I swiftly made my way out of town, opting to walk for now. As I did I mulled over the powers I possessed and their quirks. I quickly noticed something a bit strange.
"These powers could easily corrupt someone. They... almost seem to incentivize selfishness." I remarked as I thought about the potency of the "Esoteric" empowered abilities like the ability to induce lust in someone or to read memories.
"What's worse is that the sort of selfishness they incentivize is not just lust-centric. I possess the sort of powers that could allow me to live a life of incredible luxury if I wanted. I could easily go and find a nobleman's daughter or some princess to seduce using any number of my powers. Or if I didn't feel like inducing lust I could offer a selfish king eternal life, in exchange for giving me a castle and a small harem of beautiful servants so that I wouldn't want for anything." I said, idly, as I committed a portion of my brainpower to consider ways that I could abuse my powers if I wanted to, as a purely hypothetical endeavor.
"If I didn't want to show my face, I could imagine a dozen different ways I could attain a simple life of luxury through powers like telepathy." I muttered, gently. My hyper-intellect was currently considering ways that I could expand in power and coming up with a variety of strategies that incorporated a variety of my powers. As it did I began to experiment with my abilities.
I idly opened my hand and began to imagine a tiny statuette of a tree, made of gold. I chuckled as I felt the envisioned statuette suddenly begin to materialize in my hand. I felt the weight of it right before it began to appear, and when it did I smiled at it, amazed at how easily I could do that.
"So if I don't want to be a corrupt asshole, I could easily just sell stuff, couldn't I?" I asked myself, grinning as I studied the artistry on display in the statuette. I studied the statuette and focused on the image of it in my mind.
"Transmutation next?" I asked myself, grinning as I envisioned the statuette changing in my hand to form a fork made of gold. I then quietly did away with the fork altogether and watched as the thing vanished, turning into dust and then blowing out of my hand as a breeze hit me from behind.
"These things really do come naturally to me, don't they?" I muttered, a steady smile on my lips. And those were the stranger ones, the ones that required conscious thought and intent. As I muttered that, I began to piece together where I was still lacking.
"I am a 'master of magic', but it is not as though I suddenly know more spells. If I truly want to master magic I need to study it. Or rather I need to study people who've studied it. If I can find archmagi I can use their knowledge, I don't even need to steal it from them I can just read their memories and add it to my own." I said, my eyes beginning to shine as I began to become consciously aware of my weaknesses.
"So should I make my way to a city?" I wondered aloud. My crystal clear memories gave me the knowledge of my relative position on a map and allowed me to recall approximately how far any major city was from here. Beyond that, I also had the power to travel instantly to any part of the world so long as I knew more or less where I was going. My immense speed facilitated things like this and I wanted to test it out to see if it was as good as a small part of me wanted to believe it was.
I closed my eyes and focused on my memories. I recalled the last time I looked at a map of the country and considered how far I had traveled since then. Pinpointing my relative position on a map was easily done thanks to my powerful memory.
"Should I visit the capital city of Vanheim? Hmm... No, it might be too soon for that. But if I were to go to the port city of Jasper... That's not a bad plan." I muttered, aware that even as powerful as I was I shouldn't get too big-headed. I wasn't the only grand adonis in existence.
If I met another member of my own kind, even if I was stronger than they were, I ran the risk of losing to them. I needed more experience and to learn to truly master my powers before I began to make big moves.
"I'm in no rush. But that doesn't mean I can't be fast." I said, to no one in particular, before I oriented myself in the right direction of the city I was going to head to. I had an innate, supernatural ability to understand and make use of my powers. That was itself an aspect of one of my abilities, the power of being a "super-genius". The fact that I had already used superspeed also helped since superspeed was a particularly intense ability.
Once I was oriented in the right direction, I shook my head and cleared it of distractions. I had been walking while I contemplated what to do next, and so I was already away from the town. I readied myself and smiled as I began to run, running a few steps at a natural, albeit quick, pace before actually activating my superpower.
The instant I activated my power the world slowed to a stop around me. I listened as the world fell silent, and watched as time itself seemed to freeze around me. Through my genius intellect, I was able to quickly theorize that the reason why my senses were supercharged was partially to help accommodate the intense and taxing demands of super speed on someone's perception and senses.
I continued to rapidly run on the dirt "road" that loosely connected every part of the kingdom of Vanheim to each other part for the sake of travel and trade. As I ran I saw various other travelers traveling from one part of the kingdom to another and smiled at them, even though I was traveling so blindingly quick that they'd never know I had crossed them.
Some of them were like me and were traveling on foot, their gear stored in magical items or in some cases on packs on their backs. Others had wagons and they had animals pulling their goods and themselves from place to place. I even ran past guards patrolling the roads near some of the bigger towns I passed through on my way to the city of Jasper.
I was also capable of using my superspeed far more aggressively and speedily than this. If I wanted too I could move at speeds that made the speed of light seem positively lethargic, but I wanted to work my way up to that speed rather than starting off there and needing to learn how to slow down later. My instincts informed this decision and I was going to trust my instincts.
I continued to run at supersonic speeds until I reached the foot of a massive hill. When I reached the hill, I slowed myself down to perceptible, but still quite quick speeds. I swiftly ran up the hill, and when I reached the top I looked out and though I knew what to expect I was still thoroughly delighted to see the beautiful port city of Jasper, a large city made up of buildings made of bricks, stone, and wood, far below me. I gradually began to slow my speed as I made my way down the hill and towards the city in the distance.
