Chapter 88: Totem Construction

For five straight days, Xaire made several totem spheres each day and delivered them to Monty, the man he had previously arranged to deal with.

At their first transaction, the other party became utterly convinced that he was a master at sphere creation, and went so far as to curry favor with him by offering advance payment, along with totem beasts and source crystals.

In that way, Xaire was raking in wealth for almost no effort at all, money flying into his pocket with nothing more than a few motions of his hands.

With totem spheres costing no less than fifty thousand and some exceeding a million, once his status as a master had been confirmed, the Ivan family, one of the leading families in Morent and the power standing behind Monty, swiftly brought out several of the finest totem beasts in their possession for custom work, paying him three times the market rate up front.

As a result, the numbers on his wristband jumped by an entire order of magnitude.

And with that, he had more than enough capital to buy source crystals and the necessary gemstones.

What he was doing now, of course, was turning Moonchild, this half-totem, into a true totem. Once it succeeded without incident, Firefly would naturally be next.

There was no help for it. Firefly was his primary totem, after all, as vital to a spirit master as one’s own lifeblood.

If anything went wrong with it, he would certainly be implicated as well, and his entire plan would be thrown into chaos.

Under his strict command, Moonchild sat obediently on the floor, letting the light from the rune workshop coil around it.

One source crystal after another instantly crumbled to dust; in the blink of an eye, dozens had already been consumed, yet there was still no sign of it stopping.

Xaire felt a little toothache at the sight, but by now there was no way to give up, so he could only keep feeding in source crystals.

After nearly two hundred source crystals had been consumed, the gray-white radiance enveloping Moonchild had become almost tangible.

Waaah!

Moonchild let out a furious roar. The clothes Erin had put on it burst apart in an instant, and it was transformed completely into a savage, ferocious beast.

The harmless appearance from before had only been a disguise; this was its true form.

"Be still!" Xaire shouted angrily.

The suppression that came from the soul made it instantly quiet down. Enduring the excruciating pain in its body, it allowed the dense source power to pour into it.

A lineage chart formed into a brilliant galaxy, illuminating the cellar as bright as day. The surging source power coursed through its body, bringing about a radical transformation.

Xaire kept watching it, an involuntary question rising in his mind: what, exactly, was the essence of source power?

One could say it was energy, yet it could also enable living beings to evolve, step by step transcending the ordinary and becoming existence comparable to gods.

Spirit masters likewise relied on it to cast one marvelous spirit art after another, drawing a clear line between themselves and ordinary people.

No one knew the answer. Xaire even suspected that once the Gate of Source was fully opened, might spirit masters be able, like mages, to cast terrifying spirit arts without relying on totem beasts?

Could there even appear the legendary forbidden spell, capable of annihilating a city in one blow?

Buzz...

Under his gaze and his wandering thoughts, the rune workshop slowly came to a halt. The totem’s construction was complete.

The light dimmed, and the colossal shape within vanished as well, leaving only a streak of silver-white radiance that shot out and landed directly on the back of his left hand.

Xaire felt a sting there, as though bitten by something, and when he raised his hand to look, he saw a totem beast design appear near his wrist, so lifelike it put ordinary tattoos to shame.

When he concentrated his mind upon it, he could sense a presence concealed within.

"Moonchild."

With a thought from him, the silver light flew out from the design and fell to the ground, once again taking the form of a totem beast.

Moonbeast, support totem, evolved form. Evolution success rate increased by twelve percent; evolution points required reduced by twelve.
Abilities: moonlight absorption, slaughter form, super strength, underwater breathing.

The information on the attribute panel had changed dramatically. It had originally been a special totem, but was now a support totem, which meant it had completely become a semi-illusory existence.

Then came a doubling of the evolution success rate and a steep reduction in the evolution points consumed, a pleasant surprise indeed.

"Next is you, Firefly." Xaire turned his gaze to the little white fox, which had been quietly watching from the table by the doorway.

Meow-woo.

Upon hearing him, Firefly jumped down from above and took the initiative to walk into the area covered by the rune workshop’s light.

Xaire crouched down, reached out to stroke its little head, and said with a smile, "Don’t worry. It’s only a small change. It won’t hurt you."

The little fellow truly was a fox; its intelligence was probably already on par with a human child of three or four, able to understand his everyday words and possessing its own joys and sorrows as well.

"Heh, Firefly, if you could turn into a beauty like a fox spirit, that would be wonderful." Xaire teased it. In many myths and legends of his homeland, fox immortals always made an appearance, and nothing was more fitting than a lovestruck fox spirit meeting a wooden, unromantic scholar, which he found enviable beyond measure.

Meow-woo.

Firefly let out a somewhat displeased cry. It did not understand the words, but the tension and fear it had felt before were already gone.

Crack, crack, crack...

Light flowed and turned. One source crystal after another shattered, forming a gray-white radiance that enveloped it, before the analyzing runes once again raised a chain of lineage charts.

This time, there were no mishaps. After Xaire left the cellar, a small white fox pattern had appeared on the back of his right hand.

Xaire went directly to Market No. 1 and stood before the middle-aged man in the shop, saying calmly, "I’d like to borrow some money."

"Mr. Xaire, how much do you need?" The man rose to his feet, his eyes brimming with delight, as though Xaire had come to give him money instead.

"Thirty million." Xaire held up three fingers.

"Certainly. Please wait a moment; I’ll go upstairs and have Monty come down." The man apologized, then hurriedly stood and went up to the second floor.

A short while later, Xaire left behind the three newly made totem spheres, and his wristband held a full fifty million more.

This was precisely why Xaire liked dealing with them. For the Ivan family, the thing they feared most was Xaire having no need of anything at all, for no need meant no way to continue cooperating in the future.

As long as he had a need, even if he merely opened his mouth to ask for a loan, they would lend it to him without hesitation, and they would only lend more, never less, and certainly never make demands!

"Now that the basic funds are in hand, it’s time to go find that person." Xaire climbed into the chinchilla car and headed for Market No. 3.

He had not forgotten that if he wanted to become an enforcer, he would first have to go find that person.