章 51: 51 Eyes

After the day with Jimmy and Yyrthrub had finished, Donis had retired to his room to sleep. All the walking and daylight drinking had truly drained the lad. He fell asleep quickly, but was awoken by a deep and unsettling feeling of being watched. Donis had used [Void Sense] to such a point, always having it on, that he even kept it on while he slept.

Yet, what he felt wasn't picked up by [Void Sense], nor was it seen by any sort of mana vision, but he could still feel it. It was an almost prickling sensation. He knew what he had to do, to turn and actually look.

Donis sat on his bed, it was late in the evening and the moon was shining through the window. The hazy light illuminated a portion of the room, giving Donis just enough light to see a pair of eyes staring at him from the corner of the room. They were golden and with vertical pupils that cut them in the middle.

Donis's back was drenched in sweat and the hair all over his body had stood up. The eyes that stared at him from the corner were unblinking, but they kept growing in size. It felt like they were somewhat hypnotizing, with mild whispers trying to latch hooks onto his mind, yet he could resist it. He was yet to blink himself, unable to break eye-contact in fear of something happening. They had long passed the burning stage, and now were just freely releasing tears.

He tried casting [True Inspect] on the eyes, but the [System] could only throw out a bunch of ??? in place of a status window. This isn't the first time Donis was unable to [Inspect] something, it was getting frustrating, wasn't it supposed to not fail?

The tension grew higher until Donis could bear it no longer, he had to blink. As soon as his eyes closed, a weird sense of relief that hurt a little washed over his eyes. When he opened them there was nothing there. The eyes had disappeared as if they were never there to begin with.

Uncertain of what's going on, Donis decided to wait a little bit in bed before he moved, just in case whatever was watching him would make another move while he "slept". Yet stay still he did, nothing else happened.

Donis eventually got up, priming his most powerful spells and taking out a Khopesh sword into his right hand. In his left hand he had created a construct from his [Aura Rework] ability, a shield, in his right [Flashpoint Strike] was primed on the Khopesh sword, and his mouth was stirring the winds of hatred within him in case he needed to cast [Dragonfury].

Searching the room brought him no extra information. It was as if those eyes never existed, yet he knew they did, he stared at them for over 10 minutes without blinking. If they weren't real then neither were the walls he was looking at.

After having that odd thought, Donis nervously rapped against the walls with the edge of his sword. Hearing a familiar sound of wood cooled down his head. He let out a relived sigh and continued to search the room. Using [Void Sense] and the Mana Sense aspect of his [Inspect] Donis still wasn't able to piece together what had happened.

He had a strong urge to fire off Dragonfury in its general direction, but he didn't. Too may things could go wrong, and the losses would be too great to explain to the crew downstairs. No ones going to believe him when he tells them that there was a pair of eyes staring at him in the middle of the night without evidence.

Sitting down, Donis called out Etheria for some middle-of-the-night cuddles. She chirped happily at the idea and sat down after getting petted by Donis for a minute.

'Why scary eyes look at you?' mentally chirped Etheria happily.

'You saw them?' Donis replied back.

'Yes, I saw! They like memory eyes!' Etheria chirped back louder.

'Memories? You've seen my memories?' asked Donis beyond confused.

'Yes, Etheria seen all memories,'

'Those eyes, you've seen them in the memories?' thought Donis as he laid his head on Etherias snuggly body.

'Yes. Eyes of that dragon. In memory!' Etheria chirps back nonchalantly.

'Good girl, good girl,' thought Donis as he pet the cute bird.

Donis had a lot to take in there. The eyes belonged to one of the dragons according to Etheria, but which one. There was his own, but he couldn't see them, there were the old one, and the monstrous dragons that flew outside the window. He wasn't sure which one it could possibly be, nor what it means. He did know now though that he indeed was being watched.

It was unlike anything else to know you're being watched. That your every move is being calculated, and memorized, or at the least – taken note of. It was disgusting, it was unnatural, and it made Donis feel incredibly anxious about everything he did.

'System, what was that actually?' thought Donis, not knowing who else to turn to right now.

