The bear's roar wasn't just sound; it was a physical wave of pressure that vibrated through the wet earth and prickled against Ali's nascent Mana-Sense. The dense, ponderous signature was like a boulder rolling into a still pond, and the ripples it sent through the local mana field were chaotic and overwhelming.
The grey wolf's cold, sharp signature recoiled, twisting from predatory focus to alarmed defense. Bryn's presence, a focused, human-shaped knot of intent in Ali's sense, froze momentarily before beginning a rapid, careful withdrawal towards the outcrop.
System! Ali's thought was a silent shout. The ripple from that roar… it's massive. Compared to that, my little draw is nothing! How could anyone notice mine?
[Immediate Threat Analysis: Priority Override.]
The ursine entity is a Low Magical Beast (Forest-Dire Bear variant). Its roar is a biological-magical ability. The resulting mana disturbance is loud, crude, and natural. It is the equivalent of a thunderclap. Every sensitive creature for a kilometer knows a bear is here. It announces its presence and territory.
Your Active Draw, however, is artificial, structured, and foreign.
Analogy: In a forest full of animal noises, a bear's roar blends in. The sudden, precise sound of a crossbow being cranked does not. Your draw is not loud in volume, but it is anomalous in pattern. To a sensitive entity, the bear's ripple is a natural weather event. Your ripple is the click of a lock being picked.
A crashing sound erupted from the briars as the wolf abandoned stealth, bursting into a clearing to put distance between itself and the approaching bear. Ali caught a glimpse of it—larger than any wolf he'd ever imagined, its fur a mottled grey and black, one foreleg held slightly aloft. Its eyes, for a split second, glinted with a faint, sickly yellow light. Magical.
It saw him.
Huddled by the rock, he was a isolated, soft target. The bear was a large threat. The wolf's primal calculus was instant: eliminate the easy prey before confronting the rival.
It turned, muscles coiling.
"ALI! DOWN!" Bryn's shout came from the left.
Everything slowed. The wolf lunged, a grey streak of death. Bryn's bowstring thrummed. An arrow hissed through the space where the wolf's neck had been a moment before; the beast had twisted in mid-air, an impossibly agile move that spoke of more-than-animal instinct.
It was going to clear the rock. It was going to be on him in less than two seconds.
Ocular Enhancement! NOW! Ali didn't think. He begged. He slammed his will and the pitiful dregs of his mana—every last 0.00207 of it—towards his eyes.
[Mana Manipulation - Internal Channeling: CRITICAL OVERRIDE.]
Mana Expenditure: 0.00207 units.
Channeling Efficiency: 41% (Panic-Induced Inefficiency).
Effect: Ocular Enhancement (Extreme, Unsustainable Burst).
Duration: Estimated 0.8 seconds.
The world exploded into hyper-clarity. Time didn't slow, but his perception did. He saw every droplet of water hanging on the moss. He saw the individual strands of saliva on the wolf's bared teeth. He saw the subtle shift of muscle in its wounded leg, the slight favoritism that would cause its landing to be a fraction unbalanced.
He also saw the mana. Not as a sense, but as a sight.
For a fleeting, searing moment, the wolf was outlined in a ghostly, yellow-white aura, thickest around its core and its jaws. The bear was a distant, roiling brown-orange mountain of energy. Bryn was a warm, muted green humanoid shape. The forest itself was a faint green mist. And from his own eyes, he saw two thin, wildly fluctuating beams of chaotic grey light—his own mana, leaking and wasted—projecting out into the air.
[Skill Forged Through Extreme Duress!]
[Mana Manipulation - Ocular Enhancement] has reached Level 2!
[New Skill Pathway Unlocked!]
[Mana-Sight (Rudimentary/Ephemeral) has been temporarily awakened!]
Warning: Neural overload imminent. Ocular damage in 0.5 seconds.
The cost was immediate. A white-hot needle of pain lanced from his eyes into the depths of his skull. But he had the information he needed.
He didn't try to stand and fight. He didn't scream. He threw himself forward, under the arc of the wolf's leap, towards its slightly weaker side, towards where Bryn's second arrow was already coming.
The wolf landed where Ali had been, its claws scraping granite. Its head snapped around, those yellow eyes wide with predatory surprise. Its flank was exposed to Bryn.
THWACK.
This arrow found its mark. It buried itself deep in the wolf's hamstring, on the same side as its limp. The beast yelped, a sound of shock and fury, and stumbled.
Ali rolled, his vision blurring, the world going grey and nauseating as the ocular enhancement collapsed into searing afterimages and a pounding migraine. He scrambled behind a thick tree root, blind in one sense, hyper-aware in another.
The bear arrived.
