Special Skill: Extraction Method!

Her younger sister's voice came from outside the door:

"Sis, get up and have breakfast."

"Coming, coming!"

Molly snapped back to her senses, hurriedly answered, quickly changed clothes, and opened the door.

Outside, her younger sister wore a neat blue-and-white school uniform. Her little face was slightly flushed, and there was a trace of barely noticeable guilt in her eyes.

"Sis, why do you look so pale?"

Moyan asked worriedly:

"Didn't you sleep well last night?"

Molly avoided her sister's gaze.

"N... no. I slept quite well last night. I'm probably just tired from studying lately."

She would never admit that she had been so nervous from being held by her sister all night that she had barely slept at all!

Hearing Molly's words, Moyan visibly relaxed and muttered to herself:

Good. Sis really didn't notice.

Living room.

The two sat at the dining table, silently eating breakfast.

Molly did not dare look at her sister the entire time and only kept her head down as she drank her porridge.

Yet her mind could not help wandering, because her sister had been acting very strangely lately!

Still, her sister was in poor health, somewhat introverted, and going through puberty. She must have had some unspeakable reason.

As long as her sister did not do anything too outrageous, Molly would turn a blind eye.

At the very least, her sister had not been lured away by some dyed-blond punk at school!

After breakfast, her sister slung on her backpack, said goodbye to Molly, and went to school.

Molly watched her sister's retreating figure, shook her head helplessly, and returned to her bedroom.

She had no time to go to school.

Ever since obtaining the Magic Puppet, she had been letting it attend school in her place while she stayed home to focus on practicing swordsmanship and studying alchemy.

Back in her bedroom, Molly first took out the Broken Sword and began practicing Basic Swordsmanship.

Time flew by.

Noon.

"Phew..."

Molly exhaled a breath of stale air, stopped practicing, and checked the Proficiency Panel.

[Basic Swordsmanship, Tier 4: 9998/10000]

After all that training, Basic Swordsmanship only needed two more proficiency points to break through to Tier 5!

However, she could sense that this breakthrough would be unlike any of the previous ones.

The power within her seemed to be brewing some astonishing transformation. A faint sense of hunger rose within her, as though she needed an enormous amount of energy to complete the breakthrough.

"It looks like this breakthrough is anything but simple."

Molly pondered to herself:

"I can't break through carelessly. I need to make thorough preparations, or insufficient energy might damage my foundation."

Having realized this, Molly temporarily set aside the idea of practicing swordsmanship and turned to pick up the alchemy book on the table.

She sat before her desk and began reading it carefully.

Sunlight streamed through the window and fell across the pages, warm and comforting.

Molly read with great focus, occasionally taking out paper and pen to write down important points.

Second by second, time passed. In the blink of an eye, an hour had gone by.

As she completely absorbed a piece of knowledge, the panel before her suddenly changed.

[Alchemy, Tier 2: 1/10000]

A vast torrent of information instantly flooded Molly's mind.

Countless pieces of knowledge about alchemy merged together in her mind.

She felt as though she had instantly become a fairly experienced alchemist. She now knew the properties of many medicinal ingredients, the combinations of formulas, and the proper heat for refining medicine like the back of her hand.

Molly was overjoyed. Just as she was about to close the book, she inadvertently caught sight of its final page.

That page had previously been filled with strange writing, like some ancient incantation that she could not understand at all.

But now, after her alchemy skill had broken through to Tier 2, the words seemed to come alive and automatically translated themselves into language she could understand.

[Extraction Method: Special skill. Directly extracts the essence of medicinal ingredients or food ingredients, refining them into the purest energy.]

Molly's eyes instantly lit up.

"There's actually a skill like this?"

She hurriedly read the notes below with care.

[Example: From one hundred jin of rice, one jin of Rice Essence can be obtained through Extraction. After consuming it, an adult can go three months without hunger.]

[Example: From a century-old ginseng plant, one drop of ginseng essence can be obtained through Extraction. After consuming it, it can rapidly restore stamina and nourish the body.]

"Holy crap!"

Molly was so excited that she nearly jumped up.

This Extraction Method was practically tailor-made for her!

She had been worrying about needing a huge amount of energy for her breakthrough.

With this skill, she could directly use Extraction to obtain the essence of food ingredients and replenish her energy quickly. There was no need to eat meal after meal—it would save both time and effort!

Without further delay, Molly immediately put down the book and ran to the kitchen.

The rice jar in the kitchen was still filled to the brim with rice.

Molly stood before the rice jar and followed the Extraction Method's incantation, channeling the magic power within her and concentrating it at her fingertips.

"Extraction!"

She shouted softly and lightly tapped the rice in the jar with her fingertips.

Nothing happened.

The rice remained unchanged.

"Hm? Did it fail?"

Molly frowned.

"Was my casting posture wrong?"

She tried again, but there was still no response.

A third time, a fourth time...

After several consecutive failures, Molly finally figured out the trick.

It was not that her posture was wrong—it was that her mental power had not been fully focused.

This time, Molly took a deep breath, cast aside all distracting thoughts, fused her mental power together, and pointed at the rice once more.

"Extraction!"

This time, there was finally a reaction!

The rice in the jar instantly lost its luster and became dull, as though all its vitality had been drained away.

Molly reached out and grabbed a handful. With a light squeeze, the rice crumbled into powder.

Meanwhile, a clump of milky-white, viscous vapor slowly floated above her fingertips.

The vapor gave off a faint fragrance of rice and looked incomparably pure.

[Extraction Method, Tier 1: 1/10000]

The information on the panel updated at just the right moment.

Molly looked at the clump of Rice Essence at her fingertips, her face breaking into an ecstatic smile.

"Success!"

She carefully put away the Rice Essence, her heart filled with accomplishment.

With this Extraction Method, let alone breaking Basic Swordsmanship through to Tier 5, she would not have to worry about insufficient energy even when breaking through to higher levels in the future!

Moreover, perhaps she could now try refining a Version 2.0 Fasting Pill!

"Hmm... If I blend this Rice Essence into the Version 1.0 Fasting Pill, does that make it a Version 2.0 Fasting Pill?"

"Wouldn't that be a little too hasty? It completely lacks the sense of ritual and refinement from cultivation novels."

"Forget it. The urgent task is to buy rice, perform Extraction to obtain more Rice Essence, and then break Basic Swordsmanship through to Tier 5."

"I wonder what changes will happen after Basic Swordsmanship breaks through to Tier 5..."

"Luoxi gave me one hundred thousand yuan before. I'll use that to buy five thousand kilograms of rice first."