Mike's house was much larger than that of the average villager, second only to the village head.
His courtyard was even slightly larger than the village head's.
In the courtyard were piles of firewood, hay, and other things, as well as some props for building strength, such as stone locks.
"Woof!" As soon as the yard was opened, a large, half-human-sized yellow-haired dog in the yard barked furiously at Alex, a stranger.
"Hu Zi!" Mike shouted in a low voice.
The big yellow dog was very understanding, and immediately stopped barking, just staring at Alex.
"Come in, I'll get you the secret manual," Mike said indifferently.
"Oh, okay," Alex agreed, and followed him into the yard.
Mike walked directly towards the house, while Alex stayed in the courtyard, turning the screen and surveying the courtyard in front of him.
Eventually, his gaze settled on the stone locks in the courtyard that were used to build strength.
Alex controlled the character and walked over.
The smallest stone locks looked very thick, and Alex estimated that they should weigh no less than 50 kilograms.
The larger ones could already be described as stone stumps, and their weight was probably no less than 200 kilograms.
Next to them were reinforced versions of the stone locks – iron locks.
The iron locks of the same size were several times heavier than the stone locks.
'My previous strength was 68 points, which was completely average. My current strength is 100 points, which is a significant improvement. I wonder if I can lift this iron lock?'
Alex was a little curious. He manipulated the character to go over and hold the smallest iron shackle, trying to lift it.
As a result, under Alex's control, the character gnashed his teeth and exerted his best effort, but it only managed to lift the iron shackle slightly off the ground.
It's too heavy. If it were the Alex at the beginning, with only 68 points of strength, he probably couldn't even make the shackle leave the ground.
"This shackle weighs 500 catties, and it's difficult for an ordinary person to lift it. If you break through and become a martial artist and explode your true strength, you can barely do it." Mike's voice came from behind, still indifferent and devoid of any emotion.
Alex put down the shackle in his hand and looked behind him.
"This is the secret manual of the Bull's Strength Technique. You can study it in the courtyard. After you're done, remember to return it to me." Mike handed Alex an old-looking thread-bound book with a blue cover.
Alex quickly took it.
The moment he took the secret manual, a line of text floated past like running water on the screen of his phone.
Prompt: "You are studying the Bull's Strength Technique..."
Prompt: "According to your bone structure, it will take you 2 hours, 23 minutes, and 36 seconds to study the Bull's Strength Technique. Please be patient."
After these two prompts disappeared, Alex didn't need to control the character; the character sat cross-legged, holding the Bull's Strength Technique in his hands and began to flip through it.
A countdown appeared in the center of the screen, counting down the time as 2 hours, 23 minutes, and 36 seconds.
At the bottom of the countdown, there is an option to 'interrupt', and as long as you click on this option, the character can break away from the state of 'studying'.
Since his character is studying the secret manual, Alex naturally won't bother to interrupt him.
He gently placed the phone on the table, and to prevent it from running out of power, he even plugged it in with the charging cable.
After doing so, he sat in his chair and fell into thought.
The situation was a little different from what he had expected.
He had thought that this post-acquired skill would require him to memorize it himself, but in the end, just like any other game, he could not see a single word in the secret manual.
He could master this Bull's Strength Technique without doing anything.
This made him feel relieved in his heart, but also slightly disappointed.
No, there was still some difference with other games.
In other games, once a character obtains a secret manual, they can learn it instantly with a single tap.
In the world of World of Spirits, it's different. The character will go through a process of studying the manual. It takes 2 hours, 23 minutes, and 36 seconds to study the most basic manual, Bull's Strength Technique.
Alex's eyebrows shot up, and he suddenly thought of a detail.
He remembered that the system prompt said that based on his root bone, the time it would take him to study the Bull's Strength Technique was 2 hours, 23 minutes, and 36 seconds.
Root bone is not in the character attribute interface, and this is the first time he has heard the term "root bone" in the World of Spirits.
Could it be a hidden attribute of the character?
By root bone, I think it should refer to the character's enlightenment and cultivation aptitude, right?
He also wondered if his character's root bone was considered good or bad among players.
After all, no one was there to compare with him.
His character was currently studying the Bull's Strength Technique and could not be disturbed, so Alex was a bit idle for the time being.
He turned on the computer and entered the exclusive game forum of World of Spirits.
After the initial two days of "frenzy", the exclusive game forum for World of Spirits quickly cooled down again.
At its peak, the number of posts on the World of Spirits game forum could easily exceed 10,000 per day.
Now, there are only a few hundred new posts each day, and the popularity has dropped by more than ten times compared to before.
Alex began to habitually browse these posts, which was an important way for him to obtain information about World of Spirits.
After scanning the first page of the forum, most of the posts were complaints about the game being too difficult, the game company being inhumane, and some were just for the sake of it. As for the few dry posts with some substance, Alex had already browsed them yesterday.
So far, Alex had not seen anyone post that they had gathered 100 attribute points.
This gave him a slight sigh of relief.
But that's normal. After all, it's not easy to gather 100 attribute points in such a short time.
Fortunately, Alex had found a partner in Ethan and Emma, and the three of them had successfully hunted a young Horned Goat with a horn the size of a calf on their first expedition into the mountains, thus gathering enough food for the character to build up his strength.
If not for this, he reckoned that he would have had to endure even more hardship for a few more days before he could gather enough attribute points.
He should be considered a special case.
There aren't many other players who are as lucky as him, who work hard enough and are patient enough.
However, he shouldn't be overconfident and underestimate the heroes of the world.
After all, there are many capable, determined and patient people in the world, and what they lack is often just a chance.
He has the ability to perceive the unusualness of the game World of Spirits.
Other players may also be able to perceive it!