Chapter 322 Feather Gills

"Ding..."

The crisp chime of the bell, mingling with the creak of the wooden door's hinges as it swung shut, echoed down the street.

Through the narrowing gap of the closing door behind him, he could faintly see the enthusiastic smile plastered across the face of the general store's owner, Kukunur. It was a visage unique to the Gnome Race, appearing simultaneously ancient and youthful.

Standing in the doorway, Xia Nan could clearly feel his previously bulging backpack had deflated quite a bit.

The crystals and miscellaneous trinkets from the Goblin Lair had all been successfully liquidated.

Just as he had expected, including the coins scavenged inside the lair, the total came out to 36 gold, 5 silver, and 7 copper.

As a shop with a solid reputation in town, Kukunur had offered him a fair price.

Seeing that the quote fell within an acceptable range, and with too many other errands left to run, Xia Nan hadn't bothered to haggle and quickly wrapped up the transaction.

'Next, I need to make a trip to the Verdant Crucible and see if I can offload the loot from the Spined Devils and the Armored Lurker.'

It was exactly noon. The blazing summer sun mercilessly dumped its terrifying heat onto the earth. Even without wearing armor, and despite the rush forcing him to stay in the heavily damaged dark shirt from his battle, it was still much cooler than his usual attire.

Yet after taking just a few steps down the street, sweat was already beading on his forehead.

The flow of people on the street hadn't changed much. It remained filled with all sorts of odd-looking adventurers. The immense pressure of their profession fostered a carefree mentality, meaning these adventurers—who lived by licking blood off a blade—largely ignored the stares of others, especially here in a safe haven where they rested between quests.

At least from what Xia Nan saw along the way, there was no shortage of bare-chested men wandering around. Some even wore a single piece of armor without any inner padding, for reasons entirely unknown.

'Maybe they want to show off their status as adventurers?'

'Or is it some psychological trauma, where they just don't feel secure without armor?'

Xia Nan guessed.

Heading toward the apothecary, he watched the adventurers passing by on the road ahead, his thoughts gradually drifting.

Right now, his Class Level was Level 2.

The combat techniques he possessed that still had room for improvement were [Gravity Etching], [Gravity Control], and [Ember Echoes].

In terms of sheer numbers, having three of them seemed enough to elevate his [Meteor Blade Hunter] class to Level 5, reaching the bottleneck for cross-classing or class advancement.

But Xia Nan knew the reality of his situation.

Reaching Level 5 by relying on just these three combat techniques was practically impossible.

Setting [Gravity Etching] aside and taking [Gravity Control] as an example, he had acquired that combat technique roughly a few hundred days ago. How much proficiency had he gained in all that time?

Fifteen points.

And that was fifteen points at Level 1, which was supposed to have the fastest progression speed. This was despite his daily persistence in training, to the point where he even used gravity instead of a spoon to stir his soup.

If he really pinned his hopes of leveling up on this combat technique, given the lifespan of a human, he probably wouldn't live to see the day he reached Level 5.

The progress for [Ember Echoes] was slightly faster, but only by a limited margin, and still much slower than things like [Fang Hunt].

With that in mind, to continue improving more efficiently, Xia Nan definitely needed to find other types of combat techniques to learn and train.

And therein lay the problem.

Which ones should he look for?

The avenues for learning combat techniques were already clear: he could just head to the Association Second Floor and redeem them with Points. If there wasn't anything suitable, he could even visit Adventurers' Associations in other regions to browse their selections.

However, the class advancement and transition system was an inherently rigorous process that required careful planning. For those Class Holders born into major families with profound backgrounds, specialized personnel would draft detailed, meticulous plans for them before they even reached the Novice tier in their first combat technique. These plans dictated exactly which combat technique to learn first and which direction their future class transition should take.

But in Xia Nan's case, a class as obscure as [Meteor Blade Hunter]—so rare there might not be a second person in the entire world who had obtained it—had absolutely no reference material for its advancement route or class transition direction.

When he first went up to the Association Second Floor, he tried searching for combat techniques related to "gravity," but the results had been disappointing.

Yet if he settled for learning common combat techniques—ones that were widely applicable and fast to level up but clearly weaker in power—Xia Nan was unwilling to sacrifice his future potential.

