For a long while, Lucius tried running through different 'feelings'; happiness, sadness, joy, anger... With each attempt, he would dig up some old memory to increase its intensity, though no matter how hard he tried he couldn't seem to get it right.
He had assumed that heartache... sadness would be the answer. After all, he had experienced a great amount of that... the death of his wife, of his child, of his comrades. Though all those deaths meant nothing to his 'change'.
It was as if his 'emotions' were going through a filter, and none of them were being let through. Though whenever he relaxed, eased up on trying to force his way toward the storage area, a certain feeling was being drawn in.
The feeling of disconnect, of loss... the same feeling that constantly followed him back in his old world... the feeling of 'wander'... or so he called it. There was no better way describe it. He felt like a wanderer, a being with no real purpose but to go where life takes him.
A moment later, the purple membrane of poison that had surrounded his tail slowly disappeared, and it seemed as if he had failed.
"Do not fret, Chosen One, even the greatest eld-" a chieftain was about to say, however the moment it wandered too close, it felt its mind slip, and its entire body purged of all feeling.
"What happened?" one of the other chieftains asked, however, Lucius was still attempting to completely control his change, feeding more of his... disconnect towards the storage area.
The others backed away, realizing only a moment later what had happened.
"There's no way right? I-I know you're all thinking it... but it's impossible, isn't it? Even for the Shri'killian," one of the chieftains said out loud. Though the faint outline of poisonous gas made them aware of the reality of things.
"Invisible poison..."
*
Keeping up with Lucius and the others wasn't really an issue for Ghost, especially with her additional legs and streamlined body making her extra agile. The main issue she faced came in the form of stealth itself.
As she followed behind Lucius and the chieftains, he would occasionally stare directly at the tree that she was hiding on, as if telling her 'you've failed, try harder'.
After they had stopped at an open patch of grass to start their collection mission, she realized how it was possible that Lucius could still see her even though she was certain that she had hidden properly.
It was like he had eyes that extended out of his body... as if he could sense the very space around him without having to look. It took her some time to realize that the feeling of her being watched was actually him... he was the 'unseen' eye that was constantly following her around, even in the camp.
~How is he doing that?~ she wondered, slowing down her pace so as to stay out of range of those unseen eyes of his.
Once everyone had begun collecting branches, Lucius called the chietains over toward him.
~I can barely hear a word of what they're saying,~ she thought to herself as she watched the chieftains explain something to him. ~Just a little closer,~ she thought, before slowly inching her way closer to the group.
And as if she stepped over an invisible trip wire, Lucius made a sort of pointing gesture towards the tree she was on while he was talking. A slight gesture, but enough to let Ghost know she had been spotted.
~Yeah, yeah, but I have to hear what they're saying,~ she thought to herself before retreating back out of his 'unseen' eye's range.~
"... first form is accumulation. The forming and storing of poison," one of the chieftains said, his words barely audible. Ghost closed her eyes, trying to focus only on the chieftain's voice.
"Poison cannot be used indefinitely. One can only use what one has stored. For instance, we store our poison in our caps," the chieftain continued.
This aligned with what Ghost already knew. She could only shoot out a certain amount of poison form her stinger tail before she felt drained.
The chieftain went on to explain how poison was produced, which wasn't new information to her either, but rather an explanation of something she did subconsioudly.
By the time the chieftains got to the second form, she found that she could somehow hear them more clearly. However, the moment she opened her eyes and broke focus, their words went back to being near-inaudible whispers.
~How am I doing that?~ she thought to herself, focusing on the chieftain's voice once more. Once again it's voice became more clear, more audible.
"The next form is expulsion. There are many ways to expel poison, depending on how forcefully you do it. With little to no force, you expel is like this," one of the cheiftains said, before letting out a soft sound, like wind billowing past leaves.
Ghost opened her eyes to look at what was going on, and found that the chieftain had created a cloud of poison. The chieftain then said something else, and the cloud turned into a torrent of poison gas.
~How come mine is liqui-~ but before she could even finish the thought, the cheiftains torrent of poison gas turned liquid.
~Oh, so I'm using too much force?~ she thought to herself, before closing her eyes once more. She attempted to shoot out poison, this time in gaseous form. However all that came out was a stream of purple fluid.
After trying and failing a few more times, she decided to focus in on what the chieftain's were saying to perhaps get a better explanation of things.
Instead, she was met with a horrendous hissing sound. She quickly opened her eyes to see what was going on and found that Lucius had created something like torrent of liquid poison surrounded by gas.
~How is he doing that?~ she thought to herself, before deciding to ask him once all this was done.
After this, Lucius and the group began preparing to move on to their next destination, whilst they were doing this, Ghost decided to think of a way to counter Lucius's unseen eyes.
~If they're like eyes, then there should be a way to fool them. A way to hide from them somehow,~ she thought to herself. However she was aware that these eyes of his seemed to be everywhere at once, and normal means of hiding would not suffice,
~They're almost like... magic! Then perhaps the only way to hide from them is through magic as well,~ she realized, before calling on her radiant energy.
From what she had learnt about hiding from Lucius, there were three basic fronts. The first was terrain.
Right now she her skin wasn't as green as it used to be, so blending into the surrounding wasn't really an option available to her. However, that's not to say magic couldn't fix that.
~How would I use radiant energy to blend into the surroundings?~ she thought, before looking around.
~Firstly, how exactly do Lucius's eyes see me? I doubt he can actually see me... that just wouldn't make sense... I guess?~ she thought to herself. Ghost wasn't Hannibal... not even close. Right now it was taking all her thinking power to get this far, and even then these were all just half-assed assumptions.
~If he can create unseen eyes then I should be able to do that too... though I don't see anything in the radiant index that is similar to that,~ she thought, going through the index.
Just as she was about to give up, it donned on her... when she had given up her sight, her listening had become better. What would happen if she gave up her listening as well... would she be able to have invisible senses?
~If Hannibal were here I bet he would be impressed,~ she thought to herself, before closing her eyes, and covering her ear holes.
After several minutes passed and nothing happened, she decided to run radiant energy through her body, hoping that it would put things into motion.
~Why isn't anything happening?~ she thought in frustration.
The way she imagined things, somehow a whole army of invisible eyes would surround Lucius, and keep tabs on him, just like he had been doing with her.
~What's missing? Why isn't it working?~ she thought, before opening her eyes... with that, a wave of nausea passed through her entire body while at the same time, radiant energy was being consumed by her eyes.
Radiant energy usually wasn't 'consumed', but rather weakened after use. But this time it was as if some of it had left her body.
[Processing...]
[New technique acquired... 『Radiant Observation』.]
[Adding 『Radiant Observation』 to 『Radiant Augmentation Index』...]
[Complete. 『Radiant Observation』 has been added.]
In that instant, she could see everything, every little detail as far as her eyes would allow. It was like having a million eyes at the same time... it was overwhelming, to say the least. However, with Radiant Energy running through her body, it was bearable.
~If this is how he sees... then how am I supposed to hide from this?~ she thought. Though she had to admit, this was fun... more fun then she had ever experienced. She could watch Lucius, and he didn't suspect a thing.
~It's like the eyes don't even exist... That's it!~
Just then she realized what she needed to do to avoid being seen, to hide even from these unseen eyes.
