Zhang Xiaoman ultimately did not have the guts to put it in his mouth, as it was an item mysteriously produced by the System, and he dared not carelessly ingest it without understanding it first.
"This crappy System, not even a manual included!"
After much tossing and turning, Zhang Xiaoman still couldn't figure it out, and now he finally understood what it meant to look but not eat.
"The thing must be physical, though it has no tactile sense, but when I squeeze it, I can really feel some resistance, as if I'm squeezing a whirlwind in the palm of my hand…"
Zhang Xiaoman squeezed the Light Ball in his hand, staring at it without blinking.
"The attribute panel doesn't have a usage method either, the Seven-pointed Star Array shows no response, and mental fusion doesn't seem to work…"
He felt frustrated, and unconsciously increased the force in his hand.
"Damn Skill Ball! I just don't believe it! We're in for a long haul today!"
As Zhang Xiaoman finished speaking, he suddenly exerted more force in his hand, and the next moment, something happened that totally stunned him.
The little Light Ball in his palm, when squeezed to a certain degree, suddenly broke silently, turning into countless white light points scattering around.
"Did, did I just burst it?"
Zhang Xiaoman muttered dumbly, then suddenly came to his senses and hurriedly reached out to catch the light points in the air.
"Oh shoot! Don't run, my little ancestors, come back here!"
He almost felt like crying without tears, knowing now that the Light Ball could break up so easily, he should have been gentler with it initially.
However, before he could shed his scoundrel's tears, he saw the scattered glimmers of light didn't vanish quietly as he had imagined. Instead, they slowly gathered towards him and finally integrated into his body under his astonished gaze.
"This… is this a success?"
Zhang Xiaoman still couldn't quite believe it, not expecting that the elusive little Light Ball would be resolved so mysteriously.
"It seems this thing had to be crushed in order to merge."
Zhang Xiaoman felt he had inadvertently found the correct way to use it.
Next, naturally, he was going to test the effect of this skill.
He first stared at his hands, calling up his attribute panel:
Zhang Xiaoman
Abilities:
[Extract]
Skills:
[Soul Absorption Technique]
——————
The above were his most recent attributes.
This time, there were two extra lines compared to before, a new category with a skill, and another line with the newly integrated skill, Soul Absorption Technique.
Zhang Xiaoman subconsciously tapped on the interface, then was surprised to see an unexpected discovery.
As his finger touched the Soul Absorption Technique's name, a dropdown suddenly appeared underneath the skill, detailing the explanation for Soul Absorption Technique.
[Soul Absorption Technique]
Effect: Continuously absorbs energy from the surrounding environment.
Maximum Extraction: 10
Energy Consumption: None
Range: 20-meter radius
Cooling Time: 1 hour
——Can extract energy from the environment.
Zhang Xiaoman didn't expect his System to have such a function, and he eagerly tapped the "Extract" information again.
[Extract]
Passive
Cannot be upgraded
Effect: When near Source Energy, can absorb it and convert it into Host Points.
——————
"Just as I thought! My system does have some annotations after all, it's just that I never noticed it before. It looks like I misjudged the system..."
Zhang Xiaoman was overjoyed at this moment, having this information about the skills made things much easier. He wouldn't have to blindly stumble his way forward anymore. Today's discovery was indeed great news for him.
While he was celebrating, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly caught sight of something on the system interface.
"Convert to Host Points..."
Zhang Xiaoman's gaze rested on this prompt, his eyes gradually revealing a trace of excitement.
"It looks like my hypothesis was indeed correct, my plan is also executable!"
Zhang Xiaoman clapped his hands, his face revealing an irrepressible smile.
The reason he was so happy was all because of two words mentioned in the skill description—Host.
Indeed, Host naturally referred to himself.
If these abilities were to convert all points to himself, then he could simply imprint the Seven-pointed Star Array on others. Whenever they killed a monster, he would receive the corresponding points!
Next, he would use the points to buy Extraordinary Items to give to them, and they would continue to fight monsters... Through this, once a virtuous cycle was formed, wouldn't he be able to sit at home and accumulate points?
Zhang Xiaoman thought about this and couldn't help but feel his heart thrum wildly, as if he was seeing the peak of his life unfold before him.
He had already had this idea for a while, but it had been just speculation until now. Now that it was confirmed, how could he not be happy?
After calming himself down, Zhang Xiaoman looked at the newly added skill and tried using it again.
His method was simple; he just silently thought about using this ability, and he succeeded.
However, what puzzled Zhang Xiaoman was that he could clearly feel that he had activated the ability, but he couldn't feel any effect from it.
It was like picking up a cup and opening his mouth to drink water. His mouth opened, but he couldn't taste the water.
"Strange, could it be that the activation failed?" Zhang Xiaoman wondered. He wanted to try again, but found that he seemed unable to use it again.
"It looks like the skill has entered its cooling phase..."
Zhang Xiaoman furrowed his brows in thought.
"But, I could clearly feel that it was successfully activated just now. Why can't I feel any feedback?"
He paced back and forth, and his eyes hesitantly caught sight of an empty cup on the table. He suddenly slapped his thigh, having found the answer.
"Extract the Spiritual Energy from the environment! There needs to be Spiritual Energy in the environment for it to work! If the cup can't drink water, it's because the cup is empty!"
Zhang Xiaoman felt he had grasped the key point and wanted to try it somewhere else immediately, but the skill's one-hour cooling time meant he couldn't do anything for now.
"Perhaps, I could try upgrading..."
He suddenly remembered the 11 points he had left over, wrestling with whether to gamble.
After hesitating on the spot for a long while, Zhang Xiaoman finally gritted his teeth, "I'll risk it! As long as it's not randomly Divine Grace, I can accept either hearthstone or Soul Absorption Technique!"
He brought up the upgrade option, silently praying, and swiftly clicked on it.
"Randomly selecting upgrade, please wait..."
"Upgrade complete! White skill—Soul Absorption Technique, has successfully upgraded to green skill—Soul Absorption Technique."
"It worked!"
Zhang Xiaoman couldn't help but exclaim happily, "System Dad is so accurate! Hit right on target!"
Of course, he also knew that this was mainly because he currently had very few items and skills. In the future, when he had more things to draw from, it probably wouldn't be as pleasant as now.
However, it wasn't time to worry about that yet. Zhang Xiaoman couldn't wait to open his personal attribute panel and began checking the skills inside.