Chương 104: Apparently, Moving a Pebble Counts as Progress

One week after returning from Bellhaven, Sieghart was still spending most of his time inside his room beneath Lunar Arc. Considering Mira had specifically started assigning him group missions so he would stop hiding underground, the situation represented questionable progress. Mira had already complained twice about it, pointing out that her entire intention had been to make him leave the basement more frequently.

Sieghart had responded that learning magic technically qualified as productive activity, which had failed to improve her opinion. His excuse was not completely dishonest, because after seven days of increasingly frustrating attempts, Sieghart had finally accomplished something with the Telekinesis book. Calling what he could currently do Telekinesis, however, felt considerably more generous than the actual results deserved. A small wooden cube rested on the table approximately two meters away from his bed.

It weighed less than one hundred grams, possessed absolutely no magical properties, and had somehow become one of Sieghart's greatest enemies during the previous week. Sieghart extended one hand toward it even though he had already discovered that physical gestures were unnecessary. The movement simply made concentration easier, giving his mind something familiar to associate with the strange force he was attempting to impose upon the object.

"Up." The cube trembled. For several seconds, nothing else happened, and Sieghart narrowed his eyes while carefully maintaining the invisible pressure surrounding it. Then the small piece of wood lifted several centimeters from the table and remained suspended unsteadily in the air. Sieghart smiled. The cube immediately fell. Seven days earlier, he had been unable to produce even that much.

Mana could surround an object, push against it, flow around it, or imitate crude pressure, but none of those methods had produced the effortless remote manipulation described inside Mira's book. The breakthrough had happened only after Sieghart stopped thinking about Telekinesis as mana physically pushing something. Instead, he had focused upon establishing a connection between his intention and the object's position, treating distance almost like an irrelevant inconvenience. Something had finally responded.

It did not feel like controlling Wind Magic, where mana became an actual force capable of pushing matter. Telekinesis produced no noticeable air movement, no pressure against Sieghart's skin, and no visible structure surrounding the object being manipulated. The moment he successfully lifted the cube for the first time, translucent letters had appeared before him, confirming that his repeated failures had finally crossed whatever invisible requirement the System had been waiting for.

A fundamental magical affinity has awakened. You have unlocked: Psionics Necromancy Path Discovered: Psychokinesis New Technique Acquired: Telekinesis — Level 1 Gains the ability to control things with your mind +2 Mentality per level. Sieghart had stared at the notification considerably longer than necessary because the System had classified the ability separately from Arcane Magic. Apparently, forcing an object to move through mental intent was different enough to deserve an entirely new category.

Another notification had followed immediately, explaining the spell itself and giving Sieghart a much better reason to continue training despite the fact that his impressive new supernatural ability had initially struggled against pieces of wood. Two Mentality per level was useful enough that Sieghart had immediately considered training the spell aggressively, although Telekinesis had refused to cooperate with that plan.

Apparently, unlocking an ability and being competent with it were entirely different accomplishments. During his first successful attempt, objects approaching one hundred grams became almost impossible to lift. Anything heavier might tremble or shift slightly, but actually removing it from the table demanded more control than Sieghart could maintain. That limitation bothered him because his Magic parameter was absurdly high.

If Telekinesis relied upon magical force, he had expected his existing parameters to make the starting version considerably stronger than this. Practice slowly revealed something more complicated. His Magic did affect Telekinesis. The problem was that Sieghart initially lacked the skill necessary to properly use it. As his technique became more natural, the invisible force surrounding an object stopped collapsing whenever he attempted to increase pressure.

Each improvement in control allowed more of his existing Magic parameter to contribute toward the spell's physical strength. By the third day after unlocking Telekinesis, Sieghart could lift a metal training weight heavier than the wooden cube. By the fifth, he could drag a chair across his floor without touching it, although lifting the chair remained considerably more difficult. Speed improved alongside weight.

