章 4: Seeing the unseen

Opening his eyes slowly, the first thing Jason saw was an empty cracked wall that looked extremely filthy and exactly as he had expected.

Jason didn't know which color it was as he had never seen any before but the color looked old and in some areas, the wall was puffed up.

The room itself was in a single monotonous color while it looked like the room was smaller than he had imagined.

Over the last few days, Jason had researched a lot about human senses with the help of his smartphone´s AI. He wanted to check if his eyes worked properly after awakening them or not.

He noticed something and he estimated it to be the mana flow.

Jason was sure that it was the mana flow as he saw it flowing through him and the sensation he felt was the same he had grown accustomed to over the last several years while handling mana.

He was able to see the mana flow!

That was something an average human couldn't do.. at least that was what the AI told him.

Jumping in excitement Jason stormed out of his room, ran down the stairs, and left the building as fast as possible. However, it was already dark outside, with a few lamps on the street, flickering in a dull light that lit the gloomy streets to an extent.

'Is this darkness the night? It's already so late?? How unfortunate…' Jason thought visibly frustrated.

He felt a little disappointed because he couldn't explore the city right now, but it didn't matter, as he was able to see anyway.

Jason would still be able to walk through the city on the next day. He had more than enough time on his hands to explore the city.

Looking at his phone and noticed a set of numbers in a white font.

He couldn't read the numbers but the AI told him the time.

'Yep, it's already night!' Nevertheless, Jason was excited.

It was his first time seeing anything and even the simplest of the things looked interesting to him.

He continued to jump around on the street with childlike glee. It had been a long time since he had felt so happy and could forget his worries for the time being.

Though he was just 13, he had matured faster than most youths. The absence of a parental figure in his life had left him to fend off on his own, turning him into a responsible adult.

The worries over his exams had vanished into thin air at the sight of lights, buildings, and even his smartphone as he grew even more joyous.

But he had to calm down as it was already past midnight and he didn't want to attract too much attention.

Thus, he returned to his room and inspected every piece of furniture inside the building to satisfy his growing curiosity. But his finds were rather disappointing as the whole building looked old and was worn out.

The building only had old-looking and tattered furniture.

Even if it was new to Jason it still looked a bit disgusting.

Jason finally understood why the price for his room was so cheap in contrast to the other rooms he had browsed with the help of his smartphone´s AI.

He laid down on his bed and decided to search for landscapes and colors online, to understand which name was assigned for each color as he was way too excited to sleep right now.

Hours later Jason fell into a deep sleep with a bright smile on his face.

Waking up after a few hours of sleep Jason washed up, changed into a different set of clothes, and went outside with fast steps.

Before sleeping he had looked up many landscapes and beasts to get to know what some of them looked like.

Jason had also searched for information about foreign races that had invaded Argos 300 years ago and he was astounded to see their looks.

Some of them looked almost similar to humans in Jason's opinion. There were only a few minor differences like skin color, body parts, and so on that were indicators of a different race. While the other races were completely different from humanity with their deterrent looks.

Out of all races, a particular race jumped out at him. The beast belonging to that race had an average height of four meters, four muscular legs, and the lower body was covered in black scales. It had a broad upper body which was slightly different with all kinds of horrifying deformed faces plastering it.

The head was the only thing comparable to human facial features but its eyes were that of a lizard, while a bone armor covered its six arms.

Crystals stood out on its back which were the race's mana storages.

That was almost everything known by the public about this race other than its name.

This race was called Gallier and it was one of the most dangerous invading intelligent races known to mankind. The race was known for harvesting and recycling the corpses it had killed.

Luckily there weren't many of them but Jason was still horrified. He quickly went to the toilet before he rushed outside.

Jason headed for a walk in the city, and primarily focused on the people around him. He observed them in their either expensive or cheap-looking clothes, makeup, facial expressions, and many more details that he could finally see.

It was interesting to see the different people and notice their behavior.

Rich-looking people had confident facial expressions and a straight back. On the other hand, some poorer-looking ones were walking through the streets with a limp body and a bent back, their gaze focused on the concrete.

Some people noticed his gaze and some avoided his eyes while others glared back at him.