-A tracking spell using ones eyes as a conduit for the mana.-

'Wait, I had the authority to get an answer? Laughed back Donis.

-Yes-

'Thanks. So can you help me figure out who this person is?' asked Donis with his fingers crossed.

-I could help you-

'Thank you, I really don't feel comfortable letting this matter drop. I really want to get to the bottom of this.'

-To acquire further permissions, you must upgrade the [System] first to allow myself to backtrace location spells-

'Fuck you and your maker. Why even bother giving me false hope like that. It's like you're sentient already and are just looking for an excuse to bully me," said Donis, pretending to be hurt. He knew deep down that nothing is simple in this world, and that the [System] itself has a twisted sense of humour, if it can be called that.

Putting the systemic matter aside, Donis needed more information on what was going on. Creating conjectures only got him so far. Firstly, the memory of his past life, the quest, and now the eyes. Did awakening the memory link him to something? Or was it the possibility of him becoming part dragon with his blood changing? There were too many questions and not enough answers.

'Thinking about it right now wont get me anywhere, I may as well try to cool down my head downstairs. Maybe some of the drunks are still awake, they could keep me company, or at the very least entertain me,' mused Donis.

With that thought, he got up and made his way downstairs with Etheria still out and in tow. After jumping down from the attic, Donis was greeted with an amazing sight of Striga arm wrestling Jimmy who seemed to be struggling. Striga didn't even look like she was breaking a sweat!

Making his way onward to the table, Jimmy stood up and ended up using both arms to try and pin Striga down, unsuccessfully. The whole crew was laughing at Jimmies expense here, yet none dared to come up and challenge the boss themselves.

Donis walked up to the crew and leaned against the wall behind Striga. If anyone could help Donis with questions it's probably going to be her.

After about 15 minutes, Striga stood up and signaled Donis to follow her back to her office. Uncertain of how she knew that he was waiting for her, he followed with an air of mild confusion. After the doors closed, Striga cut right to the chase and spoke.

"So, what's up? I could feel your eyes burning into my back wanting my attention."

"Uh, okay, how could you feel that?" Donis laughed awkwardly.

"Tricks of the trade little man, tricks of the trade," said Striga as she sat down.

"Okay, so, a little while ago I'm pretty sure a pair of eyes were staring at me from the corners of the room. I stayed perfectly still trying to not alert whatever it was that I was awake. I ended up looking at it, and the eyes were golden with vertical slits, and I could feel as if there were hints of whispers tugging at my consciousness," unloaded Donis. Tinges of fear could be heard when he mentioned the whispers.

"As soon as I blinked they disappeared, and even the whispers vanished too. The only reason I know they were even real was because Etheria saw them too. She said they were like dragon eyes."

"Hmm. That's indeed worth burning your eyes into my back," said Striga. After a moment of thought, she let out a sigh.

"Listen, it sounds like draconic eyes, but why they would be looking at you escapes what I could possibly know. You're not even level 20. What could possibly be so important about you?" asked Striga while her chin was propped up by her fist.

"Well, actually, I got my combat job recently. I'm a -Dragonfury Mage-!" exclaimed Donis.

"What the fuck is that?"

After about 10 minutes of explaining the stats, changes and intricacies of the Combat Job, Strigas mouth was agape. She looked him up and down, and then proceeded to massage the bridge of her nose while letting out a long sigh through her teeth.

"Okay, you lucky, lucky idiot. Okay, firstly, your Combat Job seems to be insane. What in the world are with those stats? Next up, you fucking moron. How in the fuck could you love dragons so much that you're now one of them? So, just in case you didn't know, their Allfather - Drakthiin, has a mental connection to every single dragon out there. So maybe, just maybe, you've just gotten his attention. On Erazar. You fucking aaaargh," exhaled Striga sharply.

"Okay, tomorrow we're going to scrap all of our missions for ourselves and we're taking you to the Royal Informants to understand the situation better. If anyone has information about this, it's them," Striga looked off into the distance.

"Am I in trouble?" asked Donis.

"Trouble? Maybe. Deep in shit you know nothing about? Definitely."