The Era of Gods

After all, securing a high position did not mean owning the Totem Tower, and the required tuition fees still had to be paid.

In fact, this was already a great opportunity, better than anything else.

Mor told him that it was best to make good use of the local resources to earn the tuition within one to three years, to avoid having to scrape the fees together when the time came.

Once Mor left, the significant assets of the organization within the small town were managed by Lin Xiao for the next three years, which would be considered a windfall to ordinary people but was meaningless to Descenders like them.

Sitting in the empty hall’s rocking chair, gently swaying back and forth, Lin Xiao contemplated what to do next.

Or rather, when to start earning the tuition.

The tuition here did not refer to earning money. To study at the Totem Tower did not require gold or silver coins but the unique resources of the Superhuman world, such as Beast Essence Crystals, extracted from the flesh and blood of Fierce Beasts after hunting them. They were called Beast Essence Crystals because they were red crystals containing the purest essence of a beast’s blood, serving both as a universal currency in the Superhuman world and as food for Totem Masters.

There was no distinction in quality among the Beast Essences extracted from different Fierce Beasts, only differences in size depending on the physique and vitality of the beast, as well as purity, with higher purity and less impurity naturally fetching a higher price.

To obtain high-quality essence, one must hunt even more powerful creatures… Exotic beasts.

Well, at least that’s what they called them.

Lin Xiao did not know how to extract Beast Essence, but he had the Creation Rubik’s Cube which could refine it directly, and at an extremely high purity.

After thinking it over for half a day, he decided to go to the wilderness to hunt Fierce Beasts.

He first visited a mercenary group with which the organization had a partnership and hired an elite ten-person squad at a discounted price.

It is worth mentioning that Lin Xiao had already parted ways with the original mercenary group long ago.

The squad brought along their own rations and equipment, so he only needed to prepare logistical support, which did not cost much money.

Soon, a squad left the small town and entered the wilderness to begin their hunting career.

Half a year later, a safe spot emerged by a small lake deep in the wilderness, with a permanent guard and five to six-meter-high stone walls that could repel any assault from Other Races. Soon enough, the news spread, and many adventurers or caravans passing through the wilderness chose to stop there to resupply.

Taking advantage of this supply spot’s convenience, Lin Xiao bought a large number of Fierce Beast carcasses from the adventurers at prices lower than market rates and refined them all into Beast Essence.

Then, using this foothold as a pivot, Lin Xiao, whose Breathing Method reached Level 7 after consuming a large quantity of ultra-high purity Beast Essence Crystals, overwhelmed all nearby Other Race tribes with his formidable brute force, cleared a trade route connecting the north and south of the wilderness, and attracted a lot of caravans to pass through the route, securing a continual influx of money and resources.

After strengthening the Breathing Method to Level 7 with Creation Energy, Lin Xiao possessed peak mortal Strength, and together with his two hundred plus mercenary warriors, he became virtually unmatched in the wilderness.

Over the next year, he continued to stabilize the trade route, recruit followers, expand his foothold, and establish a small trading town centered around the supply spot.

Two years later, Lin Xiao, having earned a fortune, finally broke through Level 7 of the Breathing Method and successfully awakened his talent.

The awakening of talent was extremely difficult. Even with this reborn body’s decent potential and an almost unlimited supply of Beast Essence, it took him so long, and when the awakening occurred, it was uneventful—just a breakthrough, then nothing else, with no particular sensation.

Frankly, if it weren’t confirmed through special tools that he indeed had awakened his talent, most people might not even know it had happened.

With the awakening of his talent and the Breathing Method reaching its limit, staying any longer would be a waste. It was time to head to the Totem Tower.

As for his belongings here, he would hand them over to the next person. Although no newcomers had arrived in two years, and he was supposed to stay for one to three more years before leaving, the trade route he had opened was too valuable. When he mentioned his departure, several active Descenders nearby were willing to take over.

These Descenders had low talent and slow cultivation speeds, desperately needing massive resources to accumulate. They quickly struck a deal, and Lin Xiao confidently handed over the business to them.

One night, Lin Xiao rode away from the small town alone, heading for Totem City.

Totem City, located on the coast of the Red Tide Sea on the eastern side of the Osa Empire, was two to three thousand kilometers away.

Once out of the wilderness, most of the territory was the human domain, and along the way, he witnessed the customs of this world.

Unfortunately, it was just a mortal realm, with many things unseen.

Three months later, Lin Xiao traversed nearly three thousand kilometers and arrived near the Totem Tower, in Totem City, and once again found the markers of his organization. He located the Adventurer Organization in Totem City.

After a simple registration and identity confirmation, he received a more detailed document on ‘How to Join the Totem Tower Academy.’

“So, as long as the qualifications are acceptable, one can enroll?”

He read it carefully, and indeed it was the case.

However, there were tips from a senior in the back—

It is true that as long as the qualifications are acceptable, one can enroll, and the Totem Tower Academy is egalitarian regarding qualifications. But the key is, you must have enough tuition fees, as well as pass the monthly exams that follow a year later.

