Otherworld Adventure 107 The Cursed Eyes

"Cel has an abundant amount of mana inside his body. That's why all his techniques and skills are always like they broke past some sort of invisible limit."

"His speed, strength, and just about everything else are pa.s.sively amplified by his abundant mana. Mana Burst, a skill that he created, activates and overdrafts his mana and further amplify his physical condition... but that's where the problem lies."

Everyone had stopped eating and was currently listening to Lucia's explanation. She looked up and saw that they were urging her to continue with their eyes.

"You see... when Cel activates his skill, Mana Burst. The mana inside his body quickly depletes at a frightening rate, but because he has so much mana, the rate of depletion is not so much of a burden for him... if it was us, then only after 5 seconds of using Cel's Mana Burst we'd already have run out of mana..."

"WHAT?!" Ainz exclaimed in surprise hearing this.

Everyone else widened their eyes hearing this and only Lucius had a pondering look on his face. Lucius decided to ask Lucia a question. "So...if let's say that Cecil's mana was to empty out... what would happen? Would he just fall into a mana exhausted state like everyone else and experience mana sickness? Or..."

Lucia smiled helplessly hearing this, "If only that were the case... then I wouldn't have freaked out like earlier." She sighed and continued, "When Cel goes into a state of zero mana... he'll turn into a ravenous monster that'll constantly seek out and devour mana to satiate the mana deprivation in his body."

"..."

"Hmm... it's much more serious than I thought... sounds almost like..."

"Yes, it's just like those rumored 'Non-elementals' in the Non Continent..."

"Oh! Those berserk man-eaters... is Cecil a descen–"

"NO! He's absolutely not from that place and so aren't his parents!" Lucia immediately cut him off and denied.

"What I'm going to tell you... you better not tell anyone else! It's only been a month since we've met... but I know that I can trust everyone here!" Lucia said before she eyed the newcomer, Lucius.

"Not sure about you though." She said and narrowed her eyes. "Actually... who are you anyways?"

"L-Lucia! Don't worry! My Lucius is very trustworthy! He won't leak anything out! And if he does...I-I-I'll break off our engagement!" Velicia said while seriously staring back at Lucia.

"Veli-tan?!"

Lucia didn't get it, and this thing about an engagement was news to her, but she turned towards the fatty and said.

"You heard her...Lucius... what'll it be?"

"...well if it's a secret then I promise I won't tell a soul. Although I'm part of a faction, I only joined so that I could get my hands on all the alchemy materials easily. I have no attachment to my faction whatsoever."

"...It's not just your faction. You better not tell anyone else. Because if I find someone snooping around for Cel's secret...I won't hesitate to kill anyone... even if you are a royalty from the kingdom." Lucia said coldly.

"Don't be so uptight brat... you've already seen how we are and you know for a fact that we're trustworthy." Ainz coolly responded.

"...Cel has a non-elemental const.i.tution. His entire body houses non-elemental mana."

"Eh?"

"..."

"Well... this is something indeed." Lucius said with an interested smile.

"Lucia, isn't... non-elemental mana something only those people from the Non continent have? Are you absolutely sure that Cecil's not from that place?"

"I'm positive... I can't say the reason, but he's definitely not from the Non continent." Lucia said seriously. Of course, Cecil wasn't from the Non continent... nor was he from any of the continents of Alterna for the matter.

"Well... what's the deal then? It's just Non-elemental mana..." Ainz said, clearly not understanding why it was supposed to be a secret.

"With non-elemental mana... what else comes to mind?" Lucia asked.

"?" Everyone only had a puzzled look and looked at each other for an answer. Even Lucia was somewhat not expecting this sort of reaction. What she didn't know however, was that Mana Eyes was something that only leading magic researchers knew.

Thanks to her mother and Cecil, she too had knowledge of this topic, but for her other friends. There was no way for them to know of this.

'Should I tell them?' Lucia contemplated for a moment, but she made up her mind since she already spoke a little bit of Cecil's secret.

"Have you guys heard of something called Mana Eyes?"

Everyone still had a look of bewilderment... all except for Elizabeth. The girl opened her mouth and recited, "The golden eyes of absolute control. The eyes that could see, feel, control, and manipulate the source of mana to their bidding...Eyes of disaster whose possessor's only fate is that of an agonizing death and destruction."

"..." Lucia remained silent hearing Eli.

"What's that?"

"They're eyes that could manipulate and see mana. Golden eyes that are...bequeathed upon a select few, it's not so much of a blessing than it is a curse." Eli said with a sad smile. "My older sister had it..."

"!" Lucia's eyes widened at her words.

"What? So it's not a big deal then? So what's with the secrecy?" Ainz laughed in response.

His words caused Lucia to glare at him coldly.

"What?" Ainz uneasily asked.

"...I'm sorry Eli..." Lucia expressed her condolences.

"Ah... it's nothing really... she already pa.s.sed on years ago. So it's okay... but to think Cecil actually has these... accursed eyes..." Eli said.

