Chapter 29  

After his birthday, what had been broken with Rellan’s death finally started to heal. Their family wasn’t there yet, but they were getting closer.

The days continued in a happier routine. This year Greenside would organize two Spring ceremonies for the children who reached their seventh year. The first was a little more than a month away.

Kai wasn’t sure if he should be happy or sad. He wanted to go back to his training at the estate, but he didn’t want to leave his family.

No point thinking about that now. I still have a whole month. Plenty of time to spend with them and for a lot of things to happen.

After the enforcers of the governor completed their sweep of town, they didn’t prolong their stay much longer. The tense atmosphere in Greenside was soon forgotten, but a few things had changed.

There were no more rallies with members of The Voice of the Ancestors openly inciting the citizens to join and revolt against the Republic. Their mark, previously present throughout the whole town, had been scrubbed or covered.

Old town was kept sparkling clean from any sign of rebel activity. People didn’t even mention them aloud anymore. The graffities of the hand with the spirit sacred symbol appeared again few days later, but it could only be seen on the walls of the shadiest parts of new town, where the local enforcers or respectable citizens did not dare go.

Speaking of which, the captain of the local garrison had been changed again. Kai had never bothered to learn his name or that of the previous one. Who knew, maybe the third would stick around long enough to break the streak. Considering the quality of enforcers sent to Greenside, Kai wouldn’t bet on it.

Today he was reading Dora’s book on mana exercises. He realized he had been training Keen Eye on people all wrong.

Elijah had not been very precise with his instructions, so it wasn’t all his fault. The real opportunity of training Keen Eye in town was to use it together with Mana Sense.

He had already been doing that on plants and goods on sale at the market, but he never tried the combo on people. Not that the idea didn’t cross his mind, but there were complications.

Their mana veins were much more complex than inanimate objects and mana plants. Maybe awakened beasts had something similar, but he never got the chance to examine a living one.

Remembering when he gazed upon his parents long ago, and thought he was seeing all there was, Kai shook his head. How naive he had been. The higher Mana Sense got, the more the patterns expanded and revealed new details. Like an onion with multiple layers, he peeled back one after the other as his senses grew sharper, each time wondering if he had found the last.

Humans had the annoying tendency to not stand still for long, making observing them a frustrating task. He could not follow them and stare for minutes on end without looking like a creep. He had to continue acting normal while using Mana Sense and Keen Eye.

Approaching this problem like one of Dora’s tests, he set himself to gathering enough data before formulating a proper plan, which soon proved its worth.

First, he asked his family to act as test subjects, then went around town looking for people to observe.

Anyone before the age of fourteen had less complex mana channels. Like a second set of veins, they reached every corner of their bodies. Children weren’t exactly simple to study but were not comparable to adults.

The reason was obvious, they had no profession. The profession created a second network of mana channels that followed weird patterns without any apparent logic. There was no rhyme or reason to them.

Kai estimated he could see at least 80% of the normal mana veins, while he could observe less than 10% of the profession network of channels. He was only brushing against the surface. Just looking at them made his head hurt. With his current means and knowledge there was no hope of getting anything out of it.

If adults' mana networks were too confusing, he would start by studying children. Which had the advantage of being easier to observe. At most they called him a weirdo, not like it was the first time.

Kai added a daily stroll around town looking for ideal test subjects to observe.

That does not sound creepy at all.

He took notes of his observations in the journals Dora gave him, using his old plain enchanted pen. His father’s pen was too eye-catching, and he didn’t want to attract any wannabe mugger.

He tried to identify the race grade by judging how much mana an individual possessed. Mind and Spirit increased mana and attributes grew with each race enhancement. However, this method had several problems and soon hit a roadblock.

Judging their race grade from that wasn’t dependable, people’s attributes grew naturally with age and so did their mana. If an older boy was behind his peers at Red ★★ he might have the same mana as a Red ★★★ boy, who got there faster than average but was still young and undeveloped.

After checking his observations, he noticed the exact quantity of mana seemed to vary in every individual randomly. There seemed to be another factor at play he couldn’t identify.

Is this what people refer to as talent with mana? Some people are just born with more?

An instant later his mind went to the obvious question: how talented was he? A clear rabbit hole just waiting to swallow him whole. It took a considerable amount of willpower to stop himself from jumping inside.

He didn’t even know for sure that mana quantity was a measure of talent. With his age and race grade, he was an anomaly. There was no way to compare himself with children to tell if his mana was higher than average.

Adding one more question to the growing list of things to ask Virya or Dora, he moved on. He missed having a teacher with seemingly all the answers at hand. Whenever he tried to answer a question, he came up with three more. He couldn’t let himself get sidetracked.

Focus on the objective: a way to identify the race grade with certainty. Nothing else.

If the quantity of mana didn’t work, he would have to look for other patterns.

As he was doing his daily route taking notes, he looked up to see a group of four kids coming towards him. They were walking with a ridiculous swagger, probably something they tried to copy from adults. Kai was hard-pressed not to laugh. He wasn’t the scared little kid anymore, they had to do better if they wanted to intimidate him.

Unsurprisingly, they were all a couple years older than him. Somehow bullies never went for someone their own size.

As they got closer and Kai kept grinning at their sight, their gait lost part of the confidence.

Really? Should I have looked scared?

The leader of this gang of promising model citizens looked at the boys around him before stepping forward. “What do you think you are doing?”

He was around ten or eleven, the oldest of the cadre. Standing with his legs wide apart, and his hands on his side, in what he probably thought was a power pose. Kai looked at him unimpressed, he estimated his grade was Red ★★★. Average.

“Just looking around,” Kai said casually.

