4 Seeing the unseen

Opening his eyes slowly, the first thing Jason saw was an empty cracked wall that looked extremely filthy and exactly as he had expected.

Jason didn't know which color it was as he had never seen any before but the color looked old and in some areas, the wall 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 had researched a lot about human senses with the help of his smartphone´s AI. He wanted to check if his eyes worked properly after awakening them or not.

He noticed something and he estimated it to be the mana flow.

Jason was sure that it was the mana flow as he saw it flowing through him and the sensation he felt was the same he had grown accustomed to over the last several years while handling mana.

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.

Jumping in excitement Jason stormed out of his room, ran down the stairs, and left the building as fast as possible. However, it was already dark outside, with a few lamps on the street, flickering in a dull light that lit the gloomy streets to an extent.

'Is this darkness the night? It's already so late?? How unfortunate…' Jason thought visibly frustrated.

He felt a little disappointed because he couldn't explore the city right now, but it didn't matter, as he was able to see anyway.

Jason would still be able to walk through the city on the next day. He had more than enough time on his hands to explore the city.

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 his first time seeing anything and even the simplest of the things looked interesting to him.

He continued to jump around on the street with childlike glee. It had been a long time since he had felt so happy and could forget his worries for the time being.

Though he was just 13, he had matured faster than most youths. The absence of a parental figure in his life had left him to fend off on his own, turning him into a responsible adult.

The worries over his exams had vanished into thin air at 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 attract too much attention.

Thus, he returned to his room and inspected every piece of furniture inside the building to satisfy his growing curiosity. But his finds were rather disappointing as the whole building looked old and was worn out.

The building only had old-looking and tattered furniture.

Even if it was new to Jason it still looked a bit disgusting.

Jason finally understood why the price for his room was so cheap in contrast to the other rooms he had browsed 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 later 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 had also searched for information about foreign races that had 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. There were only a few minor differences like skin color, body parts, and so on that were indicators of a different race. While the other races were completely different from humanity with their deterrent looks.

Out of all races, a particular race jumped out at him. The beast belonging to that race had an average height of four meters, four muscular legs, and the lower body was covered in black scales. It had a broad upper body which 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 on 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 known to mankind. The race was known for harvesting and recycling the corpses it had killed.

Luckily there weren't many of them but Jason was still horrified. He quickly went to the toilet before he rushed outside.

Jason headed for a walk in the city, and primarily focused on the people around him. He observed them in their either expensive or cheap-looking clothes, makeup, facial expressions, and many more details that he could finally see.

It was interesting to see the different people and notice their behavior.

Rich-looking people had confident facial expressions and a straight back. On the other hand, some poorer-looking ones were walking through the streets with a limp body and 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. Thus, he 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 confirmed that he had indeed reached a park.

Looking around the park, Jason noticed that there weren't many people within the park right now but everyone of every handful of people was accompanied by a beast.

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 are some of 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 what was going on.

Jason even saw one or two beasts that had a dark green light enveloping them. These beasts looked stronger than the others who either didn't radiate any color or radiated a black or light-gray color.

Watching the enveloping color hurt Jason's eyes after a few minutes and the color vanished into thin air.

Jason noticed that looking at the radiating colors affected him, especially his eyes.

After the pain subsided a little, Jason noted that the mana flow around him was suddenly more difficult to see.

This surprised him. 'Are these colors an indicator to 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 look at the flow of mana as if it was a perfectly ordinary thing to look at. However, 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 had been an interesting pastime for a while. However, he noticed that he used to waste too much of his time on it instead of gathering mana into his eyeballs.

Jason tried playing around with his theory of the radiating colors 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 noticeably over time 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. He had toiled endlessly and mastered the precise movements in order to not hurt his eyes.

Furthermore, his senses were extremely distinct and sharp, adding another reason for his superior mana control.

One wrong move with his mana and he would have shattered the marble in his eyes which he, fortunately, wasn't aware of.

His mother had asked him 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 would commence. As such, he decided to go home.

However, there was a particular problem he noticed.