Chapter 90: Sensory Overload

Guy and Al split up from the group and left the orphanage. Guy walked listlessly as his mind was preoccupied with cobbling up a decent way to break the news to Grace. He knew for a fact that she wouldn't be particularly keen on having another individual, especially a mage, living in her orphanage. Through observing and getting to know her through infrequent, yet charged, conversations Guy found out that the woman wasn't that fond of mages. At first, he thought it was just him she was averse to, but he noticed that sometimes when Markus practised magic, Grace would consciously avoid him. Guy didn't know why this was the case, but he could discern that it must have something to do with her past.

He wasn't planning to dig into it just yet, though. He had all the time in the world to get to know Grace all over again. That is, as long as he didn't actively court death. Which was quite ironic given Guy's current predicament.

While Guy was sweating bullets and running through multiple variations of his prospective conversation with Grace, Al seamlessly reached into his coat pocket and retrieved his storage disk and declared, "I'll be taking that area over there!"

"But there isn't a room there..." Guy said anxiously. The region Al was pointing towards happened to be a barren section of land, a minute away from the orphanage.

"East facing... Decent clearing... This will do perfectly!"

Before Guy could ask any further, Al siphoned his mana into the disk, causing it to activate. A long and continuous flow of canvas and rope gushed out of the disk, followed by a series of wooden beams of varying sizes, as well as multiple metal fasteners, nails and the like.

Magically, before Guy's very eyes, the items whirled around and started to join together, gradually assembling themselves into a simple yet functional bell tent.

"Amazing!" Guy blurted out in awe.

Al smile smugly and declared, "It's a handy little thing, this one!"

After a short minute, the assembly was completed as the nails submerged rigidly into the hard ground, tightening the ropes and raising the canvas.

"Adequate!" Al said with a long exhale.

"You're going to live there? In that?" Guy asked in disbelief.

"Tsk... Sometimes, a bland exterior often hides vast secrets," Al said ominously as he led Guy into the tent.

As Guy approached the set-up, he decided to extend his mana sense into it. It was a surreal feeling for him, to be able to sense things beyond measly human sensory limits. It was as though he was hearing, smelling, seeing, feeling and tasting things all at the same time, without actually physically interacting with the object. Another thing to note is that after a mage advances to Foundation Establishment, the mana sense can also double as an eternally active |Inspect| cantrip. 

As explained before, the mana sense is like an extension of the user's senses. Whatever a human can observe through their major five sensory organs, the mana sense can do the same. However, mana sense is special in that there isn't a limit to what it can capture. For instance, bats can hear sounds at frequencies beyond human limits. A human mage can also tap into this higher frequency using the mana sense. To do that, however, they will need to first know what they are looking for in order to tweak their mana sense and become more perceptive to this higher frequency noise.

Furthermore, the mana sense can also tap into a phenomenon normally inaccessible to humans given their sensory organs. Sharks, for instance, can sense electric fields through their snouts to detect prey in murky or dark waters. A human being does not have such a sensory organ, and thus are unable to process this information. If a human mage uses their mana sense to access these signals, they will receive data in a form incomprehensible to them. The human is then required to make sense of this data on their own since they do not have an existing organ to filter it and process it. Therefore, while handy, the all-seeing mana sense can sometimes act as a double-edged sword in cases where the mage lacks sufficient experience in understanding the abstract data captured through their mana sense, in which case one can often end up with false or misleading conclusions.

Guy was in a special position because his knowledge from his previous life had given him a better grasp on a wide range of topics, thus granting him the ability to process a decent range of information parsed through his mana sense. He had actually relied on this advantage when building his modular spellmaking technique. However, no amount of knowledge from his previous life prepared him for what he sensed within the tent.

"ARGH!" Guy grunted while clutching his head.

Al hissed in reprimand and said forcefully, "How can you be so reckless to extend your mana sense into unfamiliar territory like that?"

Guy massaged his forehead and said, "Isn't that why we have mana sense?"

Al shook his head and replied, "Would you dunk your head into a random hole in the ground to see what's inside?"

Right as he finished that question though, Al bit his tongue as he grasped the irony of the situation. He had done the same thing just a few minutes ago inside Markus' core!

"*cough* Although the mana sense offers a mage some foresight, it can also act as a mage's greatest weakness. 'A blind child does not fear the crackle of lightning, while a deaf child fears not the bellow of thunder. A child with both senses intact, however, fears the heavens for their anger cannot go unseen or unheard.' Your senses can be used against you if you aren't careful of how you use them."

