Wandering the streets of Rongcheng, Feng Hao's strange attire drew quite a few stares.
As the sky began to darken, he unconsciously stopped in front of a hotel. He glanced at the Magic Crystals in his Spatial Ring. 'These are the currency in this world... I wonder if more than two thousand will be enough.'
"Welcome." A greeter offered him a professional smile, her voice gentle and pleasant.
Feng Hao gave a slight nod in response and strode to the front desk. "Hello, I'd like a single suite," he asked.
"How long will you be staying?" the woman at the front desk asked, giving him an odd look. His clothes were just too strange.
"Let's start with a week," Feng Hao said after a moment's thought.
"Of course." The receptionist chuckled, looked down to complete the registration, and then produced a golden room card. "Here is your key card. The total comes to 1200 Magic Crystals."
"1200 Magic Crystals?"
Feng Hao's eyes widened. 'I didn't realize this was such a high-end hotel.' He had no choice but to take out 1200 Magic Crystals from his Spatial Ring and place them on the counter.
The receptionist's jaw dropped in shock. She stared at Feng Hao as if she wanted to devour him whole, her voice catching as she stammered, "Sir, you've misunderstood. It's only 1200 regular Magic Crystals."
'Huh, so they have different levels?' Feng Hao was dumbfounded. He said, "Alright, then tell me how many of these Magic Crystals I need."
The receptionist gave him another peculiar look, her voice turning syrupy sweet. "Yours are Level 1 Magic Crystals. Twelve will be enough."
"Alright then."
Feng Hao nodded in understanding. 'So the exchange rate for Magic Crystals is probably 1:100. I was worried I didn't have enough money, but it looks like I was overthinking things. Of course the allowance from a prominent family wouldn't be a small amount.'
He picked up the key card and headed upstairs, ignoring the receptionist's coquettish posturing, and quickly found his room.
The room was in surprisingly good condition, comparable to a five-star hotel on Earth. It just had fewer appliances and more of a distinct, magical flair.
He had room service bring up a simple meal. After eating and drinking his fill, Feng Hao finally relaxed completely.
'I thought I'd be sleeping on the streets my first day here. I can't believe I met such a benefactor.'
Lying on his back and staring at the ceiling, he thought back to that shady character, Lin Luo. Feng Hao couldn't help but chuckle and shake his head. With a flicker of his will, the familiar game panel materialized before his eyes.
'I didn't have time to look at this properly before. Now I can finally give it a thorough look.'
In addition to the attribute panel, which had been reset to level one, there was also a sub-class panel. The moment he opened it, Feng Hao shot up from the bed.
'Holy crap, my sub-class didn't get reset!'
Staring at the [Ninth-Level Alchemy Techniques] information on the panel, Feng Hao couldn't believe his eyes. Back in *Mage*, he had chosen the Assassin class and only picked up the Alchemist sub-class so he could make poisons.
'Haha... So this is my legendary golden finger!' Feng Hao couldn't help but roar with laughter.
'With the abilities of a Ninth-level Alchemist, even with my poor attribute growth potential, I'll be able to live a great life in this Otherworld.'
Once he calmed down, Feng Hao began to study the introductory books Lin Luo had given him. To get by in this world, this basic knowledge was crucial—especially information about cultivation, which was the most important of all.
For a solid week, Feng Hao locked himself in his room, burying himself in the introductory books...
After he finished, he finally had a comprehensive understanding of this world.
He was in a place called the Ancient Cang Realm, a world dominated entirely by Mages. At the age of sixteen, everyone underwent a [Magic Foundation Awakening] ceremony. Only those who awakened the magic energy genes within their bodies could become a Mage.
The magic energy gene was, one could say, the most fundamental genetic structure in all living things. It was the sapling-like structure in Feng Hao's sea of consciousness, which people called the [Magic Energy Genetic Tree], or simply the [Genetic Tree].
By absorbing the magic energy adrift in the world, one could stimulate the Genetic Tree to grow, thereby increasing one's own power.
The Genetic Tree typically had ten root systems, corresponding to ten foundational magic abilities: Strength, Spirit, Meridians, Physique, Soul, Sinew, Tenacity, Agility, Perception, and Stealth. These root systems grew along with the Genetic Tree.
Furthermore, whenever the Genetic Tree leveled up, ten [Gene Essences] would be generated within the body. These Gene Essences could be used to strengthen the root systems' growth, with different roots yielding different effects upon absorption.
'From my perspective, aren't these so-called [Gene Essences] just free attribute points from the game?'
There was a lot of other miscellaneous information as well, and almost all of it was related in some way to his knowledge of the game. This only served to confirm his suspicions.
This world was like a completely realistic version of *Mage*. Most of the game's elements had a real-world equivalent here.
'It's a shame the foundational magic aptitude for people from Earth is so bad. I'll just have to take it one step at a time. If all else fails, being a non-combat player focused on my sub-class wouldn't be so bad either.'
According to the books, different races had different genetic predispositions. After eons of selective breeding, humanity's current foundational magic aptitude was already quite outstanding. His own, however, was truly abysmal.
To put it bluntly, foundational magic aptitude was just attribute growth potential, which determined the developmental ceiling for all of one's abilities. Apart from Meridians and Agility, Feng Hao's growth potential in his other attributes was basically crippled.
This was incredibly frustrating for Feng Hao. After all, back in the game *Mage*, he had been the undisputed number one Assassin Player.
'Whatever. I'll just distribute my level one attribute points for now!'
He closed his eyes, and his consciousness sank into his sea of consciousness. He absorbed the ten [Gene Essences] that were drifting about like fireflies and, based on his advantages in Meridians and Agility, chose a reasonably scientific distribution: 4 into Meridians, 2 into Physique, 2 into Agility, 1 into Perception, and 1 into Stealth.