I Contracted Myself

[Summoned Beast: Zhang Ping]

[Master: Zhang Ping]

[Race: Human]

[Potential: ☆☆​​​​​​​☆​​​​​​​]

[Lifespan: 89]

[Rank: Primary Awakener]

[Level: 2]

[Talents: Contract Gem: Can consume stamina and mental strength to condense a Contract Gem. Once the target willingly accepts the Contract Gem, their life, soul, and consciousness will be dominated by the Summoner. However, they will also receive the Summoner's potential and luck boost. After the first use, subsequent uses will slightly enhance the target's potential and have a 1% chance of awakening a new talent. Note: The talent obtained by Summoner Zhang Ping through overdrawing IQ, potential, and luck is powerful but comes with significant drawbacks. Overambition may not be a good thing.]

[Absolute Command: You have absolute control over your summoned beast. Your commands cannot be disobeyed by the summoned beast.]

[Absolute Obedience: You must absolutely obey the Summoner's commands and execute them with loyalty.]

[Stable Appraisal Skill: Can appraise a target with a very small chance of obtaining information. The smaller the power gap between you and the target, the higher the success rate. Once successful, subsequent appraisals of the same target will have a significantly increased success rate. Note: This talent is born from the curiosity of both Summoned Beast Zhang Ping and Summoner Zhang Ping.]

[Night Walker: Grants night vision, significantly reduces presence at night, greatly increases movement speed, reduces weight, and allows complete invisibility in shadows.]

[Fire Eater: Can restore stamina by consuming flames and convert excess flames into stored fire elemental energy. Upon releasing this energy, you will temporarily gain a flame-wrapped effect until the fire elemental energy is depleted. This ability will gradually enhance the user's resistance to high temperatures. Note: Potential is just potential; only when it is realized as strength does it become true power.]

***

After some effort, Zhang Ping placed the materials into the mold, hammered them, and then doused them with kerosene. He sat down to rest and checked his attributes.

The first thing he noticed was that his potential had lost a star.

However, after reading the note on his new talent, he understood the meaning of potential.

Potential is not strength.

It is the power within his body that has yet to be realized.

Only through training or acquiring new talents can potential be turned into strength.

Other Awakeners, and even Mutated Beasts, have limited potential. But Zhang Ping can continuously enhance his potential through the Contract Gem and then realize it through training and awakening new talents.

This is a broad and endless path!

In fact, after reading the note, Zhang Ping recalled a small detail he had observed about the Tianchang Fox.

He had observed that adult Tianchang Foxes mostly had only two stars of potential, while the cub he wanted to kill had four stars of potential.

At the time, he mistakenly thought that the cub was a genius among Tianchang Foxes, hence its higher potential.

Now he realized that it was because the cub's potential had not yet been realized as strength.

"No, when I awakened Night Walker, I gained an additional star."

Zhang Ping quickly recalled the night he awakened Night Walker, but it was hard to say how much potential Night Walker consumed.

Different levels of abilities definitely consume different amounts of potential.

For example, he was initially classified as having a Useless Grade ability.

If it were truly a Useless Grade ability, it would definitely consume very little potential.

Following this logic, Night Walker might have limited potential, or it might not have consumed much potential at the time.

The ability levels of Awakeners are actually hard to accurately appraise. Evaluators can only make judgments based on past experience.

Currently, Mingzhu City classifies abilities into seven levels:

[Useless Grade]

Simply put, abilities that cannot meet activation conditions or have no impact, such as: Silent Fart, Alien Death Ray.

'Silent Fart' is a well-known ability at Mingzhu Academy of Powers. The Awakener's name is unknown, but the ability is very simple and easy to understand: it silences the sound of farts.

In the first grade, teachers often use this ability as an example.

The Awakener with 'Alien Death Ray' can shoot invisible rays from their eyes that can instantly kill all aliens.

The problem is that no aliens have ever appeared in Mingzhu City, so this ability is classified as Useless Grade because its target does not exist.

[Convenience Grade]

Abilities that provide some convenience but cannot be used in combat.

For example: Cold Immunity, Tooth Regeneration.

There was once an Awakener with Cold Immunity who became a doctor. He dedicated himself to researching viruses that cause colds, even attempting to weaponize them. In the end, he accidentally infected himself with a virus that didn't cause a cold but led to a fever, resulting in brain damage and turning him into an idiot.

[Practical Grade]

Abilities that provide positive benefits.

For example: Storage Space, Food Enhancement, Eagle Eye, Enhanced Smell.

The first three abilities actually have good development potential. They are classified as Practical Grade mainly because Awakeners with these abilities often find it hard to advance. Most stop at Intermediate Awakener and struggle to break through to higher levels.

In simple terms, these abilities exhaust their potential at the Intermediate level.

