Inner Eye (IV)

Zero backed up from Garrett. "Hey. Keep your hands to yourself. I'll do it myself," he warned.

"Fine." Garrett huffed and pulled his hand back.

Zero eyed Garrett warily. Sitting down, he pulled back his fur with his paws where his old jewel resided. In its same place was another walnut-sized jewel, but the color of the jewel was different. It was completely blue like sapphire.

"I'm growing crystals." Zero eyes sparkled at the possibilities of future investment that this could bring, imagining the gold that he could trade off for his own. Lightly running his fingers over his new crystal, it fell off into his hands.

"Again?" He stared down upon it, shocked. How many times would crystals fall out so easily? How many more would he be able to make? The possibilities were endless.

"Again!" Garrett excitedly snatched it out of his hands, grabbing the larger crystal as well. He raised it up into the sky, staring at it with complete interest. The morning light cascaded down upon the blue sapphire-like crystal, creating a soft baby blue glow. "This is fascinating." He raised his broken monocle to his eye to examine it even more closely.

Zero stared at Garrett, speechless. He peered over Garrett's shoulder, trying to see what he was seeing.

"The difference is fascinating. Look at this." Garrett brought it close to Zero's face. "This one"—he raised the larger, black-and-gold crystal jewel to Zero—"continuously grows at a slow rate and somehow is magically connected to you. The crystal formation is completely different from the new one. The colors are even different too." He raised the other one. "The smaller one has a completely different feel. The crystallization had stopped growing. I've never heard of this before. It seems that it only stores energy and has no connections to you at all anymore once the crystal is detached. This is truly fascinating." He grinned with joy.

"How can you tell?" Zero asked. He peered closely at the crystals to see what the difference was but did not see anything at all.

Garrett chuckled. "You young'uns these days don't know how to read the natural energy of this world. It seems like fewer and fewer are born with the ability." He sighed at the thought. "The crazy adventuring these days has gotten these young'uns so enthralled that they forget to learn the basics."

"Well then, can you teach me?" Zero asked hopefully. He felt like learning this skill could be very useful in the future.

"Sure I can teach you, but it's going to take a long time. It just doesn't happen in a day." Garrett looked at him funny.

"I know that. Can't you at least tell me the basics?" Zero asked, slightly annoyed.

"The concept is simple, but explaining it takes too long," Garrett chastised. "It would be better if you could have someone stand in front of a white wall to see the colors around the person. It's like a natural force field that is in every creature or thing. These energies contain information about the person or object."

Garrett paced back and forth with his hands to his back. He was already in a teacher mode, completely forgetting he still had the crystals in hand. Zero was a bit worried that he might drop his precious crystals that he thought about selling.

"You must first open your inner eyes, or you can call it the third eye. Everyone has one in between their eyes on their forehead." Garrett pointed at his forehead. "You must imagine it in your mind opening and closing like your real ones. This will take constant practice until it will naturally open and close when you want it to. After you do, you look towards the object and steady your mind. You will relax your eyes and let them unfocused on the area where you are looking. Use your peripherals to look for the aura. Try not to look directly at the object. As time goes on you will start seeing a thin clear film around the person or being. It's easier to see it when you use another being standing in front of a white wall. Also, living creatures are easier to read than inanimate objects."

"That's it?"

"No. As you practice more and more you will see the thin film around the body start to show colors. This is how you know you have succeeded in observing an aura," said Garrett with a very deep, strong voice. He proudly stood in front of Zero as if he was doing some kind of special speech.

"So how long does this take to learn?"

"Have you not heard me, child?" Garrett asked with disbelief.

"Well, a long time is a long time. An approximation would be great."

"You whippersnappers these days don't have any patience," Garrett grumbled. "During my days it was a privilege to learn things from a master."

He paced back and forth, hobbling as if he had a bad leg. "It could take months, years, or your whole lifetime." Garrett stopped and gave a grumpy answer. "I reckoned you want to learn it in matter of seconds."

Zero did not reply and listened quietly.

"When I was learning, it took me a whole year. Don't you know how difficult it is to open up a third eye? Most people are not just born with it opened."

"Do you mind if I have my stones now?" Zero held out his hand-like paw.

Garrett continued on with his lecture while handing him both his crystals. "That was just being able to see the clear white outline like film around it. It took me another three years to get to see color." His white tail flickered in frustration and his one ear drooped even more to one side.

Zero looked down onto his jewels, ignoring the constant blabber and nonsense that Garrett was spewing out of his mouth. He closed his eyes and began to imagine an actual third eye perfectly centered on his forehead. It didn't take long to envision what he wanted it do. Blinking and closing it like a regular eye, he continued the exercises for a while.

Opening his real eyes, Zero looked down onto his paws. Two perfectly formed crystal rocks lay before him. Without blinking for as long as possible, he patiently waited and stared. His eyes slowly blurred out and watered, so he had to blink a couple of times.

What he saw lying before him was a thin sheet of clear outline that wasn't even a centimeter away from surrounding the crystals. It was barely noticeable on the small one, but when he looked at the larger of the two, his eyes widened with surprise.

A thick aura danced and blazed in his palms. Is this fire? he thought, amazed at what he was seeing before him. He blinked a couple more times to see if he was just imagining it. There wasn't anything but the rock. It wasn't just a small flicker of fire-like aura—it looked like a hearty fire that even a rogue wind could not put out.

"Garrett…." Zero asked a bit worriedly. He shifted from side to side.

"Young people like you…yes?"

"Why does the large one look like its aura's on fire? I'm not going to get burned, am I?" Zero glanced up with worry.

Ding!

A new skill has been learned. Third Eye.

"Identify Third Eye."

Third Eye

Automatic: 1st stage.

This ability grows automatically with the user's own soul. When one becomes stronger in mind, body, and spirit, it will evolve to the next level. No experience points will be accumulated.

An ability to see from your third eye, which is located in the middle of your forehead. This allows one's innate power to awaken the ability to see the natural energy surrounding living and inanimate objects. It slowly consumes magic by 10 points every one minute. There are three different stages of the Third Eye.

1st stage: Simple shapes

2nd stage: Color

3rd stage: Clarity

"No game experience points will be accumulated? I thought all games accumulated points. Must be a different way." Zero pondered for a moment thinking what it could be.

"What are you doing?" Garrett asked.

"There some odd energy coming out of the black-and-gold Krustallos. There's some kind of energy line connecting it to my chest."

A transparent line almost too thin to see was transferring over from the black and gold Krustallos to Zero's chest where the Krustallos had first fallen out.

"Where?" Garrett peered at his hands, trying to find the line connecting Zero and the Krustallos. He leaned in closer and bumped into Zero's hand, pushing it back towards his chest. The Krustallos slipped from out of his hand, and a static-like discharge appeared between the two. The Krustallos pulled into the crevice of his chest and connected. He felt a shockwave of energy that ran its course across his whole body, making him immobile for a moment.

"Are you okay?" Garrett asked with alarm.