Chương 94: (B2 Chapter 45)

I spent the next day mostly alone. The others had needed to take some time to themselves, and I smartly stayed out of their way. Besides, I had a lot of experiments on my mind. I continued trying to boost myself somehow through mana, but it wasn't working no matter what I did. Well… it was working, just not in a useable manner yet. The problem was still the high cost of mana, and I couldn't figure out a way to circumvent it. Something else that had been on my mind since yesterday was my ability.

Madelline had been able to learn a slightly different way to use her ability, so why couldn't I? In fact, I already had a pretty good idea on where I could start. Perhaps it was because I was already experimenting with boosting myself, but the idea of using my own ability on myself came to my mind. Could I use my ability to influence my own body? It was definitely worth a try. As always, I started small.

I held out my hand in front of me, completely relaxing it, and activated my ability, asking my index finger to hold itself upright. It felt like there was some kind of resistance from my ability at first, but I kept pushing it mentally and finally I felt it give way. My index finger then rose by itself! It worked! I was beyond excited! Finding a different way to use my ability was incredible, but I was more excited about how I found out my ability could be used! The implications of this were potentially huge!

Just thinking about all the different ways in which I could use it on myself had my mind buzzing with excitement. I could use it to try and boost myself, first of all. Perhaps I could use it during combat to make otherwise impossible dodges or make my dagger sharper. Maybe I could even use it on my skills…? It would be amazing if my ability worked on my skills, and I could use it to improve concealed presence, quick step, and my mana skills. Why hadn't I thought of this sooner?!

I quickly got down to experimenting, but my dreams immediately crashed straight into a major roadblock. My ability didn't really work for something as large as me. With my excitement deflating rapidly, I realized that my ability was severely limited by size, or more accurately, by mass, currently.

The most I had been able to do had been to shift some dirt or mud, and while I had noticed that my ability grew as I gained levels and stats, it hadn't suddenly become powerful enough that I could suddenly make myself super strong. Could I use my ability to make my hand stronger and faster for a second? Sure. Could I do it for my entire arm? No. I would be lying if I wasn't disappointed, but I didn't let it keep me down for too long. In fact, I continued on with my experimenting.

One thing that worked extremely well was me enhancing my vision. My eyes were small enough to be affected by my ability, and I quickly found out just how flexible my ability could be when used on myself. I used my ability to not only make me see better and further away, but I could 'zoom in' by magnifying my vision, and vice versa, though to a limited extent.

Like I couldn't suddenly spot a fly buzzing from a block away or something equally ridiculous, but I could magnify a fly in my room and be able to see its body as if I were observing it through a magnifying glass, while at the same time be able to effortlessly keep track of it. I tried changing how I viewed things, and that also worked, but to a far more limited extent. I could ask my ability to improve my vision in the dark, and it had a considerable impact.

But when I asked it to give me infrared vision or heat sense, it completely failed. It seemed like the ability couldn't give me something completely new which I didn't have the capacity to do myself. What I could do with great success was focusing my vision. I could make my peripheral vision to almost disappear while the subject of my vision gained immense clarity, or I could do the opposite and make my peripheral vision better.

The ability worked the same way for my other senses, and I was extremely satisfied at having a way to hear, see, and smell better for a short moment at least. I could also use it on my feet to make me jump a bit higher, or to be able to change directions on a dime without compromising my speed. My ability also allowed me to alter my trajectory slightly in mid-air; not a sudden direction change, just a slight nudge that could potentially make me shift away from an incoming strike.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. The headache that happened with repeated uses of my ability was now in full force, so I had to cease my experiments and take some time to recover. I had discovered a lot of new ways to use my ability, and even though my head was pounding with pain, my mind refused to slow down.

Making my hand jerk forward at the last second to make my strike hit harder, or creating bizarre angles of attacks by suddenly changing directions to confuse my opponents… it all seemed extremely exciting to me. And there was still an entire area of my combat ability that I hadn't even tried my ability on yet – magic! There was a possibility that I could make my spells hit harder, or maybe even change elements in mid-air!

