Alexia

Interesting…

I play around with the sliver of my soul before trying to use it to interact with the energy I can see floating around me with Quantum Attunement. And what I end up finding is that while it can interact with the energy around me, it can’t interact very well with it. Almost like it turns sluggish until stopping at the center of each small little particle of energy.

Maybe… do I need more soul?

With that thought in mind, I reach into myself again to grab another couple slivers of my soul before merging them with the first and finding the sliver to grow larger. Then I try once more to interact with the energy. But almost the same thing happens as last time, just with a bit more resistance to it. Like it was more tangible this time.

Looks like more soul is the answer.

I continue pulling out slivers of soul and merging them with the soul I have until I have a large ball floating above the palm of my hand spanning a couple inches in diameter. Meanwhile the soul I took from myself slowly regenerates itself over a period of about a minute or so.

Not sure why it took the form of an orb, and I don’t know how to manipulate it mentally if that’s even possible…

A random thought comes to me, making me shrug before I reach out and grab the orb with a lot of force using my right hand. And the orb of soul immediately pops, sending the soul out all around my hand to partially cover my hand.

I open my palm again and turn it to me, finding my entire hand except some small parts of the very back of my hand covered in soul. So I reach out to the energy around me and quickly find myself able to directly touch it.

Nice.

Several seconds pass by as I grab a bunch of energy, but no matter what I do with it, nothing happens. Which leaves me just looking like I’m grasping at air to anyone who might walk in right now.

I have absolutely no idea what to do with any of-

[*New General Skill* – Energy Manipulation: Allows the user to directly manipulate energy, both elemental and otherwise. Skill is automatically slotted due to free open slots.]

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

[*New General Skill* – Tutorial Champion: Given to the Champion of the Tutorial who ranked first on the leaderboard after they get their first skill post-Tutorial. Increases the effect of the user’s stats by 3%.]

I blink in surprise before grinning at the sight of both skills.

Another Forerunner skill, just with a different name. And Energy Manipulation. What I was trying to get in the first place.

Just like Mana Manipulation though, it doesn’t come with any sort of instructions aside from what it does. I also wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t mention any of the benefits the skill gets at higher levels. Which mostly amount to some nice perks along with naturally improving my efficiency of manipulating energy.

Nothing I do to the energy seems to work, not even things I did with mana. And I can’t form spell circles without mana, so that doesn’t work either. Even when I tried to use energy to form them, nothing happened.

I guess mana really is a cheat code for using energy. Training wheels that guide you and limit you at the same time.

The thought that I won’t be able to use energy until I figure this out is rather annoying.

After a few more seconds of playing with the energy, I let out a sight and open my eyes before getting off of the bed and heading for the door of the bedroom.

I need to find a Safe Zone to change out my General skills, because Energy Manipulation took up my last slot. So now I need to replace one of them.

But which skills to replace… Poison Resistance isn’t a very important skill to me thanks to Quantum Adaptation basically giving me the same thing. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Quantum Adaptation has already adapted me a bit to poison just from my constant run-ins with it. And Survivor only benefits me as a quantum being in one way out of the perks it has. The whole not taking as much damage from naturally occurring stuff, not including attacks from others. Then there’s Stealth, which I can’t see myself using all that much with my rather flashy and loud methods of attack.

I continue pondering over my skills as I walk towards the entrance of my new portable home before stepping outside and beginning to make my way towards the base.

Exploration will be helpful in this new dimension, so I can’t get rid of that one.

Alright, so if I remember correctly, the skills he suggested I use for my lineup are Exploit Weakness, Pain Resistance, Fatigue Resistance, Energy Manipulation, Anti-Magic Bullet, Anti-Magic Barrier, Forerunner, and Tutorial Champion. Which leaves me with two skills to choose from outside of those, one of which will obviously be my weapon’s mastery skill, Polearm Mastery.

Of the skills I currently have that aren’t amongst those include Poison Resistance, Exploration, Dungeon Map, Survivor, and Stealth.

I think… that I can swap Dungeon Map in and out whenever I plan to enter a dungeon. So despite that being a skill from a Legendary Feat, I’ll go ahead and trade that with Tutorial Champion. Because the skill doesn’t do anything while I’m not in a dungeon.

And I won’t be entering another dungeon until after I reach Tier 2, and after I find a Tier 2 dungeon.

But for the times I do enter a dungeon… I’ll get rid of Stealth.

I smile, satisfied with my decision. Only to end up blinking in surprise when I reach the base to find the others disposing of a bunch of bodies belonging to William’s groups, with the crown prince not being one of them and instead lying unconscious on the ground against a wall.

“What happened here?” I ask, tilting my head in confusion.