Of Sights and Senses

John exhaled slowly and relished the feeling of his mana, so warm and vibrant. It resonated from deep within him. As he drank it in, he thought he understood what Moira had meant when she’d said that mana came from the essence of a being. Mana was truly the energy of life.

“I think I’ve got it figured out,” he said, calmly. “I can feel my mana now…”

“Awesome!” Ela sang, giving him an encouraging smile. “You should take a second to get familiar with moving it around, then we can start on the healing spell.”

Once more turning inward, The Gamer began to stir the energy within him. With his will alone he could seemingly manipulate it freely, until it left his body. Beyond that, his perception fell off dramatically. Out of curiosity, he tried to follow the mana that radiated off him as it drifted out into the world.

That was more difficult than he’d guessed, at first, as his senses seemed to cut off almost entirely at the bounds of his own body. With focus, however, he was slowly able to feel the first moments of his mana entering the outside world. After repeating that a few times, his own senses were able to follow.

He felt so small as he took everything in. The energy flowing off him had begun to string together, forming a grand tapestry. A vast cloud of it filled the room, saturating the area around him. It was strangely beautiful, to John. Still, the mana that floated away from him quickly lost its luster, like a light that had been left running for too long in comparison to a fresh bulb.

Idly, he wondered how much mana was really coming off him, since what he felt seemed far more than the eighty-something he remembered having.

He inhaled, slowly, and then realized something was wrong.

John was now faced with the opposite problem as before. At first, he’d felt nothing. Now, even with his eyes closed, he was quickly becoming overwhelmed with sensation. The world was whirling around him now. It was dizzying. The elation of success turned to light panic as his senses sharpened further. His mind had expanded even further beyond his ability to process.

Adrenaline shot through his veins.

The Gamer’s eyes began to sting and burn. He shed a single tear as a sharp pain shot through his head. A deep ache followed, yet his senses continued to flow outward. He could feel the edges of his mind fraying, the lines where he ended and other things began starting to blur.

...aaaaaand you’ve gone too far.

A rosy yet regal voice echoed in The Gamer’s mind, cutting through the flood of sensory data. A woman’s voice, similar to one he’d heard before, but couldn’t place in his overwhelmed state. With it came a shot of ice that ran down his spine.

John’s breath was ragged, but he grit his teeth, trying to focus on what he could make out in the sea of senses. The voice had reminded him of where he was and what was going on, allowing some of his previous calm to return.

He could make out another presence next to him now - Ela. She had three distinct points of mana concentration; he could tell, even without turning his head. Her mana was bright and vibrant and so very alive, just like his own. Slowly, warmth trickled outward from the largest, down what he guessed was her arm. She pressed her hand on the back of his neck, though he could only tell based on the increasing intensity of her mana concentration.

He forcibly evened out his breathing, willing his mana to settle, imagining the still water on the surface of a lake. John made himself begin to take deep, even breaths, and to focus on every feeling that gave him within his body - the cool of the air and the light dryness of his mouth and lips. The more he concentrated on the physical sensations of his body, the further away the previous melting pot seemed to be.

Over the next minute or so, his senses dulled again, until he was sitting comfortably. It took a second for The Gamer to realize that the ringing in his ears had subsided and that Ela was talking to him.

“John! John, are you alright?” she asked, concern staining her beautiful voice.

She pressed the back of her hand to his forehead, softly talking to herself. “Heart rate accelerated. Temperature high… Vitals strong…”

He coughed, clearing his throat and getting her attention. Cautiously, he reached up and placed his hand on her forearm. She paused her analysis to look over at him as he sat back up.

“I’m fine… I think,” John gasped. “Sorry, I accidentally triggered something with my powers. Unsure. Feels a little weird. Gimme a second.”

It took a moment for The Gamer to get his bearings, his brain finally somewhat catching up to everything going on. The world around him was significantly muted now, compared to his first moments with whatever had happened. He was thankful for that, at least.

She returned her hand to his forehead, and John allowed her to complete whatever she was doing while he caught his breath and let the adrenaline leave his system. He wasn’t sure if he felt her warmth physically or through whatever sense he now had. It was delightful either way.

