"Use a skill," requested Adam as he watched Brittney's skills from inside her soul.

To Adam's surprise, when he got in there, he felt like he understood her skills better than any other time he had checked them out. In the past, Adam had looked through all his friends' souls and classes, though they insisted on a look but don't touch policy. Smart.

Skills were indistinct structures of energy. They never overlapped and often connected. Yet, even knowing that, Adam felt unsure about what they were and how they fit.

Just like his own skills felt sharper in his image of them, Brittney's did too. Unlike all the prisoners' skills he had inspected. They were still indistinct.

Before, Adam had guessed it was because he had a protection class, so he instinctively understood it better, and now that was looking likely.

Adam saw one of the skills discharge energy. With all skill activations, the energy intensified within the skill's shape and then vanished. Probably sent to the body for use. But Adam was excited.

"That was [Firm Stance], wasn't it?" he asked with a smile.

"It was," admitted Brittney. "Were you watching me?"

"No, just the skill. I think I can kind of figure out how the shape and way it touches other skills affect it. It only worked because I know what skills you have though. I wouldn't have had a clue if it was something I hadn't seen before."

"I'll use another. Guess it," said Brittney.

Another skill filled with energy, then pumped it into elsewhere.

"That was [Attention Here]," Adam guess.

"Correct," affirmed Brittney. "I guess that's kind of neat, but does it help us out any?"

"Probably not," conceded Adam. "But it was something I was wondering about. In fact, I can even see where [Firm Stance] could be changed to make it better. If I just…"

"No, Adam!"

"But I could…"

"I said no!"

"Fine," sighed Adam, as he left her soul and looked at her in the physical world.

"Any new ideas or questions?" asked Brittney, trying to get back to what mattered, without Adam altering her soul.

"Not that I can think of. The same thing happened, just like every other time. The skill activated. Energy from the skill was sent to the body, and then it was done within the soul."

"How does the energy get sent to the body?" asked Brittney.

"No idea," answered Adam dismissively. "I only have [Soul Vision]. It lets me see what's in the soul. Nothing other than that."

"What does a soul look like?" she asked. "Is there any way to show me?"

Adam sat up taller in his chair. He took a breath and then looked upwards in thought.

"That's the weird thing. A soul isn't an object. It can't be viewed with your eyes. It's more like I sense the energy inside and then assign it physical traits so that my mind can comprehend it. When I say something is a color or shape, I'm just making something up to give it context. Everything is energy."

"But you can't see the energy the skill sends to the body?"

"Nope. I also can't see the energy that boosts our stats. Oddly, it comes from the synergy between our bodies and souls. As the tiers go up, more energy enters the body that affects our physical processes. Some affect the muscles, increasing our strength. Some affect our brain, giving us intelligence."

"How do you know that if you can't see energy once it is outside of the soul?" Brittney asked, confused by the contradiction.

"I can't really see that energy or it's presence in the body. My assumptions are based on what the Red Clan teaches combined with what I've felt when I adjust my skill [Soul and Body Shaping]. I can feel the draw of energy when I change the amount, and how it affects my muscles, skin, skeleton, and organs."

"You can't see it, but you can feel the energy moving? Isn't that the same as your [Soul Vision]? You feel the energy around you, but you explain it with physical traits?"

"Well yeah, because the skill lets me visualize…" Adam paused in thought. He placed a finger on his chin. Brittney stayed silent, not wanting to disturb any new ideas he might be exploring.

"Energy," muttered Adam. "The soul is energy. Skills are energy. Our strength is energy. I just need to see it so I can comprehend it."

"But [Soul Vision] only lets you see soul energy, right?"

"Skills are immutable," stated Adam, speaking out loud more than conversing with Brittney. "Changing their shape changes how they work. But pseudo-skills aren't skills. They're guesses of them. Approximations. If I could…"

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

Adam closed his eyes and dove into his own soul, which was done by usually the pseudo-skill for [Soul Vision]. He moved to where his memories were stored. Then to the boundary where blood splotches were touching. The memories of skills from the [Grand Blood Berserker] class. He found the one he wanted.

Observing the blood splotch, Adam activated [Kinetic Impact]. In the physical world he held up a finger and it began to glow. He watched the energy that resided in his soul near the blood splotch try to form like a skill. It then flowed. Unlike the energy from skills which would vanish, this energy went to where his skill [Soul and Body Shaping], where it transferred.

Remembering what he had done with the pseudo-skills in the fight with Sgolkr, Adam realized he could shape this energy anytime before it reached [Soul and Body Shaping] and transferred to the physical world.

He had manipulated both skills from the blood splotch memories, as well as skills from future Adam's class, which he had never seen the origins of. What if they were just a different kind of energy, a type he couldn't see? Blood splotches represented berserker skills. What would represent the [Soul Forger] class skills?

Even though Adam was already using his [Soul Vision] pseudo-skill to see his soul, he cast it a second time. Waiting for the energy to coalesce, Adam rushed to where he felt it gathering. Instead of changing the energy, he froze it, holding it is place where it gathered near the boundary of his memories.

Moving his sight so that he could look directly into the energy of the pseudo-skill, Adam used it as a visor to view his memory boundary. He adjusted the angle until he found what he was looking for.

