He finally saw a dark attribute Star Skill.
"High-Tier Yellow grade Star Skill: Ghostly Six Shadows
An dark attribute Star Skill that leaves six shadow trails along the way while performed, unable to distinguish the real body and the phantom.
When the Star Skill is practised to extreme proficiency it can produce six clones with no attack power that vanish upon receiving damage."
Max took the scroll into the ring with a look of satisfaction on his face. He left without going through the remaining scrolls, as he thinks that both the Star Skills he obtained are really suitable for him.
"If only I had a stealth Star Skill."
'A Star Skill that increases strength and endurance while the other that increases agility along with a stealth skill.'
'Assassinating targets would be as easy as butchering pigs.'
Max thought as he walked out of the pavilion.
The Old man was sitting outside the pavilion as if he was waiting for someone. Max saw that the old man knew he was coming.
Max was taught both stealth and perception by his mentor. So he had extreme sense of perception that was honed after countless battles and assassinations. When Max was inside the pavilion, he felt a sense of peeping with his keen perception. Someone was observing his every move in the pavilion. But he did not perceive anyone nearby, inside the building. Someone as clever as Max could easily guess that the sense of peeping most likely came from the old man in front of him.
'Sure enough. How can the Star Skills pavilion with extremely valuable exercises not have a master guarding it.'
He felt that the old man should be a powerful Star Knight, may be a Rank 7 Star Knight. After all when the guards on the outer gate of pavilion are Rank 6 Star Knights, how can the old man maintaining and responsible for the pavilion be weak.
"Return the exercises after you cultivate. You are not allowed to pass them on to others, even clan members."
The old man warned Max.
Max nodded and ran back to home. He decided to practise the skills on top of the mountain near his house.
'Nine Fold Dark Shadow Art.'
Max opened the scroll to red the description.
"This cultivation art is only suitable for users with dark attribute star power. Whenever you cultivate star power, activate the patterns on the rune that represent the Nine Fold Dark Shadow Art which is integrated into your star rune during the first time skill cultivation.
The star power cultivated using this technique has more purity and also more compatibility to the dark attribute. The star power cultivated using this exercise can cause wounds on the opponents which are very difficult to heal.
The exercise decreases your sense of presence when you want to hide with your dark attribute star power. This stealth increases by 70 percent during nights.
There are nine stages in proficiency. As you cultivate this technique from first stage to higher stages your stealth, also the intensity of dark power that restricts the opponents and cause fatal and incurable wounds will also increase.
When the exercise is cultivated to the ninth stage, you can integrate into dark mist that is invulnerable to all physical attacks and part of energy attacks."
'Seventy percent at night! It is too much. If only the Purple grade exercises are like this, how powerful would those Black and Red grades be.'
Max was shocked. He started to open the scroll and meditate star power while summoning his star rune. A pattern flew towards the rune and integrated into the black lines of the star rune. Max activated the integrated pattern and circulated star power in his body. As the star power radiated from his body, he found out that his star power was a bit darker in color than before.
'So this exercise is really well matched with my star power with dark attribute.'
He stood up and blasted a punch toward the the tree in front with a little star power applied. As the dust settled, there was shallow pit on the tree. The branches were corroded with light black mist.
'The star power is a bit corrosive. If a star skill is unleashed with this star power, may be the wounds would be really difficult to heal.'
Max judged by the impact of the punch landed on the tree. He put the scroll back in his ring and took out another scroll.
He adjusted his posture back into meditation and summoned his star rune with the scroll open. As the Star rune was imprinted with the Star Skill pattern, he had a few memories in his mind.
Max put the scroll back into the ring and stood up. He activated the star skill pattern in the rune as the star power in his legs traveled in a particular root. When he ran around in a circle he found out that his body seem to phase in and out with atmosphere leaving six phantoms.
'Combining this skill with my footwork would allow me to easily dodge the attacks aimed in a small range.'
As he snapped out of the state he felt his whole body hollowed out. He sat there on the ground exhausted.
'Guess, cultivating three Star Skills in a row is my limit.'
With a cultivation level of initial stage Rank 1 Star Knight, releasing one star skill of Yellow Tier would take all of the star power present in one's body. Max cultivated High Tier Purple grade Titan Body art along with Nine-fold Dark Shadow art and Ghostly Six Shadows which are Purple and Yellow graded respectively, in a row for his star power to be exhausted.
It was not because Max had more star power, rather it was due to the fact that the quality of his star power is same as that of a Rank 6 Star Star knight. Even though the amount of star power he has is very small, the high purity of the star power allowed him to unleash two purple and one yellow graded star skill before his star power was drained.
Time passed by, Six months later.....
To the northern most side of the Thunder Lion Mansion.
The water was falling from almost 700m above the ground. The rocks on the ground that had contact with the water were almost shaped with concave edges. A handsome boy who looked around eight years old was sitting naked without a shirt, on the center of the rock were the water fell.
He is Max. Max is enduring the pain while circulating the Titan Body Art in the whole body, finally bronze light seemed to come out of his body as he broke through to the second stage of titan body art. Max got up and walked out while stretching his hands comfortably with a slight smile on his face.
For the past six months Max practised the Nine-fold Dark Shadow technique and also tempered his body under the waterfalls using Titan Body Art. During this time his star power also advanced to the intermediate stage of Rank 1.
He has returned the exercise scrolls back to the pavilion.