Miraculous Forger of the Collapse Chapter 43

"Because excessive intelligence would make me cease to be myself." His mind's abnormal activity allowed Chen Li to instantly grasp the situation.

Absolute intelligence would create absolute rationality, and excessive rationality would lead to emotional indifference.

By then, family, love, and friendship would all become mere embellishments that could be discarded at any time.

The plan had to be completed; everything outside the plan could be abandoned.

Before his Intelligence stat exceeded its limit, Chen Li was still Chen Li. Once it did, perhaps only the "Miraculous Forger" would remain.

For example, objectively speaking, helping Tonghua forge miraculous items to create miracles would absolutely yield fewer crystals than turning Tonghua herself into a miraculous item.

Elysia was not necessary to the Previous Civilization either, because Chen Li could completely replace her with miraculous items.

Every one of Chen Li's former clients could be reused, because "protagonists" were the finest forging materials to begin with.

If he became just a little more level-headed, a little more rational, a little more ruthless...

In his current state, Chen Li could begin to understand what might happen once Intelligence broke past its limit. Yet his Intelligence was also warning him—his thoughts were still far too childish!

The coldness and ruthlessness of geniuses had never been something ordinary people could imagine.

"Very well. My super intelligence tells me I should choose super strength." Chen Li made his choice.

Even if his body broke past its limit and turned him into some freakishly strong man unable to control his own power, the worst-case scenario was that he would stop being human.

But if his Intelligence broke past its limit, the consequence would be that he would no longer be "Chen Li."

"Hey, Xiao Li, are you in the workshop? I just finished a mission and happen to be free. Want to come learn archery combat from me?" A knock sounded at the door, followed by Elysia poking her head in through the doorway.

"You could clearly just barge in, yet you knocked first before barging in. You're so considerate I could cry," Chen Li said, deeply moved.

"Mhm, mhm. Elysia has always been so understanding. So, shall we go?"

"Let's go!"

Chen Li's super intelligence told him that he should choose super comprehension now.

Elysia's Mysterious Shop

"Since I accepted the task of teaching you archery, I'll definitely teach you properly. First is the technique for drawing the bow. If your form is wrong, it's easy to injure yourself."

"Teacher Elysia, I've used the Peaceful Longbow before. I know a little about archery, so I do know that much common sense."

"You know my ass! Was that you drawing a bow? You were launching missiles! Watch carefully and learn properly."

"Oh..."

But did teaching someone how to use a bow really require standing this close?

Watching Elysia hold his hand and teach him, hand over hand, how to use a bow, Chen Li pondered for a second before choosing to stop thinking.

Chen Li's super comprehension told him that now was the time to learn archery.

"Your stance is the foundation of archery. It determines how stable your body is while shooting."

"Holding the bow is just as important as drawing it, especially the draw. As a beginner, you need the bowstring to touch your face so you can better lock onto the enemy's position. From that perspective, girls with good figures can find it rather troublesome to learn—like me."

"When aiming, keep your breathing steady and minimize any movement in your body."

"Very good. You learn quickly. You've already mastered all the basic techniques for using a bow." Elysia looked at her student with considerable satisfaction.

"Mm, I really have gotten the hang of it." Chen Li glanced at his skill.

Archery Combat LV2 (11/200)

With the boost from the Miraculous Forger's Level 2 class level, Chen Li could quickly get started when learning Level 1 skills.

On top of that, Chen Li had invested all his Skill Points into comprehension and learning speed, so learning Archery Combat was simple.

"Learning archery combat requires you to avoid arrogance and impatience. Since you've already learned all the basics of Elysia Archery Combat, now... go kill that five-meter-tall Chariot-Class Honkai Beast." After Elysia pressed the training button in Moth Chasing Flame's practice room, a Honkai Beast was deployed inside.

"Huh? Can I use killing intent?" Chen Li asked casually.

One Arrow Once Slaughtered a Million Demons (Miracle Card)

Effect 2: Whenever you learn any skill related to "arrows" or ranged combat, you will progress by leaps and bounds, and your ranged weapons will gain the "killing intent" effect. This effect will continuously grow stronger as the number of demons and ghouls, goblins and monsters, and evil people you slaughter increases.

"Don't use killing intent. Kill this Honkai Beast with standard-issue weapons, okay?" Elysia called out to Chen Li from the side.

Elysia knew Chen Li had this skill, which was precisely why she had not stopped him from learning archery.

Times had changed. If you had neither magical energy to gather magical arrows nor killing intent to increase the power of your arrows, you might as well use a gun.

"Huh?" Chen Li looked at Elysia, his eyes filled with confusion.

Are you serious?

It was like playing Elden Ring. You started as a Wretch, and the tutorial taught you the movement keys, jumping, and rolling...

Very good. Now go kill the Golden Tree Guardian!

"That's the only way it'll have a training effect. Besides, if you can kill this Chariot-Class Honkai Beast within half an hour, there'll be a reward." Elysia smiled mysteriously.

"Even if you say that..."

"And I'll give you something guaranteed to contain a precious modifier!"

"Ooh, ooh, ooh! I'm fired up!" Chen Li instantly clenched his longbow.

Chen Li's super comprehension told him that now was the time to use super combat intuition!

Then Chen Li dumped all his skill experience into Archery Combat!

The Chariot-Class Honkai Beast was known as a rookie killer in Moth Chasing Flame's records.

Even a well-trained warrior with only cold weapons in hand had an extremely low chance of surviving an encounter with a five-meter-tall Chariot-Class Honkai Beast.

If a rookie like Chen Li encountered a Chariot-Class Honkai Beast, his odds of winning were fifty-fifty.

A Chariot-Class Honkai Beast would chase Chen Li until he was completely exhausted within five minutes.

