Sensory Paralysis

The first thing on Sylvia's to-do list after turning in the quest was to find the workshop where Enelise and Philip were working, as she had a spear that was in dire need of repair. Luckily that turned out to be easier than she had expected, but that ease quickly turned into a source of frustration. It would appear that word of a Proficient Blacksmith being in town had spread like wildfire, so the queue to the workshop had extended a decent bit onto the street.

Figuring that any attempt to cut in line to get to Enelise quicker would be a bad idea, Sylvia ended up with close to an hour of thinking time. Initially it began with her bored mind passively attempting to eavesdrop on conversations around her, which was when she noticed something interesting happen. As she focused on listening, it was as if everything became louder, but especially the conversations. Quickly, the volume of everything around her grew to an unbearable level and she just barely stifled a scream and avoided using her fingers to plug her ears. Instead, she did her best to try not to listen to anything, and the volume quickly decreased and returned to usual.

'What the fuck was that? Why did my hearing just skyrocket like that, and how come it happened out of nowhere?' With her head ringing lightly, she began to question what had happened. 'Actually, on the topic of hearing, it doesn't feel like my perceptive ability has changed much as the stat grew, at least not outside of combat. In that case, maybe the sudden loudness was because I actually focused on my senses, but that begs the question: Why have my senses not overloaded my brain in the same way before? Especially with all that happens in combat.' While she felt like she was on the right track, she decided that she needed to both experiment and ask her companions about it, and that most certainly wouldn't be in this chaotic environment.

With eavesdropping out of the question, she was left with naught but her own thoughts, and she began to think about the past month or so. 'Ever since arriving in this world, time has really flown by. If I had to make an estimate, I'd guess that I've been here for roughly one and a half months, but it's quite hard to tell with how it doesn't feel like the season changes. Regardless of the specific time, I feel like I've accomplished a quite a lot in this short span, but have I actually done much more than just survive? Which begs the question, why am actually doing all this and what do I wish to achieve?'

'If I had to boil my reasoning down to be as simple as possible, I'd say that I'm really just leveling up as a means to make sure I can protect myself. Though, I guess that has already been expanded into protecting those who've put their trust in me as well. But is this really what I want to do? I could always just tell them that I don't want the responsibility of protecting everyone, especially now that we have found a place where we could bring everyone. However, while the idea of us moving as a group does sound interesting, I don't think that's what I really want to do. Despite the struggles, I have actually come to quite enjoy living in the wild, and I think I'd prefer to have a tangential relationship to the rest of civilization, rather than a more direct one, at least for the foreseeable future.'

Despite the plethora of issues and risks that'd likely arise as a result of living as they currently did, the short time she'd spent living in the wild had felt so much more fulfilling than anything she'd really done before. While life towns like this could certainly be interesting, it didn't strike her to be as interesting and fulfilling as living in the wild. In addition to all that, she felt that being in the city would make it a lot harder to make proper use of her shapeshifting, unless she managed to become famous enough as an adventurer such that people would've heard of her and thus not question it. That would of course require her to reveal her ability, which was something she had actually been considering for some time, at least as something to do once she'd grown a bit stronger.

It was as she was thinking about her shapeshifting, that another question made itself known. 'What exactly am I even? Looking past the instinctive response courtesy of the title, my initial response is a male human' -she looked down her own body and brought a hand to an ear- 'but that's clearly not entirely true. As proven both by my body, the race and racial ability part of my status, and how my class changes with each form, there is clearly some deeper part of me that's able to change without issue.'

'Or maybe it really isn't such a deep part of me after all. Classes are not set in stone, so there's no reason why me being able to have one for each form is such a big deal. In addition to that, I had to first of all create a physical body when I arrived in this world, so being able to alter it maybe isn't as weird in the end. As for how the race and racial ability changes, the weirdness all depends on whether it's the system that gives those abilities, or if it's just the messenger, but as I neither know nor can test it, worrying about that right now is pointless. For now, I'll just assume that it's the system controlling it, as the effects feel too quantitative to be natural.'

'Besides that, there's another change that should probably concern me more. While I have never been too squeamish when it comes to blood, it does feel like I've grown way too used to it ever since I began leveling up, and the same can be said for killing other beings.' She shrugged her thoughts at her pondering. 'It's not as if I can get an answer from anywhere, and not minding those things are definitely a big boon when it comes to leveling. For now, I'll just assume it's a more advanced application of the adaptability gained from [Person of Many Faces], since that already allows me to accept new and unusual sensations as the usual after just a little exposure.'

