The person that comes from the front door all alone by herself, is a young lady of around 20s.
A long smooth brown hair tied into an elegant ponytail, a healthy body with perfect golden ratio, skin as white and supple as snow, and a face beautiful, yet subtle and calm.
If one only looks at the outside, one can only see her as a beautiful simple-dressed villager girl, coming all the way from the boonies to here in search of an adventure. She looks so inexperienced and naive, with only a simple leather dress and pants of a dull color, signifying her awkward first step.
But, the gaze she exudes, tells another story. Her brown eyes, as sharp as a knife, yet as clear as water, instantly outed her as a warrior of great renown, who know many about the wild, the harsh, and the bloodshed.
Like a rose growing in the wild, the healthy red on her cheeks doesn’t hide the thorns from her aura. Once touched improperly, the thorns will instantly tear people apart.
“(Her step, her stance, even the way she breathes...there is absolutely no gap, and absolutely prepared to rip people apart. To be combat-ready at all times like this, from what sort of places does she come from!?)”
Fortunately, for now, she just only looked around, curious about the building itself, its equipment, and the row of trainees repeatedly practicing their moves wholeheartedly.
Seemingly, she doesn't notice the intense gaze he does from far away, so he kept his composure as usual, still pretending to instruct them with his yells and scolds.
Meanwhile, he activated his skill, which he is proud of from years of training and repeated refined usage.
[Peering Eyes
Rank: A+
Description: The eyes trained with the intention to never be caught off-guard, the skill allowed the user to peer deep into the target’s essence, and gradually learn of their true nature, the longer they watch.
Effect: Allow the user to look at the target's status. The longer the user focuses their eyes, the more they can learn. The duration needed is proportional to the target's strength.
]
A unique eyes technique he can proudly call his own. Being slapped in the face, again and again, he swore to never let himself be caught unaware of the absurdity of the world, and diligently trained himself to always be able to recognize a person’s true value. Thanks to this skill, he is famous for being able to see the shiniest diamond even in the deepest trough, and bring out multiple legends in the most unexpected place.
Quickly enough, he began to see a glimpse of her status, as it was revealed slowly to him.
[Name: Roadside Rose
Level: 1
EXP: 1,000,000,000]
And just as quickly, even the most basic of info he has on her throws him for a turn.
“(Level 1? That can’t be! The way she carrier herself is waay too veteran for her to be just a level of a chick barely hatching!? The amount of EXP she has definitely matched that of a level 170…)"
“(...Wait, not level 170, it’s enough to climb from level 1 to level 170 in a single shot!)”
"(Is she the type to hide her level...no, her aura makes it blatantly that she isn't the type to hide. So either she needs a lot of EXP to level up...or she is a Player)"
“(That naming sense at least suggested the latter)”
Players, the mysterious people that come from another world.
Even when they have mingled with the people of Modon for around 15 years, and have personally been the turning point of many great events, there is still quite a lot that remains hidden. One of them is their ability to withhold leveling up, while being able to freely stock up EXP all they want, instead of being forced to level up each time they reach the limit.
"(With a closer look, the clothing she wore looks exactly like the type of beginner equipment the chick wore when they first come to this world.)"
"(Which means, most likely, either she just come here recently, or she is some type of ascetic monk who trained herself to the extreme by only putting on what is necessary…)"
“(Either way, it’s definitely confirmed that she is a Player.)”
Looking on for longer, his peering eyes reveal more information.
[STR: 294
AGL: 304,5
END: 165
DEX: 465
INT: 154
]
Even for his caliber, peering at a person’s title and achievement is still too much.
It's the culmination of their history, their action, their way of life, and their connection...To look at a person's title and achievement is to be willing to look through all that is them, and find out the mountain among the endless hill.
Still, a status this high, despite being literally a chick, at least shows a glimpse of what they have done.
“(The status of someone around level 100, as expected…)”
“(If she was truly just a level 1, then with the added level which came from her excess EXP, she would have risen her status to that of a level 350, at least…)”
“(But what I felt isn’t someone with the potential to attain strength equal to a mid-rank fighter. What I felt is someone who already is a mid-rank fighter…No, maybe even higher.)”
And yet, her level doesn’t lie.
This only makes the discrepancy between what he sees, and what he feels, even more off-putting.
“(Assuming that she just came here, that means she somehow obtain a large amount of EXP after performing a singular perilous mission...From that amount, it's as if she personally beat down groups of syndicates while covering a mistress and having one hand tied behind her back…You definitely can't meet these kinds of missions in this capital, unless you're truly unlucky.)"
