Fourth Skill

In the arena, Mordo waited confidently for Feeney to equip Possessed by Evil Spirit. He hadn't noticed the changes to the armor.

Unless you looked closely, it was hard to spot the difference. The armor's bright silver had grown a little duller, while a faint blue-green sheen, like snow-white ice crystals, had quietly appeared across its surface. It flickered now and then, making it difficult to notice.

"Ready?"

Mordo asked. He had already decided how Feeney would lose.

"Come on!"

Feeling the power of the armor around him, Feeney answered.

At Mordo's announcement, Feeney's body suddenly turned transparent, as though he had merged with the air. The next instant, he vanished.

Mordo, who had been about to attack, froze for a moment. Invisibility spells weren't unheard of in Kamar-Taj's magic system, but they were rare, so he couldn't dispel one right away.

Fortunately, Mordo's extensive combat experience brought him back to his senses at once. He shifted from offense to defense and listened carefully for any movement around him.

Feeney had to admit Mordo handled the situation perfectly.

He had only recently gained the ability to turn invisible, and he wasn't very good at using it yet. Someone paying close attention could still spot traces of him. The ability also consumed a great deal of energy, so he couldn't maintain it for long.

Looks like I can't defeat him instantly.

Feeney was a little disappointed that he couldn't take Mordo out in one move, but he didn't dwell on it. He cautiously used his invisibility to close in.

Mordo was now on high alert. He cared about his reputation, too. He had just boasted, and if he got taken out instantly, the story might become a running joke and haunt him for the rest of his life.

"Here!"

Mordo's extensive combat experience showed in that moment. He quickly sensed Feeney's approximate position, and the magic in his hand turned into an Energy Whip. He swept it across the area, greatly expanding his range of attack.

Feeney had no choice but to leap. When he landed, Mordo sensed his position again, and his attack followed close behind.

After trading blows back and forth, Feeney still couldn't defeat Mordo. Having burned through much of his stamina while invisible, he finally lost by a narrow margin after revealing a slight opening.

Feeney was still pleased with the result. If he had managed his stamina better while invisible, the outcome might have been different. It was proof that he'd made tremendous progress.

Most importantly, his Experience Bar was full. He could draw his Fourth Skill!

The result also let Mordo quietly breathe a sigh of relief. His pride had survived—for now. Then he, too, noticed Feeney's progress. He was pleased, but also a little nervous.

Feeney had only been training for a year, yet he was already close to beating Mordo in a spar. He hadn't done it with spells he'd studied, but his overall fighting ability was already nearly on par with Mordo's.

I may not have armor, but I absolutely can't let him surpass me in Spell Cultivation.

Unaware of the truth and convinced he wasn't favored, Mordo silently vowed to work harder. He was determined not to let Feeney surpass him in Spell Cultivation.

"Here."

Once the match was over, Feeney dismissed Possessed by Evil Spirit and walked over to Mordo, who was deep in thought. He casually summoned two of Sumire's Fried Chicken Rolls, handed one to Mordo, and asked, "I haven't seen the teacher around these past few days. Has something happened?"

Taking the Fried Chicken Roll, Mordo came back to his senses. He heard Feeney's question and replied, "Master Ancient One must have gone to investigate the whereabouts of a piece of Magic Equipment."

The mention of Magic Equipment reminded Feeney of the Cloak on the second floor of the New York Sanctum.

He clearly remembered the Ancient One saying the Cloak was quite promiscuous, so why did it ignore him? He was much more handsome than Doctor Strange!

The Ancient One's absence finally made Feeney give up on asking her for help. Of course, he also didn't have a good enough reason to ask.

After treating Mordo to a filling Fried Chicken Roll Set Meal, Feeney opened a portal home. As before, he bathed and cleansed himself, washed his hands, then sat on his bed and prayed:

"Please let me draw a good skill!"

When he drew his Third Skill, he had tried to use the power of the Golden Great Deduction Technique to cheat and draw a good skill. For example, he had tried to command the system to give him a certain type of skill next, but it hadn't worked.

After a year of training and learning to understand a Sorcerer's power, the Golden Great Deduction Technique had also made great progress. Feeney had come to realize that this power probably couldn't directly influence the system's draws.

But he could try to influence himself. For example:

"For the next three seconds, my luck will improve dramatically."

Luck was an abstract concept that could be good or bad. Making something happen through a conceptual idea like that was extremely, extremely, extremely difficult, because Feeney had to make sure it didn't take a specific form.

For instance, what did it mean for his luck to improve?

Making him find money on the way out, win the lottery, or get approached by a beautiful woman would be easy enough. But if he tried to make himself "lucky enough to draw a powerful skill next," the system would prevent it from working.

So his idea had to be purely conceptual—a simple wish for good luck—and he couldn't express it through a specific event.

Fortunately, he had spent the past year developing a deep understanding of a Sorcerer's power. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to do it. This was also his first time using a Sorcerer's power to guide the Golden Great Deduction Technique.

As he spoke the command, Feeney guided a surge of a Sorcerer's energy into the Golden Great Deduction Technique.

In an instant, a strange, indescribable sensation came over him. He had no time to think. The next second, he entered the system; the second after that, he drew a skill; and in the final second, he waited for the result.

Fatigue swept over him, but Feeney was thrilled. Making that one command had taken more out of him than opening portals all day, but seeing the skill the system had drawn made every bit of exhaustion worthwhile.

His Fourth Skill came from an anime world he knew fairly well.

"Skyward Flight"

"Source: Dragon Ball"

"Description: One of the Crane School's martial arts"

Dragon Ball was an anime where, later on, characters casually started destroying universes. It was a shame he hadn't drawn a super skill like Ultra Instinct, but Soaring Skill was still worth celebrating.

After all, humanity's desire to fly was beyond imagination. Feeney was no exception.

Besides, Soaring Skill might seem like just one of the Crane School's martial arts in Dragon Ball, but in practice, it was an essential ability for every powerful fighter. It was just like energy blasts: those who couldn't use them were almost all weaklings with a power level of five.

Looking at Soaring Skill in the system, Feeney couldn't stop grinning. He had already been worried about fighting in the air, and now he'd finally made up for one of his weaknesses.

After drawing the skill, Feeney couldn't wait to test it. Soaring Skill wasn't dangerous, so even though he was exhausted, he still wanted to try it right away.

He didn't even plan to leave the house. Feeney started using the skill right there in his room.

As he activated it in the bedroom, his body slowly floated upward. He could move however he liked without it having much effect on his flight.

The experience was unlike anything he'd ever felt, and it filled him with wonder. Soaring Skill was also more powerful than he'd expected, because it consumed almost no energy.

In Dragon Ball, there was a special kind of energy called ki. The Crane School's Soaring Skill relied on controlling one's own ki to overcome gravity and move freely through the air.

Feeney hadn't trained in ki, but Soaring Skill was a skill. Perhaps because of the system, he was using the ki—or energy—that was already freely present in the surrounding space. That was why it consumed no energy.

This meant that as long as he wasn't somewhere completely devoid of energy, he could fly wherever he wanted with Soaring Skill.

The only shame was that he could only use this power for Soaring Skill. He couldn't be like Goku and fire off a Kamehameha or anything.

Children's Day hadn't been happy at all. The whole day had gone by, and my follower count had barely gone up. I hadn't received a single tip, either. Where were the votes? I'm not asking for tips anymore—surely you can at least give me some votes! (╥﹏╥)