At this moment, the Rock Melt Beast by the large rock had also spotted Su Yuan.
Su Yuan suppressed his stray thoughts and meticulously sized up the Rock Melt Beast.
"Judging by the dissipating Star Power fluctuations, this Rock Melt Beast should be at the Star Apprentice Ninth Rank. It might be quite challenging for other Eighth Stage Star Apprentices, but…"
Su Yuan drew his E-3 standard long knife and stared intently at the Rock Melt Beast, holding his breath in concentration.
"With my current Six Dimensions traits, a Ninth Rank Rock Melt Beast isn't really much of an issue!"
Star Power slowly flowed within him, and with a stomp, Su Yuan charged forward, blade in hand.
The irritable Rock Melt Beast, already quite discontent that someone dared to intrude into its territory, became extremely agitated upon sensing Su Yuan's intent to attack and charged towards Su Yuan, flailing its arms and legs in large strides.
In a matter of a few seconds, the distance of two to three hundred meters was covered, and they were about to engage in close combat.
Getting closer, the Rock Melt Beast in Su Yuan's eyes became more distinct. Its body, made of black rock and quite compact, was nevertheless solid and sturdy. Underneath the surface, a faint red glow pulsed as if hiding immense energy.
This moment, the Rock Melt Beast clenched its fists, and suddenly a substantial amount of Star Power gathered on its right arm, rapidly flowing into the fist.
"Here it comes, Black Rock Punch!"
Sparkling silver light slightly surfaced in Su Yuan's eyes as he prepared to dodge to the side.
However, the Rock Melt Beast did not seem inclined to let Su Yuan escape. With a roar, it increased its speed again, leaping to appear right in front of Su Yuan, and swung its large fist, which was as big as a sandbag, with a swift and heavy gust of wind!
With the punch nearing to connect with Su Yuan, a flash of silver light twinkled, and Su Yuan miraculously disappeared from the spot.
Having missed his punch, a look of astonishment briefly crossed the Rock Melt Beast's face as it hurriedly halted its charging figure, only to sense a slight noise from behind.
Startled, the Rock Melt Beast quickly turned around, but just as it did, a glint of cold light rapidly enlarged in its eyes!
"Hiss!"
With a swift strike, Su Yuan precisely stabbed the Rock Melt Beast in its face.
Having done his homework on one of his primary targets, the Rock Melt Beast, Su Yuan knew that despite its sturdy limbs and body, the Rock Melt Beast's face was relatively fragile.
Struck by Su Yuan's knife, the Rock Melt Beast, despite its entire body being enhanced with the "Solid Rock" talent, couldn't withstand the powerful stab for long, and its head was penetrated after only slight resistance!
One hit, one kill!
The body of the Rock Melt Beast stiffened, its arms limply fell, and shortly afterwards, the firelight in its eyes gradually dimmed, and it slowly collapsed to the ground.
"The intelligence of Star Beasts on Blue Sea Star isn't low at all…"
As Su Yuan watched the dead Rock Melt Beast, he slowly withdrew his long knife.
At the start of the fight, the Rock Melt Beast had been holding back, not fully speeding, but had burst into acceleration when using Black Rock Punch.
It wasn't a complex maneuver, but it did show that even the lowest Level Star Beast possessed a certain combat consciousness.
"Furthermore, the shortcomings of entry-level Instant Movement are indeed numerous, the spellcasting is slow, it consumes quite a bit, the moving distance is limited, and there's about a 7-second interval between castings…"
"Especially the near one-second casting time, it is unbearable, and I must prepare well in advance.
"However, it is still just entry-level Instant Movement. Once I level up the skill to Skilled or Master, it should be significantly strengthened."
Su Yuan hadn't considered enhancing Instant Movement again, as he had tried before, but even with 60 points of Star Dust, he couldn't enhance it once.
How much Star Dust was needed to enhance a Blue Skill would only be known after acquiring and decomposing more Star Cards.
Su Yuan let go of these thoughts and started cutting up the body of the Rock Melt Beast in front of him.
"The Star Core of the Rock Melt Beast should be in the chest area... There it is!"
Su Yuan carved open the chest of the Rock Melt Beast and extracted an egg-sized black red core, observing it closely in his hand.
"Star Apprentice Ninth Rank, possessing E-grade Star Power Talent, the Rock Melt Beast's Star Core indeed contains significantly stronger Star Power than the sixth or seventh rank Star Beasts encountered earlier…"
Clenching the Star Core, Su Yuan infused his Spiritual Power, ready to extract the Star Card, "I hope to get Steel Flame Finger…"
Since the Star Card Master randomly extracts a Star Card from the Star Core, if it's a White Skill, the probabilities are the same, so currently, Su Yuan still has a 50% chance to extract Black Rock Impact from this Rock Melt Beast's Star Core.
If there are Green or even Blue Skills, the higher the quality, the lower the probability of extraction.
Of course, there are a few Card Masters with unique talents or secret techniques that can increase the chances of extracting a particular Star Card; these individuals are known as professional "Card Drawing Masters."
Su Yuan was in the process of extracting with his Spiritual Power when the dormant system inside him suddenly stirred.
