For most of the following week, Lu Li skipped class as usual during the day, studying his skill combinations and how to control his shadow in daylight. He discovered that under direct sunlight, his shadow couldn't move at all; at most, it could provide a slight boost to his physical abilities. Indoors, he could probably separate his shadow from himself, though it would be somewhat smaller than his own body.
At night, he kept exploring what his shadow could do, controlling it as it changed shape and familiarizing himself with the process. He practiced controlling himself and his shadow at the same time, while also studying the shadow's strength, movement speed, and other attributes.
Lu Li discovered that his shadow's qualities depended on its size. When it was about the same size as his body, its strength and speed were roughly the same as his own when he wasn't using any enhancements. In a lightless environment, if he separated the entire shadow from himself, its size, strength, and other attributes would be three times his own. But there was one troublesome thing about it: Lu Li couldn't control its shape with much precision. Even after constant practice, the smallest he could make one of its tentacles was about as thick as a finger. Any thinner was difficult. So when he released the entire shadow, it was just a huge, irregular, writhing mass.
"Its friction is about the same as my skin's, so it can pick up weapons. It just isn't dexterous enough to mimic a proper hand. It can only wield a weapon by wrapping around it. Honestly, it seems easier to send up a tentacle and tie the weapon on..." Lu Li studied how to use his shadow. "It's tougher and more resilient than I am, but not by much. It can withstand blows from ordinary blades, though. Any part that gets cut off or scattered returns to me, but I can't use it again for a while. Small firearms are less of a problem. The shadow doesn't have any real weak points, so bullets just scatter a little of it. As long as I don't run into heavy gunfire, firearms aren't much of a threat. Explosions are what I have to worry about. If it gets blown apart, I can't use it for at least an hour, and even the boost to my physical abilities temporarily disappears..."
"When light shines on the shadow, some of it returns to me depending on the light's intensity. Strong light makes it disappear completely, but I can use it again right away without having to recover. The shadow can't be fully separated from me. If it is, any part that I haven't imbued with my will disappears. And I can barely divide my attention between two things as it is, let alone three." Lu Li gradually summed up his shadow's strengths and weaknesses. "It can't move very far from me, either—only fourteen meters. I could increase that by strengthening my soul, but strengthening my soul is hard to begin with..."
"Keeping the shadow in one shape doesn't seem too difficult, though. Maybe I can..." Lu Li recalled what had happened during the strengthening process that day. His eyes narrowed as an idea came to him. He would have to look up more information on the subject. Perhaps he could greatly improve his shadow's close-combat ability.
"I should also get started on making skills! I wonder if anyone's willing to trade for an Energy Module?" After thinking it over, Lu Li still packed his schoolbag and headed to school. He was still a student, after all, and staying away for too long wouldn't look good. He wiped the dust off his desk, took out some paper, and began jotting things down. First, he listed the modules he already had: eight in all. He decided to keep all his Rule Modules for now, then checked his Energy Module: Life. This module extracted life energy.
Ordinarily, a person had only a tiny amount of life energy in their body. Extracted from the flesh, it wasn't all that different from internal energy or battle aura, but it was purer and better suited to healing injuries. It was an auxiliary type of energy, and worked well for skills like healing spells.
The module wasn't useful to Lu Li, so he had already posted online, looking for someone who was selling or willing to trade it for a suitable module. He checked his stats. After half a week of accumulation, his Shadow Magic was full. He now had a little over one unit of it, and could store even more as long as his mental strength kept up. Ideally, then, he wanted a magic-based Energy Module, preferably one specifically for Shadow Magic, so his magic would flow more quickly.
Next was his Control Module. The one he already had was Spirit, which let him control skills with his mental energy. It was extremely convenient, but it consumed additional mental energy. Lu Li's mental strength was currently 0.38, accumulated naturally. If he hadn't had an almost freakish level of control, he might not even have noticed this, since it was something he'd never encountered before.
The Special Module: Primary Intelligence was probably uncommon. Hardly anyone ever discussed special modules on the forum; most people didn't even know they existed. They weren't sold in the shop, either, so it was better to hold on to it.
It seemed that mental strength was what was holding him back. He really did need a skill to train it. That brought to mind the Spirit Extraction skill template he'd seen before, which used three modules. The reviews had all been negative, but he was still quite interested in the skill. The shop had been out of the Tranquility Module before, so he hadn't been able to train with it.
He took a quick look at the shop. The Tranquility Module had finally been restocked, so Lu Li bought it immediately. He'd already bought the other two modules earlier, leaving him with only 250 Game Points.
Then he took the three modules—Soul, Tranquility, and Extraction—and, following the parameters in the post, placed them one by one into a skill slot and configured them. He named the skill Tranquility Meditation Method. He glanced back at his post and saw that nobody had replied, so he closed it and prepared to try extracting mental strength.
As soon as Lu Li touched the skill slot, he sensed something called Soul, and the skill activated. Using his freakish level of control, he instantly blocked out the unnecessary emotions and stray thoughts, then focused on counting backward from nine to one. The next moment, he entered a peculiar state. The voices of the students around him gradually faded away until the world was utterly silent, without a trace of noise or worry. He wanted to remain at peace forever. An unknown white mist quietly spread, and Lu Li's soul, too, was about to fall into eternal slumber.
Suddenly, a force of attraction appeared and shattered the tranquility. Lu Li's soul slowly awakened. When the time was up, he came to, feeling as though he'd had a good night's sleep. He even stretched before looking at his status panel. His mental strength section now read:
[Soul Assessment: 2.88; Spiritual Energy Derivation: 0.42; Shadow Mana: 1.087]
Both his mental strength and his soul assessment had increased. The results looked good, so Lu Li replied to Moon Shadow Yifeng's post: "It worked well. Thanks for the recommendation. My soul assessment went up by 0.02, and my mental energy derivation by 0.04."
He'd forgotten to mention earlier that mental derivation and mental energy were different things. The former was the upper limit; the latter was the amount actually stored. The formula for calculating magic was Soul × Mental Derivation = Maximum Magic Capacity.
Before you continue