KINETIC

When morning came and everyone woke up, they were surprised to see that Clay had already woken up and had prepared food for everyone, including the little girl.

He had made a large pot of porridge, the usual breakfast for most citizens of the kingdom. Everyone grabbed a bowl and spoon and dished up some food.

Nila seemed hesitant to eat and just sat there staring at her own bowl. "Hey, Nila. What's wrong? You don't like porridge?" Cain blurted out before stuffing another spoonful into his mouth.

"I wouldn't know, I've never had porridge before." Everyone froze and stared at Nila.

"Seriously!? It's like the most popular breakfast where I come from!" Cain shouted, full of shock.

"It was the same in my village." Rene added. Nila looked at everyone who showed their agreement with this fact. She paused over Leo and he too nodded in agreement.

"Wow, I guess I'm the weird one here." Nila scooped up some porridge and put it in her mouth. She felt awkward since everyone was watching her to see her reaction, which was underwhelming to say the least.

Everyone was expecting either her eyes to go wide and a smile to appear, or a gag of revulsion. Instead she didn't show any type of expression and simply said "It's good."

'It's delicious...i wonder if I could ask Clay how he made it.' Nila abandoned the thought almost immediately, assuming it would be rude to ask without something to offer in return.

What Nila didn't realize was that most people enjoyed sharing their recipes with others. If someone asks then it shows that they enjoyed your food and would like to have it again.

Growing up as a noble, Nila didn't experience such things. If a noble wanted something from another, there had to be a trade of equal value, no matter what the item was. Eventually Nila stopped trying to interact with other nobles all together due to their greedy nature.

Her cheeks were flushed from the warmth of the porridge and although everyone else had stopped paying attention to her, Leo noticed her enjoyment.

"If you'd like, I'm sure Clay would be able to share the recipe with you. I don't know how to cook so I can't really teach you, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

Nila looked a bit shocked that Leo had perfectly deduced her dilemma, although the truth is that he just made the offer after seeing her enjoy the food.

" I couldn't do that, I have nothing to give to him as thanks." Nila replied with a disappointed tone. Clay looked at her with a slightly confused expression "What do you mean? You don't need to give me anything, Id be happy to tell you if you want."

Nila's disappointment vanished as she looked up at Clay with surprise "Really? You'd do that for me?"

"Of course I would, we're friends aren't we?" Clay smiled and started jotting down the cooking process and ingredients needed to make the porridge. He walked over to Nila and handed her the paper and then went back to his own meal. Nila sheepishly took the recipe and looked it over many times before placing it in her bag.

Leo could see that she was smiling when she turned around to put the recipe away, but she had returned to her usual aloof look just a moment later.

***

After breakfast had ended and with the little girl still unconscious, Leo decided to go and train again. This time he had a smile on his face as he stood alone in a destroyed area of the village by himself.

[Battle Aura]

He did what he usually would and grabbed a clump of particles from the air using his energy. He did this right in front of his hand to make it slightly easier for himself, since the further the energy was the harder it was to control.

He held the energy in a ball shape and then condensed it to the size of a finger, just like when he would break locks by condensing the energy. Only this time he did it with something contained inside the energy.

This was something he had tried many times but was never able to get anything significant to happen. However this time it was different.

He kept the condensed ball of energy right in front of his hand and then created a second layer of energy over half of the ball, the half closest to himself.

He then condensed the second layer of energy that he had created while keeping the two forms of energy in place. The ball of energy had one half of it being squashed by the other layer of energy and the result was that the ball was being pushed away. The pressure was powerful and Leo struggled to control the energy and keep it from dispersing.

When the force was strong enough, he released the ball from his control but still continued to condense the other energy around it.

As a result, the ball of energy shot forward and the energy released, causing the air within it to shoot forward at incredible speed. The ball of air slammed into a piece of wood that was leaning against a destroyed building.

The wood was snapped in half at the point of impact and fell to the ground. It took a lot of Leo's stamina to do this since it required a lot of control and he had done it slowly to make sure he did it right.

[Skill Unlocked - Air Bullet]

'Well I'll be damned, you actually figured it out. My idea was similar but yours seems to be more effecient. Well done, Leo.' Dreifus sounded both proud and surprised.

'Heh... Told you I'd get it... Though this was partly thanks to Cain, although he didn't do it on purpose he still gave me the idea to pinch the energy with a second layer over one half.' Leo replied in his head.

He was breathing rapidly as he opened the system to check the explanation of the skill.

[Air Bullet] (Cost - 5 Energy)

- Fire a condensed ball of air from your hand at a target.

Leo was so happy about creating this skill that he didn't care if it seemed like a really simple attack. The whole point of this was to figure out a method to use all attacks of this element type by replicating this method in a different way.

Leo continued to practice using the new skill and found that after using the attack through the system, the power and speed was slightly less, most likely due to the system making it more controlled.

It was also much quicker to activate, so he didn't complain. With a success under his belt for the day, Leo walked back to the campsite with a smile on his face.