Chapter 27: Sensory Overload

“Life has become a state of sensory overload.”

Joseph Curiale

I was found the next morning still curled up in the foetal position on the floor in the main room. When they woke me, the light was blindingly bright whilst also showing more detail than I had ever seen before. Their soft arms as they lifted me up, to change me, felt as if they would leave bruises behind with their strength, yet left not a single mark. A stroke to comfort, made my skin feel as if it was on fire and left me flinching. Their questions of concern left me confused. I knew not, whether to cover my eyes from the painful brilliance of the light, or my ears from the deafening booming of their voices.

"Are you okay, Kai?" they asked as I hid my face from the light. I kept my eyes closed. Staying as still as I could and curled up into a ball whenever possible.

Finally, as they emptied the bedpan outside, the instant it passed through the main room, the stench alone was enough to make me retch and the sudden taste of it in my mouth had me throwing up all over the floor.

As they tidied up the mess and me, still worried and concerned, “What’s wrong?” they asked. But how could I explain it? How could I explain the level to which I was sensing and feeling without giving the game away? Was it even worth trying to hide it if they could give me a solution to my pain?

“Light hurts,” I replied with my meagre vocabulary covering my head with the newly abrasive cloth of my tunic.

I flinched away as they pulled it down to check my temperature but it was no higher than normal or any different from my core temperature.

“Does it hurt here?” They worriedly asked, prodding gently, concerned by my startled movements.

“Skin sore,” I explained as I feel their vice-like grip leave my head and abdomen.

“Bedpan smells bad.” I tried to explain why I threw up.

“Yes, it does. But it is not too bad. Try not to think too much about it and you will soon feel better. Imagine a nice sweet to suck on instead.” Mother replied. It would be nice to say that she did so calmly but she was clearly concerned. Father stayed home for the first time in my life and they even sent Aleera alone to fetch someone I’ve never heard of to come and look at me. The town healer or midwife I believe.

They think I’m sick with a fever or flu and hope to fetch someone to help.

. . .

The only positive to my position and that was stretching the definition of a silver lining was

. . .

Ding! Pain Tolerance (Lv 7)

. . .

That took barely 10 minutes of pain but it gave me a level. So either those ten minutes were highly effective or being in my particular predicament is somehow boosting my experience gain for certain skills.

However, in terms of my perception of those ten minutes, it certainly felt like an hour or two. So can experience be compounded by pain or perception and increased alongside how long it felt to have taken or the stress that accompanied them.

No pain, no gain?

Who cares?

I don't!

At least not right now!

. . .

Curled up on the floor, I was drowning in an endless sea of sensations. The only break from my 5 senses was when I left my body completely. Either by passing out or by hiding myself away in my Mind Fortress. But even here things were no longer the same. It was not simply my five senses that were benefitting from the new trait Super Senses, every single sensory skill was also suddenly enhanced and I had several of them.

Time Sense suddenly felt as if I could feel the microseconds between each second. I could certainly now count a decisecond not verbally in time but I could see them flickering through on my internal clocks. It felt as if I might even be able to sense a millisecond as well. But another wave of sensation broke my concentration.

Listening levelled almost as soon as I focused on it. But at least in my mind fortress, I was able to turn the sound down to a barely acceptable level. Sight, Scent, Detect and Taste all levelled from my most recent trauma without having to even look at an internal monitor, smell a flower, touch a wall, or taste a dessert within my mind.

Using Eavesdrop I could hear every single conversation within our house without difficulty and when I pushed my senses I discovered that I could hear the conversations from the house next door as well!

When Echolocation pinged, I could not only hear my neighbours but see them as well! It too levelled up to represent the sudden increase in clarity, depth and distance it now went.

Inside my mind fortress, I was able to dial down the level of light on my windows to the world. I could dampen the sound of my parent's breath until it was a comfortable white noise rather than loud enough to cover the pounding of my racing heart which felt as if it was ready to beat its way out of my chest. Divorced from my sense of touch, taste and smell I realised that I should add them to my mind fortress in the future but for now, I simply enjoyed their absence. Along with the absence of senses, I had never noticed before.