The closer I got to the city, the more my senses began to pick up. I could hear distant chatting in 7 different languages, and I could smell the various scents, both good and bad, associated with cities. Even at a truly massive distance, I could easily see the faces of travelers looking to enter the city and providing identification to city guards, identification I effortlessly recreated using my "Creation" power. I could feel the minds of hundreds, then thousands, then tens of thousands of different lifeforms within and around the city. If I had wanted too I could have reached out and touched their minds, but I began to slowly scan the minds I could sense and wasn't immediately interested in any of them.
It took me about half an hour to jog from the hill overlooking the city to the city's main, massive, land-based entryway, a gigantic wall and gateway with just one entrance. Afterward, it took me just fifteen minutes to reach the front of the gate and for a guard to ask me for my identification.
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"Hail traveler! Come this way and provide your identification, if you could be so kind." The guard said, signaling me specifically with a hand motion. I smiled and approached the man, as I reached inside one of my shirt pockets and pulled out a small, arcane card with my name and various details about me etched onto it, through runic sigils. I handed it to the man when I reached him. He took it with a smile and gazed up at me for a moment.
As he studied me I studied him but not in a way so readily obvious as with a look. Instead, I lightly studied his mind, using telepathy. When I wasn't actively using telepathy I could feel minds based on their proximity to me and I could passively "read", which was actually more like "hear", their thoughts. As I had run to the city, I practiced reading minds a bit more thoroughly and found that it was just as easy for me to read minds and memories as it was for me to use my other powers, and powerful enough for me to want to practice it on noteworthy targets.
If I wanted too I could "watch" someone else's memories in my mind's eye. I had only practiced this a little before now and I didn't feel like using it on the guard, whose name I learned when I did even the lightest, gentlest foray into his mind.
"Good morning Raul." He continued, greeting me once he read my name on the card I had created. The information on it wasn't false, even though I had created the card mere minutes ago. It listed my occupation, which at the moment was identified as "Traveler/Adventurer", my height, my name, my hometown, and my adventurer's status which wasn't high but I had only been an adventurer for less than half a year.
"An adventurer huh? Do you have any specific business in the city of Jasper?" The guard, a man in his mid-thirties named Lopez, asked curiously. I looked at him and shook my head.
"I'm just here because I heard this was a nice, scenic city. I figured I'd take on a few quests, do some sightseeing, and probably before the year is over make my way over to another city." I told the man, which was a lie but he'd never know that. If I explained to him my actual objectives he'd either demand proof of my claims or just call me for me to be sent to an asylum, neither of which suited my objectives. Nevertheless, the man listened to me and nodded, believing my perfectly plausible lie with ease.
"Jasper is a beautiful place. I came here half a decade ago thinking more or less what you thought and opted to stay in the city. If you do decide to stick around and make a name for yourself maybe you'll be asked to join the city watch! If you do, you'll be just like me." He told me with a smile, as he handed me back my identification.
"The adventurer's guild's local office is located near the heart of the city. To get there, just stay on the main street and walk for about two kilometers. I recommend stopping by there first before you head anywhere else as they can provide you with a map and the location of various inns which are designed to accommodate adventurers. If you wanna try and make a good impression, tell them 'Lopez' sent you! You carry yourself like a warrior and I can respect that. I'd like to see you help protect the city." Lopez told me, before gently motioning for me to walk past him and into the city.
I nodded at the guard and did as he asked, as he turned away and called for the next traveler to come to him and be inspected. I stepped past him, and through the massive, open gateway into the city. As I did, I began to activate my particular, strange, and empowered version of telepathy.
I walked past the gate and into the grand city with a confident smile on my face. I felt a conscious awareness of the various minds around me growing in the back of my own mind. I could listen with ease to both distinctive thoughts and distinctive conversations. I quieted myself and listened for gossip and rumors being whispered in hushed conversations throughout the city.
"Did you hear that Baron Aguilar's daughter has been sleeping for almost twelve hours a day?" One distant maid whispered to another.
"Keep that sort of talk quiet! The baron is not feeling particularly kind these days. That sort of talk could get you out of a job, and I could get punished just for hearing those sorts of rumors." Her companion, another maid in the same distant property whispered, conspiratorially.
"I'm getting ready to go to the emerald cavern. Do you have any advice for me?" One adventurer, presumably in the adventurer's guild asked someone.
"Normally I'd recommend you take an antidote, as some of the monsters in there are capable of hitting adventurers with a nasty poison attack but we've been out of antidotes for the last week since our supplier fell ill. I heard he was on his feet again yesterday, but making antidotes is an involved process." Replied another, much softer and more feminine voice. I used telepathy and found that that voice belonged to the receptionist on duty in the adventurer's guild's local office.
I listened carefully to the minds of the people in the city, slowly and steadily searching for the sort of mind of someone who possessed advanced knowledge of magic. If I could find someone with powerful spellcasting abilities I could mimic them and improve on their abilities since they were limited by both how difficult a particular spell was to cast and how much mana they possessed. I lacked those limitations. As I did that I began to slowly and surely make my way to the adventurer's guild, a smile on my face as I excitedly explored, in a way only I could, my new home.