Seeing The Sounds

Max stood atop an apartment building, looking over the grey and gritty landscape of the Null Zone, the name of areas of the city whose residents either chose not to get involved in anything magic-related, didn't have the ability to wield magic, or simply couldn't afford to live surrounded by the costly magic-powered devices. The term 'Null' here signified the next-to-zero usage of magic. Some people called these zones The Slums, some other called them The Lawless Zones, due to the concentration of gangs and criminal activity.

These zones were where those who were called the Talentless resided. They were people who simply lacked the ability to tap into the energy known as mana. These days, their voices had been getting louder, with a majority expressing the desire to join The Revolutionaries.

Meanwhile, the areas of the city where people were basically living and breathing in magic were called the Metropolitan Areas. The term sounded pretty normal, connotating the wide-spread belief that magic usage was the norm.

The southern fringe of one of the Null Zones was practically Max's nest. Being homeless, it was one of the smartest decisions he'd made to shelter himself inbetween the surveillance-free Null Zone and the part of Null Zone where crime wasn't so prevalent due to being in close proximity to the Metropolitan Area. It granted him both freedom and partial safety. This was essential for someone like him, who was basically living off of other people's money that he stol-

That he very quietly and sutbly took.

However, he had been helpless these past few days, forced to take some time off from his 'job' due to his broken Wand. He couldn't even get around like how he usually did, and instead opted to the normal means of travel. Taking the train or bus just to get to the next station cost as much as the loaf of bread he bought to last an entire day.

But now, with his Wand fixed, and even upgraded, he could say goodbye to unnecessary credits spending.

Up on the roof, he cracked his knuckles and did some stretching up while calculating the best route to take. 'Best route' usually emphasized on the lack of noises, which meant the absence of human activity, which meant less chance of him being seen or worse, getting caught.

Oh but how was he able to detect noise? Did his speech-to-text also work on random, wordless noises? No, it did not.

As if the world was trying to compensate for his disability, a certain ability for magic was blessed unto him since he was young. And coincidentally, this very ability matched up well for him.

Max was able to see waves all around him. Soundwaves, lightwaves, and his most recently-developed sight for mana waves.

He first awakened the ability to see soundwaves when he was five. His mother told him that she had noticed his sudden habit of staring into space as if he was observing something that wasn't there. She brought him to a magic doctor to be examined, and they asked him to draw what he saw. Max's drawing was of his mother, but snaking all around her were several strings that mostly curved around her mouth, indicating the vibration of sound she produced when speaking.

Since then, he had subconsciously relied on this innate ability of his to still be able to detect sound without hearing it.

Dawn was approaching and Max did not have much time to do his 'job' tonight. So he had to work fast. He glanced at the top of a few buildings, where the strings of soundwaves vibrated slightly. He activated Iris and accessed the map of the city, zoomed in to the area he was currently at, and focused on the blue dot that represented himself. With a mini map floating in front of his left eye, he took a note to avoid the spots with the vibrating soundwaves, while drawing in his mind the safest path toward his destination.

After he was done stretching, he walked forward toward the edge of the roof and looked down, measuring the distance between this building and the one before him. He then walked backward a few meters and readied himself.

With his eyes focused on the path he'd roughly designed, he started walking forward, before it turned to a light run, before he completely took off. He ran, stepped on the ledge that sloped upward, and took a leap toward the next building. He landed with a roll and continued running, avoiding some obstacles on the way. The next jump was to the left, and it was toward a building taller than the one he was currently on. He had his eyes on the window and the corner pilaster next to it, before he took another leap, and landed by grabbing the upper edge of the pilaster and scraping his soles on the stone surface to make himself stick like a velcro. Slowly, he crawled to the other side of the building, avoiding the view of the fall below.

Once in position, he looked behind to another roof he was about to land on, measuring how much power he needed to use to scale that distance. Without a hint of hesitation, he pushed himself against the pilaster to leap onto the next roof, turning his body in the air so he could land forward. He made a smooth landing and briefly dropped on all fours to lessen the impact before he started running again. He cat passed a couple of structures that stuck out and once again took a leap toward the next building.

All of a sudden, he spotted a vibration on the soundwaves from the street next to this building. With his view blocked by the egde of the roof, he couldn't see what made that sound, but he figured someone was probably down there. He stopped in his track and quickly sent mana into his gloves. This was why it was risky for him to do his night job without his Wand.

He observed the strings of soundwaves--all colored purple--surrounding his body. After sensing the tingling sensation of mana that ran down to his fingertips, he took a deep breath and drew those strings to the tip of his fingers, manipulating them so they broke off from other strings connected to other sounds traveling in the air. This action created a thin barrier void of sound around his body, while he collected mana that was constantly going in and out of his chest.

A human body couldn't contain more than a little amount of mana, so the mana Max was gathering would instantly be recycled and used to repeat the string-breaking process over and over to maintain the void barrier.

With the void barrier, Max was able to make himself undetectable, at least through sound. Now, for the next few tens of meter distance until he was far enough from whoever made that sound on the street, he had to concentrate on both keeping the barrier up and making another jump ahead.

After a quick glance at the mini map to check his position and keep the destination in mind, he started running again.

About ten minutes later, after climbing down using a vertical pipe, he dropped down onto a narrow alley. From there, he made his way toward the end of the alley, where it opened to an empty street. Across the street and a little bit to the right, he finally found his destination. It was a magical item store called Daryl's Magic Barrell.

Max closed his eyes for a second to shift his viewing mode. Upon opening his eyes, the sight before him was different. No more strings of soundwaves, and instead, faint patterned glows of white had replaced them. The glows were much fainter on the street, but they gradually got brighter the closer they were to the store. Through the huge glass window of the store, the glows gradually condensed until finally the brightest glow was seen converging around an item standing atop a display platform. The item's glow was so bright it practically almost blinded Max.

With his mana sight mode on, it was time for a bit of breaking-and-entering.