"Character 'Fang Zhen' received an ability enhancement during the mission and has gained 1 free attribute point."

"First clear of an Elite Realm dungeon grants a 50% reward bonus. Free attribute points increased to 2."

Fang Zhen raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised.

He had actually gained 2 free attribute points from the Land of Rest dungeon.

He speculated that based on his performance in the dungeon, he should have earned more than one attribute point but not quite two. The 50% bonus must have rounded it up to two. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

'If that's the case, the Dungeon Life Game must have some kind of backend calculation. If you earn more than one point but don't meet the threshold for two, you probably only get one.'

'From the looks of it, I need to challenge more difficult dungeons. That would be more in my interest.'

Two free attribute points were very useful.

His Constitution was already at 14. Adding two points would bring it to 16.

Based on his previous speculation, his Constitution would undergo a minor breakthrough at 15 points and a major one at 20. He wasn't sure what changes would occur, but it was definitely a good thing.

He had originally thought the first-clear bonus for an Elite Realm was limited to the Merit Points he gained. The additional attribute point was an unexpected surprise.

Fang Zhen continued to examine the dungeon rewards screen.

"It has been detected that character 'Fang Zhen' acquired multiple abilities and traits within the dungeon.

You may choose to use Merit Points to solidify or remove them.

The abilities and traits you acquired in the 'Land of Rest' are as follows:

Spear Technique: Eight Steps Chasing the Cicada (An advanced traditional martial arts spear technique that is highly lethal in certain combat situations)

Solidify: 30 Merit Points

Aircraft Proficiency (Enhanced ability to operate aircraft. Even without prior training, flight experience and skills can be applied to other types of aircraft.)

Solidify: 45 Merit Points

Firearms Tactics Talent Lv. 2 (Deepens understanding of firearms. Allows user to achieve proficiency with unfamiliar firearms upon first contact. Time required to master special shooting techniques is one-fifth the average for a typical firearms enthusiast.)

Solidify: 220 Merit Points

Curse Seal: Power Mountain Seal Lv. 2 · Mountain-Shattering (A higher-tier Power Mountain Seal that grants the 'Mountain-Shattering' effect, concentrating the Seal's power onto a single point to pierce the body. Drastically increases armor-penetrating capability and has immense destructive power against opponents with hardened bodies, super armor, or heavy armor.)

Solidify: 210 Merit Points

Meticulous Mind Lv. 2 (An even keener mental trait, granting a higher probability of detecting hostility and lies, and seeing through most traps and the subtle tells in human behavior.)

Solidify: 315 Merit Points

"

Fang Zhen saw that while there were fewer skills to solidify this time, their quality had improved.

He hadn't used that many skills during this dungeon run.

He had a sense that most of his frequently used skills were already solidified, more or less. All that was left to solidify were a few special abilities and some basic ones to fill in the gaps; the rest were just upgrades to higher tiers.

There was nothing to think about. With so many Merit Points on hand, Fang Zhen chose to solidify everything.

A flash of golden light passed, and Fang Zhen's body grew slightly warm. The abilities had been solidified.

At that moment, a separate dialog box popped up on the screen.

"It has been detected that character 'Fang Zhen' possesses a special item. You may spend Merit Points to appraise, learn, and solidify its ability.

This appraisal and solidification will cost 240 Merit Points. Do you wish to proceed?"

"Oh?" Fang Zhen was immediately reminded of the 'Reflecting Bamboo' he had gotten from Batuma.

That piece of Reflecting Bamboo Crystal Bone recorded a method for ordinary people to accumulate power and awaken "bone energy."

'The Dungeon Life Game must be referring to this item, right?'

Fang Zhen figured the Dungeon Life Game's permissions had probably been upgraded again.

'In the future, I can probably learn things like this directly. It'll surely cost more Merit Points than learning on my own, but the benefit is saving time and not having to worry about practicing it incorrectly.'

He hovered his mouse over the option to see the detailed explanation.

"As player 'Fang Zhen' has been detected to possess Source Power, which can be converted into any world's unique form of energy, you have the potential to learn the abilities of any world.

To save the player time and reduce difficulty, you can directly use Merit Points for learning and solidification, which is equivalent to solidifying a skill.

Special Note: This function is only available when the player possesses the prerequisite skills or meets the learning conditions. It cannot be performed if the prerequisites are not met, and it requires a complete legacy medium.

Additionally: The Merit Point cost for this type of solidification is higher than for an ability comprehended and solidified within a dungeon."

He chose to proceed with the operation.

Instantly, he saw brilliant flashes of light coming from the bag of loot beside his computer desk and immediately opened it to take a look.

Inside the bag, the pale green Reflecting Bamboo Crystal Bone was transforming into fine green motes of light, turning from a material object into specks of light that continuously disintegrated and vanished into the air.

At the same time, just as when he solidified a skill, Fang Zhen felt new knowledge and abilities taking root in his body and mind.

He acted on this new sensation, perceiving the Source Power within his body forming a special, web-like structure that wrapped around his bones layer by layer.

With a thought, he guided this power to the bones of his left forearm.

Because Source Power itself was an Extraordinary Power, the conversion was exceptionally fast. In the span of a few blinks, Fang Zhen felt a change in the bones of his forearm.

It was as if one pole of a magnet was attracting another; Fang Zhen now had a new perception of the crystal bone sculptures, from which he had previously felt nothing special.

He could clearly perceive the energy flowing within the crystal bone loot in the bag.

Fang Zhen controlled this power with his mind, trying to "communicate" with the crystal bones in the bag. He chose the one that had left a deep impression on him—the crow skull-shaped crystal bone that Avera had used.

After a few breaths, he gradually sensed a mysterious connection forming with that crystal bone.

It was like a special, magnetic-like force field connecting him to the crow crystal bone.

And some special nodes within the crow crystal bone also began to surface in his mind.

Fang Zhen let out a long breath and did not continue the process.

As he relaxed his mental focus, that mysterious sense of connection also gradually faded away.

Fang Zhen now had a general idea of what this "bone energy" was.

There was a mysterious connection between crystal bones, one related to a person's consciousness and Spiritual Power.

As long as one possessed bone energy and spent a long time connecting and communicating with a crystal bone—or, to put it more bluntly, 'polishing' it like one would hand-play walnuts or a beaded bracelet—a connection would eventually form, allowing one to manipulate and control it.

Of course, this "polishing" could be done not only by hand but also with one's spiritual consciousness.

Once this communication and connection deepened to a certain degree, one could use bone energy to manifest the crystal bone's abilities.

However, the abilities one could manifest depended primarily on the depth of communication with the crystal bone, as well as the amount and type of bone energy available.

Not every type of bone energy could support every type of crystal bone.

Fang Zhen, however, could manipulate all of them.

This was because he wasn't born with crystal bones; his bone energy was converted from Source Power.

Source Power had no attribute. If one had to give it one, it would be a "Chaos" or "Primordial" type of power—lacking a specific attribute, but applicable to all things.

Therefore, the bone energy Fang Zhen converted had no limitations.

The only issue was that communicating with the crystal bones still required time, mainly to "polish" them until he understood their characteristics.

Bone-polishing, in short.

Suddenly, a thought struck Fang Zhen.

'I don't know if it's my imagination,' he thought, 'but I feel like my total Source Power has increased a little.'

He opened his character attribute panel and saw that there was, indeed, a change to his stats.

Source Power had jumped from 18 to 20 points.