A few days later, Mira just finished reading and memorizing the contents of the books. The books that she bought weren’t very detailed and did not explain where she can find the various herbs, metals, and treasures. They only showed a picture and a brief explanation, but even the explanation was minimal.

Mira felt like she’d been scammed because she just paid 4,000 Contribution Points for books that have no use other than identification purposes.

However, she didn’t think too much about it because these books are more important to her than a few easy missions she can complete in a couple of days. These books, although basically useless, will be the very reason she can find the necessary resources to break through.

Now that she’s finished going through these books, it was time to check her Storage Space and Infinity Garden to see how many items she has in her possession from the Core Formation Recipe.

First, she checked the list of items one more time so she knows what to look out for.

Mira’s XXXX Core Formation Recipe

.

.

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Orb of Limitless Death and Infinite Life

Immemorial Dao Comprehension Ice

1 Liter Frost-Fire Phoenix Blood

1 Liter Golden Empyrean Winged Wolf blood

Dao Comprehension Stone

1 Samsara Dogwood Tree

1 World Tree Seed

Chaotic Silk

A jar of liquid metal

Blood Essence of a Legendary Ice Beast

Ice Elemental Essence

Fire Elemental Essence

1 Mid-Grade Spirit Stone Mine Source

Cubic Meter of Abyssal Sea Metal

A pond of Yin Qi Water

1 ton of Heavy Qi Water

10 tons of blood (any kind)

1 Liter of Venom from a Peak-Rank 6 Black Death Cobra

1 ton of magma

10 Kilograms of Black Gold

Peak-Earth Grade Qi Gathering Array

1,000 year-old 7-Colored Lotus

1,000 year-old Soul Cleansing Flower

1,000 year-old Heavenly Yin Flower

1,000 year-old Dragon Ginseng

Core of any dual Fire and Ice Peak-Rank 6 beast

Beast Core of any ice-type Low-Rank 7 Beast

Beast Core of any fire-type Peak-Rank 6 Beast

Beast Core of any earth-type Peak-Rank 6 Beast

Beast Core of any wind-type Peak-Rank 6 Beast

Beast Core of any lightning-type Peak-Rank 6 Beast

Beast Core of any dark-type Peak-Rank 6 Beast

Looking at this list of resources, it’s no wonder Mira didn’t know many of them. Other than a few of them, the rest are either so rare that they are nearly impossible to find or they are herbs, trees, or plants that aren’t even in any of the books she bought.

Now, it’s time to tally up the items currently in her possession and the ones that she needs to get. It also seems like she’ll have to go through a few F.LD.I.L trials to get a few of the items she needs. From the names of those items, Mira can tell that those trials will be anything but easy. She might even need to descend further on the Abyssal Torment Steps…

Mira seriously hoped she didn’t have to go back to those stairs anytime soon.

Anyways, it’s time for Mira to check her inventory so she can properly plan ahead.

Luckily, it didn’t take her too long to scan through all the items she has in her Storage Space and Infinity Garden because they are all neatly organized.

From what she saw, right now she has 16 of the items from the Core Formation Recipe, exactly half.

She has the:

Orb of Limitless Death and Infinite Life

Immemorial Dao Comprehension Ice

1 Liter Frost-Fire Phoenix Blood

1 Liter Golden Empyrean Winged Wolf blood

1 ton of magma

1 ton of Heavy Qi Water

10 Kilograms of Black Gold

1,000 year-old Soul Cleansing Flower

1,000 year-old Heavenly Yin Flower

1,000 year-old Dragon Ginseng

Beast Core of any fire-type Peak-Rank 6 Beast

Beast Core of any earth-type Peak-Rank 6 Beast

Beast Core of any wind-type Peak-Rank 6 Beast

Beast Core of any lightning-type Peak-Rank 6 Beast

Beast Core of any dark-type Peak-Rank 6 Beast

Core of any dual Fire and Ice Peak-Rank 6 beast

All of these items came from the Secret Realm when Mira and Elenei were going around the different worlds looting anything and everything. They killed tons of beasts, collected any resource that looked useful, and took whatever they could.

Usually, this behavior would be unlike how Mira usually acts. Mira doesn’t usually care for extra resources unless they can benefit her in some way, but her time in the Secret Realm was different. Everything in there was useful! Even the lower-tier resources were superior to those in the outside world.

Unfortunately, her Core Formation Recipe didn’t call for those lower-tier or more common resources or else she would have been able to break through as soon as she was ready.

After Mira determined the resources she currently had in her possession, she pulled out the Jade Slip Robin gave her around a week ago to search for the other items she needs.

Nearly, half an hour later, Mira stopped searching through the Jade Slip and let out and sigh. She wasn’t sure whether she should be happy or not with the results…

What she found when searching through the Jade Slip is that the Mercenary Association has 11 of the items she needs. That may sound good and all, but Mira wasn’t too happy with this because nearly every item she needs is incredibly expensive.