“Medically, you seem fine,” she tentatively decided, pulling back. “Your health bar has not moved either.”

He turned to face her, offering her the best smile he could. “Then hopefully it wasn’t a big deal. Also, I can definitely say that I can mess with my mana now!”

“John, your eyes are still closed,” Ela said, still with a hint of worry.

“Oh. Right,” he said, realizing that he was still clenching them shut. ’I… how did I forget that?’

Cautiously, he allowed his eyes to open. The difference was noticeable immediately. The whole world was clearer. Each detail was sharper. Every color was richer. His eyes darted around, taking in every ounce of new information in the room. The Gamer was in disbelief at how much finer everything was for him now.

Then, he saw Ela.

Many things struck John at once. He could see with stunning clarity the pink of her cheeks, lightly flush with concern. In more detail than he’d ever dreamed of, he was treated to the rise and fall of her bountiful bosom. Every feature - her warm smile, her friendly blue eyes, her alabaster skin - was in perfect, picturesque detail. In that moment, she was, by magnitudes, the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

And yet, he was equally transfixed by something else about her. The Gamer could see the mana within her, as if there was a verdant fire on her heart. At first, John could scarcely believe his eyes. He watched as part of that fire, reaching down her arm, slowly retreated back to the center. Though he could vaguely still sense the great swathes of free-floating mana around him, his vision seemed to have filtered it out.

For a moment, he was simply transfixed watching the thrum of mana within Ela.

“Hold still,” she commanded, focusing closely on his face. “What happened to your eyes?”

“Um… I’m not entirely sure what happened to them,” John said, growing nervous at the close examination. “I can definitely say that something’s different though. My vision is way better and, uh, I can see mana now, I think.”

“You can see it?” she asked, reaching into her pocket and pulling out her phone. “What do you mean?”

“Well, uh, like I can see a bundle of mana inside you. Technically three, since there’s two more behind your eyes. I’m currently watching it flow between them.”

The busty blonde bit her lip for a second, shifting in her seat. “Mmm… It almost sounds like Aura Sight, but not quite.”

Concluding her mumbled thoughts, Ela tapped her phone for a second, opening the selfie camera, before turning it to John to let him use it as a mirror. With his newfound clarity, he took a good look at himself and cringed slightly.

’Man, I really need to get a haircut,’ he realized, shifting his head back and forth to examine both sides. ’It’s not as bad as I’d thought, at least.’

Once John had finished giving his face a once over, he noticed what his companion had been trying to show him. A single, concentric circle of a dull yellow-gold was now wrapped around each of his pupils. Looking closely, he watched as the rings began to glow faintly, and his vision sharpened once more.

“That’s a little freaky,” The Gamer said, his eyes’ glow receding. “Ever heard of something like this?”

“No,” she replied, shaking her head, “Though, I have heard of powers doing stranger things, honestly. Do you still feel alright?”

“I think so; maybe I'm a bit tired? Nothing bad anymore.”

John shrugged, giving the best smile he could. With his mind calm again, he took a second to check over his UI, noticing a few things. First, more than half his mana was gone, and it was still ticking down.

‘So that’s definitely the eye thing…’ he thought. ’Need to figure out how I can turn that off at some point soon.’

Secondly, John found a notification waiting for review.

Tapping to accept the stats, The Gamer moved immediately to open his inventory. ’What does “refined” even mean in this context?’

John discovered that the familiar, gray, eye-shaped skill gem for [Observe] was gone, replaced by a new item. Intrigued, he popped his new quest reward out, rolling it around in his palm for a second before raising it up, held between two fingers where both he and Ela could see it.

“What is that?” she asked, raising an eyebrow and leaning in.

“I think that this is our culprit,” he answered. “Whatever I did, I got an achievement for doing it, and it changed something about my [Observe] gem.”

The gem in John’s fingers was shaped like an eye, formed of a pristine, yellow-amber gemstone, wrapped completely in a dark gray stone formed into eyelids. The eye was all but closed, with only the slimmest crack through which he could see the gem itself. A single ring of bronze was inlaid on the front.

