In the middle of Larian’s street stood a tall abandoned building. It was dark and clawing towards the sky, like an angry hand reaching for the skies. Once it was an old post office, but it hadn’t been used for years. It had just been abandoned, left to rot.

Right under the roof, hidden away in the small little attic of that building, sat Liam on his makeshift bed. It was only a huge pile of old mail. Mountains worth of letters that had never been delivered. A far cry from a real bed, but still more comfortable then what most had on the streets.

The slight shimmer of his lamp kept the darkness around him at bay, as he watched the people down in the streets making use of the last breaths of daylight.

A little rundown as the old post office was, it still offered an amazing view. Small half round windows with stained glass were set into the wall, offering clear line of sight into the one of the city's busiest nightlife districts.

The people hurried around in the dim light of the lanterns. Some coming home from work, others just leaving for work. Liam could watch them for hours. Only black dots moving between the circles of lantern light, but not all of them were ordinary people.

He could also see them roving around downstairs. Illuminated by the lanterns they carried. Small squads of people, swarming around, their uniforms glinting in the light. The city guards looking for him.

Watching them gave Liam an uneasy feeling in his stomach.

Just what had he even thought to get involved in the first place? He had seen those situations all his life, and had stood by safely from the sidelines. Now, just because he wanted to play the hero he had almost been killed.

The image of the nobleman's fist sticking out from Liams abdomen forced itself into Liam's mind, it was accompanied by a cold sweat.

Just what had happened to him in that alley?

He got up and started pacing the room. It was sparsely furnished. An old chair in the middle of the room, a few half rotten shelves on the wall, and huge piles of old mail and paper that were rising and falling like hills in the landscape surrounding the city.

What if he had just imagined all of that? Liam thought. There was no way a god had truly blessed him. Even the possibility that he had supposedly survived an encounter with a noble was ridiculous. It must’ve been nothing but a too realistic dream.

In response the pain in his ribs flared up again.

No, that part was definitely real. Liam winced. But the powers. He must’ve dreamed them. But he could still feel the sensation of that energy churning him. So real. It felt like he had it on the tip of his tongue.

Liam abruptly stopped his pacing and turned towards the chair standing in the middle of the attic. He thrusted his hand towards it, willing that energy to obey him. But nothing happened.

Frustration. He tried again, thrusting his arm forward even harder this time. Again nothing happened.

He grew slightly more agitated and tried anew, ignoring how silly he must look. But again without success. The scene repeated itself a few times, until Liam gave up and slumped on a nearby pile of mail.

What was he doing wrong?

His eyes fell to one of the letters lying next to him. There was a faint whisper in the back of his mind. His instincts gently nudged him towards the letter, giving him an idea.

He took a deep breath and searched for the connection from earlier. He tried to remember the energy as vividly as possible. This time, instead of forcing it to come forward, Liam was listening for it.

To his surprise it was right there. Barely hidden beneath the surface was an inner ocean of energy. He could feel it crashing against his senses, reaching towards him. It was almost like it wanted Liam to use its power.

He tapped into that pool and a small rush of vibrant energy filled him. His pain got a little better and the dim room slid into focus. The world around Liam changed and as he returned his gaze to the letter, it was like he was looking at it with new eyes.

Faint, nearly translucent, purple lines sprang up around it. They pointed away from the letter in different directions, all wading out into the distance, but converging in the middle of it. Like a sphere they appeared around the part of the letter Liam focused on.

The lines extended through the whole room, growing more faint the further away they got from the letter. A few of them were thicker, more real than others. Interestingly, all of those were pointing down.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Liam shifted his attention to another letter, and the same thin lines also sprang up around it. They were a little different, others more pronounced, some less.

He looked at another few items in his surroundings, and sure enough, as soon as he shifted his attention to an object, these lines appeared. More than that though, they also gave him an intrinsic knowledge of the space around the object.

Liam didn’t really know how to describe it, but it was like he could feel the weight of an object. Not just in terms of its actual weight, but also in relationship to those objects around it. It was like he had suddenly gained a whole new sense of perceiving the world.

