Chapter 10: Developments in Internal Power

I woke up the next day feeling refreshed and full of energy, ready to push myself to the limits. After a quick shower, and some cereal, I headed out to the backyard. The first thing I wanted to accomplish today was testing my IE, and while it was a bit risky to do it out in the open, I didn't really have anywhere else to do it. There was a risk of causing damage if I tested things inside the house, and in the dungeon, I would be distracted and who knew what would happen with my IE? Maybe I'd do something and cause some self-damage.

I made my way to the loot shed and grabbed a couple of throwing knives then I headed towards one of the two trees in the backyard. I wanted to test out Heavy Impact first and just what I could do with it. The description of the ability didn't make things clear. Could I use the ability with ranged weapons, or was it only my fists?

I needed to take things slowly since my IE didn't regenerate at a quick speed. For one IE it took an hour.

I stood in front of the tree trunk and focused on my ability, using it on my hand. I felt a drain from deep within me, and then a surge of energy ran up to my hand. The same pins and needles effect followed the energy. It took only seconds for the energy to reach my hand and I pulled back and struck the tree with all my strength. My fist embedded into the trunk and a spider web of cracks formed around the impact area. There was a slight reverberation of force up my arm but no pain or discomfort. It was good to know I wouldn't damage my hand when I used it.

The next thing I tried was buffing a throwing dagger. I moved back, flipped the dagger so I was holding the blade then once again activated my ability, this time focusing on the dagger. The energy surged and took the same path as before, but instead of stopping at my hand, it left my body along with the pins and needles sensation, and the dagger shook for a moment.

I took a deep breath. It had been a while since I'd thrown any weapons, and I didn't want to waste an hour of energy, so I took my time aiming. Then in a flash, I flung the blade. It flew end over end before embedding itself into the trunk up until the hilt. I whistled, that definitely worked, although one interesting observation was that the velocity had stayed the same, which made me certain that Heavy Impact did nothing to speed or velocity and only added an effect that increased the force of an attack when it struck something, i.e, Heavy Impact.

I took a quick break and as I did I noticed that I could feel the missing energy, like an inner part of myself was less than I had been, but I also could tell it was refilling, if slowly. I ended up eating a protein bar and getting a quick drink before I began the last of the Heavy Impact testing. I wanted to see if I could enhance an attack without touching it.

I would need to time it carefully as I would only have a few seconds before the dagger struck the tree so I activated the ability and this time focused on letting it gather in my hand but not buff it. Once it was there, I flung the dagger and then focused with all my will on pushing the energy to the weapon as it flew. Instead of the energy leaping from my hand to the dagger, a wave of kinetic force blasted out from my hand in a cone as the dagger struck the tree.

I fell back onto my ass at the pushback and stared at my hand. Had I just done a Force Push?

The notification that popped up confirmed my thoughts.

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Force Push(1)[Tier 0]

Force Push: Launch a wave of solid force out from your hand.

Time: N/A

Cooldown: 5 minutes

Type: Active

Cost: 1 IE

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I smiled and stood. With this, it was confirmed that I could create new abilities or discover them I guess. Force Push would be useful if I was surrounded and needed to push enemies back, and it also gave me a ton of other ideas to try. It was unfortunate that Heavy Impact didn't work on things I wasn't touching, but perhaps that would change if I increased its tier and level.

With that part of the testing out of the way, I moved on to my next idea. I would test out what else I could do with IE concerning ranged attacks later, but now I wanted to see if I could buff my speed using IE.

I moved away from the tree and to a more open space in the backyard before I focused on my legs, but this time I didn't try to activate Heavy Impact, I simply tried to pull IE from whatever it was stored and push it towards my feet while focusing on the idea of enhancing my speed. To my joy, energy surged and began to make its way down to both of my legs. The drain I felt was greater and I guessed it was because I was attempting to do this with two limbs instead of just one.

Once the energy was coursing through my legs and feet I took a deep breath and ran. I shot forward at high speeds and had to almost immediately stop before I crashed into one of the sheds, even so, I still ended up with a face full of dirt.

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Quickstep(1)[Tier 0]

Quickstep: Move quickly and nimbly by hitting the ground with the perfect bursts of force

Time: 1 Minute

Cooldown: 10 Minutes

Type: Active

Cost: 4 IE

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The price was hefty, but it would be worth it since being faster could save my life.

I pulled myself to my feet and winced as I pressed a hand to my chest. I felt far emptier than before, and though there was no pain, I knew that if I pushed myself and depleted my IE, something potentially bad might happen.

Deciding to take a break, I picked up the knives and placed everything back in the loot shed before making my way inside. I pulled up my status as I cleaned myself off, and focused on willpower to get the description once again. If I was reading it correctly then to gain a larger reserve of IE and a greater regen rate I would need to increase it. I'd only been testing for an hour or two and had already enhanced my capabilities greatly. With a larger reserve of IE and more powerful abilities, I could do much more. From now on, willpower would be a priority.

I wasn't idle as I waited for my IE to refill. I headed back to the shed and began to sort myself enough food, items, and anything else I might need for an extended trip into the dungeon. I would probably have to tell Maya that I would be indisposed for a few days just so she didn't get worried and call the cops or something. It was rather annoying not having an inventory, but with my increased strength it wouldn't be too much of a hassle. As for ammo, well I was coming to the conclusion that I needed to learn to fight at melee range if I wanted to stay longer as ammo drained quickly when I was grinding, and I couldn't empower a bullet like I could a sword. I certainly wasn't about to use one IE per bullet. That would take a long time. Time I could be spending in the dungeon.

By the time I was done sorting everything out for my long delve, my IE was back to full, so I headed outside to do some more testing. I buffed a sword with Heavy Impact to see what I could do and came to the conclusion that while it would help, it didn't increase the sharpness of the blade, just the force of the strike, sort of like a point-blank Force Push in a way. I could also use the flat side of the blade with Heavy Impact for more blunt force, though the difference wouldn't actually be significant. There was something I was missing with how the ability worked, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I tested a few more things out, and in the end, I developed two more abilities. The first was basically a Force Bullet that, while not as powerful as a normal bullet, would still cause damage and stun smaller enemies. The other was the more useful of the pair as it was basically a boost to my defense. I could increase the durability of a part of my body. Something that I did notice as I was experimenting was how IE seemed to prefer staying inside the body, which I guess made sense if by internal energy it meant that its main purpose was for improvements of the body and mind, though I hadn't tested any of that yet.

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Force Bullet(1)[Tier 0]

Force Bullet: Launch a bullet-shaped projectile of solid force from your finger.

Time: N/A

Cooldown: 1 minute

Type: Active

Cost: 1 IE

Harden Body(1)[Tier 0]

Harden Body: Greatly increase the durability of a body part.

Time: 5 seconds

Cooldown: 10 minutes

Type: Active

Cost: 1 IE

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One other thing I learned was that I couldn't feed more IE into an ability as my body couldn't handle it. The one time I'd tried had left my hand feeling extremely sore.

When my IE had reached one, night had fallen, and I headed back inside. Today had been productive and I'd prepared everything I would need for an extended stay in the dungeon, not just a day or two, but preferably a week or more. It would be dangerous, but how else was I going to grow quicker and learn more about the dungeon?