The group turned to head towards the boss of the portal. The boss appeared to be a massive stone in the center of the room. It was within a cylindrical field of mana that had a reddish glow. The stone was oblong in shape and tapered to a spike at each end. The stone was not smooth but had jagged edges like it had been picked out of a cave. In the center was a massive pupil that stared at the group. In its entirety it looked like a vertical eye made from a black stone with a red slit pupil.

It stared at the group as they slowly approached it. The group felt a compulsion to keep its gaze as they felt if they didn’t it would lead to something dangerous. As they got closer its focus intensified on the group, and it seemed like gravity was increasing as they felt an immense pressure build around them. It seemed like some people felt the pressure build faster than others. Titania had to stop around seventy feet from the cylinder while John had to stop about twenty feet from it as they seemed to barely be able to stay standing.

Gaia, however, felt no pressure at all while everyone had to stop at least a dozen feet from it. She had her Mana Field out and could feel the mana density around her increase, but it didn’t make her slow down at all. Her mana field reached the edge of the cylinder and barely managed to penetrate the cylinder of condensed mana, allowing a foot of vision within. What she felt she could only describe as pure chaos. The mana within rampaged around and she felt a lightning bolt of mana rebound off the wall of the cylinder and bounce out of range. This was when she realized the cylinder gave off the overwhelming power she’d felt earlier.

When she got within five feet of the cylinder of mana holding the massive stone within, she slowed as she realized everyone had stopped further behind her. Her bonds had made it a bit further than everyone else but still were stuck about ten feet behind her. She started worrying as the monster in front of her was much stronger than something she could deal with. She could tell it was many levels higher than her and at the cusp of ranking up into bronze rank. She went back to her group and tried to help them get closer, but they couldn’t. She had no other choice but to go on herself after realizing this. She walked up to the cylinder of condensed mana and put her hand against it. It felt solid but she could push through it slightly.

It seemed to be highly condensed mana that made a solid wall. When she pushed her hand against it, her hand started to push it inward. She pushed her hand through it, and it passed through the surface of the cylinder. There wasn’t any pain just a tingling feeling as her fingers reached the other side. She pushed her entire arm in and still just felt a tingling feeling. Eventually, she pushed her entire body through the film around the cylinder. When she was through the tingling felt more like small electric shocks that struck her body randomly.

She pushed her mana field out but met a lot of resistance. It only reached about a foot from her body, and she could feel the mana around her being extremely chaotic. There was no order to it. It appeared like lightning and shot around randomly in every direction, only rebounding when striking the mana wall, she’d passed though.

She was almost floating in the chaotic mana and had no control over what direction she went. The lightning would just strike her giving an electric shock before she started moving in whatever direction it pushed her in. The shocks of electricity were somehow absorbed by her as she never felt the energy leave her. The more the lightning struck her, the more mana was absorbed into her. It made her feel energized, but she could feel the energy building.

She felt that if she couldn’t find a way to release it, she might be overloaded from the concentration of mana they forced into her. She was starting to panic as the trapped mana rampaged through her body. As it built, she started to feel it causing damage to her. She started to feel some pain as it chaotically mounted around within her flowing wherever it pleased. The mana was causing a lot of problems within her and she could feel the damage being done. It felt like she had lightning coursing through her but couldn’t go anywhere.

The more chaotic mana that was injected into her, the more she started to understand it. It was almost like chaos incarnate. She tried to circulate it as the concentration within her increased, but it refused to follow her will. The chaotic nature of the mana made it extremely hard to gain the slightest bit of control over it. The more she tried to force it to follow her will the harder it became to control. Eventually she started to let it flow how it desired while focusing on it.

As she focused on it, she could feel it burning some kind of pathways through her. It was painful but not nearly as bad as the ritual for her leg had been. The pathways were small at first, but she started to notice that as they were created the chaotic mana started to flow through them. The pathways appeared random at first, but she started to notice the smallest bit of order to them. They went through every part of her body from the tips of her toes to the top of her head.

