Now, Lucas didn't exactly have a lengthy exposure to external combat Skills of the type he was trying to create to draw direction from. He would be doing this entirely by his own inspiration.

The way he was currently emitting mana was unstructured, and whatever Skill it formed would likely be exceedingly wasteful for an inferior effect. That would be the first thing Lucas worked on since it would mean he'd have to use less mana to make improvements later on. So with a flex of his will, he started influencing the component mana of his infant Skill through more regular arcs. The nature of lightning, as it would come from a storm, wasn't necessarily predictable, but structure was required here.

Lucas tried to take some inspiration from the path an arc of lightning might take anyway, so that the final form of the Skill wouldn't overly deviate. Once he'd worked out a rotating pattern of such arcs, Lucas made another significant change. He pulled each radiant bolt of mana from his palm as before, then cycled it back to his palm and into his body.

It was another change that might improve the Skill's efficiency and one that he hoped would allow him to run the arcs across a weapon, so when Lucas was rewarded with another notification from the System, he allowed it through so he might check his progress.

[*ding You have received the Class Skill [Electrify]!]

[Electrify: Imbue 10MP as an electric charge into a strike that dissipates into the target upon impact. Increased efficiency and damage with each level.]

I mean, it worked, but that's not exactly what I was going for...

Lucas had desired something channeled, that he could keep up consistently. But now that it was under consideration, he wasn't so sure of the idea. It would mean having both this, and his augmentation up at all times during combat, and one of those was already strain enough. If he could get [Rapid Regeneration] to a high enough level that his MP recovered faster than both Skills could drain it, that would make things different. For now, the single-instance use of [Electrify] was honestly more realistic.

So there was no reason not to invest in that direction. Lucas dismissed the notifications and refocussed on the Skill he was forming. With careful concentration, he siphoned off a bit of the energy in the closed cycle back to his mana currents. The Skill stuttered for a moment before achieving a new balance. Then he took a larger pull from his currents, and carefully fed it back into the cycle so it would have even more mana than at first. It took more time on that step, but when he succeeded, he got another notification.

[*ding You have received the Class Skill [Shock]!]

[Shock: Release a variable amount of mana as an electric charge to strike at a chosen target. Weapons will hold the charge for a short time until contact is made, before dissipating. Increased damage per MP spent per level.]

Yeah, I guess that will do for now.

[*ding You have learned [Shock]!]

Alright, that's another one down and maybe six more to go. We'll see if I can actually fill every slot today.

----------------------------------------

Lucas was not able to fill out very many Skill slots before he had to transition to leveling. In fact, the remainder of the time he allowed for Skill creation was taken up by only a single Skill. Luckily, he felt it was a good one.

[*ding You have learned [Overcharge]!]

[Overcharge: You may choose to build up a store of mana beyond your maximum MP through natural regeneration. This store of mana may be used to empower the effects of other Skills. However, too high a charge may result in negative physical side-effects.]

It was definitely worth the time spent to create this Skill, as it had great potential. Unfortunately, he was already to some degree intimately familiar with the negative physical side-effects it spoke of. To create [Overcharge], Lucas had drawn mana from his internal currents and simply held it separate within his body. It began to burn after a while, and eventually he couldn't hold it anymore and the mana was completely expelled from his body. It even lowered his HP a bit.

[Lucas]

[Free Stats: 130]

[HP: 197/220]

[MP: 302/330]

...

Still, it was a success, and it even earned him another level in [Rapid Regeneration]. That Skill would probably go up like crazy in the near future as well, since he could likely constantly train it in conjunction with the other new addition to his status. Those two could be left out of his immediate training.

Lucas climbed up out of the hollow and took a look around. Based on the sun, there was still quite some time till midday. So as not to waste it, he jumped straight into his next activity: running laps with his augmentation active. This wasn't necessarily the best place for it, with the only paths currently open to him being dense forest or an obstacle course of fallen trees, but Lucas supposed that just meant he could test the bonus to agile movements that [Storm Core] provided, as well as the limits of his maximum boosted DEX. For that, the obstacle course of fallen trees would serve best.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Without further ado, he started hopping from log to log and making his way toward the outermost reaches of the clearing. He started slow and without [Accelerant Frame] active as he made his first lap. Once he was back at his 'start' at the clearing's edge, that changed.

The moment his Skill activated, Lucas nearly wiped out. He overshot his next step thanks to the sudden boost in speed and was only saved from an intimate meeting with the side of a log by instinctively raising up his legs and just barely planting himself atop it. Even still, he slipped off the other side and partially fell down a hole between debris.

"Ughh..." Lucas groaned from his position wrapped around a log. He'd still been moving at a fair speed when the thing had been forced to absorb his momentum, and his chest now ached as a consequence. "Okay, okay. I'll take it even slower."

