Chapter 49 – Cat Dad’s Choice

In Xiaomao’s past life, a player’s community once categorized super rare spells and skills in tiers – S, A, B, C, and D.

All spells and skills in the D category came from level 50 bosses and under. Although every boss carried a hundred types of skills or spells, they were all weak when compared to other super rare spells and skills, which dropped from stronger bosses.

C Tier consisted of a few skills and spells from level 50 bosses. As for the rest, these books could be found from level 100 bosses. These skills and spells were useful in most situations, but their effects and power were weak.

B grade skills and spells were the walls between serious gamers and casual crypto-farming players. Only rare NFT characters had a chance to get it from field bosses, elite monsters, and dungeon bosses as they dropped from level 200 and beyond, which was impossible for cheap NFT characters to defeat.

A and S tier was something in legends. None of them was sold in the market, but the detail of these skills and spells were accessible in the public marketplace, where players could place a commission to purchase the skill books and the spellbooks.

But then, what would happen if a low-level character could access the end-game spells or skills?

That character would have been brokenly overpowered!

Fortunately, the game added some restrictions to the spell books and skill books. Only players who had met the requirements could learn the abilities. Millions of different super rare skills and spells had already been revised and tested, and the developers made sure that no skill or spell would be imbalanced.

That was what the developers had thought.

“200 years, munya!”_.

Xiaomao couldn’t help but laugh at the developer’s attempt to curb his character’s growth. He brought out the ticket and used it.

The ticket flashed and transformed into a system panel, displaying the list of selectable spells. Xiaomao could press on the spellbook icon and see all the details in another screen panel.

The list was so huge to the point that the scroll bar was as thin as a needle. Xiaomao looked at the scroll bar and slightly shook his head.

DING

<Please choose a spell within 10 minutes. If you don’t choose a spell within the time limit, the game will randomize it for you.>

Xiaomao burst into laughter when he noticed the timer.

‘Nice try. I’m not falling for that trick.’

Again, this was the developer’s attempt to hide useful spells among the million spellbooks. The timer often pressured regular players into making a hasty decision and failed to find the right spellbook.

Xiaomao took his time. He walked back to the NPC vendor and operated the marketplace menu. Then, he searched for a few names.

‘What were THOSE spells again? Oh, right. The totems! Domestication totem? What was their exact name?’

As Xiaomao wasn’t sure, he searched the spellbook by using the keyword “Totem Domestication”.

A spellbook icon appeared in the marketplace menu. It was the book that Xiaomao was looking for. Many bidders had already reserved the rights to buy the spellbook, and the highest bidder offered 50,000 PACTs for it.

The record sales of this item were zero. No one had put the spellbook in the marketplace yet, but 15 bidders offered to purchase the book with 50,000 PACTs.

From Xiaomao’s perspective, most players had been ignoring this spell as the detail seemed lackluster. As for him, he had seen it in action, and he needed one to complete his character.

Xiaomao read the description.

…

Blessing Totem: Monster Domestication

This spell is a simplified version of a Grand Curse of Chaos Demon God. Although it lacks the essential core of a curse, the Blessing Totem is still useful for Slave Masters, Tamers, Summoners, Beastmasters, and every class that relies on slaves, pets, and monsters.

To use this spell, you must set up a Blessing Totem first.

Spell Type: Continuous, Boon

Rarity: Super Rare

Requirement: 1,000 Light Spiritual Root

Class Restriction: Summoner, Tamer, Slave Master, Shepherd, Farmer, or Beastmaster only.

Cost: 100 Max MP per Resident. Refund Max MP if the totem is destroyed.

Cooldown: 24 Hours

Effects:

– Upon placing this blessing totem in your resident, decrease the residential cost of your slaves, pets, and monsters by 10% as long as the Blessing Totem is active. (Max 1 Totem)

– Decrease their temperament over time.

– Increase their loyalty over time.

– The Totem doesn’t work on NFT retainers.

[?????? Instinct]: The spell is a must if you’re employing monsters and slaves. You can only discover its true potential when you increase the spell mastery to a higher level.

[?????? Instinct]: After you maximize the mastery, a Curse Spell will be derived from this spell. Max it, and you will learn another Curse Totem Spell. Max that as well, and you will learn ANOTHER Trap Totem Spell. Do it a couple more times, and you will get an Ultra-Rare Grand Curse Spell!

…

This spell had been once considered at the D tier because of its limited usage and restrictions. However, it was later promoted to the S tier for several reasons.

At a glance, this spell seemed lackluster as it couldn’t be used in combat. Other than decreasing the residential cost of slaves, it didn’t do anything. Moreover, it consumed the caster’s max MP per totem, turning it into a hindrance rather than being useful.

However, when its mastery was maxed, the cost reduction would change to 50% and become extremely useful for players with an army of workers and slaves!

For example, if a slave cost one contribution point, Xiaomao could only employ or capture one slave with one point available. But with the max mastery level, Xiaomao could control two slaves!

The improvement would be huge in the later game when the contribution points surpassed 100 after the Landlord Patch. By then, a player could possess a private army, and the scale of guild wars would never be the same.

Furthermore, Xiaomao only needed to max the spell mastery level to acquire an additional super rare spell. After that, he could repeat the process of maxing the mastery percentage and learn more free spells until no spell could be obtained.

And most importantly, the last spell that Xiaomao could obtain for free was an Ultra-Rare Spell! In short, this blessing totem spellbook was a stepping stone to acquiring a Grand Curse Spell, which was equivalent to an Ultra-Rare Ultimate Skill, and this Grand Curse would be one of the deadliest crowd control spells that every guild would kill to get their hands on the spellbook.

The value of the Grand Spell Book? When the game was at its peak, one of the top guilds offered 500 million USD in cash for any player that could give them this blessing totem spellbook or any book that could grow into THAT Grand Curse Spell.

Xiaomao looked at the requirement. He gained 25 allocable points per level, so 1,000 points in Light Spiritual Root was easy to achieve.

After getting the exact name of the spellbook, Xiaomao searched for the item in the selectable spellbook menu.

Fortunately, the spell books had been pre-sorted by alphabets. It was not difficult to locate the item among the million books with the same icon.

<Are you sure that you want to pick Blessing Totem: Monster Domestication spellbook?>

“Hell, yes, munya!”

The spellbook magically entered Xiaomao’s inventory, and the menu disappeared.

Looking at the spellbook, the previous anger disappeared like smoke.

For the sake of the spell’s safety, Xiaomao put it in his premium warehouse storage right away. He also sorted the item slots and placed the book at the top so that he wouldn’t sacrifice it as mastery EXP by an accident.

Now that the spellbook matter was resolved, Xiaomao looked at the spirit stone, which the game mods had given him as compensation.

‘Bunch of idiots! Do you think I will simply eat the spirit stone to increase my EXP? Don’t you realize that it is a fucking scenario quest starter?!’

Xiaomao laughed at the game admins and moderators’ attempts.