Chapter 27: Successive Ascensions

Back at the lighthouse, Lin Bo brought out the lingering relic he had collected from the old teacher’s home.

【Historical echo detected. Sacrifice the relic to browse the spacetime shard collection library.】

"Confirm sacrifice."

The stone idol, polished smooth by years of touch, developed fine cracks and crumbled into a pile of dust at the slightest breeze.

【Echo collected: Heirloom Matriarch Stone Figurine】
Echo Rank: Faint
Affinity: Religion 72%, Life 26%, Moon 2%
Description: A young girl carved this small figurine from stone while her mother was critically ill. Each time she polished the stone, she prayed for her loved one. The day before the figurine was completed, her mother passed away; the girl believed it was her own fault.

【Do you wish to consume this echo? The Comprehensive Network will use the echo’s affinity to retrieve corresponding spacetime shards and create a dungeon invitation.】

"No." Lin Bo sighed with regret.

A "Faint" rank echo would only yield a Level 1-3 dungeon. While beginner dungeons had their value—specialized equipment, knowledge fragments, titles for clearing Purgatory difficulty, and access to new chat channels to meet other player groups—they were not what he truly needed. He required Level 3-5 dungeons to continue advancing his career level. For Lin Bo, holding onto the Faint-rank echo was the more rational choice.

When the Comprehensive Network generates a dungeon, it searches its inventory based on the echo's affinity. If one affinity significantly outweighs the others, that affinity becomes the basis for the extraction. Since this echo was predominantly "Religious," the resulting dungeon would be strictly religion-related. If he wanted to extract a minor affinity, he would need to consume other echoes for refinement or perform a mixed sacrifice.

Refining weakens a specific affinity, indirectly increasing the weight of others. If Lin Bo possessed two echoes both containing "Religious" affinity, consuming one to refine the other would reduce the "Religious" component of the latter. The extent of this reduction depends on the rank gap between the two echoes.

A mixed sacrifice changes the mode, shifting from anchoring to a single affinity to selecting all affinities and extracting randomly based on their respective percentages. When mixing two echoes, the Comprehensive Network redistributes the affinity percentages. If a player is unsatisfied with the result, they can reroll once. The more echoes used in a mixed sacrifice, the more reroll attempts are granted.

Both refinement and mixing consume the echoes involved. Consequently, hoarding low-value echoes to use as expendable materials at critical moments is standard practice for Comprehensive Network players.

Because so many echoes are kept in player inventories rather than being used for invitations, dungeon invitations are scarce on the market. Lin Bo suppressed the urge to extract a dungeon. He knew he would have more opportunities to encounter lingering relics in the future; as a physician, he had already become an indispensable figure in Stone Tower Town. By interacting with more townsfolk, he would surely find new relics. Until he obtained a higher-rank echo, it was better to focus on improving his skills.

That night, Lin Bo continued disassembling machines, and before he knew it, he had accumulated enough proficiency. This happened earlier than expected; he hadn't accounted for the fact that as his technique became more seasoned, his proficiency gain rate also accelerated.

Surface Touch Inner-View Technique: Lv2 (301.2/300)
【Upgrade requirements met.】

The mage set aside the holographic helmet he had been dismantling—a type of high-tech scrap that arrived by the basketful. He would return the parts after taking them apart, saving [Scavenger] some time; it was a mutually beneficial arrangement.

"Upgrade."

A familiar cold current poured down from his mind, splitting into two streams that surged through his body, converging in his eyes and palms. The sensation was more intense than the previous upgrade, feeling as if the cold were freezing his eyes and hands into iron and stone.

Lin Bo could barely feel his palms. His vision vanished, leaving only the floating information board of the Comprehensive Network in the void of darkness.

"Huh, so blind players can see the Comprehensive Network too," Lin Bo mused.

He tried reaching out to touch surrounding objects. Even though he couldn't feel his palms—as if his wrists were bare stumps—the moment his hands brushed the floor, a surge of intense neural signals flooded his brain's functional areas. After being processed by his brain, these tactile signals transformed into vivid visual hallucinations.

In the pitch-black field of vision, the outline of the ground appeared in translucent white; tactile information had been converted into vision. As he continued to touch surrounding objects, one white, translucent outline after another appeared before him, reconstructing the world around him. There was no color, but the shapes of objects, and even their internal structures, were clearly defined.