If she were to try and get those 11 items from the Mercenary Association with Contribution Points, she’d need over 1,000,000 of them!

Normally, such an abnormal amount of Contribution Points would probably take more than a decade to get if she were a normal person. Even for her, earning 1,000 Contribution Points per day would probably be stretching it.

It’s not that the missions are too hard, but the environment she’s in doesn’t allow her to finish these missions quickly. If she didn’t have to deal with waves of enemies every time she needed to complete a mission, then she could earn several times that amount and get the necessary Contribution Points in a little over a year.

Maybe when Elenei gets back she can complete her missions a bit faster, but riding on a giant Phoenix might bring unwanted attention. No, it would definitely bring unwanted attention.

This attention would definitely prevent her from breaking through within the next 2 years.

In the end, using Elenei to help complete her missions faster wouldn’t be worth it. Maybe if Rhydian was awake when Elenei came back, but Mira can’t see the efficiency rising much even if she is.

Rhydian isn’t exactly the smartest or most reliable pet. Sure, she’s powerful and is probably just as strong as Mira’s current strength, but she likes to do her own thing unless Mira forces her otherwise.

Mira can easily picture Rhydian running into a mob of enemies willingly just so she can cure her boredom.

On the other hand, if Rhydian isn’t completely useless and actually helps her with the missions, then she might be able to get the required Contribution Points in under 2 years.

That’s all well and good, but what about the 5 items that she doesn’t have and can’t get through the Mercenary Association. She might be able to get 27 of the 32 items on the list in under 2 years, but that still leaves 5 more.

These 5 items are:

1 Samsara Dogwood Tree

1 World Tree Seed

Chaotic Silk

Blood Essence of a Legendary Ice Beast

1 Mid-Grade Spirit Stone Mine Source

She’s never even heard of 3 of those items. Hell, even the other 2 items should be nearly impossible for her to get her hands on unless her luck is astronomical.

She already has the bloodline of a Legendary Ice Beast, but apparently she needed another. Either the one she has right now isn’t good enough or it’s so thin that the F.LD.I.L didn’t even consider using it.

As for the other 3 items?

She’s absolutely certain that she’ll have to go through the specific F.LD.I.L trials to get those items. Mira has some serious doubts that those 3 items are even in her world. No, these things don’t even sound like items that could appear in the Mortal Realm! She could spend her entire life searching for those 3 items and never find a single one!

This is what gave Mira a complicated feeling.

How long will it take her to complete those 5 trials? From her experience, at least a month, but that’s being a bit too optimistic.

Conservatively, Mira felt like it’d probably take a month for each trial, but that’s if she’s working her **ing ass off and experiencing hell every day.

Mira would like to be able to set aside an entire year to complete those 5 trials just in case they took her longer than expected…

‘Fucking hell! I guess I won’t be getting any sleep for the next 2 years! Hopefully, Elenei woke Rhydian up so she can finally be of use. I don’t see me accomplishing this without her. She doesn’t even need to help me on my missions. As long as she becomes my mount then I think I should be able to do this if I push myself a bit. Sigh… I hate to say this, but I’m counting on you, Elenei.’

Mira thought to herself before leaving the cultivation cave to accept more missions.

***

Meanwhile, somewhere in the middle of the Western Continent sat a Giant Phoenix and next to this Phoenix is a sleeping golden wolf.

“Wake up you dumbass puppy!! I know you’re awake so hurry and get up before I start beating the ** out of you!”

The Phoenix yelled in rage as icicles formed around it, but the wolf kept on sleeping.

“Argh!! Fine! I don’t care anymore! I don’t care that you might be the last of your species! Maybe you’ll learn not to be so lazy in your next life! DIE!”

The Phoenix shot a torrent of icicles at the wolf, but seeing the wolf still not moving, the Phoenix sighed but didn’t stop the icicles.

The icicles came centimeters away from the wolf’s body, but suddenly the wolf opened its eyes, unfurled its wings, and jumped away. Soon after, it glared menacingly at the one who woke it up, but then it finally sensed that it was a massive Phoenix who is many times stronger than her.

The wolf didn’t know what to do. It didn’t want to fight such a beast, but that didn’t mean it was going to roll over and beg for mercy.

As it was going through its options, the wolf heard a voice in her head that made her brain stop working for a moment.

“You finally woke up, Rhydian! Good! Now that you’re awake, we can head back to Mira! Come on, jump on my back so I can take you to her!’

Rhydian, the golden wolf, didn’t know what to do, but once she calmed down and got a better look at the Phoenix, she smelled a familiar scent and knew that it was the scent of her Companion, Mira!