She didn’t know what they did but could feel the chaotic mana flowing more and more easily as time passed. The overloading of the mana started to lessen as the mana started to follow the new pathways. Soon the chaos lightning started to strike her less and less until she couldn’t feel any new strikes. She started floating towards the center of the cylinder where the massive stone was and put out her hand to touch it.

When her hand touched it, she heard an ear shattering screech as the stone felt slick. It felt like it had some kind of liquid surrounding it. When she took her hand off it, she felt the stone start to shudder. She quickly floated out towards the edge of the cylinder. She didn’t realize it at the time but now that the chaotic mana was absorbed, her mana field once again sprang out to its usual fifty-foot range. Once at the edge she felt the stone swiftly start to shrink. It shrank from being as large as a building to being just small enough to fit in someone’s hand.

Once it had completely shrunk down, she felt it move and land in her hand. It felt like a regular oblong, albeit slightly jagged, stone when it touched her hand. After that, she put it in her pocket and pushed through the wall of mana that had surrounded it. As she did, everyone else quickly surrounded her and started asking questions.

“Are you alright?” Titania asked.

“What in the world was that thing?” Jess asked.

“How come it didn’t effect you?” Francois asked.

“You gonna be, okay?” John asked.

“I’m fine for the most part at least. I have no idea what it was. I don’t know why it didn’t affect me or why you all stopped, and I should be alright.” Gaia replied to everyone’s questions.

“Well, thankfully the portal counts whatever happened as defeating the boss. I can see the portal on the other side of the cylinder. For now, I say we get out of here. The other monsters are creepy.” Titania stated.

“What other monsters? All I could feel was a gaze on me, but it was never hostile or close enough for me to see it in my Mana Field.” Gaia said.

The group all exchanged looks before letting out a sigh. “You might have been the bane of this portal’s monsters.” Francois muttered.

“What do you mean?” Gaia asked.

“The monsters seem to try and scare people by always following and barely being able to see them. You on the other hand can’t see them making you immune to their abilities.” John said.

Gaia thought about that while they made their way through the waist high plastic balls towards the exit portal. She guessed he might have been right. Malachite had feared something he’d seen but she hadn’t noticed anything scary aside from the power the cylinder had given off. She was thankful that she hadn’t come across any monsters that seemed hostile while she was in the portal.

The group passed through the portal and Gaia once again noticed the odd gaze and shaped her Mana Field to try and see it. When she did, she almost laughed before she left. The monsters were clowns, while she’d been afraid of them back on earth since they were creepy, she didn’t feel the slightest bit of fear towards them. She laughed because had she been able to see it, she probably would have been scared.

Gaia passed through the portal immediately after as the monster clown that had followed her from the beginning had an existential crisis. The weird human had left and laughed at it. A being meant to cause fear was laughed at. This was when it noticed it felt something it shouldn’t be possible for it to feel. It felt fear towards the odd being that laughed as she left. Then its entire world crumbled around it.

Gaia stepped through the portal and her foot touched the cool wood that made the floor of her room. She immediately relaxed and slumped onto her bed worn out from the day. She checked the doorway with her Mana Field and the portal was gone. A few moments later, Griff and Fergus had rushed in and hugged her. They’d been worried sick for the last ten or twelve hours as Gaia and Flora were inside the portal. The entire Flora party were also in her room slumped on the floor or in the chair she had.

They’d gotten hurt a few times from fighting the clown monsters. Titania had had the worst injury which had taken Jess an hour to heal as she wasn’t a dedicated healer. After they realized Gaia was alright, Fergus and Griff started to check on everybody. It seemed everyone was healed and didn’t have any open wounds so they just relaxed. Gaia was surrounded by her bonds and Fergus who was hugging her close. Everyone was just resting and after around fifteen minutes everyone who had gone into the portal were sleeping.

The last part where they had to struggle up to the boss had drained most of their remaining strength. Gaia was exhausted from dealing with what she now dubbed the Chaos Lightning. It had burned some kind of pathways in her body which shouldn’t have been possible. Mana wasn’t supposed to go through pathways in a person. The only one that possibly had pathways was Griff, but that was a discussion for the next day.

