"...Victoria can you hear me?"

receiving only silence as his answer Mars still a.s.sumed she could hear him and sat down in front of the barrier and waited a bit before speaking in the most gentle tone he could

"...are you still angry?"

in response to his question the shadow forming the barrier trembled slightly taking this as confirmation that she could hear him Mars asked another question

"did i do something wrong?"

again the shadow trembled a little more than last time before it stopped and the shadow making up the barrier seemed to pull itself together before it disappeared and Mars could see Victoria lying on the side with her back to him a little into the cave with her ears flopped over on her head, seeing Victoria looking sad Mars asked her

"what's wrong?"

"Mars... not mad?"

hearing Victoria's voice in his head Mars was a little confused before he remembered that she whacked him in the face

"no i am not mad"

"really?"

as Mars said he wasn't mad Victoria peeked up and turned her head to look at him with sparkling eyes as her ears raised and her horns flashed

"then... can we... play?"

as Victoria asked she ran over to Mars and stopped right in front of his face with sparkling eyes that only gave Mars one choice

"sure let's play... but first you can help me with testing my new skills"

after petting Victoria on the head they both walked out of the cave into the cleared area

"what was the information on those 2 skill again?"

activating his [Energy: information] skill words appeared in his field of vision

[Energy: absorb s.h.i.+eld]

use cost: 60

status: unlocked

function: creates a s.h.i.+eld around the user that lasts for 60 seconds and absorbs all energy from attacks. .h.i.tting the s.h.i.+eld converting them to energy units with a max absorption of 100 energy units

[Energy: reactive s.h.i.+eld]

use cost: 100

status: unlocked

function: creates a s.h.i.+eld around the user that lasts for 30 seconds and automatically counters all attacks that hit the s.h.i.+eld with double the amount of energy they hit the s.h.i.+eld with

"well let's start with the [Energy: absorb s.h.i.+eld]... but first i should check my [Energy: storage]

having gotten in the habit to always check the amount of energy he had stored before absorbing more Mars opened his status

"status"

Name: Mars

Age: 0 (vessel 5220)

Race: Half-dragon human

t.i.tles: [Living G.o.d of energy] [Conquer of Salen] [Tyrant King] [5000 year prisoner] [Man that fell from the sky] [Contracted]

Cla.s.s: [Energy]

Cla.s.s level: 14

Status points:

Strength [23/1000] Const.i.tution [29/2000] Dexterity [20/1500]

Intelligence [19/600] Wisdom [22/900] Charisma [12/50] (up)

Active skills: [Dragon-flame magic lv 5] [Swordsmans.h.i.+p lv 4] [Shadow magic lv 2]

Cla.s.s skills: [Energy: absorption] [Energy storage: 710/1400] [Energy: discharge]

[Energy: upgrade shop] [Energy: information] [Energy: restoration] [Energy: healing] [Energy: absorb s.h.i.+eld] [Energy: reactive s.h.i.+eld]

Pa.s.sive skills: [Fire resist lv 15] [Commanding lv 3] [Mental reinforcement lv 5] [Pain resist lv 5]

"...Victoria can you hit me with some non-lethal magic when i say?"

"okay"

having confirmed with Victoria Mars focused on activating the [Energy: absorb s.h.i.+eld] for the first time by following the instructions that had appeared in his heard when he had unlocked the skill, and a moment later he felt energy being drained and a transparent membrane that was covered with small unconscionable runes that formed a neat pattern

"...this must be it, Victoria you can fire now"

"okay... here it comes"

Victoria that was standing 20 meters from Mars began to from small shadow bullets by pulling them up from her shadow before quickly launching them rapidly through the air at Mars that was saying a small prayer

"...please work"

his small prayer turned out to be meaningless as the s.h.i.+eld work as promised when the shadow bullets. .h.i.t the soft looking membrane the seemed to slow down before they got sucked into the s.h.i.+eld as the runes on the s.h.i.+eld lit up a little and mentally gave Mars an exact amount of energy units that was now stored in the s.h.i.+eld

