When we entered the camp, walking while wearing heavy cuffs was slower than I thought, I was surprised from what I saw inside. From the snippets of the mercenary's talk, about legions and purist empire, I believed that this roman looking encampment was going to be populated by simple humans. 

Instead the personnel was all composed by various kind of "gifted" people, using Llanfil's words, reptilekin, birdkin and so on. Unlike my fully armored escorts, which were hiding any body features, the various people inside the palisade were equipped in various kind of armour. Ranging from light leather one to simple sturdy clothes, they all showed pretty clearly their gift.

The official, that preceded our little procession, was discussing with a soldier and apparently complimenting him. The man was a birdkin, big eyes and feathers in his hairs showed his gift, judging from the bright yellow of his features maybe a canary. Than I connected the dot, my gut feeling strengthened my theory, the sonic attack that made me double over was hiss doing.

Apart from my wild guess, my walk continued until we all reached a low wooden structure. A sturdy grate acted like a door that showed, when the soldier flanking it opened, a deep pit decorated by wood poles. It was at one of those that the soldier fixed the chains of my cuffs. I wasn't going to be able to move much, but at least the length of the chains permitted me to sit on the ground.

When the soldiers made sure I was secured in place, they started exiting the prison never giving me their back. Only when the heavy grate closed behind them, they seemed to relax and started to whisper between themselves. Even if the poles fixed on the prison's ground were nine, every pole housed three cuffing rings, and the space was aplenty, only one other prisoner was inside there with me.

She was cuffed at the furthest pole from me, and only the little rustling noise made me aware of her presence. She was in rags, literally smeared with the same earth colour that surrounded us. Her wary eyes, and wounded status, showed how much she was struggling in there. Maybe she tried to slip out of the cuffs, or she moved too much, but the dry blood around the metal parts was telling a story of it's own.

I ignored her, I had few idea of why they were leaving another prisoner with me, and sitting an the ground I started working on my long to do list. With my limited range of option I first checked if magic was possible, but, confirming my pessimistic hunch, when I tried to manifest a simple flame the cuffs lighted up and seemingly absorbing the mana I had projected. So no magic allowed, well I had other options.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

I started focusing the mana, just like I learned during the training, not outside my body but inside of it. Used to modify, temporarily or definitively was only a matter of repetition, various parts of one's body this was the technique Ausas was strongest in.

I closed my eyes and focused on them, the insane number of times I did this before helped, and started imagining their physical structure. Carefully, I didn't want to go partially blind like the first hundred times, I first tweaked one and then started working on the other. What I was doing was basically giving myself an eyesight and the night vision comparable to that of a tarsier. Accomplishing that feat without enlarging the eye itself was the tricky part, and remembering all the step necessary even more so.

When the reconstruction and overhaul ended I had practically, starting from the cornea to the lens and retina, replaced both my eyes with new ones. The best thing about using mana to stimulate that kind of tissue alteration was that I used little to nothing of my scarce mp. The downside was that full concentration was needed, hence my need to find a safe place. Ausas and Llanfil both had warned me to always have my guard up in the wild, this planet's fauna and flora were as unforgiving and dangerous as Earth's ones.

When I opened my new eyes the change from before was abysmal, I could see as clearly as a bird of prey, and entertain myself counting the wood knots on the ceiling, also it was like an halogen light shined on all the cell. But my musing were interrupted by a system window.

New Magic/Skill UnlockedEnhanced Vision Unlocked

Enhanced Vision => Enhanced Vision I

Enhanced Vision I => Enhanced Vision II

Enhanced Vision II => Enhanced Vision III