Picking Up Attributes From Today-Novel2

Chapter 23: A Long History, Ranked Ninth In The Continent

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Was Meng Lei rich?

No, not really!

As of now, his total assets came up to only 2,306 gold coins, as well as the 5,000 gold coins per year scholarship grant that hadn’t entered his pocket yet!

Although this bit of assets naturally couldn’t compare to the nobility and the filthy rich merchants, it was still far better than the commoner class that struggled to feed themselves.

This wasn’t the point, however!

The point was that money came to him fairly easily because he could pick it up at any time, anywhere!

Meng Lei had been picking up dropped items the whole time ever since he had arrived in the capital city. Gold coins, stats light balls, spells... In fact, he had even picked up... A grand total of three battle skills!

Additionally, the more crowded a place was, the more dropped items there would be!

As the capital of Fire Dragon Kingdom, what the capital city lacked the least was people, especially when the term was beginning for each of the major academies during this recent period. As such, a large number of people had entered the capital city!

With people around, things would naturally drop!

Naturally, this went to Meng Lei’s benefit!

And wasn’t that so? Because it hadn’t even been a day since he had arrived in the capital city, yet his pockets were already overflowing from the number of items he had picked up, and all of his various stats had undergone a tremendous change!

Host: Meng Lei

Race: Human

Wealth: 2,306 gold coins

Physical Body Constitution: Third-Grade Warrior (502/1,000)

Spirit: Second-Grade Magician (213/500)

Magic Power: First-Grade Magician (199/200) action

Others: Some increase

The number of gold coins he possessed had doubled and a little more!

His body was comparable to a Third-Grade Warrior’s!

His spiritual power had entered the ranks of a Second-Grade Magician’s!

His magic power lacked only 1 point to become comparable to a Second-Grade Magician’s!

There were even quite a few more spells in his repertoire now, too!

As for battle skills... He had picked up three of them for some reason!

Tsk, tsk, the capital city certainly lives up to its name as the place where billionaires and experts congregate. It hasn’t even been a day, and I’ve already picked up this much. Can you imagine how it’ll be like in the future?

The capital city... I’ve certainly made the right choice in coming here!

Meng Lei was very satisfied with his rewards today, and he believed that there would only be more and more rewards in the future!

Therefore, could he use some of his gold coins to help two of his companions out financially, so that they could attend school here?

Meng Lei secretly mused over this. As long as Joseph and Andrew were a little more diligent and became Trainee Warriors within the first year, they would become able to easily earn money at that point.

After that, they would be able to support themselves and successfully finish their studies. By the time they successfully graduated, no matter how poorly they did, they would also have become Fourth-Grade Warriors.

How could the riches that Fourth-Grade Warriors could create possibly be just 200 gold coins? There was no need to worry that they couldn’t pay him back!

In other words, as long as I loan out 200 gold coins, I can change two of my companions’ lives. That’s a pretty good deal!

However, when they heard Meng Lei’s thoughts, a huge jolt went through Hudders, Jonah, Joseph, and Andrew. All of them thought that they had misheard!

“Meng Lei, you’re not joking with us, are you?”

Hudders looked closely at Meng Lei and said, “I know that you have a scholarship grant of 5,000 gold coins per year, but magic cultivation has much higher expenses than Warriors’. The 5,000 gold coins grant may not even be enough for you to buy magic potions and magic materials!”

“Captain Hudders, you don’t need to say any more. I know what I’m doing!”

Meng Lei waved and looked at Joseph and Andrew. He said, “I’m also very poor, so I can only help you out financially for a year. You’ll have to depend on yourselves after the first year!

“If the two of you can become Trainee Warriors within a year, everything is still open for discussion!”

“Big Brother Meng Lei...”

Terribly touched, Joseph and Andrew burst into loud sobs. They couldn’t take the roller-coaster of events anymore!

“What are you crying for? Keep Meng Lei’s words in mind well. After you enter the academy, cultivate properly and strive to become Trainee Warriors within a year...”

