"Thanks, Randall," growled Adam sarcastically as he returned fully to his body.

He sighed, slouched, and wiped his face with exhaustion.

"The skill is there and connected," Adam continued, trying to explain himself. "It wasn't easy, but I shaped it. And I got it to fit. It should work but we don't even know the name of the skill if I altered it, and we have no status sheet to check."

"I can put together a list of similar words we can try," offered Brittney.

"Is there something we need to do to prime the skill?" asked Lucas. "Maybe the skills can only register if he levels up to one of the breakpoints first? So, if we level his class then the skill will be picked up?"

"I sure hope not," exhales Adam in exasperation. "The [System] put together --well, a system – for how this all works, but I feel like if the energy is there you can shape the skills. It could work for anyone with these abilities. The [System] seems to have standardized things to reduce the number of unique situations that might occur."

Each person there sat around lost in their own thoughts, trying to find a new way to view the issue. They sought anything useful that might lead to a solution.

Hammond tried not to look at the disappointed leadership, scared that maybe it was something wrong with him.

"Why are you guys being so stupid?" asked Randall out of nowhere.

The temperature rose in the room. Brittney glared at Randall, and even Lucas looked ready to throw down with their teammate. Adam was also glaring, but that was normal for him.

"Stupid?!" gasped Brittney with indignation. "There's only one entity in the universe that we know of capable of doing what Adam just did. How can you call him stupid?"

"That's exactly why it's stupid," defended Randall while looking confused why everyone got upset at him.

"Can you explain what you mean?" requested Adam softly. Surprisingly, he was the least agitated by Randall's insult.

"Yeah, of course I'll help you out here," nodded Randall. "The [System] is smart, right?"

"As far as we know," agreed Adam. "Much smarter than we can understand."

"Right! That's the problem," exclaimed Randall. A smile beamed on his face, as if he was proud of himself and Adam for coming up with that answer.

"The problem is that the [System] is smart?" asked Brittney.

"Exactly," confirmed Randall. "The [System] is smart, and we aren't."

"We already knew that," muttered Lucas. "How does that explain anything?"

Randall's face screwed up when he realized no one knew what he was talking about. He sighed and went on to lecture them, like he was teaching kids.

"The [System] is smarter than us. We can't understand what it does. So, stop trying to do things like it," pointed out Randall.

Slight understanding began to dawn on the others.

"Ok, so I'm going to admit something to you all," whispered Randall conspiratorially. "Keep this to yourselves and don't tell my probationary officer, if he's still alive. I've jacked cars a few times."

"No!" gasped Brittney sarcastically. Randall, unable to grasp it, nodded as if to convince her it was the truth.

"Anyway, I've jacked older cars that had manual transmissions. Those bad boys were easier to break into, but hard to drive away quietly. That's how I got caught. The clutch popped loudly and made this grinding noise. When someone yelled at us, Joseph got out of the car and…"

"Focus, Randall," suggested Adam.

"Right, yeah. Ok, so you guys are thinking of the class as an automatic transmission. But you ain't got the hardware to support all those computer doo dads they put in modern cars. Treat Ham's class like a manual."

"That has to be one of the worst metaphors and explanations I've heard," criticized Brittney.

"But he has a point," reconciled Lucas. "We don't need the name of the skill, or even the details about it to activate it."

"Yeah," agreed Adam. "It's all a matter of transferring energy. Hmm. Maybe I can push some energy into the skill until Hammond can feel it well enough to trigger it himself."

"Sounds like a plan," boasted Randall, as if it was all thanks to him. Scarily enough, it might have been.

***

Adam could see that the skill block got denser. It wasn't that he was changing what it was, he only pelted it with energy. Instead of bouncing off it, or even disrupting the skill block, the energy flowed into it, circulated, and then was released.

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"Can you feel it yet?" asked Adam's through his body.

"I-I think so," said Hammond. The man was nervous that he would let Adam down.

"You remember the feeling of activating a skill? Go ahead and try doing it with this one."

They tried for an hour before Adam suddenly saw a reddish tint to the skill block.

"That's it!" he yelled, startling everyone. "It began to activate. Do that again, and harder!"

After a few more attempts with Adam helping to direct the energy, the skill block flashed red. Adam heard several people gasp.

"What happened? Did it work?" asked Adam as he continued to watch the skill block. He allowed his body's senses to take up more of his focus though, to really understand.

"His arms did flash," said Brittney hesitantly.

"That was supposed to be [Solid Arm], right?" asked Lucas slowly.

"Of course," answered Adam. "Did something go wrong?"

"Well, sir, I think I can safely answer yes," said Hammond sheepishly.

Immediately, Adam dropped from his [Soul Vision] and looked at Hammond. What he saw made his jaw drop.

Hammond's arms were different. Very much so. He had been wearing a long sleeve shirt. Now, it didn't have sleeves at all. His arms, from the shoulders down, had grown. They were three times thicker and 50% longer. It was terribly awkward looking. The arms looked hairier, though not enough to make them look like an animal, just an overly hairy man. The veins on them were also bigger.

