After a fruitless day of hiking through over thirty pocket worlds, Leon and Claire made to teach each other their respective skills. He wondered how she was going to teach him a skill when she didn’t know it, but it turned out that Claire had learned Empower by working closely with the soldier who had discovered it, an act that had greatly infuriated Tyler at the time.

They stood between a tiny stream and a fractured house, the setting sun casting a shadow over them thanks to the ‘house’. Leon felt generous calling it that since it was more of a wooden floor and a single wall, and even that was generous. Half of the floor was covered in grass and roots while the wall had partially collapsed.

Still, it was better than nothing, the slight protection helping against a gust of wind here and there while they slept.

“‘Women are too delicate to fight, so why are you trying to learn the skill?’, he told me without a hint of sarcasm,” Claire said, putting her hand on her hip. “It’s like talking to a living stereotype. I would have broken his nose if he didn’t have a gun.”

“Did he know you were a kickboxer?”

“No, and it was a good thing he didn’t. No one wanted to hear him go on a rant about how women should be gentle and sweet.”

Claire shook her head in disbelief. “Anyway, how do you want to do this?”

Leon had thought about the best way to share skills all morning. They couldn’t be automatically learned or sent over, meaning he would have to teach her the underlying mechanisms and go from there. Claire had a bit of experience in that regard as she had learned Empower from a soldier named Cillian. Leon, however, didn’t have any real experience sharing skills besides his one failure with Flame Control.

“I don’t think there is an easy way to do this. Our best option is probably to explain what we know and go off and try to figure it out on our own. If a problem arises then we can ask some clarifying questions.”

Claire nodded, a little smirk touching her lips. “True, it may be a bit tough for you to learn Empower.”

“What do you mean?”

He wondered if there were requirements like his own rare skill. Qi Bullet needed to be moulded into a solidified ball, and while that didn’t require much pressure to form, it did need some ability to compress Qi. She could struggle with that part due to the jump in difficulty, but if Leon taught her the prior versions then it should only be a matter of time before she figured out the rare version.

“After weeks of experimenting,” Claire said, her head held high, “I secretly upgraded Empower into an uncommon skill. It was mostly luck but that doesn’t mean it’s much more complicated. If you do manage to learn it, maybe we should discuss compensation?”

“Wow, that must have been really tough without any support,” Leon said, chuckling at what he hoped was a joke. “But what would I be compensating you for? I thought we were trading skills.”

Leon wondered why she was gloating about an uncommon skill. Neither of them even knew what skills were until recently. Hell, they didn’t even know what the rarity meant or how difficult it was to improve skills besides their own anecdotal experiences. Leon guessed that most people could upgrade a common skill with a bit of effort. Hell, he wasn’t the smartest guy in the world and even he had a rare skill.

“A common skill for an uncommon one? I know you helped me out before but I’m not willing to get into the habit of being screwed over. A trade needs to be equitable or one side is simply being taken advantage of, my friend.”

“You know what,” Leon said, sharing Claire’s smirk. “I think you’re correct. There does need to be some compensation to balance the scales. It’s only fair, right?”

Claire beamed, putting her arm around Leon’s shoulder as she gave him a friendly shake. “It is fair, isn’t it? I’m glad you’re so easy to negotiate with. But you know, you did help me and my sister. I can’t be too mean… Then again, hiking can be brutal on a weak little girl like me, so how about one foot massage after dinner for the next ten days and we’ll call it even? I’ll even rinse my feet beforehand at no extra charge.”

Leon raised an eyebrow. “Oh, I think there’s been some confusion. I wasn’t talking about me compensating you, but you compensating me. My skill is better, after all.”

“…Huh?”

“My skill isn’t common or uncommon, but rare.”

Claire’s expression froze, her face becoming a mask.

“I’m not cruel and you guys have been cooking dinner while I cultivate. Hmm, how about one back massage after dinner for the next ten days?”

Claire’s eye began to twitch as she chuckled, which sounded very forced in Leon’s ears. “Anyway, enough joking around. We’ve only got another hour or two before the sun goes down so how about we teach each other those skills, hey?”

Leon did laugh this time. Taking pity on her, they got to work. He explained the basics of how Qi Bullet worked before she told him about Empower. It was simple enough that she didn’t even need to finish her explanation. He didn’t interrupt, of course, because that would’ve been rude. But the skill was so straightforward that he would’ve already made it himself if he had more free time.

