The northwestern outskirts of the Great Barbarian Mountain Area, sandwiched between Guangchuan City and the northeastern Second Stage City, Qingye City, were ringed by both cities.
In the dense forest within the mountains, a handsome young man in a green and black school uniform was swiftly moving through the woods. The four characters, "Qingye High School," were embroidered in gold thread on his uniform.
Just as the young man was about to pass a tree that required two people to encircle, suddenly, a green shadow shot down from the tree!
The young man reacted quickly. The black and red longsword in his hand immediately turned red hot and slashed at the black shadow above his head as fast as a phantom, cutting it into two pieces that fell to the ground.
It turned out to be a chameleon python skilled in ambush.
The chameleon python could change its skin color for camouflage and hide its aura.
The chameleon python, cut in half, was not dead yet. It twisted its upper body and attempted to leap again to bite the young man.
"Eighth Stage chameleon python, truly courting death."
The young man seemed to be in a bad mood. Seeing the python's futile efforts, he swiftly swung his longsword again.
In just a few moments, the three to four-meter-long Eighth Stage chameleon python was chopped into a dozen pieces scattered around.
"No sign of Flame Crystal Stones but an endless stream of these pesky things!"
"According to the information provided by the Star Card Master Association, that Flame Crystal Stone should be in this area near Guangchuan City, guarded by a Bronze Early Stage Fire Stepping Wolf. I've been here for three days and still haven't seen any trace of the Fire Stepping Wolf."
The young man suppressed the frustration in his heart and sighed softly.
Taking out a handkerchief to wipe off the snake blood from his sword, he casually retrieved the chameleon python's Star Core, then continued deeper into the forest...
Time passed quickly, and a week had gone by since Su Yuan entered the Great Barbarian Mountain Area.
Besides killing numerous Star Apprentice-level Star Beasts, Su Yuan had also encountered a real Bronze-level Star Beast yesterday, a Wind Running Weasel with incredible speed!
Bronze-level Star Beasts were at least twice as strong in all aspects as Star Apprentice Ninth Rank Beasts, with terrifying strength.
Fortunately, Su Yuan made rapid progress thanks to the system's points. His current strength far surpassed what it had been when he first entered the Great Barbarian Mountain Area.
Having enhanced the Steel Flame Finger 15 times, it had reached the Perfect Level. In addition, the Instant Movement had successfully been enhanced once, and just that one time cost a whopping 200 Star Dust points!
This meant that the enhancement cost of a Blue Card was 20 times that of a White Card!
However, the effect was also visibly significant. The casting time of Instant Movement decreased from 1 second to about 0.7 seconds, and the interval between casts reduced from 7 seconds to 5 seconds.
As for the maximum distance of Instant Teleportation, which related to skill level and Star Power, it increased from 10 meters to 20 meters.
It was imaginable that this blue skill would only become stronger in the future.
Unfortunately, the Star Dust required for enhancements was too much. From a cost-effectiveness perspective, it was better to be patient for the time being.
Additionally, Su Yuan had also acquired another rather good defense enhancement skill, Hardened Iron Skin, from an Iron-backed Ape.
With Hardened Iron Skin quickly maxed to the Great Success Stage, Su Yuan gained a lot of error tolerance in battles.
Especially when dealing with the Wind Running Weasel.
As a Bronze-level Star Beast skilled in speed, the Wind Running Weasel was exceedingly fast and even had a skill to increase movement speed, "Wind Walking." Even Su Yuan couldn't match it.
Luckily, the Great Success Stage Hardened Iron Skin could withstand most of the Wind Running Weasel's attacks, including Wind Blade, allowing Su Yuan to kill it with a combination of Instant Movement and Steel Flame Finger after an intense battle of grappling and dodging!
Finally, Su Yuan spent Star Dust to extract "Wind Walking," embedding it into the Star Power Vortex as his third skill.
The value of Wind Walking was almost comparable to Steel Flame Finger—both were very useful skills among White Cards. Just the Entry-level Wind Walking further increased Su Yuan's speed by another 20%!
"I've been out here for over a week now. Supplies are running low, so I should head out to rest and replenish."
Su Yuan now looked quite distressed. His clothes were torn in many places, mostly shredded by the Wind Running Weasel, and were stained red and green with the blood and fluids of numerous Star Beasts, looking like they had been dyed. Even washing in the stream couldn't clean them.
Furthermore, he had a few injuries on his body, but they weren't serious. Thanks to the recovery ability of his C-grade stamina and some medication, most of them had already scabbed over.
"Too bad I haven't encountered any Star Beasts with healing skills," Su Yuan regretted slightly. "Otherwise, learning a Healing Skill would allow me to be completely self-sufficient."
Su Yuan examined the situation within his Star Power Vortex. As he expected, he still had the capacity to learn two more skills.
When he reached the Bronze Level, he would have five new skill slots, so Su Yuan didn't have to worry about wasting skill slots like others did.
Generally, Star Card Skills were secondary; they just needed to be useful. There was no need to think too much about them. The real focus should be on choosing Soul Skills carefully.
Soul Skills were Star Card Skills directly embedded into the Soul Card, typically receiving extra boosts from talents. They came with an initial one upon awakening.
Afterward, from the Bronze Level onward, a new Soul Skill could be embedded at each level, and only embedding a Soul Skill would allow cultivation to proceed to the next realm.
This was the fundamental reason why awakening a Soul Card was a prerequisite for becoming a Star Card Master. Besides speeding up Star Power cultivation, the core reason was that the inherent Soul Skill of a Soul Card opened the door to the Bronze Level.
The quality, level, and compatibility of the Soul Skill with the Soul Card would also influence the strength of the Soul Card's second awakening.
The first skill slot on the Soul Card would open at the Bronze Level. Though it would take some time, Su Yuan could start scouting for suitable skills.
Compatibility had no fixed standard; however, for Soul Cards with attributes, a basic rule was to embed Star Card Skills matching the attribute of the Soul Card.
Therefore, Su Yuan needed high-quality space-related skills.
As for skill levels, with the system's help, they could always be increased, so that wasn't an issue.
The issue was that space-related, time-related, and some other special attribute Star Beast skills were rare and generally higher in quality compared to elemental attributes, making them hard to find.
"There's no use worrying too much now. When the time comes, there will be a way. If worst comes to worst, when I enter the Star Power Academy, with a larger platform, I'll definitely find some leads on space-related skills."
Shaking his head, Su Yuan put on his deflated backpack, took out a map and a compass, determined his direction, and started heading back.
After nearly half a day's walk, Su Yuan suddenly heard the rustling sound of someone moving quickly through the dense forest in the distance.
He immediately became alert, turning to look.
Soon, a young man in a school uniform came into view, fleeing in distress, while seven or eight grey wolves with green flames on their legs were chasing closely behind him.
Sensing the Star Apprentice Ninth Rank aura from those grey wolves, Su Yuan couldn't help but pause: "This guy, did he stir up a Stepping Flame Grey Wolf pack?"
Just then, miraculously, the young man noticed Su Yuan and his eyes lit up. He changed direction and ran towards Su Yuan, shouting loudly, "Brother, help me!"