novelraw Chapter 112: Salesmen Are Cut From the Same Cloth
Chapter 112: Salesmen Are Cut From the Same Cloth
With no time to explain, Fly swiftly activated a Skill.
"Skill: Husk Puppet!"
In an instant, several Husk Puppets split off from Fly's body, shielding everyone behind them.
A deafening "Boom!" echoed out as the Spectral Roach in the distance exploded.
Countless drops of azure acidic blood were blasted into the air by the shockwave, scattering and falling like fireworks blooming in the night sky.
The acidic blood hit the ground with a chorus of sizzling sounds, softening the impacted areas at a visible rate. Plumes of white steam rose from the floor, and a pungent, sour stench gradually drilled into everyone's nostrils.
The Husk Puppets standing in front of the group were corroded beyond recognition by the acid. Regaining their composure, the group quickly retreated under the cover of the Husk Puppets until they were safely out of the blast radius.
"Fly, what just happened?" asked Mr. Carter, still shaken. Witnessing such a terrifying development had his nerves on edge.
Followed by Genevieve, 'Emperor' Valerius, and Jett.
That was simply too close for comfort. Since this was Fly's Inner Realm, there shouldn't theoretically be any enemies around, so everyone had momentarily lowered their guard.
If Fly hadn't reacted in time, the lot of them would have probably perished together right then and there.
"It looks like the fire-attribute Skill I cast just now was too powerful. The Spectral Roach's body couldn't handle the strain, which caused this..." Fly was also badly startled, his heart still hammering wildly in his chest.
The physical resilience of a Spectral Roach really can't be compared to mine, he thought. Stimulating its body with high-voltage currents, combined with extreme temperatures, completely destroyed the Spectral Roach's physical form, resulting in this self-destruction.
And the explosion subsequently released the acidic blood stored within its body... The blast radius is no joke either, Fly thought, a lingering fear in his heart.
"Does that mean you can't use this Skill anymore?" Jett asked with a hint of concern.
To him, this was a classic double-edged sword—a mutually assured destruction tactic.
"Not necessarily," Fly shook his head. "As long as I can gauge the splash zone of the acidic blood after the explosion and keep my distance, this Skill is still viable."
"It's just that... different Spectral Roaches have varying levels of physical toughness, which means the blast radius of the acid will likely vary as well. Nailing down those specifics isn't something that can happen overnight."
Roaches might not possess a tech tree or build civilized societies.
But when it came to physical resilience, they were supposed to be the unkillable pests of legend.
After all, they were one of the few organisms capable of surviving a nuclear fallout. Theoretically, a Spectral Roach should have been able to shrug off this minor amount of damage.
In Fly's eyes, the root cause of this uncontrolled self-destruction was simply that these particular Spectral Roaches weren't robust enough.
And precisely because of that, they needed to be trained even more.
He needed to gather data on the explosion radius while simultaneously conditioning specific Spectral Roaches to withstand high-intensity Skills.
"Moving forward, I'll have the Spectral Roaches repeatedly practice 'Stand-In Attack'. While gathering data, I'll gradually filter out the individuals capable of withstanding these high-intensity Skills," Fly stated.
"Uh... just give me a heads-up when you're practicing. I'm definitely staying far, far away," Jett grumbled.
...
Following that, the rest of the group individually underwent their gravity training.
Among them, Fly lasted the longest, enduring a full nine minutes. Genevieve and 'Emperor' Valerius each held out for over seven minutes.
Once the training concluded, the group stepped out of the training facility into the faint morning light and headed back to the school's academic area.
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Fly gave Cynthia a call, arranging to meet at the school gates so they could head to Grandmaster Muse's villa together.
In the days that followed, life fell into a steady rhythm: special training in the Gravity Chamber at dawn and dusk, and receiving guidance at Grandmaster Muse's estate during the hours in between.
"By the way, how does customizing Warrior Gear work?" Fly asked his homeroom teacher, Mr. Carter, out of curiosity after putting his phone away.
Given the bizarre and diverse nature of Beast Totems, it was naturally impossible to mass-produce the necessary Warrior Gear for Beast Warriors. Usually, one had to find a manufacturer for a custom order.
The mass-produced Warrior Gear displayed in ordinary martial arts shops was typically quite low-end. It wasn't completely unusable, but it was basically just better than nothing. More importantly, it was highly unlikely to find gear that perfectly complimented one's specific abilities.
For instance, an ice-attribute Beast Warrior wielding fire-attribute Warrior Gear would look incredibly awkward. Or, a Beast Warrior with a ranged-attack Totem wielding melee Warrior Gear... the sheer absurdity of the image spoke for itself.