The next morning everyone woke up one by one to realize they had all fallen asleep on the floor of Gaia’s inn room. Griff had been the first one to wake up and went to get breakfast for the exhausted group. Fergus had woken up but wasn’t willing to move, and likely couldn’t, from what Griff saw. Fergus was leaned against the wall while hugging Gaia and had Shadow splayed belly up over their laps, Liv sitting on his head weaving something, and Malachite napping in his small form on Shadow’s belly.

Griff had to bring the food back in multiple trips and every time he returned someone else had woken up. The last to wake up was Gaia who awoke when Griff went to wake her up and he got shocked.

“What was that?” He asked as he yanked his hand away.

“What?” She asked a bit groggily.

“I just got shocked. Do you know what that was?” He asked again.

“I don’t know. I know there was some kind of mana that seemed like lightning… Which I kinda absorbed.” She said after thinking.

“What?!” Griff yelled.

“Let me check if it’ll show on my status.” Gaia replied as she pulled up her status.

She checked her status and noticed she’d gained a few different things since she’d last checked.

Name – Gaia

Level – 35

Titles:

Broken Spirit – The holders spirit has been broken to pieces. The holders spirit has further merged with the body. Holders body is partially spiritual. Bound attributes effect the body. Slight resistance to physical damage. Spiritual bonds hold shards of the spirit.

Abilities:

Chaos Infused – Chaos Mana has created mana pathways within the body. Allows for sudden bursts of speed and power. Activates randomly. Effects mana randomly. Training is required for control.

Strength – 45 (Unbound)

Resistance – 550 (Radiation)

Recovery – 186 (Unbound)

Reflex – 100 (Chaos)

Spirit – 670 (Poison)

Her reflex stat now had a bound attribute. The attribute scared her a bit as it just added to the list of attributes that had bad connotations. She now had three attributes bound and all of them were harmful attributes. She seemed to be getting darker and darker attributes bound to her which made her worry. She guessed the Chaos Infused ability and chaos bound reflex stat is what caused the small shock to Griff earlier.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

She’d also gained a new title. She guessed that was from the ritual for her leg as her spirit had literally been split. It also may have affected more than just her leg as it was something that truly changed her spirit. It forced her new leg and spirit together which made her spirit start doing the same for the rest of her body. It also seemed to affect her bonds since they’re connected through her spirit.

She didn’t like how that sounded but it wasn’t like she could change it. It did give her some comfort knowing her bonds helped keep her spirit together though. It made her feel they had a deeper connection, even if it wasn’t necessarily a good thing that caused it. She was brought from her thoughts by Fergus who shook her and she remembered what she was checking.

“Right. Sorry. I got a new bound attribute and ability. The bound attribute is Chaos and the ability is Chaos Infused. They seem to activate randomly...” She replied. Her voice trailing off at the end.

She heard Griff breathe out a heavy sigh and he put his face in his hands. “What in the world are we going to do with you? Abilities aren’t supposed to be acquired this quickly! It’s ridiculous even if you were a human. Granted each one was due to something ridiculous happening to you.” Griff replied tiredly.

“Honestly, I can’t tell if you have really good luck or really bad luck.” Fergus said.

“At this point I’d say bad.” Titania added.

“Same. Every time she gains something is due to some big injury, some new monster, or something that’s just ridiculous happening. Same goes for this time.” Francois said.

“True. She just can’t seem to catch a break.” Jess said.

“The problem right now is that this new ability activates randomly.” Griff said.

“It says I need to train with it to get any control.” Gaia stated.

“Great. Any idea how to do that?” Fergus asked.

Everyone went silent as they thought but a moment later they replied in unison. “Nope.”

Gaia tried to get up but suddenly slammed her head into the ceiling as her new ability activated. The groups quickly ate and they went outside where Gaia tried to train her new ability to gain some control over it. It wasn’t going well. She would be moving normally when suddenly she had a burst of power from her foot and she suddenly jumped ten feet forward. There were a few times where it caused her to face plant as her leg suddenly moved much quicker and she tripped.

