“Get into the cage.”
I complied, going into the cage and sitting down.
“Good, I like obedient followers, I don’t have to train you now, some of the boys here could learn from example.”
Most of the men quietly laughed.
“Boy’s, carry the cage, we’re taking him home.”
The plan is going swimmingly, the ‘boys’ pick up the cage with a grunt and we start heading to wherever they’re taking me.
We don’t go very far, the betting matches are already in the sewers, they must have also claimed a part of it.
Why is every bad guy base in the sewers? I'd think they’d want something more luxurious, like, I don’t know a castle, of course, they would also have to build a castle to do that, and they seem too lazy.
It was a large square area, one corner had beds, the other had dumbbells.
I guess weight lifting is a thing in this world, maybe it passively increases your strength stat.
“Set his cage in the secret place.”
“Boss, but what if he’s an enemy spy?”
“What enemy, the guards? Do you really think he’s intelligent anyway, he lets me call him scarf.”
“Okay, if you say so.”
They brought me up to the wall, then one guy hit a spot on the wall and it opened.
A secret door, that’s honestly kind of cool.
If I get a house after my apartment, I’m having a secret basement, I don’t know what I’ll put in it, but it’s a secret basement, I’ll find something.
The door opened and we went through, and what I found was a lot of cages.
Lots of cages, full and empty, mostly dragons, but behemoths weren’t rare.
There was one in the very corner of the room that made all of the other ones look like cages for suvunktahs.
It had a giant behemoth hippo in it, except it had giant tusks that looked sharp enough to cut the entire cage.
Its eyes were cut out, but when I used analysis it showed true vision, same as that mother dragon and the ostrich.
It was also LVL 700, why would they follow the boss guy if it was 700.
This is the single strongest monster I have ever seen besides Suvunkilbub.
“You see that meat sack, he looks strong right, wrong, he is the biggest pansy I’ve ever had, won’t attack no matter what I do, he’s lost me over four hundred zoulx.”
Then something changed, the hippo got up.
The people holding my cage dropped me and hid behind it.
“Eeee, boss, what is it doing.”
“I don’t know, all the big pig does is sleep, I’ve tried starving it but all it does is sleep over it.”
“Oh my, I thought Suvunkilbub had come for me, but it looks like I was wrong, you are too weak for Suvunkilbub to have posed the risk, happy coincidence, though for Suvunkilbub to choose you, lucky you weren’t chosen by Weler or Dunga, I would’ve killed you instantly if you were.”
She went back to sleeping.
Okay that, was something I need time to process.
Sleeping hippo wakes up and talks about divine beasts, and that one is Suvunkilbub was supposed to come to get it.
“Did it stop?”
“I think so.”
“Where’s boss?”
“I saw him run, he does treat everything here like garbage, must have thought it wanted revenge.”
“I guess we should go get him.”
“Yeah, we’ll just leave the bird here, he’s in a cage, he couldn’t possibly get out.”
They all left to find their boss.
I open the cage with telekinesis.
The room smelled bad, but that’s probably because this is a warehouse of cages full of wild animals.
I walk up to some of them and they don’t move, looking sad, some look up at me, but most of them quickly look down.
“Are you wondering why they all look sad?”
A monkey spoke up, “Why do we look sad, I don’t know, maybe it’s because we’ve been forced to fight for our lives against our will for humans gain, maybe it’s because most of us are hungry, maybe it’s because we can’t see our children!”
“Thank you, monkey.”
“No problem!”
“I have a question, why don’t you help everyone escape?”
“Because most of them came from faraway places, if I let them out then they would be in a completely different ecosystem with common skills they don’t even know about and they don’t know where territories are, they could walk into a strong dragons area and instantly die, it’s better if I let them stay here.”
“So they have no hope?”
“They do, Goustough will come for me when he needs me.”
“Who’s Goustough?”
“The divine beast that chose me, he specializes in space magic, he has the skill to send someone to wherever they want.”
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“That sounds overpowered, but is he friends with Suvunkilbub?”
“Nobodies a friend with Suvunkilbub, but Goustough is on good enough terms.”
“Why is that?”
“She can’t talk, and she usually attacks when she gets offended, multiple gods have gotten a light beam to the face, that leads to grudges, and then if anybody is on friendly terms with Suvunkilbub they get targeted by the people with the grudge, so most divine beasts and gods try to avoid her. But she is the twelfth strongest divine being, and one of five divine beasts in the top fifteen strongest beings.”
“Wow, she hasn’t told me any of that.”
“Of course not, she can’t speak.”
“Well, she can, just faster and higher pitched than you can understand.”
It was silent for a moment.
“Wait, really.”
“Yeah, her reaction time is about ten times a normal mind, everybody is in slow motion for her, and she can’t slow down her speech enough to be heard by the normal ear.”
“Now I feel bad, there are quite a lot of monsters that make fun of Suvunkilbub for not being able to speak, but how can you comprehend her?”
“I have a skill to increase my reaction time.”
“That’s possible?”
“Apparently.”
“Talking to you has been... enlightening, is there anything else you want to ask.”
