To prevent myself from getting distracted by monsters while I was training, I summoned all three clones from my cloning skills, and set them to guard me. While each one wouldn't be able to take on a high level monster on their own, together they had proven able to fight back against Diane.

At the same time, I was able to confirm my earlier suspicions that a small part of my focus was indeed directed to my active clones. This was what I typically felt was my connection with the clone, allowing me to direct it mentally. So, I won't be able to summon a large number of clones without issues, unless I find a suitable workaround.

Clearly, this was different than it was with the Magic equivalent, as I had summoned large groups of animated shadows in the past with my enchantments. Regardless, even if there were limitations after conversion, the fact that I could do something without my negative trait getting in the way was great.

With that taken care of, it was time to start working on Material Manipulation. Stretching my hands out, I focused on the skill, concentrating on feeling how it worked. However, as I stood there, I felt… nothing? The skill activated, it just didn't do anything.

Maybe I'm approaching this skill wrong. I thought to myself, crouching down and placing my hand on the ground. Again, I activated the skill. This time, I felt a small connection with the ground beneath me, similar to what I felt from my clones, but weaker.

That was a step in the right direction, at least. Imagining a wall of stone rising up, I pushed my energy into the skill, only to get zero results again. Okay, so it's not based on imagination. I thought, deciding to treat it like a low-level Ki Projection. It had taken me a while to master forcing my energy into various shapes while training with Kelly.

I applied the same principle here, controlling my energy within the ground to rise up as a wall. This time, I saw the ground before me tremble, dirt slowly rising up in a long mound. Still not the result that I wanted, but I was starting to understand more about the skill now.

Changing my tactics, I targeted the surrounding grass. The grass grew longer, tying itself together in a braid as I controlled numerous strands at once. This, combined with my earlier tests, gave me some insight into my skill. It wasn't just a matter of thinking what material I wanted in the ground, and it would respond. Rather, I had to specifically locate and target that material.

Only after targeting the specific material could I manipulate it. However, once I did, I could make that material grow larger, just like I did with the grass. Unfortunately, I didn't use any metal-based skills in this fusion, or it might have been possible for me to enlarge ore veins. Though, there were probably numerous other skills that did something similar to that in mining cities already.

I shook my head, focusing on the task at hand. I needed a way to quickly find the materials that I wanted to use, even if they were buried underground. I first tried using Detective Analysis, but it didn't differentiate between the soil and the stone underneath. Unless there was a cave or something buried, it just considered everything to be the ground.

Do I really have to make another skill, just to use the last skill I made? I asked myself in frustration. Thankfully, this new skill was one that I at least had an idea on how to make. But… I wasn't sure what rank it would be. If I combined Hawkeye-X with Detective Analysis, perhaps…

No, I can't do that. I thought to myself, looking at my skill list again. I was so used to relying on Detective Analysis, I overlooked the more basic Observe skill, which evolved from Appraisal instead of fusing Mass Appraisal and Perception. The point was, my Observe skill was already level thirty-eight. Looking at its description, there was a good chance that its evolution would be the search skill that I was looking for.

Sure, I could just create that skill now with the skills I thought of previously, but there was no need for that. I would get that skill in a matter of time. For now, I just needed to use a less convenient method. Of course, I was absolutely going to be training Observe as much as I could in the coming days.

Closing my eyes, I focused on my skill, on the connection I felt with the ground. I forced that connection to expand, taking up more and more of my focus. In doing so, I felt slight differences in where my skill touched. The topmost layer, the grass, was thinner and almost fluid in how it moved. Next, the soil, which was soft but dense.

I pushed deeper, until I felt something hard. Assuming that to be stone, I began pulling on it with my energy, dragging it to the surface. The ground beneath my feet shuddered, the soil splitting open as a small spike of solid stone rose up in front of me.

I smiled wide, watching the stone spike slowly emerging. If there was a problem now, it was just the speed. The harder and more dense a material was, the slower it responded to my skill. Although it was easy to describe the rising spike, it had taken almost five full minutes between finding the stone and pulling it to the surface.

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Now that I had it, though, I wanted to try more. I focused on that spike, watching it intently. The top of the spike, the six inches or so that had stuck out of the ground, began widening. Gradually, it took the shape of a flat square, and began to grow more and more. Every structure needed a foundation, so that was the first thing that I had to do.

Over the next half hour, I continued gradually expanding this flat surface, until it was seven meters across. That was more than enough for a small structure like what I wanted. After that, I moved to the edges, slowly creating walls. And then a ceiling with a slanted roof.

