Chapter 11: Chapter 11: Small Step

My lesson was arranged. All I had to do was wait until eleven o'clock, which was less than two hours. That was a lot of time I wasn't going to waste.

"I still want to ask if there is a place here or somewhere in Castian ... to test my skills?" I asked the receptionist, quickly adding an explanation. "I exchanged one of my skills, and I would like to try it without having to go out of the city or to the labyrinth."

"We have Test Rooms for that here in City Hall, miss Grey" the receptionist responded politely.

I was glad to hear that. I've been racking my brains all morning, but the only solution I came up with was to ask here in City Hall, where I could try my skills without endangering anyone.

"How much does it cost to rent that room?" I asked.

The girl behind the counter smiled. "You'd love to hear that it costs nothing, but you will pay for any damage you cause in the Test Room."

"Oh… ok, hmm ..." I hesitated, then leaned over to whisper. "What if poison gas remains in my room? Does it count as damage?"

I didn't want everyone in the lobby to hear me talk about my skills. Although I felt embarrassed to whisper, I still had no idea how much of a secret the skills were. No doubt, it was an advantage when the opponent did not know the opponent's skills. Not that I want to be someone's enemy here, but you never know. Better be careful now than regret it later.

"It's not, but similar conditions of the room need to be reported to one of my colleagues working at the Test Rooms. That's what they are called." the receptionist whispered back.

I expected her to ask me what skill I'll actually test, but to my surprise, she didn't.

Instead, she looked at me with a raised eyebrow above her right eye. "So I suppose you'd like to book one Test Room until eleven o'clock?"

"Yes, if there is one available," I said, nodding.

The receptionist didn't even look at the book. Instead, she looked at me and smiled. "We have ten of these, and they are rarely used. It won't be a problem to use one right now."

Just like I received a card for my meeting with the trainer, I received a similar card for these Test Rooms, which I had to pass on to the city hall staff working there. The rooms themselves were in another city hall building. Thankfully, the corridors in the city hall complex were well marked, and with instructions I received from the receptionist along with the card, I found Test Rooms relatively quickly.

At the end of a long corridor with five doors on each side was a counter, behind which sat a sprawling fat man in an old chair. He was wearing the same green-yellow uniform as the receptionists in the lobby, but he had a completely different impression. I felt like he was here because he had to because he was forced to do so. He also seemed bored. His uniform was dirty and wrinkled. His hair was messy, and when I reached him, I noticed he was stuffing himself with cookies.

"Um ..." I cleared my throat to get his attention.

The man looked at me, lazily. "A card?" He said with his mouth full, spitting out bitten pieces of cookies.

It was hard not to say anything, but I handed him a card with my mouth shut.

"Room 5, until eleven o'clock. If you destroy the room, you will pay for the damage. Test Rooms are built to withstand the power of people at level one hundred and fifty." he said, returning to eating cookies.

I didn't want to judge his appalling attitude, so I headed straight for test Room 5. Behind the massive door was a square room, illuminated by magic crystals on the walls, which lit up as I entered. The room was larger than I expected, fifteen by fifteen meters, and five meters high ceilings.

But it was logical. Some skills must have required more space for training.

I walked into the middle of the room and took a deep breath. This was the first time I wanted to use the [Master's Shield]. It wasn't a skill for which I would need a special room, but I didn't have many opportunities yesterday.

Master's Shield: lvl 1

Active I

It is your duty to protect your master, as his life is more valuable than yours. This is what a shield you can create around you or your master is for. The amount of mana required to create a shield depends on the distance you create the shield from you or your master, its size, and strength.

The description didn't tell me much. That was why I wanted to test it here. I needed to try what the skill actually does. Its limits and possibilities. I needed to see if this skill could serve me or if it would be better to replace it with another that [Slave] had.

In the trial-and-error style, I found out in the basement that the easiest way to activate a skill was to say its name out loud. Very embarrassing, at least in my opinion. The fact that the heroes and heroines in the anime shouted at their opponents the names of the abilities they used seemed extremely stupid to me. Why should I tell my enemies what I'm attacking them with?

However, it was a legitimate way to activate the skill.

These were my awkward beginnings as I studied the skills I had to have, curled up in my cell. At first, I whispered the skills' names, and when it didn't work, I said them out loud. I tried until Dungreen got upset and forbade me to talk. Then I learned to activate them without a voice command.

"Master's Shield," I said aloud to the empty room.

Within a second, I felt part of my mana leave my body, forming a shield in front of me.

I know saying the name of the skill was stupid and embarrassing, but it didn't change that it was the easiest way as the first activation of skill. That is, in my experience. After all, I was self-taught. I didn't have anyone to teach me these things, so I don't deny the possible existence of a less embarrassing way.

Though, it did the trick. I stared at a circular shield fifty centimeters tall, floating at the distance of my hands in front of my chest. I don't know what I imagined it would look like, but I was excited about what I saw. It wasn't a real shield that materialized in front of me, or an energy shield made up of small visible hexagons, but a transparent barrier. A small round, barely visible barrier. Probably because the light refracted as it passed through the glass, I saw the room slightly distorted through it.