Tilting his head slightly at the strange thing, John turned it so Ela could see the fancier parts. While she took her own turn examining it, The Gamer tested to see if he could still use the original spell. With little flourish, he cast [Observe] as if nothing had changed.

“Hmm…” John mumbled, quickly checking a few things about the gem. “Gimme a second to open everything and share it.”

Ela nodded, and he began the task of expanding everything he could.

’”A sage’s journey?” Is that supposed to be about me, or just in general? And is that like a real saying, or just flavor?’

I said it. That makes it a real saying.

’I’m not quite sure that counts… Hey, wait a second, did you speak to me earlier? That was actually your voice, right?’

He didn’t hear anything back after that. ’It’s a nice voice.’

Paying no heed to the evasiveness of whoever was in his head, John moved on to the rest of the things he’d wanted to check. Analyzing the windows he could find, he shared them all with Ela, and the pair verified that the new [Unawakened Eye] gem still provided The Gamer’s original [Observe] skill, in addition to the new ability that was channeled through his eyes currently.

“Hmm… Nice that at least some of the vision upgrade is permanent,” he said, contemplating the new information. “The cost is **** for now; I wouldn’t even make it to the first cost increase yet. Probably ought to assume that there’s something in place to prevent me turning it on and off again to reset the mana scaling.”

Ela pulled her legs up, crossing them in front of her as she pulled the window over to read. “Probably. You could check by turning it off now, maybe?”

John nervously scratched the back of his neck. “Um… I’m not quite sure how? I guess, uh, lemme try something.”

The Gamer closed his eyes again, focusing on the same feelings he'd had before - the rush of sensations and the brilliant shine of mana - and tried to will them away. He found within himself the still lake, reflected in which he could see the world's mana, and dropped a pebble in it. Instantly, he could feel a dullness return to the world, like he'd turned the brightness down on his soul.

A twinge of sadness struck John as the warmth of his world receded from him.

Opening his eyes again, he found his mana-seeing abilities gone, though he was pleasantly surprised to discover that much more of the improvement to his sight remained than he had hoped. It was certainly far less fine than it had been, but it was immensely better than where he'd started. Importantly, he could still feel his own mana, though with far less precision.

'I'd guess I still have maybe three quarters of the sight upgrade, give or take,' he thought, looking around for points of reference.

John verified on his character sheet that his mana was once more creeping upward again, the drain upon it removed. As he returned the gem to his inventory, The Gamer frowned slightly, thinking about what talent possibilities his new skill might have. All his slots were currently full, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to risk reducing his combat spell capability by unsocketing his [Lesser Earth Spike] or [Lesser Air Burst].

’Wait, dangit, I never checked the point options for Gamer’s Unity, did I?’ he realized, remembering the morning. ’I got thrown off by… her… and totally forgot. I need more slots, or I’m going to have to commit one of these slots as a cycling zone. Both, preferably. I still have that talent point, too.’

John took a second to ponder his gems. [Reshape Matter] probably shouldn’t go anywhere, since he wasn’t sure how losing it would affect his ability to manipulate ice. The other two were just his damage skills, [Lesser Earth Spike] and [Lesser Air Burst]. The former was probably the best to remove, since it wasn’t getting any special bonuses, and had the lowest experience count.

’I probably ought to just wait before messing with any of that, honestly,’ The Gamer decided. ’Assuming that any of this goes alright, I’d expect to see some kind of skill gem for this healing spell.’

"Looks like I'm good to go," he said, willing his windows to begin closing around him. "Seems like I've retained the ability to manipulate my own mana at least, so our little skill training session should be back on track!"

“You should be careful, you know,” the normally cheerful woman warned. “Your powers seem to be unusually unpredictable, and you would not want something bad like that to happen in the middle of a fight.”

That gave John pause. “Yeah… I guess I wasn’t really thinking about things when I was messing around. Curiosity and cats and all that.”

He put on a nervous smile. “I’m still getting used to all this, you know.”

“Alright,” Ela replied, in her normal sing-song.

The blonde nodded. “We can continue, then. Open the book back up to the second chapter.”