Chapter 6

"It's a Panna snake, a highly venomous amphibious snake! Hurry, detoxify it!" Jialong immediately reacted, recognizing the snake. Over the past few days, he hadn't just been idly passing time; he had memorized most of the common knowledge about this world. Plus, he had encountered this type of snake before when he was a child in the countryside, so he recognized it right away.

After speaking, Jialong kicked a pebble with his foot.

Smack!

The stone hit next to the black snake, scaring the small snake into quickly swimming away into the lake, leaving a faint ripple behind.

"How do we detoxify it!?" Fein's cousin Enna, the only girl who wasn't bitten, spoke with a trembling voice.

"First, wash it with water, then find some willow leaves, chew them up, and apply them to the wound!" Jialong shouted loudly. At this moment, his composure as an adult stood out clearly, and he quickly took charge. He directed the boys to find willow leaves while the girls were responsible for cleaning the wound and squeezing out some of the venomous blood. Soon, the treatment was complete, and the bitten girl, though on the verge of tears, managed to hold back.

Phineas stood up, tidied her slightly disheveled hair and dress, and looked at the calm and commanding Jialong with a hint of surprise. "I'll remember this favor for my friend," she said calmly, carefully supporting her companion.

"It's just a small matter," Jialong shrugged. With his decades of mental age, he naturally wouldn't take such a small favor to heart. "Of course, if you really want to thank me, I enjoy appreciating ancient jewelry. If you have any, it would be best if you could let me admire them..."

His gaze subtly fell on Phineas's white neck, where a blue-black leather cord was worn.

Just as he approached, the potential percentage in his field of vision suddenly jumped again, and this time it jumped two levels, from 89% to 92%. This confirmed for him that Phineas definitely had potential jewelry, and it might be even stronger than the black pearl.

"Jewelry?" Phineas frowned slightly.

Fein also came over with a bitter smile to explain. "Jialong loves to appreciate ancient jewelry. He didn't even want to come this time, but I said I could show him some family heirlooms, and that's the only reason he came!"

"Do you want to be a jewelry appraiser?" Phineas asked, thinking for a moment, she reached back and untied the black leather cord from her neck.

Only then did everyone see what was hanging from the cord: a light blue crystal in the shape of a rhombus, about the size of a fingernail, with a small silver ring inside.

"This is an old piece of jewelry I found before. You're interested in this, right?" Phineas handed the crystal to Jialong.

Jialong took the crystal and looked at it. The crystal wasn't particularly valuable, but it looked very old. "It's very beautiful..." As soon as he took it, he felt a burning sensation surge from the crystal, rushing into his fingers.

The potential in his field of vision shot up like a rocket.

92%... 98%... 103%... 132%... 177%... 181%!

The potential percentage finally slowed down, stopping at 181%.

Jialong looked at the crystal in his hand, feeling as if something inside it had slowly disappeared, but its appearance and other aspects remained unchanged. Suppressing his joy, he carefully handed the crystal back. "It's a very nice crystal. If possible, could I hear the story behind this crystal?"

Phineas took it back and was surprised. "You know about it?"

"Know what? Does this thing have a significant history?" The others, who had just finished treating the wound, finally breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing the two of them talking to themselves, the red-haired girl who had just been bitten became interested and came over to ask.

"A little," Phineas nodded. "It's called the Ring of Misfortune. It's said that anyone who wears it will encounter all sorts of misfortunes and eventually die a tragic death. But I don't believe this thing can cause death. I'm particularly interested in this, so I spent money to get it and wore it myself. However, there are too many imitations of the Ring of Misfortune in the world, so this one might not be real."

Jialong nodded. This crystal indeed had a widely known story behind it, and the two pieces of jewelry he had previously absorbed potential from also had stories, good or bad. This confirmed his suspicions.

Only jewelry with a background story could absorb potential.

"What if it's real? What if the previous owners all died tragically?" The two girls, now recovered, began to ask Phineas about the story of the crystal.

Jialong, having absorbed the potential, walked to the lakeside and pretended to wash his hands and face.

"Strength was tested last time, and there was a significant change. So, what attribute should I add this time?"

His gaze wandered over the four attributes again.

"Constitution is my weak point, but constitution, strength, and agility can all be improved through simple training. However, intelligence is a different story."

He fell silent for a moment, then focused his gaze on strength, intelligence, and constitution.

"Generally, adding points evenly doesn't lead to great achievements. Only specialization can maximize advantages. Since I've already added to strength once, adding more to it is a viable path. But... if I could distribute the points, that would be better..." This thought suddenly came to him.

Suddenly, the energy swirling in his mind split into three, each part entering strength, constitution, and intelligence.

