Bk 2, Chapter 18: Chafing

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Cayden winced as he shifted in his seat on the ground, trying to find a position that was less painful on his sore body. Seven hours of running was enough to leave him sore in places he didn't even know he had muscles – and that wasn't even the worst part.

Even with all his vitality and defensive skills, it wasn't enough to entirely prevent chafing.

Luckily, it wasn't as bad as it could've been. His high vitality was enough to see him halfway healed compared to how he’d felt that morning – which was a very good thing, because all of his personal healing potions were of the 'medium' strength variety, much too valuable to waste on something so trivial. And Cayden didn't think he had enough humility to ask Elise for a weaker one.

He'd slept for most of the morning, only waking once they'd stopped for lunch and Instructor Mynar's daily lecture. This one continued her previous lesson on runes, though in an avenue that was more broadly applicable. Enchanted items weren't exactly uncommon among the nobles, but it was much more likely for them to use runed items to accomplish the pedestrian tasks that were required of adventurers, and Instructor Mynar insisted it was important they leaned the nuances of some of those runed objects – such as glowstones.

Almost everyone in any major city owned at least one of the standardized orbs, and they were a requirement for any adventurers planning a delve of an underground dungeon. Instructor Mynar explained how they could be specialized to emit a lower level of light, extending their life for the same amount of mana, or – on the opposite end of the spectrum – overcharged to create what was essentially a flash-bang. It wasn't something that could be done with a standard glowstone, at least not for someone without [Mana Manipulation], so it wasn't necessarily the most important thing for Cayden to know, but he still found it interesting.

Not nearly as interesting as his new skill, however.

Cayden had used [Borrowed Power] on Elise's [Opened Mind] skill a few hours earlier, and he focused on the pale lights he could 'see' that represented the minds of his fellow students.

[Opened Mind] was an interesting skill. By itself, it did almost nothing – granting him access to psionic abilities was not the same thing as giving him psionic abilities. In that way, it was actually very similar to the high elf racial skill [Mana Manipulation].

While many chose the high elf race for the coveted [Long-Lived] skill, almost as valuable was the [Mana Manipulation] racial skill. It wasn't nearly as uncommon as [Opened Mind], as it was a racial skill of several other inherently-magical races and could even be learned as a general skill with the right mindset and effort. But it was a useful skill regardless of the build.

While anyone could activate their mana-dependant skills or push mana into runes, [Mana Manipulation] allowed the user significantly more control over how they did those things. For many skills, that didn't matter – [Save Progress] would activate the same way regardless of how the user might twist the mana being used to activate it. But for others, it could make a huge difference.

It might allow someone to control the trajectory of [Fireball] after it was cast. It could let someone [Taunt] certain monsters while excluding others. And while some skills could already be 'super-charged' by investing more mana into them, [Mana Manipulation] allowed it for a much wider range of skills. For mages, [Mana Manipulation] was essential.

It was essential for alchemists, rune-carvers, and enchanters as well, allowing them to more precisely control the flow of mana as they crafted their creations. And while it wasn't nearly as good as [Mana Sight], it also gave the users a slight feel of the mana in the environment around them, allowing an observant user to spot someone activating a skill or detect hidden runes, something Cayden was told would be very useful in higher-level dungeons.

[Opened Mind] was supposed to be the psionic equivalent to [Mana Manipulation]. There wasn't a perfect one-to-one between the skills – while [Opened Mind] was a requirement for psionically based skills, there was no 'psionic' substance or resource that was used to activate those skills, at least not in the same way other skills used mana. And neither was [Opened Mind] something that could be learned through time and effort. As far as Elise was able to determine, the only way to get [Opened Mind] was through the psion race or a skillstone.

It excited Cayden, reigniting his passion for exploring the system. While he'd always loved the search for new and powerful skills, his enthusiasm had been flagging as of late. It was difficult to stay excited when he'd spent so much time learning and then discarding tier-one skills one after another, just to see what might fit, only for the one that finally clicked and resulted in a tier-three skill to turn out to be...less than impressive. Plus, between the resources of the academy instructors and [Borrowed Power] allowing him to steal any skill without having to go through the trouble of earning it, all of his and Elise's efforts to discover and learn skills the hard way felt somewhat...wasted.

Yet now he had [Opened Mind]. An entirely new set of skills were opened to him, skills that Elise had only been able to find vague references to. Cayden knew psionic skills weren't the most optimal for his build, at least not nearly as much as Elise's, but he was excited to search for something that he would be able to make use of or potentially even combine with some of his non-psionic skills.

