29 The Insight Glasses
1512 Words
“I’m sold, you’re in!” Haya bellowed in excitement; the tan man’s eyes were basically shining after hearing the younger man’s words.
Kedrick hyped up the young man’s skill, as well and kept cheering on the young apprentice’s ability.
The commotion caused everyone in the room to stare at them, prompting Abheek to lower his head in embarrassment.
Kawan looked at the young man with doting eyes—staring at Abheek, as if a father staring at his son, and praised him, “Great job in putting yourself out there, Abheek!”
The tawny-skinned apprentice just nodded his head in appreciation and looked up at Thaleos’ in expectation.
The difference in expression was definitely noticeable, as the younger man usually had a stoic look in his eyes.
The beast tamer found the shy gesture endearing and merely raised his eyebrows in agreement.
Everyone welcomed the newest member with warm smiles.
After packing his stuff up, they all exited the cozy lodge and went back to the Melam Military Base.
~ ~ ~
“So, what am I supposed to do again?” Abheek quietly asked. The young man felt like everything moved so fast and that he was forced to go with the flow.
Thaleos understood how the young alchemist might be overwhelmed and gently explained his task.
“You just need to extract the golden essence from the gorilla’s eyes and rub it on these interdimensional glasses.” The young apprentice slowly nodded his head.
Then the beast tamer continued, “You need to make insight glasses. These special pairs of glasses are used to check the enemy's power status.” Abheek just stared at the older man, as if already analyzing how to properly create those insight glasses.
They were all currently seated in Haya’s lab, waiting for the apprentice alchemist to start creating the insight glasses.
When Haya saw the confusion in the young man’s eyes, he understood how some unique inventions need more time to perfect.
So, he decided to read James’ journal entry to explain the premise and purpose of the insight glasses.
After listening to Haya reading the text aloud, everything seemed to click in Abheek’s head and he immediately started getting to work.
The young man felt unnerved by everyone’s stare and muttered with an expressionless face,
“This might take time, so give me a couple of hours.”
~ ~ ~
“Thaleos, Sir, it’s finally done!” Abheek exclaimed in excitement, but in a subdued tone. The young man was sweating buckets, but still had this small smile of success.
The three of them immediately stood up from the long graphite-colored couch and headed straight to the lab.
After seeing the golden pair of glasses sitting atop Haya’s desk, they were in awe.
“That looks so f*****g cool.” Kedrick remarked while slowly observing the golden specks floating around the glasses.
“Wow, this looks kinda different compared to James’ description,” Haya muttered under his breath, as he stared at the slightly tinted lens.
“Well, yeah. I added some of crush siren scales to stabilize its coating.” Abheek responded while writing something down in his notebook.
Thaleos was amazed at the output and slowly took the pair of golden glasses. The light-weighted glass felt so smooth.
He cautiously wore it and stared at the three other men. He first took a good look at Haya, who was staring at him in expectation.
The glasses showed the following details:
Name: Haya Keli’l
Age: 25 years old
Job: Berserker
Level: 8
Attack Points: 195 points
Health Points: 205 points
Stamina Points: 205 points
Magic Points: 155 points
Specialized Skills: Berserker Fury
General Skills: Alchemy
HP Armor: 0
Attack Weapon: 0
Intelligence Points: 80 points
Current Experience: 225 XP
After dwelling for another second or two, he moved his head towards Kedrick’s direction.
Name: Kedrick Costa
Age: 32 years old
Job: Priest
Level: 7
Attack Points: 175 points
Health Points: 250 points
Stamina Points: 250 points
Magic Points: 155 points
Specialized Skills: Healing Sphere Skill, Regenerator Passive Skill, Ward Off Evil Skill
General Skills: Healing
HP Armor: 0
Attack Weapon: 0
Intelligence Points: 60 points
Current Experience: 215 XP
Then, finally, he looked at Abheek’s power status and was pretty impressed with what he saw,
Name: Abheek Sallow
Age: 18 years old
Job: Necromancer
Level: 6
Attack Points: 205 points
Health Points: 195 points
Stamina Points: 180 points
Magic Points: 175 points
Specialized Skills: Reanimate
General Skills: Alchemy
HP Armor: 0
Attack Weapon: 0
Intelligence Points: 150 points
Current Experience: 195 XP
After confirming that the glasses were working perfectly well, the beast tamer took out four pieces of blood souls from his utility belt and gave it to the young apprentice.
The alchemist’s lips merely twitched, and he nodded his head while accepting the payment.
“What the f**k? Why does he get paid and I don’t?” Haya jokingly protested, making the younger man smile.