Jason noted that and he thought he should stop staring at them as their gazes were uncomfortable for him. Thus, he continued his walk until he arrived at a park.

At least, he thought it was a park as he saw a sign, but obviously, he couldn't read it.

With the help of the AI he found out what the sign said and it confirmed that he had indeed reached a park.

Looking around the park, Jason noticed that there weren't many people within the park right now but everyone of every handful of people was accompanied by a beast.

These beasts were probably their soul bounds and it was as if they were going for a walk or playing together.

Most soulbound beasts he saw were rather cute and small looking like normal animals before the mana outbreak.

There were many fluffy beasts and also a few beautiful looking ones.

But one thing was uncertain for him.

`Why are some of these beasts radiating different shining colors?`

Most of the beasts didn´t radiate any color whereas some radiated a feeble black color.

There were even some beasts radiating a slightly stronger light-grey color and Jason wondered what was going on.

Jason even saw one or two beasts that had a dark green light enveloping them. These beasts looked stronger than the others who either didn't radiate any color or radiated a black or light-gray color.

Watching the enveloping color hurt Jason's eyes after a few minutes and the color vanished into thin air.

Jason noticed that looking at the radiating colors affected him, especially his eyes.

After the pain subsided a little, Jason noted that the mana flow around him was suddenly more difficult to see.

This surprised him. 'Are these colors an indicator to the beast's strength or something else? And why does it drain so much of my energy?'

He felt weak and it took him some time before he could see the mana flow again without any obstruction.

Jason noticed that his eyes could look at the flow of mana as if it was a perfectly ordinary thing to look at. However, looking at the radiating colors of beasts drained some of his mana.

It was as if his eyes had a passive effect to look at the mana flow while it was an active 'skill' to see these colors like in a game.

He had heard many things about games as listening to gaming broadcasts had been an interesting pastime for a while. However, he noticed that he used to waste too much of his time on it instead of gathering mana into his eyeballs.

Jason tried playing around with his theory of the radiating colors and noticed that it was really the case.

Subconsciously, Jason could activate and deactivate his ability to see the radiating colors of beasts.

The pain his eyes had to endure lessened noticeably over time and Jason replenished the lost energy with a constant supply of mana.

His control over mana was superior compared to his peers because he had a proficiency of almost 10 years. He had toiled endlessly and mastered the precise movements in order to not hurt his eyes.

Furthermore, his senses were extremely distinct and sharp, adding another reason for his superior mana control.

One wrong move with his mana and he would have shattered the marble in his eyes which he, fortunately, wasn't aware of.

His mother had asked him to be careful and Jason had always listened to her.

Seeing these soul bound beasts, Jason was reminded that there were only around 5 days left until the final exams would commence. As such, he decided to go home.

However, there was a particular problem he noticed.

クリエイターの想い
HideousGrain

Sometimes it´s better to let the child out of one and to relieve your stress.

Don´t force yourself to stick to the norm and let your inner child out, if you want to. ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっ

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章 5: Keeping the secret

If the news of his cured eyes were to leak before the exam began, he would be in more trouble than he previously thought.

Thinking about his cured eyes was delightful but on the downside, Jason couldn't read. Once everyone including his teachers would know that his vision had magically returned and that he could now see perfectly well, he would have to sit for a normal written exam like every other student. He wouldn't be granted the AI's assistance anymore that was normally given to children with special needs. Without the AI, he wouldn't know what was written on the holographic screen.

The problem was that Jason couldn't read and write!

He didn't even know a single thing including the alphabet and would have to learn it slowly.

How should he be able to write down theories about the mana outbreak in a highly technical language?

There was no way that Jason would be able to learn how to read and write in a little over 4 days including the important terms.

So Jason made up his mind and decided to continue to let everyone believe that he was still blind by faking it until the exam ended. The slightest blunder would make him write the theoretical exam normally. That would destroy his dream of attending the worst possible high school at the least.

Another thing Jason could do was to ask the Cerus family for help, so he could reveal that his vision had returned without worries. But, he didn't want to do that, as he had already received many favors from the family and he didn't like adding more to his guilt of relying on others.

