Chapter 72 - (72) Clarity

Albus burst into bright light as multiple pages appeared in his bindings. The others all turned to witness the scene.

For Geth, the entire world had gone dark. The Runes behind his eyes burned with fury before his Mana began to wrap itself around them.

The cooling sensation quickly dulled the pain, but Geth found that he was still unable to open his eyes. That didn't change the amazement that he was feeling.

With his eyes closed, he was still able to 'see' the Mana swirling around him. It was as though his Mana Sense had been upgraded along with his Inspection Skill.

They weren't the same, Geth was able to tell some subtle differences. His Mana Sense allowed him to feel the Mana around him, along with being able to slightly manipulate its shape and direction even without spells.

He could feel some of the feelings of those whose emotions had been etched heavily into the Mana. Never had he been able to see the Mana that he'd previously been manipulating.

At the moment, even with his eyes closed, he was able to see the bright glowing blue Mana swirling around him. It was as if the Mana he'd been feeling had been shaped and given life.

He remained standing in that position with his eyes closed. Inside of his mental sphere, he found another change. The Runes that had been etched into his mind were fluctuating.

It was barely noticeable, but it made Geth feel that they were breathing. The other Skills that he'd upgraded had all become much more prominent in his mind. Once he'd finished inspecting his inner self, he forced his eyes open.

The entire world shone with new clarity.

As Geth's eyes were opened, they radiated with a bright blue light. His new view of the world astounded him.

Looking around, he was able to see light traces of the bright blue Mana encircling everything. Around the trees, in the air, each blade of grass was even giving off its own faint aura.

It was beautiful. The world looked completely invigorated in his eyes, it was like he wasn't even in the same place. In the Mana itself, he could see the faint shape of a rabbit hopping by, a deer leaping over a nearby bush, and.... a young boy falling to the ground.

Geth watched the scene with a bitter interest, this was the same boy that he'd recently had to bury. The corpse laying on the ground did nothing, but Geth could see another figure pushing itself up from the body.

He stepped closer to observe, and as he did, the figure turned and looked directly at him. It was the same little boy who had been murdered here. The boy looked at Geth with what seemed like recognition in his eyes.

After a brief moment, the little boy smiled at him, waved, and then was dispersed back into the wisps of Mana. '....Albus... Are souls real?'

Geth waited, but there was no response. He'd become used to Albus ignoring some of his more philosophical questions.

After the initial wave of the upgrade, his vision died down. He was still able to see some of the wisps of Mana naturally, along with very brief glimpses of things that had happened in the area. Though, they were so brief that he had to question what he'd seen.

One thing that was certainly better than before, he could see the tracks in the Mana from where creatures or people had crossed. The number of footsteps from Hulk's people was a bit overwhelming.

"Harris!"

The man came jogging over quickly. "Yes, Sir!"

"Which way did you say that man ran?"

"I threw the head at him here, and he ran off in that direction." Harris jogged over to a nearby tree while pointing in the distance towards the northeast.

"Oh, and I found three Skill Cards that they'd dropped as well." He handed them over to Geth. "I don't know why they were just holding on to them, they didn't have any storage items."

Geth stroked his beard for a moment before storing the cards. "If we head that way, we would run into the river within 20 to 30 miles. Maybe there are Dungeons on the far edges of the Local Region as well."

"Everyone! We're heading North!" The group nodded and headed into the woods, Geth led them as he followed the bright blue footprints of the frightened man.

During their travel, Geth used his 11 TP to bump up his Thick Skin Talent. With 9 points it shot up from Level 0 to Level 3, its bonus gave him a 7.5% increase to his Defense Attribute.

It only scaled off of his natural Defense and not his equipment bonuses. With this said, his Defense increased by 5, his HP by 50, and his HP Recovery by 0.1/second. This left him with 2 TP, which wasn't enough to use on anything else.

'If Thick Skin is going to increase by 2.5% per Level, maybe I should invest more time into it. It will scale heavily as my Level increases.' Geth thought.

Along with his thoughts, he regretted not taking the similar Skill that had the same increase for Wisdom. That boost would have been better overall.

He grumbled about it for a while. Their trip would take a good portion of the afternoon, he planned on reaching the place at nightfall.

Zolis came up beside him and intertwined her fingers with his, humming a tune while she walked. Geth looked over at her, it was still strange to him seeing that the three-hundred-pound hammer was hanging on her back.

She waved it around like it was nothing, while he knew that he struggled to drag it around. "Hey Zolis, what's your Strength sitting at right now?"

"Hmm?" She glanced up at him and then turned and looked at her Grimoire. "Minerva, show him our Attribute page."

"Minerva?" Geth raised his eyebrow at her.

"Hey! You named your Grimoire Albus!"