Chapter 70: New Meditation Technique

An hour after investigating the changes in his body, Ain arrived at Red Oak Spirit Academy. He didn’t plan to attend classes and rushed directly to the school store to retrieve his rewards.

When he arrived at his destination, he was greeted with a crowd of students in the building, all lining up to receive their rewards. Everyone in the top one hundred was qualified for some rewards, thus this scene couldn’t be avoided.

Ain simply sighed to himself and waited in line. Twenty minutes later, he left the school store with only a pill bottle in his bag.

The rewards for first place were 500,000 star coins, 15 Essence Heart Pills, a core spell, a ring spell, a meditation technique, and the Purple Cloud Fruit.

Excluding the Purple Cloud Fruit that Ain had already received, the two spells and the meditation techniques had to be claimed at the spell repository. And unlike last time, where he received a cash card, the star coins were directly deposited into his account. Hence, the only thing he carried out with him were the Essence Heart Pills.

Ain had already consumed the nine essence heart pills he received from the first competition. Excluding the fifteen currently in his bag, he required six more pills to reach thirty. The Essence Heart Pills were only effective for the first thirty pills consumed, increasing one's spirit energy quality by a total of 10%.

Originally, Ain had attempted to acquire these pills from elsewhere, only to be met with failure. But it didn’t seem to matter now as this was only the third month. There was sufficient time for him to receive six more pills from the academy before reaching Rank-2.

After leaving the school store, Ain beelined straight for the spell repository nearby. And as expected, the situation here was only slightly better than the school store.

The top fifty students were rewarded with a core spell. Furthermore, unlike the pills and star coins, the students contemplated their spell choice extensively.

Therefore, this time, Ain’s wait was even longer. Only after fifty minutes did a digital catalog finally land in his hands.

Without much thought, he opened the section for Rank-1 core spells and quickly glanced through them. In reality, there were only a few spells available here, and some of their effects even overlapped with each other.

Ain had already claimed the most useful spells such as Spirit Blast, Shield, and Spirit Impact. Realizing that there were no new additions to the list, he chose Invigoration, a spell he was familiar with.

Ain’s physique was already powerful, so he had ignored this spell last time and chose Spirit Blast and Shield. But now, without any better options, Invigoration was the only logical choice.

What he truly desired were spells like Elina’s Force Push, or Frans’ Tranquil Thoughts, especially so for the latter. But they weren’t available in the spell repository.

Next, Ain skipped the ring spells and opened the section for meditation techniques. This was what truly drove his enthusiasm today.

He could finally upgrade from the Basic Meditation Technique.

With a single glance, Ain recognized the familiar categories. Just like the spells, the meditation techniques were also categorized by their attributes. He opened the ghost-attribute meditation techniques, commonly referred to as ghost meditation techniques, and a single technique appeared in his vision.

“Secret Phantom Technique.” Ain slowly muttered the name of the only ghost meditation technique available. He opened the description and glanced through the brief summary, gaining a clear understanding of the technique’s effects.

The Secret Phantom Technique, like every attributed meditation technique, could slightly increase Ain’s affinity to the ghost-attribute. This effect was insignificant compared to an affinity-type innate talent, but even a slight improvement in this aspect was highly sought after.

Moreover, there was an accompanying spell with the Secret Phantom Technique. After practicing the technique to a certain level, Ain would qualify to use Secret Phantasm, a stealth-based ghost spell. Of course, this was only after his spirit core was completely branded and reached Advanced Rank-1.

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Aside from the description, Ain’s gaze also landed on the price, reminding him about how precious this opportunity was. This technique was priced at four million star coins, which was already a discounted price for the students.

Ain compared it to the 2.5 million in his account that he was secretly proud of and sighed internally.

Since there was only one ghost meditation technique available, there was no hesitation in his decision. But before he left, Ain repeated what he did the first time he browsed through the spell section. He looked through every meditation technique available and thoroughly memorized them.

The students that arrived later supported annoyed expressions, waiting for one of the catalogs to become available. Ain simply ignored them and completed his task before heading to the front desk.

Vice Principal Salvian sat behind the desk, playing with his hololink as usual. There seemed to be nothing else for him to do.

