Chapter 8: Steel Flame Finger
At this time, the Rock Melt Beast beside the big rock had also discovered Su Yuan.
Su Yuan suppressed other thoughts and scrutinized the Rock Melt Beast carefully.
"Judging from the dispersing Star Power fluctuations, this Rock Melt Beast should be at the Star Apprentice Ninth Rank. It might be tricky for other Eighth Stage Star Apprentices, but…"
Su Yuan drew out his E-3 standard long knife, holding his breath and concentrating on the Rock Melt Beast.
"With my current six-dimension qualities, a Rock Melt Beast of the Star Apprentice Ninth Rank is nothing much!"
Star Power slowly started to flow within him. Su Yuan stepped forward and charged with his knife.
The irritable Rock Melt Beast was already displeased with someone daring to intrude on its territory. Sensing Su Yuan's intent to attack, it became extremely furious, waved its arms and legs, and charged towards Su Yuan in big strides.
In just a few seconds, the distance of two to three hundred meters was shortened, and they were about to engage in close combat.
Up close, the Rock Melt Beast became clearer in Su Yuan's eyes. The body made of black rock was small but firm and solid, with faint red light flowing on the surface, as if containing enormous energy.
At this moment, the Rock Melt Beast clenched its fist, and a large amount of Star Power gathered swiftly into its right arm.
"It's coming, Black Rock Punch!"
Silver light faintly flashed in Su Yuan's eyes. He was about to dodge sideways as he took a step.
However, the Rock Melt Beast seemed unwilling to let Su Yuan escape. It roared angrily, increased its forward speed again, and suddenly leaped in front of Su Yuan. Its fist, as big as a sandbag, quickly and heavily punched forward!
Just as the punch was about to land on Su Yuan, a silver light flashed, and Su Yuan inexplicably disappeared from the spot.
The punch hit nothing. The Rock Melt Beast's face showed some astonishment. It quickly stopped moving after a few steps but suddenly sensed some movement from behind.
Alarmed, the Rock Melt Beast turned around hurriedly. But just as it turned, a point of cold light rapidly expanded in its eyes!
"Swoosh!"
Su Yuan swiftly thrust his knife, precisely stabbing the Rock Melt Beast's face.
For one of his intended targets, the Rock Melt Beast, Su Yuan had already done his homework. Compared to the hard limbs and body, the face of the Rock Melt Beast was relatively fragile.
Being struck by Su Yuan's knife, even with the "Solid Rock" talent supported throughout its body, the fragile face didn't hold for long under Su Yuan's powerful thrust and was penetrated after slight resistance!
A fatal blow!
The body of the Rock Melt Beast instantly stiffened, its arms drooped, and the light in its eyes gradually dimmed before it slowly fell to the ground.
"The intelligence of Star Beasts on Blue Sea Star isn't low…"
Su Yuan looked at the dead Rock Melt Beast and slowly pulled out his long knife.
During the battle, the Rock Melt Beast had held back initially, not using its full speed. It suddenly accelerated only when it used the Black Rock Punch.
Although it wasn't a complex maneuver, this showed that even the lowest level Star Apprentice Level Star Beasts had some combat consciousness.
"Moreover, the drawbacks of this Entry-level Instant Movement are numerous. Slow casting, significant consumption, limited moving distance, and around a 7-second casting interval…
Especially the nearly one-second casting time is unbearable. It must be prepared in advance.
But now it's only Entry-level Instant Movement. If the skill is upgraded to skilled or master level, it should be significantly improved."
It wasn't that Su Yuan didn't want to add points to Instant Movement. He had tried before, but even with 60 Star Dust points, he couldn't enhance Instant Movement at all.
How much Star Dust does it take to enhance a blue skill? Only more star card decomposition can answer that.
Su Yuan pushed his thoughts aside and began cutting the Rock Melt Beast's body with the long knife.
"The star core of the Rock Melt Beast should be in the chest area... Here it is!"
Su Yuan cut open the Rock Melt Beast's chest and took out a black and red core the size of a duck egg, inspecting it closely.
"The Rock Melt Beast star core of Star Apprentice Ninth Rank, with E-level Star Power Talent, indeed contains significantly more Star Power than the Sixth or Seventh Stage Star Beasts before…"
Gripping the star core, Su Yuan infused his spiritual power to extract a star card: "I hope to get Steel Flame Finger…"
Since star card masters extract a star card randomly from the star core, even with the same white skill, the probability is equal. Currently, Su Yuan had a fifty percent chance of extracting Black Rock Impact from this Rock Melt Beast's star core.
If there were green or even blue skills, the higher the grade, the lower the extraction probability.
Of course, a few star card masters have unique talents or secret techniques that increase the chance of extracting certain star cards. These few are known as professional "card drawing masters."
