Chương 54: Chapter Fifty-Five: A New Way to Use Skills

With a bit of brainstorming, I have thought of a variety of solutions that I believe can fix my issue for a little while. With the ability to control the lower electromagnetic spectrum now provided by my class skill, I could probably create a work-around that allows me to control the intense heat that surrounds me from using <Emit>.

If I were to constantly keep both <Non-Ionizing Radiation Control> and <Emit> running from now on, then I could save the surroundings from being scorched due to my unbalanced PWR attribute by collecting all of the thermal energy being expelled. The issue with this method though, is that I would have nowhere to put the collected energy the longer it goes on. I also don't know how much energy I would be able to hold onto before my brand new skill can't take the strain anymore due to its low level.

Another one of my ideas has a lot more promise, yet I just can't see myself pulling it off at my current ability level. Since I have <Mana Construct>, I was thinking about creating some sort of mana mechanism that could regulate my volatile mana while controlling my radiation output. This way, the process of filtration would be basically automated, and it would leave room for me to tweak the constructs settings on the fly.

If I were to actually create such a thing, then my ability to manage both my mana and radiation would skyrocket. The only problem is that I have no idea how to do so with a Level 4 <Mana Construct> skill and no clue how filtration mechanics work beyond what I can imagine in my head. This seems like something that Master Lirin could have taught me if the floor didn't get expedited.

Unfortunately, my training is no longer an option for now, and I somehow doubt I will have the chance to be under the warlock's wing by the end of this floor. For now, I am stuck with creating basic shapes with mana, and nothing more. This serves my immediate need to create bombs and the like, yet my lack of practice with the skill so far has resulted in an inability for me to do much else. Overall, it seems that yet again, I am facing a situation that calls for skills far beyond my own.

Just as I had been thinking that perhaps I was a cut above the others in The Pillar, I face another ugly truth that says otherwise. I huff out a breath and push myself to my feet with difficulty. The motion is only possible due to me pouring basically all of the radiation I produce straight into the air with <Emit> in order to lessen the pressure on my muscles. < Emit Lvl. 15 -> Emit Lvl.

16 > The sheer volume of energy being channeled through my skill is enough to make it level once more, and I dismiss the notifications to begin attempting to control the lazy flames curling off my body. Activating my newest skill for the first time, <Non-Ionizing Radiation Control> reaches out to the flames, causing them to sputter a little bit. < Non-Ionizing Radiation Control Lvl. 1 -> Non-Ionizing Radiation Control Lvl.

2 > Gritting my teeth, I find my class skill to be significantly harder to manipulate than I had expected. I can tell the level up itself wasn't even a matter of my own efforts but probably the very fact I was able to activate the skill at all. With <Mana Control>, moving my own mana had been somewhat difficult to begin with, but after receiving [Mana Foundation] and pushing the skill to level 5, it had become much more familiar in practice.

This, however, almost feels like the energy I'm reaching out to is fighting back, making it hard to manage the already low leveled skill. My mental skill <Fixation> is already running near it's maximum to manage my current body issues, so instead of relying on it to push my skill harder, I take a new approach. When I was trying to level <Polarize>, I learned a lot more about skills and how they work. I know now that it's not a matter of forcing them to improve through raw effort and support from my mental skill.

Skills can also level much faster if you mold their applications to your own understanding. Forcing yourself to learn about the skill itself through this process is the key to improvement. As I let <Emit> do it's thing, I also begin to push my mana itself outside of my body and through my mana shell. Doing this would usually hold the risk of poisoning those around me due to the mana's mystery radioactive state I still don't fully understand.

On the bright side, no one is around me right now, and I'm not sitting in the enclosed room of Master Lirin's basement, so I don't have to worry about my chaotic energy causing any real damage to anybody but myself. With the mana and radiation wafting into the air creating sparks that sizzle and spit at me, I use the extra mental bandwidth gained from no longer managing the mana underneath my skin.

<Fixation> fires up at full power, but instead of using it to assist channeling my skill, I focus its application to calm my thoughts amidst the flurry of erratic energies around me. Pulling on all my ongoing understanding of mana and the radiation I have gained so far, I also pair it with my old knowledge-base derived from Earth's scientific explanation of non-ionizing energy. I had learned quite a bit about such energy during my time in medical care.

While ionizing energy is the most common treatment option due to its ability to damage the DNA of cancer cells, I had done my fair share of research into non-ionizing energy as well through some early stage treatment plans. It might have been a way of coping with my situation back then, but now, I am glad to have been so studious in the face of my disease. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Non-ionizing energy is that which does not strip electrons from an atom to create a ion. Instead of being able to damage molecules themselves, this type of energy can only harm something through thermal effects. If I'm not wrong, this energy is a form of electromagnetic radiation. That means that if I can control non-ionizing energy, then theoretically I should be able to control around half of the electromagnetic spectrum.

I'm no expert in this field, but I know that the EM spectrum is divided into ionizing and non-ionizing radiation where things like gamma rays, alpha and beta particles, X-Rays, and other things along that line are on the ionizing side. Radio waves, microwaves, infrared waves, visible light, and some levels of ultraviolet rays are on the non-ionizing side. From what I understand, the difference between the two lies within the wavelengths, frequency, and overall energy of each radiation type.