The original cube had floated through the air so slowly that Sieghart could probably have crossed the room and carried it himself faster. After several days of practice, however, he could send the same object flying across his room quickly enough to strike the opposite wall. He stopped doing that after the third impact left a visible mark. Mira would probably blame him for damaging Lunar Arc property. She would be correct, which made the situation worse. The strangest limitation remained the number of targets.

Sieghart could lift something several kilograms heavier than his original limit after gaining enough familiarity, yet attempting to manipulate two tiny pebbles simultaneously caused his control to collapse almost immediately. That made Telekinesis feel more like dividing concentration than spending mana. Infinite Mana provided no advantage when the actual bottleneck came from maintaining independent mental instructions for multiple physical targets at the same time.

Sieghart placed two wooden cubes beside each other and concentrated again. The first rose easily, floating approximately thirty centimeters above the table while Sieghart focused upon establishing a second connection without disturbing the first. The second cube trembled. The first dropped. Sieghart caught it telekinetically before it struck the table, which would have felt impressive if preventing his own failure had not been the only reason the maneuver became necessary.

"..." Several hours passed that way, with Sieghart alternating between heavier objects and multiple lighter ones. Every unsuccessful attempt taught him slightly more about the strange mental structure behind the spell, even when nothing visibly improved. Telekinesis required him to maintain an awareness of an object almost as though it were another limb.

Weight determined how much force was necessary, but target quantity demanded something closer to splitting his attention without allowing either portion to deteriorate. That difference eventually gave Sieghart another idea. Instead of thinking about two objects separately, he imagined two hands. The comparison was imperfect because his actual hands moved through instinctive physical control, while Telekinesis required deliberate mental awareness.

Still, treating each target as a separate extension of himself made dividing concentration slightly easier. The first cube rose. Sieghart waited. The second followed. Both pieces of wood remained suspended approximately twenty centimeters above the table, trembling enough that nobody would mistake Sieghart for an experienced psychic, but neither immediately fell. His concentration tightened. One cube moved left. The other moved right. Sieghart grinned. A familiar notification appeared.

Telekinesis has reached Level 2. +2 Mentality applied The cubes immediately dropped because Sieghart stopped concentrating while reading. He stared at them for several seconds before turning his attention toward the new category inside his Status. Seeing an entirely separate magical discipline beside the others still felt stranger than the actual spell. Psionics. Psychokinesis. Telekinesis. The words sounded considerably less like magic than everything else he had learned.

Sieghart had spent years creating fire, shaping water, manipulating earth, freezing surfaces, reinforcing bodies, healing injuries, constructing mana weapons, and experimenting with runes. All of those abilities followed principles he could comfortably describe as magic. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Telekinesis felt different.

There was mana involved somewhere, particularly because his Magic parameter clearly strengthened the result, yet the mechanism depended far more heavily upon intention and mental control than transforming mana into an external phenomenon.

"This is basically ESP." Sieghart lifted one cube again while considering the distinction. In his previous world, Telekinesis would have belonged beside psychic powers, supernatural perception, clairvoyance, and the other abilities usually associated with people bending spoons using suspicious amounts of concentration. Here, apparently, the System simply categorized those phenomena separately from conventional magic. That was interesting. More importantly, it revealed something new about the System itself.

Sieghart had assumed its categories represented established magical schools already existing within the world. Psionics suggested something broader, as though the System could identify entirely different supernatural mechanisms and organize them according to principles rather than cultural definitions. Necromancy had already hinted at that possibility. He did not particularly enjoy thinking about Necromancy.

Still, between that forbidden discovery and Psionics, Sieghart was beginning to realize that Black, White, Summoning, and Arcane Magic might represent only a fraction of whatever classifications the System was capable of recognizing. There could be dozens. Possibly hundreds. That idea was simultaneously exciting and troublesome. Every new category potentially contained useful spells and permanent parameter bonuses.

