Chapter 980: Chapter 980

New skill advancement also benefited from the plethora of information about archery techniques the two had collected. This was the function of their dominion. Without it, advancing their skills would not have been easy for them.

Concentration Meditation: Improves focus, enhances vision, and reduces external distractions. It effectively increases the probability of detecting enemy patterns and greatly enhances the chance of finding their weaknesses. (Tier 31)

Rapid Shooting: Increases the shooting speed of bows and arrows, includes a multiple Scatter Shot effect. Scatter Shot reduces accuracy, range, and arrow attack power, allowing for a maximum of five arrows shot simultaneously. (Tier 31)

In the description of Concentration Meditation, there is no mention of any very strong abilities, but these are all basic abilities for an Archer, and the overall effect is definitely not as simple as it seems on the surface. As for the Rapid Shooting skill, besides significantly increasing shooting speed, Du You viewed the remaining Scatter Shot effect as rather redundant.

The five-arrow simultaneous shot seems powerful, but in reality, it is less effective than using a regular skill for area attacks.

The improvement in this area seemed somewhat wasteful of the enhancement effect, but there was no helping it. Skills are such that once they are upgraded, there is no going back unless one learns a new skill.

Among the advanced skills of the two sisters, now only one locking skill remained at the maximum level without advancing; the other skills had already advanced. As for her own advanced skills, none were maxed out and could still be further advanced.

This foundational improvement, all in all, had significantly increased her own strength.

Even her basic skills had changed; somehow, her basic swordsmanship had advanced another tier, now at Tier 9, even though she had not actively worked on improving it. This occurred as her experience and innate attributes grew, aspects over which Du You had no control.

With the use of the Dark Flame Arrow Array, her fundamental archery skills finally advanced a tier, reaching Tier 10, which was the maximum level. However, for Du You, this max level was not of great help to her.

As for studying the advanced archery skill just for Dark Flame Arrow Array, Du You did not have that much time to spare.

"Okay, now that the skills that needed enhancement have been enhanced, it’s time to start the next plan. But before that, we need to prepare more, as the place we’re heading to is quite dangerous. I plan to increase our levels to 36. If that proves insufficient by then, we’ll continue to advance," Du You announced.

The two sisters had no objections, as their skills had almost all advanced to the point where further progression depended on luck; there was no need to suppress their own levels anymore, so everyone agreed.

Now, increasing levels to boost strengths assured their safety. Moreover, hunting tier-four creatures to earn Crystal Coins wouldn’t be too impacted; at worst, they would earn slightly less per creature, they just had to kill more.

Just when Du You was about to act, her eyes suddenly widened in shock: "What’s happening, why is this so expensive!"

"What’s wrong?" Lin Yucha and Lin Yushi asked, somewhat perplexed. Check latest chapters at 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝~𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖~𝕟𝕖𝕥

Without hiding anything, Du You explained, "Leveling up from 33 to 34 should have cost 27 Crystal Coins, 9 times 3. I had it topped off, and usually, just one Crystal Coin would do. But look at this prompt, it needs ten thousand!"

Although she mentioned the sister’s experience, who were at a nine-star rating just like her, they too needed to pay ten thousand yellow Crystal Coins to upgrade—a cost that Du You had not anticipated.

The sisters were equally surprised, never expecting this kind of change. Could it be that tier four was different from the previous tiers?

"We still have quite a few Crystal Coins; why don’t we experiment a bit. We’ll have to upgrade sooner or later anyway; it’s good to know more now." This field knowledge wasn’t something anyone had informed them about before, nor had they noticed it themselves.

After some thought, Du You decided to spend fifty thousand Crystal Coins on leveling up, not just for herself but also for the two sisters and Unicorn Bubble. However, after the upgrade, Du You noticed the leveling system had reset.

It seemed that the previous ten thousand Crystal Coins was just to break through that bottleneck. "From early tier four to mid-tier four, there are bottlenecks that need breaking, and the same probably holds from mid-tier to late-tier and then to complete-tier, at 36 and 39 tiers--there could be another payment needed, and that would be quite expensive," she reasoned.

Following that, without any more bottlenecks and high costs, Du You directly elevated all three of their levels to 36. Indeed, attempting further advancement indicated that costs increased significantly again.

To reach tier 37, the cost turned out to be twenty thousand yellow Crystal Coins; otherwise, this bottleneck wouldn’t allow passage.

"I guess I understand why many people stay at a certain level in tier four for a long time without advancing. It seems it’s not just to suppress the level—the cost in Crystal Coins is also a serious issue."

After tier four, with these bottlenecks demanding high fees for breakthroughs, most people found it increasingly difficult to earn Crystal Coins as their levels rose, making it impossible for them to advance.

As Du You enhanced her skills, she became completely speechless. "So the real big expense is here; skill costs are always incomparable to merely leveling up." Du You said with a wry smile.

It turned out that advancing her skills from tier 33 to 34 also encountered a bottleneck which required payment. But unlike leveling up, the costs for different skills varied. Her skills were all at a ten-star level, and thus none of the costs were below ten thousand yellow Crystal Coins, the most expensive being her Destruction Flames, which, likely due to the strength of the skill, needed thirty thousand yellow Crystal Coins to advance.

In pain, Du You advanced her skills, after which leveling resumed normally. Yet, once these skills reached tier 36 and she tried to advance them further, the price indeed doubled from previous bottlenecks.

Leveling was one thing; Du You had two professions to upgrade, costing just twenty thousand Crystal Coins. But skills were a different matter, the more advanced skills, the greater the upgrading cost—seemingly a bottomless pit.

In terms of the overall number of skills, she didn’t have many, but the cost of successfully advanced skills was probably higher than most people’s. These expenses were all in exclusive Crystal Coins; traded yellow Crystal Coins couldn’t be used.

Now Du You realized that advancing as a Professional truly involved one threshold after another, each quite staggering. She had thought herself quite wealthy before, but now she saw how far she still had to go.