Back in the capsule

I was surrounded by layers of complete white, with the trusty old control panel in front of me.

[Remaining weekly allotted time: 10:00]

[Please input your desired amount of time in the artificial dimensional pocket]

[0:00]

[WARNING! INTERVAL MUST NOT EXCEED 3 HOURS. THIS IS THE MAXIMUM AMOUNT OF TIME PERMITTED PER DAY]

[If the period is not chosen within 5 minutes, Miren will be forcefully ejected from the system]

'Weird, my weekly time has doubled for some reason... I need to ask Mike about this later.'

I had spent most of the day just hanging out with Lindsey. Although it didn't feel as natural as it did bring around Sophie, it still felt pretty good to have someone to talk to.

But after we had eaten dinner together we had gone on our separate ways, and I had made my way to the time capsules.

I instantly inputted the maximum amount of hours possible, meaning I would have 15 virtual hours to spend here.

The goal of today's training was pretty simple, trying to figure out my limits as well as get used to using a third consecutive [Lightning Step].

Loading up a field of grass, I got started, choosing to start with the third step.

*Crzzt*, *Crzzt*, *Crzzt*

It had been pretty natural when using it against the gorilla, and this time was no different. I had stepped forward three times without a hitch.

The rough part was that I could only use it once before my legs gave up.

Sitting on the ground, gritting my teeth at the pain, I reset my physical state, as well as mana.

If I could only use it once there was no need to check how much it affected my mana pool.

This time I would try something else with it.

*[Lightning Step]!*

I stepped straight up, raising me to ten meters above the ground. Before the cooldown was induced, I took another step forward. As my momentary time of being stuck in the air ended I took another step diagonally down to the ground, making an elegant landing. Or at least that's what I wanted to happen. Unfortunately, my legs couldn't resist the impact, making me fall down face first in the artificial dirt.

"I have some work to do with that..."

I ended up spending the first 10 hours of my time just practicing a third consecutive step. But after just three of those I had decided to lower the pain simulation to 70%.

It wasn't because I couldn't endure the pain, it was because of how Sophie had reacted to me when I became bedridden.

It wasn't something that I had taken any time to reflect over before, but now it felt pretty obvious that too much pain could probably do some serious damage to one's mental health.

"Status"

===Status===

Name: Miren Porter

Rank: ★★★

Strength: I

Speed: VII

Stamina: III

Intelligence: III

Mana grade: ★★★ [Middle]

Charm:?

--> Inherent Disposition : [Boundless]

--> Battle Arts: [Overclock]

-Martial Skills: [Lightning Step], [Discharge]

--> Elemental affinities: [Lightning]

==========

I had almost forgotten that this was possible, now that the bracelet Sophie had forced me to wear was gone. Not much had changed since I last saw my specific information. The one thing that pricked my interest was the information detailing [Discharge].

[Discharge]

'Description: User can charge up a part of their body or weapon with lightning, and instantly discharge it. Can be used on one's whole body to create a lightning pulse in an area around the user. Can be launched in the form of a projectile. Warning: Consecutive uses or overcharging can bring permanent damage to the user's body.'

The day had finally arrived when I would get to do, what I felt like, real magic. In the instance my eyes read the description, I changed the plan I had for the final 5 hours in the capsule.

Bringing out the control panel, I changed my environment to that of an arena and spawned a dummy. He would be the one to taste the newly acquired version of my skill first.

Purple lightning started to form around my right fist as I started to charge my mana. As I didn't know how much I needed, I didn't stop until I had charged it as much as I would do an all-out attack, just before my hand would be destroyed.

Putting my arm out towards the dummy I envisioned the mana leaving my hand in a burst and moving to the target.

*CRRZZT!*, *BOOM!*

A huge, thundery bolt of purple energy left my hand with such force that my fingers broke and loudly exploded right in the chest of the dummy.

Grasping my bleeding hand, I was astonished at the result. It was powerful, just as powerful as if I would use the discharge with my body. In my mind, the projectile would be weaker as it had to be launched through the air, but this wasn't the case at all. Instead, it seemed like the combination of external and internal blowback created a situation where the rebound was a lot stronger, injuring me a lot more than normal.

There was a need to finetune it, just like I learned to control the skill when striking with my daggers, as to know how to use it without damaging myself too much.

After fixing my condition I went on with the next experiment. Taking out my daggers I was going to try and fire a traditional arc of energy by swinging at the same time.

*Crackle*

Charging up the bigger brother I could tell that it wasn't going to be as easy. Even if they were efficient at conducting my lightning energy they were still not a part of my body, even though it sometimes felt like it.

I swung Khanda while simultaneously releasing the energy.

*BOOM*

"Arghhh! Fuck!"

My hand was lying in the grass, completely separated from my body. Something had gone horribly wrong when I was going to use the skill. Looking down at my arm I could see strands of my muscles hanging out from it, and the bone was completely visible.

"Reset!"

Knowing what would come spewing out from it in just a second I hurriedly reset my condition using a voice command.

My hand was back, still holding Khanda. Cold sweat was flowing down my back. This was a scary skill to learn. In my head, I wanted to learn how to use it efficiently before my duel with James, but now that felt a bit too ambitious. I couldn't just risk blowing my hand off while in the middle of a fight.

'But I can't stop here. It's not like I will have the option to just put away my daggers during a fight either.

There was nothing I could do about it, if I wanted to be able to utilize ranged attacks I would have to learn to use them with my daggers.

The next 5 hours of my practice were miserable. Time and time again I had to feel my hand explode, sometimes separating from my arm and sometimes just hanging limply. Thankfully I managed to make some pretty good progress with it. At the end of my time, I had about a 20% success rate with the skill.

And I have to say, when it worked, it really worked. The first time had blown my mind, not by how powerful it was, but by how cool it looked.

I had charged up Khanda, the familiar purple lightning coiling around it, sent out a huge slash, and released my [Discharge] while at the same time visualizing the arc that I wanted to come out.

A huge purple arc of purple lightning had come flying out, much more concentrated than the orblike projectile I had sent from my hand. When it reached the dummy it both slashed and exploded at the same time.

Somehow it made all the pain worth it. It was a staple in a fantasy world, although it was mostly swordsmen who would launch their magic through their swords and not assassins.

Exiting the capsule I noticed that I had two unread messages, one from Mike and one from Lindsey who I had just traded numbers with.

I checked out my teacher's message first;

*Hey lad, I don't know what happened today but just tell me if you want to back out from the duel and I'll fix it. On another note, your accommodation has been updated so you have to grab your things and move to the Aquarius.*

That was the same building as James lived in, housing only the elite students of every year. A headache started emerging when thinking about the complications, but as it was all in all a great thing, I decided to ignore the troubles.

Going back to my watch, I opened the second message.

*Do you want to hang out this weekend? I want to try going to a club! (＾▽＾)*

'I guess she also likes to use emojis, hopefully, she doesn't overuse them as James did...'

I hesitated a bit. Going out drinking with a girl alone? Was that really okay to do?

In the end I decided to accept her proposal as it shouldn't matter what gender ones friends were, and, most importantly, I would never cheat on Misa even if the opportunity arose.