Unfortunately, Necromancy had demonstrated that discovering something new did not necessarily mean discovering something he should ever practice. Sieghart decided Psionics was considerably safer. Probably. He lifted the chair again. This time, all four legs left the ground. Only by several centimeters, but that was enough. Sieghart slowly moved it sideways before lowering it again, pleased by how much stronger Telekinesis had become despite gaining only a single level.

The improvement came primarily from learning how to access more of his existing Magic. That meant his starting weakness had been deceptive. Telekinesis possessed considerably more potential than the first hundred-gram limitation suggested because Sieghart already had the raw magical power. He simply needed enough proficiency to translate that power into usable psychokinetic force. Distance remained another issue. Within several meters, control felt comfortable.

Past that, the mental connection became noticeably weaker. Sieghart suspected Perception might eventually matter as much as Magic or Mentality, especially when manipulating objects he could barely see. Unfortunately, his Perception parameter remained embarrassingly low compared with nearly everything else. That problem became relevant sooner than expected. The door suddenly started opening. Sieghart did not hear any knocking. Again.

He immediately recognized who was responsible because only one person inside Lunar Arc seemed physically incapable of understanding that closed doors traditionally indicated some desire for privacy. Ronan pushed the door inward. Sieghart reacted instinctively. Instead of throwing something at him, which had already occurred to Sieghart several times during previous unannounced visits, he focused Telekinesis upon the opposite side of the door and attempted to force it closed. The movement stopped briefly.

Then the door continued opening. Sieghart frowned and increased the force. Ronan stepped farther inside. The door barely slowed. That was strange. Sieghart had already moved objects considerably heavier than the wooden door during training, particularly when dragging furniture across the room. The mass alone should not have been enough to overpower the force he was applying. Then Sieghart realized the actual problem. He could see the door. He could not properly see Ronan.

The agent stood partially behind it, meaning Sieghart was manipulating only the visible object rather than the person applying force from the opposite side. His Telekinesis had no proper connection with Ronan himself. Ronan finally stepped fully into view.

"Why are you fighting the door?" Sieghart released it.

"You didn't knock."

"I almost never knock."

"That isn't a defense." Ronan shrugged and continued walking into the room as though the argument had already ended. Sieghart watched him approach and suddenly wondered whether Telekinesis could manipulate a living target as easily as an ordinary object. There was only one reasonable way to discover that. Sieghart focused upon Ronan's shoulder and imagined rotating him until he faced the doorway again.

The connection formed, but instead of moving smoothly like furniture, the agent's body produced an immediate sensation of resistance. Ronan stopped. Sieghart pushed harder. The resistance increased. It did not feel merely like weight. Ronan probably weighed somewhere around seventy kilograms, making him heavier than anything Sieghart had successfully lifted so far, but Sieghart could still shift objects approaching that mass slightly when they rested on smooth surfaces. This was different.

The resistance seemed active. Almost reactive. Sieghart concentrated harder, attempting only to rotate Ronan rather than lift him. The agent's torso shifted perhaps a centimeter before the opposing pressure suddenly strengthened enough to stop the spell completely. Ronan turned his head.

"Are you using magic on me?" Sieghart stopped.

"Maybe."

"Don't." Sieghart lowered his hand while mentally recording everything he had just felt. Ronan's reaction had confirmed another mechanic of Telekinesis far more clearly than another afternoon spent experimenting with furniture ever could. Living targets resisted. Not only through mass. Through will. The spell had encountered something inside Ronan actively opposing external control, perhaps subconscious resistance generated by his mind, mana, physical reinforcement, or some combination of all three.

That meant lifting an unconscious person might be considerably easier than lifting someone actively resisting. It also meant powerful opponents could potentially become almost impossible to manipulate directly regardless of Sieghart's raw magical strength. Interesting. Ronan pointed at him.

"I mean it. Don't practice random magic on people." Sieghart pointed toward the open door.

"Then don't enter people's rooms without knocking." Ronan stared at him. Sieghart stared back. Neither appeared particularly interested in surrendering.

