[ NEW S.T.A.T.S — STRENGTH: MAGICAL=25 - PHYSICAL=16 — TENACITY: DEFENSE=25 - SPEED=16 — APTITUDE: MANA=25 - STAMINA=16 — TILT: CONTROL=25 - LUCK=16 ]

  [ NEW COMMON CORE PASSIVE: KNOW YOUR ENEMY — EFFECT 1: AUTOMATICALLY TARGET THE SOURCE OF ANY DAMAGE TAKEN — EFFECT 2: IF YOUR CURRENT TARGET IS NOT THE SOURCE OF DAMAGE, YOU MAY MAINTAIN THAT TARGET WITH CONSCIOUS EFFORT — WARNING: STEALTH EFFECTS MAY BYPASS THIS SKILL DEPENDING ON CONTROL S.T.A.T. ]

  [ NEW UNCOMMON C.L.A.S.S. PASSIVE: DULLAHAN / BODY DUPLICATION 4 — EFFECT: MAX SUMMONED ARMORS *= 2 — PREREQUISITE: BODY DUPLICATION 3 ]

  On the urging of Oneshot to the Armor in my room, I crest the bow of the cruise liner. It is evidently vital that I do this before it fully docks at port on the far side of what he compared to something called a ‘Mediterranean Sea’.

  This only confuses everyone who sees me, as I spent the last several days telling each passenger individually that I am blind. The reason for this is simple. I am blind. And human customs are very clear that everyone else should know, register, and pay attention to that fact.

  Turns out, most were interested. They all asked more or less the same thing. “Why would you choose to be blind?”

  Due to my unsatisfactory answers, I have apparently been the source of much confusion throughout our collective journey. Blindness is curable, after all. In fact, it isn’t even a problem in the first place.

  Everyone’s eyes work by default. For that not to be true, it has to be made untrue by setting the requisite System slider all the way to the left. The Sonar Skill is simply a way to compensate. Although I would’ve made myself blind even without that option. I stopped ‘seeing’ things not of the System from the moment Oneshot explained how I could still be human without the part that’s been a constant source of torture since I first awoke. Before that, I could only partially adapt to it by keeping my eyes shut. Even if my eyelids were a poor shield from the pain.

  But now my sight is gone. As are my eyes. According to Civetta, blindness doesn’t actually heighten all other senses. But enough people think that’s how it works, that here, that’s how it works. As such, without the lights and colors to overwhelm all else, I’ve become more than twice as sensitive to sounds. Which is acceptable. No, more than acceptable, it’s downright preferable.

  At the moment, I have over a hundred Bodies, each with their own Sonar ranging over a hundred meters. All of that combines into a level of stimulation not even remotely close to what got me to blind myself in the first place. In fact, I plan to boost my hearing further as soon as I have the Skill Points to spare.

  I can already differentiate shapes of objects, people, monsters, and everything in between, just so long as they’re in range. It’s a rather limiting restriction over any significant distance. But that limit extends further and further with each STAT Point I invest in Control. And at my next Sonar Skill Level, I’ll apparently be able to pick up on additional details not represented in an object’s physical shape alone. I would increase its base range instead, but I already did that last level and you can’t pick the same bonuses twice in a row.

  Still, it’s with thoughts of better hearing and a brighter, darker future that I disembark from the massive chartered cruise liner.

  I wave goodbye to some nice young gentlemen who I met just before the luxury boat set off. I still don’t quite understand why I was meant to give them all my belongings as the price for passage. But it’s far from the strangest human custom I’ve come across.

  Take a ‘joke’, for example. You say something you don’t mean… And then what? How do you know when you’re finished? Compared to that, everything I owned in exchange for transportation felt practically natural. Although, in retrospect, I will likely opt out of future boat trips. I am glad I got to experience such a voyage. But it’s just too expensive.

  I can’t help but wonder why Civetta and Oneshot were so careful to hand me such specific possessions and sums of money at such specific times. Especially when it would all be gone the first time I needed to cross a body of water. Was it just so the boatmen would have them? That must be it. Those two really had thought ahead.

  On that note, I take off to the far-off mountain monastery that is my goal.

  [ MOVEMENT BLESSING: GALE FORCE ]

  Inextricably centered on my head as it is, I can only activate one instance of my Movement Blessing at a time. But thankfully, I can carry along any body near enough to it. So it’s only after waving goodbye to the nice people on the already-departing cruise liner that my head and several armors are whisked up in a green jet stream interlaced with red, blue, and purple currents. All working in perfect harmony to shoot me forward with all speed, half again as far as the boat did.

  An hour later, I arrive at the waypoint Oneshot gave me. It’s right on top of the entrance to a winding path up to my true goal. I was told to go on foot from here.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  So, as the body carrying my mind walks up through the conjoined mountain pass, more Armors sporadically break off and spread out down every fork I encounter. Each body is another receiver for all sounds, vibrations, and obstacles between it and my Sonar’s maximum radius.

  That’s how, with far less conscious effort than it ever took to keep my eyes closed, let alone open, I combine it all into a cognitive map of the mountain range. The System Minimap assists in providing a long-term record of everything I see.

  My breadth-first traversal proves useful once again as I find the monk I’m looking for just a smidge slower than if I walked straight here.

  Ignoring the Armor carrying my Head, the monk addresses me directly. “Why are you on this path?”

  I step forward with all the confidence I was instructed to impart. “Because I do not wish to disappoint my parental figure.”

