Chapter 4 Seeing the unseen
Opening his eyes slowly, the first thing Jason saw was an empty cracked wall that looked extremely filthy exactly as he expected.
Jason didn't know which color it was as he had never seen any color before but the color looked old and in some areas, it was puffed up.
The room itself was in a single monotonous color while it looked like the room was smaller than he had imagined.
Over the last few days, Jason researched a lot about humans' senses with the help of his smartphone´s AI as he wanted to check out if his eyes worked properly after awakening them or not.
He noticed that something was not normal as he could see something he estimated to be the mana flow which he previously only felt before.
Jason was only sure, that it was the mana flow as he saw it flowing through him and the sensation he felt was the same Jason was the most familiar with.
He was able to see the mana flow!
That was something an average human couldn't do.. at least that was what the AI told him.
Full of excitement Jason stormed out of his room, ran down the stairs, and left the building as fast as possible, only to see that it was already dark outside, with a few lamps at the street, lightening the gloomy streets up.
'Is this darkness the night? It's already so late?? How unfortunate…' Jason thought visibly frustrated.
He felt a little bit down because he couldn´t explore the city right now, but it didn´t matter, as he was able to see anyway.
Jason was still able to walk through the city on the next day, as time was the thing he had more than enough.
Looking at his phone and noticed a set of numbers in a white font.
He couldn´t read the numbers but the AI told him the time.
'Yep, it's already night!' nevertheless, Jason was excited.
It was the first time seeing anything and everything looked interesting.
Jumping around like a small child, it was the first time in years that he was happy and without worries.
He matured faster than most youths and Jason was already thinking like a responsible adult.
The worries over his exams vanished by the sight of lights, buildings, and even his smartphone as he grew even more joyous.
But he had to calm down, as it was already past midnight and he didn't want to draw too much attention.
Going back to his room he inspected every piece of furniture inside the building, but his finds were rather disappointing as the whole building looked old and was marked by the flow of time.
There were only old-looking and tattered furniture.
Even if it was new to Jason it still looked a little bit disgusting.
Jason finally understood why the price for his room was so cheap in contrast to the other rooms he looked up with the help of his smartphone´s AI.
He laid down on his bed and decided to search for landscapes and colors online, to understand which name was assigned for each color as he was way too excited to sleep right now.
Hours passed and Jason fell into a deep sleep with a bright smile on his face.
Waking up after a few hours of sleep Jason washed up, changed into a different set of clothes, and went outside with fast steps.
Before sleeping he had looked up many landscapes and beasts to get to know what some of them looked like.
Jason also looked up information about foreign races that invaded Argos 300 years ago and he was astounded to see their looks.
Some of them looked almost similar to humans in Jason's opinion, only a few minor differences like skin color, body parts, and so on were indicators of a different race while other races were completely different from humanity with their deterrent looks.
A particular race jumped into Jason´s view with its height of four meters, four muscular legs, the lower body was covered in black scales, broad upper body was slightly different with all kinds of horrifying deformed faces plastering it.
The head was the only thing comparable to human facial features but its eyes were that of a lizard, while a bone armor covered its six arms.
Crystals stood out of its back which were the race's mana storages.
That was almost everything known by the public about this race other than its name
This race was called Gallier and it was one of the most dangerous invading intelligent races as it harvested and recycled the corpses it killed.
Luckily there weren't many of them but Jason was still horrified and it was time for him to go to the toilet before he wanted to go outside.
Going out for a walk inside the city, Jason primarily focused on the people around him with their either expensive or cheap-looking clothes, makeup, facial expressions, and many more details he could finally see.
It was interesting to see the different compostures.
Rich-looking people had a confident facial expression and a straight back while some poorer looking ones were going through the streets with a bent back their gaze focused on the concrete.
Some people noticed his gaze and some avoided his eyes while others glared back at him.
Jason noted that and he thought he should stop staring at them as their gazes were uncomfortable for him and Jason continued his walk until he arrived at a park.
At least he thought it was a park as he saw a sign but obviously he couldn't read it.
With the help of the AI he found out what the sign said and it was a park as Jason thought.
Looking around the park, Jason noticed that there weren't many people within the park right now but everyone Jason saw had a beast nearby them.
These beasts were probably their soul bounds and it was as if they were going for a walk or playing together.
Most soulbound beasts he saw were rather cute and small looking like normal animals before the mana outbreak.
There were many fluffy beasts and also a few beautiful looking ones.
But one thing was uncertain for him.
`Why were these beasts radiating different shining colors?`
Most of the beasts didn´t radiate any color whereas some radiated a feeble black color.
There were even some beasts radiating a slightly stronger light-grey color and Jason wondered whats going on.
Jason even saw one or two beasts that had a dark green light enveloping them and these beasts were also looking stronger than the other ones without color or black and light-gray color radiating.
Looking at the enveloping color hurt Jason's eyes after a few minutes and the enveloped color vanished.
Jason noticed that it took a toll on him if he wanted to look at the radiating colors.
After these colors vanished with the incoming pain and Jason noted that the mana flow around him was suddenly more difficult to see.
This wondered him 'Are these colors indicators for the beast's strength or something else and why does it drain so much of my energy?'
He felt weak and it took him some time before he could see the mana flow again without any obstruction.
Jason noticed that his eyes could infinitely look at the flow of mana as if it was normal while looking at the radiating colors of beasts drained some of his mana.
It was as if his eyes had a passive effect to look at the mana flow while it was an active 'skill' to see these colors like in a game.
He had heard many things about games as listening to gaming broadcasts was interesting for quite some time until he noticed that he wasted too much of his time for it without gathering mana into his eyeballs.
Jason tried this theory and noticed that it was really the case.
Subconsciously, Jason could activate and deactivate his ability to see the radiating colors of beasts.
The pain his eyes had to endure lessened noticeable and Jason replenished the lost energy with a constant supply of mana.
His control over mana was superior compared to his peers because he had a proficiency of almost 10 years with precise movements in order to not hurt his eyes.
Furthermore, his senses were extremely distinct, adding another reason for his superior mana control.
One wrong move with his mana and he would have shattered the marble which he fortunately didn't know.
His mother only told him that he had to be careful and Jason had always listened to her.
Seeing these soul bound beasts, Jason was reminded that there were only around 5 days left until the final exams and he decided to go home.
There was a particular problem he noticed.