13 Sense

Daedalus had seen a lot. He had been through a lot. After so much adventure, he pretty much had an insight into most things. Rarely would he find himself speechless. Today was one of those days. His son didn't know about the karmic force field, usually, it would take people three years to go from complete beginners to being able to use a basic version of the Enhancement skill. For his son, it took less than a minute. It was nothing short of a miracle. No one would believe it even if they had witnessed it. Daedalus knew however that it wasn't a miracle; it was pure talent. The talent level was so high that it actually scared him.

He knew that it was going to turn out this way. The very fact that his son's birth was able to manifest a Karmic Avatar was a huge indication of his talent. Daedalus was expecting his son to be quick in picking up the force field skill as it was used as a test and measurement of talent. He himself took a little less than six months to pick it up. The best record was set by one of the most powerful people on the planet. She took less than a day to learn a force field skill, a time which caused him to look like a complete muppet. His son's record caused her to seem like a mentally challenged person. Although this made his proud, it also made him somewhat sad. 'I guess I really can't keep him here, safe with me.' It wasn't possible. Not with talent like his.

'Dad?' He was snapped out of his daze by Icarus.

'Uh..um..yeah. Good job son. Good work.' Icarus' father had a strange expression on his face. It seemed like a mix of pride and something else. He didn't quite know exactly what that something else was.

'Good job on learning Enhancement and being able to sense your force field. You have the basics down.' His father stood up from his spot, 'time to practice.'

'Wait, thats it?'

Daedalus nodded whilst frowning, 'yes, were you expecting something more?'

'What about advanced skills, now that I have the basics down?' There was the slightest hint of expectation in Icarus' voice

He grinned at this eagerness. 'Its good that you want to learn more but,' he raised his index finger, 'you first have to master the two skills that you have.'

'Master? How?'

'Practice. I want you to practice Enhancement by trying to do it to different parts of your body. You will know when you have mastered Enhancement when your Enhancement is a black colour. As for Sense, I have hidden a present in this room for you. You can't access it by yourself, when you have mastered Sense, you will be able to tell me exactly where the position of the present is. Tell me exactly where it is and if you are correct, I will give it to you.'

Icarus nodded excitedly. Although he was an adult in a child's body, receiving a present was always exciting no matter the age. As Daedalus left the room, Icarus sat in a lotus position and closed his eyes. He didn't even bother with practicing Enhancement, being far too excited about the present. As usual, he used sense and the oily sensation on his skin became apparent. 'What am I supposed to do now?' His father said that this exercise was part of practicing Sense. If that was the case then finding it would probably have to do with the Sense skill as well. He tried to 'feel' outside of the oily sensation as well but nothing happened. 'Okay, lets try again.' Second time, still nothing. Third time, nothing. Fourth time, nothing.

Fifth, sixth, seventh...fortieth time, still nothing.

It was like a metal barrier was restricting his progress. Despite not making any progress, he continued to try and expand his senses outside of the body. This process continued for about an hour before he realised that the way he was approaching this problem was wrong. 'How does Sense work? As a skill?' He closed his eyes and tried to initiate Sense again. This time though, he was observing the exact process very carefully.

The very first thing that occurred after using the skill was expansion of his feeling of touch. It expanded from his skin and stopped when it hit the oily layer. It was like his skin had inflated and filled the space between its own boundary and the oily layer. Unfortunately, the oily layer was where the sense of touch was halted. This was creating a problem since the karmic force field covered his body's every nook and cranny; it was impossible to evade the force field especially when coming from the inside. As he was stroking his chin, pondering on how to solve the problem, his gaze wandered over to his right fist and an idea suddenly jumped out at him.

'Okay, if the force field is blocking the access of my Sense between my skin and the outside world then I guess I just have to remove it.' He stretched out his fist and used Enhancement to move his force field and aggregate it on his hand. Whilst at the same time, he used the sense skill. His sense of touch expanded and just as he had predicted, it went past the boundary where the force field was located and continued to expand. 'Yes!' He pumped his fist in his mind causing him to lose focus. As a result, the Enhancement skill was released and karmic force field redistributed itself evenly over his entire body, causing his sense of touch to be cut off. 'Its definitely harder than it looks' he sighed and continued with trying to simultaneously execute both skills. Eventually he fell into a pattern of manually using the Enhancement skill and using the Sense skill through the interface. That was also when he realised the difficulty of mastering these skills, even though they were basic.

After practicing for about two more hours in a trance, he was snapped out of it by his mother calling him for lunch.