...

With Meng Lei’s help, Joseph and Andrew successfully enrolled in warrior academies.

Although it was just an ordinary mid-range warrior academy, it was still enough to make Joseph and Andrew beyond touched. They promised right there and then that they would study properly from now on, and repay Meng Lei properly in the future!

During the next two days, the group of five had fun in the capital city and went sight-seeing. At the same time that Meng Lei picked up a large number of dropped items, he was also bedazzled by the capital city’s prosperity and extravagance!

He had initially thought that this world was very behind times and primitive because technology hadn’t developed here, but he was wrong!

Dragon God Empire’s civilization had tens of thousands of years of history. Although the main trend was the passing down of one’s personal battle strength, as well as the development and innovation of Battle Aura and magic, as an endless amount of time passed, a lot of derivatives had also developed.

Out of which, the most common was... Magic devices!

Poor commoners at the bottommost tier of social hierarchy naturally wouldn’t be able to come into contact with magic devices. However, these products of magic civilization had reached deeply into many upper society families. For example:

Storage magic devices such as spatial rings, spatial bangles, spatial belts, and so on!

Offensive magic devices such as magic cannons, magic guns, magic puppets, and so on!

Lifestyle magic devices such as magic lamps, magic carriages, magic carpets, and so on!

There was a dazzling array of products!

An endless number of products!

This was totally different from the style of civilization on Earth. While being a huge eye-opener for Meng Lei, it also provided him with a clearer understanding of this world at the same time.

But of course, what he felt the deepest was still a saying from his past life. “Meat and wine go to waste in the portals of the rich, while the frozen bones of the dead lie out on the road!”

This world had extremely serious social stratifications. The small group of people standing at the top of society hoarded an overwhelming majority of society’s resources and reveled in indulgence while enjoying life without restraint!

Conversely, more than 90% of the poor masses could only struggle at the bottom tiers of society, suffering to the fullest extent the upper class’ exploitation and oppression, dragging out their sad existences, and drifting about homeless and miserable.

After he got an understanding of all of these, Meng Lei, however, didn’t develop the great ambition of destroying the ruling class and liberating the toiling masses. The only thing that came to his mind was to continue to cowardly mature so that he could escape the exploited tier of people in the end and live on in a better and more enjoyable manner!

Of course, should he really become so strong as to possess the power to overthrow this world in the future, Meng Lei didn’t mind changing the world and cleansing the times, and return a beautiful world to Heaven’s Vault Continent!

...

Two days of free time passed in the blink of an eye. The term finally began at Fire Dragon Magic Academy. Meng Lei bade farewell to Hudders and the others and arrived at the Fire Dragon Magic Academy.

As the best magic academy in Fire Dragon Kingdom, Fire Dragon Magic Academy had a founding history of over 20,000 years. While it was already impossible to determine when exactly the school was founded, there were files that explicitly recorded that the earliest classes had been held 20,000 years ago!

In the 20,000 years that came after, Fire Dragon Magic Academy had received tremendous support from Fire Dragon Kingdom and Dragon God Empire. It had developed rapidly and become one of Heaven’s Vault Continent’s oldest magic academies.

Over the course of these long 20,000 years, Fire Dragon Magic Academy had produced innumerable Master Magicians and expert magic craftsmen, and also groomed a large number of Saint Domain experts, royalty, and nobility.

Out of which, there were 37 Fire Dragon Kingdom kings and 1,169 Saint Domain experts!

Fire Dragon Magic Academy ranked third among more than 20 magic academies in Dragon God Empire and ranked ninth among more than 100 magic academies in Heaven’s Vault Continent.

Yet it was exactly such a magic academy with a long history that, as of now, Year 44,781 of the Heaven’s Vault calendar, had only... 600 existing students!

With a total of six levels, there are less than 100 people in each level!

In other words, those that could enroll in Fire Dragon Magic Academy... Each and every one of them is a genius!