49 - Eyes of Truth

The basic way of passive observation is to look at stars and constellations and see the pattern. That is called astrology. We will learn that too, but the most used way to divine in our tribe is called ‘Dice Casting’. It is one of the easiest ways and also the least demanding on talent.

Kaoran was still explaining, completely ignoring his broken amulet, which made Illyan a little upset. He was making it for over two weeks, after all. But as Kaoran continued, Illyan’s interest got piqued, and he started to ask questions.

“How do you know someone has talent?”

“Actually, the talent assessment for diviner is much harder than for spiritual arts users. From what I heard, in the south, they have extreme problems with the scammers who call themselves prophets and whatnot but can’t divine even basic things. The best way to access your talent is probably by going through a Revelation where you go into a trance while telling the prophecy. However, such divination is rare and can’t be controlled or trained.”

Kaoran shook his head in disappointment.

“I have never had the honor to have such a revelation. I had visions a few times, but that is just a fraction of such Revelation. And those visions didn’t peer into the future or the past but just into the present.”

As he finished talking, he started to fish something out from his pouch.

‘Hmm?’

“Was the time you said you saw that the north was invaded by the winter beasts a vision?”

Illyan asked curiously. He always wondered how Kaoran did that. He always thought that divination is what Kaoran described as passive observation. Looking at stars, looking at the palm of the person, drawing cards, and such.

But this new information changed his view completely.

“Yes, I was lucky. Normal divinations have a small chance of success if not done by a master, so it could be a catastrophe.”

‘So that’s why Degres didn’t believe it that much, huh.’

At that point, Kaoran finally took several small objects from the pouch as they rattled together.

“Take this. We will use it for the Dice casting.”

When he handed it, Illyan frowned. He expected dice since it was called ‘Dice Casting,’ but this was something completely different. He touched it several times until he ascertained what it was.

His mouth twitched as he asked Kaoran why he gave such a thing to him.

“Why would you give me human phalanges?”

“Hehe, we were lucky that the enemies tried to raid us recently. I told Degres to give me the left hand of the leader. The ones on the left hand work better. I took them out and covered them in symbols for astrology. When they are thrown like dice, they do not work based on the numbers but the way how they fall. Their distance, direction, and even similarity to something can tell some basic things. Come, let’s start.”

And so, Illyan’s days of numbing training of Divination began, where during his free time, he was creating amulets.

Those were one of the most boring days of his life.

Nevertheless, it taught him a valuable lesson. Studying and training aren’t only about those interesting things but also about those dull ones that take an extreme amount of time.

To progress, you must steadily work every day.

He also learned a lot about himself as he never expected to feel so bored.

Sitting entirely for entire days training like this felt much longer than it was.

Training with the Spiritual Energy was also inefficient as he couldn’t use the martial art to control it properly. Fortunately, he didn’t stagnate as the amulet infusion helped him tremendously. Thanks to that, he could move small amounts of Spiritual Energy for detailed works like infusing amulets much more easily.

One Month Later.

Things were going smoothly for the tribe, and there were not many conflicts along the way. Even when there were some, they were quickly taken care of.

Illyan didn’t have to worry and could devote all his time to practice.

However, one day, when most of the tribesmen were still sleeping in the safety of their tents, he woke up on the back of Dor with confusion on his face.

Its back was so big that it wasn't a problem for several people to sleep on it. Furthermore, it was extremely comfortable.

Kaoran was sleeping on it every time he was traveling, but recently he stopped. As he got older, he couldn’t keep sleeping in the open without getting ill.

So he always slept in his tent.

However, Illyan didn’t stop, as he didn’t have any reason for that. Pitching and dismantling the tent every day was a bother that took his time from practicing.

Instead, sleeping on the back of Dor was actually more comfortable for him.

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But now, instead of enjoying the little sleep he had, he woke up in bewilderment.

The itch that was indicating the recovery of his eyes was finally gone when he woke up.

He quickly sat up and processed what this meant.

When he finally realized, his eyes shone with thrill.

Thrilled, he leaped from Dor and ran to the woods.

“Hey, Where are you going, Stone?”

Zers called out to him. He woke up early as he wanted to hunt some meat if possible. Yii’s belly started to grow, and he wanted the best for both of them.

“I will meet up with you guys later. I have something to try out.”

Illyan stopped in his tracks and told him that he will catch up with the tribe later.

“Hmm… What is it now? Maybe he got crazy from doing all that training.”

Zers only shrugged his shoulders and returned to his tent, as he didn’t notice that Illyan didn’t cover his eyes anymore…

Swinging himself from one of the tree branches to another, Illyan was going further into the woods. His body displayed the dexterity of a monkey, but he exuded the aura of a predator.

All of his muscle fibers were used to the fullest as he ran on the trees.

Whenever he saw obstacles in front of him, he dodged at the last second in the most efficient way to not lose speed.

His face didn’t show any signs of joy, but his eyes shined with excitement.

While he could live without his eyes, it still impeded him. Mainly in speed, dexterity, balance, and precision.

But now, he can use his body to the fullest.

Once he got far enough, he looked for the tallest tree in the vicinity and climbed on top of it.

There, an indescribable sight appeared before his eyes. The sun was just rising, and accompanying it were lights of all colors flying in the sky.

