by William Hill
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.
Chapter 5: Keeping the secret
If the news about his cured eyes came out before the exam began, he would be in more trouble than he previously thought of.
Thinking about his cured eyes was delightful but on the other side Jason couldn't read and once his eyes were exposed and found out that he could see, he had to write a normal written exam like everyone else, without the help of the AI´s saying what's written down on the holographic screen.
The problem was that Jason couldn't read and write!
He didn't even know a single thing including the alphabet and had to learn it slowly.
How should he be able to write down theories about the mana outbreak in a highly technical language?
There was no way that Jason was able to learn how to read and write in a little bit more than 4 days including the important terms.
So Jason made up his mind and decided to fake being blind until the exam ended or else he had to write the theoretical exam, which would end up with a devastating result, destroying his dream of attending at least the worst possible high-school.
Another thing Jason could do was to ask the Cerus family for help, so he could reveal his eyes without worries but he didn't want to do that, as he relied more than enough on this family.
He would keep his eyes a secret until he finished middle school and would reveal his eyes when he entered high school which was still questionable for him.
Many thoughts run through his mind
`Will I be able to attend a school? What's the use of attending the worst high-school in a C-grade city? Should I just start working somewhere?` Feeling tormented by his own questions, Jason sighed frustrated.
As for resources high-schools provided, the most important reason for Jason would be to learn many martial art techniques and battle skills but thinking about the martial art techniques provided by C-grade cities or rather their worst high-schools, Jason could only frown deeply.
`Is it really worth the effort?`
Jason didn´t want to be a laborer as they were exploited and earned only enough to stay alive, as such not many occupations could be chosen by him if he only finished middle school.
For now, Jason would have to
do a few things.
The most important thing was that he had to score 100% on the theoretical questions because he didn't want to have his soul-awakening and pick a soulbond as the last student.
While the soul-awakening score was unpredictable, Jason was sure that he would get zero points for combat technique and zero points for his Novice-1 mana core and miserable strength.
The soul-awakening was on the same day when one would pick the soulbond which was the reason it wasn´t included in the exam results to decide the order to pick one's soulbond.
Even with a 100% theoretical score, Jason would be at most in the middle section but more likely in the lower section to pick a soulbond which annoyed him slightly.
He didn´t want to be blind and Jason frowned thinking about the unfair world...
It was good that his eyes were doing fine and they were even something special like his mother told him but seeing wouldn´t instantly solve all of his problems.
Calming down, he continued his walking around and his mood changed completely as the skyscrapers around the park looked amazing and Jason marveled at almost everything.
Going back home due to exhaustion Jason bought the beginner book for reading and writing most children would use.
Jason used his old smartphone´s AI to tell him what he should do as Jason didn't have someone to read it to him.
The AI was somehow replacing his parents' job of education.
Hours passed and Jason's brain smoked after completely learning how to read and write every letter.
It wasn't as easy as he had expected and it would take some time to fluently read books, write sentences and texts while applying the correct grammar without any misspellings.
Jason was aware of this fact but he was also very happy.
He believed that he would never be able to see and learn how to write as the years passed without sensing any progress in his eyes.
Jason´s mother told him that it would only take a few years until his eyes would awaken but she was mistaken as it took almost ten years of utmost effort.
Nevertheless, he was happy and gathered more mana to improve his mana core and physique which was more than necessary.
*Next Morning*
Waking up before his alarm, Jason washed up, brushed his teeth, and put on his school uniform.
Taking out his cane and a bandage to cover up his eyes he left the building.
Jason would have to lie about his eyes saying that he hurt them somehow to use the bandage as an aid and a means of coverage if someone asked.
But nobody really cared about him that much so Jason would just play lowkey without drawing much attention on himself.
It would wonder him if someone even asked why he used a bandage to cover his eyes, so he was quite relaxed.
Putting on the bandage he wanted to test if he could see the mana flow through the thin bandage without revealing his golden eyes through it.
And surprisingly it worked! Jason noticed, causing a radiant smile to appear on his face.
The bandage was thick enough to cover his golden eyes but also sufficiently thin to see the mana flow.
Jason wanted to know where the mana flow was thicker and where it was thinner to improve his gathering of mana somehow.
It would be quite helpful to find some spots where the mana density was thicker as Jason didn´t have much time left to improve his mana core rank
Taking off, Jason pulled out his cane while he was already wearing the bandage so people at his school would not notice anything off.
An hour later Jason arrived at his school where nobody cared about him.
He entered his classroom like every day before and sat down nonchalantly in the first row next to the window.
Looking through the bandage around the classroom, Jason noticed the flow of mana around his classmates.
Jason could see the outlines of everyone and he could tell which one of them was stronger in rank and magical power.
