Coming out of the Dungeon, they found themselves in the landing platform as normal, Sam followed Janik leaving the area like he had done many times before. They soon found themselves outside, not having spoken a word since they came out Sam was wondering what was on Janik’s mind.

“You doing ok? You’ve been strangely silent since we left.” Sam commented towards Janik’s back.

“Oh, I’ve just been thinking about a few things. First is that I think we should postpone until tomorrow to enter Aetheria, you’re low on Health and it’s cheaper if we just wait. Your health regenerates passively and it’s not like we don’t have time-”

Sam nodded in agreement. He could chug potions, but that would be hundreds of dollars, and paying just one potion worth of room rent would keep him until tomorrow.

“-I have also been thinking a bit about your abilities. Especially your throwing ability, just how does it actually work?” Janik turned around to look at Sam.

Sam knew about it, but he wasn’t too fond of it. Though it was fine for launching random objects or returning spears to their senders, using his weapons would land them out of reach. They were forcing him to get closer or expand on his Area to get them back.

“I don’t know exactly, but when I carry something I can activate it and a pulse of energy launches it forward in the direction I’m pointing it. Kind of like a crossbow or something?” Sam didn’t know exactly how it worked, which explained his questioning tone and thinking expression.

“I thought it was something like that. Have you considered other ways of using that?” Janik looked properly at Sam, seeming to expect an answer. “I mean, the energy needed to throw something is much higher than lifting it, at least when you throw it some distance. And considering that the pulse launches it rather than you moving the arms back and forth to throw them... Can you use that energy without holding something?”

Sam pondered for a moment, that was a very good idea. Though not the same, throwing something and hitting something could be considered similar, and the extra force would make it hit harder. Managing to pulse the force into something could in theory become a telekinetic punch.

Since it was invisible anyway, and they were outside far from people due to being in an open plaza, Sam manifested a Psyhand and placed it against his normal hand, trying to activate the Launching ability. Nothing happened, he triggered the ability again and again, without anything happening. He focused on the description of the ability, which had a small window open.

[ Force Launch: Launch things with telekinetic force. ]

He considered that for a moment. There was an explanation for the energy cost, how it was based on the weight he could carry in a Psyhand. If it was light and easy to move it cost one Energy, if it hit his whole one-hand capacity it cost two... and scaled from there. Was it reliant on his carrying weight? Or was it something different?

“I can’t get it to activate.” Sam commented as he looked at his hand, assuming Janik would understand what he was testing.

“Hmm... that’s a shame. Try on mine.” He requested as he held out his hand.

Sam didn’t want to hurt him, but then again the force he could produce with just one hand was... not much, and Janik was a more skilled combatant, so the odds of anything happening were not big.

Reaching out with his Psyhand, he did the same thing, trying to pulse the energy into his hand, but it didn’t do anything. He could feel his Psyhand pressing against Janik’s normal hand as if he was doing it with his normal hand, but the Launching ability didn’t want to activate. Considering how easily it activated when he tried Launching the bottle a few days ago, was it because of the weight? Perhaps it needed to be an object? He kept trying, squeezing, focusing, imagining his hand an object, his body an object, punching or even something metaphorical as considering everything made of atoms or that everything is an object on a universal scale.

Nothing worked.

Sam sighed in defeat. “I have no idea if that even wo-” He interrupted his sentence as the Launching pulse activated. It seemed to hit decently as if he properly backhand slapped Janik’s hand aside.

“Ow!” Janik exclaimed, looking at his hand with an almost annoyed expression as he shook it a little. “You did it!” His annoyance at the discomfort changed instantly into being happy for Sam, his smile returned and he looked stoked. “You figured it out!”

Retracing his steps, Sam tried to find out what was going on. He couldn’t activate it for many tests, but something in his mind made it work. When activating the launching he instinctively considered it throwing, or launching as the descriptive name explained it. That let him launch it much like a crossbow, or perhaps closer to a gun or cannon. Not with the same force, naturally, but the vague concept of an expanding force propelling something made sense. It then also made sense that it might not translate into the punch... slap... push... thing that he just did. But what did he do? There was something that made it work. He was considering the force as a slap or push? A punch? Grabbing his hand to test again he retraced the thinking, none of which worked. What was it he was thinking to make it work? It happened when gave up, when he stopped trying too hard. Just thinking about activating the pulse into the hand but not considering any rules, definitions or a-

There was a sharp pulse in his hands, his Psyhand felt nothing negative or unpleasant but his normal hand felt the force of a dull punch. It hurt but didn’t directly damage him. Like Janik, he instinctively shook his hand almost like trying to shake the discomfort away. This was interesting, weird, but interesting. He placed the Psyhand against the asphalt as he walked, trying to mimic the feeling, not trying to make the ability work like this, just allowing it to send the pulse into the ground. The energy pulsed and his Psyhand recoiled, the ground being that much stronger than his meagre strength had it rebound, but it worked!

[ Utility skill unlocked: Force Pulse. ]

A window popped up in his vision, explaining an unlocked skill. He looked at it with extreme surprise on his face, an expression almost to that of winning the lottery.