Thermoception seemed to be making me acutely aware of the temperature all over my body I could feel the heat of one hand with the other from a foot apart instead of an inch. The mildest of breezes sent the temperature fluctuating wildly up and down. It was the most overwhelming on my head where even though they had never cut my hair I could feel the subtlest breezes passing along my scalp and sending my temperature there up and down

Proprioception allowed me to sense where my body was in relation to itself suddenly all the time. Normally you would have to think when moving hands between ears and nose with your eyes closed. Now I felt as if I could achieve the same back and forth between ears and nose blindfolded and attempting the challenge with chopsticks. If it hadn't been so overwhelming I would probably be enjoying my new spider-sense.

Nociception, this sense was the sense that seemed to be levelling up my pain tolerance. The overloading of my senses through my skin seemed simple enough but I was also feeling the pain of growing muscles, joints and bones. As well as the uncomfortable movements of my food through my digestive tract and the slow build-up in my bowels.

Equilibrioception, the sense that normally helps me to keep my balance has also been dialled up to 10 making every movement feel almost like a rollercoaster as I am lifted up and down. Thankfully they are not moving me around at the moment so I am no longer having to hold onto my stomach to prevent myself from throwing up from motion sickness. Hoping my vestibular labyrinthine system calms down soon.

Magnetoreception, makes it suddenly clear that this planet has magnetic fields as both north and south are abruptly made obvious. I won't be getting lost anytime soon. Or at least I will always know in which direction I am headed. Surprised that I haven't received new skills for the senses that I have always had but never noticed. It would probably take some time to practice focusing on them before I gained any skills and at the moment I am trying as hard as I can to ignore them.

I am assuming it was the chemoreceptors and spike in sense of smell that are what triggered my vomiting when the stool passed through the room to be thrown out. But now I can sense the growing thirst and hunger the lack of food in my stomach is creating. Equally, I am assuming that the stretch receptors are the ones responsible for my newly pounding head! I am in too much pain to count the new senses I am instantly made aware of but I am eternally grateful that it only seems to be 20 odd senses not Cohen's enthusiastic 53. Which I truly believe would have melted my mind. At least for a while.

Divorced from my body and hidden within my mind fortress I felt a moment of calm. But it was the moment before the storm as it was then that I noticed it.

That every . . . sensory . . . skill . . . had been upgraded.

Including Sense Mana! A sense that had never existed on my previous planet.

Up till now, my mind fortress had mainly been used to practice mental skills before I added to each room aspects of my sensory skills.

Now however Sense Mana was working in here as well when before I had never been able to sense any. Right now this second I could sense the mana outside adding an overlay to my windows to the world. One for echolocation and one for the colourful swirls that I saw Mana as. But not only the Mana that was outside of me but the Mana inside of me was suddenly shining through the joints and corners of my mind fortress.

I may have been safe within my mind but the seams were shining with light that was absorbed by my avatar. Never before had I been able to use the magical skills within my mind but Absorb Mana sucked the light out of the room while Expel Mana filled it. Ignite left me with one less piece of furniture in my mind that I would have to rebuild and Freeze left the floor an accident waiting to happen.

Each skill levelling left me dazed by the dings and astonished at the rapid improvement in my skills that super senses allowed.

. . .

The use of my mind fortress left my body rolling around after been woken up from sleeping. I think my parents were beginning to freak out from the non-responsive nature of my body.

I guessed I needed to go back and be there for when this person arrived simply to show them that I was okay or if not okay at least improving albeit incredibly slowly. Although how I was to do that when my Pain Tolerance was continuing to rise I didn’t know.

Ding! Pain Tolerance (Lv 8)

I always knew it would be useful but I was hoping I wouldn’t need to use it until after I was out of diapers at least. No bodily harm seemed to be being caused, it was all mental pain.