At least, that was what Elysia had originally thought.

Elysia had even prepared a consolation prize for Chen Li long ago.

"..."

"Um, Teacher Elysia, why are you looking at me like that?" Chen Li asked quietly, feeling a little uneasy beneath Elysia's stare.

At Chen Li's feet lay the Chariot-Class Honkai Beast, successfully slain and slowly dissipating.

"Don't call me teacher. You're better at Elysia Archery Combat than I am. I should be calling you teacher," Elysia said dejectedly.

"Alright then, little Elysia. Why are you looking at me like that?"

"???"

Looking at Chen Li, who was seriously concerned about her, Elysia could not help laughing out loud.

"Are you serious?" Elysia reached out and pinched Chen Li's cheek.

You ungrateful disciple!

"Ah, sorry. I put all my points into battle instinct just now, so my emotional intelligence dropped straight to zero." Chen Li's eyes, which had been as clear as a college student's, quickly returned to normal. He pressed his palms together and apologized directly.

"Points? What points?" Curiosity once again filled Elysia's thoughts.

Of course, the reason she was so quickly led off-topic was also because Chen Li's words were sincere enough—Chen Li had always thought Elysia was very beautiful.

"It's an ability that lets me redistribute my body's objective attributes and all my skill experience. Looking at it now, while extreme allocation can increase efficiency, it also creates all kinds of problems." Chen Li pinched the bridge of his nose.

Elysia had clearly been expressing her curiosity just now, yet Chen Li had genuinely failed to notice it.

He was straight to the extreme.

"I understand. Just now, you put all the experience from every skill you knew into my Archery Combat, which was why you could deal with that Chariot-Class Honkai Beast so easily, right?" Elysia said thoughtfully.

"That's right. And I found that even after promptly canceling that state, my Archery Combat experience really did increase quite a bit," Chen Li said.

Archery Combat LV2 (101/200)

Chen Li had studied for over half an hour just to gain 111 experience points, raising Archery Combat to LV2 (11/200), and that was with the bonus from the Miraculous Forger class rank.

Yet after spending five minutes taking down a Chariot-Class Honkai Beast, he had directly gained 90 experience points.

This meant... after raising his class rank, practicing this skill could earn a massive amount of experience.

"Coach, I want to learn this! I'm willing to trade my insomnia for my body's metabolic rate. That way, I can sleep well every day and eat without getting fat!" Elysia quickly raised her hand.

"You want all the good things for yourself, huh? But I've never used this ability on anyone else before. Let me see..." Chen Li pointed at Elysia as he placed a hand on her shoulder, attempting to redistribute her.

After quite a while, Chen Li finally removed his hand from Elysia's shoulder, then regretfully shook his head at her.

"Doctor, what's wrong with me? Don't tell me I'm beyond saving?" Elysia quickly clasped Chen Li's hand, looking as though she were about to cry, utterly nervous.

"You're beyond saving. I recommend burial, then putting my name in your will."

"Wuwuwu~"

"Ahem, alright, down to business. The good news is that it can be adjusted. The bad news is that the allocation is permanent, and you can't trade your insomnia for your metabolic rate." Chen Li spread his hands.

"I see... Then forget it. Let's keep practicing archery. But this time, let's change the teaching method." Elysia raised a finger.

Elysia had an idea.

"Hm?"

"You teach me. I feel like your Elysia Archery Combat skill level might be higher than mine now." Elysia patted Chen Li on the shoulder.

"That makes sense." Chen Li nodded thoughtfully.

Chen Li remembered a method called the Feynman Technique: explain what you learned to someone else, and if you could explain it clearly, then you had truly mastered it.

Chen Li had just checked. Elysia's Elysia Archery Combat was LV8, while his was LV10, but the experience from all his current skills was not enough to support breaking the limit.

The experience required to break through to Level 11 was an astronomical figure.

Everyone was constantly improving.

In the Previous Civilization era, Kevin improved the fastest, but Elysia's rate of improvement was not slow either.

"So, let's go!" Elysia was brimming with enthusiasm.

Next time, she would definitely solo-kill a Herrscher!

"Go where?"

"Of course, to the battlefield for practical instruction." Elysia grabbed Chen Li's hand and ran out of the training room.

"By the way, weren't you going to give me a precious trait? What kind of trait is it?"

"You dummy, shouldn't you be asking what reward I prepared for you first?" Elysia shot Chen Li a sidelong glare.

"You have a point, so... what kind of trait is it?"

"..."

"Hmph! See for yourself what trait it is!" Elysia folded her arms and turned her head away in a huff.

"Emmm... I think I'd better take a look at the special reward first." Chen Li's instincts told him that, now that the item was truly in his hands, saying a few nice things wouldn't hurt.

"Really?"

"Fine, no. Tsk tsk tsk, this is simply a perfect creation!" Chen Li clicked his tongue in admiration as he looked at the crystal before him.

Look at that clarity, that pose, that color, look at...

Elysia had dragged Chen Li to where the Honkai beasts gathered, then put what they had learned into brutal practice for an entire afternoon.

In Chen Li's words, he felt as if Elysia had nearly wrung all his knowledge dry, while Elysia herself had grown at an astonishing rate.

Seeing this scene, the thoroughly drained Chen Li felt that his life had no regrets.

And now, it was finally time for Elysia to fulfill her promise.

"If you put it that way, I really can't stay mad. Well? I'd originally planned to give this to you as the ultimate gift after you finished your training. But... it was hard to say who had graduated first now." Elysia was very pleased with Chen Li's expression.

"But Elysia, what made you think of carving the crystal into your own likeness?" Chen Li casually asked as he looked at the statue before him, which was practically a life-sized figure of Elysia.

The statue before him was entirely formed from pink crystal, mysterious and magnificent.