As he led me out of the tree-made house, I saw that I slept in a different tree from the big one that we first went to.

We go towards the forest outside of the clearing, and there we get on a small packed dirt trail. That led us to another clearing.

There was nothing in the clearing so I looked at Emir to see what he had planned. He walked to the middle of the clearing and called to me. I walked up to him. “So.... What am I to do?”

“Now you will have to run a lap of this clearing 3 times.” He said in a bit of a cheery tone. I shrugged and started running. The clearing was about 15 meters from the centre to the edge. As I ran the first lap I felt something change in my body and I found that I could run easier. Slowly I felt that I could run faster. This feeling slowly rose in effect. But after some time around the middle of the third lap, I felt the effect stabilize and not rise above it.

As I tried to stop after running the third lap I had a harder time stopping abruptly and had to slowly lower my speed when I started panting lightly after stopping.

“So your Skill will change your physiology slightly to aid you in tasks that you are doing. It seems that it’s doing that by using {Wellspring of Knowledge} to gain knowledge of what to change to aid in that task. It most likely noticed you running and helped you with that but as most creatures that run fast have trouble stopping or turning abruptly if they don’t use an Ability or Skill it also applied that to you.” He said while tapping his chin with his left hand. After a bit of time, I felt my body slowly shifting back. “So the changes made by the Skill are temporary and will wear down after some time of you stopping that task.” He nods his head smiling.

“So I thought. I felt that my body was shifting around but it settled down around the middle of the third lap, there must be a cap to how much it can change to help me. And it took the whole first lap for the Skill to kick in.” I nod my head at the description of the Skill he gave while adding to it. I also asked, “Are there no descriptions of Skills or Abilities on the Status?”

He shook his head while chuckling, “No, there is not a description of the effects of a Skill or Ability. You have to find it out on your own, but you should have had a general feeling for the Skill based on what kind of instruction you used to create the Skill.” He asked me a bit intrigued by my question.

I was also confused by the last part of his explanation. So I asked, “What instructions?”

Now he also looked a bit confused, “Normally when someone creates a Skill they for it via solidifying and coalescing an instruction, task or subject into a form that then becomes the Skill or Ability. Like using the instructions of “Making the body better” for making the physical improvement Skill. What did you do when you made your Skills?”

“I first imagined a hazy image of the form of Skill to guide its form, then I focused on the concepts I want it to take and then the feeling or goal of the creation of the Skill. After that, I concentrate the surrounding energy of the domain core into the place that I want the Skill to be in and impart the concepts and form onto it to create a Skill. I read in the book about Skills that you are meant to focus on which concepts you want the Skill to have and picture it visually. It didn’t say to give instructions!” I am even more confused. Emir then started laughing.

“By visualizing the book meant in how you will use the Skill and the Concepts are meant to separate the unneeded concepts of your Affinities that might dilute the Skill too much not add Concepts! As normal people can’t access concepts that are not in their affinities except for when the system gives you extra affinity or quirk into the Skill. Now I get why your Skill formations felt weird, you were using concepts separately of your affinities! That must be the effect of your {Father of Prismatic Aether} Achievement!” He babbled on about how this might affect the Skills I will make in the future.

I got a bit impatient and asked, “Should I use my own technique when creating my future Skills and Abilities or not?”

“Of course, you should do what you have been doing! The method I just said is meant for beginners, those who don’t know what technique will suit them the best. Though I have to ask why did you think that this is the method that the book talked about?” He asked curiously.

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I shrugged and said, “This is a bit like how I perform rituals are create modules with {Modulator}. So I thought that it would likely be same-ish.”

He nods his head, “Now I get it! Your technique works because it interacts with your {Modulator} trait. Now that we have solved one mystery let’s continue the tests.” As he said that he started muttering slightly. Then the ground around us started to rise up and construct multiple shapes. After just a minute the structure stabilises and I see that it’s a full-on parkour course built by tightly packed dirt.

I look at Emir and ask, “You want me to do parkour on this course made of packed dirt? This doesn’t even look like it could support my weight.”

He just chuckled and walked up to a wall that he just made. And then he just punched. I didn’t see his hand move but in the next moment, it was on the wall. A bunch of dirt and dust flew from the impact point from just the shockwave but the wall didn’t even crack or something. “So does that suits your needs? This is done by using mana and natura to reinforce the object. You will learn more when we get to the magical studies.”

I just nod my head and ready myself for the course. I notice that I am not exhausted from the run as I should be. I try to feel if the Skill is changing something, then I feel that the Skill is doing something but can’t really figure out what. I just shrug and try to turn it off so that it can help me with the parkour when needed.

I get a running start and then jump just before crashing into the wall. As I reach the peak of the jump I hold onto the holds of the climbing wall. I pull myself along it horizontally to reach the next platform. As I climb for a couple of minutes I feel the musculature of my upper body shift a bit and my palms sweat more. I get a bit spooked from that as I thought that my grip might slip from the sweat but when I release the hold I see that the sweat I am now secreting is more sticky than normal. I sigh at that and keep my pace along.

When I reach the platform I breathe a bit heavier but not much. I see that the next obstacle is a thin beam made of dirt, I guess this is a balance thing. I slowly step onto the beam and almost fall off on the next step from the sticky sweat planting my foot still on the beam. But as I go a couple more steps I feel the sweat become less sticky but still retains a bit of stickiness which helps retain a grip on it. Then I feel my legs and feet change, now I can step with more coordination. I also feel my sense of balance has improved. Like this, I easily cross the thin bridge and land on a platform.

On the other side of the platform is a set of stairs that leads me back to the ground where is a cargo net stretched horizontally on the ground. I quickly lay down and started to crawl underneath it. I get covered in dust as my sticky sweat makes them stick to my clothes and body. Slowly I feel the previous adaption recede and my body flattens slightly and becomes more flexible. I find that I quickly get out from beneath the net without an issue.

I stand up and look across to see a monkey bar set. I quickly get ready and jump up to grab the first one and start to swing to the next one. At first, I felt a bit of from my flatness but it quickly went away, but the flexibility was still there. Then my arms feel less strained from swinging. As I land on the ground after completing the obstacle I stumble a bit as I fail to balance because of my slightly longer arms but they quickly start to recede.

I looked across to see a track filled with holes, but the inside of the holes were flat so I thought that this might be like tire runs. I get ready and start to hop foot to foot as I get into the tires with just one foot. As I go along I feel my coordination improve and my hops get more powerful and less tiring.

As I get close to the end of the tire run I see that the next is a hurdle run from the short wall of dirt on the track. So I get ready to do a smooth transition. I hop out the last hole and land running at the first short wall. As I get near it I jump and easily cross it. As I land I again start running and do the same as the previous one. I keep repeating this process I feel the previous adaption stays almost the same just my coordination is worse but exhaustion from running and landing lessens. I jump over the last hurdle and stop there, panting.

I see that there is a long chain hanging from a platform above. I wait a bit to catch my breath, I feel the adaption fading away. Then I feel something changing, I feel a bit confused as to what the Skill is adapting for, and then I feel my exhaustion wash away faster. As I quickly recover I grab the chain and start to climb up. As I climb up I feel the same type of change as the wall climbing. I easily get up on the platform.

I see that there is a tunnel slide on the other end. I start to crawl along the ground easily as this is a lot wider than me and slide along to the exit as my sweat changes from sticky to slippery. As I exited the tunnel I almost crashed into Noctaru as he was poking his head into the tunnel while sitting above. At the last moment, he took his head out and I landed on the ground in front of Emir, who was again smiling creepily.