I returned to my body focussing on Meditation to calm my racing heart, learning to accept the new feelings for a second before building it up to two and so on.

The challenge alone provided another level in it and by the time Aleera returned with a wizened old crone I was up to maintaining a calm steady heartbeat for at least a minute provided there was no new stimulus for the duration of the minute.

. . .

“What seems to be the problem with him then?” she motioned mother to hand me over. Maintaining my meditation I was able to mute my senses enough not to flinch as I was handed over.

“He’s not crying so not he’s not in pain." she pointed out.

Wait, what? On what grounds was she making that assumption? Did she have any skills or was it all pure guesswork? Was this really the level of medicine available here? The only reason I wasn't screaming was that I was trying to maintain a stoic facade, continue to fake the fact that I was a more or less normal if prodigy of a baby and not completely freak my parents out.

"Was this really worth making me walk all the way over here?” She grumbled, clearly tired from the walk to our house and none too happy to have made it.

“Everyone has said he’s quick-witted. Boy, what’s wrong with you?” She outrageously demanded. Did she not realise I had yet to turn one yet?

“Sore tummy, threw up, tired.” I quickly responded hoping I would be able to maintain my meditation and calm long enough for her to simply leave me alone. I just needed to be put down to rest so I could have some time to get a grip on my new senses.

“Right then, give him plenty of water today, chicken broth and lots of rest. No running around.” She tapped me on the nose with a smile as if she had solved a huge dilemma and handed me back to my mother.

“If they’re not hot, cold, still eating and haven't got the runs, babies be fine especially if they are not wailing.” After what had to have been the shortest and speediest medical I have ever had, she returned to complaining about the walkover as she walked to the door.

“It is good to be careful but remember me rules before making me rush over. Looking forward to some fresh fish this evening Kaius, don’t forget!” and with that, she left the house. Leaving me completely astonished as what passed for medieval medicine and a family that clearly felt none the wiser as to what was wrong with me.

I truly believe that I could have managed to maintain a calm and quiet baby disposition especially as I could feel my Acting level increasing as I was being discussed if only the recent levels in Magical skills had not resulted in an increase in my Magic stat. It was only 6 points. One for each skill I had gained a level in within my mind fortress, more by accident than by design, but it was enough to hit another milestone.

Magic reached 100 before age 1 awarded the trait, Source of Mana.

That is when everything became truly interesting.

True Status

Level: 10 Name: Kai

Experience: 50,600/ 204,800

Age: 13 months, 1 weeks, 2 days, 8 hours

Health: 1100/1100 Stamina: 513/513 Mana: 1000/1000 Psi: 1070/1070

Trait: Long Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana,

Vitality: 110

Endurance: 22

Strength: 22

Dexterity: 22

Senses: 109

Mind: 107

Clarity: 38

Magic: 100

Free Points: 20

Skills:

Tier 1: Time sense (LV 22) Listening (LV 26) Meditation (LV 31) Swimming (LV 23)

Humming (Lv 20) Sneak (Lv 21) Whistling (Lv 20) Singing (Lv 20) and Drumming (Lv 20)

Running (Lv 10), Acting (15), English (Lv 15), Spanish (Lv 15), Japanese (Lv 15),

German (Lv 10), French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 1) Breath Control (Lv 1) Sight (Lv 11)

Scent (Lv 11) Detect (Lv 11) Taste (Lv 11) Bulosa (Lv 1) Draw (Lv 1)

Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 29) Eavesdrop (LV 22) Memorisation (LV 20) Composition (Lv 20)

Recall (Lv20) Pain tolerance (Lv 8) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20),

Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 15) Translation (Lv 15) Stealth (Lv 10)

Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 22) Expel Mana (Lv 29) Absorb Mana (Lv 29)

Mana Manipulation (Lv 11) Ignite (Lv 11) Freeze (Lv 2)

Tier 4: Mana Drain (Lv 20) Multiple Minds (Lv 10)

Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 15)

Skill experience: 3300

Origin experience: 0

Combat experience: 0

Crafting experience: 0