Combatibility
Mark noticed that a few of his things were missing as he entered his apartment. The previous owner had taken and probably sold them before he lost the building. Nothing expensive was missing, as he had nothing expensive in there, to begin with.
Somehow, his computer was still there, but it could be because it was pretty old, meaning it wouldn't get too much from selling it. He sat on his desk chair, turned on his computer, and checked his emails in case there was anything interesting.
There were a few job offers, but they were quite a couple of weeks ago, so they shouldn't be available anymore. He next pressed the shortcut of an app with the typical radar icon.
That was a special app connected to a particular device on his truck that let him track it. It took a couple of minutes to load, and there was feedback. But when Mark noticed the location the app pointed to, he wasn't sure if the app worked. The location was where he currently was.
He walked towards the nearest window to check outside in case he somehow had missed his truck, but he couldn't see it anywhere. There weren't many spaces that a big truck could be in, and he should be able to see all of them through his window.
Then an idea popped into his head as he made another energy orb, bringing it closer to the phone.
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Unauthorized Energy detected over [Truck-Kun].
Energy compatibility: 65%
Do you want to use it?
YES/NO
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'The compatibility had changed little. Is it because of the energy itself or my Skill? '
He pulled the energy orb away from the phone and tried to change its shape from a sphere into a cube. Then he brought it close to the phone and noticed that compatibility had changed to 67%. It seemed like he was into something.
He kept changing into different shapes and noticed that when he did, a cuboid only increased the compatibility to 71%, while everything else lowered it to less than 50%. Mark kept changing the energy's shape as he had another idea and tried to make it look like his truck. It was harder to do so, which led to losing control of the energy and needing to create a new one and start again from the beginning.
But because of this, he had leveled his <Minor Manipulation> once reaching level 21. So, in the end, he worked on it for close to 5 hours, and the gathered energy started taking the rough form he wanted.
He brought the phone closer to it, as it was harder to move the energy and keep its shape this time.
____________________
Unauthorized Energy detected over [Truck-Kun].
Energy compatibility: 83%
Do you want to use it?
YES/NO
____________________
This was the highest compatibility he had till now, but he was still not happy about it. He didn't know when he did, but he had put a target of reaching at least 95% before using it. But he needed a break now as his mind felt ready to explode from all his effort concentrating on the Skill.
As for the energy he had gathered, he didn't just leave it to dissipate in the air but brought it closer to a lamb he had that worked with batteries. In the end, this move affected the shape like a poorly shaped cuboid, as he brought it closer to where the batteries were. As he did so, the energy seemed to be drawn by the batteries and disappeared as it moved at them.
The lamb was turned off currently, as it barely had any energy left in its batteries to light it up. So he flipped its switch to check it out, and the lamb's light was as bright as when the batteries were full. The light was that bright, not only if the batteries were fully charged, but had to be at least more than half way.
Mark wasn't sure how much energy he had used during his training, but he hoped it wasn't too much to increase the power bill by much. But considering nobody lived in his apartment for some time, it shouldn't have made that much of a difference compared to past bills.
But no matter the case, Mark needed to make some money quickly, which hopefully his new Landlady would help him as she told him. So, for now, he rested a bit by taking another nap.
Once more, he started hearing the engine sounds, trying to send him a message which sounded different from the one before. Mark wanted to memorize it, and when he was confident he had succeeded, he opened his eyes and went towards his computer, searching on the internet for a morse code translator.
It didn't take him long to find one, which needed him to put dots and dashes as spaces for each word. It didn't take him long to do so, and he got a sentence translation. The translation was 'what takes that long. '
Mark tried to remember the previous message, put it on the translator, and got another translation--- 'just use the energy.'
'Is that Truck-kun sending me a message? I thought the seal prevented him from communicating. '
But as he thought about it, he had heard the voice speaking to him just when he woke up, but hadn't done so again since then.
Even if he decoded the message, Mark stayed with his plan to reach the compatibility at or pass 95% before using it on the phone. At least now, he was confident that using it was what he was supposed to do.
He returned to his nap once again as his head still had a slight headache. As he did so, he could hear the engine sounds again, sending another message, but it didn't last long and was silent after a while.
Nap turned into full sleep, but he woke up in the middle of the night. The reason he woke up was that the nauseating feeling had returned once more. He quickly went to the bathroom, as he could feel himself throwing up soon enough.
He barely made it there, and once more, he threw up 'oil blood.' After throwing up, he felt better after a couple of seconds. He cleaned up the mess made by his throw-up, but not before he tried to use his <Appraisal> on it but got nothing. He didn't even get the response that the target wasn't usable on it. It was almost like it wasn't detectable from his Skill, although it could detect the sink under it, where he threw up.
Mark wondered when he had his feeling returned and if it would keep happening randomly. He checked him [Status] to see if there was anything different, but there was no change.
But then he remembered another panel he hadn't checked as much—- the [Truck Status].
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TRUCK-KUN
Driver Sync: 24%
HP: 4/4
SP: 1/1
STATS
Power: 2
Agility: 2
Mind: 2
Defence: 2
Endurance: 2
Luck: 2
TRUCK UPGRADES
Unavailable
CONDITIONS
Standby Mode
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The <Driver Sync> had decreased once more, as well as his Stats.
'It seems that is the reason he told me to hurry. Why couldn't he just say so? '
He returned to the desk chair, and after taking a deep breath and clearing his mind, he focused on using his <Minor Energy Manipulation> again. He, of course, focused on making the truck form as he was confident that the higher the compatibility, the better the chances of success, and he may also get some other benefit.
He had used the Skill enough times to enter and exit the <Focus Space>, as he called it, and even could now tell what also check what happened in his surroundings without needing to exit it. But, of course, his focus wasn't the same when he checked his surroundings outside the <Focus Space>, so he couldn't do so when he focused on something big like now.
It didn't take him long to gather the needed energy, as he already understood how much was the preferred amount. It would be enough to form what he needed if he was too low. However, it would be more challenging to control it all at once if he had too much.
Then, as he formed the truck, he took his time as he carefully separating the energy into three parts. One part was for the main body where the engine, the driver's seats, etc. The second part was to be separated in a few more to make the needed wheels, and the last part would form the chassis on which the trailer would rest. He wouldn't make a trailer, though, as it was past the energy he could handle, so he hoped it was enough without one.
He focused one at a time, starting with the chassis. It wasn't too hard to do, as it was the combinations of different cuboids, which he could easily handle at this point. He then moved on, making the wheels, a pair at its side at the back and two more at the front, so in total, six wheels.
Then he started building the main part by starting with the seats, the petals, the gear level etc, and then began covering it up. He tried to put as many details in it as possible, which took more time and focus, but he somehow handled it.
When he was happy, which in the <Focus Space> was a real-life size truck, he knew it would be much smaller in real life. Still, it was the largest shape he had made with his Skill till now.
He slowly exited the <Focus Space>, making sure he didn't lose any control over his newest creation. Now he could see that the resulting truck was bigger than a toy truck would be, but not by much. He already had the phone in his left hand, as his truck was on top of his right hand, as he had noticed that it was better at handling energy between the two.
He brought the phone near the energy truck, and the familiar notification appeared once more.
____________________
Unauthorized Energy detected over [Truck-Kun].
Energy compatibility: 101%
Do you want to use it?
YES/NO
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