“What? What’s going on?” Janik asked, not being able to see the same thing as Sam.

Sam focused on the information window more than on Janik’s question. Though he didn’t reply he had a similar question as Janik did.

[ Force Pulse: Create the Force Launch pulse at the location of a Psyhand.

Cost: 1 Energy per Pulse. ]

He mused on this for a moment, currently he could make 9 hands. Alternatively, he could make 4 hands, deliver 4 pulses and use one point to expand his Area. Or some mix like that.

“It seems I unlocked a utility skill. When I found out how to trigger the force without throwing anything, the system listed it as a skill.” Sam was confused, happy abut confused. He didn’t know of this happening before, it probably had but he hadn’t heard or read about it.

“What?” Janik looked almost as confused as Sam was. “I know you get a skill at Level 10, but... you’re not there yet, right?”

“No, not yet.” Sam kept looking at the info window more than his confused friend.

“Then... That’s interesting. Skill Crystals is one thing, I have heard of Players getting skills as rewards for special quests but... just randomly like that?” He didn’t sound as much confused as trying to analyse the situation.

“I don’t think it’s a new skill, as much as a way for the System to... let me easier use a skill differently? It’s the same as the launching thing, just... that I punch with it instead.” It wasn’t a punch, but it felt strangely logical to imagine it like that.

He kept testing it, there were some rocks and debris around, though the area was cleaned when the place originally had a massive tower grow up through the ground, it was still in a somewhat sense of disrepair. He placed a Psyhand against a lamppost, it was much too heavy for him to Launch it, but almost to prove a point he activated the Force Launch ability, and nothing happened as expected. Activating the Force Pulse ability had the metal tube making up the post ring with the punch, it wasn’t extremely powerful but was enough to give it a decent punch. Placing four Psyhands on it, placing them in the same spot, he activated the Pulse on all of them at the same time.

The following sound was substantially heavier. If the first one could be compared to slamming a palm onto a table, the second was like slamming a fist against the same table, the force you can give with that little change is considerable. He didn’t know the difference in force between his lifting and Pulse force, but the combined lifting force of four Psyhands was 760gram/1.67lbs, he didn’t know how much more force went into throwing an object than lifting it, but it should be a substantial increase.

“It’s stronger, but not insanely so. It sounds like a solid slam, though.” Sam analysed, wanting to find the limits of the skill to imagine its possibilities.

Janik looked at him eagerly, reacting to the sounds of the lamppost and looking surprisingly happy. “That’s amazing... I need to look into that but... Does this mean you can punch people now?”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“I... think so, I don’t think I’ll do a lot of damage... I just need to find a good way to use this.” Sam replied pondering. He could punch now, with more force than he could lift, which was relatively normal for punching... he thought... He hadn’t done much punching in his life but just logically.

“No, I think this is better than you think.” Janik excitedly broke into Sam’s thinking. “You might not be able to hit that hard but think of the possibilities. Aim at someone's eyes, your hands are invisible. Or at their legs when running, imagine getting punched in the side of your ankle as you step... If someone punches your hand as you hold a weapon. Or even stab someone and punch the blade further in, that’d sure do something, no?” He didn’t seem entirely sure what to use for himself, but like earlier he had some good ideas.

If you compared this to normal arm usage, if you stab someone or something with a dagger, and then punch the dagger further in, your punch should give it that extra oomph, alternatively, when you walk or run your body is doing some mightly complex calculations in balance and where everything goes, it’s easy enough to faceplant when walking normally because you step on a rock, now imagine a targeted and timed attack at your joints as you move around. Disarming someone by attacking their hands when they aren’t expecting it or going for critical areas.

It won’t deliver the same damage as a stab with the floating daggers, but the daggers can be seen, dodged and need to work through resistances, the Force Pulses were listed as utility; he wouldn’t be aiming to do damage with them.

He was getting a bit excited with this now.

“Those are good ideas... Very good ideas.” Sam mused to himself. “Though I need to know just how powerful the attacks are to use them properly...” Sam was eyeing Janik as a joke, not intending to attack him.

“Oh, you want to try them out on me? Sure, why not? But you’re paying for the potions if I get hurt.” He smugly smiled.

This caught Sam quite off guard, he did it as a joke expecting a negative response, if nothing else for a joke. But the fact that he was on board? The punches sounded decent, but it didn’t sound like something harder than most people could punch, especially not the single Psyhand punch.

“Ok, I’m game for that.” Sam was going to take the day off anyway, so he might as well have some fun before he turned in for the night.

Finding themselves in a training room, much like the one they were in before, Janik had picked up some wooden swords and was walking around the room like nothing was going on. Sam was trying to have him trip by attacking his legs with a single punch, it landed with surprising power compared to his lifting power, but perhaps because he was expecting it or his timing was off, he just couldn’t make it happen.

Changing to landing a Force Pulse on his ankle just as he was about to step down had Janik stumbling forward for two steps before regaining balance.

“Ohfuck! You almost had me there!” He got back up properly. “If I wasn’t prepared for it, I would have kissed the floor.” Janik had a kind of infectious and supportive happiness, he looked genuinely happy on Sam’s behalf, even though he had been punched in the knees and ankles for a few minutes.

