Five hours into the day's training, something had started nagging at me that I couldn't quite let go of.
Every new combat skill I'd ever developed had come with its own notification — that was just how the system worked. But when I'd adapted Fire Pierce into an Air-based strike earlier that afternoon, nothing had flagged it as new at all.
I stared down at my own hands, working through it. Why no notification, that time? Could it be that I'm allowed to remake the skills the system already gave me, using different affinities, without it registering as something genuinely new?
The thought landed with more force than I expected. What if I could use Fire Spirit Flare with Air instead of Fire? Or Earth? Or Darkness?
The idea opened up more possibility than I knew what to do with all at once — combinations I hadn't even considered as options until that exact moment, each one a door I hadn't known was there.
Two more hours of training passed before the morning session finally wound down, and the five of us were sent back to our dorms to rest ahead of dinner. I walked the quiet evening path back with something close to a spring in my step, the idea still turning over and over in my head.
Lying back on my bed, I looked at my own hand for a long moment.
"Affinity Extraction," I murmured to the empty room, testing the name out loud. It felt right.
I smiled to myself, closed my eyes, and let the day's exhaustion finally pull me under.