Su Yuan took a slight breath, looking at the corpse of the big-eared steel-toothed dog. However, his heart was not as calm as it appeared on the surface.
After all, practice was practice. This was Su Yuan's first actual combat with a Star Beast.
"Fortunately, the result was as expected. After augmenting with the Azure Sky Phoenix's six-dimensional qualification, my physical condition could crush ordinary Star Beasts of the same level. Not to mention, these two big-eared steel-toothed dogs were only seventh stage, with a single attack pattern, so they were not too difficult."
The only difficulty in this battle was the number. The synchronization of the two big-eared steel-toothed dogs was very high. If he confronted the first one head-on, it would be hard to avoid the second one's bite.
So Su Yuan directly ignored the big-eared steel-toothed dog that pounced at him and first killed the one behind.
After reflecting on the battle process for a moment, Su Yuan walked to the big-eared steel-toothed dog that was split open and used his knife to cut out a white crystal core the size of an egg.
"Is this the Star Core?"
Su Yuan held the Star Core, and according to the Star Apprentice Class teaching method, he explored it with his spiritual power. Soon, a faint glow appeared on the Star Core.
"It's responding!" Su Yuan's eyes lit up and he continued maintaining the output of his spiritual power.
Before long, the Star Core gradually disintegrated from the outside to the inside into tiny bits of blue glowing dust. Finally, it turned into a Star Card that lay quietly in Su Yuan's hand.
This Star Card had a white back, and on the front was a big-eared steel-toothed dog with silver-gray teeth, opening its mouth in a biting stance.
[Introduction: Enhances the hardness, sharpness, and biting force of the teeth, leading to a highly destructive biting attack]
"It's indeed just Steel Teeth Bite."
According to the course taught in school, extracting Star Cards from Star Cores was random, drawing a skill from the existing skills of the Star Beast.
The big-eared steel-toothed dog had only one skill: Steel Teeth Bite. Naturally, only Steel Teeth Bite could be extracted.
"Definitely not learning it... I'm just a Star Apprentice now, with a maximum of five Star Card Skill Slots."
The more Star Cards embedded, the greater the burden on the Soul Card. Usually, Star Apprentices can only embed three to four Star Cards besides the Soul Card. Even if the Azure Sky Phoenix is of high quality, it would not exceed five.
Embedded Star Cards cannot be destroyed, but each level-up grants more skill slots.
Though "quality over quantity" is advised, and more skills are not necessarily better, nor will all skill slots be used, care should be taken to avoid waste.
Space Star Cards are rare. Even if Su Yuan couldn't find a Space Star Card temporarily, he would still choose good skills from the White Cards.
"But if I don't use it, I can certainly try the system's 'decompose' function."
Looking at the [Steel Teeth Bite] Star Card in his hand, Su Yuan tried calling out in his mind: "System, decompose this Star Card!"
Half a second later, the [Steel Teeth Bite] shone with light again, and then it turned into bits of glowing dust, seeping from his palm into Su Yuan's body, disappearing.
At the same time, the Starlight Dust number on the system panel sharply jumped from 0 to 10.
"It indeed decomposed into Star Dust, and it's 10 points!" Su Yuan's eyes were full of joy.
As previously speculated, card decomposition indeed converted Star Cards into system-required Starlight Dust, and this Ordinary Grade [Steel Teeth Bite] yielded a full 10 points of Star Dust, exactly the amount needed for one enhancement of a White Card.
"This... will really make me soar!" Su Yuan could not help but swallow.
Following the natural recovery rate of Star Dust, it restored 1 point per day, taking 10 days to raise one entry-level White Card skill to Skilled, 30 days to Master, and 70 days to Great Success.
This was already much faster than average, since training skill proficiency levels after embedding Star Card skills is not easy.
Taking Guangchuan Fourth Middle School as an example, most awakened Star Apprentice students had only one Master level skill now. Students with two or three Master level skills were rare; those with Great Success were non-existent.
But now, with just one White Card, he could reach Skilled, three for Master, and seven for Great Success!
What kind of speed was this?
Not to mention Perfect, a breakthrough to Transformation Realm could be achieved in a very short time!
Su Yuan walked to the other big-eared steel-toothed dog's corpse, applied the same technique to extract a Star Card from its Star Core, and decomposed it into Star Dust.
In this way, he had a total of 20 points of Star Dust in hand!
"At such speed..." Su Yuan looked at the undulating mountains and forests ahead, his eyes full of passion, "This Great Barbarian Mountain Area is endless proficiency points for me!"
Su Yuan lifted his long knife and without hesitation headed into the depths of the forest...
Most of the day passed, and along the way, Su Yuan encountered four types of Star Beasts: Wild Lizard, Earth Ground Pangolin, Little Tree Demon, and Double Ringed Patterned Snake.
These were all six to seventh stage Star Beasts with only one skill each. They posed no threat to Su Yuan; he crushed them all with his physical prowess and obtained four white Star Cards:
Wild Lizard's Monster Power Punch, Earth Ground Pangolin's Ground Boring Assault, Little Tree Demon's Beginner Stage Vine Dance, Double Ringed Patterned Snake's Poison Kiss.
These skills did not meet Su Yuan's expectations and were all decomposed by him.
"Finding a barely satisfying White skill is not easy..."
Su Yuan walked on the hillside, glanced at the setting sun, and couldn't help but sigh, taking out a water bottle from his backpack for a few sips.
"At most, an hour more action, then I need to find a relatively safe place to spend the night."
For Star Card Masters, staying in danger zones or secret realms for ten days to half a month was common.
Although Su Yuan was just a Star Apprentice, his school had already conducted numerous simulations on skills such as finding water sources, setting up guard lines, and shallow sleep. As long as supplies were sufficient, staying in the outskirts of the Great Barbarian Mountain Area for a week was not a problem.
However, being alone required extra caution.
While pondering, Su Yuan suddenly sensed a strong Star Power fluctuation ahead and immediately became vigilant, looking forward.
In the distance, beside a gray-black rock, a Star Beast about half the height of a man was leaning on the rock.
This was a humanoid Star Beast, standing on two legs, composed entirely of black stone, with only two fiery red pupils.
Seeing the appearance of this Star Beast, Su Yuan's eyes immediately lit up: "It's a Rock Melt Beast; my luck isn't bad after all!"
[Species: Elemental Life]
[Element: Earth, Fire]
[Talent: Solid Rock, increases the density and hardness of body black rock to a certain extent]
[Six Dimensions: Strength E, Agility F, Defense E, Constitution F, Spirit F, Star Power E]
[Skills: Black Rock Punch (Ordinary), Steel Flame Finger (Ordinary)]
This Rock Melt Beast was exactly the target Su Yuan had marked earlier in the "Low Stage Star Beast Skill Evaluation".
Its Steel Flame Finger was a mid-to-high level skill among ordinary white skills. It had high power and bursts. Given it was a skill of a humanoid Star Beast, it fit human use perfectly. Market price was around 20,000 to 30,000.
Meanwhile, its other skill, Black Rock Punch, was valued at just 7,000 to 8,000. The Steel Teeth Bite from the big-eared steel-toothed dog was less popular, fetching less than 4,000 on the market!
"Speaking of which, so far, all decomposed white cards yielded 10 points of Star Dust, while selling one [Steel Flame Finger] could buy several [Steel Teeth Bite]. Using this method seems like a way to earn a lot of Star Dust for free..."
Su Yuan pondered, wondering if there was such a bug?
However, he later learned that only Star Cards extracted by personally defeating Star Beasts could be decomposed. Star Cards given by others or purchased were not decomposable.