Ok then, I think I’m ready now.

With my new focus magic skill, I should be able to shape the distortion however I want. And in addition to that, I gained a lot of experience in how this manipulation actually works during my fight.

Can I even consider it a fight? Ah, sure I can. But I’m distracting myself again.

I cast the spell and create aa spatial distortion a few meters in front of me, above the surface of the lake.

Immediately, I can feel the skill come into effect. My mind becomes sharp and easily concentrated on just one thing, magic.

With all the other distractions gone, everything about my spell become much clearer.

I can sense the point from which the mana exits better. And that’s why I notice that it’s not just leaving my body, but actually originated from something even deeper inside me. That’s about as much as I can see now though.

The actual stream of power stretching between me and the spell also comes into view. As if I’ve been looking at it through murky water till now. But unlike when I cast my freeform spell earlier, it’s compact. Not at all the chaotic loose bundle of energy my flavour spell was.

Hmm, I wonder why that is. Something to do with the System and Magic, but the actual reason is still shrouded to me.

All this means though is that the spell is much more efficient. And also, that I have something to copy when casting other spells. Maybe I need to condense this stream enough before the System recognizes it as a proper spell?

And lastly, for the first time, I spot what’s happening at the actual, final, location of the spell. Where the mana I send out into the world becomes the spell itself. It’s a beautiful but mind numbingly complex structure that I can’t even begin to comprehend. The fact that I can just barely perceive it doesn’t help either.

Whether it’s some deeply buried magical instinct or the simple act of seeing this grand interplay of magics acting as an amplifier, the spellcraft glows a bit brighter in my senses, becoming that bit more powerful.

But I’m not done yet. While focus magic already helps a lot, the skill has another side to it that is arguably even more useful. The gentle whispers, magical guidance in the form of the faintest nudges, or perhaps those magical instincts speak to me, telling me what to do.

It’s just the barest of help, weak in its infancy. I have to enter into meditation to just get the most general idea of what I’m supposed to do, but even that is a giant help.

Under this assistance, I push and prod on the magical energies leaving me, manipulating them into a more perfect form.

And then I begin with what I wanted to accomplish since almost as soon as I got this spell.

I start shaping the spell. Except that this time I’m not trying to change its form and neither am I trying to deepen the distortion to increase the gravity.

No, instead I’m attempt to define a border to it. Beyond which they spell won’t have an effect, but inside of which it’s even stronger. Sort of making the metaphorical walls of a pit trap steeper.

And already I can tell the difference. Before I had this skill, I only just started learning to change the shape. During my brief duel I figured out how to deepen the hole of gravity. But both of those seem almost like child splay now.

And once I push to create the border, the change comes easily. So easily in fact, that I keep on doing it until I’m done.

Huh, that’s unexpected. Sure, the edge isn’t a true line, but I reduced it to at most a couple centimetres I’d say.

I dismiss the spell. A bit of water, which I must have unknowingly absorbed before finishing the border, splashes into the lake bellow.

Now, onto the true test. Can I cast it with the border already active? Or if not, how fast can I get it up and running?

I enter a state of focus, though without the actual skill as I’m not casting any magic yet. Keeping as many of the sensation of the complete spell as I can in my mind, I cast.

The spell forms. And the border is… half there. At least it isn’t as unrestricted as before, but I need to finish the job to get back to my previous point. Good, one more try.

Stolen story; please report.

This time it’s even better, but still nowhere near where I want it to be. Ah, whatever. These things take time.

I keep the spell going and focus back on the non-magical world. That’s another thing I’ll have to watch out for. It wouldn’t be very good to get lost in the process in an actual fight.

Anyway, the spot where I feel my spell is empty, so at least I managed to do it quickly enough not to pick up any water. Good, that’ll allow me do this next test.

The spell moves down, slowly. Moving it in as small increments as I can, I keep watch on the water surface bellow. Even once it reaches a finger length distance from the water, there’s nary a ripple.

I’d say that that is success.

Only centimetres later though, a bunch of water rises and settles around the centre of the distortion. Oh well, good enough.

I bring the head sized ball of water to me. Sure looks like whatever is inside is more stable than before. Very nice! Now I’ll be able to act as telekinetic mage! Or even a water and earth bender!

I spend the next hour or so playing around with this pseudo telekinesis before my mana runs dry.

And then I begin to think and plan.

It’s rather obvious that skills of the second tier are vastly more powerful. Sure, there’s the possibility that I lucked out and got something truly overpowered, but I doubt that.