For the higher levels, most are similar to Practical Grade. If continuously strengthened, they can become very powerful. The problem is that once potential is exhausted, they will stop advancing at different levels, hence the different classifications.

Another situation that can lead to a downgrade in ability level is if the activation conditions are too harsh.

Zhang Ping's Contract Gem only requires stamina and mental strength, but some abilities require the consumption of soul, luck, lifespan, humanity, etc.

These abilities cannot be used frequently, thus lowering their level evaluation.

[Combat Grade]

Abilities that can be used effectively in combat, such as: Iron Body, Rapid Healing, Enhanced Five Senses, Appraisal Skill.

[City Defense Grade]

Abilities with the potential to protect a city, such as: Mind Control, Gravity Manipulation, Equipment Forging, Clairvoyance.

[Nation Defense Grade]

Abilities with the potential to protect a nation, such as: Enhanced Sixth Sense, Future Prediction.

[Infinite Grade]

Abilities with unimaginable potential and indeterminate limits, such as: Ability Replication, Divine Artifact Forging, Insight.

***

Among these seven levels, those who awaken Combat Grade abilities are eligible to join the Patrol Guard and Investigation Team. Some special Practical Grade abilities, after evaluation, also qualify for organizational membership.

For example, those with Storage Space abilities in the Practical Grade are often recruited by the Big Three as logistics personnel.

Most Awakeners at Mingzhu Academy of Powers have Convenience or Practical Grade abilities. Only a few talents reach Combat Grade, such as Su Jingyao, whose awakened Psychic Power is Combat Grade. Upon awakening, she could lift nearly half a ton, though only for thirty seconds.

Then there's Zhang Chen, whom Su Jingyao mentioned. His 'Rock Armor' is also a Combat Grade ability.

As for City Defense Grade, Mingzhu Academy of Powers has only produced one: Luo Shiyu.

Luo Shiyu's ability was Temperature Control, allowing her to easily change the temperature within a ten-meter radius centered on her body. If not for her untimely death at the hands of the Tianchang Fox, her potential would have made her a pillar of Mingzhu City.

As for Nation Defense Grade and Infinite Grade, Mingzhu City hasn't seen one in centuries; their possessors exist only in textbooks.

For example, the Infinite Grade ability Replication appeared in Mingzhu City two hundred years ago.

This ability allowed its possessor to replicate all abilities below Nation Defense Grade. Whether it could replicate Infinite Grade abilities is unknown, as there was no one else with an Infinite Grade ability at the time to test it.

Zhang Ping is almost certain that his Contract Gem ability is an Infinite Grade ability.

He doesn't even need to replicate anyone's ability; by continuously consuming Contract Gems, he can naturally awaken various abilities.

Becoming omnipotent is just a matter of time.

He didn't dwell on it further. After all, potential is just potential.

Even with a new ability, he is still a Primary Awakener, easily defeated by any Intermediate Awakener.

***

The second forging attempt failed as expected.

Due to the sudden awakening of his Fire Eater ability, the furnace temperature dropped for a while, causing some materials to not integrate well with the refined iron. As a result, the Mingzhu Blade's pattern had numerous cracks, clearly indicating it was ruined without even needing a test.

Zhang Ping was a bit disappointed, but not dejected due to his new ability awakening.

He sat by the furnace, continuously absorbing its flames. Whenever the flames weakened, he added more wood and continued absorbing.

Since he had just awakened, his Fire Eater ability had limited fire elemental storage. After half an hour, Zhang Ping felt full.

He could feel a new energy within his body, not stored in any specific organ but dispersed throughout his body with his blood. When he tried to control this energy, it flowed like heat according to his will.

Like a new toy, he spent the entire afternoon manipulating this heat flow, sometimes concentrating it in his fists, sometimes in his legs, and even trying to focus it in an unspeakable area.

Honestly, this ability was much more fun than the Contract Gem or Night Walker.

The Contract Gem, while powerful, merely created a gem. Its visual effect and the feeling during use were average, akin to suddenly feeling a bit tired and sleepy due to the consumption of stamina and mental strength.

Night Walker, on the other hand, was a passive enhancement at night, merely a passive ability.

But Fire Eater was different.

Fire Eater allowed him to consume flames and control the fire elemental energy within his body.

Strictly speaking, this was his first truly operable superpower.

By evening, he could already manipulate a small amount of fire elemental energy to wrap around his fingers. When this energy leaked from his fingers, it turned into flames, wrapping around them. Visually, this ability was genuinely cool.

Additionally, Zhang Ping found that with abundant fire elemental energy, he could resist the cold, giving him more confidence to meet the mysterious woman who had slipped him a note.

At night, after dinner, he absorbed another round of flames.

Once he was sure Liu Tiefeng was asleep, he left Iron Soul and headed to the small park.