“Well, you should stop. No one wants you here. Go back to your country.” The boss-boy stammered an answer. Seeing Kai not react scared as expected seemed to have thrown a wrench in his plans.

‘This is not how this was supposed to go. I come here, assume the pose daddy uses to get what he wants, the weird kid runs away scared, and I look good in front of my friends.’ Kai could practically read his thoughts.

With a shrug, Kai stared back at the older boy. The memory of the bullies who beat him up during his darkest years coming to the surface. He had been powerless then, but things had changed.

With a glance at his friends watching him, the boy suddenly stepped forward intent on giving him a shove. Kai easily sidestepped the clumsy attempt. It couldn’t have been more telegraphed. He dodged towards the boy with a cold grin instead of away or on the side.

The boy clearly didn’t expect to find his face a few inches from his. Kai just had to hook his leg in position and let gravity do the rest. When the prospective bully tried to jump back, he lost his balance and fell butt first into the muddy street.

Sweeping his gaze toward the other three, he was disappointed to see them retreating, their gazes moving between him and their fallen leader. Making half a step towards them, they immediately turned around and started running.

Seriously!?

Turning back to the only target remaining, the kid paled when he saw his friends leave him behind.

Kai rolled his eyes. With his age advantage his stats were probably not too far from his. However, the prospective bully didn’t seem willing to risk himself without an overwhelming advantage. He scrambled in the mud, falling again in the rush to get away, this time face first.

Kai observed him without making any move as the bully finally managed to get on his two feet and ran away covered in mud.

Honestly, he didn’t know if these were the same kids who beat him up when he was younger, having long forgotten their faces. It had been a cathartic experience anyway if a bit disappointing. He would have hoped for a harder fight.

With one last thoughtful gaze, he walked away without looking back. He had more important things to do than wasting his time like this. He had a study to continue.

It took him a whole day using Mana Sense, and a head-splitting migraine, but he got something. There was a qualitative difference between the grades. It was most obvious when he compared someone Red ★★★ with some young teenager at Orange ★. The mana veins of the latter were clearly more robust and complex, spreading into thin filaments not present in the Red grade.

From there it didn’t take long to recognize the different levels of complexity. From Red ★ to Red ★★★, the mana veins slowly improved in both quality and quantity. With a clear jump between Red and Orange.

After a couple days of effort and observation, he was able to recognize the race grade of anyone under fourteen at a glance.

Without Keen Eye to recognize details and patterns, he would have needed far longer to reach the same result. Checking his skills, Mana Sense gained 1 level and Keen Eye a whole 4.

Kai was happy, but not yet satisfied. Children were supposed to be just the beginning. It was time to move up to the big league and do the same with adults, who had a profession muddling the scene.

It wasn’t as easy to observe adults. From far away Mana Sense wouldn't pick up enough details, while from up close there were high chances of them noticing a weird child staring at them creepily.

Kai wouldn’t let these minor setbacks stop him. Bit by bit he got better at both extricating their mana veins from the professions and sneakily observing people.

*Ding*

New skill added to the Archive! Sneak (lv1) – Moving like a shadow, your targets will have a hard time noticing you.

After a little contemplation, Kai took the skill. He would probably drop it later for a weapon skill, but it sounded too useful for the task at hand. A low Red skill shouldn’t be too bad to discard.

The skill wasn’t infallible but still useful. After many embarrassing situations, successes and failures, Kai found the perfect place to finish his study: the market.

He could peruse the stalls as if he was interested in their goods, while examining the sellers and buyers. This way he would also have stationary targets not likely to pay attention to him while busy examining the products.

Looking for one of the busiest stalls, Kai walked towards one of the fishing sellers. A small crowd of people was looking through the catches of the day and haggling over the price.

He identified his first target, a plump middle-aged woman with a loud voice animatedly arguing with the young fisherman manning the stall. He positioned himself behind her, as if waiting in queue, and activated Mana Sense and Keen Eye.

Disentangling the profession from the mana network, Kai was pretty sure she was Orange ★★, the highest grade he had met so far. He made a mental note to look for older people who might have reached Orange ★★★ and continued his analysis.

Kai had not tried to make sense of professions, but he categorized them into two types based on complexity. He assumed there was some way to advance your profession like you did your race. The fact the younger people presented the easiest configuration, which he called type 1, confirmed his hypothesis.

The woman was a type 2, an evolved profession. That seemed to be the average for the citizens of Greenside: race at Orange ★ or Orange ★★ and their profession type 2.

If people who got to Orange by fourteen, which required 70,000 XP total, were considered promising, it made sense that many people got stuck at those levels. Orange ★★ required 100,000 XP, Orange ★★★ would only require more.

It was a bit sad people didn’t work harder, but who was he to judge? They probably had their reasons. Maybe it got harder and not easier to improve your race after you took a profession.

Speaking of which, advancing a profession must be hard if everyone he met was stuck at the same two stages.

Kai looked for his next target and continued his training. He moved from person to person trying to get faster and more accurate.

He was able to find a type 3 profession. An old fisherman who looked like he spent all his time out in the sea. Kai never wished to know more about professions than right now, it was driving him crazy.

As soon as I get back to the estate, I’ll demand some answers.

Trying to distract his mind, Kai continued his search. He wanted to find someone with an Orange ★★★, but he was having no luck. Type 3 professions were rare, but it appeared achievable by any older person good at their job. The peak of Orange, instead, seemed all but a legend in Greenside.

He noticed he had gotten one more level in Mana Sense for his efforts and smiled. Real life situations seemed even better than strict training to level skills.

He was pleased with the growth, but the true prize would be finding an elusive Orange ★★★ specimen.

The thrill of the hunt was calling to him. How hard could it be?