Trying to simplify the EM spectrum in my head is hard given how long it has been since I learned anything about it. Regardless of the gaps in my knowledge, I use what I believe to know to fuel my understanding of what using my <Non-Ionizing Radiation Control> will look like. Going a step further, I change the long name of my new skill while I'm at it to a more comfortable abbreviation of <NIR Control> in my head.

NIR was commonly used in experienced texts from what I remember, and it is surely easier to remember in my own mind. The entire process of understanding my new skill is even more similar to <Polarize> than I had thought. The familiarity reminds me that the EM spectrum is the same source I had been creating filters for <Polarize> with. Back then, I had been attempting to manipulate the oscillating waves along the spectrum to formulate heat vision and other filters.

I suppose that without even realizing it, I had been dabbling with radiation all along, meaning that my starter skill and the newly acquired <NIR Control> could have some interesting synergy after I gain more levels and experience with each. Maybe the idea I had a while ago of filtering my volatile mana into separate energies isn't as impossible as I might have thought. The possibility of such a prospect being attainable after all fuels my desire to master my current skills.

With the added rush from theorizing so many new ways I could eventually use my abilities, I find myself understanding <NIR Control> at a rapid pace. Perhaps it's the fact that this type of energy was also on Earth, but I feel like the radiation-based skill suits me much more than <Mana Control> ever did. Now only if the flames around me would cooperate… Focusing on the visible embodiments of thermal energy surrounding my form, I try to reach out toward them with my mind similarly to when I use mana.

Instead of moving to my will, the fire sputters along my skin once more, but nothing else happens. As a small experiment, <Fixation> partially shifts focus to the management of my skill. Forcing my new skill to enact it's control over the flames, I push myself with the support of <Fixation>, and finally, a small tendril of the flickering heat stills itself in mid-air. I hold the small packet of energy for a breath before releasing my mental skill; causing the energy to dissipate into the environment.

While relaxing the tense shoulders caused by my efforts, I wait another moment, but no notification comes. It would seem the small success I had in controlling a small flicker of heat didn't warrant a level up, which certifies in my mind that using <Fixation> to figure this issue out is a mistake. If the skill didn't level, then that means I'm not using it to it's full extent somehow.

Even if it takes intense concentration for me to manage one little packet of thermal energy, I must not have a good enough grasp of how the skill should work in order for the system to recognize my efforts as progress. Instead of fretting about my failure, I dive back into my own thoughts once again. This lack of progress isn't the end of the world- after all, it took me three weeks just to find out what the hell one of my starter skills even did.

After a small brainstorm session, I have a stray idea itch my brain for a moment. Plucking the idea out of the many that flow through my head, I close my eyes and reach with the class skill beneath my skin. Feeling around for a little bit, I find the feedback to be exactly what I was looking for. < Non-Ionizing Radiation Control Lvl. 2 -> Non-Ionizing Radiation Control Lvl.

3 > The notification drives my suspicions home, and my eyes open once more, but this time I have a new filter covering my right eye with <Polarize>. Through my new lens, I can see immense heat dancing underneath my skin in a constant rhythm set forth by <NIR Control>. Ah, I understand it now. Reaching a hand out, I mentally refine my eye's filter for a moment to engulf part of my vision in a world of deep blue where only specific high-temperature sources can be seen. < Polarize Lvl. 6 -> Polarize Lvl.

7 > My custom heat vision is successful, and my own body's energy is filtered out of the equation while I focus on a specific spot a meter in front of me. Currently, there is nothing there but open space, yet I can see the heated air wavering with my naked left eye as a symptom of the radiation that spills from my pores through <Emit>. Before acting on my inspiration, my hand drops while I force myself to envision a way to use my skill without the physical visual queue caused by my outstretched fingers.

If I am right about how <NIR Control> works, then the last thing I need is a way for my enemy to recognize when I am going to use it. Finally prepared to activate the skill, my mind hones in on the space from before. Watching the slight waver of heat vibrate the air itself, I mentally breach the lazy rhythm of the radiation streaming through the air and envision the chaotic mess of oscillating waves accelerating.

Closing my left eye, I fully immerse myself in the world of temperatures shown to me through my right eye. Still focused on the empty space that the heat travels through, I watch as my skill works its magic. The blue pocket of air slowly becomes green, then yellow, orange, red, and finally, a brilliant white. Opening my right eye once more, my field of vision is centered around a swirling, fist-sized ball of fire that flickers blue in the center.

Surely empowered by my new passive skill: [Intense Kinetic Reaction], the fire rages in the same spot for a few seconds before I release my skill. The ball quickly burns out, with the previously contained heat spreading out to the surroundings in a small heat wave. It looks like my internal hypothesis was correct after all. Beforehand, I had been treating <NIR Control> like it controlled heat itself, which was why I was so confused why I couldn't move the flames to my whim.

I was wrong though, if that was the case, then the skill would be no different than something like <Pyrokinesis>. The skill doesn't control heat like that… It changes the frequency of energy waves themselves.