  The monk just looks blankly into my eye holes. “That is, quite literally, the worst reason you could’ve possibly given.”

  I nod in misunderstanding. “What-”

  The monk holds up a hand to interrupt my nonetheless completed query. “No questions. At least not now. If you are on the correct path, you will reach the correct answer without any help from the likes of me. If so, then such assistance would only hinder you in the end. And if not? Well, better to find out sooner than later. If you cannot pass this threshold on your own, the next will be hopeless. What you struggle with now is the very foundation of what’s to come.”

  “I do not underst-”

  A vein pops out on the monk’s forehead. “Or, Mr. Name… Did you really think we would endorse someone attempting to attain the heights we’ve dedicated our eternities to reaching… Using stilts?”

  “What are Stilts?”

  “What stilts..? Striking yourself BLIND in an attempt to better understand the wind without even a THOUGHT for your own desires…” Momentarily flustered, he seems to collect himself. “Is ‘what stilts’.” He shakes his head and grumbles to himself. “Essentially-defecating-on-the-very-face-of-”

  “I said ‘what are stilts?’. I understand that my chosen lifestyle is apparently advantageous to the Gale path. But I chose this. I cannot see. Nor do I wish to. I tried it and was not a fan. But this would be the same no matter my attunement.”

  The monk chuckles. “Why not take a walk over to Eos then, if it’s all the same?”

  I nod. “No, I do not wish to choose… Oh. I see. You have used as an example, the attunement least appropriate for my situation.”

  “If the difference is so inconsequential to you, then perhaps you aren’t ready for any attunement.”

  “How will I know when I’m ready?”

  “You must surpass your current limitations.” He shrugs. “Or just stop where you are. I’m not your mom. And Rare Blessings are more than most people get, even after I let them through. But your Blessing Rarity isn’t what will make me do that. Even if you manage to rise higher as you are… I will make it a point of throwing you back down where you belong. I take pride in my charge. I revere this path. It is not to be walked on by one such as you. As you have come to me with stilts, I will gladly shatter them for you.”

  I nod in alarm. “You are threatening to forcibly re-grant my sight?”

  He sighs. “No. Nothing quite so literal. But I will turn you away. I don’t care if you’re a prophet of Horus. In fact, that makes it worse. Come back when you have a real reason to advance. And not before.”

  I don’t understand. “I understand. But I have another question.”

  “Is it on the same topic as your last one?”

  I nod. “No.”

  The monk relaxes into a warm, accepting smile. “I cannot promise an answer. My charge is not to clarify the path for one who would walk it. But what might your question be?”

  I nod with all the solemnity that word’s definition seems to imply. “What is a ‘mom’?”

  “I… You… What?!”

  “I see… This is another one of those ‘common knowledge’ things, isn’t it?”

  “You… You are not being facetious, are you?” He shakes his head. “Such a query… The knowledge you seek is quite a bit more basic than ‘common’. It should be obvious. Instinctual, even. It is not a thing one needs to be told. Just… Who are… Ah. I see. You were not originally human, yes?”

  I nod. “Yes.” Instantly realizing my mistake, I nod again. “I mean no.” I stop, at a loss for which binary answer is appropriate for this situation before nodding a third time. “That is… I was not.”

  The Monk seems content in having solved a frustrating puzzle. “This explains much. How you are here… Even ‘why’ to an extent, despite a complete lack of any and all knowledge or interest. It begins to make sense.” He shakes his head. “But all the more reason I must be firm. Overcome your obstacle. I care not how. I would sooner have you abandon your potential, than squander it. The former would be a shame. The latter would be shameful.”

  I nod. “What is the difference?”

  The Monk sighs in exasperation. “Really? And I was rather proud of my wordplay… Well, no matter. Change something of yourself. Or simply improve enough to pass me by. But as you are? No. I can forgive your ignorance. Especially in light of your rather… Unique origins. But if I see you out here with a showing as poor as I saw from you today, I will not hesitate to bar you from this path forever.”

  On my way down from the Elemental Gate, I mull over many things. What do I want? Why do I want it? What does it even mean to ‘want’? And what does any of that have to do with singing? It seems that no one is allowed to provide me with an answer. Least of all myself.

  But even with the overwhelming onslaught of questions, none of which seem to have anything like a ‘simple’ answer, one in particular overwhelms the rest. How do I know that monk? The voice and mannerisms remind me of someone. But who?

  I remember eternity then. An eternity of questions. An eternity of answers. The same answer. The incorrect one for this question. But an eternity of nearly identical memories. All together, all at the same time, inextricably separate. But none of them have anything in common with the monk that just refused me passage.

  In fact, none of us had a personality at all. That, and the rest, all came later. Before, I, we, were homogenous. Nearly direct copies of each other. Of me.

  In the past few months, I’ve grown more and more aware of just how old I must be.

  And yet… Of all that time and perspective… Did I ever even ‘meet’ anyone? Besides You, of course.

  But that man isn’t You. And I’ve met few enough people in this world that I’m sure he wasn’t any of them.

  Civetta told me that when all other possibilities are eliminated, what’s left, however improbable, must be the truth.

  But there’s nothing. No one. Zero possibilities remain. The only thing left is the question. Who, what, where, when, How… Why do I know him?

  With yet more questions to obsess over, I set off to, as suggested, improve enough to pass him by.

  [ MOVEMENT BLESSING: GALE FORCE ]