They split off and began practising on their own. Leon sat down and cycled his Qi, following the logic that Claire had outlined. Simply pushing Qi into the body would cause it to follow the path of least resistance, meaning it liked to flow through the veins and then leak out of the pores as a mist.

It wasn’t really doing anything in that case.

Sure, it did give a mild boost similar to Empower, but Claire’s skill enhanced that effect many times over by infusing Qi into the user’s bloodstream. With the two intertwined, the Qi was essentially hitching a ride as a person’s arterial blood was drawn into their muscles, bones, and other tissues. That was also why it enhanced everything. With no mechanism of control, anywhere that received blood was set to be empowered, having its functionality increased as a side effect.

Luckily for Leon, that also meant it had room for improvement.

Five minutes later, he figured out how to infuse Qi into his blood. It was surprisingly simple even when he expected it to be. All he had to do was push Qi into his body and then squeeze the two substances together, fusing the mist into the crimson liquid.

Strength quickly filled Leon’s body. Surprisingly, his mind and senses also sharpened by a touch. He hadn’t expected those changes since Mind and Body were separate stats, but when he thought about it, the idea wasn’t too crazy. The brain was also a part of the body even if the stats were different.

Dropping the technique, a notification dinged in his mind.

[Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Empower (Common).]

[Empower (Common): Infuse your body with Qi, enhancing its every function. Effect dependent on amount of Qi used up to a limit of 10%.]

Leon glanced at the description, not content with what he saw. Ten percent was a decent improvement for such a simple skill, but it was just that, simple. Empower was a technique where you shove Qi into your body and let it go to work on its own. There was no direction and also a ton of wasted energy.

Taking a deep breath, Leon began to ponder on the way Claire improved her version of Empower. He would upgrade his new skill and use any inspiration he gained to improve or change it again, but first he had to actually implement Claire’s method. He had some ideas already about how he could focus the skill or change it around, but that would have to wait for now.

Claire was approaching him, her form appearing from behind a tree with glowing golden bark that lit up the dark forest.

“Sorry to bother you,” Claire said, blushing. “I just have a few questions about Qi Bullet.”

“You’re no bother at all. I was about to come and talk to you about Empower anyway.”

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“Oh, were you having trouble too?”

She seemed almost pleased about that but Leon would have to disappoint her. “No, I’ve already learned the common version and was about to try your uncommon variant. What I meant was that I wanted to discuss my insights and ideas on how to improve the skill. And besides, I expected you to have trouble.”

“Pardon?” Claire said, her embarrassment fading into an icy glare. “Why would I have trouble?”

“No need to get upset. I’m not calling you a dumbass. Qi Bullet is the third iteration of the original skill I learned and it’s much more complicated than the first two, combining elements of both into one new skill.”

Claire choked. “But you already explained the basic concept. I should be able to figure out the common version on my own.”

“Well, you should… except there is no common version. I first learned Qi Burst, a common skill. It manifested as a wave of force that disrupted and stunned enemies. It saved my hide when I first created it, but after that, I realised I needed something more deadly. That was when I adapted it into Qi Eruption, my first uncommon skill. I only made Qi Bullet after that because Qi Eruption was far too explosive to use up close without injuring myself.”

“I’m not following,” Claire said, tilting her head. “Those are three different skills, not upgrades.”

“No, I upgraded them. I’ve only had one skill until recently.”

“You misunderstand. When I upgraded Empower, the name of the skill didn’t change. It sounds like your first two skills weren’t that great, forcing you to change them into something better. But that shouldn’t mean you can’t relearn or keep using them.”

Leon blinked, feeling like a clown. How could he have missed something so obvious? Or maybe he did know and simply didn’t bother to think about it with all the chaos going on around him. Nearly dying three or four times in a week made one a little frazzled.

“I’ll have to think about this more,” Leon said, biting his lip. “Anyway, allow me to explain Qi Burst so that you can get a solid foundation in figuring out Qi Bullet.”

After he gave her the requisite information, Claire went off again to try and figure things out herself. Leon sat and stared at his hands. Qi Bullet and Empower were separate skills, meaning they were designed to fulfil an intended purpose. Leon thought back on that word, Path. He still only had a vague idea of what it meant, but now he thought he was touching on something.

He could relearn Qi Burst and Qi Eruption, but why would he bother? Qi Burst, as he had told Claire, was a disruption skill. It created a wave of force that could stun enemies and maybe disrupt their movement. Did Leon need that in his skill set? He didn’t know. Despite having a decade of fighting experience, he had very little knowledge on the topic of fighting monsters and demons. Not enough to make an informed decision, at least.

