Magnius felt his vitality return as he stepped through the gate. The mana density in the air made his body feel light and his vision sharp.
The air was extremely light and abundant, entering his lungs and travelling through his blood with ease. He properly observed his surroundings.
The 'spirit world' as he would call it from now could only be desc ribed accurately in one way;
Unbound beauty.
The clear water which reflected the dark but bright sky, created a devastatingly serene effect. There were large boulders which sprang up from the ground at awkward, but comfortable angles as if a toddler had pulled the earth apart. Most likely the result of magic shedding earth spirits.
A soft, hot wind blew past his face and body. It made him relax. Too much.
He looked up at the sky and down at the water. "Haha."
Magnius took off his boots and wiggled his toes in the water. It felt unnaturally pelasant.
"Hahaha!" He started skipping across the water, his feet catching on small rocks at the bottom. The sole of his foot was cut open by a sharp rock and Magnius suddenly stopped, broken out of his trance. He watched the blood drip from his foot and into the water, where it seperated into different shades and unnatural colors.
This world was dangerous-- extremely dangerous.
Magnius sprinted behind one of the large boulders and stared at it, preventing himself from seeing the sky or reflective water.
Grafton had thought him that certain worlds were affected by mana more than others, resulting in a change of geography called [Mana Anomaly]. An unnatural occurance. An example of this was Nebesa, the world New Capita was in.
Ordinarily, floating islands couldn't exist. But the abundant mana in Nebesa had allowed them to. Something similar was happening here.
An interaction between the unnatural sky, reflective water and mana that saturated everything caused a negative reaction that frayed the edges of reality.
When he had seen the sky or water his mind had begun to fray at the edges, just like the colors draining from his blood once it touched the water.
How the hell was he supposed to survive without being able to see? What if he encountered a beast and had to defend himself? Could he defend himself?
Sedia may be a bad teacher, but she had never been an unreasonable one. She always left him some type of hint or gave him a nudge in the right direction and let him figure it out himself. He tried the most obvious thing first.
Magnius turned around and watched the world with closed eyes. Yep. He couldn't see sh$t.
What was he missing?
What had Sedia's hint been this time? It must have been particularly obscure for him to miss it like this.
Magnius remembered her being able to tell the difference between a magic beast and a normal one with just a look-- but how?
Mana was an invisible force that permeated the world. It was an impermeable but omniscient force just like gravity was. But then how could she tell the difference?
Magnius remembered seeing her eyes glow unnaturally whenever she observed a magic beast.
Perhaps....
Magnius circulated mana through his eyes. Shapes began to take form in his surroundings. Outlines. It was strange.
He could clearly only see things that were affected by mana. He could clearly see the water, rocks and sky, just as before. But details were missing. The vision couldn't describe texture, depth or weight.
Magnius circulated more mana through his eyes and contained it. The vision became more detailed, but his eyes felt like they were about to burst as water baloons would with too much water inside them.
He let go of the contained mana and let it flow through his eyes naturally. The vision was naturally lacking in detail but it would be sufficient. He was capable of getting a rough outline of the rocks and water around him.
He moved forward, stubbing his toe on a particularly mana-less rock.
But in no way was this ideal. He couldn't see things which weren't affected by mana. If some type of beast which had managed to conquer the [Mana Anamoly] encountered him, it would be practically invisible to him.
He was going to stay here for half a year?
Magnius grinned. The spirit world would most definitely be an interesting place to stay.
__
After figuring out the correct amount of mana to filter through his eyes to get an acceptable modicum of vision, Magnius left the shelter of the large boulder.
Without his vision, the watery ground beneath him seemed to be much more unstable. Limiting one of his senses such as this was most definitely a lesson on how reliant he truly was upon it.
Magnius would travel in a straight line for the moment. He needed to find something which provided him with more shelter than a large rock could. If he was going to stay here for half a year, he would need a camp. Some modicum of home he could return to. Somewhere safe.
