Chapter 009: The Choice

In her previous life, she had heard other official players say that starter villages typically only offered three days of free lodging.

Given how sparsely populated this village was, it made sense. The wooden hut she stayed in would’ve been empty anyway, so letting her use it was probably a roundabout way of “sending her off” with a bit of compensation.

“Adventurer, the Divine Fall Continent is very dangerous. Before heading to Qinglan Town, I hope you can gain at least some ability to protect yourself.”

[Ding! Main Quest 2 Activated:]
Before departing for Qinglan Town, please learn one martial skill or spell.
Quest Reward: 100 Copper Coins, one Low-Grade Resurrection Talisman
Quest Failure Penalty: None

[Ding! Main Quest 2 Completed.
Reward: 100 Copper Coins, one Low-Grade Resurrection Talisman—automatically deposited into your system account.]

Yun Xi thought deeply—so the official players’ main quests adapted to their actual circumstances.

A low-grade resurrection talisman…

After leaving the chief’s cabin and returning to her own, Yun Xi took the talisman from her pocket.

The Low-Grade Resurrection Talisman could only be used by characters below Level 10 and could be used only once in a lifetime. Its side effects were similar to a Resurrection Godstone—it revived the user but slightly reduced their mental stats.

This was one of the greatest benefits for official players. Many who blindly entered the new world had no idea when they might trigger a death condition—this talisman offered them a second chance at life.

But not every official player got one; it could only be earned through the proper main quest.

In her case, the condition to earn it was to learn at least one martial skill or spell within a month—i.e., before heading to Qinglan Town.

If she had chosen to stay, she would probably still have to meet the same condition. However, for players from Blue Star, the first beta test lasted only ten days, so their learning time was limited to that window.

As for refugee players, unless they shed their refugee status and gained formal citizenship within ten days, they didn’t even get the chance to receive quests.

Yun Xi already had a Resurrection Godstone, so chances were she wouldn’t need this talisman. But before she hit Level 10, it was undoubtedly a good safety net.

She searched the 0.29% of inherited knowledge she had received. Among the information related to talisman masters, there was no record of how to draw a resurrection talisman.

Although this was labeled as “low-grade,” it was clearly far beyond what a beginner could create.

Her thoughts shifted back to her current objective: studying spells.

In her previous life, she hadn’t had many opportunities to learn spells. Aside from five taught by her spellcaster mentor, she had acquired two more through a lucky encounter quest.

That totaled three low-grade spells, two intermediate ones, and two high-grade ones.

As a wild (self-taught) spellcaster who refused to work for large factions, learning seven spells was already quite an achievement.

Currently at Level 0, Yun Xi could only learn low-grade spells. Of the ones she had learned in her past life, the only low-grade ones were: Beginner Waterball, Beginner Water Arrow, and Beginner Water Spray.

• Water Arrow: As the name suggests, it launches a high-speed water projectile to deal magic damage.
• Water Spray: Aesthetic-only spell; it couldn’t attack and was mostly for water creation or visual effects.

Water Arrow had some use; Water Spray, she had no intention of relearning.

With her past experience and familiarity with the Waterball learning process, she quickly mastered Water Arrow again with ease.

She then flipped through her inherited crystal again to prioritize which spells she wanted to learn next.

Her picks were:

• Offensive: Beginner Fireball
• Defensive: Beginner Light Shield, Beginner Counterattack
• Healing: Beginner Healing
• Support: Beginner Appraisal, Beginner Immobilize, Beginner Purification, Beginner Wish

In total, Yun Xi chose eight low-grade spells to pursue.

She already had Waterball and Water Arrow for offense, and added Fireball due to its high effectiveness against spectral creatures.

Light Shield and Counterattack were her best finds for defense.

• Light Shield created a persistent protective aura. As long as it wasn’t worn down, she could ignore most attacks.
• Counterattack reflected damage—a potentially game-changing ability in fights with phantoms and monsters.

Healing spoke for itself.

Among the support spells:

• Appraisal was crucial for survival in the wild—it could identify everything below a certain level, including disguised monsters.
• Immobilize helped control enemies.
• Purification removed corruption from spiritual herbs or artifacts found in the wild.
• Wish was a legendary spell—no way Yun Xi would skip it.

Among these eight, Fireball was the most common. But Blue Star players had no right to learn it.

Just like Appraisal, Healing, and Purification, Fireball was a spell native to Divine Fall Continent—and not passed on to outsiders.

Why? Because spirit fire was a rare resource that dealt massive damage to monsters.

The village bonfires, for instance, were only effective at repelling phantoms because they were lit with spirit fire.

As for Light Shield, Immobilize, and Counterattack… Yun Xi had never heard of any spellcaster using these in her past life. Most likely, they were ancient spells whose inheritance had long been lost.

All eight of these were legacies Yun Xi had never been able to even dream of before. But now, thanks to her inheritance crystal, they were hers for the taking.

However, unlike relearning Waterball or Water Arrow, picking up these new spells wasn’t going to be easy.

Thankfully, her mental stat was 29—if it had been the default 9, she would’ve taken an entire month just to learn Waterball, as she had in her previous life.

In the nine remaining days of the beta test, Yun Xi didn’t have overly high expectations—just learning two new spells would be enough; three would be excellent.

Her top priorities were Light Shield and Fireball, with Appraisal coming next.

With her plans set, Yun Xi began formally learning Light Shield.

She stared at the spell inscription lines in the crystal and started slowly tracing them with spirit energy.

…

The learning process was just as tedious as she remembered. When Yun Xi opened her eyes again, it was already noon.

She had spent the entire morning and hadn’t even mastered one-fiftieth of the Light Shield spell.

Compared to Waterball, Light Shield’s pattern was more complex and far harder to memorize.

Channeling it with spirit energy was at least ten times more difficult.

Yun Xi frowned. At this pace, she wouldn’t be able to master Light Shield in the remaining nine days.

And if she had to travel to Qinglan Town next month without Light Shield… things would be a lot more dangerous.