It was one thing to believe my eyes, but thanks to [Spatial Domain], I knew with absolute certainty where and what shape the barrier was. Of course, I couldn't resist touching it, and I found it was solid to the touch and as smooth as glass.

Where my fingers touched the transparent surface, the barrier turned milky with white threads protruding from that point. Now I was grinning from ear to ear moving my fingers along the barrier, leaving milky lines behind. No, I was not a small child. I just acted like one right now.

But to my surprise, I didn't feel any temperature when I touched it. It was neither hot nor cold, as if the barrier temperature was the same as my body temperature. It was bizarre but very cool.

I was looking at real magic, something created by me. I couldn't help but be thrilled. My heart was racing with excitement. I had to try it again quickly. That's why I stopped sending mana to the barrier, which kept it going. It didn't disappear right away. There was a brief delay between the end of me sending mana and the barrier's disappearance. Despite my enthusiasm, I made a note in my head not to forget this. If I was really going to fight the beasts, I needed to know my abilities well.

But I watched the barrier disappear with enthusiasm. Gradually holes lined with milky fluid appeared in it, which expanded, met the other gaps in the barrier until it disappeared completely. It was a matter of seconds, but the entire process was absolutely amazing. It almost looked like the barrier was on fire, but there was no flame. Or rather, as if the glass was melting.

Without much delay, I immediately remembered the feeling I had when creating a barrier for the first time. It wasn't easy, and I didn't make it on the first try, but in the end the barrier in front of me formed—this time without having to say the name of the skill out loud.

"Yay," I shouted aloud with joy.

Somehow I had to express my delight. The joyful swaying of the killer behind me was not enough.

I practiced barrier activation for a while to get used to it, at least a little. I didn't need it to become something natural to me right away, just something I could control and use as decent protection. After I managed to create a barrier with only a minimum of concentration I started testing how far from my body, I can create it, how much I can change its shape and size.

What were the results? The barrier was quite flexible, relatively easy to shape, requiring just more training. The longest distance from my body at which I managed to create it was at the distance of my reach. Nearest about one centimeter, though I was sure that wasn't the limit. It just required more concentration and an experience I didn't have.

In terms of the barrier's size, it depended on what I wanted and the amount of mana I was willing to use. I could create a coin-sized barrier or surround myself with it. In that case, its basic shape, without concentrating on it, was not a sphere but egg-shaped.

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I could create smaller barriers anywhere around me. However, the best option of all was to make just a bubble around my head. At that moment, I felt like an astronaut, one of my childhood dreams. Korra the Astronaut. I couldn't help chuckling.

The creation of the barrier itself and its subsequent maintenance did not require too much mana. In fact, my own regeneration covered all this. I could imagine that it would be different in combat when something tried to pass through the barrier or when someone hits it with something.

It wasn't in the skill description, but I hoped it would be effective against both physical attacks and magic.

Sadly, I could not say exactly how much mana the barrier activation required. Even though I had a Status Screen in my head, there was no mana bar anywhere, nor a health bar or stamina bar. Did I have 100 mana, or 2500, did activation of the barrier cost 200 mana or just 5 mana, and what about maintaining it? Was it one mana per second or 30?

I felt how much mana I had, how much of it was needed to activate the skill, and to maintain it, but I couldn't quantify precisely the values, as in the games. Maybe if I thought about it, really thought about it, I'd be able to, but I didn't want to. I hated math.

I looked behind me at my tail. "Now is your time, Death Tail."

He answered me with a slight wave of his tip.

For this test, I stood in the room's corner, my back to it. I didn't want to create a cloud of poisonous gas in the middle of the room. I took a deep breath to get rid of my nervousness, but I couldn't get rid of my fear. This skill has killed me four times already. So naturally, I had respect for it. But if I wanted to use it, I needed to overcome this fear.

I looked around, making sure no one was in the room before I said aloud, "[Tail of Poison Empress]."

"Oh…" I exhaled aloud as a sizable amount of mana left me.

More specifically, the mana shifted into my tail. I expected a mana shift because the previous skill [Nerve Poison] also required mana, but that amount took my breath away.

Despite trying to release the poison, nothing happened. No cloud of poisonous gas appeared. Even if it was colorless, I would receive a notification from the system about poisoning. No, the only thing that happened was that my tail gained in volume. Its hair bristled and gained a volume I had never seen before.

I tried to move it from side to side, but nothing happened.

"Hmm." I frowned. "What have I done wrong?"

My attempts to reactivate the skill failed. Either it had something like a cooldown, or the skill was still active. I was sure I still had enough mana to use this skill twice more.

"Maybe it just takes more time?" I wondered aloud because the venom glands on my tail were still empty.

So I waited. From time to time, I moved my tail. That tail was my second mutation on the wings, so I knew right away when something changed. Well, as time went on, my tail gained weight. It got fat. The hairs on the tail still bristled, nothing had changed on them, but the tail itself, its core grew in size.