After moving for a few hours, the splashing sound at his feet faded away and was replaced with sounds of stabbing on gravelly dirt. But magnius refused to open his eyes, cautious of a possible mana anomaly attached to it.
Magnius moved with acceptable speed, avoiding the outlines of the large boulders with his Mana vision. Eventually he arrived at mass clump of mana outlines. A massive wall of them blocked his path, layered on top of each other.
Magnius stared at it for a long moment, but was incapable of deciphering what it was. Should he risk it?
Magnius blinked his eyes open, revealing the image of a forest to him. Similar to the sky, the tree leaves were almost black, but speckled with white dots similar to stars.
Blood leaked out of his nose and a stabbing feeling punctured his brain.
Sh$t!
The trees had a mana anomaly attached to them just like the water did, but much more viscious. It acted much more quickly and seemed much deadlier. He definitely couldn't open his eyes unless he wanted to feel his skull being split in two.
But the forest was perfect. The trees provided cover and the mass of mana outlines would be easy to see from a distance, even with mana vision.
Magnius carefully entered the forest and did his best to avoid touching the trees. If seeing them was dangerous then touching them might be as well.
Maybe they weren't trees, at all...
Magnius found a clearing and set up camp, setting up a portable tent with little difficulty. Sedia had drilled into him how to assemble the tent over and over, and now he could do it with his eyes closed.
Magnius entered the tent and made sure to cover the ground with some cloth before he opened his eyes. He sighed with relief when there was no strange sensation.
He tried to make sense of his current circumstances.
The spirit world was a world he wasn't allowed to see. He had to figure out how to navigate without sight.
Mana vision was a start, but it wasn't enough. He needed more... sensation.
Magnius felt stupid as he realized a massive oversight. If he could inhance his sense of vision with mana, then why not the others?
Magnius gathered mana inside his ears and heard a loud pop in an instant. His ears began bleeding and he heard nothing.
Oh. That's why.
His eardrums had already healed by the time he finished that thought because of the high mana density around him.
What about his nose? Magnius did the same as he did with his ears, gathering mana. He also achieved a similar result as with his ears, his nose bleeding in mere moments, losing his sense of smell.
It seemed different body parts had varying capacities for mana. His muscles and bones could absorb mana near indefinitely, but his more fragile organs like his eardrums required fine amounts or they were destroyed by the pressure.
Magnius recognized that he was in the perfect environment to practice, with the high mana density around him.
Magnius focused on his ears first, adjusting the amount of mana he transmitted to his ears. Another loud pop and bleeding from his ears.
He would be here, practicing for a long time.
But time was something he had an more than enough of.
__
Magnius had no idea how long he had been practicing.
He flooded his sensitive sensory organs with mana over and over, resulting in a failure to contain it each time. The constant lack of sensation had caused him to fall unconscious many times, making the process extremely tiresome. He flooded his eyes constantly as well, testing the limits and understanding just how much mana pressure they could take before bursting, increasing the detail of his mana vision.
After an unknowable amount of time passed, he finally managed to keep his ears from bursting.
He kept his eyes closed so he could focus on the sound-sensitive organ. He could hear much clearer and he could feel vibrations in the air. The vibrations were... loud.
That was a good way to describe it. Sound was a wave. By making his ears more sensitive he could more accurately discern the waves from each other and capture more detail. By combining this with his mana vision, he could create a more detailed mental image of his surroundings.
After innumerable attempts he managed to keep his sense of smell intact when he flooded the organ with mana.
Similar to his ears, his sense of smell became much more pronounced. He was better able to discern the different particles in the air around him. His environment became even more detailed.
But by far, the most difficult organ to flood with mana was his skin. Organ was thin and spread wide over his entire body. Without a specific area to focus on, it was difficult. But still, it was a skill he should learn.
So he did.
Magnius had no idea how much time had passed when he finally figured it out.
The mana density made it so he never got hungry, which meant he didnt have to eat and that meant there would be no excrement either. Magnius never had to stand up, resulting in a state similar to perpetual meditation.
Magnius felt the upgrade in sensitivity his mana-infused skin gave him was lack-luster. It wasn't anything special like his sense of smell or hearing. It just made his clothing uncomfortable.
But this was all when he focused on one organ at a time. Next he had to find a way to do it all at the same time.
His eyes, his ears, his nose, his skin.
The mana pressure between all of them had to mix and flow comfortably, like waves on an ocean.
Mana was the current
His eyes were whirlpools
His nose was a geyser
His ears were a helicoidal flow
He found his skin to be the sediment
He had to combine all of these to create a gentle balance between the ebb and flow of mana.
And after some time he managed it, creating a temporarily stable equilibrium.
Magnius stepped out of his tent. His world was a lot more detailed than before.
His mana vision could now describe texture, and he could accurately guage distance with the waves entering his ears. His sense of smell helped him accurately identify what exactly was around him. Mostly rocks and trees.
Magnius had no idea how much time had passed, but it must have been notable.
To further increase how adept he was at what he called 'sensory enhancement', he decided to move out of the forest and travel through more varied environments in the spirit world. By being exposed to varied environments he would become more accustomed to different circumstances.
Magnius cut through the forest a lot easier than before, not needing to carefully step through it. He could easily guage the distance and area around him, letting him weave through the curtain trees expertly.
"Finally out."
He'd exited the forest opposite the side he had entered. There seemed to be some type of valley in front of him, wide and filled with hills and mountainous terrain.
Magnius prepared to take a step, but thats when he was suddenly hit with pressure the force of mountains.
Magnius collapsed to the ground. His joints threatened to implode and senses screamed at him.
What the f&%k?!
The pressure was unbearable. The ground cracked and the earth splintered as Magnius was pressed into the ground. The mana in his vicinity looked panicked, moving erratically.
What was causing it? Magnius looked around fervently, trying to figure out why.
And then it felt like his retinas were being boiled inside his skull. Magnius quickly turned off his pain to stop himself from screaming.
The f*%cking sun. He was staring at the f*%cking sun.
It was actually a spirirt, but the ball of mana was so bright it may as well have been the sun. Its mana density was immesurable.
Magnius was currently under the effects of the magic it was shedding. But what kind of spirit could have caused such a gravitational disturbance?
The spirit quickly closed the distance between itself and Magnius, but when it did that, the pressure magnius was under suddenly magnified tenfold. Magnius' bones were being crushed into fine dust and his organs were bursting. The only reason he wasn't dead yet was because his body rapidly repaired the damage using the dense mana around it. Magnius constantly took deep breaths to prevent himself from being pulverized.
Preventing himself from feeling pain wasn't enough to stop himself from feeling fear.
Was he about to die?
And then the pressure stopped. Magnius coughed up a large amount of blood and bile as he recovered from what he'd just experienced.
But what exactly had he experienced?
Magnius went through the scene and recognized what he saw must have been a spirit. Did that mean...
Magnius looked over his body with mana vision, but found no evidence of a spirit inside of his body, which was strange. Being bound to a spirit usually left no real physical markings, but looking inside himself with mana vision should yield him an answer.
But Magnius couldn't see it. Had the spirit just passed him by?
Suddenly he felt pressure again, but this time it wasn't outside his body, but inside his head.
The pressure was a different type of unbearable. His brain felt as if it was about to implode from the pressure. But pressure without pain was a strange experience. The feeling was almost worse.
Usually the pain would mask the feeling of the pressure somewhat, but since Magnius currently could feel no pain, all he felt was pressure.
pressure
Pressure
PRESSURE
He had to let it out somehow, he needed an outlet. But how? He didn't know how--
Those were Magnius' last thoughts before he began suffering the symptoms of [Magic Overload].