Klay spent the rest of the time putting Jeans' advice into practice, and got another step closer to activating the technique properly. By the end of it, the closest Klay had come was stopping after his entire forearm began to cramp when he was struggling to keep the breathing method active. Using Jeans' advice was certainly helpful, but it did not make the skill easier to learn.
By the end of their training that day, as the others were leaving in a group and Klay was gathering his things to head home, Klay got a notification from his system.
"[Congratulations, the ability [Regen Focus] has evolved into [Efficient Regen Focus]! You have received a free stat point.]"
Unexpectedly, the system revealed another panel to Klay on its own the next moment.
[You have gathered a total of 51 Exp, would you like to convert it? Exp can be converted into either a new ability or two free stat points.]
Why did I get this message so long after having gotten the Exp? And what else will it do?
Klay was naturally cautious about the offer, and wanted to find out more. There was a sliver of hope in his mind that it would turn Red Arm into an ability for him to make learning and using it easier.
After waiting for a bit, Klay received no additional response from the system. "If I wanna learn I gotta try it out," he said to himself with a sigh, before accepting the system's offer, eventually deciding to improve his stats with the two free stat points.
"[2 free stat points received.]"
He added the points to his regeneration before finishing up and leaving the dojo. After the earlier events, along with the workout at the dojo, Klay was rather hungry, although it seemed a bit less than expected. He still decided to take a different route back to Southern Roseland to avoid the possibility of crossing paths with the older group he had fought with again, as he didn't want to spend more energy if they tried fighting him again.
About half an hour passed, and Klay had finally returned to his house, finding no one home as he dropped his bag in his room. Klay then went to the pantry, grabbing a few snacks which he ate quickly to satiate himself before leaving to train on his own, along with some additional snacks.
'I'm going to be home late to train some more', Klay texted his father as he was leaving their house and started jogging towards the less public areas of the southern sector.
The pain relief breathing method was tough to keep up the whole time, so I need to work on that, along with my other abilities. If I use them enough they should each be able to evolve soon, making me stronger as a whole. I should also figure out the difference from evolving Regen Focus.
Klay spent the time jogging on thinking up ways he could train, making the time go by quickly as he soon arrived at the trails he had trained in before.
If I just continually use the skills they should grow stronger, right?
"[Correct, the more an ability is used the more progress is made towards improving it, and eventually evolving it.]"
I get it, then. Can you explain the new effects of Efficient Regen Focus?
"[Efficient Regen Focus has the same base effect as Regen Focus, but improves the percentage of healing more without taking much more healing from other, less severe injuries.]"
Nodding, Klay figured that there wasn't much of a difference than before, and he would just focus on training his other abilities. To warm up some more, he activated his Contortion ability and, using the instinctual knowledge it imparts upon him, begins performing some stretches as he focuses on maintaining his breathing.
Slowly, his thoughts become more muddled as he continually moves in a sort of flow state, led entirely by the Contortion skill. Almost unnoticed by Klay, an hour passes before he is broken out of his own head by the system notification and panel that appears.
[Level 2 Contortion ability has improved to Level 3]
Klay stops as he starts panting slightly, unsure of what had happened. He checked the time and saw that an hour had passed, and feeling his body he could tell that he was sore and his lungs hurt, as though they were being forced open for a while.
Did… did I really spend an hour like that? I didn't think that just letting the skill do its thing would lead to me spacing out for an hour… And how'd I only get a single level up from that?
"[Abilities improve at somewhat unpredictable rates, but grow faster under stress. So far, you have used your skills mostly when fighting, as opposed to just using them recreationally.]"
"[When fighting, your mind is naturally focusing on whatever it is you're fighting, but without that barrier certain abilities will distract and 'flood' the mind. This is what you experienced just now.]"
Klay crouched down, taking a drink of water as he thought about this new danger, and what might happen if he became distracted and spaced out like that.
Then is there a way to recognize what abilities will do that, or have the chance of doing that? I don't want to suddenly be stuck in that kind of mindless haze in a bad situation.
"[There is little need to worry, as the state is easy to break or be broken out of. Additionally, the abilities that have the chance to do this are easily recognized, as they are any that feed information directly into your mind.]"
Then wouldn't Observation and Contortion be considered those kinds of abilities? Obviously Contortion, as I just experienced. But Observation also puts a lot of information into my mind, so does that count?
"[As of this moment, Observation does not have any chance of flooding your mind, as the information is not something you have no understanding of, but rather the external information of your surroundings and targets of focus.]"
I see… There isn't much I can do with this information besides knowing that it might make it a bit easier to level up certain abilities. I guess I will just continue practicing the pain relief breathing method and Red Arm, to make sure that I don't lose out to Jeans completely. Plus it will help if I get into any other fights in the future. With that in mind, I think just getting the actual feeling of activating Red Arm will be best at this point, so I will try to meditate and use the two at once, before getting the hang of attacking with it as well.
Klay took a few deep breaths and sat down, placing his hands into his lap as he began to use the pain relief breathing, getting used to the flow of that for a minute before gradually flexing the muscles in his arm. First his shoulder tightened, then his bicep, tricep, and forearm, and soon his hand closed into a tight fist.
His breathing became heavier as he worked to balance his focus between controlling the muscles of his arm and breathing properly. The idea of his arm rippling repeated in his head over and over again, as he tried to feel what Jeans had described.
Slowly, he relaxed his arm bit by bit, moving back up his arm until he reached his shoulder once more. Trying to create a ripple, he began repeating these two steps for several minutes. Over and over, he sped up this process until he could no longer focus, opening his eyes to look at his arm as his breathing broke, and he panted softly to catch his breath. However, despite panting and having stopped, Klay wore a wide grin on his face.
After he opened his eyes, Klay saw his arm had become notably more pink, which signified he was getting much closer to learning the Red Arm technique. Happy with his results, Klay caught his breath and continued meditating.