Chapter Seven

"What exactly do you expect to find out here?" Selena pointed her flashlight towards the tenth identical shrub she had seen.

Jason shrugged his shoulder. He surveyed the area with practiced eyes, seeing a path only he could pick out. "The students always throw parties out here." He smiled wryly. "I wish that was all I've seen in the woods." His thoughts went to the umpteenth romantic rendezvous he had to break up.

"So, your job is to find these students and tell them to leave?" Selena brushed a crimson strand of hair from her face as she looked around for anything.

"I suppose you could say that." Jason chuckled. If it were as easy as asking them to leave, he wouldn't have to worry about calling dispatch every time he found someone throwing a rave. He pointed his flashlight at a thick group of trees and noticed a pair of glowing yellow eyes. He tensed up as he felt a notification buzz in his pocket. Taking out his phone, an arrow pointed straight at the eyes.

'Wolf, Level 3.' Popped out at him. His eyes went wide as he hit the equip button under the arrow. Instantly he felt the weight of his leather armor appear on him. He gripped the rusted sword tightly in his right hand. "I guess it's not just students anymore." Jason activated his Temporal Shift ability and felt reality bend around him. An instant later, he found himself in front of the beast with his sword raised high, aiming to cleave it in two.

At the last moment, the wolf jumped back and the sword left a shallow cut on the beast's nose. Other than that, it was left unscathed. Jason readied his sword for the wolf's counter strike and felt teeth in his leg. "Shit!" He stabbed the sword down into the wolf's eye. The irony scent of blood assaulted him as the beast yelped and jumped back. One glaring yellow eye shone with great promise bore into Jason. The wolf began circling him, starting slowly and gradually building speed. When Jason anticipated the attack, the beast changed directions and went behind him, sinking its teeth into his side. "Dammit!" Jason turned and nearly ripped his own torso from his body, but freed himself enough to stab the beast through the other eye.

The wolf roared in pain, but it was abruptly cut off as it's head fell to the forest floor. Jason held himself together with a hand covering his side. He felt that if he moved it, his insides might spill out. "Shit." He said through gritted teeth. His eyes were beginning to dim and he could feel that his life was slipping from his hands.

"Why don't you heal yourself?" Selena said curiously. She was looking at him like he was being ridiculous.

"Heal myself?" Jason thought about that for a moment before he remembered the spell 'flash heal.' As he thought of the spell, it came to life in his hand, healing the wound in his side slightly. It was still bleeding a lot, but it was less life threatening. Jason activated the spell again, sending energy the color of the midday sun into his body. This time, the wound closed, but the pain was still there. He focused on the injury one more time, and it was back to new. He did the same thing with his leg until he felt whole, yet highly fatigued.

"Now do you see the need for agility?"

"I get it." Jason sighed as he sat in the lotus position and focused on the wolf's energy. As he did, he realized that he barely felt the struggle from the experience anymore. 'Maybe my body is finally adapting to this change?' When he finished, he could feel the energy become one with him. Though it wasn't much of an improvement, he could feel there was a little difference at least. "300 experience, huh?"

"It gets harder to level up as you grow stronger. Though you are only a level 3 mage, it is enough to begin to see the gap. Just wait until you are at least level 25, then the real grind begins."

"Alright, well." Jason got to his feet and looked forward once more. "I'll worry about that later I guess." He replaced his sword from his inventory with the flashlight and began to walk the forest floor once again.

"Why are you using that light?" Selena asked as if the last fight didn't even happen.

"It would be stupid of me not to." He was getting tired of her seemingly unaffected attitude. He wondered what would be considered trouble in her eyes.

"All I'm saying is you are scaring off whatever you are trying to find by using that thing. Why not use magic instead?"

"Use magic?"

"Just focus on the mana in your body and have some travel to your eyes. Command the light in the darkness." She said it as if it were the most common thing to do.

Instead of coming up with a comeback, Jason flicked off the flashlight and put it back in his inventory. The darkness seemed to envelop him for a moment as his eyes adjusted to the small amount of light from the sky. Outlines began to appear in his vision, from those outlines, he could see a dim picture of everything around him at least 3 feet in front of him. If he looked down, he could see the grass floor, but he knew he would trip over tree roots as well as fallen branches if his vision remained the same. He closed his eyes and waited.

After a few minutes, Jason groaned. "Nothing is happening."

"That's because you are just standing there with your eyes closed." Selena said condescendingly.