This was… certainly not ideal in terms of time invested. Just this tiny structure took me more than three hours to finish. By the end of it, I was working with the light generated by my fire clone, using it as a living torch. Still, the fact that this structure could be made meant that my skill was moving in the right direction.

Next, I needed to work on an important step that would inevitably arise every time I created one of these structures. I needed to break it down, but not in a way that the city guards will think that a monster is attacking. So, not simply smashing it to pieces. That would be bad.

Instead, I used the same skill that I had used to create the building, this time using it to reduce the material back into the ground. Unfortunately, this took just as long as actually making the building had in the first place, and my eyes were strained from focus by the time I was done.

Admittedly, the skill experience was great. From how quickly the experience was climbing, I could tell that this was not a skill meant for common use, befitting the high star rating. Additionally, as the skill leveled up, the control began to feel more smooth. It was still a pain to manipulate stone, but it wasn't as bad as before.

Once I had reduced the entire foundation back to the same spike I used initially… I did it all over again. Such was the joy of training, pushing yourself to repeat an arduous task until it became mundane.

The second time I made the small structure, it took half an hour less than before. In addition, the floor and walls were both smoother than they had been. By the time that I was just finishing the deconstruction of the second structure, I heard a voice calling out to me. "So, this is where you were!"

Turning back with a tired expression, I saw Jana walking over with a confident grin. Only then did I realize that the sun had risen at some point, though it was still low on the horizon. "The guards said you were doing something interesting out here."

I put a weak smile on my face, nodding my head. "Since the new skill I created from Brianna's isn't enough for regular use, I needed to train it."

"So you spent all night constantly training a single skill?" She asked, sounding impressed. In addition, she looked at the ki, fire, and water clones forming a perimeter around my training area. "And these, they should each be their own skill, too. But, wasn't Brianna's skill just wood shaping?"

I gave another nod at that. "I added in some of my other skills to expand it to most natural materials. I don't know if it will work on metal, but I can definitely use stone, water, and crystals."

"That's why you were building a little house." She said in a tone of understanding. "You're making sure that you can always have a comfortable place to stay whenever you're not in the city. How much energy does the skill use? Normally, I mean. Does your interface say?"

I shook my head, shrugging my shoulders helplessly. "All skills for me say that they cost no burden. Same with enchantments. I can say that this skill should have a really high cost, though. It's leveling faster than any basic skill I've trained yet." In truth, after one full night of training like this, Material Manipulation was almost at level eighteen. Just a little more, and I'd have my first evolution with it.

Jana crossed her arms beneath her chest, thinking about it. "That'd make sense, given how much you added on. There a reason you're training so seriously like this? It's not like your player's going to up and leave today or tomorrow, right? We haven't even started our own training yet."

Again, I shook my head. "I don't know when he plans to leave. He hasn't logged back in since we talked last night. I wanted to get the skill to its first evolution before he logged on if possible, that way he won't have to worry about it. With how the skill works, I think it's probably easier for a Chosen to train it than a Player."

Jana widened her eyes, looking interested at that. "Oh? Why so?" She asked, and I began to explain how the skill worked. How I needed to manually search deep for different materials, focusing on the different layers and expanding the natural connection with the skill. As she listened, she nodded her head here and there.

"I see. That might be easier for a Chosen to train. Though, that also makes this a good time to bring up our training. Since it seems that you're missing one of the skills that I was considering teaching you." This time, it was my turn to look interested. "Perception. It evolves into Blindsight, and then Tremorsense. With Tremorsense-X, you should be able to detect any materials in the ground."

"...I used to have that skill, actually." I said with a bitter smile. There was no point hiding it, since my experience would increase even more unreasonably fast after learning it again. "My player fused it with Mass Appraisal. Since he can kill monsters more efficiently than other players, he considered it a good investment to be able to spend some excess experience identifying items and traps."

Jana looked surprised, before letting out a laugh. "Wow, he didn't really plan ahead with that move, did he?" She asked, and my smile turned even more bitter. "If you had Blindsight, no level of injury to your eyes or darkness would obscure your vision. You'd be able to see clear as day all around you. With Tremorsense, it goes even further, and you'd be able to 'see' anything in the ground."

Shaking her head, she kept a wide grin on her face. "Anyways, do you mind if I watch your training? I want to see this skill in action myself. And, frankly speaking, it will be easier to talk to your player if I'm here when he logs on."

I hesitated for a moment before agreeing. "Sure, though it's not very interesting. You'll probably be waiting a while for any real progress." I said, before turning back towards the stone spike. Once again, I expanded it, forming the foundation for the small structure I had been making as practice.

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