Thus, he was awkwardly stuck in this bottleneck.

[Ember Echoes] might seem completely incompatible with the [Meteor Blade Hunter] class—

But its power was immense!

An ability of this caliber, which could be considered a Stage 2 buff-type skill, would tempt anyone. Forget Xia Nan—even if you swapped him for any powerhouse at the "Transcendent Tier" or even "Legendary" rank, if they had the chance to learn it, hesitating for even half a second would be a disrespect to all the blood and sweat they had poured into their journey.

It was impossible to pass up!

But because of this, his so-called class planning had devolved into empty talk.

Scattered, unrelated combat techniques of different types, no matter how individually powerful, were useless if they couldn't form a cohesive system. Without finding a clear path for advancement and class transition among the billions of professions in this world, it was all just empty talk with no possibility of upward progression.

Fortunately, Xia Nan had the Golden Finger of his Attribute Panel. Drawing from his experience when advancing to Level 1, if he ever got the chance to gather five Level 5 combat techniques in the future, it might be able to offer him some assistance.

And if the worst-case scenario occurred, and his current combat techniques failed to form a coherent system, he still had a margin for error.

Between Level 6 and Level 10, he could simply look for a new Level 5 class with a clear advancement route.

Without the experience of predecessors to rely on, he had to slowly figure out every single step himself.

He could only take things one step at a time.

At least his strength was high enough. Even if his Class Level appeared low on the surface and his leveling speed was sluggish, the actual growth of his combat prowess was anything but slow.

So there was really no need to be overly pessimistic.

Pondering his future path, he unknowingly arrived at the apothecary known as the Verdant Crucible, its exterior resembling the thickets and shrubs found within the Misty Forest.

"Ding, ding."

The bell on the door chimed sharply.

The moment he pushed open the door, an exceptionally refreshing fragrance washed over him.

It smelled like mint but was even cooler, rushing into his nasal cavity and flowing down his throat. The unbearable sweltering heat clinging to his body from the outdoors seemed to recede a bit in that instant.

His gaze drifted past the brown counter that split the shop in two, past the shelves on either side, and looked toward the deepest part of the room.

A plump woman with curly hair wore an expression of deep concentration as she gripped a long-handled spoon, stirring the crucible in front of her at a steady pace.

The cooling aura in the air emanated directly from the translucent, pale-blue viscous liquid inside the crucible.

"Give me just a moment, it's almost done!" Ms. Edwina called out apologetically when she heard the bell and looked up to see Xia Nan.

Having plenty of patience and in no rush to press her, Xia Nan simply waved his hand to show he wouldn't disturb her. Seeing that she was at a critical juncture in her potion brewing, he turned and casually inspected the goods on the nearby shelves.

He waited for about five minutes.

He watched as Ms. Edwina carefully took the fully concocted potion from the crucible and poured the entire batch into a pre-prepared container off to the side to let it settle.

Only then did she let out a long sigh of relief. She pulled a handkerchief from her pocket to dab the fine sweat covering her forehead, and raised a knuckle to lightly push up her Rimless Glasses.

"Sorry about that," she spoke up. "It's been a little busy lately, and I can barely keep up with the orders."

They were old acquaintances, so he naturally wouldn't get upset over such a minor thing. Out of curiosity, Xia Nan cast a glance toward the crucible and asked, "This potion smells pretty good. I don't think I've seen it around here before. Is it a new product?"

"Hehe, quite refreshing, isn't it?" Seeing her customer approve of the potion made the eyes behind Ms. Edwina's glasses crinkle into a smile. "It's indeed a new potion I've been working on for the shop. The research is mostly finished, and it should be ready to hit the shelves in a couple of days."

"It doesn't have any special effects. It's purely a mint draught meant to relieve the summer heat. I figured since it's about that time of year, there should be a market for it, so I brewed a batch to test the waters."

"If you're interested, you can come back in a few days. I'll sell you a few bottles at cost price, just consider it a perk for being a regular."

"Sounds good, I'll drop by again in a few days then."

Xia Nan nodded slightly, cutting the small talk short. He took out the loot materials he had already sorted in his backpack and arranged them neatly on the counter.

"I harvested a few things from my latest quest. Take a look and see if they're worth anything."