Jialong felt a jolt, and a strange tingling sensation spread from his head down his body.

In just a few seconds, his body returned to normal.

He felt stronger and more solid, and his mind became clearer. Some aspects of his studies that he hadn't understood before now made sense.

After a brief adjustment, Jialong looked at the attributes in his field of vision again.

Strength 0.44, Agility 0.23, Constitution 0.31, Intelligence 0.36, Potential 81%.

Strength increased by 0.03, Constitution increased by 0.03, Intelligence increased by 0.04.

"Almost an even distribution of points!" Jialong was slightly stunned. "What's the use of intelligence?" He began to carefully examine his body's condition.

Saint Lark Academy is a standard noble academy, focusing on specialized talent cultivation. As long as one subject is strong, the others can be weaker, and students can directly advance to the university run by Saint Lark. However, Jialong's plan wasn't to go to Saint Lark University, which was a route for the truly powerful and wealthy. Most students aimed to improve their overall performance to enter top universities.

This required a relatively balanced performance in all subjects.

******

Nighttime

In a civilian neighborhood on the south side of Huai Mountain City, in a high-rise room of a red-roofed building.

Jialong, with purple hair and red eyes, sat at his desk, reading a book under the dim yellow light of a desk lamp.

The smooth, fine paper glided gently under his fingertips. In front of him was a book on social history.

Ding... Ding... Ding...

The muffled sound of a clock tower came from outside the window.

Jialong glanced outside; the opposite building was pitch black, with no lights. "It's already midnight? The effect of intelligence has just been revealed..."

At that moment, a click came from his sister's room as the light was turned off.

Jialong stood up, lay back on his bed, and propped his head up with his hands.

"Comprehensive memory has improved slightly, logical analysis is clearer and faster, and the most important thing is that short-term analytical and computational abilities have improved... I've managed to catch up on some of the basics of social history, which I used to hate. If we look at it like a game, this level of social history should be considered basic, with intermediate and advanced levels to follow."

As this thought flashed through his mind, a new line of symbols suddenly appeared above the five attributes in his field of vision. Jialong was stunned.

"Damn... it can do this too?" He sat up abruptly, speechless at the new symbols.

A pale red symbol clearly appeared in his field of vision.

Skill Mastery — (Social History: Basic. Condition: Intelligence above 0.34.)

Jialong stared at the new symbol in shock for over ten minutes before confirming it was real.

Like the other attributes, the symbol was very small and could easily be overlooked. When he wasn't actively paying attention, the red symbols would automatically become semi-transparent, not affecting his vision.

After the new symbol appeared, Jialong recalled all the content of the social history course, and at least 70-80% of it could be easily recalled, as if deeply etched in his mind.

"I only read through this course carefully today, and now I can almost remember everything... It seems this is the benefit of increasing intelligence. Different subjects with varying difficulties likely have different intelligence requirements, and different levels of mastery also have different intelligence requirements."

With this in mind, Jialong had no more sleepiness. He got up and found all his textbooks.

He tried each one.

Half an hour later...

"It turns out that the condition for achieving mastery is to read through the entire book, and the previous Jialong only mastered one subject, Sinology, in a year... and only at the basic level."

Jialong sighed, speechless.

Looking at the symbols in his field of vision now:

Main Subjects: (Mathematics: Not Started), (Sinology: Basic), (Social History: Basic), (Foreign Language: Not Started), (Physics: Not Started).

Mathematics, Sinology, History, Foreign Language, and Physics are the five main subjects required by all academies, with no exceptions, as they are the subjects of the national unified examination.

Jialong recalled the specific score comparisons.

"In the past, for Sinology, Jialong's scores were between 60 and 70 out of 100. This means that this range is the basic level. If there are no surprises, my history score should also be between 60 and 70. Such scores would place me in the bottom ten in class and grade."

"For the national unified examination to enter key universities, based on Saint Lark's past performance, a ranking in the top 100 is needed to secure a place. In a grade of over a thousand students, getting into the top 100 isn't too difficult." Thinking of how Jialong's parents worked overtime every day to pay for his and his sister's tuition and accommodation, with only one day off on weekends, they had almost placed all their hopes on the two of them.

"A score in the top 100, if the questions are standard, should average between 70 and 80. This means that if the main subjects can reach at least the intermediate level, one can steadily enter a key university. However, as I improve, others will also improve. If the questions are easy, it will come down to who is more meticulous."

Jialong slowly thought through these issues. "If only Fein's family heirloom black crystal could also absorb potential... just a little more, and I could add more points." He suddenly remembered the incident at Bibo Lake and felt a bit regretful.