One skill in, many more to go. While this skill I made was an epic trump card, it was exhaustive and better for a last stand type strategy. I need to refine less stamina-intensive skills.

  In order to achieve this, I came up with the idea of a line-of-sight offensive skill. To narrow the aura field to a particular target and to modulate the amount of energy produced. I could create a force-blast ability. It would fill the need to gain a long-range attack skill.

  "Oh yeah, let's do this." I said excitedly.

  Jumping from one foot to the other, psyching myself up like a certain badass boxer. I turned my focus to my aura. Not using the skill, I carefully pushed it out as far as I could. Reaching around ten metres, I could sense a drop in output. I knew that if I reached out further, the power I could bring to bear would be less than my maximum.

  Stopping at a modest nine metres, I concentrated on a nearby wall. Willing my aura to condense to a smaller area. As I drew my aura outwards, I sensed a weakening across my shield. Just as I suspected, drawing my aura away from my body weakens the defensive quality.

  I would have to add that to the skill description. It was a weakness that needed some serious thought to counter. But I didn't have a solution right now. Perhaps a secondary shield could activate when my kinetic barrier goes down? It would be really useful to have mana right now. I could totally get a mana shield.

  "I'll just have to work around it." I muttered, not too happy about finding a weakness.

  Returning to testing, I tried a few times to limit the drain. Over and over, I exhausted my stamina trying different things. Took hours to really get a feel for distance, power and how much my shield weakens each time. I determined that putting more power into the attack drained more energy from my barrier.

  After an exhaustive series of tests, I found the sweet spot. Which was a maximum of nine metres and half of my total force points into the attack. It would be weaker than a full-power kinetic strike, but has way more reach at the cost of power.

  In return, my barrier stays adequate and fluctuates only during the attack. In simple terms, I will not be completely defenceless while I'm blasting someone from afar. Scratching my chin, I tried to find any flaws in the skill. So far, it seemed pretty decent. Then, an idea came to me.

  "If I can push, perhaps I can pull also?" I wondered.

  Immediately jumping into action, I extended my reach to a modest five metres after I dropped my Aetherblade on the ground. Extending my aura across the distance and settling against the weapon. I could push the object easily; all I needed to do was amp up the energy, and it slowly skittered across the floor.

  The hard part was keeping the energy low and slowly creeping over the object. Easier said than done, and required a lot of concentration. Pushing forward is quite easy; it requires almost no finesse. This, however, required intense focus, and if I wasn't careful, I could accidentally dump a crap-ton of kinetic energy onto an object.

  Potentially damaging anything within range. Perhaps I could configure a crushing-type skill, but that would just extend the force blast skill I had just come up with. Realising after five minutes of focus, this skill might be tricky to use mid-battle. To aid the skill, I tried to reach out with my left hand. Since I used a sword in the right, probably best to practice with my off-hand.

  It made it slightly easier; it doesn't really do anything, just helps with focus and visualisation. I tried a few moves to help me visualize pulling an object. Such as calling the object to come to me. When I started vocalising it, I realised I sounded like some movie monster.

  It took way longer than figuring out how to push stuff or blast everything around me. Proving finesse is harder than brute force. Easier to break stuff than whatever creepy stuff I was doing. I had resorted to groping the air like a weirdo, calling my blade to me.

  Yeah, I stopped before Marius or any of his ghosts saw me, probably dying of embarrassment. In fact, you could die of embarrassment, might be a spell for that; a fear-based spell that can stop your heart. Shaking my head and promising not to develop such a skill, maybe. I turned back to the task at hand.

  Persistence was the key, and so I persisted like a stubborn child that really needed that toy. Ignoring my parents' request to share, because sharing was not in my vocabulary. That toy was mine, and my sister could go play with something else. The metaphor worked to rile me up and force me to focus, but also depressed me a little.

  "I wonder what it's like to have a sibling?" I paused in the middle and couldn't help but speak.