He would keep his eyesight a secret until he would finish middle school. He planned to reveal the secret when he would enter high school which was still questionable for him.

Many thoughts ran through his mind.

`Will I be able to attend a school? What's the use of attending the worst high-school in a C-grade city? Should I just start working somewhere?` Feeling tormented by his own questions, Jason sighed in frustration.

As for resources provided by the high schools, the most important reason for Jason to attend one would be to learn many martial art techniques and battle skills. But, Jason's mood turned gloomy when he thought about the martial art techniques provided by C-grade cities or rather their worst high-schools.

`Is it really worth the effort?`

Jason didn't want to be a laborer as they were exploited and were forced to live a hand-to-mouth existence., As such, his choices in future occupations were limited if he were to finish middle school only before looking for work.

For now, Jason would have to do a few things.

The most important thing was that he had to score 100% in the theoretical questions because he didn't want to have his soul-awakening and pick a soulbond as the last student.

While the soul-awakening score was unpredictable, Jason was sure that he would get zero points for combat technique and zero points for his Novice-1 mana core and miserable strength.

The soul awakening was on the same day when one would pick the soulbond. This was the reason it wasn't included in the exam results to decide the order of students in which they would pick a soulbond.

Even with a 100% theoretical score, Jason would be at most in the middle section of the long queue of students but more likely in the lower section to pick a soulbond which annoyed him slightly.

He didn't want to be blind and Jason frowned thinking about the unfair world...

It was good that his eyes were doing fine and they were even something special like his mother had told him. But being able to see again wouldn't instantly solve all of his problems.

Calming down, he continued to walk and his mood changed completely as he looked around. The skyscrapers around the park looked amazing and Jason marveled at almost everything.

Jason decided to return home due to exhaustion because he had been roaming around the city for a long time. On the way home, Jason bought the beginner's book for reading and writing most children would use.

Jason used his old smartphone's AI to guide him as he didn't have someone to read it to him.

The AI was somehow stepping in as a parental figure in imparting education.

Hours passed and Jason's brain grew numb after completely learning how to read and write every single letter. He felt drained and mentally exhausted after learning something that was taught for days in a matter of hours.

It wasn't as easy as he had expected it to be. It would take him some time to fluently read books, write sentences and texts while applying the correct grammar without any misspellings.

Jason was aware of this fact but he was also very happy.

Until a few days ago, he had believed that he would never be able to see and learn how to write as the years passed without him sensing any progress in his eyes.

Jason´s mother told him that it would only take a few years until his eyes would awaken but she was mistaken as it took almost ten years of utmost effort.

Nevertheless, he was happy and gathered more mana to improve his mana core and physique which was more than necessary.

*Next Morning*

Waking up before his alarm, Jason washed up, brushed his teeth, and put on his school uniform.

Taking out his cane and a bandage to cover up his eyes he left the building.

Jason would have to lie about his eyes saying that he hurt them somehow to use the bandage as an aid and a means to keep it under wraps if someone asked.

But nobody really cared about him that much so Jason would just lay low without drawing much attention to himself.

It would make him wonder if someone even asked why he used a bandage to cover his eyes, so he was quite relaxed.

Putting on the bandage he wanted to test if he could see the mana flow through the thin bandage without revealing his golden eyes through it.

And surprisingly it worked! Jason couldn't be any happier as a radiant smile appeared on his face.

The bandage was thick enough to cover his golden eyes but also sufficiently thin to see the mana flow.

Jason wanted to know where the mana flow was thicker and where it was thinner to refine the process of gathering mana to some extent.

It would be quite helpful to find some spots where the mana density was thicker as time was running short for Jason to improve his mana core rank.

Taking off, Jason pulled out his cane while he was already wearing the bandage so people at his school would not notice that anything was off.

An hour later Jason arrived at his school and unsurprisingly nobody cared about him.

He entered his classroom like usual and sat down nonchalantly in the first row next to the window.

As he chanced a peek through the bandage around the classroom, Jason noticed the flow of mana around his classmates.

Jason could see the outlines of everyone and he could tell which one of them was stronger in rank and magical power.