"That's different."

"No."

"I'm checking on you."

"You can check after knocking."

"What if you're doing something dangerous?" Sieghart briefly thought about the corrupted core he had secretly absorbed inside a tent several days earlier, then decided that acknowledging Ronan possessed a reasonable point would establish a terrible precedent.

"I'm currently moving wooden blocks." Ronan glanced toward the table, where several cubes, pebbles, weights, and other improvised training objects were scattered across the surface. His expression became slightly more interested when one of the cubes suddenly lifted without visible mana supporting it.

"You got it working?"

"Barely." Sieghart made the cube circle slowly around Ronan's head before bringing it back toward the table. The movement remained somewhat unstable, but compared with his first attempts one week earlier, the difference was enormous. Ronan watched closely.

"That doesn't look barely."

"Thank you." Ronan smiled. Sieghart resisted the urge to test whether Telekinesis could close someone's mouth. Probably not yet. Instead, he lifted two cubes simultaneously, moving them in opposite circles while maintaining separate trajectories. The technique still demanded almost all his concentration, but accomplishing it repeatedly had become possible after reaching Level Two. Ronan tilted his head.

"You were supposed to start living outside here."

"That sentence makes no sense."

"You know what I mean." Sieghart unfortunately did know what he meant. Mira wanted him spending more time with other members, taking assignments, learning how people fought, and discovering progression methods that apparently refused to reveal themselves during solitary training. Sieghart understood the logic. He simply preferred his room. Rooms generally did not ask personal questions, recognize unusual powers, require teamwork, or secretly turn out to contain necromancers.

Bellhaven had permanently lowered Sieghart's expectations regarding what supposedly simple assignments could become. Ronan stepped closer to the floating cubes, and Sieghart carefully moved them farther away before the agent decided touching one would somehow contribute to the experiment. Maintaining two targets was difficult enough without deliberate interference. Sieghart continued moving the cubes while thinking about the resistance he had encountered.

Telekinesis had become considerably more complicated in the last five minutes than during the entire previous week. Mass mattered. Distance mattered. Visibility mattered. Target quantity mattered. Mental concentration mattered. Magical power mattered. And against living creatures, apparently, will mattered as well. Sieghart liked abilities with understandable rules. Understanding the rules allowed him to break them efficiently.

If a target's will resisted Telekinesis, then Mentality might eventually determine how effectively he could overcome that resistance. Alternatively, perhaps weakening concentration or catching someone by surprise would reduce their defense. He would need experiments. Not on Ronan. Probably. Ronan narrowed his eyes.

"Why do I feel like you're thinking about using me for something?"

"I'm not."

"That was too fast." Sieghart ignored him. Telekinesis might have started as an almost embarrassing ability capable of barely lifting a wooden cube, but its potential was becoming increasingly obvious. Even without lifting enemies directly, moving weapons, disrupting balance, altering projectiles, or manipulating the environment could become extremely useful. With Infinite Mana, maintaining the ability would never become the primary limitation. With his high Magic, force could eventually become absurd.

With increasing Mentality, controlling several objects simultaneously might eventually become possible. Sieghart looked at the two floating cubes. Then he looked at Ronan. Ronan immediately pointed at him again.

"No."

"I didn't do anything."

"You were thinking about it."

"You can't prove that."

"I know your face." Sieghart lowered both cubes onto the table and finally allowed his concentration to relax. One week of hiding in his room had produced only two Telekinesis levels, but those levels had revealed an entirely new category of supernatural ability. Perhaps Mira would still complain. She probably would. Sieghart considered that acceptable.

He had unlocked Psionics, discovered that his ridiculous Magic parameter could gradually translate into psychokinetic force, gained four permanent Mentality, and established several useful limitations regarding living targets. The only real downside was that Ronan had discovered the spell. And that Ronan still refused to knock. Sieghart looked toward the open doorway. Telekinesis might eventually solve at least one of those problems.