I caressed the pouch with care and whispered, "Oh my shiny goldy babies, do you know how hard it was living without you?"

The elder in the exchange hall was still looking at me as if I was an idiot. But he didn't know my circumstances. Nor did he know the value of these notes to me. So, I didn't take his gaze seriously.

But he interrupted my 'Love Shower',

"Hey boy. Do you want anything more to exchange? If not, leave, and don't waste my time."

I came back to my sense as his husky voice reached me.

'Yeah, I had earned money. But, for what? Of course to buy resources and become stronger. Then earn even more money.'

I hurriedly responded,

"Yes, I would like to buy some Elemental Crystals and an Origin Art for the Core development stage "

The elder nodded and peeked at my identity token.

"Hmm, you are a lightning element user. You must know that anything related to lightning is pretty rare, right?"

I nodded as I knew the rarity of lightning elemental resources. Not just me, everyone knew that. But, why was he pointing it out?

"They are rare means they are also costly. You need to use some extra credits to get lightning elemental crystals."

Ahh, so he was talking about money. Well, how much would the price increase- 100 at most? That was nothing to me.

"Elder, you don't have to worry about the extra money. I can handle that."

"How many Lightning Elemental Crystals do you want? I remind you, 1st years like you only get low-grade ones. Higher grades crystals are too much for Core reformation realm Elementalist."

He didn't talk about prices anymore. But, his smug face and mysterious smile were an eyesore to me.

I thought about it for some time and then decided to buy a little amount first.

" 10 low-grade crystals. I will get more after I advance to the core development realm."

"Ok then, wait for a little. I am going to the storage to bring them. And here is the list of Lightning Origin Arts for the Core development realm. Search the list to find a suitable one."

Then he left by the backdoor of the counter to the place called "Storage room."

I looked at the book which was a huge collection of Origin Arts.

"So many Origin Arts just for the Core development stage! That's quite a rich collection."

But I frowned as I skimmed through the list of origin arts. Other elements like fire, water, and air had hundreds of origin arts. Even Sound, which is rare as lightning has 125 origin arts. But, lightning had only 15. This was a pitiful number that conveyed how hard it is to create a Lightning origin art. Maybe lightning elementalists are just rare or it's hard to gather resources as someone's cultivation grows. So, it's hard for people to cultivate Lightning-origin art.

And, I was talking about the list provided by Krieger, technically the best academy of the Council! If Kreiger had such a miserable number, other academies maybe even more pitiful than this.

I skimmed through the lightning arts one by one. Every one of them had a cool name and description of lightning's destruction. But one particular name caught my attention.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"Advent of Thunder King."

It had a very cool name but a weird description that didn't look like elemental art but of a sensational product-

"It's an origin art only kingly figures deserve. If you practice this art thoroughly, you will last in battles 10 times more than you last in bed. ( NB: This art's creator isn't responsible if you can last only 2 minutes in bed )"

'Well, he tried to be humorous, at least.'

Though he didn't succeed to make me laugh at his joke, his description caught my interest. I was hooked by the bonuses that come with this art.

An origin art that helps the Elementalist not only to develop his core but also to absorb and store twice the amount of Origin energy!

Thou this art had an ambiguous and unimaginable result, its functionality was simple in laymen's terms.

To understand it, you just have to think of the Core as a glass, origin energy like water, and elemental property as sugar.

Elemental energy is like a solution of sugar and water. If you can make the glass bigger, it can contain more water. Which will result in more solutions.

This Origin-Art works in the same way. It helps Elementalist to make his core bigger to store more Origin energy. If you can store more energy, you can fight longer without conserving your strength. Pretty neat, right? Ty

But there was a catch. Though your core grew bigger than the original size, your property didn't become stronger. The elemental property doesn't come out of thin air. The core is also responsible for the elemental property of the elemental energy it produces. The strength of Elemental property depends on one's cultivation. So, it will be fixed on the same potency.

But, this art will reduce your property's potency just like too much water-little sugar will reduce the sweetness of the solution. People will cultivate this art if their property is too weak or useless. Though my property wasn't weak, nor it was useless- my element and property were a joke of a combination. So this was heaven-sent origin art for me.

"If I practice this, my potency of healing will be reduced but the capability of storing energy will be doubled. that means I will be able to fight 2 times more than the others. Only my healing will be reduced, but the speed and strength I received from lightning will remain unchanged as they are lightning's innate attributes. I may face some troubles with using the Art of Deformation, but this Origin art was worth the trouble. If so, I can fight to my heart's content without limiting myself! I wouldn't need to bother Erika after this. "

I was ecstatic as I got a perfect Origin Art for myself. But I still decided to check others.

As I was busy looking at their descriptions, the elder returned from the storage room.

"So, which one did you pick?" His voice had a curious tone.

"Umm, I was planning to take Advent of Thunder king. Its increase of reserve Elemental Energy is quite alluring."

"Oh, that one. Are you sure brat? This will reduce your lightning's property. You are from the healing department, you would become useless if your healing property becomes too weak."

Though he warned me repeatedly, I was set on getting this.

"You don't have to worry, elder. My healing factor is quite potent. A little decrease in power won't affect me greatly."

"If your property is as potent as you say, then I must congratulate you brat. You have pretty good eyes. This art is a special case even among other unique arts."

This piqued my interest.

"Oh? Why would you say that?"

"Because, this art has a second part Advent of Thundergod- which is for Elemental Manipulator level. So, you won't have to change your origin art in the future. You can just upgrade it!"

It was a pleasant surprise for me. His words gave me even more reasons to buy this. It is hard to find an Origin art at the upper level of cultivation, let alone find a suitable one.

But this art is not only suitable for me but also has a second part for the future!