“(Then we could assume that she is a very dedicated monk instead, a martial artist who aimed to achieve beyond the limit of mortal...But these statuses are impossible to achieve when you're that low of a level. It's like asking a chick to beat a dragon with only their soft, pudgy hand…)"
“(Unless you're personally traveling through places forbidden to touch by humans, or have trudged through countless storms and drought for decades...Such kind of person would have been known by now, among the player who's always looking out for news about the mighty…)"
A completely unknown person, obtaining unknown strength, from someplace beyond even the word of man.
The more he looks at her, the more fathomless she is. It’s like he is personally looking down on a dark cliff.
“(I have heard of the method the Player uses to obtain strength more than what is expected of their level, by training their very soul in the boundary between worlds. I have personally looked at the result of some of them, but even the highest among them only barely achieve three-digit in 3 parameters at most…)"
“(To earn that kind of strength beyond status at the start, either the talent she exhibits is as high as the sky, or the torture she performs upon her soul can only be found in the depth of hell...)”
“(Either way, she is abnormal. Even among the Irregular, I don’t think many can compete with her mentally…)”
The image of a warrior of great renown still imprints clearly within his head. He still sees the aura of a mighty warrior, both in body and in the soul, dwell tightly within her vessel.
But if she was a Player instead, that image stands in great contrast to the majority of the chick that came to his place, all of them looking like newborns wanting to run before they can walk, even for the so-called few who called themselves trained warrior adept in the act of fighting and killing.
But she isn't those low-ranked mouth fighters. She's the real deal. A real warrior who slay countless monsters, walk countless mile, and dredge through countless mountain, until even the mountain itself is sand beneath her feet.
“(To exude that kind of energy, for someone living in a world so peaceful the last time they see monsters is in their dream...Just what kind of monstrous life did she actually live then, so far removed from all sentient beings??)"
The more he looks, the more confused he is.
He wants to look away, but his eyes beckon him to look closer. It might be just pure stubbornness that drives him.
For he can’t be a Headmaster, without diving into the unknown. He would be betraying his Master's word if he can't stand strong against the ridiculousness of the world.
"(Come on, I look at her deeply enough, I should be able to take a glimpse of her skill and abilities…!)”
Looking even deeper, he strives to look toward the source of her strength. Digging through mountains among endless hills, he want to find what defined her.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
That is, unfortunately, a big mistake.
(You have looked upon me for long enough, I'm afraid)
With a little whisper, his world turns into an endless white.
----------------------------------------
The strongest person he have personally seen so far, was the Empress of this kingdom.
Overwhelming strength, and overwhelming talent, all express with regality and elegance.
When a person attains a certain level of strength, anything can be a weapon. Even the mind can be a force that exerts a powerful influence on the world.
Even their mind is strength. As such, when one tries to peer through to the source of their strength, sometimes you can peer into a glimpse of their mental landscape. And that's what happens when he secretly peers into the Empress one day.
A simple house, laying on the hill above a simple town, window facing to where the sun rises above a simple forest. Within it is a simple chair, a simple bed, and a simple shelf with many books and trinkets of fairy tales, among it is a miniature of the white capital. It paints a simple picture of a simple villager girl, eyes beaming with the tales of adventure, looking forward to another beautiful day.
It isn't exactly a secret that the Empress wants to retire and go back to living simply, but he swore to never speak of what he saw out loud. Otherwise, the citizen will weep, and immediately build for her a 3-stories mansion with a fountain and indoor hot spring in the most scenic area within the kingdom, creating a mess.
Besides, that story isn't that important right now, aside from proving an example.
From what he saw back then, her mental landscape cover an entire town, across a river, and toward the horizon. From how she treats her capital as a simple trinket on the shelves, he speculates that she can monitor the entire city at all times, even when sitting inside.
It truly paints the picture of a person with overwhelming power, whose’s mind can influence something far away, beyond anyone’s sight.
What he saw instead right now, is an endless white.
An endless, bottomless, infinite white. He immediately feels himself disoriented, spinning round and round inside the space that has no end nor beginning.
Only when he spots her once again, does he manage to get back his holding. Only then can he have a chance to look around.
He found out that the space isn't empty at all. Instead, it's filled with objects.
The Dojo he manages, all of his student still doing their training, the building and street outside that he can recognize, and more… All of them float endlessly within the white.
However, all of them look blurred together. Detail seems to shift when you look from one place to another.
Dojo look from brand new, right from the day it was built, to its multiple wear and tear and rebuild and improvement, to what it is today, to a picture of the dojo rotting and fallen down and dismantled…
All of his students turn from a baby, to kids, to adults, to trainers, to either accomplished warriors or lowly crooks or successful merchants or lazy bums, to an elder, to death and bone.
