There was a third path, Shane could choose, But he hadn't been sure earlier if he should choose it.
But reconsidering the other possibilities, Shane thought that it might be the best path to pick in order to improve faster.
He could consider it as a short-term investment.
One could consider it as an investment that would give him maximum returns within a short time. Though Shane wouldn't be able to hold it for a long time, because it would turn useless with time.
After the efficiency of his 'investment' would decrease, he would be able to sell it once again.
Shane wasn't a merchant and didn't want to become one. It was too time-consuming and less productive for the overall future growth that he imagined for himself.
He was neither good nor bad in business and would let others take on such occupations.
Instead, Shane liked to be a hunter and a cultivator, striving for power and adventures.
Through his last fight with the purple-furred wolves, Shane had understood that his weapon was too bad. He would have to improve it sooner or later because the only slightly stronger weapon he used was the shiolite dagger from his dad.
Considering that it was a [Tier-1 (Rare)] Dagger, Shane could use it to kill peak elite stage beasts, but that was it.
Even so, it was still an extremely good weapon that he could use for another few months.
After that, he would have to change his weapon evidently, due to its incapability to pierce through higher staged beast hide.
Shane knew of this fact and he pondered if he should directly purchase a Tier-2 weapon with low quality. However, that wouldn't really increase his combat prowess to a large extent, while his shiolite dagger was enough for his current opponents.
With 11 days left until the academy would roughly start, it was even more important for him to decide what he should pick because he knew that the first day was crucial to differentiate the hunter from the prey..
Shane wanted to be the hunter that annihilated his foes and instilled fear within them. His new aim now was to secure a spot to learn some lower quality skills through the dimension-spheres.
These skills would increase his combat prowess once again. Shane wanted to reign supreme in the academy to earn a spot for one of the tier-3 dimensional spheres, to see if their efficiency would outweigh the effort he had to put in.
Tier-1 and -2 skills were already expensive to purchase and obtain, but Tier-3 skills were even rarer.
Without being at the Master stage, Shane would be unable to learn the tier-3 skill. But, it didn't matter as long as he could learn the knowledge within the dimensional sphere.
Once he entered the Master stage, he would immediately learn the Tier-3 skill by combining the information in his mind with the knowledge acquired through the sphere. As such, obtaining a starting skill while entering the intermediate primordial dimensions would definitely be helpful.
He still wasn't too keen on studying at an academy, but now he was with peers instead of older classmates as he was in his past life and he wouldn't let anyone bully him, without returning the favor hundredfold.
Even after searching through the Primordial Shops, Shane couldn't find many items that he was looking for within the human section.
The only thing he had found were Tier-1 [Trash] mana stones for 5 gold coins.
Their price was five times higher than Mortal-[Uncommon] mana stones, but Shane was sure that he could use them well. The mana required for his [Mythic] body refining seemed to be extremely vast if the information imprinted in his mind was correct.
Shane estimated that body refining until the 7th Mortal stage would be relatively fast compared to the last three stages. Hence, he purchased 5 Tier-1 [Trash] mana stones for the beginning.
Considering that he alone would use them and not Umbra, Shane was sure that five fist-sized mana stones were enough for the beginning.
Umbra could absorb the mana crystals that he had mined from the elemental crystal cave and there were more than enough for the time being.
In the end, they could help Umbra fill his evolution progress rate multiple times.
Due to the transfer fee, Shane had to pay 27 gold coins and 50 silver for his first purchase.
Unfortunately, the mana stones were the only items he had found useful for his current cultivation as Tier-1 nutrition solutions were rather harmful to a normal Mortal stage physique.
As such, Shane was forced to use the shops of other races with their horrifying surcharge of 15%, making him sulk once again.
This surcharge decreased his possible purchases by a lot and Shane had to be judicious and spend his fortune of 210+ gold coins wisely.
There was definitely a need for nutrition solutions but the requirements from his [Mythic] body refining only allowed nutrition solutions with a [rare] or [extraordinary] quality, causing him to frown deeply.
There was not a single rare or extraordinary quality nutrition solution within human shops. He even had to search within the Elves primordial shop section, which he found to be extremely stupid.
'Why did we even form a trading agreement with the elves, if we don't even trade such basic body refining resources?' He was extremely annoyed to see that the [rare] nutrition solutions were priced at three gold coins while [extraordinary] nutrition solutions were priced at 7 gold coins.
One would think that price was cheaper if the price of a rare nutrition solution was just thrice that of an uncommon solution. However, this price was exclusive of the transfer and racial surcharge.
In the end, Shane forced himself to purchase four [rare] nutrition solutions and one [extraordinary] nutrition solution for 23 gold coins and 75 silver.
During the last few days, he had been extremely dissatisfied with the injuries he had sustained while fighting and they were hindering his movements due to the constant pain.
As such, Shane wanted to purchase a leather armor that could adjust its size according to that of the wearer.
The magical circle inscribed into the hide alone would increase the price and it wasn't worth it for him to purchase a Mortal stage leather armor at the moment.
In the end, Shane purchased a Tier-1 (Common) leather armor for 30 gold coins from a human shop, which surprised him.
The Tier-1(Common) quality leather armor could protect him from most elite stage beasts with a few dreadful existences along with certain kinds of razor-sharp claws, talons, and fangs as exceptions.
Due to the transfer fee, Shane only had to pay 33 gold and it was even cheaper than the extraordinary quality Ambrulite-pickaxe he had purchased before in the elemental crystal cave.
But that was mainly due to the effect that the extraordinary items provided. It was only normal for weapons and tools with highly potent effects to cost more than normal weapons in Shane's opinion.
As such, he didn't mind the price of the leather armor that he had purchased. On the contrary, he was satisfied with his current purchase.
Now, Shane had slightly more than 150 gold coins left, as he began his research for a satisfying weapon.
Even though he already owned a dagger, one of his hands was still empty. In Shane's opinion, an unused hand could also be considered a waste.
As such, he wanted to purchase another dagger for his empty hand, when he recalled his most apparent weakness during the fights against the scaled lizards with their elemental attacks.
`Even though I was fast enough to evade their long-range attacks, my advance was hindered multiple times, causing me to jump into the lion's den which was extremely dangerous, Shane concluded as an idea popped into his mind.
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