Chapter 11: Enhancing Efficiency

Chapter 11: Improving Efficiency

The next day.

The circus was about to bid farewell to the city where the new fire-breather was born.

Before the caravan set off, Xia Zuo carried his medicine case up to the third carriage.

Originally, he intended to have Audrey keep it, but the first carriage was so full of belongings that there was no room at all.

So, the only option was to place it alongside Vaners' case.

Their cases looked different and wouldn’t get mixed up. Xia Zuo’s was new, while Vaners’ was older, and their locks were not the same.

He handed the keys to Audrey and settled down in the carriage to read the "Fire-Breathing Training Manual."

Having spent the entire previous day practicing fire-breathing with Audrey, Xia Zuo found that although the fire-breathing potion tasted bitter, he could now endure it and had even learned some very simple alchemical techniques.

When holding Audrey’s mixed fire-breathing potion in his mouth, he entered a state where he continuously lost health points at a rate that balanced out with his regeneration.

For Xia Zuo, aside from a numb mouth and thirst, there were no other side effects.

Once he successfully breathed fire, he would gain a substantial amount of experience!

"Completed one fire-breathing training session, lasting two seconds, gaining 0.002 experience points."

By the calculation of 0.001 experience point per second, accumulating a thousand seconds of fire-breathing would award one full experience point.

If he could breathe three-meter-long flames in the future, how much experience would that be?

And then add the rewards from performing fire-breathing for the audience...

Tsk tsk tsk~ Xia Zuo sat on the floor of the carriage, unable to help but laugh.

"Little guy, hey, you’re in a good mood," said his roommate, the strongman Popeye, watching him cheerfully.

The carriage jolted as it started moving, and both of them leaned back slightly, then quickly regained their posture.

"I think I’m quite suited for fire-breathing performances. I can already breathe flames, even if only for a short time," Xia Zuo smiled faintly as he took out a miniature stress ball to exercise his strength.

To gain one point of strength using this small item, he had to complete one million training repetitions to get the next point. The number of required training sessions increased tenfold, and the experience gained from leveling up dropped by fifty percent, totaling only five points.

Joe also took out his stress ball. "Hehe, with the big sister head helping you train fire-breathing, you’ll definitely be as skilled as Vaners."

The two figures, one large and one small, squeezed their stress balls in the carriage, their bodies swaying with the carriage’s jolts.

...

Two months later.

The circus entered the southern part of Rosak Province.

Xia Zuo’s ruined hometown lay a bit further south, near the kingdom’s border.

Since the bandits had spread into this region, the area had been anything but peaceful.

In inns along the way, rumors often circulated about certain villages being completely ransacked and burned to ruins.

The circus stopped in Pyek Fortress, located in southern Rosak Province.

This was the midpoint of their current journey and the turning point.

The big sister head had no intention of heading further south to avoid running into bandits. After performing in this fortress, the circus would head north along another route back to Rosak City.

Unexpectedly, on the very first day of arrival, a great piece of good news completely disrupted their travel plans.

Pyek Fortress was both a city and a military stronghold. Besides ordinary citizens, troops were stationed here.

Bandits were ravaging within the fortress’s protected area; the army was rushing around to rescue and eliminate threats. The soldiers were exhausted and desperately needed some entertainment to boost morale.

The arrival of Audrey’s circus perfectly solved the fortress commander’s urgent problem.

When the big sister head returned from the fortress, she announced the good news with a beaming smile:

The circus had accepted the fortress commander’s invitation and would stay in Pyek for about a month, performing for soldiers resting inside the fortress!

This was a very reliable and lucrative deal! There was absolutely no reason to refuse.

Pyek Fortress was not the commander’s private property; like Rosak City, it was under the Rosak Council’s jurisdiction.

The circus’s performance fees here would be directly funded by the Rosak Council, not out of the commander’s own pocket.

There was absolutely no risk of default.

The big sister head guessed that if the performances lifted the soldiers’ spirits well enough, there might even be additional rewards from the fortress commander.

This guess was well-founded.

The fortress commander not only placed a large military order but also personally did something very popular.

When Audrey returned, she carried a pouch full of coins.

The commander of Pyek Fortress was a merciful, generous leader who cared about the people’s well-being.

He took out a sum of money to sponsor all the circus performances in the Fountain Square, inviting the fortress’s residents to watch for free.

For the next six days, any resident could queue up to attend the circus shows, with guards maintaining order on site.

When Xia Zuo carried the heavy pouch back to his room to count and record the coins...

His hands and heart trembled—not because the money was too much,

but because...

Such a large sum of money brought him absolutely no experience.

Apparently, the ticket revenue counted only when he personally collected money from customers.

The 10 silver coins and hundreds of copper coins the big sister head brought back roughly converted to about 14 experience points.

Xia Zuo didn’t get a single fraction of experience from it. Checking his character profile:

[Level] lv.5

[Experience] 0.9/200

He had just leveled up a few days ago.

To go from level 5 to 6 required 200 experience points, four times the amount needed from level 4 to 5.

A rough estimate suggested it would take performances in five or six places to gain one level, meaning his next upgrade was three months away.

This time, the circus would be stationed inside the fortress for a month, performing successively for civilians and soldiers.

The civilians’ fees were paid by the fortress commander.

The soldiers’ fees were funded by the Rosak Council.

...These two streams of income were delivered so skillfully that Xia Zuo got zero experience.

Without ticket income experience, relying only on reading, doing chores, and training fire-breathing, his experience gain over the coming month would be very slow.

After recording the accounts, Xia Zuo didn’t immediately report to the big sister head but sat at his desk deep in thought, considering whether to take the stage early.

