200: Vision
Entering the house after our market trip, I was surprised to see Micca was actually home already for the day and looked to be in deep conversation with Milo at the dinner table. I didn’t want to interrupt, so I tried to slip by without disturbing them.
“Trevor, hold up!” Micca called.
Taking a seat at the table with the other two, Micca continued.
“I’m choosing my class. I want your input,” she said.
Raising my hands. I had no idea what would be good for a merchant, and I didn’t want to be responsible for her choosing something bad. I had not even chosen my arcane foraging skill yet.
“I don’t know…” I started to say, but it was waved away.
“It’s fine. It’s only your opinions and not the only deciding factor, and we’ve narrowed it down to Rare Goods Trader and Luxury Merchant. The reason I want your opinion is that my connection with you will ultimately affect how this evolves, and I don’t want to be solely reliant on you and your goods, because what happens if you go to a different continent? Or a dungeon?” Micca explained.
I nodded. That made sense, and from memory when she told us, Rare Goods affected only rare quality or above goods, but she could value items far better, where Luxury Merchant was for anything the system deemed a luxury item, regardless of quality, and could be cakes, teas, even fancy jerky.
“Honestly, I think Luxury would probably be better than Rare, since you’re running a cafe,” I shrugged.
A giant smile came across Micca’s face. “That’s exactly my thought! That settles it, then.”
I didn’t know what to expect, as I had never seen someone go through a class evolution before. So, did they glow? Was it like Crisplet where their whole body changed?
Nothing…
Nothing happened, and I couldn’t help but feel a bit let down by that.
“It’s done!” Micca squealed happily.
Yet selfishly, I was still wondering why something didn’t happen!
“Everything okay?” Micca asked me, clearly concerned about my staring.
“Oh, sorry. I don’t know why I just expected something to happen, a glow or a change, something,” I said, feeling embarrassed. The embarrassment wasn’t helped by Milo, who just laughed.
“It can happen, Trev, but it won’t happen when a merchant is switching to just a different type of merchant,” Milo chuckled.
“I guess that makes sense,” I said. I was still disappointed, and it wasn’t even my class.
“This is as good a time as any to finally choose my arcane foraging advancement, though.”
I explained again all my options to Milo and Micca.
We ruled some out immediately. Forager’s Intuition, mainly because it only told me the direction of the nearest rare item but provided no visuals or exact distance.
Forager’s Senses, creating a temporary map, was nice; however, it didn’t help me visually see anything and couldn’t tell rarity. Bounty Sense likewise had the issue of only seeing clusters of items, so a single rare item would not stand out, and ultimately we felt it wasn’t very useful.
Purity Appraisal, which appeared to be a skill focused mainly for buying from stores, would tell me the rarity and value of an item, as well as traits for buffs, but nothing here could help me search, so this was ruled out as well. I personally didn’t see the value in Abundance Echo. Milo made the argument that knowing where rare items were and would regrow would be helpful, but ultimately it was ruled out due to it slowly fading over months.
“Right, so the last two options. Forager’s Sight is a downgraded version of your current ability, at least at first glance. However, it is passive and will always be active. This could be an example of a small step back to take two giant steps forward on your next evolution,” Milo explained.
“How does it even level up if it’s always active?” I asked.
“Most of the time these skills level up when you actually harvest or collect the ingredients. A lot of miners have ore location abilities, and the experience is earned when they collect the ore,” Milo said.
“And the other one?” I asked.
“Well, that one seems stronger, at least in what you described, except for one small detail that’s in there. It removes visual cues, so you’ll be able to sense ingredients, even have a stronger sense for rare ingredients. However, it will not be visual, so overall I think the straight passive visual switch would be better.”
I nodded. “Well, it’s decided, then.”
Before I had a chance to second-guess myself, and hoping I wouldn’t regret it later by picking an ability that was not as strong as the others, I selected Forager’s Sight.
What happened next was strange. I felt a tingle in the back of my eyes, which rapidly became a burning sensation, causing my eyes to tear up. What really caused me to panic, however, was when everything went dark.
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“I can’t see!” I yelled.
“It’s okay, Trev. This is normal with passive sight skills. Just stay calm and give it a while; there will be some discomfort.” I heard Milo say.
I tried my best to stay calm and felt the warm mana of Crisplet sending reassurance.
Taking deep breaths, slowly the burning subsided, but I was still in darkness.
Minutes passed. The reassurance from Crisplet never ended while Milo was talking me through it. Internally, I was fighting back panic, thinking I had messed up and become blind now. I never even got to complete the rune I had planned!
It was then that a soft blue light returned to my vision. Rather, it was my vision. The darkness was fully taken over by the light.
“Now everything is bright blue,” I commented.
“Perfect. That means your eyes are getting used to it already. Just let yourself adjust naturally,” Milo said.
I wasn’t sure how much time passed as the brightness started to grow more dull, before I could finally make out shapes in my vision, with Crisplet’s fire standing out the most, cutting through the blue with an orange glow. Though it wasn’t all good. My head was aching now, and my eyes felt incredibly strained.