Su Yuan was channeling spiritual power for extraction when the dormant system in his body suddenly reacted.
"Ding! First detection of multiple skill Star Beast star core. Reminder, do you want to use the extraction function?"
"This star core contains skills: 1. Black Rock Punch, 2. Steel Flame Finger. You can consume 10 Star Dust to selectively extract one."
...
"10 Star Dust for selective extraction?"
"The skill star cards generated randomly from the star core can be chosen selectively?"
Su Yuan was momentarily stunned. Wasn't this more of a card-drawing master than a card-drawing master?
Card drawing masters only marginally increase the probability, while he could randomly select through the system at the cost of some Star Dust!
Even if the skills are of the same quality, there are good and bad among them.
For ordinary white cards like Black Rock Punch and Steel Flame Finger, the difference might not be significant. But for elite green cards or master blue cards, even epic purple cards, the gap between unpopular skills and top skills could be vast!
Suppressing his excitement, Su Yuan decided to test it: "System, extract Steel Flame Finger!"
As soon as the command was given, the Star Dust points in the system immediately decreased by 10. At the same time, blue starlight dust poured into the star core through Su Yuan's arm.
The Star Power inside the core surged, birthing black and red radiance, which circulated around the surface.
Within a few seconds, the star core slowly dissolved and vanished, leaving a white card with a drawing of the Rock Melt Beast lying quietly in Su Yuan's hand.
On the card, the Rock Melt Beast extended its right index finger, completely fiery red, wrapped with strands of red flame!
[Steel Flame Finger]
[Element: Fire]
[Grade: Ordinary]
[Introduction: Transforms Star Power into fire attribute, concentrating it in the finger, unleashing a penetrating and burning strike]
"It really is Steel Flame Finger, this is awesome!"
Su Yuan was excited not because of Steel Flame Finger but because he confirmed the system's "extraction" function!
Being able to select any skill from the star core could greatly save resources and accelerate his growth, even if not used for profit.
"Let's use this [Steel Flame Finger]."
Su Yuan held the [Steel Flame Finger] star card, channeling spiritual power to activate it.
Soon, the [Steel Flame Finger] card vanished from his hand, turning into a white star hovering around the Azure Sky Phoenix Soul Card.
Su Yuan raised his right hand. With a thought, the Steel Flame Finger star card beside the Soul Card emitted a bright light. Simultaneously, a large amount of Star Power surged to Su Yuan's right hand. Instantly, strands of red flame coiled around his index finger, radiating powerful energy.
Surveying the area, Su Yuan walked over to the gray-black rock the Rock Melt Beast leaned on and poked at the stone with his finger!
"Steel Flame Finger!"
It was like poking into coal. Su Yuan felt only slight resistance as his finger made a charred black hole, finger-thick, in the stone. There wasn't a single crack around the hole.
After the strike, the Star Power of the fire attribute on Su Yuan's finger was exhausted.
"What a powerful destructive force!"
The unexpectedly strong power of Steel Flame Finger amazed Su Yuan.
The small hole precisely showed the concentrated power of the strike without any dispersion—a feat Su Yuan couldn't achieve before. The stone surface would have cracked along with the hole.
In fact, Steel Flame Finger is a close-range physical attack skill boosted by strength, influenced by strength and Star Power.
Post-awakening, Su Yuan's C-level strength and Star Power talents were far superior to ordinary people.
No matter the skill, close or long-range, physical or energy, attack or defense, Su Yuan's six-dimensional all-C talents could exert the strongest effect.
Feeling the Star Power within him, Su Yuan noticed the overall consumption wasn't much; he could use it several times at full capacity.
Nodding in satisfaction, Su Yuan summoned the system to start adding points.
"System, enhance Steel Flame Finger three times."
After using the extraction function and consuming 10 Star Dust, he still had 50 points. He could first spend 30 points to enhance Steel Flame Finger to master level.
Starlight dust appeared within him, flowing into the mini star card of [Steel Flame Finger]. The card lit up three times, ascending to master level.
Now, the system panel showed Su Yuan's information as follows:
[Su Yuan]
[Level: Star Apprentice Eighth Stage]
[Soul Card: Azure Sky Phoenix]
[Grade: Master]
[Species: Phoenix]
[Element: Space]
[Talent: Azure Sky: Enhances space-related skills by 20%]
[Six Dimensions: Strength C, Agility C, Defense C, Constitution C, Spirit C, Star Power C]
[Soul Skill: Instant Movement (Master: Entry-level)]
[Skill: Steel Flame Finger (Ordinary: Master)]
[Star Dust: 20]
"It's at master level already…" Su Yuan marveled at the system's power again. "Today, I got Steel Flame Finger. I'll rest for now. Starting tomorrow, I'll look for other skills and upgrade Steel Flame Finger and Instant Movement!"