By the time she had thought about all those topics, she had reached the entrance and could see inside. The inside mostly looked like she expected but also lacked some key aspects. The stone building was well lit and nicely decorated, decoration here referring to wall carvings, a pair of nicely made chairs, and the desk, which had a nice finish. Behind the desk stood a wall with a solid door, which occasionally opened, from where a well-built came elf and went, taking care of orders. The space behind the door was a lot rougher and more function over form, with what seemed to be far decorative objects in use.

Eventually it became Sylvia's turn at the desk, and she could clearly see signs of exhaustion in the man's face. "Welcome to the Barren Hammer, what can I do for you today?" "I'd like to request to have Enelise take a look at my spear; I ended up damaging it quite severely by accident." She could see him take a deep breath and mouth what she assumed to be the words 'of course', but then his brows creased, and he looked at her questioningly.

"You actually know her name?" She gave him a small smile. "Yep, we actually arrived at the time together. If you just show her the spear, she'll know who's here immediately." With a clearly raised interest, he actually took a look at the spear. "It's quite badly damaged and there are clear traces of Nature magic being used to stabilize it. I take it that's your handiwork?" "Yep. I'm not particularly good at fixing the more intricate parts, but I had to do something to make it survive the day."

"For someone who sounds like they don't know what they're doing, it's decent. Alrighty, I'll bring it to her, but she's a bit backed up on fixing weapons, and so is Philip, so it'll probably take some time until either of them can fix it. But if you want, then I can take a look at it." She could hear the small hope in his tone at actually getting some work, but she had to quash it with a shake of her head. "I'm sorry, but it's actually made by Enelise, which is why I'd prefer to have her look at it. Besides, I'm not in a hurry, and she can just bring it with her when she's done for today."

The man sighed lightly. "Yeah… that makes sense. Alrighty then, I'll quickly bring it to her." With those words, he disappeared behind the door for a minute before returning with a slight smile. "She said that she'd have it fixed by the evening and that she'll take care of the costs. Thank you for doing business at Barren Hammer." "Have a good rest of the day." Sylvia's last words to him were almost drowned out by the chatter from the people around them, as she was already on her way out.

With no plans to fill out the rest of the day, Sylvia figured that she may as well head over to train at the guild; they did after all provide training weapons. As the entered the guild building, she recalled that she had gotten no update on the bonus for perfect claws, so she went and asked, and ended up getting a five large caro from 10 of the claws being in a perfect condition.

With that taken care of, the time had come to actually observe others and learn from them. As she'd hoped, there were a fair number of people practicing different armed martial arts, with two of those using spears. After having found an open area where she wouldn't interfere with the others but still in vision of the two spearmen, she began her practice and study.

Over the next few hours, she was able to raise her |Basic Spearmanship| by two additional levels, bringing it up to level 49. As she practiced, she noticed people come and go, practicing with a lot of different weapon. From observing how they trained, Sylvia realized that there was one commonality that they all shared but she lacked, footwork and distance management. And pretty much the moment she had begun to incorporate that into her training, her level had increased by one.

Thanks to observing people actually using a spear as well, she managed to notice that her form and pose had some differences to theirs, and it felt a fair bit better to stab and thrust once she adopted theirs.

"Excuse me, miss." Sylvia had just finished a set of thrusts and swings when a slightly strained male voice called out to her from behind. Having focused fully on her training, she hadn't even noticed his approach. With her best efforts to quickly compose her fluster from being surprised, she turned around, making her hair flutter. "Yeah?" Her tone was more curious than annoyed. The approacher was a relatively handsome person in his early twenties, or more precisely, appeared to be in his early twenties; his pointed ears gave away that he was an elf. From her response, she could see his face visibly relax, which made a couple gears in the back of her mind begin to turn.

"If you don't mind me saying; your form when using your spear is quite lacking, especially when it comes to your footwo… Yes?" As he trailed on, Sylvia raised a hand to make him stop for a second, and in a neutral tone, she said. "First of all, I'm very much aware of that, which is a large part of why I am here in the first place. And secondly, you pretty much have two options right now. Either you leave to let me be to train in peace rather than bother me, or you can try to explain or show me what I'm doing wrong, such that I can actually improve properly, which I'd be grateful for." Had it not been from his signs of nervousness when he first spoke to her, she'd have been more careful in potentially annoying someone stronger than her. However, her intuition told her that this situation was a bit different than someone looking for a fight.

The moment she brought up him helping her, his face actually seemed to light up a little. "Yes. Of course, you already know that. I actually wanted to ask if I could help you a little. No one gains anything if a lack of proper form and technique costs someone their life, so I figured that my time would be better spent helping to avoid that."