‘Are those auroras?’ Illyan wondered this as he saw such a high number of them.

However, he heard that they show up only in the most northern part of the world and that it must be night.

‘No, wait. There is no way…’

After staring at those for some time, he noticed that they weren’t only in the sky but everywhere else.

The particles were flying together with the wind while other ones were falling with the snowflakes.

‘Is that spiritual energy? But I didn’t even meditate…’

He touched his face as he realized how much better his sight has become.

‘The wait was definitely worth it.’

With this newfound knowledge, he jumped off the tree and with precise grabbing of the branches on the way, he slowed his fall.

Soon, he continued on his way looking for a body of water.

Fortunately, there was not far from them a small river they used for water.

Once he found it, he jumped down on the ground and slowly came to it.

When he looked into the clear water of this river, he saw himself.

After a few years, he can finally see himself again. He noticed how much he changed.

He was basically a young adult at this point. Normal people his age would already look for their significant other to settle and have children. Just like Zers did.

But Illyan knows the best, that he doesn’t have a pinch or normalcy in him. It was better to stay away from relationships.

“Hmm?”

But as he was looking at his face, he noticed how his eyes changed.

They still had the same blood-red color, but the golden streaks spread across them. With a frown, he looked closely. Then he noticed that they were actually shining a little.

Fortunately, it didn’t affect his sight or anything, so in the end, he ignored it. He could just ask Kaoran.

‘My eyes got such superpowers just by getting contact with that ‘thing’. Maybe it was a high stage being. There are 13 of them so the chance that those at the peak are at least this much powerful isn’t that much of a stretch.’

As he thought this, he wanted to return to the camp. He wanted to take some things to try out.

His bow, which he couldn’t use because of his blindness, was catching the dust and he couldn’t do anything with it. But now he can use it again.

‘I am probably rusty with my skills though… But I bet I can use this new eyesight to get better results. After all, I can see better and…’

He stopped walking and looked around. The wind was blowing around him and the particles of Spiritual Energy that were dancing within them showed up in the lines. When both his mind and eyes connected, he got an inspiration.

So he stopped and got into a horse stance.

For a moment, he was observing the wind around and waiting for something.

When a line of Spiritual Energy flowing with the wind flew around, he started to make the martial moves he learned. It looked as if he was fighting the shadow enemies and dancing at the same time showing his precision when it comes to body movement.

With several stances, the wind started to stir. However, it wasn’t as chaotic as it was normally. This time it easily flowed around his body. Now he didn’t work against the wind. He worked with it, and he felt the force behind it by that much stronger.

His hand turned in claw as it flowed along the wind and with force he clawed at the tree in front of him.

The wind pressure coalesced on his fingers and peaked at the moment of collision.

Crack

Four long scratches were left on the tree.

His fingers got slightly bloody after hitting the wood but they healed in a second so he didn’t bother and just wiped the blood.

Looking at the long scratches on the tree, he felt a little proud of himself.

If before he was already on the verge of being a Novice then now he was already a certified one. Furthermore, it wasn’t just because he was imitating someone as he did it on his own.

But thinking about Kaoran, who was the creator of many of such spiritual arts that fit him perfectly, made him douse his own pride.

Kaoran was someone who he saw as a genius. Who knows how far he could get if he wasn’t stuck with faulty inheritance?

Just this thought made him once again realize that it doesn’t matter how strong, smart, or even talented you were born. Life was unfair. No matter how hard you worked or tried, unless you were lucky, you wouldn’t succeed.

Of course, you are even less likely to succeed if you don't even try. However, luck was still the most important in Illyan’s opinion.

Luck was objective and people could see it differently, but in the end, all things were influenced by something they couldn’t control. The difference was if it was beneficial to them or not.

Illyan was very unlucky in his life and suffered a lot. However, he won’t deny that he was also very lucky. He was lucky that he was born with a gift that helps him to keep alive, and he was lucky that he managed to meet Bakur Tribe.

Believing that his lucky streak ended, he will work harder so even if he got a little unlucky, he could solve the problem.

‘Hmm… What do I call this ability? Can’t say it is just Spiritual Eyes like Kaoran has… Furthermore, there could be more abilities to it. Hmm… Since I felt as if I have seen the Truth itself when looking into that ‘eye’ at the bottom, then I can probably call this ‘Eyes of Truth,’ can’t I?’

With high spirits, he returned to the camp wanting to tell Kaoran about his new abilities but noticed he still didn’t come out.

Others were already out, dismantling their tents and preparing to leave. When he looked at them, he noticed an almost imperceptible swaying around them.

Focusing his eyes, it reminded him a little of fire. At first, he didn’t know what it was but then he remembered Kaoran talking about this once.

‘Presence?’

Kaoran once told him that everyone has a kind of presence that some more sensitive beings can feel. It is the mixture of you exuding your vitality, any kind of energy harnessed inside of you, and other such things. Kaoran said he couldn’t see it so he wasn’t really sure.

‘Those eyes are really useful..’

He could even feel the presence of others beyond the objects.

But his good mood fell when he noticed that the tent of Kaoran, who wasn’t anywhere to be seen, didn’t exude any kind of presence.

‘Huh?’

It didn’t take him long to think the worst as he ran to the tent of the man he thought of as a grandfather…