"Alright." Nodding gently, Ms. Edwina first used both hands to carefully untie the bundle resting on the left side of the counter.

What caught her eye was a large bundle of dark-brown bone spikes of varying lengths, tightly bound together with string, and two fist-sized, reddish-brown hearts that looked somewhat dried out.

"Are these... Spined Devils?"

Before Xia Nan could even explain, this gentle lady, who had run a shop in a major adventurer hub for years, instantly recognized the source of the materials.

"Two of them in total," Xia Nan responded with a slight nod. "I originally wanted to sever their wings and bring them back too, but they were simply too heavy. Manpower was limited, so I only kept the bone spikes from their spines and tails, along with their hearts."

Even counting Margaret and the dwarf, there were only three of them. They already had to carry plenty of camping and supply items and lacked any transport tools. Two pairs of massive bat wings were just too heavy and took up too much space. Lugging them through the forest would severely slow their return trip and increase the danger, so they had no choice but to abandon them.

Xia Nan had previously killed a heavily injured Spined Devil, and it was through that exact battle that he achieved the Novice tier in [Fang Hunt].

However, out of fear of spore corruption back then, and because he didn't know exactly which parts were valuable, he hadn't harvested any loot materials from it.

After returning to Rivervale Town, he had crammed in some emergency study on the subject, which ended up perfectly serving him on this current quest.

He directly extracted the most valuable bone spikes and hearts from the Spined Devils as his spoils.

"Hmm, these bone spikes look like decent quality. They're above average. Once ground into powder, they'll be perfectly suitable for potions."

Ms. Edwina inspected the materials carefully, explaining her thoughts to Xia Nan as she pondered.

"It's just that the condition of these two hearts is a bit lacking. Their price will likely drop quite a bit."

He had anticipated this.

There was actually no need for a professional to appraise the two hearts carved out of the Spined Devils. Anyone could pull a random peasant woman with butchering experience off the street, and she'd conclude they were in poor condition just by looking at their dried, shriveled appearance.

Having assumed this was just a standard Goblin extermination quest before setting out, Xia Nan couldn't have predicted he'd run into a few devils straight out of hell. Naturally, he hadn't brought the proper storage containers for their loot.

After a few days of travel, no matter how carefully he preserved them, while the bone spikes were fine, it was inevitable that the quality of flesh-and-blood materials like hearts would degrade.

He was already mentally prepared for Ms. Edwina's verdict before he even arrived.

"How about 60 gold for everything here combined?" Ms. Edwina offered Xia Nan after a moment of thought.

Knowing the offer was generous, Xia Nan agreed without haggling. He then pointed to a larger bundle on the other side of the counter.

Unlike with the devils, he had no idea which parts of the Armored Lurker were valuable. "An Armored Lurker?" Ms. Edwina asked, a hint of surprise on her face after hearing his explanation.

"This type of monster is rarely seen in the Misty Forest," she said, untying the bundle with both hands. "If the materials are good, the price can be a bit higher."

Before she could even inspect it closely, an incredibly pungent stench surged out from within.

Yet this gentle-natured lady didn't even furrow her brow at the sudden assault; instead, she began inspecting the rare monster materials with a hint of delight.

"Several intact nerve fibers—medicinal value is average, but they should be good for equipment joints or bowstrings."

"Carapace from the lower abdomen. You certainly know how to pick the right spot. This is practically the hardest part of the Armored Lurker's body. Ground into powder, it makes a decent architectural additive."

"Oh, there's an eyeball as well? Once processed, it can serve as the main material for a 'Water Breathing Potion'."

Halfway through speaking, Ms. Edwina suddenly frowned. "What about the feather gills? Did you not bring back the most valuable part?"

'Feather gills?'

Xia Nan was momentarily stunned, his mind recalling the delicate, feathery, gill-like organ completely crushed by the forcefield energy of his [Gravity Etching] during the battle.

"Er—just how much are these feather gills worth?" he asked subconsciously.

"Add everything on the counter together, then triple that price," Ms. Edwina replied.

"That should just about cover it."

"Monsters like this are different from devils. They're far stronger and constantly hide underground. Even a professional Transcendent Tier adventurer squad wouldn't necessarily be able to find and hunt them in the Underdark."

"Still, you've really been a huge help bringing these other materials in!"