Thoughtfully nodding his head, Guy followed Al into the tent.

Upon entering, Guy realised why he was suddenly assaulted by an unbearable pain when probing into the seemingly quaint looking dome. It was because the simple tent hid a massive secret. And that secret was that the tent was actually massive! The interior spanned an area at least 10 times the true size of the tent. Furthermore, there were separators within the tent isolating the space into different rooms. The area Guy and Al were currently standing in was the living room, and it had a layout similar to a Middle-Eastern majlis from Earth, with a clear skew towards floor seating. 

"No wonder..." Guy muttered as a realisation struck him.

"This tent is lined with space-warping enchantment gems," Al commented while pointing at multiple large, dark gems lined along the circumference of the tent's roof. "Paid a pretty price for it too, but it is definitely worth the purchase!"

"How much did it cost?" Guy asked casually.

"500,000 gold coins," Al answered nonchalantly.

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"500,000?!"

"You underestimate just how hard it is to enchant a non-forged item. While forging weapons or armours or trinkets, you can mould the mana veins to augment the enchantment you want to embed. However, with items like this canvas, you don't have the luxury of doing that. The only way to line mana veins into this material is by personally sewing them in using the finest Dreadbrood Arachne silk while constantly outputting a steady flow of mana through the threads. It needs to be done in the dark too because the moment the silk threads are exposed to light of any kind, they dissolve into highly concentrated mana that immediately dissipates into thin air. You need a mana sense and coordination so precise... Anyways, the 500,000 gold going expenditure is definitely worth it!"

The tent's interior was decorated in a fashion similar to Al's office in the Academy's library. Although, the space seemed much cleaner, and had hints of ageing. Apparently, the tent had been out of use for a very long time.

"Come! Sit here! We have a lot of ground to cover, and much to talk about!" Al enthusiastically declared while calling Guy over to the cushioned floor level sofa at the living area.

Guy acquiesced and the two descended into a jovial conversation just like back in the Academy.

____

While Al and Guy conversed in the tent, Markus acted as a dutiful host and took up the task of guiding Jean and company around the orphanage.

"It isn't much, this place. These steps lead down to the village. I'd recommend that you get to know everyone there. Doesn't hurt to make a few more acquaintances after all," Markus commented.

He took the group around the back of the orphanage and along the way, he explained, "This is where Master holds his classes. Our class is early in the morning, and late afternoon. In between, Master tutors the kids from the village."

"Teacher Larks is teaching the villagers magic?" Goran asked.

"No, just the regular subjects. Literature, mathematics and so on," Markus elaborated.

"Why is Teacher Larks involving himself with mortal subjects?" Goran reciprocated in confusion.

Markus tilted his head and asked, "Is there any particular reason why he shouldn't?"

"Well... Not really. It's just that I've never heard of a Teacher of magic who also teaches mortal subjects..."

"Master believes that everything is connected in one way or another. No knowledge is superior or inferior," Markus narrated solemnly.

Goran nodded after some contemplation. As they approached their destination, Goran heard a lively conversation.

"Kano, this doesn't seem right. Look, it says, 'My teeth are swords. My claws, spears. My scales are like tenfold shields. My wings are a hurricane. And my breath, DEATH'" A little girl's voice said in confusion.

"And?"

"Well... The teeth of the dragon you drew don't look like swords. The claws don't look like spears either. And the scales don't seem to have any resemblance to shields... And how do you even draw death? I thought you were painting Smaug?"

"*sigh* They are metaphors, Dora."

"What's a metaphor?"

"It's a stylistic literary d-d-device. Authors use it to create emphasis," Kano explained.

Goran extended his senses around the corner and saw the little girl, called Dora, pouting.

"You should have heard of the phrase, 'A smile to light up the room'?" The boy continued. "Well, can a smile actually light up a room?"

The girl shook her head and answered, "No. Doesn't it just mean that the person was smiling wholeheartedly?"

"It's the same here. Take a few steps back and look!" As the boy declared boldly and took a few steps back, Goran and his group turned the corner and lay their eyes on the wall.

"Wow!" The little girl exclaimed in awe. Her thoughts were mimicked by Jean and Josie, who beheld the sight in its entirety.

"That!" Goran blurted out. "That's a Red Dragon!"

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