The first thing Matt had to do was get a better understanding of how the skill itself worked, and for that he focused on his wrist, the skill trigger soon appearing in his vision.

  It was both simple and complex at the same time. When a skill activated, the engraving would light up and the skill trigger would turn on. [Repair]’s skill trigger consisted of four disks of different shades of light green hovering in place. His mana passed through each in turn, turning from the bright blue of unattuned mana and into the light green of life mana.

  Other skills had different triggers. [Sense Mana] for example, had a cone-shaped skill trigger that absorbed mana for a short duration before sending out its scanning pulse. It was where all the magic happened.

  [Revitalize] had a single translucent triangular skill trigger that also turned his mana green. Why [Repair] and [Revitalize] had different ones that served the same purpose, he didn’t know, but he would bet there was more to it than he was seeing. Perhaps attuning mana was only the first step. [Repair] did have a lot of ‘what ifs’ attached to its description after all, especially since [Mend]’s skill trigger had only come with one single disk. He’d have to look into it more at some point.

  As for skill engravings, every skill had its own unique one from what he could tell, which was engraved on both body and soul. He couldn’t interact with it, or hadn’t really tried to, but something did strike him as odd upon seeing how it functioned. [Sense Mana] used his own mana, with the skill trigger amplifying or adjusting said mana to fit the skill’s needs. [Repair], like [Revitalize], changed his mana attunement completely, either because healing required life attuned mana to, well, heal, or it was a limitation when healing others. Like blood donations, you couldn’t donate your own blood to just anyone, you either had to be a match or a universal donor. [Repair]’s skill trigger seemed to have that function, changing his mana to a universal kind that could be used on anyone. Right now the only one in need of healing was himself, making it a redundant feature. So… what if he could instead imprint his own mana onto the skill?

  Logically, it should have two advantages:

  First, better mana efficiency. If the mana didn’t require altering, then it was logical to assume he’d be able to get more out of every point of mana used.

  Second, it could go above simply healing. Since it was his mana being used instead of some neutral alternative, flushing out anomalies or foreign substances that shouldn’t be there was a given, right?

  He was reaching a bit, but in his head, it made sense. If mana to soul was like blood to body, then there must be an equivalent to white blood cells somewhere. Odds were they were dormant from never being needed throughout the history of humanity, but if the skill engraving used his own mana–amplifying instead of changing it–then he should be in business, since white blood cells excelled at getting rid of anything that wasn’t supposed to be there.

  It wasn’t perfect, or even guaranteed, but even in the worst of cases, it’d just turn into a self heal skill, with better numbers all around since he’d be skipping the middle-man, so even if it didn’t work the way he hoped it would, it should still be a minor victory.

  The skill itself didn’t have any identifiers attached to it, mana or otherwise. If someone examined it, they wouldn’t be able to tell it was his skill. [Sense Mana] had a trigger matching the color and signature of his mana, [Repair] and [Revitalize] didn’t. He could attempt to reverse it later, or find a workaround, but for now it made more sense to tailor the skill to fit his needs.

  It all felt like an oversimplification on his part, or even wishful thinking, but something about it made sense in his head, and a nagging feeling urging him on made it hard to see the obvious flaws or downsides to what he was about to do. It wasn’t ideal, but nothing ever was, and a less than ideal solution was better than no solution.

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  Deciding it was as good a time as any, he got back up on his feet and started experimenting.

  His first idea was surrounding both the skill trigger and engraving with his mana, pushing as much as he could, forcing his mana to coalesce and condense around them, effectively suffocating and drowning them in it. So, he cast [Repair] and started doing just that. On the surface, nothing seemed to change, mana was still light green, and healing worked the same, albeit at a noticeably slower rate, which signaled that what he was doing was hindering the skill somehow. Not the goal.

  Next, he tried infusing mana into the trigger disks themselves.

  He started off with one disk, but instead of letting mana pass through it, he tried making mana enter through the sides as if attempting to inflate it.

  At first, everything was going well. The disk was accepting his mana with little to no resistance–if extremely slowly–and the light green luster was starting to dim ever so slightly with every passing second.

  He didn’t know if it was working or not, but the color changing should be a good sign. At least that’s what he thought, just before disaster struck.

  The disk Matt had been infusing with mana imploded in a puff of blue before crumbling into a fine white powder that vanished a few seconds later. The three remaining disks lost their luster soon after as they dully hovered in place, the skill ceasing all functions even as the engraving remained active, slowly emitting its greenish hue.

  Matt fell to the ground. His heart dropped, face going completely pale as panic started to creep in. He feared the worst. [Repair] was still active, yet it wasn’t consuming any mana.

  Did it break? Had he fucked up somehow?

  He cut the mana flow, watching the engraving as its luster slowly faded into nothingness before recasting it. The light green glow returned as the engraving came back to life, summoning the four varied disks once more. Mana soon started passing through the disks as the healing power of the skill filled Matt, recovering what little health he had lost.

  Matt immediately felt the color return to his face. He released a breath he didn’t know he was holding as relief washed over him, shoulders sloping as tension soon left them.

  He suddenly felt extremely drained, the mental toll proving to be too much to where he even considered getting some shut eye for a few hours, yet he couldn’t. The glove’s ability was still active, even if he was now missing one of the two gloves, and so was the health drain. He didn’t feel comfortable turning off the ability and facing the backlash in his current state, nor did he feel safe falling asleep in the open, knowing his health would be in the single digits in less than an hour. Even an ant’s bite could do him in at that point. Continuing was the only logical option. Besides, some progress would really do him well.

  “No fucking with the skill triggers either. Got it,” he very intuitively summarized as he got back up, still a bit shaken by the entire ordeal of almost ruining his best skill.

  Taking a few seconds to calm his racing heart and gather his thoughts, he shifted his gaze to the skill engraving. Reluctance and apprehension filled him. Tara’s words yet echoed fresh in his mind, warning him not to attempt altering the engraving in any way. She didn’t mention what could go wrong, or if he even could alter the engraving; which, to be fair, he didn’t plan on doing. He was just gonna inject some of his mana into it, attuning the skill to him. Surely that couldn’t be considered altering. It was like giving something a fresh coat of paint. A paint job, if you will.

  He nodded to himself, not feeling any bit more confident in what he was about to attempt. “I guess beggars can’t be choosers,” he sighed.

  It wasn’t like he was flush with options and choosing the worst of the bunch. It was the one that came to mind, and staring at nothing for hours on end, trying to come up with a solution that may or may not work sounded even worse than giving it a try and stopping if he sensed something was amiss.

  It could very well be a mistake, but hopefully he’d live long enough to either appreciate, or regret, the outcome.

  Granted, he had no idea whether injecting or, well, infusing the engraving with mana would work, or if it was even safe to begin with, but he was curious to see if it worked the way he thought it would. Dropping it out of fear of fucking up would feel much worse than actually trying and failing. Some regrets you just didn’t want on your conscience, and this was one of them. It felt like a fork in the road that would determine his lot in life, whether he would forever be prey cowering and hiding in safety, or if he would strive to be the predator. The hunter. The one who always pushed for more.

  He wasn’t being stubborn about it either. There were no alternatives that he could think of, and even if it didn’t seem like it, his time wasn’t endless. Eventually, some monster would stumble upon him, or his surroundings would grow too powerful, effectively hamstringing him and forcing him to run or hide.

  He needed to take a step, and this was it. The only question was whether that step was forward or backward.