With the world's changes, governments no longer existed globally. Instead, various academies protected and managed each region.
Each country had an Academy Alliance as its headquarters, overseeing everything.
The largest organization at present was the Global Academy Alliance, followed by the Academy Alliances of various countries.
According to the policies of the Chinese Academy Alliance, each newly awakened professional was given a certain amount of reward funds based on the star level of their awakened profession.
However, these funds were only distributed to combat professions. If one awakened a lifestyle profession, there was no reward, regardless of how high the star level.
The reward for a one-star profession was 10,000 alliance currency, for a two-star profession it was 50,000 alliance currency, for a three-star profession it was 200,000 alliance currency, four-star professions received 500,000, and five-star professions received one million alliance currency.
Aside from combat professionals, it wasn't easy for an ordinary person to earn 10,000 alliance currency a month, showing how generous these rewards were.
That's why it was said that the third year of high school was the time that decided one's fate in life.
As long as one became an awakened combat professional, even if it was just a one-star, it meant they possessed the ability to earn more than most people.
With the rewards distributed, everyone could go back and prepare for the next day's novice assessment.
After Chen Mo submitted the team information with Shen Bingbing, Fang Datong, and the others, he bid them goodbye and was the first to leave campus.
He tucked his bank card into his pocket and turned towards the trade street behind the school.
This trade street had many merchants selling various items like equipment, Skill Books, and so on.
However, the quality of most items wasn't very high, making it more suitable for those with less money.
If one wanted to buy higher-quality items, they had to go to Myriad Heaven.
Myriad Heaven was the largest marketplace in Haibin City.
There, one could buy many good things, but the prices... were quite prohibitive.
Currently, Chen Mo's bank card held about 50,000 alliance currency from his part-time jobs and the pocket money his foster mother, Liu Yiyi, had given him over the years. Adding the recently received reward, his total was close to 100,000, which wasn't enough to afford anything from Myriad Heaven.
Even on the trade street, there weren't many things he could afford.
At this time, the trade street was bustling with pedestrians, and the shouts of merchants could be heard everywhere.
Chen Mo searched around, and after walking nearly a hundred meters, he finally found a stall selling Skill Books.
The stall's owner was an older man. Chen Mo immediately stepped forward and asked, "Sir, do you have the Skill Book for Skeleton Summon?"
"Skeleton Summon?"
Hearing this skill, the older man glanced at Chen Mo with a strange look. "That should be the initial skill of a Skeleton Mage, right? I have it, but this kind of Skill Book is hard to sell. Almost no recipes use this skill as a material. I don't even know where I put them."
"Could you please help me find it? I have a recipe that needs one," Chen Mo said politely.
"Then wait a moment, let me check my backpack."
After saying this, the older man immediately reached for a fist-sized backpack hanging at his waist and began to rummage through it.
Although this backpack looked very small on the outside, it was actually a space backpack with a vast amount of space inside, and it wasn't cheap.
Even though such a backpack was quite expensive, every merchant needed to have at least one for convenience.
After rummaging for a while, the older man, as if by magic, took out a huge bundle of Skill Books.
"Phew, I finally found it! Although I knew this Skill Book was useless, regular customers often bring in one or two copies of this unwanted thing when they come to sell a pile of items. I can't refuse them, so I can only accept them at bargain prices. Look at this big bundle—it's all Skeleton Summon. If you need one, just take a book for whatever price you think is fair."
Being a stall owner on the trade street, which catered to poorer folk, the older man was quite amiable.
Chen Mo had originally planned to get three copies for synthesis but hadn't expected the older man to have such a large bundle in stock.
"Sir, how many copies are in this bundle?" Chen Mo asked, almost drooling as he looked at the large bundle of Skeleton Summon Skill Books.
"There are roughly over a hundred copies. The lowest price I paid for them was one hundred alliance currency each. It's not much per book, but with this quantity, I've sunk more than ten thousand into these useless things," the older man said somewhat helplessly.
Hearing there were so many copies, Chen Mo immediately said, "Sir, why don't you sell me the whole bundle for twelve thousand? You'll make a small profit, and I can help you recover your costs."
"Young man, what are you buying so many useless books for? You shouldn't waste your money just because you feel sorry for me."
The older man thought his sighing had provoked Chen Mo's sympathy.
Chen Mo chuckled and said, "Sir, you've misunderstood. The success rate of my recipe is very low, and each failure consumes one of these Skill Books. I just want to be well-prepared."
"So that's how it is. If you really have a use for them, then I'll sell them to you. To be honest, these hundred-odd copies cost me ten thousand. They might sit in my storage for years without selling a single one. If you take them all at once, I'll be satisfied just to get my investment back."
"Sir, please don't say that. I might need more in the future. If you continue to collect them for me, I'll give you a 10% profit on each one you acquire."
"It sounds like the item your recipe creates is a consumable, given how many of these books you need."
Chen Mo smiled faintly and didn't elaborate, and the older man, being tactful, didn't press further about the recipe.
After counting, it turned out the older man had a total of 102 Skeleton Summon Skill Books. Chen Mo bought them all for 12,000 alliance currency and agreed to buy any more the man acquired in the future for 110 alliance currency each.
Although the transaction wasn't large, Chen Mo made sure to build a good rapport.
The older man usually collected these unwanted books to maintain goodwill with his regular customers, not to profit from the books themselves.
Since Chen Mo took these unwanted items that the man had reluctantly acquired off his hands, the older man naturally didn't mind whether he made a little more or less profit. Turning unwanted items into liquid assets was a good thing.
Having spent a mere 12,000 alliance currency to obtain over a hundred Skeleton Summon Skill Books, Chen Mo was grinning from ear to ear.
Any normal Skill Book would start at tens of thousands of alliance currency each.
Whether it was a common Fireball Technique, Downward Cut, Taunt, or any other skill, the prices were exceptionally high because these Skill Books were used as materials in many recipes.
This was especially true for crafting high-level Skill Books for specific professions, which required a large number of these basic Skill Books. With a relatively constant supply, the high demand naturally drove up the prices.
Having obtained over a hundred Skill Books, Chen Mo was satisfied. Next, he started looking for equipment.
Much like the Skeleton Mage's Skill Books, not many people wanted equipment for a Skeleton Mage either.
After all, under the Heavenly Dao's rules, equipment and Skill Books all had strict Profession Restrictions.
This was why lifestyle professions couldn't survive. Under such strict rules, lifestyle professionals couldn't use any combat equipment or learn any combat skills. No matter how much they built up their attributes, how could they compare to monsters whose attributes were clearly far superior to those of humans, as dictated by the Heavenly Dao's rules?