"Why the need for insults?" Arthur could not help but say in response. "I just got the system, okay? It's not like I know how I can improve through the—oh."

Realizing what Sisa meant by her sudden insult, Arthur focused his attention on the third line of text that appeared in his mind. Looking at the two emboldened words beside the somewhat intimidating zero, he let out an awkward chuckle as he asked, "System points… right. Now how do you get them?"

"If it isn't obvious already, then you have to do something in order to get them," Sisa replied. "However, I'm sure you already knew that after giving you that short wake-up call, so let me tell you how you actually gain system points."

"You only have to do one word. Conversion."

"Conversion…" Arthur muttered, his voice trailing off as he gave off the feeling that he understood what Sisa meant… only to ask not long after, "What am I converting?"

"That… is actually not a bad question," Sisa said in response to his question, wanting to become angry at first. Then again, this was Arthur's first time as a spirit vein, so it was obvious that he would ask something like this to her.

"I'm sure you've read a lot of cultivation novels in your past life, right?" she asked soon after, to which Arthur figuratively nodded in agreement.

"With that, we can skip over the part where I have to explain what spirit veins are. Now, let's move on to the next question," she said, adding a bit of suspense to her next question. "What do you normally see near a spirit vein?"

"If I remember correctly, you often see spirit stones near or above a spirit vein," Arthur responded. "But what does that have to do with… ahh… now I get what you mean."

"I'm glad you quickly catch on," Sisa could not help but say, lightly chuckling. "But in short, you're going to have to convert the qi in your body into something more tangible."

"Before we go over that, let me tell you about expanded status," she soon added. "Say the words' Expand Status.'"

"Expand Status," Arthur quickly said. Soon, the few lines of text he was looking at slightly expanded, showing a few more lines of text for him to see.

Ding!

[Arthur Arthur]

[Size]: Spirit Seed

[Qi Capacity]: 10/10

[Qi Purity]: Tier 0, Grade 0

[Qi Recovery Rate]: 1/hr.

[System Points]: 0

"Qi Capacity, Qi Purity, and Qi Recovery Rate." Looking at the new lines of text that appeared in his mind, Arthur could not help but think that they were more or less self-explanatory. Qi Capacity pertained to how much qi he could hold at once, Qi Purity pertained to how pure his qi was, and Qi Recovery Rate pertained to how much qi he could recover within a certain amount of time.

Speaking of Qi Recovery Rate, he could not help but notice that he would only recover 1 point of qi per hour. With that, he asked Sisa, "Why is my recovery rate so slow?"

Giving off the feeling that she was shrugging her shoulders, Sisa replied, "That's how the system is designed. Then again, if you were to compare it to other spirit veins at your level, their recovery rates are nowhere near as high as yours."

Although Arthur had the urge to ask her why, he had a feeling that it was useless to do so. With that in mind, he just chalked it off as some wizardry his system did in order for him to suffer less as a spirit vein. In that regard, he was somewhat thankful for Theresa. Somewhat.

"As for Qi Capacity and Qi Purity, are my stats high or low?" he asked soon after, to which Sisa responded, "For Qi Capacity, you're at the base value. Same goes for qi purity."

"Now that I think about it, what's 1 point of qi equivalent to?" he asked yet again, wondering how he'd be able to convert the small amount of qi he had into something more tangible like spirit stones. In his mind, even 10 points of qi wouldn't be enough to form even one spirit stone. However, it was then that his reality was flipped upside down… or at least, he looked at his qi capacity with greater awe.

"A single point of qi is equivalent to how much qi 10 people without cultivation have in their bodies," Sisa explained. "Of course, even if these people don't have any cultivation to speak of, the amount of qi in their bodies is still quite substantial if you add them up."

"In short… a lot, but not actually a lot," Arthur replied.

"Exactly."

"So, what next?" he asked.

"Next, we move onto the part of the system that will allow you to grow bigger. The skill section," Sisa responded, making Arthur expectant of what was to come. "Say the word 'Skills,' and another screen will appear beside your expanded status."

"Skills."

Ding!