Just as bats perceive the position and shape of objects by receiving reflected ultrasonic waves, Lin Bo’s experience was similar, yet far more precise.

Surface Touch Inner-View Technique: Lv3 (1.2/1500) (Knowledge Fragment 0/1): Vision and touch form synesthesia, allowing one to peer into internal structures by touching objects.

The moment the skill upgrade completed, color flooded back into his vision, much like a television turning back on. He couldn't help but blink, rubbing his fingers together as the sensation of control returned to his hands.

The Lv3 Surface Touch Inner-View Technique had reached the peak achieved by the creator of the art. Tactile signals could now be seamlessly converted into visual signals. Where he once relied on experience to infer the internal structure of an object, it now appeared clearly before his eyes. Such an ability was the dream of any mechanic and belonged in the realm of genius.

However, Lv3 was not the end of the Comprehensive Network’s proficiency system. For general skills, Lv4 was the realm of perfection. This level exceeded the original theoretical limits, and to cross the bottleneck, he needed not only massive proficiency but also a corresponding knowledge fragment.

Lin Bo had a copy of "The Mechanic's Secret," which met the requirements for upgrading the technique. He could consume the knowledge fragment early to break the bottleneck before accumulating the necessary proficiency. Successfully comprehending the fragment would permanently increase his base proficiency gain, significantly accelerating future upgrades. However, each attempt to comprehend "The Mechanic's Secret" cost 1,000 Disaster Coins, and if he failed, he would have to pay again.

Lin Bo checked his account balance and admitted he was a bit short on cash.

His other Lv2 skill, Pharmacist’s Tongue-Taste Identification, was also nearing an upgrade. Seeing that he wouldn't finish it tonight, Lin Bo decided to work overtime, intending to use Friday morning to identify more herbs. He had already tasted most of the non-toxic herbs sent by [Starry Eyes]. To increase proficiency further, he would need to consider other materials, such as minerals, biological tissues, or liquids. Once the raw herbs were exhausted, he would have to try processing medicinal ingredients.

Although Lin Bo understood that all matter possessed medicinal properties, he refused to put certain peculiar materials into his mouth. He could accept things like bezoars, but substances like "Night-Shining Sand" (bat guano), fermented bile, or "Human-Middle White" (human urine sediment) were pushing his physiological limits. He felt that rather than resorting to such primitive, archaic medicines, it would be better to try synthetic compounds—embracing technology was never a bad thing. He wouldn't even need to purchase them from other players; the various mushrooms grown from primary bacterial cultures could synthesize complex and diverse biomass, which would be sufficient to become his main source of medicinal ingredients in the future.

After finishing the last portion of medicine sent by the shrine maiden, he was 1.2 proficiency points away from an upgrade. It was near noon. Lin Bo scanned the room, finding no herbs left to taste; the coffee, bread, salted fish, and canned beans in the kitchen had all been identified. Of course, if he were desperate, he could clip his fingernails and chew on them—that counted as a medicinal ingredient, too.

The mage decided not to be that childish; chewing on fingernails was too juvenile.

He stepped out of the lighthouse, remembering a cluster of asters in the corner of the yard. He had intended to pluck the petals to taste their medicinal properties, but the heavy rains of the past few days had already beaten them into the mud. The stems were bare.

As he stood in the lighthouse courtyard, a voice called out from over the low, half-meter-high wall: "Watcher!"

Lin Bo looked toward the source and saw Grandma Veli.

"Good afternoon, Watcher." The elderly woman shoved a wicker basket into the young man's hands. Inside were several washed white-shelled eggs, still warm, a large bunch of leeks, a few fist-sized onions, several plump turnips, half a basket of tender peas, and a large tin container of white sugar.

"There's no need for this..."

"You must take it." Grandma Veli didn't offer excuses or reasons; she simply spoke with a stern, firm tone. Only after the Watcher slung the basket over his arm did she break into a smile, nod, say a few words of kindness, and turn to leave.

Back in the kitchen, Lin Bo made a rare, proper meal: scrambled eggs with leeks, stewed onions and turnips, boiled peas, and a cup of sweetened coffee for dessert.

Sitting alone at the dining table with steaming dishes, he chewed the vegetables slowly, almost out of habit, identifying their medicinal properties.

【Skill check successful... Final calculation: Pharmacist’s Tongue-Taste Identification proficiency +1.4】
【Upgrade requirements met.】

"Upgrade." Lin Bo set down his knife and fork.