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According to the rules, freshmen are exempt from examinations during the first year, but after that, there is a monthly test. Failing two consecutive monthly tests or accumulating three failed monthly exams within a year will result in forced expulsion.

In addition to this, there are exorbitantly high tuition fees; each semester requires a thousand units of Fierce Beast crystals with a purity of over 95%. The amount required decreases if the purity is exceptionally high.

This unit of measurement is commonly used in the Superhuman world, with one standard unit being approximately five ounces.

A three-meter-long Wilderness Leopard yields less than an ounce of Fierce Beast crystal. One standard unit of Fierce Beast crystal is equivalent to the Blood-flesh Essence refined from five to seven Wilderness Leopards.

Acquiring Fierce Beasts isn’t difficult, but the key lies in the technicalities of refining. Not everyone is like Lin Xiao who can directly use the Creation Rubik’s Cube for refining, achieving one hundred percent purity.

In fact, Lin Xiao only ate crystals of one hundred percent purity himself. The rest he carefully divided into several purity levels and stored them inside the Creation Rubik’s Cube. He didn’t dare to directly use the ultra-high purity ones to pay his tuition fees.

At this point, Lin Xiao had stored over two thousand units of Fierce Beast Blood-flesh Essence of various purities, more than enough to pay off his tuition with a substantial amount leftover.

However, the new academic term had yet to begin. Lin Xiao was temporarily staying at the gathering point for Descenders within Totem City, run by the Adventurer Organization. As one of the few places on the continent where one could learn the Superhuman Power of totem, it attracted around one-third of the continent’s awakened individuals. Lin Xiao casually inquired and found out that there were already more than one hundred Descenders there, most of whom had already enrolled. There were about a dozen newcomers like him who had just arrived and were waiting for the new term to start.

It’s worth mentioning that although most had already gone through enrollment, less than twenty Descenders remained inside the Totem Tower Academy. The rest were gradually eliminated after the monthly exams in their first year.

Although they were eliminated, they had already learned the transcendental methodologies. They were now basically freelance Totem Master Apprentices, banding together to earn resources and support themselves.

This shows that the monthly test is exceptionally difficult. The Descenders’ talents may vary, but their insights, experiences, and understanding of strength are not inferior. With such a high elimination rate, Lin Xiao actually felt somewhat nervous.

He took advantage of the time before the start of school to cram on relevant information.

There were many former students lingering at the gathering point, and he spent some Fierce Beast crystals to buy materials and experiences from them to avoid taking detours.

After listening to the explanations from the seniors, Lin Xiao finally understood why they were eliminated and why the elimination rate was so high.

Their one-in-five retention rate was considered quite good already. The Natives had a retention rate of around one percent, with only one or two persisting out of a hundred.

The key was that becoming a Totem Master Apprentice requires learning a vast amount of material. Aptitude is only the most basic condition. After enrollment, students must learn a plethora of necessary related knowledge, which requires strong memory and learning capabilities. This is where a large number drop out, with many being eliminated for not keeping up with the pace.

In the words of some predecessors, the difficulty of learning to become a Totem Master is no less than that of becoming an Arcanist in the Toriel Multiverse.

Or to put it another way, if you have the ability to become an Official Totem Master, then you have what it takes to become a true Arcanist.

This description might be a bit exaggerated. Lin Xiao didn’t believe that the difficulty of becoming a Totem Master truly matched that of an Arcanist, but it was certainly not low. At least it was not easy for several Descenders to establish a strong foothold in this world over the years.

A month later, the new round of enrollment began. Lin Xiao, along with eleven other Descenders, paid the tremendously high tuition fees and officially joined Totem Tower, starting to get in touch with the Superhuman Powers of this world.

After the enrollment ceremony, Lin Xiao was assigned to Class Seven, beginning his journey alongside forty-nine other students in the profession of a Totem Master.

At this stage, while there were still many applicants, it was uncertain how many would persevere till the end.

Sitting in a classroom filled with Different Domain styles, Lin Xiao listened to the whispers of his peers with an emotionless face, scanning the thick stack of textbooks in front of him, which were labeled from top to bottom:

Basic Understanding of Totem Runes.

Basic Meditation.

Basic Biology.

Beast Level Biological Guide.

Basic Alchemy.

Basic Geological Identification.

Understanding of Energy Particles.

On the Harm of Energy Radiation to the Body.

Basic Botany.

Basic Biology Structure.

…..

A total of twenty volumes, each book a tome of several hundred pages, some even divided into three volumes, upper, middle, and lower—all compulsory courses and part of the examination points of the monthly test a year later.

Learning so much in one year definitely requires extraordinary intelligence and learning capacity for full understanding. Lin Xiao looked at them with a headache as he was not a top student.

Under normal circumstances, it is truly difficult to learn all of this in one year. Hence, the clever Descenders found a clever way to get around this.

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