It was extremely frustrating as she had absolutely no power over it. She could barely feel the pathways it had created let alone feeling how it travelled along them. The only thing she could tell was that whenever it activated in her foot, she could feel the pathway that ended in that foot spark. She could also feel some chaotic mana shoot out from wherever it activated. She’d nearly punched Fergus due to it, granted she couldn’t hurt him but she didn’t trust the chaotic mana to have the same restraints.

The pathways travelled throughout her body and she jerked randomly whenever it activated. Thankfully, the pathways mostly ended at her feet and hands. It was usually just a sudden burst of speed in her arm or leg or sudden bursts of power from her foot or hand. By the end of the day she had started to be able to feel the chaos mana a moment before it activated. She felt she would need to feel the mana travel throughout the pathways before she could try and gain any control.

Thus, it was back to training before she even dared to take on a request again. She made Griff and Fergus do at least one request a day so they could still afford their inn rooms. She trained all day every day for a week and a half before she had a grasp on the Chaotic Mana. She could now keep it from activating randomly if she concentrated on it.

Thankfully, there was another benefit from her title Broken Spirit it made it easier for her to split her attention and concentrate on multiple things at once. She noticed it when she was starting to feel the mana traveling the pathways. She’d been able to focus on the mana’s passage while also having a conversation with Liv who was asking for ideas on what she should try to make with her creation skill.

Gaia eventually suggested clothes or armor. She suggested armor for Fergus and Griff as they would get more use out of armor while the clothes she could give to Titania and her party as thanks for all the help they’d given her. Liv agreed as she wanted to make something she hadn’t made yet. She started making the clothes and armor while Gaia continued to focus on the mana pathways.

Now that she could divert some of her concentration to the mana pathways without it taking her undivided attention, she felt it was almost time to go on requests again. Her biggest worry was if putting her Mana Field up made her lose concentration on the pathways. Furthermore, she wasn’t sure if she could use all of her skills like usual and still concentrate to keep the Chaos under control.

She started by using her Mana Field and was surprised that she had a slightly better feeling of where things were. It was still like before but she felt that its range had increased again and she could feel things a bit more vividly. For example, she could feel Liv’s spirit as a flame like before but could feel it covering her entire center mass. She couldn’t however feel Liv’s legs moving through the mana, just where her center mass was. Before she’d only been able to feel the flame and know something was there but now she had a rough grasp on size.

It was a step forward but she still wanted that blindfold from Summer and Will. She remembered it should be ready but practiced her skills and continued concentrating on her pathways for a while longer before heading over to their shop. She arrived an hour later to find Will and Summer arguing.

“I thought you said it should be ready.” Will yelled.

“I thought it would be but I’m missing something. I don’t know what though.” Summer yelled back.

“Did I come at a bad time?” Gaia asked hesitantly.

“What?” Summer snapped before realizing it was Gaia. “Sorry. No. Just having more trouble with the enchantment of the blindfold that I had thought.” She finished.

“We’re missing something and don’t know what.” Will added.

“Do you have any ideas on what it could be?” Gaia asked.

“We just know it has something to do with sensing mana. We have it so it’ll boost the sense but not to where you can get shapes moving through it.” Summer replied.

Gaia thought about it for a while but couldn’t come up with anything. She decided to just bring out everything she had to see if maybe something would help with it. She didn’t have much but remembered the stone that she got from the odd portal after touching the stone in the mana cylinder. She showed that to them and Summer quickly analyzed everything before stopping at the odd stone.

“This should work almost perfectly!” She exclaimed.

“Where did find this thing?” Will asked.

“An odd portal that opened up in the inn I’m staying at.”

“It’s high stone rank. When I analyzed it, it shows up as a crystallized eye. It seems like we could crush it and infuse it into the blindfold to do what we need though.” Summer replied ecstatically.

“So, that’ll work for what you needed?” Gaia asked.

“It should do what we need it to. I can go do it now and I’ll be done in about an hour since I’ve done all the enchanting. I should just need to crush and infuse this into it for it work.” She said as she quickly ran to the back of the shop.

Gaia waited and talked to Will for about two and a half hours before Summer came back out. She came up and placed a four-foot-long piece of cloth in her hands before speaking.

“This is it. It should have the effects you wanted but I’m not sure how strong the effects will be.” Summer stated.

