“73 Source Crystals, 232 points…”

In the inn at Black Robe Town, Ash opened Aurora’s Sorcerer Handbook to tally up his inventory. Source Crystals were accumulated through daily sign-ins, while points were earned by channeling spirits into the game.

It’s worth mentioning that after his Rainbow virtual wings were more than halfway formed, a three-winged spirit could only be exchanged for 12 points, a two-winged for 5 points, and a one-winged for 2 points-Ash was baffled. A three-winged spirit was worth only 12 points, equivalent to 2 Source Crystals, not even enough for a single card draw.

However, Ash understood that the handbook dynamically reduced his earning efficiency. Initially, when he was still a novice, a one-winged spirit could be exchanged for 10 points. With Ash’s current prowess, acquiring hundreds of one-winged spirits would be a breeze. If the handbook didn’t adjust the exchange rates, Ash would have overwhelmed its in-game purchase system long ago.

In theory, he should have been able to save more points, especially since the Distant Sky Domain, despite its higher combat intensity, offered greater rewards, yielding two or three three-winged spirits almost every night.

More importantly, the sword Princess no longer needed spirits to supplement her household expenses.

In fact, ever since the Witch joined the team, the sword Princess only picked the higher-priced spirits to sell. After Vesser joined, she didn’t even take the valuable spirits, only those she could use herself. This was not just because she no longer needed money in reality, but also because she had to consider others’ perceptions.

To put it simply, when they were still in the tug-of-war phase, the sword Princess wanted more care and resource allocation to feel secure, subtly probing, “Do you like me?” But now that they occasionally found opportunities for secret office romances, the sword Princess naturally wanted to distance herself from Ash, signaling to everyone, “I don’t actually like him.”

Besides, mixing emotions with interests always felt a bit off.

It’s not that the sword Princess believed emotions had to be pure and untainted, but accepting a few spirits from him felt like being kept, which seemed too cheap-she felt shortchanged!

Now that she’s a sanctuary sorcerer, a few spirits can’t satisfy her appetite!

So, it’s better not to take them, so she can argue with Ash more confidently in the future!

However, after some discussion, everyone realized that selling spirits through the sword Princess was still the most fair and efficient method. The Witch didn’t need money, and Ash and Vesser were in places where trading wasn’t very developed. Only the sword Princess had access to a highly developed spirit trading platform, where she could sell to the school or auction them on the platform. A rare three-winged spirit, if put through a few days of auction, could often sell for thousands of gold coins.

Ash didn’t say he was giving them to the sword Princess, but rather, “You’re in charge of managing the team’s assets. When we find a way to trade in the Virtual Realm, we’ll come to you for money.” Reluctantly, the sword Princess took on this role, and every night before exiting the Virtual Realm, she would find time to report to him, “The team has saved this much money, invested in these stable funds, and I invested our shares in some high-risk financial products.”

So, even though the sword Princess no longer needed spirits for subsidies, most spirits were still handed over to her to plan for the future household finances.

However, after participating in the Specter’s Inheritance, their efficiency in acquiring spirits plummeted. The Inheritance rarely rewarded spirits, but when it did, they were usually Soul Spirits that were immediately useful, so there was no question of selling them.

Ash himself had a small stockpile of spirits, mostly those he could use to some extent. These backup spirits weren’t fully sustained, receiving just one gold coin every three days to keep them going.

He had considered converting these spirits into points through the Aurora’s Sorcerer Handbook, but in recent days, all his surplus spirits were sold off in Black Robe Town.

It wasn’t just him; Igor, Harvey, Chikara, and Gwen-all the sorcerers sold whatever spirits they could.

The reason was simple: to stockpile gold coins.

Back when they were rampaging through the wasteland, they had financial support from the Mercury Trojan Horse, allowing them to treat money like dirt, feeding their spirits six meals of it a day if they wished. But now, having severed ties with the Mercury Trojan Horse and not having joined a new cult, they had to fend for themselves.

Although they had previously raided several warehouses of the Four Pillars Cult, their Spatial Cards had limited storage capacity and had to accommodate other survival supplies, so they managed to take away just over ten thousand gold coins in total.

A three-wing spirit consumes 3 gold coins daily, totaling 90 a month. With 14 three-wing spirits in the group, the monthly cost is 1,260 gold coins. Not counting daily living expenses, ten thousand gold coins would last only ten months!

These three-wing spirits were distributed as follows: Ash had 4, Igor 2, Harvey 2, and Chikara 6!

Chikara, after all, was a seasoned Sanctuary sorcerer for nearly ten years, so having such a foundation was quite normal. However, the fact that a slave’s daily gold consumption exceeded that of his master made Igor want to sell off all of the orc’s three-wing spirits.

Yet Chikara argued confidently that his spirits were top-notch, specializing in fire spells or Spatial abilities. His six three-wing spirits could perform a variety of powerful Miracles, including attack, defense, healing, reconnaissance, and mobility, making them worth keeping.

This reminded Igor of Chikara’s strengths, leading him to order Chikara to create spatial artifacts.

