Whole day had passed before Bruce announced they are ready to make way towards Camp Hearth. What he was doing, Lucas had no idea nor he was interested in finding out, opting instead to make a few excursions into the forest, looking for something to give him something resembling the challenge. Forest was filled to the brim with life, conflict blooming in almost every corner. Unfortunately for Lucas, he was the strongest one around, all that wildlife staying clear from his path. That left him with only second part of his training, and he focused mana into his eyes, trying to notice the mana tides. It didn’t help that he didn’t know what to look for and after few unsuccessful tries, he decided to ask Bruce for help, as he did for a lot of things since they met. They were quickly on the path towards the Camp Hearth and Lucas tempered his passive and asked Bruce about the mana tides.

“Hm, that is hard to discern. In the archives of the Loremasters there a hundred thesis and analysis about what they are and how to harness them. Only thing proven is that different mana tides converges on points of interests, making them a good road signs and guides. That’s only true if you know local region, of course” Bruce told him.

“Luckily for me, I just want to see them” Lucas retorted

“Why?” Bruce asked him.

“Because there is no guarantee I will be with someone who can see and read them”

“Still, why? Even if you could see them, it will have no use if you don’t know the region. If you know, than there is no need for them” Bruce stood his ground.

“I just want to learn it. Are you, of all people, against learning new things?”

Bruce rolled his eyes at the remark, but still offered guidance on how to achieve Lucas’s stated goal. The trick was to feel the mana all around him, to feel its breeze as it coursed all around, and then visualize all of that. Lucas struggled with the first part, no part of him feeling anything. He tried everything, even pinging the environment with his own body mana and still was drawing blank. That was the fact until he remembered that he had mana inside of him. He focused on it, feeling the motes of mana in his blood stream, feeling the lick of it as he exited his body and a light tickle when atmospheric mana entered his body to refill what was expended. Expanding on the last sensation he started feeling the mana in his immediate vicinity and step by step, his senses expanded. The breeze was next, feeling a gentle wind coursing above and on his right, going into different directions before converging somewhere in the deep. When Lucas felt all of that, the visualization part came automatically, imagining the mana as the river of light blue, with inert electricity in it that thundered when someone awoke it. On instinct, he forced some of the mana in his eyes and opened them, amazed at how the world changed. Mana flowed right where he felt it, looking like a giant riverbed, filled to the brim with the light blue color that carried thunders in its hearth. He could both see and feel how much potential laid there, waiting to be awoken. And how it wanted to be used, flowing to the places that actually used it. His marvel was stopped by the System announcement.

“Skill upgrade: Eye for details is now Sharpsight”

Opening his skills submenu, he found his new skill and opened it.

Sharpsight (Uncommon)

With a lot of hard work, every duelist who wants to have some worth learns how to read patterns of mana, allowing him the ability not only to read basic information about the enemies but to tap directly into the patterns of they mana usage, allowing for better prediction and evasion of enemies attack. Ability to get the information increases with Perception, reading of mana patterns increase with Intelligence

Cost: None

He activated the skill, once again a visage of mana rivers greeting him with their slow but steady advance. He activated his pre – combat buff skill and was pleased to see how a part of the river to his right changed course for just a moment, flowing towards him as he felt the buff settling and increasing his stats. Next, he aimed for the nearest tree and activated “Infused piledriver”. Mana tides were responsive, even more than him and while he was spinning he could see how they already marking the path he was about to cross. Curious, he anchored himself, ending the skill and the mana that stayed in front rushed to his place, converging before returning to the tide, uninterested in Lucas now that it wasn’t actively using it. Gaining insight in how he was supposed to predict the enemy attacks, he contently deactivated “Sharpsight” and turned around, only to see utterly confused Bruce watching him. He quickly sent the description of his new skill to him and explained what he was doing. The old Loremaster looked pleased by the explanation Lucas offered and dove right into the prompt Lucas sent him. Knowing what is about to happen, Lucas activated “Sharpsight” once again and watched Bruce as he muttered “Archive”. What he saw surprised him. Mana all around Bruce converged on him, and he was actually drinking it while his skill was active. And that was for a long time, about fifteen minute or so.

“Your skill, “Archive”. What does it do, exactly?” Lucas asked Bruce

“Exactly what it says. It stores anything I want into my personal archive.” Bruce responded.

“Then why does it take so much mana?” Lucas asked, completely confused.

“Proper archiving is hard work. It needs to be sorted to the exact spot and I need time to find that spot. Especially if I want to do it subconsciously”

Lucas’s incredulous look was enough for Bruce to give up on explaining what exactly he did. He ended the conversation with a mocking “hard skill, eat many mana” which Lucas thought as the first time Bruce cracked a joke. Even a bad joke like that.

“Talk about character progression” Lucas thought to himself before returning to playing with his new identifying skill. He was amazed at the number of information he was getting, being able to spot the creatures while they were thinking they are safe from prying eyes. He managed to find a fierce duel between a pair of wolves and his old friend Steeltusk boar by following a strong convergence. Mana tides were more than mere guiding stones like Bruce described him. They were lifeblood of their new reality.

“And I will learn how to use it to my advantage” Lucas thought with a steely resolve. They continued their trip, making good enough progress. During it, Bruce shared some more information with Lucas, most of it pertaining the way in which the General troops were organized. Lucas already suspected some of the stuff he heard from Bruce, taking in consideration what he learned from identifying various troopers. What he was surprised to hear was that the hard limit on their levels was 25, with heavies going to 30. That was too weak, even though they still had the numbers to drown any enemy they could potentially face. According to Bruce, after the invasions were repelled, the strongest individuals were in the early hundreds. They left Earth, each for a different reason, reducing the average level back to 70s. But that was thirty years ago and individuals only got stronger. Bruce expressed that he wouldn’t be surprised if the current regional leaders, or warlords as it was more apt name for them, were in the early two hundreds. That level difference was enough to drown even the numbers advantage, or so Bruce stated. Lucas was a bit skeptical, seeing as how he was holding his ground against them. True, he was only outnumbered by twenty or so men, not by a long shot the full might of the unit. And so, it was their first order of business when they return to Camp Hearth. Trim the numbers a bit and slow down the recruitment surge they have due to the fact they got victory after victory in the last year. In Lucas’s mind, that was the easy part. Hard part was doing all that and making sure Michael doesn’t escape. They had to make sure nobody knew who exactly was doing all of the sabotage they were about to commit.

“And we have to do it quickly, before the General decides to hold the whole city hostage” Bruce finished

Lucas didn’t have a shadow of doubt that the General was capable of doing that. Why shouldn’t he? H already treated everyone as the threat to his regime, limiting their growth and forcing everyone to beg for a special permit to level pass the arbitrary limit. That hit crafters particularly hard and decreased the quality of goods that came from the settlement. Ripple effect made the Camp Hearth even more isolated and dependent on the new regime as merchants and traveling adventurers avoid it like a plague. They had their work cut out for them and as Camp Heart came into view, Lucas steeled himself for what is to come.