Mixed Blessing System

"Lothur, this is the Sample Hall, where the summary of the most common techniques sold in this store is." Elke began to explain to the man beside her as they walked through the aisles of shelves.

"There are all kinds of Iron-grade techniques here, where ordinary people interested in buying them can easily use their coins to acquire memory crystals."

"In this area, you just find what you want and take the copy of the technique summary of your interest to one of those people." She pointed one of her hands at some of the employees of that establishment who were near them.

"Huh?" Lothur found Elke's explanation strange, implying something that went against much of what he had seen in his past life. "Why do I get the impression that it is not enough to have coins to buy techniques here?"

​ She laughed. "Because that's not enough."

"This store has four floors, but only the first one is open for anyone to enter. Beyond this point, if someone wants to buy something in the Innumerable Scrolls, that individual will have to meet some requirements."

"That..."

"So how do they do business here? I've never heard of a store where the customer has to prove himself worthy to buy something!" He commented in an uncertain tone, finding this all very unusual.

"Well, I'm not sure of the intentions of the organization behind such a store, but I believe it makes sense not to let just anyone obtain certain techniques."

"This is also a chance for Innumerable Scrolls to create contacts with customers with good future potential or position in the empire."

"As for how they operate here, they naturally have requirements for cultivation level, talent, influence, etc. Anything that can prove your worth can be used to liberate your entry to the upper floors of this store."

"If you want to enter the second floor, you need to cultivate at least peak 2nd stage. Or have a Green-grade talent. Another possibility is to have some important position in the province." She said as she looked into Lothur's eyes with a frown.

She did not think this young man could fulfill either of the first two options. After all, besides not sensing any cultivation coming from him, a person with Green-grade talent would not start studying in Sector-1.

Talent in this world was the measure of potential, the capacity for understanding that cultivators could have, something Lothur called Intelligence.

Such a thing was not immutable and could be affected by resources, places, or even good contacts. However, it was not easy to change a person's talent, and few had the opportunity to do so.

With this in mind, Elke considered that Lothur could not reach the second floor of this store, where the best Iron-grade and most of the Bronze-grade techniques were.

The techniques in this world were divided into six ranks, starting with the lowest, Iron, through Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and finally the highest, Diamond.

As for the difference between them, well, to put it simply, the higher the quality of a technique, the more efficient it would be at transforming energy.

On the other hand, the fundamental laws involved in the techniques also influenced their classification. So, more challenging characteristics were also a differentiator seen in techniques of different qualities.

Consequently, a Diamond-grade technique was much more efficient than an Iron-grade one. Still, its power would also be more impressive.

Examples of one challenging and common feature are the ability to control the gravity of a given space and another that improves the strength of its user's punches.

Lothur then asked Elke. "How do they test the talent of the clients here? Is there any way for me to know my exact talent without taking a test?"

"They have a device called the Aptitude Crystal that does that test. So you just have to ask one of those employees to take you to a testing room, and there they will do what is necessary to evaluate your talent."

"As for your other question, you can get an idea of how talented you are by your cultivation speed. How quickly you learn a new technique. The quality of your comprehension, etc."

"But only high talent or cultivation people can distinguish different talents by only observing these factors."

"So I can't tell you for sure how you can self-assess yourself, other than taking the aptitude test."

She then looked at him in curiosity and asked. "Anyway, the organization you are a part of must have done this before, right? Don't you know what your talent is?"

"Uh?" Lothur said in surprise, not answering her right away as he thought of an answer. 'If my knowledge from my past life is worth anything, then Intelligence must be related to understanding.'

Lothur had already noticed that the system seemed to quantify his characteristics from ideas in his own mind. He thought this because, instead of the line [Cultivation] indicating the level corresponding to the cultivation system of this world, the system showed him [level 1.], which was not something used in this place.

On the other hand, the description of the pills given by Viktoria to him had also agreed with this idea, since although he did not know about the cultivation ranks, Lothur's predecessor knew about the classification of pills.

Because of this, he thought that his attributes, which had a lot to do with the games he had played in his previous life, had those names to make it easier for him to understand.

And knowing what Intelligence meant, he could not help but think that this was the talent these people from the cultivation world valued so highly.

'In this case, my talent seems to be higher than it should be...' He pondered this as he remembered that the values of his mental attributes were much higher than the physical ones.

Lothur had also already doubled his initial Intelligence value, so he was confident that his current talent had increased over his predecessor's.

He said. "For certain reasons, when I did my test, my family's device was not working normally. After that, I ended up ignoring that for other factors..."

"Anyway, let's look at some techniques in this place, and if we don't find anything, I'll do this test to see how far I can go." He pulled Elke by one of her hands, heading toward a shelf with the name 'movement' written on it.

"By the way, you said there are only Iron-grade techniques on this floor. But what about the others? What are the highest grade techniques sold by Innumerable Scrolls?" He asked as he started flipping through some movement techniques summaries.

Elke watched Lothur reading that information next to him and said. "There are Iron-grade techniques on all floors. The difference is that those found on the upper floors are among the best or rarest."

"Then, all the other floors have Bronze-grade techniques. From the third onward, all have those of Silver-grade, and finally, the fourth floor has techniques of all those grades, plus those of Gold-grade."

"Oh?" Lothur took his eyes off the yellowish leaf he held in his hands. "Aren't there any higher grade techniques?"

But upon hearing such a question, Elke could not help but laugh, finding Lothur's joke funny. "Of course, there isn't!"

"Diamond-grade techniques are practically legends. Aside from the stories, no one has ever actually seen anyone using one of those."

"As for Platinum-grade ones, they are so rare that the number of people known to have one of them can be counted on the fingers of one hand!"

"So, how would anyone try to sell something so precious?"

"I see..." Lothur murmured as he touched his chin thoughtfully, curious to know more about this world.

After that, he and Elke did not find much that might interest him, so they headed toward one of the store employees.

"Hello, how can I help you?" A young man who appeared to be the same age as Lothur asked as he politely behaved himself in his black suit.

...