“What is true vision?”
“Oh that, well, it’s the title you get when you are able to see MP.”
“You can see MP?”
“Yes, it is useful to see Monsters through walls as well as see how strong they are.”
“What’s it like?”
“It’s colorless, yet it is the greatest advantage you can have, you get to know how strong your enemy is, as well as their location at all times.”
“Is it possible for me to do it?”
“Yes, of course, there are two methods to do it, the easiest way is to get rid of your vision completely, and then focus on your surroundings, your body will assist you with regaining your sense of sight, though you will never get your sight back, even if you use healing magic it won’t come back.”
“By getting rid of my vision entirely you mean gouge my eyes out?”
“Yes, it is the easiest way, as well as the more popular way.”
“Then what’s the second way?”
“Focus on your surroundings in a dark area, it won’t work in the light because you can still see the light that shines through your eyelids.”
“Is that it?”
“Yes, but it is exponentially more difficult because your body won’t assist you with your new eyesight because it doesn’t need to.”
“Well, thank you, and I hope we can stay friends.”
“If we meet again.”
“Well, I’m off to rob these guys with my party.”
“Do as you please, I won’t lose sleep over these peoples' losses.”
“Thank you.”
I walked back to my cage, and then shut my eyes, trying to focus on my surroundings.
Then an idea pops into my head, what if I focus on the outer mp manipulation, it’s still technically MP, so would it be easier to focus on that?
The room is dark enough that I have to use night vision to see, a skill I got in my first week in this world but haven’t really used it.
I closed my eyes and put my head close to the ground, but I couldn’t fully push my eyes towards the ground because my beak was there.
I use my wings to cover my head, not letting light in.
I use the skill for the first time in a while.
It feels like the air is trembling around me.
The world goes silent as I focus on the air around me, looking for something in the air, something in it, or something behind it, a single sign.
I feel a sort of interference with the air, like something I can’t comprehend is making it bounce and shiver.
Are these, the other monsters, is this how the MP reacts when it hits them.
I’m a monster, does my MP feel like this.
I then activate MP manipulation, seeing if I can sense my own MP.
A sports drink flavor enters my mouth, breaking my concentration.
Looks like this might take a while.
“Cheating won’t get you far.”
It surprised me.
“What do you mean I’m cheating?”
“You’re somehow moving the MP to see where things are, True Vision is where you can see everything without technically seeing. Though it might help you feel what MP is like, True Vision is more of a sense than a feeling, you’re trying to feel everything.”
“That’s so cryptic.”
“If you don’t feel like figuring it out you could try cutting your eyes out.”
“No thanks.”
So I have to try to sense it, isn’t sensing something feeling it, or are they just mixed together.
I try again and this time I try MP manipulation outside my body.
The difference between mp manipulation and outer MP manipulation is that MP manipulation uses my MP to do things, outer MP manipulation uses the MP in the air instead.
I could always use MP Manipulation outside my body, it’s just easier to use it inside for breath attacks.
I try to probe it with Outer MP manipulation, but then remember the Hippo’s words, trying to sense it.
Moving it around causes me to focus on moving it, and that’s the opposite of what I need, I just need to naturally sense it.
Sensing wouldn’t be so hard if it wasn’t so vague.
I just couldn’t do it because I knew it was there.
So I scrapped the MP Manipulation and just tried to sense the animals around me.
It’s almost like trying to guess if a monster is in the dark or not.
I can’t see anything, of course, it’s dark, but that’s apparently the whole point as well, I need to see without seeing.
Why does this seem like an old Chinese master is teaching me kung fu, but is teaching me in a roundabout way?
Maybe I can get more clues if I ask the hippo.
“Hey what was it like when you got your True Sight?”
“That was a very long time ago, from what I remember it was quiet.”
“Quiet, but you told me to just get rid of sight?”
Wait, if the body helps you with getting true vision, what does it actually do to help you?
“I don’t remember much, but it was kind of an empty feeling.”
“Empty?”
“And then everything came back when it said that I got true vision.”
Then does the body help you by getting rid of the rest of your senses?
“Thanks, that might’ve helped.”
“Your welcome, though I doubt you’ll get it the first day you try.”
“Now you’re jinxing yourself.”
“Excuse me?”
I close my eyes, then tried to focus on nothing.
I tried to get rid of all of my senses, be completely empty.
For a while, nothing happened at all.
Then I sensed something move, it’s an odd feeling, like I’m looking, hearing, smelling, and tasting, yes tasting, don’t be weird about it.
Then it’s range slowly expanded, I felt this because I sensed more things.
First the closest cages, and yes I just didn’t just sense living things, I could tell the cages were there because for some reason the MP was sticking to it.
It slowly expanded until it filled the entire room, and then it started expanding more, flowing outside of the room.
I sensed Unix, close by, but far enough apart to be sensed by normal skills.
I sensed the boss guy, coming back with his men, laughing nervously.
I felt each of their strengths, how I would fare against them.
And finally, true vision came to me.
"You have gained: Special title- True Vision"