Hazel writhed on the stage floor as her eyes continued to burn like hell. It felt like they were splashed with a powerful acid, melting her eyes until they were completely liquefied.
Each blink only resulted in more agony, as if the light entering her vision intensified the searing pain she was already feeling. She let out a pained scream that rivaled Nycteris’s screeches, displaying how much agony she was in.
All the while, despite being unable to see, Notifications continued to flood her lacking vision.
[You have unsealed The Tablet of Ancient Power!]
[You have received the Ancient Power “Evil Eyes!”]
[By Obtaining Ancient Power “Evil Eyes”, Intelligence Stat has been increased by 20 Points!]
[By Obtaining Ancient Power “Evil Eyes”, Wisdom Stat has been increased by 15 Points!]
Hazel could hardly understand, much less read the panels displayed before her. She couldn’t even question how she was capable of seeing her notifications with her eyes closed due to the searing pain she felt right now. And it didn’t plan to stop any time soon.
Hazel aggressively clutched her eyes, trying to mitigate the damage as much as possible. Nothing was working, and the pain only got worse.
“Hazel...!”
“Master!”
She heard the voices of her companions, but she could not see them with her eyes blazing like a burning campfire. Their concerned voices called out to the mage, but she could do nothing to ease their worry, for she was barely keeping herself together because of the Tablet’s power surging within her.
And so, Hazel lay on the floor, suffering from the Tablet’s unsealed power enveloping her very being, especially her eyes. After a little while, for what felt like minutes, the eyes started to stop burning, allowing her a brief moment of relief.
Realizing that her eyes no longer felt like they were on fire, Hazel slowly rose from the floor while clutching her head due to the pounding migraine assaulting her skull. And as soon as Hazel opened her eyes, she immediately shut them.
“Hazel, are you alright?!” Astrid asked, lightly touching Hazel’s shoulder while keeping a somewhat firm grip on her.
“Agh...” She groaned, keeping her eyes closed. “Why is everything so bright...?”
For some reason, her surroundings were a lot brighter than usual. Whether it was because of the ancient power enveloping her vision or something else, she didn’t know. But she needed to do something about the blinding light filling her vision every time she opened her eyes.
Hazel once again tried to open her eyes, this time keeping them open so that she could adapt to the current lighting. The light irritated her eyeballs, and tears streamed down her face. After blinking a few times and rubbing the tears away, her vision finally adjusted to the current illumination.
But what she saw next surprised her greatly. Whatever that Tablet of Ancient power did to her, it quite literally opened her eyes to a new world. Everything around her became a lot clearer.
No, clear wasn’t an appropriate word to describe what Hazel was seeing right now. Perhaps detailed was better to explain her current situation.
For some reason, Hazel could see things in finer detail compared to before. From the individual particles of dust hovering in the air to the microscopic view of the very floor beneath her. She could see every crack and splinter on every plank that made up the stage.
The mage looked around in awe, flustered by the sudden clarity of her vision.
“Hey, guys,” Hazel turned to look for Astrid and Nycteris. “You cannot believe what I’m seeing right...now?” Her face fell when she spotted her companions, noticing that both of them were frozen in place.
And for some reason, they both looked terrified as they stared at the mage, even going as far as trembling with fear.
“Are you guys, okay?” Hazel asked with concern. ‘What’s wrong?”
“I-it’s...your eyes...” Astrid muttered, fearfully while pointing at Hazel.
“My eyes...?” She repeated, sounding confused. Her brows then rose in realization after remembering what the panels from before stated.
The ancient power she obtained was called Evil Eyes...did that mean?!
Hazel scrambled for Astrid's dagger that was lying on the floor next to her. Picking it up, she turned the blade to see her reflection on the flat side. As soon as she did, she noticed something different about her eyes.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Instead of them being amber-color like they’ve always been since birth, they were now a shade of violet. What was even more surprising was that her eyes were glowing as if experiencing bioluminescence.
“W-what the...?” Hazel mumbled, still staring at her new eyes.
Then, a new panel appeared.
Rank 1
An ancient power that allows the user to possess supernatural vision. With Evil Eyes, the user is currently capable of instilling fear into their enemies, making them freeze in place out of sheer terror. Other features will be unlocked when Evil Eye’s rank will be increased. This skill will be permanently active for as long as the User is alive.
Reading the description, Hazel’s narrowed her glowing violet eyes in anger. “As much as I like this ability, why can’t I turn these damn things off!”