For now, his only option was to stumble and reach around in the dark.

Leon recalled the notification he had received a few days ago when he upgraded Qi Eruption. It had told him about the benefits of experimenting and how it could help him find what fit. Now, he brought that message up again and studied it.

[Congratulations! You have evolved Qi Burst (Common) into Qi Eruption (Uncommon).]

[You have successfully evolved a skill. While higher rarity skills are more efficient, powerful, and refined than their inferior counterparts, what’s most important is suitability. When creating skills, ask yourself this question: is your skill effective in achieving its purpose? If not, then know that until you advance your cultivation to the next realm, changing your skills is relatively easy and comes with little backlash.]

[We urge you to explore all of your options regarding different techniques, for each skill is merely a lantern that illuminates your Path.]

“Each skill is merely a lantern that illuminates your Path,” Leon mumbled, focusing on the way each word rolled on his tongue. There was a purpose in each of those movements. His tongue needed to push against the roof of his mouth to make sounds, and just like his tongue, the skills he employed were designed to complete a specific task.

It was up to him to create a skill set that synergised. He imagined trying to decide whether to use Qi Burst or Qi Eruption in the middle of a fight, only to get stabbed in the heart because he didn’t make the decision fast enough. He didn’t need a million skills. He needed a handful that could be mastered and used with ease.

Leon stood up and cycled his Qi, gathering it in his palm. He formed the Qi Burst skill he knew. It was the same as before in many ways, but it was also inferior to what it used to be. Compared to when he had the skill for it, Qi Burst was slower to form, less potent, and much more difficult to control. Any one of those weaknesses could get him killed in battle, highlighting how great skills actually were.

But while skills could be very helpful, using the wrong skill could spell out his death. Leon couldn’t learn infinite skills. There was nothing outright stating that fact but anyone could figure it out with little thought. He only had so much Qi and the number of skills he could use at once was limited. Why have fifty different versions of Qi Burst when he only required the one?

There was no need, and Leon used that logic in the construction of his new skill. He pushed the Qi out of his hand and used the visualisation trick he was so fond of. In his mind, he pictured the skill he wanted. The skill he needed. With Qi Bullet, he could strike his enemies at range. If that failed, then what could he do to those who got close? Recalling his fighting experience, Leon imagined a technique that fit his current abilities.

When he opened his eyes, he tilted his head down and looked at his palm. A hair-thin layer of transparent Qi rested on the inside of his hand. From the tips of his fingers to the base of his wrist, the shell was like a piece of glass or cling wrap moulded to the shape of his hand. Leon smiled, making a grasping motion while not interrupting the technique at all.

He turned and pounced at a nearby tree. It was an ancient beast even in this particular forest, spanning a diameter so vast that if Leon and Claire tried to wrap their arms around it, they still wouldn’t be able to touch hands. Leon pulled his arm back and slammed it into the golden trunk. The tiny layer of Qi erupted, but not in the same way as it previously did.

Instead of hitting the trunk and curling around its monolithic bulk, his Qi rocketed straight forward, digging into the wood and crushing its relatively softer exterior. It still dissipated around the trunk, of course, its inner layers probably harder than steel, but now the skill was much more focused and destructive if unleashed on an opponent. Every drop of Qi was directed into whatever object he struck with his palm.

Leon stepped back, slightly rocked by the residual shockwave. A large handprint was gouged into the trunk. He walked over and put his hand into the shallow dent, appreciating how it had created a larger imprint compared to his actual hand. The rounded shape was only about half a size bigger than his hand, but the effect was obvious compared to Qi Burst.

Wanting to compare, Leon even used the original Qi Burst right below the new dent. He used the same amount of Qi, the same force - not that he could damage the trunk with his own strength, mind you - and the same hand. He slammed his palm into the trunk and stepped back, the outburst of wind ruffling his clothes. He silently noted how that hadn’t happened with the new skill.

Instead of the tiny dent he expected, Leon found nothing at all. The Qi Burst only generated a gust of wind that did no real damage to the trunk. Leon shook his head and moved to open his notifications when Claire and Sophia ran over to him.

“What the hell was that noise?” Claire said, running over to him. “Are you okay? It sounded like a firework just went off.”

“Sorry about that,” Leon said, pointing at the dent with a big smile. “I didn’t expect it to be so loud.”