Chapter 1. Divine Eye Ability

The Alps

January 17th, 2047.

"STOP!" someone shouted.

A 25-year-old man stopped in his tracks when he saw three men dressed in two layers of clothing, a leather T-shirt, shirt, and jeans, standing tall before Thomas Norton.

"What?" asked Thomas flatly.

"From your looks. There's no doubt about it. You must be the divine eye, right?" asked one of the men.

The middle-aged man pointed harshly at Thomas, who was currently before him, seemingly unafraid despite both eyes being tightly covered by a thick black cloth.

So many talents had been copied by Thomas that the men decided to cover both eyes with a cloth. Thomas was worried that once he opened the cloth and looked forward, the destruction of this place would become inevitable.

"The people who gave me that title," Thomas uttered.

The three immediately drew their weapons, a type of rifle and a sword, towards the front, threatening Thomas. They were not afraid of the title the people had given Thomas.

The title of the divine eye. People gave Thomas that title because of the power of Thomas' eyes, especially after he copied the talents of many witches worldwide.

"Are you Crimson Bane?" asked Thomas.

"We are Mirage. You killed St. Lucas!" one of the men taunted Thomas.

"St. Lucas was the one who was going to kill me. I was trying to protect myself," Thomas replied.

"Tch! You tried to protect yourself, but you killed him instead!" the man moaned.

The man and his two friends were indeed graduates of the Mirage Magic Academy, a hidden magic academy in Britain.

One must have enough mana capacity to enter, so anyone who does not have mana in their body will not be able to enter.

Thomas was one of Mirage's graduates, the academy's last generation. Because of that, the three men before Thomas had become vengeful towards someone with the divine eye title.

The three continued to wander all over the place to meet the owner of the divine eye title. However, their luck finally stops when they meet Thomas in the Alps valley.

"YOU DEAD!" groaned the other man, galloping toward Thomas while swinging a magic sword.

[Threat detected]

[Activating talent]

[Talent No. 30: Environmental Intuition]

[Description: Able to see objects or living creatures around]

Even with his eyes closed, thanks to the talent that was successfully copied from another wizard, Thomas can map the surrounding area.

With his active environmental intuition talent, he could read the enemy's movements by intuitively detecting their mana.

Thomas dodged the attack quickly, with his open right palm pointing at the man's stomach before him, precisely at his solar plexus.

Thomas' palm slammed into the solar plexus of the man before him until he felt a warm feeling in the man's stomach, making the man scared, "What the—"

[Activating Talent]

[Talent No. 02: Sacred Fire]

[Description: Able to create flames in both hands, advanced levels can summon magic without chanting]

The warm feeling in the man's stomach became a scorching heat. In an instant, the burst of fire from Thomas's palm melted the man's stomach until it created a burnt hole the size of Thomas's palm.

The quality of the fire was different from before, and the intensity of the fire made the man die instantly.

He fell to the ground with blood pouring out uncontrollably, staining the grass of the valley a blood-red color.

"RICK!" shouted one of the men, his partner.

"You son of a bitch!" the man snarled, firing a rifle bullet forward to strike Thomas in the head.

Thomas' left hand rose up, stretching forward in line with the direction of the gun bullet the man was aiming, "It was in vain."

[Threat detected]

[Activating talent]

[Talent No. 57: Spatial distortion]

[Description: Able to create a distortion of time-space to the point of causing a significant time difference]

A white dome with a blurred area appeared around Thomas, startling the two people before him as they tried to avoid the ever-expanding dome.

Any objects or living creatures trapped in the dome would experience a slow change in time to 1/16th.

One person was trapped in the growing dome, as well as the bullets that had previously rushed towards him. Everything seemed to be going so slowly, except for Thomas, the magic user.

Thomas stepped closer to the trapped man. He stepped with the help of his still active environmental intuition. Thomas could use at most 10 talents in a single battle like this.

Arriving beside the trapped man, Thomas' left hand swung out to the side powerfully, causing the man's head to be viciously severed and blood to start spurting out at a slowed pace.

"You're moving at 1/16th of the speed, but you still feel the pain like real-time," Thomas explains.

Another man outside the dome would not have known what was happening inside, as a layer of hazy white dome walls was blocking his view.

But Thomas could see clearly outside the dome, of course, through his environmental intuition.

Seeing one man trying to escape, Thomas rushed out from inside with steady steps, chasing after the man, slowly making his way into the forest to run.

"I shouldn't have fought him!" the man complained regretfully.

He ran fast with both eyes occasionally looking back, watching Thomas, who was still walking with slow steps after him. The man laughed out loud, thinking he had survived Thomas' death threat.

Thomas had no intention of pursuing the man because, according to Thomas, the man and his two friends were already trapped in the magical reality he had activated.

No matter where they went to escape, they would still meet at the same point, at the valley location.

[Activating the talent system]

[Talent No. 49: Mind Reality]

[Description: Able to create a reality of the mind according to the owner's will].

Thomas turned to the right, seeing the man who had fled earlier coming to this valley through environmental intuition.

The man couldn't hide his surprise. His eyes widened violently as he realized he had met Thomas again.

"No way. Didn't I already stay away from him?!" groaned the man, annoyed.

He again stepped out of the place by re-entering the forest behind him. However, from the left, the man arrived at the Alps valley, seeing Thomas still there with the magic dome and his friend's body lying on the ground.

"What did you do to me?!" the man snapped.

"Mind reality. I activated it right after you threatened me. There was no point running away." Thomas stepped to the left, trying to catch up with the man.

The man didn't lose his mind; he tried again to enter the forest for the umpteenth time. However, the end was the same: arriving at the valley.

The man seemed to be circling in that place, with Thomas as the center point.

"GET ME OUT OF HERE!" the man moaned, beginning to show the insanity of the mind.

Thomas stopped the pace, letting the man try his best to escape from the mind reality trap he had created. However, the result was the same as before.

At a certain point, the man gave up with both eyes, crying violently. Tears ran down his face, flooding between his nose and cheeks. The man's reddened eyes tried to plead with Thomas.

"Please, Master Thomas. Stop this madness."

Realizing the madness of his mind had peaked, Thomas chose to deactivate all the talents that had previously been activated. The situation returned to its original state.

The three men were still standing before Thomas with both eyes widened, crying blood, then falling unconscious because they were suffering from death and endless madness.

There was no space distortion dome in that place or the bodies of any of the men. It all happened only in the world of mind reality.

[Deactivating all talents]

[Activating copy talent]

[Talent No.1: Copy Talent]

[Description: Able to copy another person's talent and use it in addition to the talent's owner]

By temporarily deactivating the 76 talents he possessed, Thomas opened the blindfold cloth and immediately squatted before the three men.

By temporarily deactivating, the power of other skills would not create significant damage in the valley.

Thomas's two eyes looked into the three men's eyes, successfully copying the talent they had with Thomas's two bright golden eyes.

[Starts talent copying process]

[Talent Copying Process Successful]

[Talents received:]

[No. 78. Area Electricity]

[No. 79. Life Tree]

[No. 80. Fly]

Seeing the talent obtained made Thomas happy. He put the blindfold back on and reactivated all the previously deactivated talents.

"Mirage, huh? I wonder how Violet is doing?" Thomas complained.

The man stepped away from the place to reach the nearby village, "Perhaps they are chasing me now. I will welcome her with great joy."