However, he couldn´t really tell what rank they were, as his eyes told him only the differences in their mana core which indicated the distinction in strength.
There was not a sign, telling him [8th Novice-rank] or something like that.
Most Students in Jason's classroom had the same amount of strength and he knew that most were at the 8th Novice rank so he could allocate the mana core level to a rank.
There were a few stronger and weaker ones but the majority was at the 8th Novice rank which was the publicly known average for middle-grade graduates on Astrix and some of its surrounding islands.
On average, youths began to sense the mana in their surrounding at the age of 10 while some would be able to sense it at a younger age like Jason.
Youth with an average mana aptitude required slightly more than four years to increase their mana rank to the Adept rank.
This was mostly because of the rough start everyone had to go through by learning how mana worked, what it could do, and how to handle it carefully, which was difficult for young children.
Unfortunate children started to sense mana later than their peers, which is most probably an indicator of poorer compatibility with mana.
There are many reasons why some humans gathered and absorbed mana faster than others, which would result in them reaching higher mana core ranks compared to their brethren at a younger age.
These indicators were mostly divided into two main sections, namely called innate talent and trainable talent.
The main indicator for every human´s mana gathering and absorbing speed is their mana control, which is trainable and one´s mana sensitivity, which was considered as an innate talent and almost impossible to improve.
Jason was a negative irregular while a positive irregular was the guy next to him.
Greg Fler was his name and he was already fourteen years old.
His parents were merchants or more likely beast traders.
They captured beasts for others and owned a decent number of assets and credits.
It was even said that they´ll be appointed as minor nobles for their meritious deeds.
Comparing their strength, Jason noticed that Greg had more than multiple times the amount of strength and magical power compared to his classmates.
He was most probably already at the Adept rank and thus the number one prodigy of their middle school.
It was astonishing to see the huge difference from an adept rank mana core to a novice rank mana core.
When middle-school started, Jason thought Greg was a little bit full of himself, as he defeated everyone with a single punch during the practical lessons but Jason didn't have any animosity with him as Greg has never bullied him.
Rather than that Greg seemed to be relatively friendly towards him and since they sat next to each other Jason had never been bullied again which made him curious.
`Did Greg intervene?` Was what Jason questioned himself many times during the last few years.
Normally it was said that the strong preyed on the weak, but Greg was a rather nice guy, even if he was a little bit dull.
His grades weren't that good but also not that bad.
But instead of having good grades, he was like a monster in martial arts because he liked to fight way more than anything else.
Jason wasn't a good sparring partner and thus probably uninteresting for Greg.
Only Jason´s grades were envied by Greg but different from others he didn´t do anything because of his envy.
Wasn´t it rather childish to envy a blind one for his theoretical grade when he would fail miserably in every practical exam?
Sometimes, Greg even asked Jason about some difficult things and Jason answered them before ignoring him again.
Class started and everyone sat down waiting for their teacher to arrive.
Greg noticed Jason´s bandage but he didn't really care about it.
As the teacher entered the room after the bell rang and lessons started like every weekday.
Nothing special h
appened during the theoretical lessons and Jason listened carefully while imagining how everything was written.
While the school lessons were divided into theoretical and practical courses. Jason only attended the theoretical lessons because the teachers noticed was useless for him to have practical lessons after some time.
The only thing he would do was running on a treadmill to build up some stamina and listening to the explanations of the martial art technique they learned, some tips, and the finest details of them.
For Jason, today, everything was different than usual, because he could see the outlines of the instructor's technical movements according to the martial arts description as most martial arts techniques were used with the support of mana enhancing certain body parts.
Jason scanned the movements and devoured them, memorizing everything he saw.
He would try some of them at home and he didn't want to have any flaws during his practice.
Other than this, nothing changed about Jason's behavior.
While walking home he always scanned the soulbond beasts he saw trying to figure out what the radiating colors indicated but there were almost no clues.
Chapter 6: Exam
The day of the Exam arrived faster than Jason expected but he successfully kept his cured eyes a secret, without anyone noticing him.
Over the last few days, Jason improved his knowledge about everything he needed for the theoretical exam and he was confident in getting a perfect score.
Jason has always been a smart boy with an unsatiable desire to learn more.
To be more exact he hated it when he didn´t know something and once there is something he doesn´t know or is unsure about, this thought doesn´t leave his mind.
Jason also trained the martial art sequence at home but it was only partially useful, as he would get beaten up during the exam, even if he tried his best because his mana core and the corresponding physique was too weak
Pondering if he should just give up the sparring exam or not was still unanswered by himself.
However, his reading and writing achievements made him proud as Jason was able to fluently read books and write some easier sentences.