“Vice principal.” Ain greeted him before placing the catalog on the desk. Then he continued, “I’ve chosen Invigoration and the Secret Phantom Meditation Technique. I’ll leave the ring spell for later.”

Vice Principal Salvian tore his gaze away from the hololink while smiling, “I was wondering when you’d show up. Here’re the spell and meditation technique.”

As he said that, he retrieved two books from under his desk and placed them on top. Seeing this, Ain was a little taken aback. Usually, Vice Principal Salvian would go to the back room and retrieve the required books.

Vice Principal Salvian glanced at him and understood his thoughts. He said with a cunning smile, “What’s there to be surprised about? There’s only one ghost meditation technique available, and based on your matches, Invigoration is the only suitable core spell here you’ve yet to learn.”

Hearing this analysis, Ain’s expression returned to normal.

Actually, just as Vice Principal Salvian began explaining, Ain had already arrived at the same conclusion.

Moreover, he even thought a little further. After he claimed Haunt almost two months ago, there were only two ghost spells left in the spell repository. Including the reward from last time, Ain could claim the remaining two ghost spells as well. He was willing to bet that there were copies of the two ghost spells under the vice principal’s desk.

With his interest roused, Ain couldn’t help but want to test his hypothesis. He didn’t take the books but instead said, “Actually, I’ve decided to claim Spectral Ball and Ghastly Scream as well.”

He didn’t state the fact that he had two unclaimed ring spells. He believed the old man definitely knew.

Vice Principal Salvian, who was about to return to his hololink, paused, and their eyes locked, seemingly trying to probe one another.

Ain didn’t avert his gaze, already assured of his victory.

A few seconds later, failing to disturb Ain’s mind, Vice Principal chuckled in amusement, grabbed two more books from under his desk, and placed them on the desk.

“Smart kid. Here you go.”

A smile appeared on Ain’s face from the childish game as he replied, “Thank you.”

He placed the four books into his bag and turned to leave. At that moment, Vice Principal Salvian’s voice sounded directly in his mind. “If you don’t understand the technique, you can come here for guidance.”

Ain’s footsteps paused for a second, but he immediately continued and left the spell repository. Vice Principal Salvian watched him leave before finally returning to his hololink.

Outside the spell repository, Ain thought about the voice transmission, wondering when he could obtain such an ability. Just now, he was only stunned due to the sudden occurrence. He was already familiar with voice transmission, as that was the way his mentor’s spirit pet, Flo, used to communicate with him.

Thinking of his mentor, Ain couldn’t help but wonder. It had only been over a month, but his perception of time had become a little chaotic. It seemed to him that a long time had passed since then, but at the same time, the past two months seemed like a fleeting dream.

“Ain!” Just as Ain was lost in his thoughts, a voice brought him out of his daydream. He looked up and saw Frans approaching him with a smile. There was a girl with a dark green ponytail walking alongside him.

“Frans.” Ain smiled and greeted Frans, who had stopped in front of him.

Frans gestured at the girl beside him and said, “Let me introduce you. This is Paula Mayr. I’ve known her since childhood.”

“Hello.” Two voices overlapped as Paula and Ain greeted each other.

Ain obviously remembered Paula. Not only was she the second administrator of the group chat, but also the opponent Hugo lost against in the competition. Her spirit pet, a mechanical gauntlet, was also very interesting.

After the introductions, Frans asked, “Here to claim the rewards?”

“Mhm. I’ve already claimed them.”

The three continued to chat about the competition. After a while, Paula asked curiously, “Ain, did you use Telekinesis to change the trajectory of that Spirit Blast during the final match?”

Hearing this question, Frans also looked at Ain curiously, wanting to confirm this conjecture.

“Yes, it was my first attempt, and it unexpectedly succeeded.” Ain didn’t hide anything as it wasn’t difficult to figure out.

“Amazing, only Rank-2 Spirit Tamers and above can control their attacks like that.” Paula said with admiration, especially after learning that it was Ain’s first attempt at that maneuver.

“The range of the Rank-1 Telekinesis is very short. This trick is useless in most cases.”

Hearing Ain’s humble remark, the two chuckled before Frans asked, “Are you learning a craftsmen profession? Although Telekinesis isn’t exclusive to craftsmen professions, it’s not something spirit tamers at our level would normally learn. Like you said, its range is a little miserable at Rank-1."