As Yoel's perception shifted, so did the colors of the world shift.
Yoel had now found himself looking at the world through one of the shadows of the many machines and devices found in the room he was being tested in.
Slowly and carefully, he raised one hand and tried to poke his cheek.
It had been kind of arduous and hard, while moving his body did not feel any different, he found true difficulty in coordinating his altered vision with his body.
The administration crew simply stared at this in silence, not questioning Yoel on anything.
It was instead the man who had put on the blindfold for Yoel, that began speaking to him.
What was weird was that while he had been wearing the blindfold, eerily enough he barely heard any external sounds.
And when the man finally spoke, it was as if he was in his mind, rather than the sound coming from somewhere near him.
It had been strange to have someone speak to you in your own mind, but Yoel realized that this must be how the perception test works, and of course… cheap tricks like tracking where the sound had come from was no special ability that had come from an enigma.
While there were enigmas that increased one's five senses, and in some very rare cases even the sixth one, which was intuition, this focused more on those who could perceive the world either through the blindfold or with methods that would allow them to view the world normally, regardless of obstruction of sight.
That was what it meant to truly perceive the world with your enigma, to pinpoint exactly where someone or something is, and to acquire information about a person or object while having their eyesight and hearing obscured.
Yoel, who was able to shift his perception and see the world through the eyes of the shadows– had just that kind of ability.
"The test will begin now, try to locate where I am standing, and put your arm on my shoulder."
As he said those words, the world he perceived through the shadow, changed.
Instantly, purple motes of varying shades rushed out like a waterfall from the man's body, summoned by his command.
And then, covered his entire body like a sleek bodysuit, except that bodysuit was made purely out of avon.
This was something Yoel had witnessed once before, accomplished by the huge ape with the bone crown.
The monster's avon skin was a much more crude one, the avon sometimes grew restless on its body, concentrating on different parts of its body and lessening in others.
Thinking back to it, it must've been because of how its body was shaped. Granted, it had a very similar structure to a human, but it still had many abnormalities to it.
So it had been a mix of poor control of its avon and the difficulty of aligning the avon in its body while also maintaining a balance to it.
This man was most likely much more frightening than that ape…
But the point was not to measure this person's level of power, nor was it to fight him blindfolded.
It was simply to spot him.
So, Yoel withdrew his vision from the shadows and once again felt the restrictions on his sight by the blindfold.
He simply activated his enigma again, without choosing a specific shadow to concentrate on.
This time, he could not really tell that the world had turned grey, due to the effect of the blindfold.
However, he saw the purple motes of avon clearly.
And so, he could also see the outline of the man!
Without much trouble, Yoel walked over to the man and rose his hand to touch his shoulder.
But as he did, the man moved away from the location.
He went to a completely random side of the room.
Or from what it seemed, it was not completely random.
Weird spikes of avon rose before the man, and something like ropes followed.
Now Yoel stood in front of some kind of obstacle course, having to pass it just so he can touch the man's shoulder.
Why are they making it so hard…
Whatever. He could see the obstacles, so it was simple for him.
But even then, he felt pure dread, just from looking at the shape of these obstacles.
After all, their avon was a magnificent and bright purple, indicating that the density of avon was high.
Yoel leisurely moved towards the man coated in avon, and at the same time tried to walk over the rope of avon that was laid out in front of him.
It would have been easy, if the damned avon didn't move!
At the last second, Yoel managed to spring his body forward fast enough to not touch the avon.
But he didn't have time to feel relieved, as the spikes that were supposed to be stationary…
Shot towards him!
And what was more surprising, was that these spikes were at least faster than those parasitical abominations he had faced back at the jungle!
While not as fast as the ape, they were still not an easy opponent.
Barely dodging each of them, Yoel felt his clothes tear against the touch of the avon spikes.
Would I have lost my life if those spikes hit me directly..?
And finally, after taking a few moments to regain his posture, he walked over to the man and touched his shoulder.
Soon enough, Yoel regained his vision.
Disabling his enigma, he looked over to the man who was still coated in avon skin, it looked rather majestic now that he was looking at it in its full glory.
"Congratulations, it seems as if you can sense avon very clearly! A sensory enigma should be as feared as the previous types we explored, especially because of their ability to pinpoint weaknesses."
"Besides, if you were unable to sense avon, you would have been knocked out cold by those obstacles. They can inflict a drowsiness effect upon impact, and thankfully your reflexes are not half bad."
As he spoke, another man from the administration crew tapped on a small device that resembled a smartphone.
"Now, all that remains is to see whether you possess just a sensory type of enigma, or if you can utilize it in other ways."
The man walked away, giving the blindfold to another member of the crew, and said person walked up to Yoel, and he was blinded by unfamiliar darkness, like before.
This time, there were no purple shapes of avon.
It seems as if I was right… This is not going to be good.
Yoel realized that this time, he would have to spot the man through his other ability– the ability to see from wild shadows.
Yoel let out a dejected sigh, and shifted his perception once more.
The world took on the color of a stark grey, rarely accompanied by shades of purple.
Yoel could clearly see the administration crew and the lone man he was supposed to reach.
He slowly took a step forward, finding it extremely hard to adjust his posture from a third perspective, and with such a weird angle at that.
As if he had been a baby again, he slowly and shakily walked to where the man stood and tried to put his hand on his shoulder.
He successfully extended his hand, and he raised it to touch the man…
But he instead placed his hand on his head.
HUUUUUUUUH?!?
Yoel was perplexed. Surprised. There were many ways to describe the way he was feeling right now.
Was he an idiot? What the hell!
He quickly retracted his hand, and then tried placing it on his shoulder once more.
This time… he was successful.
The man himself didn't pay any attention to the first attempt.
It seemed like he didn't care, and even if he did, he didn't show it on his face.
A longer pause resounded over the silence, and the man did not move from his position.
Yoel saw the man move to remove his blindfold and cancelled his ability.
The man gave him a pat on the shoulder and began talking.
"Good, good. It seems like you are able to locate me without the use of avon. Albeit, you still have a long way to go…"
The man coughed awkwardly, and Yoel nodded.
They talked for a while longer, and eventually, Yoel exited the building.
He walked out holding his cube, which was displaying something on a blue, futuristic hologram.
It described Yoel's physical capabilities, such as his reflexes, his stamina, his strength…
And it also featured the mastery of each of these capabilities.
Right now, they were all very low.. but not as low as Yoel had expected.
Right now, he had been reading something that the hologram displayed over and over.
[Name: Yoel Voldren.
Age: 17.
Rank: Blessed.
Stage: Lesser Purity.
Enigma Type: Sensory.
Avon Amount: Acceptable.
Enigma Description: The user is capable of shifting his sight to nearby shadows, seeing the world through their eyes. Both when watching from the shadows or whenever his enigma is active, he is able to clearly pinpoint fluctuations in avon.]
A slight smile creeped up to Yoel's face.