~ ~ ~
“Alright, it’s time to go blood soul hunting again.” Thaleos bellowed in excitement as he took out his favorite weapons from the bunker.
Kedrick and Haya just groaned as a response.
“Dude, as if we weren’t slaves in our past corporate jobs. I feel like we never have the time to rest.” The priest complained as he was chewing on some stale chips.
The two men were playing chess while eating some junk food.
“Well, you can choose not to come. If you’re feeling tired, and need a day of just doing nothing, that’s definitely okay.” Once again, the therapist jumped out of Thaleos, and he fully understood how his friends were probably feeling burnt out with the constant fighting.
“Yeah, dude. Just give us a day, and we’ll be all good tomorrow.” Haya said as Kedrick was slowly deciding his next move.
The beast tamer just nodded his head in understanding and started strapping in all his weapons.
Considering that going alone is a bit dangerous, he decided he’ll get Attila the Hen to accompany him in Mount Nergal.
After driving for what seemed like an hour, he finally arrived at the foot of Mount Nergal.
Once checking if he had all his weapons and needed herbs with him, he started hiking through the terrain.
He brought the golden glasses and carefully wore them.
His sight immediately shifted to a tinted one, that showed nearby creatures and their status updates. So far, all that he saw were small white critters avoiding him.
Since leveling a couple of notches up, smaller creatures rarely attacked him.
The usefulness of the Insight Glasses reminded him of the Compass of Lugal-Irra, the one that they unearthed from the riverbed.
He scoured around his bag to find it and was happy to know that it was still in one piece.
The compass has yet to fulfill his purpose as they still don’t know the whereabouts of the Meslamta-Ea’s Aurum Moor.
Looking at the compass reminded him of how far they’ve come along this journey, and how it seemed like it was just a never-ending struggle.
But knowing the contents of James’s journal, he knew there was hope.
Upon hearing a rustle, he swiftly hid the trinket in his bag and crouched to muffle his steps.
He moved his head towards the direction of the noise and saw that it was a lower mid-level elite beast. The Insight Glasses showed him the power status of the beast.
Race: Cornish Faerie
Name: Unknown
Age: 2, 000
Job: Mage
Level: 4
Attack Points: 75 points
Health Points: 115 points
Stamina Points: 145 points
Magic Points: 95 points
Specialized Skills: None
General Skills: None
HP Armor: 0
Attack Weapon: 0
Intelligence Points: 0
Current Experience: 105 XP
After comparing it with the white critters who retained level 1, he understood how the elite creatures they faced are just a couple of levels lower than the player.
He theorized that the elite creatures designed to fight them off were always below their player level. He reckoned that the higher the level, the harder it is to fight these elite creatures.
He forced himself to save the theorizing for later and focus on the matter at hand.
Seeing that the Cornish faerie just seemed to be levitating in one position, he decided to quietly take out his bow and arrow.
Once drenching the arrow’s tip with Abheek’s basic poison potion, he drew the arrow with great force. Steadily staring at the faerie’s mana center gave him the focus that he needed to greatly damage the creature.
Compared to the other beasts that just shrieked in pain, this faerie seemed to be smarter and immediately started healing itself.
Thaleos was momentarily shocked at how the creatures seemed to be robots with hard artificial intelligence settings.
They were steadily learning how to outwit players.
Seeing how it was quickly floating towards his direction, he immediately brought out Attila the Hen from the duel space.
As the chicken perked up its metallic parts, Thaleos took out his black katana and proceeded to slice off the Cornish faerie’s left branch-like hand.
The wooden faerie screamed out in anger and quickly chanted a spell. Soon enough, strong swirls of leaves spun around Thaleos, producing thin slices on his skin.
Attila the Hen tried its best in using its comb to cut off the faerie’s head, but their proportions seemed to be incompatible.
As Thaleos tried to jump out of the mini tornado, the Cornish faerie chanted a more complex spell.
Before the beast tamer knew it, he was being wrapped around in strong vines—their grip akin to a boa constrictor’s.
Thaleos decided to calm himself down and brought out his wolf-eagle and commanded it to quickly push the faerie.
The distracted faerie fell on its back, giving Attila the Hen the chance to attack it with its metal talons.
Just as his two beasts were about to kill of the faerie, they heard a woman’s whispers echoing through the forest.
The sound seemed to calm down the Cornish faerie, as it gradually stopped struggling and proceeded to float away.
The vines returned back to the roots, leaving Thaleos and his beasts confused.
“So, when exactly where you gonna give me that call, again?”
- Writer