However, he couldn't really tell what rank they were, as his eyes only told him the differences in their mana core which indicated the distinction in strength.

There was not a sign, telling him [8th Novice-rank] or something similar.

Most students in Jason's classroom had the same amount of strength and he knew that most were at the 8th Novice rank so he could allocate the mana core level to a rank.

There were a few stronger and weaker ones but the majority was at the 8th Novice rank. It was the publicly known average for middle-grade graduates on Astrix and some of its surrounding islands.

On average, youths began to sense the mana in their surroundings at the age of 10 while some would be able to sense it at a fairly young age like Jason.

In general, youths with an average mana aptitude required slightly more than four years to increase their mana rank to the Adept rank.

This was mostly because of the rough start everyone had in learning how mana worked, what it could do, and how to handle it carefully, which was difficult for young children.

Unfortunately, some children sensed mana later than their peers, which was most probably an indicator of poor mana compatibility.

There were many reasons why some humans gathered and absorbed mana faster than others. This would enable them to reach higher mana core ranks compared to others at a younger age.

These indicators were mostly divided into two main sections, namely innate talent, and trainable talent.

The main indicator of how good or bad every human's mana gathering and absorption speed was, was their mana control. Humans could be taught to control mana better hence the name, trainable talent. Then came mana sensitivity, which was considered as an innate talent and was almost impossible to improve.

Jason was a negative irregular while the boy next to him was a positive irregular.

His name was Greg Fler he was fourteen years old.

His parents were merchants or more likely beast traders.

They captured beasts for others and owned a decent number of assets and credits.

It was even said that they would soon be appointed as minor nobles for their meritorious deeds.

Comparing his strength with Greg, Jason noticed that Greg's strength and magical power were unrivaled and none of his classmates came close to Greg's prowess.

He was most probably already at the Adept rank and thus the number one prodigy of their middle school.

It was astonishing to see the huge difference between an adept rank mana core and a novice rank mana core.

When middle school had started, Jason had thought that Greg was full of himself, because he had defeated every opponent with a single punch during the practical lessons. But Jason didn't have any animosity with him as Greg had never bullied him.

Instead, Greg seemed to be relatively friendly with him. Also, Jason had never been bullied again since he sat next to Greg in the classes. The fact often made him curious.

`Did Greg intervene?` Was what Jason questioned himself many times during the last few years.

Normally it was said that the strong preyed on the weak, but Greg was a rather nice guy, even if he was a little dim.

His grades weren't that good but also not that bad, he was average in studies.

But, what he lacked in grades, he made up for in other skills. He was like a monster in martial arts because he liked to fight way more than anything else.

Jason wasn't a good sparring partner and thus probably uninteresting for Greg.

Only Jason's grades were envied by Greg, however different from others, Greg didn't bully Jason because of his envy.

Wasn´t it rather childish to envy a blind boy for his theoretical grade when he would fail miserably in every practical exam?

Sometimes, Greg even asked Jason about some difficult things and Jason answered them before ignoring him again.

The school bell rang indicating that the class was about to start, hence every student occupied his/her seat and waited for their teacher to arrive.

Greg noticed Jason´s bandage but he didn't really care about it.

The teacher commenced the lessons as usual.

Nothing special happened during the theoretical lessons and Jason listened carefully while imagining how everything was written.

While the school lessons were divided into theoretical and practical courses, Jason only attended the theoretical lessons. The teachers found it to be pointless to impart practical lessons to him after some time.

The only thing he would do in the initial practical lessons was to run on a treadmill to build up some stamina and listen to the explanations of the martial art technique while paying attention to some tips, and the finest details shared by their teacher.

For Jason, today was a special day. To him, everything was different than usual, because he could see the outlines of the instructor as he demonstrated the different moves based on the martial arts description. Most of the martial arts techniques were used with the support of mana that enhanced certain body parts.

Jason looked at the teacher with rapt attention as the teacher described each stance and pose, committing everything to memory.

He would try some of them at home and he didn't want to make any mistakes during his practice.

Other than this, nothing had changed about Jason's behavior.

While walking home he always scanned the soulbond beasts on the way trying to figure out what the radiating colors indicated, but there were almost no clues.