Therefore, the dynamic between Warrior Gear and a Beast Warrior ultimately boiled down to "compatibility." And what could be more compatible than something custom-tailored for you?
Because of this, Star City High had established partnerships with quite a few Warrior Gear manufacturers.
Even many of the teachers moonlighted as sales reps, pitching these manufacturers' Warrior Gear to the students.
If they ran into students who were a bit strapped for cash, they would even "thoughtfully" provide loan services. Yes, extremely thoughtful...
Mr. Carter was one of these moonlighting teachers. But, he cared about his dignity and wouldn't stoop to tricking students into taking on debt like the others did.
How is this any different from those bookstore scams... Listening to Mr. Carter's explanation, Fly couldn't help but recall his school days from his previous life.
Back then, those publishers would constantly show up at schools peddling the Merriam-Webster Student Thesaurus, the Guinness World Records, or novels like Percy Jackson and A Good Girl's Guide to Murder.
By the end of a single semester, he'd usually been conned into buying five or six books.
It was only later that he found out the homeroom teachers were getting a cut of the profits.
"Mr. Carter, you wouldn't happen to be getting a commission, would you?" Fly asked, staring at Mr. Carter with deadpan eyes.
"What are you thinking?" Seeing this, Mr. Carter immediately raised his voice, speaking with righteous indignation. "That's them!"
Fly's eyes lit up, and he immediately gave a thumbs-up. "That's Mr. Carter for you! Completely different from those other teachers."
But a second later...
"When I said 'them', I didn't mean the other teachers, I meant the other students," Mr. Carter said, his face reddening slightly as he let out a dry chuckle.
The salary of an ordinary teacher like him was just enough to stave off starvation; striking it rich was out of the question. If there was a way to make a quick buck, why not take it? Who would ever complain about having too much money?
It was just that Fly's talent was exceptional, and he was currently bearing the heavy responsibility of representing Star City High in The Jade State League, which was why Mr. Carter hadn't planned on fleecing him.
"As for customizing Warrior Gear, there are generally two routes." After a moment, Mr. Carter wiped the grin off his face, called Genevieve and the others over, and seriously began explaining the process.
"The first is to find a professional designer. You let them examine your Beast Totem, they draw up a few blueprints, and you simply choose one. As for the price... it depends on the manufacturer and material quality, but it typically ranges anywhere from a few thousand to tens of thousands."
Hearing this, that nagging sense of familiarity flared up in Fly's mind again.
Wasn't this the exact same hustle as interior decorating?
A designer comes over, takes one look at your house, pumps out a few floor plans for you to choose from, and hits you with a bill ranging from a few thousand to tens of thousands.
Salesmen really are cut from the same cloth everywhere, huh?
"Then the second route wouldn't happen to be us designing it ourselves, drawing up the blueprints, and sending them directly to the manufacturer, would it?" Fly extrapolated.
Either hire an interior designer or do it yourself.
The déjà vu was way too strong!
"Leave professional matters to the professionals. Wouldn't it be better to just hire a gear designer?" Jett pondered for a moment. He felt that while the design fees were exorbitant, you get what you pay for.
Those Warrior Gear designers were all graduates from prestigious schools. Their understanding of Beast Totems had to be leagues above rookie high school Beast Warriors like themselves.
"I agree with Jett," said 'Emperor' Valerius. "This way, we can save a lot of time and focus our energy on preparing for the tournament."
"I'll pass," Fly declined without a second thought. "I will design my Warrior Gear myself."
"At the end of the day, I refuse to believe someone can understand my Beast Totem better than I do after just a few minutes of interacting with it."
Plus, just thinking about those outrageous fees made his wallet wince.
It wasn't like he couldn't design it himself.
"I'm with Fly. Besides, with Grandmaster Muse guiding us, is there really a need to seek out those designers?" Genevieve voiced her own opinion.
Since Grandmaster Muse had already decided to oversee their cultivation, it proved that she had expectations and cared for them.
A Grandmaster Realm Beast Warrior was undoubtedly vastly superior to some random designers, right?
Jett and 'Emperor' Valerius exchanged a glance, seemingly finding some merit in Fly and Genevieve's words.
Right.
Aside from eating, showering, and sleeping, they spent almost every waking moment analyzing their Beast Totems.
In order to fully unleash the power of their Beast Totems, they dedicated immense amounts of time every day to studying and training.
How could their understanding of their own Beast Totems possibly lose out to those designers?
Not to mention, they had Grandmaster Muse holding down the fort.
Seeing that everyone was on the same page, Mr. Carter could only nod in agreement. And just like that, their approach to customizing their Warrior Gear was decided.