Legendary Traveler: By Earning Progress Points I will Become Supreme!-Chapter 60: Figuring Things Out The Hard Way (3)

Flumes, like summons or attributes, are classified by their Grade but have a secondary means of identification.

For starters, as with what happened when Aoni first upgraded his Flume to the full-star Step, it will glisten as if covered with stars, a testament to its mysterious nature, but beyond that is their color.

For example, for the Young Master’s Emerald Flume, by merely seeing it for only a second, Aoni was able to determine not only its Grade but stage as well, solely based on its physical color, Emerald.

Mind you; he could have very easily simplified it by saying, ’Hey, Green Rock,’ but that wouldn’t necessarily describe its Step, only its Rank.

To understand the color system, one needs only look at the color wheel.

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple are the most known colors flumes can reach, but as explained, that’s merely a generalization because within each "Stage," the steps are based on gems.

(Please take a look at the comments for the Chart; I will be posting it there.)

SO Two-Star goes through Ruby, Rhodolite Garnet, Red spinel, and Blood Garnet, and Three-Star goes through Fire Opal, Citrine, Flame, and Spessartite Garnet. The list goes on and on, but basically, each Step has its own shade of the main color until it finishes the color spectrum and shines at the Full-Star Step.

For Aoni, who had never heard of anyone ever strengthening their Flume, the process of watching it change colors was simply amazing, if not beautiful.

There was plenty of speculation about whether something like this was possible, yet no one has ever been able to find proof, mainly because the primary source of Flume stones is from actual flumes themselves.

The only exception is the mass-produced Single Star ones handed out by the government, which are sourced from hidden Dungeon instances controlled solely by the Monarch.

So while The Government can practically shit out One-Star Flume Stones, anything higher comes from summoning before being sold off to the highest bidder.

In this way, the Wealthy and Powerful families are able to give their children a leg up.

Although all this information was running through Aoni’s mind as he inspected his newly upgraded Flume, that didn’t mean he had forgotten about the Point cost of the upgrade, nor to check on if the Chart had been updated.

’Hey, smart ass! Are you able to playback notifications? I need to know how many points I earned from upgrading my…’ before he could even finish his rude comment, a duplicate notification popped up in front of him.

| 15 pp Earned |

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

"Tsssss…ahhh, not good." Those were the first words not spoken directly to Glacia, which Aoni muttered today, and of course, they were because the Lad understood a key piece of information without even needing to inquire further.

If he had received a whopping 15 points, then his expenditure would have been at least double that. So, after preparing himself, Aoni requested to see the Chart again, and unfortunately, things were as bad as he expected.

| Flume Grade:✬:35 ✫:50 ★:60|

While none of the other lines had been altered, the one pertaining to his Flume’s Grade was, and the numbers it was showing were more than enough to make Aoni double-check that he wasn’t bleeding from his eyes or ears.

Thirty-five points, while expensive, made sense to him because that was the amount it cost to max out his First Star; however, 50, then 60 points, were two numbers the Lad was rueing the appearance of.

’110 points….’ Pulling up his Traveler’s display and seeing that he had 147.8 progress points remaining, Aoni seriously contemplated giving up this venture for now because it would absolutely drain the bulk of the points he had spent the last day grinding.

However, there was an underlying question bouncing around in the Lad’s head, and that was how many bonus points he could get by completing the outer fill and full star steps.

Providing he could quickly supplement the number of points expended, then it would be more manageable, yet that was precisely where his hang-up began. Without having a means of determining what his bonus would be, how could he make an informed decision about whether or not to continue with the upgrades?

’35 points netted me an additional 15 points...where did that number even come from...’ he mused while looking for any semblance of a pattern, and that’s when he noticed a major inconsistency.

’Center fill one star got me 0.5, outer fill was 5, and full star was 10; and if you add that onto the 15 earned from my most recent upgrade, the inconsistency appears. One of these things is not like the other....and it’s the 0.5.’

’Apart from the starting points, it was 10 points for 5 and 20 points for 10, yet this time around, by expending 35 points, I only got 15 in return. It simply doesn’t make sense.’

’Unless...unless the center fills star’s bonus is merely a five-point continuation from the previous stage. If I look at it that way, then the outer fill and full star net me exactly half the cost.’

’Which means I will get 25 and 30 points during the next two upgrades.’ Pinching the brim of his nose, Aoni winced as all this math hurt his head.

’15 for 35, 25 for 50, and 30 for 60, spending 145 to earn back 70; it’s not great, but definitely way more reasonable than simply dumping 145 points and calling it a day. Increase my Flume’s Grade to its Current Limit.’ Giving the command for multiple upgrades, Aoni placed his hand on the artifact and waited for the magic to happen.

| Increasing the Grade of Territory Linked Flume |

| Territory Linked Flume has been increased to ★★ |

| Territories Flume has reached its Current Limit |

| Progress Points have been Deducted |

| 55 pp Earned |

As before, Aoni and Glacia watched with bated breath as the ripple effect spread across his Flume, infusing it with an unknown source believed to be the Lad’s potential points, and as the color of his Flume deepened, a faint sparkle began appearing across every square inch of the mysterious artifact until the process finished leaving a stone object as dark as the color of blood and covered from top to bottom with an effect similar to stars shining in the night sky.