Active Skills:

[Qi Conversion Lv. 1]

Seeing that he only had one skill, Arthur quickly went ahead and identified the skill through the system, quickly reminding Sisa that she was working with someone who had experience with systems beforehand… or at least knew how systems worked.

“Identify [Qi Conversion].”

Ding!

[Qi Conversion Lv. 1]

To convert is to transform a substance into another state. Allows the user to convert 1 point of qi into Inferior Spirit Slag. Conversion speed is dependent on the skill's level and the user's proficiency with the skill.

Upgrade Cost: 1 System Point

Reading the description of what the skill did, the term 'Inferior Spirit Slag' was brought to his attention. "What's Inferior Spirit Slag?"

"From what the name suggests, Inferior Spirit Slag is the most basic and dirtiest form of compressed qi you could ever come across," Sisa explained. "Although it's normally used by cultivators and mortals alike as a type of fertilizer for their crops, it nevertheless contains quite a decent amount of qi. From another perspective, you can consider them as incredibly shitty spirit stones."

"In other words, you're telling me I have to convert energy into manure to gain system points," Arthur could not help but say. "Who knew I'd fulfill my dream of western alchemy as a spirit vein. Though, rather than converting iron into gold, I'm converting energy into shit."

"It's not all that bad, Arthur. Think of it this way. You're converting energy into energized shit!"

Letting out a sigh in response to Sisa's attempt of consoling him, he moved the topic back to what was important. "So, how do I convert the qi I have into this… poor excuse of a spirit stone?"

"Oh, that's very simple," Sisa quickly replied. "Just think of activating the skill, and the system will do the rest of the work for you."

"Is that so?" Even though Arthur was slightly skeptical, since Sisa was the one who knew more about the system, he had no choice but to trust in her words. Here goes nothing…

'[Qi Conversion],' he thought, with Sisa not even being able to hear it. At first, nothing happened, prompting him to think that Sisa was just messing around with him. But then…

Whirr…

Just like before the two of them first met, the white cube in the center of his mind started to rotate at slightly higher speeds, increasing in speed with every passing second. Eventually, the cube rotated so quickly that it looked more like a diamond crystal thing rather than an actual cube.

Nevertheless, Arthur looked at it with great focus, only stopping as he felt something he shouldn't have with all of the five basic senses gone.

Pain. A level of pain that shouldn't even be possible for an inanimate object like him. Sure, the pain was tolerable, but something like this shouldn't be possible in the first place.

"What's happening…?" Arthur asked Sisa as he suppressed the urge to scream. "Why does it…?"

"Hurt?" Sisa continued his question. "Well, here's the thing. Since the spirit vein, or the Spirit Seed in this case, has no place to store your soul, which is normally the brain for a human, your soul is…"

"Are you… kidding me?" Hearing her words, he wondered if she was joking. However, contrary to what he expected, Sisa replied back with a solemn tone, reminding him that she was still his assistant. "I wish I was. Now, if you could kindly focus your attention on the spinning cube."

Not letting the pain consume him, Arthur focused his attention back on the rapidly spinning cube, noticing that thin white strands of light appeared around the cube before being absorbed by it. Soon after, the cube took on a light hint of gray, something that Arthur quickly took note of.

"Is that… qi…?" he asked, to which Sisa gave him a figurative nod as she replied, "Yes. That's the qi inside you… as well as the place where your soul is stored. However, if you think your soul would dissipate once all the points of qi have been used up, do not worry. A small trace amount of qi would still be left in the end, containing all of your soul in it."

"I don't think… that's really helping," Arthur could not help but say in response, finally letting out a soft curse as he allowed the pain to consume him for a short bit. Fortunately, he quickly recovered his concentration as he continued to endure the urge to scream… or curse, for that matter.

"How long… is this going to take?" he asked not long after. Although he had no idea how long time had passed since he started the conversion process, Arthur was certain that the process would be done eventually. With that, he perked up his ears figuratively as he listened to Sisa's next few words.

"Not that long, to be honest. Perhaps it'll be done in an hour or so?"

And at that moment… Arthur decided to accept fate.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…!!!!!”