Later in the day, Nick had his second encounter with the mysterious, vision-devouring weather known as blackmist. Fortunately, by this time he had left the lakelands behind him, moving on to cross rocky terrain featuring scattered trees and long swaths of solid ground. He would have been in serious trouble if it had caught him near the water, since the mist flowed across the bog with incredible speed.
He only had a few minutes to prepare before it overtook him, even though he had seen the tide of midnight coming from miles away. In the end, Nick had just enough time to set his back against a boulder, pull out his sword, and take up his stance, before the jet-black fog rolled over him, stealing the light of the world and depriving him of the sense that he relied on the most.
The first time had been bad enough, but being consumed by the blackmist while down on the bog was so much worse. It was terrifying being rendered blind in such a treacherous stretch of wilderness, home to powerful predatory beasts, not to mention the creature he had run into back on his first day on the planet. Calm down Nick. It didn't react to your presence until you touched it last time.
He called upon his arctic clarity to help him focus, forcing himself to breathe deep and open his other senses, instead of getting caught up by his impairment. To concentrate on making it through this ordeal, rather than imagining what might be coming at him from any direction. With his eyes out of play, Nick placed his attention into his hearing. He cupped one hand behind his ear, listening for the approach of anything dangerous.
After the rush of adrenaline faded away, his heart began to slow. Pressing his back into the stone, he started to analyze the way that the mist distorted his senses while waiting for the bank to pass. Although his sight had been taken from him and the sounds were warped, his ears were still able to pick up clues from his surroundings.
While it was hard to tell exactly what he was hearing, Nick thought that he could still track the direction of various sounds with some degree of accuracy. Maybe if I wind up being caught in this stuff enough times, I can learn to adapt, at least to the extent that I can still aim my wand or anticipate a blow.
Since the source of the distortion was carried in the air, he sat down and put one ear to the ground, pleased to learn that the mist couldn’t warp the vibrations carried through the rock and soil. If something big was headed his way from the waterline, he should be able to track its presence well before it arrived, thanks to the upgrades to his senses that had come with improving his mind. While the mist was certainly dangerous, this discovery made him feel just a little bit better. Maybe he could figure out some additional tricks over time.
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Fortunately, since the mist flowed so fast, it didn’t take long for the bank to pass him by. Better still, the smaller patches didn’t appear to have any of the feathered beasts dwelling within. Ten minutes after it erased the landscape around him, the waves of blackmist rolled past to reveal light and color once more, like a layer of ink running down a pane of glass protecting a painting. As soon as he could see again, he resumed his journey across the marsh.
He spotted the blackmist out in the distance throughout the remainder of the day, relieved that none of it came his way. Whenever he noticed it flowing across the bog, Nick stopped to study the phenomenon as closely as he could. He began trying to teach himself how to predict its heading. To estimate how long it would take for the mist to cross the marsh.
He was most worried about being caught in the stuff while traveling near the water’s edge, when one wrong step could send him tumbling into the bog. As a precaution, every time that his path took him close to a lake or stream, he scanned the horizon in every direction, seeking any sign of approaching blackmist, then moving past the waterways as quickly as he could.
Nick began taking short breaks throughout the day. In part to keep him from getting too stressed out, but also so that he could continue training his skills. He hoped to make significant progress with sword, throwing, and evasion before he entered the tower. Taking some time to work on them now would pay dividends later down the road.
By now, he had come to realize that there was more than one part to learning from his skills. The first stage was the raw feedback they provided, a sense of rightness when he was performing in a manner that worked well, and a heightened sense of inefficiencies and errors in his movements when he wasn’t. The second part was internalizing the guidance that his skills offered, integrating the proper way of moving into his muscle memory, so that he did it reflexively without the need for intervention.
The third part was reflecting on what he’d learned, expanding his theoretical understanding of the entire process, and then incorporating it to revise his existing tactics, plans, and contingencies. As he did so, his skills would continue to improve, taking the feedback they provided to the next level of precision, so that he could start the whole cycle over again.
During these rests, he also spent a few minutes trying to sense his stamina, health, and mana, which he judged to be just as important as boosting his skills. While Nick was gradually learning how to feel the pool of mana residing within his energetic core, he hadn’t been able to sense his health or stamina since entering the bog, although he was convinced that he would figure out the trick sooner or later.