Once they reached the Small Success Level, he would basically be able to understand the structure of their Magic Models.

He’d still be a ways off from complete understanding.

But it would be more than enough to use them as material to develop his Fireball Skill.

As he developed the Fireball Skill, his proficiency with the two new Magic skills would also increase.

Eventually, he would fully digest the two Magic Models.

This was the same method Li Wei had used for his Fireball Skill.

Besides this, Li Wei had another new idea brewing.

A fused development of the Fireball Skill, Object Control Skill, and Invisible Armor Skill.

A burst of acceleration!

In the Island Secret Realm, Li Wei had been attacked by a Lava Serpent and almost ended up in its belly.

At a critical moment, he had used the recoil from a self-destructing Small Fireball Technique to suddenly accelerate and escape disaster.

Since then, he had successfully replicated the Small Fireball self-detonation acceleration multiple times.

Now, Li Wei wanted to fuse them together to develop a true burst acceleration ability.

The Object Control Skill, Invisible Armor, and Fireball Skill were all indispensable.

With the Object Control Skill, Li Wei could fly.

With Invisible Armor, Li Wei could withstand the force of the burst acceleration.

The Fireball Skill was the source of the burst acceleration.

After fusing the three, he might be able to develop an entirely new Magic skill.

Li Wei was very much looking forward to it.

This was extremely important.

Flying speed had always been his weak point.

Now that he had finally found a way to accelerate, Li Wei naturally wanted to seize the opportunity.

Flying speed determined his escape speed.

As long as his body could handle it, the faster, the better.

Li Wei returned to his room.

That night, he began trying to fuse the three Magic skills to develop a new one.

It was more difficult than he had imagined.

Even with his Control Power, which had reached the level of a Tier Three Mage, he couldn’t fuse the three Magic skills.

The structures of the three Magic skills were completely different.

Frustrated, Li Wei had no choice but to continue grinding experience to level up the three Magic skills.

He hoped for a new breakthrough after the three Magic skills reached Tier One Perfection.

「August 1st.」

Jimmy brought Li Wei his royalties for July.

A total of fifteen Gold Coins and thirty-six Silver Coins.

The royalties had risen quite a bit compared to previous months.

However, Li Wei now looked down on this amount.

He still had materials worth thousands of Gold Coins in his possession that he hadn’t sold yet.

Fortunately, writing the novel was a steady, long-term stream of income.

The money each month wasn’t much, but its persistence was its strength.

Besides, writing the novel didn’t take up much of his time.

As his Spiritual Power increased, his mind became sharper.

It had become much easier for Li Wei to brainstorm plotlines.

Now, he could write a manuscript of forty to fifty thousand words in about two days.

It really didn’t take much time at all.

Jimmy said, "Mr. Li Wei, when will next month’s manuscript be ready?"

"In a few days," Li Wei replied.

"Alright, I won’t disturb you then."

Li Wei went to the third floor to collect this month’s benefits: five Contribution Points.

He glanced at the Magic Butler, shook his head, and returned to his room.

A Tier Two Mage received 20 Contribution Points each month.

In the past, Li Wei might have been tempted.

But now that he was rich, he didn’t want to expose his true strength just for 20 Contribution Points.

Just as Li Wei got back to his room, his Magic Badge vibrated.

He picked it up and saw that the Contribution Points on his Magic Badge had changed from 5 to 20.

Li Wei stared blankly for a moment.

Coming back to his senses, he looked up at the ceiling.

"Teacher?"

Torresta’s voice reached his ears. "You deserve it. Not a single point less."

"Don’t worry, you’re still a Tier One Mage."

Li Wei said with sincere gratitude, "Thank you, Teacher!"

He was now a Tier One Mage on the surface but enjoyed the benefits of a Tier Two Mage.

Li Wei looked at the number on his Magic Badge and sighed with feeling. ’Being a Mage is awesome!’

’I rack my brains writing novels just to earn a pittance, and it’s still less than the monthly benefits from the Mage Tower.’

He shook his head.

Even so, he had to keep writing the novel.

After all, it was a long-term source of income.

Over time, the money would add up.

Throughout August, Li Wei obediently stayed in the Mage Tower to focus on his Cultivation, diligently grinding for experience.

At the same time, he gradually sold off the items he had on hand, converting them into money.

Then, that money was converted into strength.

Li Wei didn’t even blink when spending 20 Gold Coins on a bottle of Middle Level Magic Potion.

After becoming a Tier Two Mage, one bottle of Middle Level Magic Potion only lasted him ten days.

In one month, the Magic Potions required for his Cultivation alone cost sixty Gold Coins.

That was seven hundred and twenty Gold Coins a year.

The consumption was staggering.

A typical minor noble family in Maple City only had an annual income of two to three hundred Gold Coins.

Converted to RMB, that was an annual income of two to three million.

Larger noble families had an annual income of only around five hundred Gold Coins.

Maple City’s top noble clans, like the Golden Shield Clan and the Reinstein Clan, had an annual income of two to three thousand Gold Coins.

But even they wouldn’t dare to support a Mage’s Cultivation like this.

They had large households and large businesses, which meant large expenses.

The actual amount of money that ended up in each person’s hands wasn’t much.

Li Wei’s annual Cultivation expenses were more than the annual income of most noble families in Maple City.

He couldn’t help it.

He had grown accustomed to the rapid Cultivation speed that Magic Potions provided.

Going back to cultivating at a snail’s pace would drive him mad with impatience.

Especially after becoming a Tier Two Mage, the Cultivation progress was frustratingly slow to watch.

Without Magic Potions, a full day of diligent Cultivation only increased his proficiency by 7 or 8 points.

Using a Middle Level Magic Potion, he could increase his proficiency by about 30 points a day.

Only then could he hope to reach the Tier Two Perfection Realm within a year.

Otherwise, it would take at least three to four years of grinding to reach the Tier Two Peak.

And this was after Li Wei had already used the Elf Spring to improve his cultivation aptitude.

Without the Elf Spring and without Magic Potions, it was normal to take seven or eight years of Cultivation just to reach the Tier Two Peak.

El had already been a Tier Two Mage for over a decade.

To this day, he still hadn’t broken through to Tier Three.

It took ten, sometimes twenty, years to get through a single realm.

However, in the eyes of most Mages in the Mage Tower, this was perfectly normal.

Li Wei was the anomaly. He was just too fast.