Chapter 7
Spirit Stone Augmentation (II)
Okay, let's see if my brilliant idea is, well, 'brilliant', or more the demented desires of a moron.
Kicking up the Creation System, the headache temporarily returned yet again as the massive screen overwhelmed me. However, since I had something specific in mind, I ignored everything besides the most simple things I needed.
From the dropdown menu of the 'Art Type', I selected the last one: Special Art. This shuffled and reshuffled some other options, graying and un-graying some others, and my eyes quickly began to wander.
Creation Points cost immediately shot up to 25 just from selecting 'Special Art', inspiring practically no confidence; moving down, under the Energy focus type, I chose Standard Qi as I figured I'd need Qi for it... which left me with just 5 remaining Creation Points to construct the logic.
However, I... noticed something. Even using Physical as Energy focus, Special Arts logic fields didn't get grayed out... which inspired some confidence, prompting me to change it as it cost 0 Creation Points.
Selecting logic was akin to selecting 'type'--mind-focused, enlightenment or insight, healing, sensory, array breaking... It was a long, long list, and there were still more fields beneath that were grayed out. For my purposes, I landed on something called 'Qi Extraction'.
Surprisingly, it was fairly cheap, costing only 5 Creation Points to add. I'd have preferred it to cost more, as it being so cheap likely meant that it wasn't that good. Nonetheless, I soldiered on, left with 10 Creation Points to spare.
The next field was the 'Unique Properties' one, which had changed with my previous selection, shuffling around choices.
The top one was 'Minor Concept Imbuement,' which cost 50 Creation Points and would allow me to add a 'concept' to the form of Qi Extraction—something like a minor concept of time, which would speed up whatever logic I was creating.
I don't need that, however.
Rather, there were really only three options that I currently had unlocked and could afford:
Staggering Imbuement -- can do concurrent actions by staggering them internally.
Binding Imbuement -- logic is bound to two objects, transferring states.
Overload Imbuement -- overload the logic, deconstructing it.
It was all... very vague, and though I loathed the thought of wasting 40 on something (even if it would turn out that it wasn't that much), I felt almost compelled to go for it. The only one that made any sense for what I was going for was 'Binding Imbuement', so I chose it, adding another 5 Creation Points to the cost.
There was a bit more reshuffling as almost every field on the screen got grayed out, and I got to the final two screens. One of them was 'Flaws & Restrictions', but the only option available was 'Applicable only to the Living Objects,' and it only lowered the cost by -15, so I simply ignored it.
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The last field was the one that wasn't initially present--Logic Classification. The system spat out about forty potential logic outcomes from my current creation and essentially asked me which one I wanted—and there it was, by some foundational miracle of the stars, not only present but also affordable.
Object Extraction -- extract Qi from the designated object. Only the Qi is extracted, leaving it in its purest form. You can then combine the extracted Qi into another shape or infuse it directly into a person/array/pill/object.
Without further ado, I clicked it, and... the output was generated at just 40 Creation Points.
[CURRENT CREATION POINTS: 40/100]
[NAME: (Please name the art; otherwise, the system will auto-generate a name upon Art Creation)]
[DESCRIPTION: Extract the most pure Qi from any object, disregarding everything else. Can immediately consume it for cultivation or reshape it into another object, retaining only Qi and nothing else. Costs Qi proportional to the amount extracted; the extracted amount cannot be used to infinitely loop replenishment.]
[TYPE: Special Art (+25 CP)]
[LOGIC: Qi Extraction (+5 CP)]
[ENERGY: Physical (+0 CP)]
[PROPERTIES: Binding Imbuement (+5 CP)]
[CLASSIFICATION: Object Extraction (+5 CP)]
[FLAWS: None (-0 CP)]
[----------]
[CALCULATED COST: 25+5+5+5 = 40 CP]
[PROJECTED RANK: Peak-Earth Tier]
[PROJECTED DIFFICULTY: Prodigious]
[CONFIRM CREATION: 40 CP] [CANCEL]
...
Hey.
If this works...
So, I reached into the pocket and pulled out a single Spirit Stone--it was the size of a fingernail, marred with black soot across its slightly rough edges, with only a shimmer of silver to be seen in its depths.
Taking a deep breath, I named the art 'Spirit Stone Augmentation' and pressed 'Confirm Creation'; immediately after, I felt a flood of knowledge assail my mind, in addition to another window appearing in front of me.
[Congratulations, Host, on creating Spirit Stone Augmentation art]
[...]
[Spirit Stone Augmentation]
[Type: Special Art]
[Rank: Peak-Earth Tier (Borderline Sky)]
[Host Comprehension: Minor (None -> Minor -> Intermediate -> Perfected -> ???)]
[...]
[Extract the most pure Qi from any object, disregarding everything else. Can immediately consume it for cultivation or reshape it into another object, retaining only Qi and nothing else. Costs Qi proportional to the amount extracted; the extracted amount cannot be used to infinitely loop replenishment]
[...]
[Creation Points Value: 40/100]
[Comprehension Difficulty: Prodigious (Easy -> Difficult -> Intermediate -> Prodigious -> ???)]
[...]
[Creation Bonus: Body Purification 1%]
[Host Body Purification Progress: 1/100%]
[Upon reaching 100%, the Host's body will be fully purified of previously accumulated toxins]
[...]
[New Quest: Pass Spirit Stone Augmentation onto your Disciple and prevent the accumulation of Spirit Toxins due to low-quality Spirit Stones]
[Reward: 15 Creation Points]
--it works!
The system itself confirmed it, granting me the quest. And yet... I still have to test it. Just to see it with my own eyes.
I took a deep breath and fondled the stone for a moment longer before executing the art; while comprehending it was as difficult as scaling the heavens, once understood, it was actually fairly easy to execute.
The stone in my hand trembled for a moment as the white tendrils escaped from its soot-suffused surface; well, that was underselling it a bit. It was akin to yanking grass from the field that really didn't want it yanked. I had to pull and pull and just barely take out individual strands of pure Qi, only managing to squeeze out six individual ones before the stone became fully black and turned to ash immediately after .
Six strands coalesced into a barely visible wisp, confirming that the art worked. I sucked them in with a quick breath and... well, didn't really feel anything. Considering my Spirit Manifestation Realm, it wasn't surprising; such a tiny amount was basically like tossing a glass of water into a massive lake. No difference to speak of.
But--
I now had yet another thing I could use to put myself in my monster Disciple's good graces! Indeed, all those years spent pretending that I was listening in school were paying off. Let's go. Handing it over sooner is better than later.