Gaia had Summer help her put it on and tie it behind her head. Then after a few breaths she pushed out her Mana Field. When she did, she noticed that Summer and Will were showing up as more than just the usual flames and she could sense that the mana completely wrapped around them allowing her to get a decent look at them. They were still more like outlines and when they moved she could sense the movement through her field.

It worked like she wanted it to. She still couldn’t sense the location of non magical things as mana just passed through them naturally. She could, however, sense the shape and movement of people and thus likely monsters within her Mana Field. This was a huge step for her as she could now essentially “see” the area around her outside of objects. If it was alive and had mana, she could sense it move and see it within her barrier. It still wasn’t a perfect image but she could sense the flame like normal, but it had a basic shape.

For example, Will looked like a flame that had heat radiating out in the shape of a humanoid being, and when he moved the heat moved like he did. She couldn’t see each finger move like if she could see him with her eyes but it was a big improvement.

She hugged the couple and thanked them before using pretty much all her cores to pay for the blindfold. It would have been more but since she’d provided the crystallized eye they’d dropped the price by a bit. She then quickly headed back to the inn for the night. She got home much faster than usual as she let the concentration slip slightly and she had a few lucky bursts that sped her up. She quickly concentrated on it again before she arrived.

She walked in and through the tavern area before stopping at the guys room. They should’ve been back long before now so she knocked. She had her Mana Field pushed out but the doors to the inn rooms were luckily able to block mana abilities.

“Come in.” She heard Griff say.

She opened the door and the two quickly stiffened when they noticed her Mana Field up. She was able to sense them move around just like she had with Summer and Will. She had a giant smile on her face when she realized that and quickly walked over and hugged them both.

“I can kinda sense where everyone is now in my Mana Field! I can sense when things move through it. I can’t sense each of your fingers moving but I can sense when your arms or legs do!” She said ecstatically as she hugged them.

They were stunned. They had been hoping for a way to help her be able to see things in any way but had slowly lost their hope of doing so. Now she had a way to somewhat see people moving. They quickly asked about basic objects like the bed and seats but their hopes were dashed when she said no. She could only see things that had souls like people or monsters. They celebrated nonetheless and had some desserts that Fergus had ordered. They were similar to turnovers and he had a few different kinds.

After eating they continued their usual pastime of telling stories. This time it was Gaia’s turn and she started telling them about her childhood. She’d grown up loved by her family, was the youngest of three children, and was pretty smart. She also told them her favorite thing to learn about was Mythology. They asked what that meant and she started by telling them about some of the myths from earth. She started by telling them about some of the monsters from myths like the Minotaur, Sirens, Mermaids, and the Kraken. After explaining what the creatures were they stopped her.

“You have these monsters on your world? We have them here too.” Griff stated.

“These are creatures that are extremely deadly and at least adamantine rank here. How were you able to kill them without magic?” Fergus asked.

“We’ve never actually seen them. These are stories passed down from civilizations that perished long before I was even born. We don’t have proof they exist on my world.” Gaia explained.

“That makes sense for mermaids at least.” Griff muttered.

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“You described mermaids as beautiful people with fish-like tails for their legs about the size of a regular person. They’re not like that here. They’re terrifying creatures that, while look similar to how you described are the size of a regular ship if not bigger. At least from what I’ve heard.” He stated.

Gaia just stopped talking for a while after hearing that. That was indeed terrifying to think about. It made her think about what else could be different about this world. They had similar creatures from what she’d come to understand by telling them about some of the myths she knew. Were all of the monsters different in some kind of way? If so how were they different?

The thoughts scared her and she quickly changed the topic after that by telling them about television and those kinds of things. This thankfully helped her mind calm down from the thoughts of what monsters could exist here. Griff and Fergus were fascinated by the things people on earth had created using science instead of magic and mana.

They were especially interested in how people were able to have pictures and sound played through a singular device. She didn’t know much about how they actually worked but explained what little she knew. She promised to try and take them to earth if she ever ended up going back as she knew they’d like it. Griff would love to learn about new things and Fergus would love how different everything was. After she finished her rudimentary explanation they decided to head to bed.