Gu Weijing attempted to use the Muse Goddess’ Blessing Candle and selected the Calligraphy and Painting Identification Skill.

As expected,

A notification immediately appeared on the virtual panel, indicating that the skill could be upgraded.

"Activate the Muse Goddess’ small candle to upgrade the Calligraphy and Painting Identification Skill from Fine to Master Level? [Note: Current option, skill duration (336) seconds]"

Gu Weijing now understood that the system’s skills are divided into six levels: Beginner, Ordinary, Fine, Master, Perfect, and Legendary.

Upgrading the Calligraphy and Painting Identification Skill from Fine to Master Level allows it to be used for 336 seconds.

This duration is less than the 551 seconds available when upgrading the Tier Two Professional Oil Painting to Tier Three Professional but is much longer than the negligible 2.3 seconds when upgrading Menzel’s Basic Painting Skills to Perfect Level.

About five minutes is already within the range of practical use.

"I wonder what effect the Master Level Identification Skill has, and whether the time is enough to complete an appraisal?"

Thinking carefully, Gu Weijing realized he had never obtained a Master Level skill before.

Based on the effects after using his current skills, Menzel and Painting Knife Painting, he had a rough judgment of the value of skills at this level.

If directly related to the field of painting,

Legendary Level Painting Skill belongs to the super talents that can be enshrined in art history.

On the pyramid’s peak in this field of painting worldwide, you should easily have your place.

At least the final result of Legendary Level Painting Knife Painting somewhat shocked Gu Weijing.

After acquiring the skill, he also looked up some works of Painting Knife Painting Masters online.

Even Professor Boggs, who is hailed as the foremost Painting Knife Artist of today, seemed a bit lacking; it’s hard to say whether he is of Legendary Level.

Perfect Level effects are slightly inferior.

Mainly at the pinnacle level among Master Painters.

The painting skill equals the ultimate brushwork level, lv.9, that ordinary people may achieve in their lifetime through effort.

Usually, an art powerhouse may have only a few people at this level.

As for countries or regions on the fringe of the art world,

Forget about lv.9,

They may not even gather enough people with Master Level skills.

The brushwork level at this skill level is already flawless, as perfect as its name suggests.

If placed in a Japanese manga-style plot,

Usually, those possessing this level of skill would be rugged, bearded masters living in seclusion, whose actions are accompanied by flashy special effects and grandiose speeches before drawing.

The style would be something like—"Hey, youngster, watch closely! This is the boundary between human and divine skills, the domain only accessed by one in a million exceptional talents!"

The protagonist should seize the opportunity to bow, leading to a scene change several years later as the protagonist masters his skills; the rugged master recounts his loss to a certain evil painter due to being poisoned before the World’s First Painter Contest.

Waiting for the rugged master to say, "You are now not beneath me, go reclaim what I lost," setting a flag, then easily receiving a lesson, and the protagonist burying him to continue his adventure.

For evaluation, Gu Weijing took the duration of his previous two skills and the Muse Goddess’ small candle as the standard.

Fine Level Skills versus Master Level Skills,

If purely painting-related skills, the final painting result should be between the best Professional Painters and entry-level Master Artists.

Thinking this way,

Using the Muse Goddess’ small candle to upgrade the Calligraphy and Painting Identification Skill to Master Level is quite worthwhile.

Normally, Gu Weijing needs to use the Calligraphy and Painting Identification Skill a thousand times, each costing 50 Free Experience Points, totaling fifty thousand Experience Points to upgrade.

According to the exchange panel rates, he would need to donate at least fifty thousand US Dollars.

In contrast, upgrading Oil Painting by one tier requires only ten thousand Experience Points. Moving from Tier Two Professional to Tier One Grandmaster fully fills the experience bar, requiring only forty thousand Experience Points.

With a five-fold cost difference in upgrading, using the candle only shortens the burn time by two-fifths, making the cost-performance ratio explosive.

"Can the Master Level Calligraphy and Painting Identification Skill appraise books?"

Gu Weijing, with this question, fiddled around with the virtual panel.

He discovered the words "Master Level" in the phrase "upgrade Calligraphy and Painting Identification Skill from Fine to Master Level" were light blue and different from other fonts.

Gu Weijing tried clicking on it.

The system immediately displayed a concise reminder.

[Calligraphy and Painting Identification Skill (Master Level): After use, it constructs a bridge of inspiration communication between you and the creator of the work. Not limited to paintings, but cannot be used directly on unfamiliar knowledge-based books. It can only function when you’re already familiar with the text and have a strong understanding of the work.]

[Note: Upgrading the Calligraphy and Painting Identification Skill with the Blessing Candle does not consume any Free Experience Points, nor does it count toward the total number of uses.]