Even the stone of the street varied from a rock mined deep from a quarry to being broken down and lay into a street to getting replaced and returned to the earth…
Confused by what he looks at, he turns himself round and round again trying to figure out what all of it is. Meanwhile, the lady, the only one who remained unchanged among these shifting forms, continued to come closer to him, walking on air as if following a single path.
“Excuse me.” (Rose)
Only when she come close enough that he could clearly hear her voice ringing close by. Jumping out of his nerve, he desperately swallowed up his surprise, and turn to look at her solemnly.
Meanwhile, his mind is racing like a wind
(What’s this kind of mental landscape!? It’s way too big!)
(Moreover, the object within it all looks really strange! Why does it keep changing from one state to another!?)
Desperately trying to find an answer, he forgot to actually talk to her, being so used to acting solemnly in front of his student. Seeing such, she replied once again.
“Um, excuse me. I saw that you were looking at me intensively from afar, so I came over here, wanting to ask you." (Rose)
“...Ah! It’s nothing, nothing! It’s just my habit of checking over potential students, Ahaha…(Keep it together, you're way cooler than this...Wait, speaking of which, why does she act like she doesn't see what I see?)" (Headmaster)
"(Is all these things something only I can see then? If so, better act normal, otherwise she would recognize something weird is going on…)"
“Yes, I do notice that you were looking at us when we just came into the Dojo. That is some impressive sensing capability you have attained." (Rose)
“Haha...Well, I am the Headmaster of this Dojo. Looking at someone from afar with my eyes close is just a breeze. It's definitely something you will be able to attain someday-(Wait, what am I saying. They have already noticed me looking at them, so that means they can do that already. Promising that is like promising that you can walk in circles-)"
"(Wait...they do notice me looking from afar, despite not even seeing me?)"
"(That means they must have noticed that I was still continuing to look at them, and that means…)"
"Is that so? Then this Dojo really does live up to the name. I'm impressed." She commented slowly.
Her eyes still unchanginly peer toward his visage honestly, without a single doubt in her mind. She look genuinely impressed, like seeing a surprising souvenir on the way back home.
"If the Headmaster himself has the capability to peer deep into me and reach this place...Even if I am in vacation mode right now, that is still an outstanding thing to do.” (Rose)
“!!” (Headmaster)
Looking at her commenting casually, still keeping a composed expression, he immediately feels his back wet with alarm.
“(...In the first place, I wasn’t supposed to see the very person in here at all, unless they are already aware of it!)” (Headmaster)
“(I am confident that even the Empress would take a while to notice me peeking, but if what she said is true…)”
“That I do notice you, yes." (Rose)
“!”
“Also, don’t you already know that we are aware of you, just now? Why do you feel the need of repeating it?" (Rose)
Because he needed time for his brain to catch up, and fully process the extremely weird situation he is in.
But, currently, he is still too taken off-guard, and desperately trying to put on a straight face, he doesn't have time to actually properly think through his word. He even feels his thought slowly grinding to a halt.
So, for now, he still stands there aghast, while Rose just stands there, slightly pondering.
“...Ah, is it because you need time to catch up? My bad then...Still, even if your mind freezes up, your body still responds automatically, and is completely prepared for battle." (Rose)
“To be able to let your body fight for you, even when your mind isn’t totally ready...That’s a sign of someone that has gone through many life-and-death situations, where you can only move before you can think."
“That is an exceptional feat worthy of respect and learning, as someone following the path of strength.”
Bowing down politely, Rose then look back at him with respect and attention, as she make sure to hold him in proper regard.
In that process, Mike ends up locking eyes with her, still too stunned to move away.
Her brown eyes, as clear as the surface of a calm lake, end up reflecting back the image of himself within her eyes.
And from that image, he now finally sees himself, as blurred as everything else.
To personally see himself, shifted from youth to prime to elder and bone. To see his muscle grow and fade, his feature taut and loose, and his hair grows to black to gray.
All within the corner of her eyes.
...The gear, jammed, began to move, one creak at a time.
(The Dojo... I recognized the various state it was in, from the picture we save from the past. I even recognized the block of wood I personally put in to fix the Dojo when it gets wrecked up, being placed within.)
(As for some trainees...I personally know them from youth, as snot-nose brats that come and steal the apple within the yard, and I, not that much older, have to kick them out... The feature I glimpse doesn't just match, it's exactly the same as I just met them again.)
(The image from the past, the image from the present...and I presumed, the glimpse of the future.)