"2 energy units... Victoria try something a little more deadly this time"

taking his words as a challenge Victoria let loose as her black fur seemed to melt into the surroundings creating a domain of darkness before 4 spears of darkness shot out from the shadows and hurled towards Mars with high speed before being absorbed into the s.h.i.+eld as the runes on the s.h.i.+eld lit up a little more

"20 energy units... Victoria try the magic you showed me a couple of days ago"

receiving no answer Mars knew Victoria was preparing to shoot out the spell that had pieced though a tree before exploding

"...this might be bad"

Mars felt a little insecure about being hit with a spell that deadly but was given no time to regret as a thick spear of darkness shot out from Victoria's shadow domain and almost instantly reached him hitting the s.h.i.+eld without a single sound before being slowly absorbed as the runes on the transparent membrane lit up even more

"...60 energy units"

feeling the energy being absorbed by the s.h.i.+eld Mars was a little stunned before he pulled himself together and felt even more respect towards Victoria

"Victoria let's stop here"

not feeling the need to know what would happen if the s.h.i.+eld went over capacity Mars decided to end the test of the first s.h.i.+eld skill and a few seconds later the transparent membrane making up the s.h.i.+eld disappeared and he felt energy being added to his [Energy: storage]

"can... we play... now?"

as Mars was absorbed in the felling of gaining energy Victoria had unknowingly to him appeared right in front of him and was looking up at Mars with sparkling eyes, looking at Victoria Mars felt a little conflicted but eventually decided to test the final skill before playing with her

"...well we could play for a few hours right now, but if you help me test one more thing we can play until sunset"

as Victoria visible struggled with the question of playing some right now and helping a bit the playing for the rest of the day Mars felt a little bad about tricking her as she was only a big kitten born a little under a year ago but still felt that knowing his own strength should be the top priority as he mumbled

"...it's been a few days since i lit that giant fire if anyone at all comes to check it, they should be here soon"

"who... will be here?"

hearing Victoria's voice in his head Mars remembered what he was doing and petted her on the head

"i don't know who, but hopefully someone we can reason with... never mind that have you decided if you want to play now or later?"

"play... later"

as Victoria's voice entered his head sounding a little sad Mars started to feel bad but gave her a smile

"okay then let's get this over with quickly, so we can play for the rest of the day"

seeing her cheer up somewhat Mars decided to set some time aside everyday to play with her as she took some distance and waited for him to give a signal

"...okay Victoria just like last time, only this time you need to keep moving as there likely will be some sort of counter attack"

"okay"

as Mars saw Victoria was ready he activated his [Energy: reactive s.h.i.+eld] for the first time and quickly felt energy units being drained as a transparent round s.h.i.+eld appeared in front of him it was 2 meters across with the same inconceivable runes following along the edge of the s.h.i.+eld

"...so it doesn't cover me entirely but it feels like i can move it"

testing the movement of the transparent s.h.i.+eld Mars quickly got the hang of it and found out he could move freely but no longer then 3 meters away from himself

"okay Victoria fire some magic at me, but start off light and keep moving"

hearing his instructions Victoria began running around him in a circle and quickly formed 3 shadow bullets before firing them at Mars, hitting his s.h.i.+eld almost instantly

"...this feels a little weird"

as the shadow bullets. .h.i.t the transparent s.h.i.+eld they were absorbed into the s.h.i.+eld as the runes lit up before the s.h.i.+eld formed 3 similar looking bullets made of bright pure energy and launched them towards Victoria and landed right behind her as she ran nearly hitting her fluffy tail

"okay that good for now"

not expecting Victoria being in danger Mars called off the test and together with Victoria walked up to where the counter attack bullets had hit a tree stump

"...this seem like i would have pieced though you if it hit"

looking at the 3 big holes in the tree stump that went all the way to the other side of the stump Mars felt a chill down his spine and decided not to test potentially dangerous skill on Victoria anymore as he petted her on the head

"let's go bring some boar meat down to the river and eat before we play"

hearing it was finally time to play Victoria lit up in excitement before her horns flashed

"play... finally time to play"