“I can see shapes, but my head’s really starting to hurt,” I commented.
“Just a while longer, Trev, and you should at least see us. Just be mindful, the headache is normal as you’re dealing with a lot more information constantly bombarding you,” Milo reassured, as again a feeling of comfort came from Crisplet.
“Ohh wow, look at his eyes!” I heard Micca say.
This did not fill me with confidence. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing to worry about. They have just undergone a colour change. Just keep it up,” Milo once again reassured me.
It felt like forever as my vision slowly resolved, with the shapes of Milo and Micca becoming more defined, along with the arrival of Liane. The problem was something Liane pulled out of storage hit me like a knife. It was so bright and painful.
I did my best to look away, facing directly at the floor.
“Ah, seems you should avoid looking at food items for a little while. Liane, help me get him to his room. Trev, shut your eyes for the moment. We’re going to move you,” Milo said.
I just nodded. My eyes were already shut after the last stab of pain anyway, but I felt a pair of hands help me up, with Liane and Milo on either side of me as they guided me.
“Trev, lift your legs. We’re going to carry you up the stairs,” Liane said.
Following instructions, I did as I was told and felt a cushion of air below me, taking the majority of my weight.
“What happened? Did he pass out again?” Jen called from a distance.
“No, new skill with his eyes,” Liane yelled back.
I was placed down on the soft mattress, the entire time Crisplet was reassuring me with a constant flow of mana.
“Right, slowly open your eyes here. There shouldn’t be anything edible in here,” Milo said.
I followed what I was told, and the blinding blue came back, but nothing like the item Liane was holding.
“I’ll stay with him if you like,” I heard Liane say.
“Okay, but no food. He’s picked up a passive vision skill for ingredients,” Milo explained.
“Oh! That’s exciting,” she said, followed by the sounds of her shuffling around.
“Wow, his eyes now… so blue,” she said in a half-whisper.
I wasn’t really sure how much time had passed before the blue subsided enough that I could see some features of Liane clearly, but when I could, we started to do tests, as Liane turned her back to me and pulled out small food items. Every time she did, the bright blue overtook my vision again, but I felt like it was getting less severe and faster to recover each time.
I discovered I couldn’t look towards the window yet, as seeing outside right now was impossible. It was entirely drowned out by a glowing blue light.
“Are all passive vision abilities this bad?” I asked.
“Usually, yeah. It’s pretty common knowledge that when you accept a passive sense like vision or hearing that you find the most secluded or quiet space. Taking it unprepared can be dangerous,” Liane said.
“So if I chose this in a forest, it would be dangerous?” I said, concerned.
“No, not like that. The skill itself isn’t the dangerous part. You will get some extreme discomfort and probably pain, but it’s not going to kill or leave lasting damage. The danger comes from not being able to see or hear your surroundings,” Liane added.
More time passed as things became clearer. I was now able to make out most features of Liane, and I could see the items she was holding through her body, which was significant since the wording of the ability said line of sight, and there was a chance that meant obstructions would disrupt the line of sight and hide it.
I was happy to see I’d still be able to see stuff underground. I also attempted to filter out common and uncommon items like I was able to do with my other skill, but I had no success. I wasn’t sure if it was just not allowed now, or if it would only be allowed at higher levels.
“You wait here. I will get you your dinner. Try to tell when I’m bringing it up, then hopefully you can work out the radius of your ability currently,” Liane said as she slipped out of my sight.
I tried to focus on the door, the blue now being mostly a haze over the room.
Watching as a blue glow appeared just outside, as the door slowly opened, then closed, but I couldn’t see Liane at all. Was she using her abilities to hide? Or was the meal so bright I just couldn’t see her?
“I see the glow, but I don’t see you,” I said.
The dark silhouette of Liane immediately appeared behind the bright glow.
“Wow, you saw me! That could be useful! Where did you spot me?” she said, walking over now.
“Just outside the door. I couldn’t see you, just a bright blue glow, and I don’t see how that’s useful unless I’m chasing someone who stole food,” I joked.
“That’s not true. It shows you edible items, right? How about this?” In her hand appeared another blue glow. I couldn’t make out the object, but a potion, perhaps?
“Is it blue?” she asked.
I nodded, wondering what she was setting up with this.
“For anyone besides you, that’s poison. A very potent poison that is disguised to taste like nuts,” she said happily, as the glow vanished.
I had not considered that. “They’d still need to be holding it, right?”
“Sure, but when you use poison, you try to be sneaky about it, hide it in your palm, have it up your sleeve ahead of time, and that’s just one quick use I can think of. Anyway, eat your dinner.”
The thought of poison reminded me of the assassination attempt. Could I prevent a repeat of this in the future?
It was only now that I thought about the group that had attacked us. Sylverith had interrogated the guy and broken him for a while. She said she was going to investigate it. Was this event related to the village that the King asked about?
Why else would she attack one?