The gear within his head escaped from its jam and began spinning out sentences in his head.
(She definitely wouldn't have met me or those trainees in the past. Someone as unashamedly strong as her wouldn't be able to hide.)
(She definitely wouldn't be able to see the Dojo from around 100 years ago, as all Players come from at best 15 years ago…)
(She definitely can't see all of these to form such a detailed of an image. Nor do I doubt someone like her would just construct these images for people she has no knowledge, nor any reason to care, about…)
(Which means, the only explanation left...is that she just sees)
The gear, clicking together flawlessly at last, quickly lead him to his conclusion.
(This is within her mental landscape.)
(Which mean, all that I see right now, is how she saw the world.)
(The past, the present, the future...She saw it all. )
(In one singular chain, she saw the past, present, and future, at once. She saw the one as one huge chain of causality.)
Gradually, he understands. And as his eyes follow that understanding, he gradually sees more and more.
The object he saw before, and the object that just popped up, all fall into their proper place. It swiftly put itself back into the place he always stays all day, screaming at the trainee.
But, the endless white is still here.
Through the blurred of all past, present and future compressed, now stretching out, the encompassing white slip through the cloud-like image it has become.
The cloud-like image seems to stretch endlessly, or at least that is how he sees it.
The trainee within, stretch back to outside the dojo and back to their home, then seemingly back to their mother’s womb, then going back to earth.
The Dojo stretches forward to wreckage and dust, along with the white marble growing cracked and withering, before it gets grown over by nature, and consumed back to earth.
At least it's how he sees and interprets, the cloud-like substance now becomes so thin they mixed with each other, mixing in and out of the land he suddenly stands upon, which also seems to blur in and out.
The human mind doesn't tend to be well-equipped in comprehending the totality of space and time.
Even a mind as trained as he is can only keep up with it so much. The gear, which kept spinning and spinning faster, is now in danger of creaking out of its socket and tearing itself out through momentum.
And yet, his eyes still continued to see, even as he felt himself becoming as thin as his own body, blurring to a cloud of possibilities.
He clearly sees every part, every cell, every singular element within his body, stretched out infinitely from the past to the future.
It made a thin, firm line, connecting him to the earth he stand on, the planet he lives on, the cosmos he inhabited in.
He sees, through that line, that he comes from the earth, which comes from the planet, which comes from the cosmos, and stretches to a beginning too far from him to comprehend.
He sees, through that line, that he will return to earth, which will return to the planet, which will return to the cosmos, and reach to an ending too far from him to comprehend.
And, for just a single infinitesimal moment, when his mind started to collapse.
He began to comprehend a single thought, that the beginning and the ending, perhaps, are connected as well…
And all of that, still watched over by an endless white.
“Oh dear, you began to see too much.” (Rose)
“I welcomed your perseverance, but you shouldn't try to bite off more than you can chew. Still, to take a glimpse of what I see every day and try to understand is a magnificent feat."
“But I have to bring you back...Now, to do what Mother does with me back when I am in a trance...”
A singular, silent clap, rang out in his ears.
Immediately, he came back. Back to the Dojo he is in, back to the moment he's still pretending to shout over the trainee.
Back to the moment still locked eyes with the young lady with brown hair and brown eyes, still curiously looking around.
When he dived into the mind of the other side, the time inside ran much faster than the time outside.
This mean, for all the eternity he apparently felt, only a moment has passed.
And the moment after, he feels his back break into a sweat, as if his body compressed back all of his panics into one single release.
He feels disoriented, nauseous, and intense fatigue.
If it isn't for his immense willpower to keep face, he wouldn't be able to keep his arm crossed in an imposing pose, looking like usual.
“(...Shit, what was all that.)” (Headmaster)
"(The way she sees...it's too wide. So wide, that I barely remember what just happened.)”
“(If she can see it all the time like this...then what the hell does she want to learn in this little Dojo I manage anyway…)”
Feeling himself aged over for ten years and barely be able to think, he is scrapping himself up to personally greet her, as she is coming closer again.
----------------------------------------
Skills & Abilities:
[The Eyes Which Peer To The White Abyss
Rank: EX
Description: The eyes trained to never be caught off-guard, have now caught a glimpse of the abyss. With the increased understanding of the true law of the world, the eyes now allow the user to peer deeper than the target's true essence, and into their place in the world.
Effect: Allow the user to look at the target's status. The longer the user focuses their eyes, the more they can learn. The duration needed is proportional to the target's strength.
*Can now peer into the target's past, present and future. In danger of a decrease in sanity if the user looks on for too long.]