Which brings me to the topic of great feats. If that’s what I need to do to tier up skills, and the new skill depends on what great feat I accomplished, then I need to plan this out better.

Yes, I do like myself some chaos and risk, but this is too important to risk it.

With parallel processing it was mostly a coincidence that I managed to do it, and an even bigger one that the resulting skill was good. Maybe the System makes sure to give out only compatible ones, but the message clearly stated that the feat is related to the result.

And I really don’t want meditation to become something like coma. Is that even possible to get a detrimental skill? Rather not risk it.

This all means planning. Which skill to focus on and how. Let’s take silent step for example, my first skill. Well, technically one of my first four skill, but I digress.

The only thing I can think of to improve it to run really fast with it and push against my limits that way. But don’t really want or need to move that quickly. And silent step already enhances my speed somewhat.

But maybe upgrading it into some kind of flying or air step skill wouldn’t be bad. Then again, I have no idea how I’d do that.

Actually, hold on. Scratch that, I may not need a flying skill after all.

I cast distort spacetime, except unlike all the times before where I cast it away from myself, I cast it exactly on top of myself.

Immediately, a weird sensation washes over me. Yeah, it strange having down be in the middle of your body.

I set up the border, wouldn’t want debris to fly into me. Then, slowly, I lift up the spell. And with it, I also start levitating. Hah. Hahah. Hahahahaha! This is amazing!

Of course, I make sure to lower the gravity to keep me in the air, but at the same not be too uncomfortable for my still mortal body. Speaking of which, I should do something about that.

It’s the only stat I haven’t figured out how to increase. And, if my portals are indeed going to be based around this spell, as I suspect, then I’m going to have to be able to survive some really high pressures.

Lost in thought, I let a part of my mind navigate my flight path. Ahh, the breeze in the air is truly refreshing.

Right, where was I? Yes, surviving great pressure. I could rather easily gain a skill like that, probably pressure resistance, thanks to my skill.

Or would that actually be a trait? I do have Cognito-hazard resistance and that one isn’t a skill. But what actually is the difference between a skill and a trait? Other than the obvious difference in levelling.

Or maybe I could get a skill like working out? How’d that even work? Would the skill level correspond to an improvement in my body or would it mean how well and how quickly I can improve my body? If it’s the second one I’d be rather overpowered.

Oh. Maybe? What if a higher tier of work out, or however the skill would be called, is the mythical cultivation from xianxia stories? It’s certainly a possibility. Ah, but actually.

Cultivation may actually be a vast array of skills.

If I go according to traditional Chinese mythology, the cultivation is a form of alchemy, but instead of a cauldron you use the human body and refine it.

And I already got a skill called qigong offered to me, which may also be it.

And then there’s the more modern idea of absorbing mystical energies into yourself.

At worst it’s actually all of these and having just one would provide only negligible benefits, if any. But that’s if I want to go down the path of the cultivator, and I already have magic. No need to give myself more work.

How did I even get to this topic anyway? Right, right. Skills to improve my body, similarly to how my vast array of mental skills enhanced my mind to the superhuman level. Not that I know what that means, but it sounds good.

It is at this moment that I realized; I fucked up. My mana sputters out and I plummet down towards the ground.

Damn it! Why wasn’t I paying attention!? I have the mental capacity for that, I don’t need all of it for some simple pondering!

That’s as much as I manage to think before I hit the ground. Or rather, the water. It seems that my distracted mind isn’t a complete moron and kept me floating over something that wouldn’t kill or heavily injure me.

The icy cold-water shock me out of my reverie and swim to the surface as quick as I can.

As soon as I ascend to the air, I take a deep breath in. And another one. And I can’t stop. Okay, damn hyperventilation, let’s get to the shore before I drown or something.

It doesn’t take me long to get out, but I’m once again left shivering and slowly freezing. Damn it! That’s why I avoided going into it all this time! At least it’s an easy fix this time.

A quick and improvised incantation later, a wave of hot air rises around me, drying me and keeping me warm.

Sure, maybe I can’t do powerful spell all willy-nilly, but some simple quality of life ones are very much within my reach. As long as they aren’t too complicated. How else do you think I kept the fire going all this time?

Perhaps now, with a bit a magical focus, I’ll be able to expand my arsenal a bit. I definitely wouldn’t mind a sphere of perfect temperature air constantly around me. Maybe I’ll try that out tonight before I go to sleep. It may even last the whole night!