CHAPTER 52: CHAPTER 52: HAND OF FULL MASTERY

[You have 10 Star Shards, would you like to synthesize them into 1 Starlight?]

Confirm!

Ten Star Shards floating around the pale blue transparent crystal, shining with cross-shaped light, are kneaded together by some great force, forming a Starlight with an eight-pointed glow.

Without hesitation, Lin Guang used his intention to place this Starlight into the last light point within the semi-transparent crystal, where a large hand reaching skywards could be faintly seen.

In an instant, the crystal in the Sea of Spirit released a dazzling brilliance.

Lin Guang took a deep breath, attempting to use his Spiritual Power within the Sea of Spirit to perceive what had happened.

But...

Perhaps because his Level was too low, or maybe there was nothing hidden in the first place, he couldn’t perceive anything in the Sea of Spirit aside from the white light itself.

Lin Guang felt a bit disappointed, but he immediately sensed something strange with his hands, a sensation mirroring in the Sea of Spirit.

Not long after, that subtle feeling faded, almost like a still pond compared to the Power of Whole Heart and Soul.

He took a deep breath, without any contempt, and drove the recently acquired Ability with an indescribable feeling.

Hand of Full Mastery activated!

In the next moment, Lin Guang’s hands, reflected in the sunlight, suddenly felt a kind of thrill.

He sensed that within a five-centimeter radius centered on his palms, there was something very minute and full of spirituality.

That was—

A mixture of Ether with various Attributes!

And seemingly driven by his Thought, the Ether began to slowly aggregate, finally popping with a small visible white dot in the palm of his hand.

No one noticed.

But Lin Guang didn’t know when he had already held his breath.

[Hand of Full Mastery: Your hands can to some extent perceive and intervene with Ether.]

[The strength of perception and interference is based on your three core Skills Level and Spiritual Power strength.]

The introduction was eerily simple, but just like "the less words, the bigger the news," the Hand of Full Mastery, as the core ability of the System, has an irreplaceable effect.

If the effect of the Eye of Omniscience and Omnipotence is absolute information, the Power of Whole Heart and Soul is absolute power, then the Hand of Full Mastery represents absolute execution.

In reality, its degree of freedom and potential is probably what’s most worth looking forward to.

Simultaneously, the talent tree after each core ability in the crystal finally begins to slowly sprout and grow, taking the form of three small saplings.

But they do not expand upwards towards those leaves, instead—

Downwards!

Below each talent tree, where the roots are located, appeared a lit pool, as if needing to be watered to allow the trees to grow robustly.

As expected, just like in a game.

Why isn’t the progress bar for Star Shards called the Starlight progress bar?

It’s simple.

Because Star Shards are the most basic unit of currency within the System; Starlight is actually a higher level currency.

And what Star Shards can do is—

Used to draw from the primary talent pool of each branch.

That’s right, this talent tree system also comes with a gacha-like system.

The so-called three core talents are named core talents rather than just talents because each branch has tier 1 and tier 2 talents to use with the core talents, for instance, the pool for the Cultivator includes some systems that complement the Hand of Full Mastery, while the Warrior would have talents related to the Power of Whole Heart and Soul, and so forth.

Three points to note:

1. You need to draw a tier 1 talent, and only one tier 1 talent can extend under each core talent.

2. The draw requires consuming 5 Star Shards (locking a talent allows you to freely grasp one tier 2 talent), if dissatisfied with the draw result, you can continue to consume 5 Star Shards to re-draw;

3. The drawn tier 1 talent does not take effect until you lock it and cannot change it thereafter.

For example, in the pool of "Power of Whole Heart and Soul," there are at least a dozen tier 1 talents, such as "Fire Attribute Master," "Dragon Master," etc. Lin Guang drew "Fire Attribute Master," felt that the Flame Fruit wasn’t appealing, spent 5 Star Shards to re-draw three times, and ended up with "Dragon Master," which he found acceptable and locked, then the seed of "Dragon Master" would implant into the core talent, beneath which tier 2 talents related to Dragon-type Spirit Beast would extend.

This nature implies a high cost of trial and error in the gacha system, as Starlight seems akin to the "drawing resources" in some open-world games, with the official (System) not allowing you easy acquisition; thus, even if the drawn tier 1 talent isn’t your top pick, sometimes you have to compromise. Otherwise, your ability advancement can’t keep up with the accelerated Star Shards progress, leading to an unresolvable loop.

Luckily, this tier 1 talent pool isn’t too deep, and rarely yields trash, so no need to become overly anxious...

A load of crap! Seeing it a few times still makes you want to rant, alright!

A trench is the gacha system, enduring a second without cursing makes one a Divine Being.

But having said that, Lin Guang quickly settled his mind, reality indeed couldn’t reset, but "Spirit Battle Chronicles" itself is an autosave game, preventing mid-way SL, to which he’s already accustomed.

Lin Guang pondered for a while.

If the game system remains unchanged and the game experience remains transferable, based on his situation, Lin Guang’s first target would be any one among [Tuner], [Master of Potions], or [Celestial Doctor] within the "Healer" talent pool, though they slightly vary in focus, their capabilities are largely similar. If things go really awry, making them all unattainable, then [Life-taking Poison Master] would also be acceptable.

In the game, there are sixteen tier 1 talents under Healer, as long as luck isn’t terrible, about 20 Star Shards should suffice for a draw.

Counting taking Vishdair out to "knock over" some "little buddies" over the weekend, about two to three weeks should be adequate.

Having sorted his thoughts, Lin Guang meditated for another twenty minutes, until the surrounding Ether in the Spiritual Element was similar to the outside world, then got up and left the Meditation Room.

On the first floor of the Meditation Building, Lin Guang unexpectedly bumped into Wang Dawei sprinting through the door like a hundred-meter dash.

"What’s up with you?"

"Cough, cough." After catching his breath and wiping away some sweat, Wang Dawei straightened up, "Sorry, sorry, I was busy showing off my big bird to a girl from the neighboring class at noon, didn’t check my phone at all, just now too, saw it after the school bus had already left for a while."

—"Big bird" is the name he gave to the White Phoenix Parrot.

"Couldn’t you just say it on the phone?"

"What’s with that?" Wang Dawei laughed heartily, "Would I not give you that respect if you asked me to wait a bit? Just when I saw the message it wasn’t too late, since after your meditation class you always linger for another thirty minutes anyway, I pulled out a few bills from my pocket to have the driver stop. Uncertain about when the school bus would come again, I ran all the way back."

"..."

After a pause, Lin Guang dispelled the thought of asking "why not just pay some seniors to give him a ride using their Spirit Beasts" — he was sure Wang Dawei would be very willing to do so, just didn’t consider it.