Ape's Might

Seeing the destroyed puppet Lake mood went from excitement to worry.

"I hope I don't have to pay for that..."

Wiping off the dust from his knuckles he felt he had a better grasp on his strength and wanted another spar, he believed that he should get used to his newfound power before leaving.

With a few adjustments he set the settings of the next puppet to level 2 to better suit his needs.

The stats of the new puppet had a large increase in strength compared to the first.

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Combat Training Puppet (Level 2)

[Physical Fitness] - 150

[Mental Prowess] - 0

[Energy Capacity] - 150

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The new puppet had a 50 point increase in physical fitness and energy. Which meant it's strength durability and speed would be 1.5 times more powerful than the last puppet.

With his arms raised Lake charged the new puppet from the front.

Pulling his arm back he sent a full-powered punch at the same spot as before. But this time instead of the puppet blocking the strike, it grabbed at his hand and yanked backwards, pulling Lake towards it.

Before Lake could react he felt a pain in his stomach, "Ugh!" The puppet struck his stomach and released it's grip, sending Lake flying across the room.

Lake pushed his feet into the ground to stop himself while clutching his stomach. 'Strong!' It only took one strike to send Lake flying.

Gritting his teeth Lake dashed towards the puppet again. This time he went from the side with a kick. With it being level 2 the puppet also had a stronger AI system, allowing it to react to attacks in a more efficient way. It raised it's arms up to block the kick before ramming Lake with it's body.

The body with 150 points in physical fitness was a force to be reckoned with. It was equal to the force of car hitting him.

But Lake didn't budge, enduring the urge to puke he reached for the puppet's arms and grabbed it tight. While holding the puppet in place he unleashed a barrage of punches aimed at it's arm that was blocking.

Lake pulled his arm back to gather his strength when suddenly, above his head a faint image of the ape constellation appeared. It began glowing brightly before converging all of the light onto Lake's arms.

With the light surrounding his arm he sent one final punch into the puppet. "Hoh!", blasting a head sized hole into it through it's arm.

Gasping for breath Lake watched as the puppet fell over before disappearing.

He looked disbelievingly at his arm that was still faintly glowing.

"What is this light?" He asked himself in confusion. "Knowing my strength I shouldn't have been able to destroy the puppet like that, it must've been this."

*DING*

[New skill acquired! (Ape's Might) Lvl 1.] With the sudden appearance of the system Lake's mind was sent towards the skills tab. In the section for active skills there appeared a new icon.

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Skills:

[Active Skills]

(Quick Feet) Lvl 5 - When used energy is drained to hasten the movement and strength of the legs to give a 10% speed boost.

(Hardened Fist) Lvl 5 - Upon activation immediately increases durability and strength of fist to increase attack by 10%

(Ape's Might) Lvl 1 - Able to provide immense boost to strength for 10 seconds.

[Passive Skills]

(None)

???

???

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Lake was bewildered at the new skill, Ape's Might. He had no idea how he even acquired it. Thinking deeply he suddenly looked at his arm, the glow on it was slowly fading and Lake came to a realization.

'That was my new skill? I thought I had to learn evo styles to get new ones.'

"System how did I get Ape's Might?" Lake decided to ask the system since it was probably the reason it showed up.

[If the User meets the correct conditions a new skill can be created.]

Lake was astounded at the versatility of the system, to be able to create new skills like that meant Lake's strength could surge continuously.

From the description Lake gleaned that it would give him a temporary boost to his strength, so it was a skill best used to end battles.

The only thing that distressed him was the short duration that it had. 10 seconds was not a long time in a fight, unless he could defeat his enemy within that time span he'd be in trouble.

"What exactly do I have to do to create new skills?"

[Depending on the skill type, the conditions will vary. The normal requirements will be along the lines of the User breaking past a certain limit. Ape's Might was created due to the User breaking the limits of strength with his last attack.]

Impressed by the abilities of the system he activated Ape's Might. As soon as he willed it a reddish glow enveloped his arm and he could feel a surging strength well up inside of him.

He clenched his fist and punched out, sending a gust of air into the wall with a loud bang. Despite the huge amount of strength used the wall was completely fine. But Lake was still impressed at the strength of his new skill.

The only other downside to the skill was it's vast requirement of energy, it used up at least a fourth of Lake's energy just from the previous two attacks.

Ape's Might had a short duration but the strength it provided was truly ridiculous, and it was only at the 1st level. He had no idea how the effects would change when it leveled up.

Wanting to train the skill he summoned some more puppets. After fighting and using Ape's Might for a while, a ding was heard.

[Ape's Might has reached level 2!]

[Ape's Might has reached level 3!]

The continuous use of the skill allowed him to get more familiar with it's usage. He also found out that he couldn't use it consecutively, he'd have to wait at least a minute after the skill's effects wore off.

Whenever Lake ran out of energy he'd sit down and run the Swallowing Star technique. At the first stage it only took 10 minutes to completely recover.

After each level up the duration of Ape's Might increased, from level 1 to 3, its duration went from 10 seconds to 30. The energy requirement also increased, it used about a fourth per usage now, but it's strength also increased slightly.

Looking at the time he realized he'd been in the training room for more than 4 hours. He'd already gotten used to his new strength and trained his new skill to it's limit for now so he decided it was time to leave.