Training and Building

"You want me to use my powers? What happens if Hope or G are affected?"

"We want you to use it in a controlled way, focusing your power on something, like when you froze the water bottles remember?"

"We are going back to freezing water bottles then?"

"Yes, but in a different way, we need you to be more selective on it, I have an idea give me a second"

I took 3 bottles of water and came back to the living room, I moved the table from the center and left it next to the window.

"Sit here" I put my hand on her shoulders and positioned her in the center of the living room.

She sat on the floor in a meditation position. Then I pushed an armchair to the side and left 3 bottles in front of Hayley at a one-meter distance from her but separated 20cm between them.

"Figure out how to freeze just the one in the middle, focus your gaze, point with a finger, try to blow it or whatever you can think of. When you are able to do it we will leave them farther and closer to each other".

She nodded with her head and focused. Hayley can control her aura to a certain extent already so focusing her power at a point could be a way for her to not affect others around her. She took off her gloves. I could see the change in colors, but it was widespread in front of her, not focused on one point as I wanted.

"Can you feel the things you are freezing?"

She closed her eyes for a second but denied with her head.

"Focus more you are freezing everything in front of you".

I'm not sure change she did but the colors changed again. She kept freezing all in front of her but there was a peak of intensity in the middle, it still covered all three bottles, but it was better than before.

"Try to concentrate on a point, the intensity in the center raised but you are still covering all three bottles".

Hayley was focusing her gaze in front of her while pointing her hand in a direction like trying to grab something. Since I have never used a power like this my help it's limited to pointing her errors, but I have no way to know the correct way of doing it.

I kept describing the effect that each of her actions, I was behind her and started to feel a little cold too. We took a break and I put on a jacket. I thought about trying to just endure it and see if I got an ice resistance skill, but I prefer to focus on helping Hayley for now.

By noon she was able to do the first stage of the training. We had to try a couple of times before she was able to do it without affecting the others, but apparently, from my description, Hayley was able to manipulate her powers better.

I wasn't hungry, but the others have been working all morning to get the water collector ready.

Rose was the first to come back. She saw a lot of water bottles frozen around and the room was quite cold compared to the outside.

"What happened?". She had shiver because of the cold when she came into the apartment.

"Just Hayley's training… are you guys eating now?"

Even if Hayley wasn't using her power anymore the coldness of the place was a residual effect from it, so it could affect Hope and G.

"Yes, I came to tell you so Hayley can put on the other part of the suit". She looked around all the bottles and asked. "Did you use all the water bottles?".

"Of course not, G's and mines are in our apartment, we should eat there I don't know if this place can affect them".

Rose was happy to leave that cold place, and we all went to the other apartment, Hayley came a little later cause she needed to prepare put on a couple of extra layers.

We ate together and G informed me about how the water collector plan was going.

"I took out 3 bathtubs from the fourth floor, and left them on the roof, Rose and Hope made the collector with the tents as you said. When I finished with the bathtubs, I fixed all a little to make sure it works, we plug them and added a couple of things to be sure the water doesn't leak".

"I can help with the finishing touches"

"Nah, it's almost ready anyway, what have you been doing during the morning?"

"I absorbed a book and helped Hayley with her training".

"What do you mean "absorbed"? Hope was curious since she was kind of our library now.

"The system had a function a didn't know about, I can absorb the knowledge in the books, but the book is lost in the process".

"Am I useless now?" Hope seemed worried.

"Of course not, I have the knowledge, but I can't recreate the book itself like you. Also if I absorb the other book I'm not getting anything from it"

"You know everything that was on the book you absorbed?" this time was G's turn to be surprised.

"Yeah, a think but still lack the practice, I got only an Lv. 0 skill".

"Do you think you can understand the blueprints now of the crossbows?". I told him when I gave them the blueprints that I understood only a part of them.

"Actually, I want to try building one by myself".

"I think is better if you help me, so I can guide you while we work. I don't think is a good idea to do it by yourself the first time, even if you have the knowledge. From theory to practice is a big step and there are many different situations during the construction that can't be predicted, and you need the experience to solve them".

I knew he was right and doing it while helping him wasn't bad at all. We finished lunch, G went to the roof to make the finishing details of the water collectors, since I was curious I followed him.

I could see a large tent to collect water expanded to the maximum on a weird structure that they built. It was really good for just a morning of work.

G was checking the structure, and secure it to the roof, the structure was attached to the bathtubs and some weights to be sure that the wind doesn't blow out everything. I followed G around seeing the adjustments he made and I thought about the reasons behind them.

I also wanted to understand how they made the structure, there were lots of tools that can't be found or used anymore. This means that G had to use his creativity to figure out how to build some parts of it.

Every time I found something I didn't understand he explained to me in detail including his thought process for some decisions. He was right when told me that it was better for me to work with his guide in the meantime, before working on my own projects.

The clouds were nearer to the city than before, as I predicted the rain should arrive later in the afternoon, almost at night. It's going to darken earlier tonight and we don't have yet a solution for that, after the crossbows, a lantern or flashlight could be a good project.

"Do you have any idea how to build a flashlight or a lantern?"

"If we get fuel an oil lamp is easy to build"

I checked the store, there was an oil lamp and a day worth fuel for it for 15 points, but just the oil cost only 5 points.

"Do you think we can build a couple today? I can get the oil from the system store"

"Sure it's annoying going to bed at 8 pm anyway." He tried to move a part of the structure to be sure it was firm. "This is ready, let's go"

We went to the fifth floor to an apartment in front of ours.

I have no idea what the girls are doing but they weren't in the workshop.

I looked around and it reminds me of G's workshop, he had one in his garage. Everything was neat and carefully classified, the worktable was clean and ready to work on.

He looked at me and started giving me instructions. It was a nice change to be the one following the instructions, after the meteor shower I got kind of used to be the one ordering around.

"We should solve the light issue first, bring me the…" He started by asking me for pieces that he already had classified. After that, we went to the other apartments to look for some of the missing parts.

After half an hour we had everything we needed and started working on the lamps. There were almost no mechanicals parts on them so I couldn't apply my knowledge Following G's instructions we were able to build 3 lamps by the time we heard the first water drops hitting on the window.