It wasn't a charge; it was an inexorable advance. It emerged from the trees, a wall of matted brown fur and muscle taller than Bryn at the shoulder. It ignored Ali completely. Its small, deep-set eyes were fixed on the wounded, magical wolf—a rival in its territory, now vulnerable.
The wolf, crippled and enraged, faced the bear. It was a hopeless fight. The bear swiped a paw the size of a dinner plate. The wolf dodged, but clumsily. The blow caught its shoulder with a sickening crunch.
Bryn didn't wait. He grabbed Ali by the back of his new tunic and hauled him upright. "Run. NOW. To the steading. Don't look back."
They ran. Ali stumbled, half-blind, trusting Bryn to guide him. Behind them, the sounds of the brief, brutal fight ended with a final, wet snap and a low, rumbling growl of triumph.
They didn't stop until the palisade wall was in sight. Gasping for breath, Ali leaned against a tree, retching from pain and adrenaline. His mana pool was empty. A system notification burned behind his eyes.
[Mana Depletion. Mana-Sight (Temporary) lost. Ocular Enhancement inactive.]
[Status: Mana Exhaustion. Minor Neural Strain. Retinal Stress (Healing).]
[Achievement Unlocked: First Blood (Indirect).] *You participated in a life-or-death conflict that resulted in the death of a magical beast. Rewards: +0.5% progression to applicable combat skills. Minor boost to [Hyper-Vigilance] trait progression.*
[Skill Progress: [Observation - Threat/Resource] +1 Level.]
[Skill Progress: [Mana Manipulation - Internal Channeling] +1 Level.]
Bryn was staring at him, his chest heaving. Not with exhaustion, but with intensity. "You saw it," he stated flatly. "Not just the wolf. You saw something. Before you moved. Your eyes… they glowed. Grey. Like mist."
There was no point denying it. The anomaly was out. Ali nodded weakly, one hand pressed over his throbbing eyes. "For… less than a second. Just to see."
Bryn absorbed this, his face unreadable. He looked back towards the forest, then at Ali. The suspicion was still there, but it was now mixed with a hard, pragmatic respect. "That move… it was the right one. Stupid. But right." He jerked his head towards the gate. "Kaelen needs to hear this. All of it. And you… you need to sleep. You look like death."
As they trudged the final distance, Ali's mind churned.
System. You said my ripple is 'anomalous in pattern.' Because I'm from another world? Because my core is unrefined?
[Post-Threat Analysis Mode.]
Affirmative. Your mana signature carries metaphysical markers of your extradimensional origin. Your Fledgling-Grade mana is also 'noisy'—it lacks the cohesive, resonant frequency of native mana, refined by generations of existence within this world's laws. To a trained sense (or a keen magical instinct, like the wolf's), your Active Draw does not sound like a native creature drinking from the stream. It sounds like something foreign tapping into the pipe. The bear's roar is part of the forest's symphony. Your draw is a dissonant note. As your core refines and your control improves, and as your being acclimates to this reality, this dissonance will lessen. But for now, yes—you are inherently easier to detect than a native user of similar power, because your usage is fundamentally other.
The explanation was cold comfort. It wasn't just about skill; it was about his very nature. He was a glitch in the system, and every time he used mana, he risked alerting the system's anti-virus.
Kaelen listened to Bryn's report in the longhouse, his expression growing grimmer with each word. His pale eyes settled on Ali. "You used magic. In the forest."
"To see," Ali croaked. "Only to see. To not die."
"And it worked," Bryn added quietly. "It gave him the instant he needed. The wolf was… not normal. Its eyes. Its speed. It knew the arrow was coming."
Kaelen was silent for a long time. "The Deepwood is pushing out its problems," he finally said. "A magicked wolf, a dire bear so close to the steading…" He looked at Ali, not as a strange boy, but as a variable. A dangerous, but potentially useful one. "You see things others cannot. This has value. But the cost…"
"The cost is drawing things that want to be seen," Bryn finished.
Ali knew what he had to say. He met Kaelen's gaze, his own eyes still aching. "I will not use it in the forest again. Not to draw. Not to enhance. Unless it is to prevent the death of someone here." The vow tasted bitter, like accepting a leash. But it was the leash of survival.
Kaelen gave a single, slow nod. "See that you don't. Your… sight… may be needed again. But controlled. Understood?"
"Understood."
That night, in the shed, Ali lay in the dark. His core was a vacant, aching hole. His eyes felt bruised. But in his mind, he replayed that 0.8-second burst of Mana-Sight. He had seen the world as it truly was, layered in power. It was terrifying. It was beautiful.
He had survived. He had leveled skills. He had earned a sliver of trust, paid for in pain and exposed secrets.
The vertical line to infinity had just encountered its first major obstacle: its own nature was a beacon. He couldn't stop climbing. But now he had to learn to climb in the dark.
Chapter 40 End.