I try to see if anything else changed. But I then remember what it is meant to be and think of what my next skill will be. It should be something with knowledge I think. Then I get an inspiration and start going towards one of the bigger hills. When near the side which faces my previous Skill, I start to dig a shallow cavity. Then I will to start producing a small stream of water like a spring, suddenly I feel energy with water affinity going into it but I put Technology, Illusion, Knowledge, Arcane and Mental affinities into it. When the energy flow stops I see that it is producing a stream of crystal clear water. I then take out the {Abyss blinked first} Achievement and put it into the spring. Instantly the water changes from clear to pitch black with shimmering writing that writhes and the mouth of the spring now looks like a hole to the Abyss.

[Congratulations!! You have created Skill {Wellspring of Knowledge}]

[You may choose one of your affinities as the aspect of choice]

I already knew what I will choose for this one.

[You have chosen (Knowledge) as the aspect]

[You may choose one of these quirks—

• General

• Biological

• History

• Magic

• Rune]

I thought about it a little bit and picked the first one. As I picked it and the system acknowledged it, the water starts to shimmer and more common and more legible words start to form.

I feel the ground below me shake slightly and see that a couple of the fleshy roots come out of the ground and plunge into the thin stream of black water. Then they start to absorb the abyssal water, and as they drink it the crystal structures on them begin to turn black.

Then I begin to feel a bit tired, suddenly I open my eyes to see Emir looking at me in excitement, intrigue and somewhat of pride. I suddenly jerk backwards, a bit surprised by having his face in my chest.

He then backs up a bit at me getting startled. He then clears his throat and says, “I did not think that you would make a linker type Skill as the first or use multiple Achievements. But I will say that it was very well built! I even felt your Traits helping you build it. Not to say the fountain of knowledge! I would have recommended it next after you get out of your meditation after building your first Skill, so colour me surprised when you went ahead and built your second Skill right after the first. You have higher mana capacity and even higher core size.”

I nod and try to figure out why I am a bit dizzy. Suddenly I feel a whisper in my mind, “Making changes in Domain core uses mana, more when creating a Skill or Ability.”

I guess the new Skill is working. I check my status to be sure and see that my mana is at almost empty.

“So how much time could it take me to regenerate my mana?” I ask him as he is in thought while fidgeting with his ears, which I now notice are pointy. He shakes his head and tells me that it could be anywhere from a couple of minutes to a couple of hours. My shoulders sag a bit as I feel a bit let down by that. Emir chuckled a bit, “Don't be sad! You could take this time to read up on the books that they gave you.”

I perk up a bit at that thought and take one of the books out of my bag. Its cover says, 'Arcane compendium of Magical Theories', it is a thick book which has a leathery teal cover with the title engraved in golden colour.

I read the book for about some time, in which I read about the different energies.

It said that Mana is the energy related to thoughts and the main ingredient in most magic as it lets us convey our thoughts and commands to the reality around us. It said that the capacity of mana in anything is different because of many factors, in living beings it is mostly based on soul development, mind development and Skills and Abilities. In objects, it could be from natural alignment, mana activity around it and many more. It is also in the surroundings in a gas-like state but can turn into liquid or crystalline structures based on circumstances. Someone can recover mana in time by themselves or they can pull the mana from the surroundings into themselves but this mana takes a bit of time to 'digest' and be mentally taxing as you have to hold it in you but that can be alleviated by using a Skill or Ability. It also warned anyone from using ambient mana from the surroundings to make a spell without a proper Skill or Ability as it could go out of control. It also talked about an event called 'Confluence of Thought', in which mana makes the most strongest and common thought, emotion or feeling in the locality into reality. This happens because we are always leaking a bit of mana for the new mana we made to take place, this leaked mana holds our strongest subconscious thoughts which spreads to the nearby mana. Normally it is very low but during heavy emotions like sorrow, fear, despair, anger, joy, etc during wars and disasters create a feeling that is shared by everyone in the locality making it much stronger and this event possible.

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Then it talked about Natural Energy or Natura. It said that Natura embodies the physical world, from flesh to steal to leaf to rock. This energy cannot be stored within you for later use. It can only be used from the surroundings by channelling a bit of mana in your words and telling it what you want. It says that it can be used generally to shape elements and some divination but it’s most useful in augmenting a spell. It could make a firebolt spell into a firefly that homes in on your target for a bit less damage.

Then it talked about Spiritual energy or Spiritua. It said that Spiritua is the byproduct of a soul and in everything that has a soul. It said that most of its uses are higher tier than most and will be talked about later on in the book.

I put the book down as I feel my mana not low again and check my status to it is at almost full. I hear a caw so I look up to see that the bird is looking at me, when it sees me looking at me it points at the side. I look in that direction to see Emir coming into the room with a tray of food. When he puts it on the table I see it has two bowls of hot soup, two small bowls of salad and some bread. “It seems like your summon is pretty smart. It mimed to me about food when you were reading. And now it got your attention to tell you about me entering the room! I have to say as your first summon it is good.”

After saying that he pushed a bowl of soup, a bowl of salad and a plate of bread to me. But I notice that his movements have an almost unnatural fluidity to it, as if he is just a leaf in the wind. I don’t feel hungry or thirsty now that I think about it. But I eat anyway as I feel I should eat for some reason.

I take a piece of bread and rip a small piece off. I see that it has small bits of fruits in it. I dip it in the soup and eat it, I feel the hot creamy and savoury soup with the slightly sweet bread on my tongue. I eat my bread with soup and see that bits of meat are at the bottom of the soup. I scoop those out with the spoon and eat it. The meat is soft yet a bit chewy with a bit of gamey taste. As I complete those I get to eating the salad. I see that it has spinach, apples, cucumbers, carrots and some kind of purplish fruit in it. I try the purple fruit first and it tasted like a more citrusy dragon fruit. As I eat the salad I see the bird looking at a piece of the purple fruit. “Hogu fruit, it is said to help calm who eats it”, it seems like the Skill activates a bit randomly, I hope having a Skill or Ability connected to it helps lessen the randomness. I give the bird a small piece of the hogu fruit, it looked at me and nodded before eating it in small pecks. I see Emir looking curiously at the bird as it eats the fruit.

“It seems some of the impressions of the lightflutter bird stayed in this bird as those birds love the hogu fruit. And it seems like this one likes them as well! But how is a summon made of paper processing the fruit?” As he asks the question his eyes glow for a second and he starts to laugh. “Ingenious! It has assimilated the Chimera blood that you gave it and made that its digestive track. It is taking the soothing properties for itself and using the flesh of the fruit to bolster it’s body.”

I get a bit intrigued at that, it seems like (Adaptive) and (Malleable) changed the magic of ritual to also use the blood which likely had nanites in it to assimilate it in the bird.

“Ahm! Now that we have eaten something let’s talk about your foundational Skills shall we?”...