It was utterly alien to him. Nothing compared to sound, sight or smell. But at the same time it almost felt right. Making sense in a way he couldn’t describe. Like he had been missing a dimension of the world around him all his life, and now suddenly had found it.

He focused on the first letter again. It was lying neatly on a pile of scraps of paper. The handwritten address on it had bleached over the years, making the name of the person who would never get his mail unreadable.

The first few times Liam had been here, he was curious. He had opened and looked through a few pieces of mail that he found lying around. Which wasn’t little, most of his bed consisted of never delivered or forgotten mail. But his interest in other people's mail had quickly waned.

Most stuff he had opened was either very bland and boring, relating mostly to people or things he didn’t even know, or was plainly outdated.

There had been a few pieces of mail that had actually been a little more interesting to read, but after combing through a stack of letters from a young lover to what Liam could only assume was his mistress, he felt guilty for invading their privacy. Especially because he had also found another set of letters from the man addressed to his wife and three children.

Even though some of these people might actually be long dead, Liam didn’t feel right snooping around like that. Although he still sometimes wondered about what happened to the young lover.

He returned his attention to the letter in front of him. It sat neatly on top of a pile of other unopened letters. He could feel the weight of it. Could feel some form of energy dragging it down. And what was most interesting. He could feel the same sort of energy trying to drag the card into different directions.

Then Liam realized that each of the translucent purple threads springing out from the letter represented an energy that the letter was emitting. Or no, that was emitted on the letter.

The energy from the different directions wasn’t as real as the one that was dragging the letter down. That one was more like a real physical weight, a slight one, but still. The other energies felt more like potential. An energy that could be.

He could feel he was able to change that. Make the energies more real. Instinctively he knew how.

Liam focused on one of the directions the post card was wanting to be pulled. Targeting a thin thread that was flowing upwards from the card. He could feel the hunger of that potential energy, begging at Liam to fuel it.

So he followed the directions and funneled his inner energy. It was pure instinct on Liam’s part, but even though the energy seemed to be made to use, it was easier said than done.

The energy inside of him was elusive. It was surging through him, jumping at him and wanting to be used, but at the same time, it was hard to grip and to control.

Slowly but surely Liam managed to transfer his energy into the thread. While he clearly felt the mysterious energy leaving his body, the tendril only grew minimally.

Then Liam had an idea. He focused on the thickest, most real thread that ran out of the letter. The one that was pointing straight down.

Expanding his mind Liam connected to the thread. He carefully siphoned off some of the energy it held. He wasn’t sure where it went, only that it left the thread on his command.

Suddenly the letter started floating. It was slowly drifting to the top ceiling, swaying in the wind like a feather. Liam watched with amazement. The more energy he fueled into the thread pulling the letter upwards, the faster it went. Vice versa for the thread pulling the letter down.

When it touched the ceiling, it stayed there as if glued to it. Liam couldn’t quite believe his eyes, was it really him doing that? He blinked a few times as if to confirm.

Suddenly his concentration broke and the letter dropped to the floor again. Again it drifted through the air a little, like a leaf in the wind. By chance it landed right in front of Liam.

He stared at the letter for a second, eyes blinking in disbelief. Then a big smile broke out on Liam’s face.

He really had just done magic. He almost laughed out loud. During his years on the streets Liam would’ve never imagined something like that.

He lifted the letter again and again, repeating his experiment until a heavy headache settled in and forced Liam to take a break. An unfamiliar illuminated message popped up in front of Liam.

“Congratulations, you have raised your skill Gravity Manipulation to Level 2.”

There was a slightly satisfying feeling at reading the message, but even more questions. What was this message? Wasn’t it proof he had become gimmicked.

Together with the message and the warm flow of satisfaction that went through Liam, there was something else though.

“New Quest gained!”

“Congratulations, for reaching the Second Level in your first Skill, you have been awarded with a Quest by Gravitas.”

“Quest: Find the Orb of Kaldazia. Level: Legendary.”

Liam stared at the messages for a moment. Just what kind of mess had he gotten into?

Then another message opened.

“By bringing your first skill to Level 2 you have fully started walking on the path of cultivation.”

“Congratulations, you have unlocked a new Skill.”