My body was obviously limited in what it could and couldn't do, and thus my ability had limitations as well, but mana was so much more flexible. I was sure whatever I could think of doing with my ability involving mana would be barely scratching the surface! In fact, couldn't I use my ability to help me learn more about mana? Just like I had been doing earlier but hadn't realized that it could extend to my physical body as well…

If I could use my ability to change my mana type, wouldn't it help me understand how to do it myself by observing how the ability had done it? The boosting skill that had been eluding me suddenly didn't seem so far away, as I could perhaps use my ability in order to make it a reality, and then just try and replicate it. Which is exactly what I did once my headache had subsided completely.

I continued trying different ways of using my ability throughout the day, understanding it further while at the same time improving my mana wielding capabilities. I also tried to train using my ability against opponents, with mixed results. It was turning out to be very difficult to keep track of my opponent, my surroundings, my skills and my mana, as well as using my ability at the optimal time.

Against the rare easy monster I found, things went much more smoothly than when I had to square off against one of the bulky bears. I had initially gone off to fight a few easy opponents, just to realize that easy opponents were now a rare commodity. Lucas and Mason had people patrolling the base at all times, and these people were keeping a slow but steady stream of monsters at bay. Monsters which seemed more powerful than the spiders, foxes, or felines we had been fighting so far.

The monsters now ranged from weird, eldritch-horror type… things, to monsters that looked like beefed-up and hairier versions of bears. I observed that one patrol had to fight off a monster every twenty to thirty minutes, and the group of six in each patrol had to work hard together to kill the monster. It seemed like the system announcement that there would be more opportunities for us to level up was now coming true. My combat style continued evolving as the day passed.

I circled in a wide arc around the base and took out the monsters that seemed to be headed towards it in order to decrease the pressure on the patrols. But by the time the sun had started its slow descent, I was forced to head back towards the base. My head was now throbbing constantly, and no amount of rest was making it disappear. Shouldn't have overdone it…

The sun had descended by now and my head was feeling much better. I had taken a nap which seemed to have made a huge difference. I wanted to continue experimenting, but I had a feeling that it would be a bad idea. Surely the still slight headache I had was a sign that I needed to give it a break for today, wasn't it? I chose to heed my body's signals, and instead went out in search for Lucas. Tomorrow was the day we needed to go and meet the lizard race, and I needed to ensure he remembered it.

Being told a possible family member was relatively close by would surely make a person forget everything else and single-mindedly focus on family. My assumption proved to be true. When I found Lucas and asked him about his plan for tomorrow's meeting, he looked at me with a completely blank face. I had to mention the lizard race before he realized what he had forgotten about. He went into a slight panic at not having planned anything, and I had to calm him down a bit.

I asked him about his day in an effort to change the subject temporarily, and it turned out he had spent the whole day trying to make the base as self-sufficient as possible so that he would be able to leave the base for a few days if needed. Omar and Lucas had also discussed at length about the issue of whose family to go after, and had come up with a great idea on how to make the decision.

They would follow Madelline's directions for one's family member for some distance, while Madelline closely studied how much closer the family member got. Then, they would stop and return to the starting point and head out toward the other's family member, repeating the process. Whoever Madelline said seemed closer, would be the one that we would go after first. I was excited to get the journey started, but Marcus still needed time to recover from his ability.

Not to mention that no one would be in the right mind to leave right now anyway. Lucas and I discussed a few more things before he hurried off, and I trudged back up to my room. My head was still in pain, but it was now barely noticeable. However, I was still going to hold off on experimenting further with my ability for now. I had something else in mind. I entered my room and sat on the bed, leaning against the pillow and trying to relax myself.

Then, I took something out of my inventory that I felt would now be able to be used. Surely learning so much about my ability and experimenting with it had to count for something… right…? Please work this time. Would you like to use Ability Upgrade Token (Epic)?