  Exhausted and annoyed, I sat back down against the pillar, resting my weary bones and addled brain. Naturally, Jeremy leapt onto my lap and demanded pets. I obliged, as he would be insufferable if I refused. The purring was pleasant to hear and to feel beneath the fur.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Slowly, my mind turned away from my task and directly into a pity party. Leaning back, I sighed loudly. I really shouldn't let these thoughts affect me. I'm not human; I never was, no matter how much I look like one. Never raised amongst them, never needed a family. You can't miss what you don't have, what you never had.

  But just like a man from the outside looking in. Awareness became my curse. Seeing fathers and mothers showering their children with love and affection. The movies and TV shows were overblown, but I got the gist. There was an unseen connection between family members. Something I couldn't understand. Had to be felt, not seen, I suppose.

  I didn't mope for long. I had a family of sorts, got the whole found family genre right here. Jeremy and Jenny were my buddies. I will forget the fact that I created one and found the other. Perhaps since I created Jenny, she was like a daughter to me? But that was so cringey, I need to get those thoughts out of my head.

  Hopefully, Jenny didn't hear that. Did you hear that, Jen? She didn't reply, and I took that as a no. Being cringe in my mind was way more dangerous now, especially since I have a telepathic link. I put some safeguards into that feature? I'm sure I did. Yeah, I know I took the time to add that.

  I was certain, though not completely though, more like eighty percent certain. Ill add it to the to-do list. That thing is just getting bigger and bigger. Pity party done and concerns noted, I went back to the task at hand. Petting Jeremy a few times, getting his daily fix over and done with, I plopped him to the side.

  He hissed at me, eyes wide, as if I had just slapped him across the face. The feline was always a dramatic little guy, and so I placated him in the only way I knew how. Manifested the virtual keyboard in front of his face. I learned through experimentation that I could move the keyboard anywhere within a short range.

  Little kitty ate that up, proceeding to enter a fierce battle with an incorporeal, translucent keyboard. Swiping and jumping, he did all he could to wrestle his prey to the ground. Demanding the device to lie on the floor and become its bed.

  I left him to his own devices and turned back to my experiments. Now with a clear head, I took a deep breath, inhaling slowly and releasing all the tension that had built up. All the failures, successes and trials were melting away with every soothing breath I took.

  Centred and focused, I raised my palm and willed my aura forward. With a steady mind, filtering out everything else, I carefully narrowed my reach to a single area.

  Closing my eyes, I felt the world closing off all distracting senses until only one remained. The power of the system flowed through me; it saturated the world. But my creation, my energy, was mine and mine alone to command.

  Taking charge, I killed my aura to capture the object of my desire, seizing it with a mental grip. Applying the appropriate energy in the appropriate way. Pull instead of push, I slowly clenched my fist and with one swift pull, my blade flew towards me.

  Opening my eyes just as the object came into view, I caught my weapon with a deft hand; easily reacting with superclerkan speed. No doubt from the outside that looked absolutely badass. Definitely needed to do that again, but this time with my eyes open.

  With the world around me in view, I concentrated. Summoning up the extreme focus I had when successful, weapon in hand, I placed it on the ground and walked back to the limit of my reach. Palm outstretched, I willed my aura to extend and then narrow.

  This time, it required less effort to enact. And soon my blade flew into the air and landed gracefully in my hand. I was satisfied because it was far smoother than my previous attempt.

  "Oh yeah, I have the power." I struck a pose because I felt like it.

  Once I completed my self-congratulatory posing, it was time to make another skill. Sadly, this required my keyboard and an unhappy feline. It returned to my fingertips with a thought, along with a series of very upset meows.

  "I'll give it back, just need to put some finishing touches on it ." Hopefully, that placated the creature with knives for paws.

  Tapping the keys, I modelled the skill, gave it a decently accurate description and a name that seemed appropriate. Once finished, I sighed, exhausted at the monumental effort of creating, testing and integrating two new skills. This is not as easy as it looks, not by a long shot.

  [Force Attract. Description: With the power of your aura, apply an attractive force upon an object within a maximum range of ten metres.]

  Another skill down, I wondered if Jenny will give me an achievement for this or a title. Do we have a title system? Should I maybe make one? All thoughts were for later as I had an annoyed cat to placate and a Necrochanter to check on.

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