Party A, Igor, requested three spatial rings with a capacity of 10 cubic meters each. Party B, Chikara, stated that the workload was too great; even working nonstop for a month, he could only produce one ring with a 5-cubic-meter capacity. Party A expressed great understanding of Party B’s difficulties and generously extended the deadline to six months.

After discussion, they decided to sell off excess spirits as quickly as possible to stockpile gold coins, and to reduce the daily ration for the three-wing spirits from 3 coins to 2.

The consequence of underfeeding spirits is similar to humans not having enough to eat-their performance drops by 50%. If left unfed for too long, the spirits wouldn’t die but would gradually consume the sorcerer’s soul, which is why Death Row Inmates in Shattered Lake Prison could still sustain their spirits.

Although they had enough gold coins to last ten months, they still followed Igor’s orders.

Because the War of Faith was far from over.

As the war dragged on, the already fragile economic system of the wasteland would completely collapse. First of all, gold coins are refined from gold mines, which are prime resource points contested by the Qinyi Alliance and the Four Pillars Cult. When the fighting starts, the efficiency of gold mine production will naturally be affected.

More importantly, the Four Pillars Cult and the Qinyi Alliance are also tightening the circulation of gold coins!

Earlier, we discussed the difference between feeding spirits adequately and inadequately, but there’s another scenario-what if you overfeed the spirits?

Take the three wings spirit, for instance. If you feed it 6 gold coins a day, its performance can be enhanced to 120%!

In normal times, sorcerers wouldn’t double their spending for a mere 20% boost, but during wartime, when you could be wiped out by an AOE attack at any moment, who would skimp on expenses?

With gold coin production rates decreasing and consumption rates increasing, coupled with major powers actively hoarding strategic resources, it’s foreseeable that the market’s gold coin circulation will sharply decline in the near future, possibly extending into the post-war period. Saving money now is preparation for the future.

Of course, Ash and his companions have another option: robbery.

With four Sanctuaries, one two-wings, and a Raven, they constitute a top-tier criminal gang anywhere. But they’ve already antagonized the Four Pillars Cult, and if they were to target the Qinyi Alliance, they’d have no place to hide in all of Senlo; they could venture into the Four Pillars Cult’s territory to raid logistics units, but the Mercury Trojan Horse is waiting for them.

Let’s not forget that the Mercury Trojan Horse can now dominate a legendary sorcerer. If she seizes the opportunity, they could face total annihilation.

For safety’s sake, they have to endure some hardship.

Although Ash can’t afford the 648 points “Box of Source Crystals,” he can’t bring himself to close the game. Instead, he opens the “Operator Search” interface.

A screen of dim gray, filled with despairing souls, appears before him!

“‘Wandering Soul Theft’ Event Search”

“Limited Items ‘Soul Theft Handbook,’ ‘Wandering Spirit Ring,’ ‘Annihilation Eye’ probability ↑↑”

“Limited Outfits ‘Killing Demon Soul: Observer,’ ‘Secret Hunter: Observer,’ ‘Bloodstained Bridal: Observer’ probability ↑↑”

“Ends on September 3rd at 00:00”

Yes, a new event search!

But the system didn’t notify him, not a single hint. Ash only discovered this search yesterday; otherwise, he would have found a way to scrape together money for in-game purchases!

Ash suspected it might be related to the Specter’s Inheritance, but he couldn’t verify it.

Now is the final chance for the search. Logically, Ash should hurry to spend money on in-game purchases, but he’s hesitating.

Firstly, the only in-game purchase option left that can trigger the first-time double reward is the 648 points “Box of Source Crystals.” Ash wanted to save points to buy this, but he’s far from having enough, leaving him with the option to buy the 198 points “Bag of Source Crystals” at full price, which he’s reluctant to do.

Secondly, this event search hasn’t increased the operator acquisition probability!

If there were new operators, Ash wouldn’t hesitate to spend every penny!

Even if there were outfits like “Bridal: Sword Princess,” Ash wouldn’t be stingy with his savings.

But without new operators, and the outfits being exclusively for his own Observer-who wants to draw their own outfits?

The only valuable items are the three limited artifacts, and it’s the first time Ash has seen a search event focused on artifacts.

But is it really worth spending all his savings on a few artifacts?

After much contemplation, Ash washed his hands and decided to use 72 Source Crystals for 24 searches.

Yes, he plans to use up his Source Crystals and stop there, without making additional in-game purchases. If he doesn’t get anything, so be it. The limited artifacts have no intelligence available, and they don’t hold much appeal for him.

If he spends money and ends up with all Observer outfits, he’s afraid he’ll need to seek psychological counseling from Igor.

First came 18 white lights polluting the pool, all energy potions, experience potions, and career potions, which he’ll refine later.

Then, 4 purple lights, consisting of 2 bottles of “lightless sanctuary potion,” 1 bottle of “Pure Luminescence Elixir,” and a new artifact “soul sigil.”

Finally, 2 golden lights!

“Killing Demon Soul: Observer!”

“Soul Theft Handbook!”

He actually drew the limited items!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay