The job got pretty boring after the first day. Most of time was spent ferrying the obelisk to and fro, the little bits of excitement was at the drop site, where he had to dig into the mana stream and glean what rotation would allow the cleanest flow between the marble and the ground.
He got up early and came back home late with a headache, it was tough sleeping with what amounted to his brain doing hundred meter dashes every hour, but gradually, he adapted.
Apparently your tolerance to information overload got better and better the more time you spent with mana sight. It wasn't any less pleasant, he still bled through his nose if he kept his minds' eye open, yet it was a definite improvement.
He worked six days a week, with the last day as a rest week. He wanted to work the full seven days, the other workers disagreed, they were bone tired and Alexios couldn't blame them, those obelisks were incredibly heavy.
"Alright ladies, that is it for today." Vincent clapped his hands and bade them to climb atop the empty carriage. Alexios was cradling his head while the work crew were cleaning themselves from the dust and muscle aches. "I think we are a fifth of the way through, and we've only been doing this for two weeks."
"A fifth? What." Alexios grumbled as he rested his head on the railing of the carriage. "We planted like…fifty pillars? That is two hundred and fifty pillars in total."
"Two hundred and fifty six." Vincent said. The whole crew was keeping an ear open, this was the first time Vincent talked about the scope of the project. "Heard that some other teams got five hundred and a thousand, although they have smaller pillars to transport."
"What the fuck are the pransy nobles building?" Gretta, the only woman in the small team, grouched. "Why spend money on placing some god damned rocks? Better give it to orphans or some shit."
"It's…never mind." Alexios had a couple of theories on what they were building, they were mostly wild guesses. "You know anything about it Vince?"
"Don't know, don't care." The man said simply. "For your own safety, I would suggest shutting your flaps if someone asks you anything, you don't want spooks banging on your door."
"Is it that important?" A younger man in the crew asked.
"Marble ain't cheap, chiseling marble ain't cheap, and hiring people to move marble ain't cheap." Gretta said. "Whatever they are building, they putting a lot of money on it, and the nobles really love their money like their love for their cousins."
Alexios couldn't keep in his snort, the whole carriage rolled with laughter.
The carriage rolled into the main construction site right as the sun started to set. Alexios waved goodbye to the team and waited outside a building until Steve came out.
His friend was covered in wood dust, the smile on his face was undeniable. Alexios wasn't sure if it was from working his passion or from the pay raise to a silver and half.
"You look way too chipper this late into the day." Alexios walked beside his friend. "I feel disgusting right, I thought we were supposed to be brothers in suffering."
"Jealousy is a sin." Steve laughed and then leaned in to whisper. "Also, I am going to buy something nice for Bismark."
"Spending money on a girl?" Alexios gave his friend a questioning stare. "A bit much?"
"Not for a girl like her." He said with the widest smile.
As they walked towards the outskirts of the construction site, Alexios saw an almost familiar figure in the distance, dark locks and curves hiding beneath baggy clothes, he was about to point towards her when in the next flutter of the eye, she was gone.
"What the fuck." Alexios cursed, scratching his eyes. "I swear…"
"What?" Steve asked, seeing his confused expression, he hadn't seen what he'd seen.
"I could swear I saw your girl over there." He pointed. "In the next second she was gone. Pouf, like she teleported."
Steve gave him the most dead glare a man could muster. "Are you hallucinating about my girlfriend? Your jealousy is strong my friend, maybe not drinking the Essence of The Dreamer got you dreaming shit up."
"Shut the fuck up, maybe she was here to check up on you." Alexios returned, removed the on his shoulder that was definitely there to pity him.
"She told me she was visiting a relative on the insides of the city. Couldn't have been her, you probably saw a mage that looked like her." Steve said.
"You are right." Alexios scratched his head and dropped the topic.
The next day was a rest day, and he took that chance to organize his finances. His mom was seated across from him on the table, a slight smile on her face while he counted out his coppers and silvers.
"Mama, why are you smiling at me like that?" Alexios finally asked the question after a while.
"Nothing, I am just proud of you, my child." She said. "Always knew you had it in you, look at you now, ready to fly."
Alexios blinked and hung his head, a warm feeling filling his heart. He wanted to deny it, but he couldn't. Counting out the coppers and silvers, knowing the amount of suffering he went through for it, he felt almost fulfilled.
It also was solely based on one ability most people didn't have. It felt like a privilege, and an advantage. Where an average person had to fight for a position or cultivate a special skill set, he had the job served on a silver platter just by being born a certain way.
"Don't look glum." He felt a warm hand on his cheek. Alexios leaned into it. "You've worked hard, I am not blind to you losing nights of sleep from the headaches. You've done a good job."
"Yeah." Alexios bit his tongue and pushed the silvers toward his mother. "I don't need this money, take it and buy something nice for yourself."
"I can't, this is your own money, and my brother provides for us both." She was about to return it when Alexios stopped her.
"No, I really don't want it." Alexios locked eyes with his mother. "It is time you got to enjoy yourself. I am going to take a nap."
Alexios excused himself before his mom returned the coins to him. Closing his door, saw the bed where his uncle slept was empty, a row of vials were arranged beneath the wooden frame.
Shrugging off his clothing, he lay in his bed and attempted to fall asleep. The instant he closed his eyes, he was transported into a very familiar white void.
"I KNEW IT!" Alexios shouted, a wide smile on his face. "I haven't felt so motivated since…nothing. I was wondering why, but you did something right?"
The void was silent, there wasn't even an echo. The pedestal still had the blue glass screen floating above it, the huge infinitely complex crystal was gone however.
"Ok, keep your secrets." He chuckled. "Also thanks for motivating me, with whatever magic you used."
No response.
Shrugging, he moved towards the pedestal and read it. It was the same as last time with the exception of the cooldown timer.
Alexios counted the days in his head and nodded, a month had passed in a breeze. It didn't feel like a month, the hard work made it feel instant.
He shook his head and focused on the blue glass screem.
[Aspects:
Willpower: 2^1 = 2]
The screen was bare, only the weird notations were present. He didn't have time to investigate what that symbol between the two and the one meant, perhaps when he went to the university he could ask a mathematics professor.
Would it be math or some runic language? He assumed it was math considering the equals sign, but maybe whoever made this thing considered equals as a word? He didn't know, questions and testing are required.
"What should I pick?" The question was stupid, he already knew what he would chose the moment he held hope for this Dream to be real.
[Choose an Object or Aspect in your possession to Double.]
"I choose my magical talent!" He shouted, though it felt unnecessary afterwards.
[Calculating…Denied, Code: 1 (Aspect Scope Too Wide)]
[Choose an Object or Aspect in your possession to Double.]
"What?!?" Alexios cursed under his breath. "What the fuck do you mean by too wide? Your mother is too wide."
Thankfully, whatever god governed this place was beyond childish insults or he might have lost this opportunity.
"Shit, I slipped up, my bad." He scratched his face and reconsidered. "Too wide a scope, does that mean that magical talent has multiple metrics? That makes sense, willpower gave me more power to endure the onslaught of information."
He nibbled on his finger.
"It made me better with magic, so it was a boost to my overall magical talent." He thought out loud. "Willpower isn't just magical talent, it is applicable everywhere. Mayhaps that's the reason why it didn't allow it, doubling magical talent would double a lot of other minor Aspects."
It would have been too easy to cheat the system by doubling an overarching Aspect. The gods were wise to it, Alexios couldn't complain, he did get this for practically for free.
"I don't know anything about what Aspects are in magical talent. I know sensitivity is one of them, but…" He shuddered when he remembered the overwhelming information he got subjected to everyday. "My brain would explode if I double that. Mana insensitivity though, no, if I can keep my mana sight up with my current high mana sensitivity, I can become…a really good mage."
Alexios paced across the white void, there was no border to it and it was silent, it made for an excellent thinking place at least.
"I can't handle the information overall, shrug it off with willpower still doesn't mean I don't take damage from it." Alexios snapped and a smile bloomed on his face. "What if I just make myself think two times faster? That could work."
[Aspect Chosen: Mental Processing. Doubling Commencing...]
"Let's go!" Alexios raised a fist and did a little dance. It was hard not to feel happy.
[Doubling Completed, Status Updated.]
[Aspects:
Willpower: 2^1 = 2
Mental Processing: 2^1 = 2
Cooldown Until Doubling: 29 Days, 23 Hours, 59 Minutes, 45 Seconds.]
The next moment, he got shunted from the void and woke up with a start in his bedroom. His ears picked up the loud snoring of his uncle beside him, under the heavy sound was the faint - through a wall - sound of a bed creaking from his mom's room.
"Wow." He shook his head. Just in the instant he woke he had already…figured out his hearing, or the information coming in from his ears. "That is odd."
His other senses were also on hyperdrive. Sight allowed him to identify everything in his room even in the very dim light. They weren't necessarily better, he could just glean information faster and better than before.
"Alright, the actual test." He crossed his legs and leaned against the wall. The calming of his mind was faster too, and in half the time he usually took, he opened up his mind's eye.
A world of indescribable beauty opened up to him, a million sensations that were screaming at him and destroying his mind were now…talking loudly and stressing his mind.
He still grimaced from the barrage, rather than half a minute maximum he had before, he could probably do ten times that number. Where he got overwhelmed very quickly before, now he could stem the tide long enough for him to see stuff.
And what a view it was.
Everything around him had a voice, his clothes spoke to him with sensations of lenin, comfort, warmth and protection. Every individual wooden board in his house had its own voice, but they joined in a chorus that was his whole house.
They sang about a different warmth than clothes, security, protection, and… gratitude?
A satisfaction of completeness, of a healthy body and soul. Underneath was a tone of concern from a voice speaking of root.
"Gods, it almost feels alive." Alexios closed his sight and grimaced as the world returned to a drab monotone existence. "Is it alive? Fuck, guess it's time. I need to go to the university at the end of the work week and ask some pointed questions.