Inside the convention center, erected plastic canopies barely shielded the venue from the cold snow falling from the sky.
However, the temperature within the entire venue inevitably began to drop. The scorching heat of 39 or even 40 degrees Celsius daily seemed like a distant illusion.
Chen Luo, still in his Emperor cosplay, stood alone on a high platform within the venue.
Su Xiao, who had already arranged the logistical matters, had something she wanted to discuss with Chen Luo.
When she found Chen Luo, she saw him standing still, eyes closed, unmoving.
As the white-haired older sister, Su Xiao, was about to approach, Hu Tao, with her twin ponytails, stopped her.
"Wait! Wait! Big Brother said he has important matters to attend to and cannot be disturbed for now!"
Su Xiao was taken aback. Looking at Hu Tao, whose height barely reached her chest, and her serious little eyes, she recognized the mascot that had been following Chen Luo.
However, thinking of what she wanted to say, Su Xiao prepared to approach again.
But Hu Tao firmly blocked Su Xiao's path. After several attempts to stop her, Su Xiao also grew a little annoyed.
She took a sudden step forward and initiated a "ball-carrying collision."
*Poof!*
Hu Tao couldn't dodge in time, and her pretty little face was buried in Su Xiao's chest.
With her breathing obstructed, Hu Tao instinctively waved her hands. Su Xiao, meanwhile, rubbed Hu Tao's little head and pressed her further in.
"Little girl, Sister really has something important to discuss, don't stop me."
"Wuu! Wuu!"
Poor Hu Tao, enveloped by softness, even lost the ability to speak.
The strong-chested woman was terrifying!
While the two were playfully tussling, Chen Luo, who had been standing with his eyes closed, was undergoing earth-shattering changes within his body.
...
An hour before Su Xiao's arrival,
Chen Luo was studying the numerous skills he had just acquired.
Relying on the "Unlimited Firepower" talent, Chen Luo faced no cooldown issues when using any skill, which gave him the possibility to endlessly increase his skill levels.
At this moment, Chen Luo's spirit attribute had reached 85 points. He vaguely felt a transformation brewing within his spirit, as if his attributes were approaching a certain critical threshold.
This high spirit attribute also provided him with great convenience when using skills.
The principle behind these conventional F-grade skills was to circulate the special energy within a professional's body along a specific trajectory to achieve special effects.
This circulation time was the casting time of the skill. With the assistance of the system's ghost, all professionals could basically complete skills within the casting time described in the skill description.
But here lay a problem: for a powerful mage whose spirit attribute was tens of times higher than that of an ordinary person, when using the most basic "Mage Hand,"
Would they still spend fifteen seconds to cast the skill, just like a level 0 novice?
The answer was no! Fifteen seconds was the limit a novice mage could achieve with system assistance, but it was not Chen Luo's limit.
His will guided his spirit, and pale blue mana energy flowed along the specific spell trajectory. The originally complex spell trajectory seemed quite simple in Chen Luo's eyes.
In less than a second, the skill was instantly formed, and a giant pale blue hand abruptly appeared before Chen Luo.
[F-grade "Mage Hand" successfully cast. Due to the player's excessively high spirit attribute, the casting time for this skill is 0.7 seconds, duration is 850 seconds, consuming 10 mana per second.]
It was a magical feeling, as if his spirit had an external, controllable organ.
With a thought from Chen Luo, the pale blue Mage Hand casually grasped a metal iron pipe.
Under his mental control, the pale blue hand clenched tightly, and the solid iron pipe, made of steel, was instantly crushed into a ball.
*Thump!*
The Mage Hand opened again, and a ball of steaming hot iron heavily crashed onto the ground. The giant Mage Hand in front of Chen Luo had already vanished without a trace.
"Quite interesting. If its strength increases with spirit attribute, this skill is much more powerful than I imagined."
The sustained Mage Hand, compared to a one-time burst like Fireball, had a much wider range of uses, so Chen Luo was very satisfied with this skill.
"If this skill continues to improve, it will be no different from the telekinesis in fantasies. Then let me see what this skill will become after improvement!"
A pale blue light flashed again in Chen Luo's eyes. Normally, after using this skill, a mage would require a fifteen-minute cooldown.
But for Chen Luo, this skill could be used continuously!
Mana flowed through the void, and a mysterious spell trajectory instantly formed. A new Mage Hand appeared before Chen Luo, but the moment the Mage Hand materialized, Chen Luo directly canceled the skill!
[Mage Hand successfully cast! Skill proficiency +1! Mage Hand skill has been canceled.]
In just a few seconds, Chen Luo had completed the required number of casts for an upgrade! Mage Hand had undergone its first transformation.
[Proficiency met, your "Mage Hand" skill has been upgraded to E-grade. Active effect increased, new passive effect added: +5 Spirit attribute.]
Chen Luo practiced the "Mage Hand" skill because he had a feeling that he would gain significant benefits after upgrading Mage Hand.
And now, looking at his spirit attribute, which had reached 90 points, Chen Luo felt that the sense of impending transformation within his spirit was becoming increasingly apparent.
It was clear that as Mage Hand continued to upgrade and his spirit attribute continued to increase, his spirit would undergo significant changes.
That premonition of an imminent transformation urged Chen Luo to continue increasing his spirit attribute as quickly as possible. And for Chen Luo at this moment, the method of increasing it was very simple!
He once again used the "Mage Hand" skill repeatedly, following the more complex spell trajectory that appeared in his mind.
With E-grade Mage Hand, the spell trajectory was more complex, and Chen Luo needed 1.5 seconds to cast the skill.
Due to the "Beginner" talent, Chen Luo needed only one-tenth of the proficiency required by ordinary people, meaning 100 casts to upgrade the skill.
For an average mage, hundreds of "Mage Hand" casts might take several days.
But for Chen Luo, it only took a little over two minutes.
[Proficiency met, your "Mage Hand" skill has been upgraded to D-grade. Passive effect increased: +10 Spirit attribute.]
So close! His spirit attribute had reached 95 points, and that sense of impending transformation was about to burst forth!!
With D-grade Mage Hand, the complexity of the spell trajectory had increased another level. If casting with system assistance, the casting time for this skill would be 8 seconds.
And under the influence of Chen Luo's spirit, which was on the verge of transformation, he needed 2.5 seconds to complete the cast.
After a thousand casts, Mage Hand would be upgraded to C-grade, which meant Chen Luo would need to spend 2500 seconds, approximately 40 minutes.
And according to previous calculations, the monsters would likely invade in about an hour.
If Chen Luo insisted on continuing to upgrade "Mage Hand," he might not have time to upgrade other skills.
But Chen Luo only pondered for a moment before resolutely starting to use Mage Hand. In this dilemma, he chose to trust his intuition.
The transformation was imminent.