However, what really got Adam's attention was that his arms looked dark, as if the skin had become a shade of gray.

"Ilidasha, come in here please!" shouted Adam into a Rift display.

The Leputi midwife rushed into the room moments later. She hurriedly bowed, clearly concerned at Adam's tone and urgency when he called her. Then she looked with concern at Adam while practically trembling.

"Your excellency, did something happen to you?" she asked with concern. It was obvious that she wanted to come over and inspect him to make sure he was still well. She didn't even consider the others in the room. Adam wasn't sure if it was due to her loyalty towards him, or because he had set high expectations for how often he injured himself.

"It's not me. It's Hammond," he said dully.

Relief washed over Ilidasha. Her posture and steadiness both became firmer, and her voice took on a more professional tone. She turned her head to look at Hammond, only to once more shrink back and tremble.

"That can't be, your excellency! I don't think that could be possible!"

"What couldn't be possible?" asked Brittney.

"Probably the fact that he's rocking those damn freaky hulk arms," added Randall unhelpfully.

"That looks like the skill called [Strong Arm]," stammered Ilidasha.

"[Strong Arm]?" questioned Adam. "Isn't that a Gohralluh racial skill?"

"Yes, your excellency," confirmed the Leputi, keeping her distance from Hammond and his arms. She tried to keep her eyes focused on Adam, but they kept fearfully darting to Hammond's arms.

"I can see why it shouldn't be possible," said Lucas flippantly. He wasn't sure how he should react to it.

"That should have been [Solid Arm]. I made a few changes to it so it would fit with his current skills. Maybe I somehow altered the skill to be more strength based?" considered Adam.

"Can you turn it off?" asked Brittney.

Hammond nodded and then during the next five seconds the arms transitioned to their normal size and look.

"That was disturbing," commented Randall unnecessarily.

Hammond looked a little down after that, but Adam quickly spoke up.

"Lucas, test out how strong those arms are, both offensively and defensively. I'm going back in to inspect."

Adam returned to Hammond's class space and tried to inspect the skill. It appeared clear to him, so he still thought it was a defensive, or vitality-based, skill. The other skills stayed blurry.

The next few attempts to activate the skill by Hammond still required Adam to start the energy usage. The repetitions did give Hammond a feel for it, and by the end of their testing, he was able to trigger the skill by himself. Unfortunately, as Adam watched the skill start and stop, he noticed something else concerning.

"Whatever that skill did, I don't think the basic Warrior class is enough to contain it," Adam informed the others. "There was a weird vibration to the energy coming from the walls. It almost felt like jeans that are wearing thin. I'm not sure how long before the class will rip."

"Is it because the skill ended up stronger than the class?" asked Brittney.

"Or it could be because it is a vitality skill in a strength class. Even though we know that left over skills from one path can stay in evolutions for another. I'm just not sure," said Adam.

"No matter the reason, I can't criticize that skill," said Lucas. "It was much stronger than a level one should be when he punched or lifted. The arms also acted like a shield. I was able to use more strength than I expected when I punched them. Of course, that's still only for level one. Building up his stats will be necessary to really test out the quality of the skill."

They discussed a few other possibilities over the next few minutes. Adam asked questions of Hammond, but really, nothing felt unusual. With that, Adam decided to experiment with Hammond's class.

Looking around from inside of the class, Adam saw how thin the boundaries of the class were. The energy composing it was diaphanous. Adam suspected that he could easily break the boundary just by shoving some energy into it.

"Well, that needs some reinforcing," acknowledged Adam.

He drew in energy from all around him. Once more he imagined himself as a mason, slapping cement on a wall and spreading it out. Except this was also like when he sculpted the skill. It took more than just material.

The class boundary was smooth on the outside, but it had all kinds of shapes, protrusions, and textures throughout it. In the beginning, Adam was just trying to find ways to increase the class density. As he reached energy constructs that he didn't understand, it required more than just extra layers to improve them.

The longer he worked, and the more that Adam attempted, the more he felt the energy vibrating. Sometimes Adam would stop working and just feel what was happening around him. It was still interpretation, but Adam felt a synergy coming to exist when he made some changes and a tremble to the energy when something wasn't working.

Adam became more aware of everything the more time he spent. The way he viewed the different energy constructs around him began to improve. He felt not just energy, but a form of life building as he worked. Power could resonate between the class and the skills, or it could weaken the whole.

It reached the point where Adam stopped paying attention to his own efforts and just allowed the reactions from around him to guide him. It wasn't a trance, and several times he caught himself before making mistakes as he became more able to predict how his actions were affecting the class.

The connections between the class, skills, and the rest of the soul also became more apparent. There were protrusions that were difficult to notice in such a weak class, reaching into his soul, which Adam also had to reinforce.

Adam had no doubt people could spend a lifetime researching and documenting all that he was constructing through feel and guesswork.

Before he felt satisfied with the job he did, Adam noticed that all the loose energy was thinning. Anymore and he would kill Hammond, who was no doubt already feeling the effects of energy depletion.

After ordering Hammond to kill another of the Kuatans to replenish the energy, Adam returned to his creation project.

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