Why? Glands placed under the skin on the tail, slowly filled with poison. It was a big surprise for me in the basement then. I didn't expect the tail to have such a function, but Dungreen knew. He just didn't bother to explain it to me. [Nerve Poison] did not require nearly as much mana and was ready for use almost immediately. [Tail of Poison Empress] took time, but its essence was similar. It was half physical and half a magical skill.

Mana was needed to create the poison, but the muscles had to be involved in releasing it.

It reminded me of one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. The first attempt to release the poison under the supervision of my jailer. It was the first time I used the [Nerve Poison], the glands on my tail filled up, but I had no idea how to release the poison in them. It required the use of muscles that I had never used before in my life. Dungreen's insistence and his orders didn't help me much. He wanted me to squeeze the poison out of the glands, and I tried, really tried, but the only thing I squeezed out was… Yeah. I shit myself.

Dungreen and all the slaves in the dungeon witnessed it. Though he was the only one alive now, the only one I needed to get rid of so that no one would find out about this humiliation. Even so, I'd rather have others still alive and free, even though they saw my shame. Unfortunately, I could not change the past or bring the dead back to life. Of course, I don't count myself.

A lot has changed since then. I had plenty of time to learn to control my new muscles, so I was ready to release the poison when the time came.

It took a really long time, a few minutes to be precise, for the glands to fill, but they were now close to bursting. I felt pressure in them like never before. There was so much poison in them that it began to leak in small quantities. I saw orange gas between the tail hairs clinging to them.

"It's time," I said to myself.

I clenched my butt along with the muscles in the tail, resulting in a release of a cloud of gas from the tail. It was a thick cloud in orange color, discouraging anyone from inhaling it. I took a few steps ahead to avoid it while waving the tail from side to side, still pushing poison out of the glands. It didn't happen at once in one big outburst. I would compare it to peeing. It also took a while to empty the bladder.

The amount of gas surprised me, [Nerve Poison] couldn't match that. The thick orange fog filled a third of the room, and I had to retreat to the opposite corner to avoid poisoning.

It was a remarkable skill. The clouds of the rolling gas color of orange turning red in denser places were enchanting in a way, but there was still much unanswered. I needed to pinpoint the time it took to make the poison. I wasn't even sure if I had to wait for the glands to be full or I could start releasing the poison while it was still forming in them.

I also tried to release the poison from the glands as quickly as possible to see if I can release all the poisonous gas at once. I could, but it required more practice. Will I do it next time? No, because it hurts! The glandular outlets had their limits, exceeding them was painful, and I had no skill to reduce pain.

Now I had an excellent opportunity to find answers to other questions. Thanks to my previous experimentation with the barrier, I got a great idea. But before that, I needed to check if my barrier was air permeable or not. That's why I created a barrier around me and walked slowly towards the expanding cloud of orange gas. When I was in the middle of the room, a mist reached my knee height, not crossing the barrier. I didn't get a system notification of poisoning, nor did I smell apples.

My barrier was airtight.

It was good and bad news, depending on the situation. Thanks to that, I was able to create a barrier only around my head and not be afraid to inhale poison. On the other hand, I only had a limited amount of air before carbon dioxide killed me.

With my "helmet", I mean the barrier around my head, I stepped back into the cloud of poison. I waded knee-deep in it again. This time, my skin was exposed directly to it, but nothing happened. There was no poisoning from direct skin contact, which meant my enemies needed to inhale it. I went right into the orange cloud after this finding, letting myself be surrounded by poisonous gas.

It was amazing. Clouds of poison moved all around me, through which light from the magical crystals illuminating the room shone through. I felt like I was an astronaut on another planet now. An inhospitable planet, with an atmosphere unsuitable for life, hiding secrets of the universe waiting to be revealed.

"That's one small step for a man, one giant "cough"…" my quote from the first man on the moon ended in coughing due to the lack of oxygen in the small transparent sphere I had around my head. Instead of playing the first woman on an alien planet, I ran out of the cloud to the opposite corner, where I let the barrier that made me suffocate disappear and inhale fresh oxygen.

The orange cloud was slowly expanding, and I had little time left until I had no oxygen to breathe. Still, I wanted to do another test. Inhale the full dose of this poison. I knew it was a deadly poison. I just wanted to know how deadly. How quickly it could kill me.

It was probably stupid. No, it was definitely crazy, but I entered the cloud with my breath held and inhaled the poisonous gas inside.

Oh, it really smells like apples.

(ding) You were poisoned.

I didn't wait for me to fall dead to the ground, instead ran again to the opposite corner of the room, where I sat down. I felt the poison acting, without an idea of what exactly it was doing to me. It was hard for me to breathe, my hands were numb, and I was afraid I wet my panties. But that was the least of my worries.

As long as I was conscious, I formed a barrier around me, hoping it wouldn't fall apart after my death. The poison was strong, not strong enough to kill me immediately, but I was sure it wouldn't take more than a minute before I die. The poison in full force was very potent and fast-acting. [Never-dying] was losing the battle with it even though it was at a higher level. My regeneration could not repair the damage caused by poison quickly enough.

In just a few moments, I lost my sight completely, as well as the feeling in my legs. Fog obscured my mind. Still, before I lost consciousness entirely, I couldn't get rid of one thought.

I hate poisons.

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