"If I could see you right now." Jason growled then shook his head and unclenched his hand. His heart jumped at the slight rise of anger, then he noticed something, though as soon as he tried to observe it, the feeling vanished. Instead of getting frustrated, he focused on how the feeling came about. As he did, he felt a pulse of energy within his center. When it pulsed again, he allowed himself to be engulfed in it. The feeling sent a shiver through him. As he focused on the feeling, he reined it in. Taking a small portion of it, he sent it to his eyes and focused on 'light' as Selena had instructed. As soon as he did, he was amazed.

The forest stood out in near perfect detail around him. The light was brilliant, yet when he reached his hand to a trunk of a tree, he saw no shadow.

'You have learned the skill Daylight Sight. Now, even in the darkest of locations, you will be able to see as if it were a sunny day. Skill duration, 1 hour. Cooldown, 1 hour.'

"Daylight Sight?" Jason said wryly. "They couldn't come up with the name night vision or something?"

"Call it whatever you want, as long as you have intent to use it, you should activate it." Selena sighed. "Honestly, the excitement is for the ability, not so much the name so who cares anyway?"

Jason shrugged and began to walk again, then he decided to test out his new sight. Instead of walking, he broke out into a jog. He stepped over obstacles as if it really were day time. He was also able to avoid most sticks in order to not break them and alert anything to his presence. With the new ability, his usual 3 hour long patrol only took around 30 minutes. When they returned to the cabin, he recorded his findings in his patrol log. Before he finished his usual routine, he heard a knock on the door.

Looking over his shoulder at Selena, he motioned her to go into his room before looking through the peephole of his door. It would have been difficult to see whoever it was due to the pitch black night, but his daylight sight was still activated. Sighing, he opened the door.

"Officer Trusky, nice to see you again." Jason beamed a smile as he opened the door to allow the man inside. "Second time in two days, I'm honored."

"Jason! That was you then." Trusky said in surprise as he came in. "I was wondering if someone had broken into your home." He got on his radio and called an all clear.

"What's this about?" He normally didn't see Trusky call in when it was just them. He normally didn't see the man at all unless he had to call dispatch. A little worry crept in as he looked at the older man. When he thought older, the man had maybe 10 years on him.

"I was in the area and saw when you left your home. There were two flashlights leaving." Trusky's eyes searched the home. "Girlfriend?" His eyebrow raised as he looked Jason in the eye.

"You got me." Jason scratched his head and acted embarrassed. To say otherwise would be admitting the strange appearance of Selena. "I just met her not too long ago. She was in the library while I was checking out a book. We clicked over the book I guess."

"You sly dog." Trusky elbowed Jason in the arm lightly. "I didn't know you had it in you!" His eyes still roamed the house as if he were looking for something, or someone. "Was it the same book I saw you with yesterday?"

Something was bothering Jason about this entire visit. For Officer Trusky to show up completely unannounced was one thing, but commenting on the book and his new girlfriend was another. It was as if he were trying to piece everything together. None of this was making any sense. While the man's eyes were turned from him, Jason looked for anything that would help him understand what was happening, everything until his eyes locked onto the light. They widened as he noticed that it was off. 'What the hell?'

Not much light came through the trees where he lived. Even less light entered his home at night while the lights were off. Since daylight sight had been activated, his senses were mixed and he believed for a moment that it was daytime. What was strange was the fact that Trusky did not use a flashlight to check the house. He didn't need one, yet he scanned the house as if it were day, just the same as him.

"I just got home a moment ago, you pretty much came in as I was wiping my feet off." He made a show of wiping his shoes on the rug underneath his feet. He then felt his way around to the light. "I don't know why we're standing around in the dark." He rubbed his eye as the light came to life.

Trusky didn't even flinch when the light came on, but he stopped looking around and looked straight at Jason instead. "Son, I know you didn't find that book at the library." His voice was low, yet not threatening. It was more worrying than anything. "It isn't something a kid like you should have. It's great that you found it in the forest, but I think the owner is looking for it. Could I see it for a moment?"

Jason's heart picked up slightly as he looked at the officer. He faked a smile, yet he could tell he looked guilty.

"I can see that I'm right. It's right there, in your eyes." Trusky said as his smile faded. "Now why don't you go get the book for me."

"Hey babe." Selena came out of his bedroom wearing nothing but his AC/DC T-shirt. "Are you done with your patrol? Who's your friend?" A smile lit up her face as Trusky's lit in a different color.