Jason slaps himself. He had been getting way too introspective. His tests and research instead of revealing a path forward had started him down side roads. First, the sixth step to improving his core was related to the essence of Energy. Second, his stats had always been like a cloak he put on instead of a core part of him and why should he care so much about it when he has body/mind unification? Third, there is no third because everything comes back to Energy. His core, his stats, his cultivation, and most importantly his inner void and strings.

Jason forcefully separates himself from his senses and dives into the core of the problem. ‘What is Energy? The origin power of this realm. What is the core feature of Energy? It isn’t the opposite of Qi or Mana, but rather the source of them. I can’t say that Energy is mid-range power because Qi is short and Mana is long. Especially when even with the short time I have been looking into NeoRealm exceptions to most rules related to the two are easy enough to find.’

‘But I do have a skill meant to take a power source and exemplify it! My war stomp already has an Energy mode which is called never-ending threads. The threads are obvious enough, but why never-ending? What is represented in the skill is how it will continue to attack until countered. The good old first law of motion, that of inertia except limited to reactions between the three powers instead of against everything. Wait, is it that simple?’

‘Energy represents inertia so what if the other two are also taking after the laws of motions? I could see Qi being the second law easily enough. Acceleration generates force in the same direction equal to the mass times acceleration and thus the whole burst power. But can I really put Mana in the third law’s box? The law of action and reaction. The fact that when two objects interact, they will apply force to one another equal in magnitude but opposite in direction.’

‘Except that would make sense! It would even explain why curses generally fall under the umbrella of Mana by taking on a more mystical bent to the rule. But if this is the case why would they try so hard to restrict Energy? It might be the source power but if it is just one of the three laws of motion, there shouldn’t be anything too special about it.’

‘Unless, unless you take into account the fact that the three powers aren’t pure implementations of the laws. The programmers who designed it all might have started with the three laws but that wouldn’t make a magical world. Even in the real world, all the original physical laws have been warped, bent, and broken by the new powers invading the dimension. So what changes were made when they implemented the laws?’

‘Mana is easy enough to figure out. A simple voodoo doll curse shows this change. Mana doesn’t just allow action and reaction physically, but mystically. So by connecting the doll to a person you can act on the doll and have the person react. At first I thought the sixth step was about planning, but what if that wasn’t true? Rather, the act of having the Mana leave and return is creating a cycle of action and reaction. The Mana should just continue outward but instead you force a reaction of returning with a force of equal and opposite force.’

‘Qi. Hmm, Qi, how do you work? I could easily force an explanation on it but that would be a false truth. Honestly, I am tempted to just put down that Qi messes with good ol’ F=ma but that would match what I am seeing with Mana. It would be all too easy to just say they exert more force than the inputs would result in. Too boring for a game designer. They would have done a similar thing as with Mana were they stapled on some magical principle.’

‘The secret is in the burst. It isn’t adding any extra force into the equation. Or maybe it is? Mana had a magical addition but Qi is based more on the concept of cultivation. At least how it is in the stories. So what if the wait for the burst was just as important as the burst itself? The stories they have about cultivation are focused on building up power after all. I thought the idea was to be able to burst out with a full power strike at any moment. But if that was the case, then the practice should be about bursting out over and over instead of waiting for the right moment.’

‘So yeah, it’s all adding up but that still leaves me with Energy and how they screwed up inertia. Except they didn’t mean for people to have Energy. Of course, they would have meaning in Qi and Mana as they are meant to be used. Energy though? Just a way to start the world and generate everything. Inertia is all about continuing until stopped by something and I made an assumption about it and the other powers. The idea that they aren’t being affected by the other powers but that can’t be true. A fireball can be blocked by a dirt mound without a drop of power inside it beyond the atmospheric power and a Qi empowered punch would just blast through metal armor without leaving a mark.’

‘No, the powers must be affected by everything, even if less so by the other stuff. So what if the change they made to inertia was that instead of continuing at the same speed until stopped it actually multiplied. Not the force, but the mass. A perfect way to make everything from nearly nothing would be if the starting seed was able to create infinite materials. The counter to this would be the other two powers and so why my Energy stomp is never-ending until resisted. Even though the threads are worn down in their interaction, they are growing at the same pace.’