"Ding! First detection of a multiplex skill Star Beast's Star Core, reminder, do you wish to use the extraction feature?"
"This Star Core contains the skills: 1. Black Rock Punch, 2. Steel Flame Finger, can consume 10 points of Star Dust to choose either for targeted extraction."
...
"10 points of Star Dust for targeted extraction?"
"Star Core randomly generates Skill Star Cards, and can I really choose specifically?"
Su Yuan appeared stunned; this was even better than a Card Drawing Master!
Card Drawing Masters only increase the probabilities somewhat, meaning that through the system, he could freely pick? It just costs some extra Star Dust!
Even among skills of the same quality, there are differences in superiority and inferiority.
For instance, the difference between ordinary White Cards like Black Rock Punch and Steel Flame Finger isn't huge, but with Elite Green Cards, and even Master Blue Cards or Epic Purple Cards, the gap between niche skills and top skills could be like heaven and earth!
Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Su Yuan thought it was time to test it out!
"System, extract Steel Flame Finger!"
No sooner had the command been issued than the point count of Star Dust in the system decreased by 10. At the same time, blue-glowing starlight dust surged along Su Yuan's arm into the Star Core.
The Star Power inside the Star Core immediately surged, and a bright black and red light gushed from the Star Core, flowing back and forth on its surface.
After just a few seconds, the Star Core slowly dissipated and disappeared, while a White Card depicting a Rock Melt Beast quietly lay in Su Yuan's hand.
On the card's surface, the Rock Melt Beast extended its right index finger, the entire finger fiery red and entwined with threads of Red Flame!
[Steel Flame Finger]
[Element: Fire]
[Grade: Ordinary]
[Introduction: Transforms Star Power into Fire Attribute, concentrating it at the fingertip to unleash a strike with burning effect and penetration.]
"It really is Steel Flame Finger, I've struck gold now!"
Su Yuan wasn't thrilled about Steel Flame Finger itself, but about verifying the "extraction" function of the system!
He could freely choose to extract any skill from the Star Core, and even if it wasn't used for making money, it could greatly save resources and accelerate his growth.
"Let's use this Steel Flame Finger card first."
Su Yuan held the Steel Flame Finger Star Card, gently channeling Spiritual Power into it to activate the card.
Soon, the Steel Flame Finger card vanished from his hand, transforming into a white star that hovered around the Azure Sky Phoenix Soul Card.
Su Yuan raised his right hand, and with a mere thought, the Steel Flame Finger Star Card beside the Soul Card emitted a bright light. Simultaneously, a large amount of Star Power surged towards Su Yuan's right hand, and in no time, streaks of red flames wrapped around his index finger, emitting bursts of formidable power.
Su Yuan scanned the area, walked a few steps to a large grey-black rock where the Rock Melt Beast had leaned against earlier, and thrust his finger towards the rock!
"Steel Flame Finger!"
As if he had poked into coal, Su Yuan felt only slight resistance as he punched a black, burnt hole the size of his index finger into the rock, without a single crack around it.
After the strike, the Fire Attribute Star Power on Su Yuan's index finger was completely depleted.
"What a powerful lethal force!"
Su Yuan was surprised by the unexpectedly strong power of Steel Flame Finger.
The hole he made wasn't large, but it perfectly demonstrated the highly concentrated force of the strike, without any dispersion. Original Su Yuan wouldn't have been able to accomplish this without shattering some of the stone around the hole as well.
In fact, Steel Flame Finger is a close combat physical attack skill enhanced by strength and influenced by Star Power.
After his awakening, Su Yuan's strength and Star Power Talent was elevated to Grade C, far surpassing ordinary individuals.
No matter the skill, whether it's close-range or ranged, physical or energy-based, offensive or defensive, with Su Yuan's all Grade C Six Dimensions, he could achieve the most potent effect.
Su Yuan gauged the Star Power inside him; overall, the consumption wasn't significant. In his prime condition, he should be able to use it several more times.
Pleased, Su Yuan nodded and called out the system directly to start allocation of points.
"System, strengthen Steel Flame Finger three times."
Using the extraction function had consumed 10 points of Star Dust, and now with 50 points remaining, he could afford to spend 30 points to upgrade Steel Flame Finger to Master Level.
Starlight Dust appeared out of nowhere inside him, surging into the Steel Flame Finger mini Star Card, which lit up three times with white light and was immediately upgraded to Master Level.
At this point, Su Yuan's information in the system panel was as follows:
[Su Yuan]
[Level: Star Apprentice Eighth Stage]
[Soul Card: Azure Sky Phoenix]
[Grade: Master]
[Species: Phoenix]
[Element: Space]
[Talent: Azure Sky: Enhances the power of space-related skills by 20%]
[Six Dimensions: Strength C, Agility C, Defense C, Constitution C, Spirit C, Spiritual Power C]
[Soul Skill: Instant Movement (Master Level: Entry-level)]
[Skill: Steel Flame Finger (Ordinary): Master]
[Star Dust: 20]
"It's at Master Level already..." Su Yuan marveled once more at the incredible strength of the system. "Today I've gotten Steel Flame Finger, so let's rest for the night. Starting tomorrow, I'll look for other skills while leveling up Steel Flame Finger and Instant Movement!"