It wasn't a blood splotch this time, but a faint cloud shape with an indistinct human outline for the top. This must represent the pseudo-skills that came from the [Soul Forger] class. Like soul energy, they weren't visible without the proper skills.

"This isn't helpful right now, but it will help me find out how many skills I might unlock," mumbled Adam.

"What do you mean?" asked Brittney.

Adam returned to his body and explained what he had done. It had allowed him to find something that he wasn't sure existed. Since he had unlocked the blood splotches, Adam questioned why the [Soul Forger] class memories were so different than the [Grand Blood Berserker] memories. This proved that they weren't, with the memories of both classes contained within him if he could figure out how to unlock the skills.

"They were there all this time? You just couldn't see them?" asked Brittney.

"Exactly," answered Adam. "I essentially had to cast [Soul Vision] on my spirit form, which was already a use of [Soul Vision], changing its purpose a bit. It's kind of freaky. Knowing something is there, but unsure of why you can't find it."

"Um, isn't that what we are trying to do now?" asked Brittney. "It's all energy, right? We're just trying to find a way to view it. We know it's there."

"Hmm," mouthed Adam. He thought a bit more. Then he split his focus between his body and soul.

The act of going into his or another person's soul was an automatic use of the [Soul Vision] pseudo-skill. Instead of changing his vision, it was more like he specified whose soul he wanted to enter and view. If he didn't have access to that person's soul, then it wouldn't trigger. He had become so accustomed to entering his own soul that casting the pseudo-skill was quick and without thought.

He went back to where he had seen the ghost form of the memory. Just like before, he cast the [Soul Vision] pseudo-skill a second time. Instead of stopping the energy from leaving, this time he grabbed it and forced it into [Soul and Body Shaping].

The physical form of Adam felt the energy reach his eyes, so he concentrated his focus on his body.

Everything became blurry. Brittney was sitting right next to Adam, so he looked at her. A whitish haze took up the same space as Brittney's body. It didn't have borders even though it also stopped where her physical form ended. The haze was constantly shifting like smoke from a bonfire.

"Whoa! Trippy," Adam said. He felt his mind warping just like the haze, and his own voice sounded wrong."

"What is?" asked Brittney, looking at him with concern. "I'm used to your skin turning red, but this time you are getting really pale and your pupils keep dilating and then expanding. Are you alright?"

"Probably? Hopefully?" said Adam, feeling like his ears and voice weren't close to each other. "Maybe not. Give me a moment."

Adam tried looking more intently at Brittney. It wasn't just white haze. There was a yellow haze everywhere. When he tried looking to the side, he couldn't even see Cruxannith's cell because every inch between them had the yellow haze. It was very sparse, but in his vision it was overlapping, making it look dense.

He felt a migraine coming on, and knew his body was wobbling unsteadily. It was like putting on multiple pairs of glasses that belonged to someone else.

Knowing he wouldn't last much longer, Adam looked down at his hand. The white haze also overlapped with his own body, but it had splotches of red and specks of dark gray floating through it.

Following the haze up his arm and to his chest, he noticed a purple tube reaching out from him and into Brittney. He hadn't seen it when looking directly at Brittney, instead needing to focus on its source to see where it went. There were three other purple tubes, but as soon as they left his body, he really had to focus on one to see where it led. It was like they reached out without crossing the intervening space.

"This is too much," Adam said, feeling his lunch coming up from his stomach.

His head quickly turned to the side to prevent the vomit from hitting Brittney. The quick motion made the entire world shift, swirl, and flap. That's when he saw it. A dense golden…something…sitting in the white haze on the side of Brittney's head. He only saw it in his peripheral vision, but it looked more solid than anything else he had seen with this altered skill.

"I see you, [System]," Adam said as the wooziness got worse.

Then Adam vomited.

A lot.

Followed by passing out.

***

Moaning as his eyes opened, Adam looked up into Brittney's face. He was in bed in his suite in the base and Brittney was sitting next to him.

"You would think the increased stats would prevent this from happening," he complained while wincing. Pain was occurring behind his eyes and into his brain.

With a wry look, Brittney pulled over a vial that had some orange liquid in it.

"This is from the Leputi midwife here. That skill you used was meant to be used within the soul and you forced it into your physical body. She thinks it ate away at some of your nerves. Here, drink this."

Adam opened his mouth and let Brittney pour the concoction into his mouth. He felt a warm tingle throughout his body and some of the pain subsided. Then she pulled out a blood pack from his cooler that had been moved to the side of the bed.

"See if this will regenerate the nerves."

Wasting no time, Adam pulled out the plug on the pack and squeezed the blood into his mouth. He felt it dissolve before he even had to swallow it, and with a sizzle that he felt more than he heard, his eyes and head cleared up. He blinked a few times before sitting up.

"Yes, that did it."

Nodding at him, Brittney asked, "I heard you say something about finding it right before you fell?"

"Yes, at the last moment I saw it from my periphery. It was like a dense golden cube barely coming out of the side of your head. Right outside of your head it faded into the distance like how my connections to you and the others were."

"Then you know what to do next?"

Adam nodded. "Yes, I know how to find our connections to the [System]. I'll see if I can unplug it from Cruxannith. Maybe then I can evolve my class."

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