Over the past two months, he had been exploring a fire-breathing method that suited him, aiming for stable and safe leveling.

The system granted experience based on the length of fire-breathing time and the size of the flame.

For flames about two finger-widths long, he gained 0.001 experience point per second.

His current success rate was already 100%, able to hold a full mouthful of fire-breathing potion to sustain flames for about 20 seconds.

For smaller flames half a meter long, he earned 0.002 experience points per second.

The airflow speed was faster, but he could only breathe fire continuously for 5 to 7 seconds at a time. Occasionally he would choke or be interrupted, so his success rate was over 90%.

For medium flames over one meter long, Xia Zuo’s success rate was low, mainly due to insufficient lung capacity, making it difficult to maintain the flame length above one meter. He gained 0.003 experience points per second.

Vaners could sustain a three-meter-long large fireball for nearly ten seconds, relying not only on rigorous lung training and fire-breathing potions but also on breathing techniques.

During fire-breathing lessons, the big sister head revealed all about the breathing techniques without holding back.

At eighteen years old, regardless of gender, adults could accept missions from the Warriors’ Guild and use the points awarded to exchange for breathing technique training courses.

The lowest threshold mission was enlisting in the army.

Most soldiers in Pyek Fortress were there to complete missions.

The vast majority of soldiers, after completing missions, did not use points to exchange for breathing technique training but instead traded them for well-paid assignments or military rank rewards to continue climbing the ranks.

Only a few chose to invest points in the highly unstable breathing techniques.

When practicing breathing techniques for the first time, practitioners could take auxiliary potions, which carried a very small chance of permanently enhancing one part of their body at random, at the cost of irreversible, non-malignant mutations in another part.

This process was called potential development or potential excavation.

Regardless of whether random strengthening or mutations were triggered, all practitioners’ physical fitness received an all-around improvement.

Those who triggered random enhancement could smoothly use their strengthened body parts whenever operating the breathing technique—the faster the practice, the more pronounced the effect.

Snake Charmer Snake sacrificed lighter skin tone to gain a special vocal apparatus, enabling communication with snakes.

The clown siblings sacrificed emotional overexcitement to gain excellent body balance.

Strongman Popeye exchanged less sharp wits for greater muscle strength.

Audrey was lucky to gain exceptional eyesight, at the cost of changing from a slender figure to a fuller body shape.

In a way, as long as she liked her current figure, it wasn’t truly a sacrifice.

Vaners originally could not become a fire-breather.

When developing his potential through breathing techniques, he sacrificed much of his facial expression ability to gain lung control.

Only then could he exhale all stored air and follow the path of a fire-breather.

The bald head and lack of beard were just aftereffects of a training accident.

The pros and cons of breathing techniques did not end there.

The first time using breathing techniques to excavate potential caused permanent bodily damage, leaving dark injuries difficult to heal.

Using breathing techniques to activate enhanced abilities did not cause further mutations at the mutated sites but worsened internal dark injuries, affecting the user’s lifespan.

Hence, the existence of body repair potions.

Each bottle sold for 200 copper coins, with effects lasting 30 days. They not only repaired internal injuries but also reduced the lifespan reduction caused by breathing technique usage.

The price was affordable, and the duration was long.

This potion was developed by the Warriors’ Guild as a welfare product for breathing technique practitioners.

For Xia Zuo, just fifteen years old, breathing techniques were something for adults at eighteen—he still had three years before he could practice.

At present, there was only one way to quickly improve experience gain efficiency!

To bypass the long lung capacity training process and directly sustain a stable one-meter-long flame, he had to start with the fire-breathing potion.

Like Vaners, he could add a red potion that enhanced the flame’s intensity.

While reading the "Fire-Breathing Training Manual," Xia Zuo found the description of this potion.

“Blazing Flame Solvent: can increase flame power. When mixed with fire-breathing potion, each drop increases flame power by 20%, and toxicity by 20%.”

Xia Zuo did a quick calculation.

He currently used Audrey’s weak mixed fire-breathing potion—a blend of fireproof oil and weak fire-breathing potion—which, when held in the mouth for three seconds, formed a protective fireproof layer, safeguarding the oral cavity.

When maintaining the potion in his mouth, he lost 3 health points per hour but could stably breathe flames.

During training, fire-breathing alternated with resting, so the actual health loss rate was about 1 point per hour.

During performances, he took the potion fewer times and held it for less than ten seconds before spitting it out, with an actual health loss rate of about 0.5 points per hour.

To achieve a flame length of 0.5 meters, five drops of blazing flame solvent were needed, doubling the flame’s power and doubling health loss accordingly.

Thus, during performances, the health loss rate would be 1 point per hour.

[Health] 20/20 (Healthy)

The character profile showed only health points, with no visible regeneration rate.

Xia Zuo estimated that when well-fed, his regeneration was about 0.8 points per hour, and during deep sleep, the rate would double.

His current vigor was 4 points.

He mentally asked the system how regeneration speed was calculated but received only silence.

However, this did not stump him.

By simply combining his 4 points of vigor with a regeneration rate of 0.8 points per hour, he reached an approximate conclusion:

Adding 1 point of vigor could increase regeneration by about 0.18 points per hour, reaching 0.98 points per hour.

To balance the health loss from holding the fire-breathing potion, he needed at least 1 additional point of vigor.

Xia Zuo recalculated to confirm there was no error.

He focused on the plus sign next to the vigor attribute and mentally clicked it.

[Vigor] 4+1 → 5 points.

[Health] 22/20+2 → 22.

(End of chapter)