Figuring that actual guidance would be a great benefit, Sylvia was quite happy that the elf, who she learned was named Alosrin, was willing to provide it. As such, they spent the next hour or so with him explaining some of the more basic principles when using a spear, such as almost always keeping the point on the centerline and aimed between your opponent's eyes. In addition to that, he taught her a couple basic drills regarding footwork and proper spearmanship form.

Actually being guided turned out to do a massive difference, as just by spending that short amount of time practicing properly, she was able to level up another two times, bringing her |Spearmanship| to level 51, which in turn made her class rank up to {Advanced Spearwoman Trainee}. While she was happy about it, she was also a little confused; training had done little for her back when she was trying to reach level 25, and even her masonry hadn't seen such growth when Corrin helped her. Unsure what exactly to believe, she just chalked it up to her having accrued more than enough experience in the field, so the introduction of proper form was able to greatly accelerate her growth.

As evening rolled around, Sylvia thanked Alosrin for his time and help and excused herself, saying that she had someone to meet up with. Before she left, he asked her if she wanted some more guidance another day, which she accepted. As she left the field, she saw in her peripheral Alosrin approach a couple of guys who had a hand behind his head and seemed slightly embarrassed, but the general noise from the field drowned out their conversation and she didn't feel like trying to focus her hearing, so she just let it be.

Once she met up with her companions, it didn't take long for the rest of the evening to pass with both parties telling about their day. From Enelise, Sylvia got her spear back, and it had actually been improved slightly just from its maker having access to a proper workplace. It also turned out that they had all underestimated how quickly word spread, with the two earning 22 panis and 70 taro in that one day. She also inquired about her observation of the rat's head becoming rocky, but neither of the two had any real idea about it, with their best guess being an ability of the species. Eventually, Philip decided to turn in for the night, leaving the two women to chat alone. A bit into the talk, the topic landed on the smithy and Sylvia recalled her experience from earlier that day.

"So, earlier today, while I was in line at the blacksmith, I had nothing to do and as such tried to listen along to what happened around me which caused something weird to happen." Enelise held up a hand to stop her from continuing and thought for a quick second. "Let me guess, your hearing suddenly soared like crazy, and it felt incredibly overwhelming?" Not particular surprised at it being a common thing, Sylvia nodded. "That's perfectly normal, especially for people who level up quickly and in big bursts. It happened to me as well, even though my level is neither as high as yours nor did it jump as quickly. From my understanding, then it's that your body is able to instinctively adjust how sensitive your senses actually are with your perception as a base, which is why you're normally able to function perfectly in a city without being overwhelmed, which is also why people aren't constantly whispering to one another. However, you can manually override those adjustments, which can easily lead to sensory paralysis if you aren't used to it."

"Ah, I guess that does make quite a lot of sense. It would really suck if you leveled up after killing something, just to immediately be paralyzed by information overload and killed by another creature. But that just leaves the question, how do I avoid it while still adjusting it manually?" At that question, Enelise just gave her a knowing smile. "You practice, and a lot at that. At least that is if you don't feel like waiting for a couple months to years as you naturally adapt to your senses having increased like that and you naturally become able to focus your senses. Though even in those cases, you won't be able to adjust as high or precisely as someone who's trained in it; I know that personally, as I have trained my senses of touch, temperature, hearing, smell, etcetera to be extra good at noticing aspects relevant to smithing, while my senses are quite average in other situations."

With a sigh, Sylvia could do little but repeat herself from before. "Yeah. That does make sense. In that case, I guess adventurers train their senses to notice stuff relevant to battle?" But to her question, Enelise just shrugged. "Dunno; I'm not one, but you'll probably get a useful answer if you ask your guild that question. Though I can however tell you that it's possible to become great at controlling and soloing out your senses. Actually, you can probably ask Sally to help you; her inherent title forced her to become quite adept at it from when she was young."

With a nod, Sylvia got up. "Fair enough. Then I guess I'll just do both of those." As she turned to head to bed as well, she paused. "Oh yeah, before I go. I'll probably be at the guild most of tomorrow; I want to use the opportunity to practice with and learn from people who know how to use a spear." "Goodnight. Before you go, I think I may have an idea of what that rat did, though it is just an idea." Sylvia's eyebrows rose at that statement. "While we talked, I recalled that I've overheard multiple adventurers mention enhancement magic, but I haven't studied much magic outside of mana crafting and infusing, so I don't really know what it is, but the term sounds appropriate for what you described." With an appreciative smile, Sylvia responded before leaving. "Thank you, I'll ask about it at the guild tomorrow. Sleep well."