First, though, he had to figure out how the base skill worked. Thus far, all it did was show vague pale lights that represented the minds of those around him. The lights shifted color over time, some growing brighter and others dimmer in no pattern Cayden could discern, so it wasn't particularly useful as an identification skill. But that was fine; he'd only had it for a few hours, and [Opened Mind] was a skill that would take a long time to fully master, if that even was possible.

That didn't mean that he would take his time in his effort to master it, however. Though neither of them had explicitly mentioned it, he was in a race with Elise to develop the [Opened Mind] skill, a race Cayden fully expected to eventually lose. He knew he could be a bit of a meathead when it came to skills, often choosing the brute force approach over anything subtle or nuanced. But he wouldn't be giving up the race without a fight.

And he wasn't without his own advantages over his friend. Elise admitted that it was difficult for her to visualize the lights from [Opened Mind] without first closing her eyes, something that Cayden obviously had no trouble with. And though he still couldn't put his finger on exactly how, Cayden felt there were some similarities between the 'third eye' of [Opened Mind] and the way his old [Blade Sense] skill functioned.

They were slight, but he hoped he could turn those tiny advantages into something a bit more substantial. It would be nice to be the one offering Elise advice, for a change.

He continued to focus on the new skill as they loaded back into the wagons after lunch and resumed their journey. He couldn't find any rhyme or reason to the way the lights shifted – there was no pattern he could discern, and some of the lights wouldn't shift at all for minutes at a time. Yet he continued to focus, examining each of the individual lights as closely as he was able before trying to 'zoom out' to see the bigger picture as well.

"You're not really blind, are you?"

Cayden shook his head, lifting his focus from the skill when he realized the voice was talking to him.

"What?" he asked dumbly.

"Your blindfold. It's just for training, right? You're not really gonna try and fight in the tournament blind, are you?"

Cayden opened his mouth to answer, but before the words could come out, another voice cut across him. "Hah! You idiot. Do you think someone with such an obviously physical build would go this long with a blindfold on for what? Maybe one point in perception? He's obviously the first-year who lost his eyes during the coup. The roommate of the little duke."

Cayden frowned, annoyed at the callous words, but even more annoyed at how the second voice was right. In the weeks since he'd lost his eyes, he'd only gained one in perception, and that was recently, the day before the expedition began. Perhaps it was his over-reliance on Jeremy's [Share Senses] skill that was hindering him, but Cayden would have much preferred his regular physical and skills training over the single measly point in perception his time spent blinded had given him.

"Oh, yeah!" the first voice responded. "I remembered hearing about that! How are you still alive? The new queen want you humiliated instead of dead?"

"Nah, that can't be it. If she just wanted him humiliated, she would want to keep him alive and around to show him off. But he's coming to the tournament. It can't be to seriously compete, not when he's handicapped, so he must be running for his life. Which is probably the smart play – I heard the little duke made himself scarce before his dad was even dead. Surprised this guy has lasted as long as he has in the capital; must've just been hiding at the academy."

Cayden couldn't see the two speakers, but he thought he recognized them from when Jeremy had [Shared Senses] with him. A minotaur and an ogre, they seemed to be teammates a few years older than anyone in Cayden’s class, often arguing long and loudly over everyone else's quieter conversations. From their physiques, Cayden would have pegged them both as frontline combatants.

"Hah! I bet it's a relief to get out of there, then," the first voice replied as Cayden felt a meaty hand slap him on the shoulder. "And hey, look at it this way – even if you aren't able to compete at the tournament, this'll be a chance for you to make some new friends. Friends who aren't as likely to get themselves or you killed with their idiotic ambitions!"

The two laughed long and loud before their conversation diverted to what they declared as 'wiser' ambitions for those with discerning taste – namely those ambitions involving a certain barmaid from the lunch-stop tavern. But Cayden just ignored them as his frown deepened.

He'd known people would eventually put together his connection with the coup. ‘Three people could keep a secret only if two of them were dead’, after all, and Cayden knew of six people at least who knew the full truth of the duke's death. That was why he had been so desperate to leave the capital – once people inevitably learned about his involvement, he would have a target on his back.

He'd never suspected people might place blame for the failed coup on him because of his living situation.

Velic had been his teammate and roommate, sure, but anyone who saw them training together would know that they weren't exactly close. But the number of people who saw them training together...was pretty much just his other teammates and Instructor Barry. Cayden knew the academy catered to some of the nobles with their dorm assignments – the princess living with her three noble friends made that clear. Would others assume the same about his relationship with Velic?

Truthfully, it didn't matter much for him. He was already doing as much as he could to separate himself from the politics of Valtane. But if others were assuming that about his involvement with the coup...

He turned to Elise, who was sitting to his left, and spoke in an urgent whisper.

"Where's Delphia's family's barony?"

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