Chapter 7 Skills

Leo walks out into the forest and stops 100 meters in. He turns around to face the mountain and notices that he's alot further down the mountain compared to the camp he was being held captive in.

'I should be close to the bottom now... but I need to get back to the camp, not find a way down. I might have a way to find it if I can get better at using my ability. I'll need to get better at using it anyways since I'm planning on killing all the soldiers. '

Leo sits on the floor cross legged and decides to try use one of the skills his ability grants him.' According to the information that was shoved into my head, I should be able to sense movement around me, essentially allowing me to see my surroundings through the energy generated by movement.'

'If I can sense movement from far enough away then I should be able to find the camp since it will have alot of movement within that will be unnatural compared to the native creatures of this mountain. I should be able to tell that it's the camp.'

Closing his eyes and concentrating, Leo is attempting to sense the movement around him by focusing his senses. After 30 minutes of trying Leo stands up from the ground and stretches his arms above his head.' It wouldn't be the best ability if it was easy to figure out... I just don't understand how I'm supposed to do it.'

'I have all this information in my head but I still don't understand most of it too well. Talking about gravity, genetics, particles in the air... What the hell does that have to do with anything?!'

~Sigh~ "Let's just try a different skill instead" Leo mumbles, slightly disappointed in himself for being unable to understand the skill even though he has all the information.' Another skill that Im supposed to have is that I can change the size of an impacting force. So I use the same amount of power but change the shape?'

Circulating the energy in his body to his right hand, Leo starts to play around with the energy, changing in shape and how much power he's using. 'If nothing else, at least I'm a little better at controlling the energy than I was a few minutes ago' Leo chuckles while thinking this, considering it a small victory compared to his failure in controlling his power so far.

Leo infuses his hand with a small amount of the energy he has remaining. Leo had used all his energy when he broke the wall, luckily it has already begun regenerating, albeit slow.

Coating his entire fist in energy, Leo extends his hand slowly, tapping his fist against the trunk. A thumping sound could be heard and when removing his hand, Leo could see that he had created an indentation the size of his fist in the tree. 'Considering that I used a very small amount of energy and didn't put any strength behind my fist, that's alot of damage.'

Moving to the tree next to the one he just damaged, Leo coats his fist with the same amount of energy. Except this time he changes the shape of the energy.

Taking all the energy he's placed over his fist, he condenses it all over just 1 of his knuckles. This is an arduous process and takes him a whole minute to condense the energy to the size he wants it to be.

Doing that same motion as before Leo extends his hand slowly until it presses against the tree. The blue energy release, but this time there is no thumping sound. 'Is it weaker when I change it this way? Considering how difficult it was to do this, I can't imagine it being weaker. '

Removing his fist from the tree, Leo can see a small hole that's been made in the tree. Leo bends down slightly so as to look into the hole, 'I wonder how deep it... No way...' looking through the hole, Leo was able to see that it had gone through the entire tree.

'This is ridiculous... I used such a small amount energy, how can it be this strong.' The words that were spoken to Leo when he was given this power flashed through his mind 'THE POWER YOU'VE BEEN GIVEN IS THE STRONGEST IN EXISTENCE , BUT THAT ONLY APPLIES IF YOU USE IT CORRECTLY.'

'I see what he meant now... Depending on how I use the energy, the amount and type of damage will change. ~Sigh~ Id love to practice more but I need to find something to eat first. I haven't eaten in days and although my body is stronger now, I still need food.

Unfortunately even after 30 minutes of searching for animals to hunt or fruit to eat, Leo was unable to find anything. "Sensing movement would be really helpful right about now... " Leo mumbles to himself.

Another 30 minutes of searching go by and Leo realizes that there is only 1 type of tree in this forest so far and it does not grow any fruit. 'My only hope is to find an animal to hunt.'

Another hour passes and still Leo is unable to find any animals to hunt. Frustrated, Leo sits on the ground with his legs crossed. He takes a few deep breathes and decides to try sensing the movement around him again.

After 10 minutes of trying Leo thinks that he must be doing something wrong. ' I'm going about this the wrong way. I'm trying to sense the movement around me using my senses, but if that's how it was meant to be done then anyone would be able to do it. My energy... Surely I'd have to use it somehow when using this skill. Maybe I can enhance my senses using the energy. '

Leo tries circulating his energy through his whole body before trying to sense what's around him. After a few minutes Leo still couldn't feel anything so he stopped.

Leo then does the same thing but this time he allows his energy to encase his body. Leo's entire body gets surrounded by a glowing blue aura of pure energy. Leo then tries to sense movement around him. For the first time, Leo can sense something, but it's something very small and very close to, almost touching him.

Opening his eyes and looking to the spot where he sensed the movement, Leo stares at the ground next to his left foot, after a few seconds he spots them. A group of ants walking right next to his foot.

'I could only sense them once they were close enough to touch my aura. What if I extend my aura so that it covers a larger area? Leo gets up and walks 3 meters away from the ants and sits down. Once again he covers his body in energy, but this time he doesn't stop there.

Slowly, he tries extending his aura outwards. It's very difficult to do at first but after a few minutes he manages to spread his aura over an area of 10 meters centered on himself.

With his eyes still closed, a huge smile appears on Leo's face as he points to a spot a few meters away. "I can still sense the ants"