He picked himself up and once more climbed to the highest spot available. A quick pulse of [Arclight Renewal] had his ribs feeling much better, and he was ready to go again. This time, even though he kept his augmentation on, he set an initial pace not much faster than a walk. Lucas hopped from tree to tree without further incident and slowly made his way around the clearing for a second time, whereupon he increased his pace to a jog.

[*ding [Accelerant Frame] has reached level 3!]

[*ding [Vigilance] has reached level 15!]

Lucas's mana was draining fast, so before his third lap finished, he kicked his pace up to a run. Steps began to fly by--a bit precariously at first, but without falter. With his Limited Sensory Enhancement, [Vigilance], and to a lesser degree [Keen Mind] working together, he picked out every step ahead of time and planned his route. He began to mix it up a little and take different paths.

Levels began to roll in.

[*ding [Accelerant Frame] has reached level 4!]

[*ding [Tempest Fighting] has reached level 19!]

[*ding [Storm Core] has reached level 22!]

[*ding [Keen Mind] has reached level 10!]

[*ding [Running] has reached level 2-3!]

[*ding [Vigilance] has reached level 16!]

One of those is not like the others, Lucas briefly thought before refocussing on his efforts. That one distracted moment nearly had him missing another step, and at his current speed that would be the last thing he wanted. He stopped paying any attention to the notifications that were rolling in with surprising frequency, and just ran.

After a minute, Lucas lowered his posture to try and eke out a bit more speed. He changed the timing of his steps so that he began practically pushing off the side of each log, rather than treading upon their top. In a moment of inspiration, he pulled the smallest amount of mana his current level of concentration would allow from his currents, and he pulsed it through the bottom of each foot as it made impact. He wasn't sure if it had any other effect than increasing the strain on his MP, but it might have pushed him a bit faster.

And then, just after Lucas started his ninth lap, his mana finally bottomed out. The speed of his movements was immediately cut by what felt like half, and he nearly collapsed from the exhaustion. He was still in motion, however, so he put every ounce of his focus into landing each step and bleeding his momentum. As it was, Lucas couldn't maintain complete control and started careening out of the clearing, where he crashed into a particularly large bush and fell to the ground.

"Urgghhh..." Lucas groaned for the second time that hour. This fall hadn't hurt nearly as much as the last, but it still hadn't felt good. In that moment, he chose to lie there, in the bush, and wait for his MP to regenerate a few points so he could pulse healing magic through...everywhere, really. He didn't need much, just a few points, and that wouldn't take too long so a little rest was fine.

Lucas rolled over atop his natural bed, and despite the discomfort, he couldn't help but smile. "That was great!" he laughed. "Ha! I've never gone so fast."

With the momentary lapse in activity, he decided now was a good time to look over his notifications once again.

[*ding [Aspirant of the Storm] has reached level 24! You have 140 free stats!]

[*ding [Accelerant Frame] has reached level 5-8!]

[*ding [Rapid Regeneration] has reached level 14!]

[*ding [Tempest Fighting] has reached level 20!]

[*ding [Storm Core] has reached level 24!]

[*ding [Keen Mind] has reached level 11-12!]

[*ding [Running] has reached level 4-11!]

[*ding General Skill [Running] may evolve into a Class Skill! Would you like to proceed?] [Y/N]

[*ding [Vigilance] has reached level 17-19!]

[*ding [Learning] has reached level 24!]

[*ding You have received the General Skill [Perseverance]!]

Yep, that was wildly effective. Definitely have to do this again, but maybe when my VIT and [Storm Core] are a bit higher.

The possible evolution for [Running] was quite unexpected, despite the nonchalant manner in which Lucas took it in. He couldn't really spare the energy to be surprised at the moment, and it had been his goal to turn it into a Class movement Skill anyway. The only surprise was that it happened so soon after he first slotted it into his General Skills. Anyway, he approved the evolution without any further thought.

[*ding General Skill [Running] has become Class Skill [Quick Step]! Level is maintained!]

[Quick Step: expend 5MP to provide an instantaneous boost to movement speed and cover more ground, effective for a single step. +5% boost per level.]

"Mm, nice. That'll do nicely."

He'd test it some more later, but it sounded a lot like that trick he pulled while running. It was another drain on his MP, though. He really needed to allocate his stats and increased his maximum mana pool, among other things. He could save that for later that night, however. He didn't want the task of adjusting to their increase while he was still training. He moved on to the new Skill instead.

[Perseverance: You just don't give up. Experience increased endurance and resistance to strain the longer you spend performing a physically taxing activity.]

He could see no reason not to accept it, especially now that he had another General slot to fill, so he went ahead. With any luck, it would assist in his training as well.

[*ding You have learned [Perseverance]!]

By then, Lucas had regenerated enough mana to pulse healing through his sorest spots, and he decided that was enough time spent resting. There was more to do, and next up he would be training [Tempest Fighting] and [Shock].