Now she knew why her companions looked like they were seeing a ghost. It was because of one of her abilities with Evil Eye. By merely glancing at an individual, she was capable of instilling some kind of fear status on them, making them freeze in place.
While useful, the fact that she couldn’t deactivate the Evil Eye's ability was a major problem. With her skill constantly on, Hazel would be constantly instilling fear in people, both bad and good. It’s one thing if she was just facing monsters, but doing this with humans or other intelligent beings would prove to be a bit of a hassle for her.
And she was already facing that issue due to her current predicament with Astrid and Nycteris. Noticing that both of her companions were still fearful of her because of her Evil Eyes, Hazel hastily turned around.
“S-sorry,” she said, feeling flustered. “The Tablet suddenly gave me an ancient power called evil eyes. If I stare at a living being, they’ll be stricken with fear by my gaze, so I can’t look at you guys now.”
A gasp expelled from Astrid as she took a few heavy breaths. “Y-you said before that you couldn’t turn it off?”
Hazel nodded. “Yeah. For some reason, these eyes are permanently on for as long as I live, which in itself, is a bit of a problem.”
“After witnessing that power firsthand...I agree.”
Hazel kept her back turned against her companions, afraid that she would mistakenly instill fear in them like before. She thought about closing her eyes, but that would be a bit dangerous. She would also likely make a mistake and open them on accident, triggering the skill.
While fretting over her newfound problem, another panel materialized in front of her.
[Would you like to begin the Class Evolution? Y/N]
She narrowed her eyes at the panel before letting out a heavy sigh. “Hey, Astrid, are you getting a notification about the class evolution”
“I am. I think we should deal with this and see what our options are. We don’t know how long we have before we leave the dungeon.”
“Makes sense.”
Neither Hazel nor Astrid knew how much time they had left in the dungeon. After defeating the Boss, they completed one of the objectives, which allowed them to return home. But before doing that, they needed to take care of everything so they were prepared for what came next.
And right now, their current objective was checking out their Class Evolutions.
With that in mind, Hazel soon accepted the panel, thus beginning her class advancement
[Current Class Evolution Available]:
Evolved Class
Sorcerers are Practitioners of the Arcane. Magic is their blood and life, and they will do anything to learn their secrets. Even at the Cost of their own life. User will receive a 15% Mag Dmg for all spells and +15 Intelligences and +10 Wisdom
Evolved Class
Spell Weavers are capable of bending the very nature of magic to their will. Their goals are to not simply learn magic but to also create and weave new spells into existence. User will have more control over spells and become capable of creating new spells through research and practice and +10 Intelligences, +10 Wisdom and +10 Willpower
Evolved Class
Witches are a rare Evolved Class that specializes in Curses, Hexes, Alchemy, and summoning demons as their familiars. By selecting this class, Users will receive 20% Curse Dmg for all cursed-based spells and +15 Intelligence, +10 Wisdom and +10 Willpower
Evolved Class
Entropy Casters are capable of manipulating the final form of Decay itself, allowing them to create spells that tear and deteriorate their target very being on a molecular level, leaving nothing including dust and ash. 20% Mag Dmg to all Entropy-based spells and +10 Intelligences and +10 Wisdom
“Hmm...” Hazel mused.
Despite only having four options, each one seemed very interesting. Especially the Spell Weaver class. At first, she didn’t know why this was even an option until she remembered her Entropy Sickle. The same went for Entropy Caster until she came to the same conclusion.
But, even though Hazel was allowed to weave new spells into existence as the description told her, there was one class that caught her attention more than that.
The Witch Class. The Practitioners of curses and hexes. The very Build that Hazel possessed since the very beginning.
Ever since she first obtained the Baneful Sickle spell, Hazel was always curious about Witches and what they were capable of. And now, she had the opportunity to find out.
Then there was the fact that she would receive a 20% increase in Curse dmg for her curse-related spells.
Thinking about it more, Hazel would be a fool not to pick this class. So, what other option was there, honestly?
Gazing at the Witch class, a small grin formed on her face as Hazel finally made her decision.
“I choose the Witch class!”
[Evolved Class “Witch” has been selected!]
[By possessing the Witch Class, all cursed-related spells will now have a 20% increase in Curse Dmg.]
[Intelligent Stat has been increased by 15 Points!]
[Wisdom Stat has been increased by 10 Points!]
[Willpower Stat has been increased by 10 Points!]