Sam smiled back, he was very happy that it was working, but he also wanted to try to use the moment. Placing a Psyhand on his left hand he let the Pulse loose, it slapped his hand hard but not enough to have him drop the sword.

“Oh, good try! But I think you should aim for the fingers, they are much more fragile than the top of the hand.” As he explained he used his other hand to point to his attacked hand. “There are more nerves in the fingers, and when something happens to them you are more likely to react.”

They continued testing, and though it worked wondrously several times, it seemed more and more unlikely to work on Janik as he was expecting everything. After being hit by one hand several times he allowed Sam to punch him as hard as he could in his gut, tightening his muscles right before he did so. Sam was hesitant but placed his four hands on his gut and triggered the Pulse after he saw Janik was ready. He reacted but not dramatically so, looking not much worse than if Sam himself had punched him, with his lacking physical prowess.

“Oh, that’s not as bad as I thought. I felt it, I really did, but it was manageable.” Looking at his stomach almost like he expected to see something, he continued. “I’d say the force is similar to an average, untrained jab. It’s not enough to do severe damage but if I wasn’t prepared for it and you hit, say, my kidneys, solar plexus, nuts or eyes. Yeah, I would most likely have gone down, at the very least it would fuck me up a bit for a while.” Brushing off his stomach he was satisfied as he didn’t find anything.

Sam took the compliment and information, it was good to know roughly where the power landed. They continued for a while with various tests, he was never able to disarm Janik, but that felt more like being too prepared for it to properly mimic the reaction of suddenly having your fingers slapped.

When testing adding the pulse to attacks, using a thin wooden dagger he swung it at Janik’s defence, but just as it was about to connect he activated the Pulse. This hit harder but was considerably harder to aim. It could be a damage boost but at the cost of accuracy, probably better for larger targets or when he could take his time to line it up properly. Not wanting to test the damage output on Janik, they decided to wait with that.

Splitting up for the night, Sam went to sell the stuff they got from the Dungeon, getting the needed info from Janik to give him half of the money for the Goblin Cores, which was fair, though Sam did everything it was only due to Janik’s support he felt safe enough to do what he did.

The cores went for $2300 in total, splitting them up for 1150 for each of them. He also sold the Aether Crystals from the Random box, but they just went for $25 each, but that was still another 75 which totalled Sam’s share today a nice $1225. He was incredibly happy that, though he was a bit reckless at the end, his half of the money for today would keep him going for that long. It was also a surprising amount of money in his mind, even though the danger they faced. Using this as an average, it also meant that once he got to the point of handling that dungeon alone, he could expect almost $2400 a run, which would keep him roomed and fed for up to two weeks depending on what he did, and that’s considering the relatively expensive room at TAC.

He was surprisingly excited when it came to money.

Having them send Janik’s half to him, he had his full name so it wasn’t problematic finding him in the system, he headed for his room. Entering it and closing the door behind him gave him a strange sense of relief, though this wasn’t his apartment, house or anything, it felt surprisingly nice living alone. Though he wasn’t entirely alone, he had Elara, who on further inspection looked surprisingly down.

“Are... are you ok?” Sam asked her questioningly.

“I...” She stopped herself and seemed to be processing or at least thinking about something.

Sam found it a bit weird but also interesting in a positive way that she was expressive enough that he could understand her facial expressions, not something he had expected to see on a snake.

“I want to do more for you.” She either found the courage to speak up or completed her thoughts. “You said you didn’t want me to attack until I was stronger, you didn’t want me dying as soon as I attacked.” She seemed almost depressed at the statement like he had metaphorically caged or restrained her.

“Err...” This took him a bit off guard. He said something like that, but in his mind, it was just that he didn’t want her to get attacked and die, based on her health and the damage the Goblins did, he thought she might just get one shot if they got a hold of her. Not even considering her value as an item, but more as a friend he was responsible for. He just didn’t want anyone he cared about to die around him.

The problem here seemed to be the weight his words carried to her, the System explained that she would be loyal to a fault, meaning that telling her this was the same as ordering her not to attack or just to keep hidden until she was strong enough... Not considering her feelings in this.

“I... I’ll admit I didn’t consider that... Not used to this whole master-servant thing...” He sheepishly smiled as he reached his hand out to the counter in the kitchen, letting her slither down and coil up, getting a better conversation angle than having her on his shoulder.

“But the solution there is easy, we just need to discuss it a bit and find out a way for this to work.” His smile turned honest at the end, he didn’t intend to ‘keep her down’ but more wanted her to be safe. At least until she was stronger and could take a hit or two. Not that he was doing that much better but he was armoured and geared, perhaps there was something similar he could give her?

“I would like that.” Elara smiled back, her tongue flicking out between the tip of her lips before it retracted again.

They didn’t share any emotional bonds, but he could tell she felt happier just from that. Which in turn made him feel a little better about the situation.

[ Conditions met. ]

A window popped up in his field of view causing his heart to almost stop.

Sam’s expression turned into a slight panic as the Solo Dungeon’s events flashed past his mental eye.

“Fuuuuck...”