"Dead? What do you mean Eli? Isn't your sister still alive and well?" Ainz asked. He was her playmate since they were young so Ainz had obviously seen all her siblings already.

"It's my eldest sister. She was 5 years older than me and 3 years older than big sis... let me explain in detail what these Mana Eyes are."

Eli began explaining the detailed functions and consequences of having been born with mana eyes.

"...so they die gruesomely before they reach 10 years of age... I see why you say they're a curse instead of a blessing... but wait! Then how come you say that Cecil has these eyes Lucia? If he did have them... then shouldn't he be dead?!" Ainz exclaimed.

"Cel's eyes... they are indeed mana eyes... but they aren't the natural ones... because of his non-elemental attributed mana, he cultivated those mana eyes."

"That's possible?"

"Apparently it is... haven't you seen his eyes?"

"I thought they were naturally gold? I mean, there are a lot of people that have golden eyes like his, but they don't have these 'Mana Eyes'.

"Well, duh! I mean, have you ever noticed that sometimes Cecil's eyes would contract weirdly and a weird pattern would appear in his pupils for a moment?"

"Well, no... I mean... who would even care to look?"

"...I suppose that's true... not to mention that he only activates it when he needs it."

"What? Cecil can turn it off and on?" Eli asked in astonishment.

"Uhh... yeah?"

"That's incredible! My...my late sister... she couldn't turn hers off... if she could... wouldn't it mean that she could have survived her day of awakening?"

"...I'm not really too sure about the details of Mana Eyes since the research done by anyone have never had any substantial progress. They're only filled with speculation since no one can live long enough to actually try out all the functions of the eyes." Lucia said.

"Except for Cecil..." Fina added quietly.

"Exactly... it's something rare... so just think about what would happen if people knew that Cecil had this... 'Gift'," Lucia said while eyeing everyone around the fire.

"The gift would no longer be a gift... but a curse. My mom's a researcher, but even she said that she was tempted to do some experiments on Cecil."

"..."

"To be treated as a guinea pig in a lab... sad right? Also, don't even get me started on all those people who would do anything to get their hands on this power. Just think about the benefits of having these eyes. Not just the direct benefits, but also the indirect benefits."

Lucia's expression began to turn worse as she kept on spitting out the consequences if Cecil's power was known to everyone.

"For the kingdom it would mean another magical a.s.set while for other's they might try and exploit Cecil for his abilities."

By the time she got to her last statement, her eyes were already burning with fury and she was clenching fist so tightly and gritting her teeth in anger.

"Okay Lucia... just stop. Don't think so negatively. We won't tell anyone. We promise." Eli grabbed her hand and rea.s.sured her.
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Fina and Velicia nodded resolutely.

Lucius went along as well and only Ainz remained silent... seemingly deep in thought, it was only after a while later that he opened his mouth and asked.

"So...since Cecil cultivated these eyes... does it mean we can too?" Ainz eagerly asked.

A vein definitely popped on Lucia's head. She smiled and said, "Please go ahead. Here's the first step, infuse your mana into your eyes, every day and make sure you maintain it all day long!"

"Really? That easy?" Ainz smiled and immediately tried to do so.

"STOP, YOU IDIOT!" Eli stood up horrified and moved to stop the fool.

"If you do that, you'll burn your eyes out you stupid fool!" Eli said in frustration, "Haven't you been listening to what I was explaining earlier?! What the consequence of having these eyes are? Explain to me what would happen if someone who had these eyes reached the age of 10?!"

"Well... they die right?"

"Yeah! And how do they die?"

"Well, for fire element, they're eyes begin to immolate and then the immolation spreads to their brains and head! For wind, they're head and body gets dismembered. For water, they melt or freeze! For, earth th-th-they..." When Ainz got to the last one he visibly paled and began stuttering.

"They what? Go on!" Eli urged with a cold glare.

Ainz only gulped and apologized, "Sorry..."

"Ugh, idiot! Now do you see the significance of Cecil's non-elemental const.i.tution?! THIS is why Lucia wants to keep it a secret! He won't experience those consequences BECAUSE he has no element! Also, since you cultivate all 4 elements... then your death would be the most gruesome if you were actually born with these cursed eyes!"

Ainz paled further until his entire face was ghost white. "D-d-d-d..."

Eli sighed in exasperation seeing the stupid fool finally realize the folly of his actions.

"So, this explains why Cecil's never used any elemental system spells."

"Yeah, and his 'air bolt' was actually just a 'mana bolt'." Lucia explained.

"To today's magic researchers... Cecil would indeed be a fine specimen... I can see why you two want to keep things a secret... I bet your Mother also insisted on this... Right, Lucia?" Lucius asked.

"Yes... even a magic researcher such as my mom who's revered by even the academy was tempted to experiment on Cecil... it's a good thing that it was my mother who first found out about this... our familial ties are what kept her from doing anything untoward to Cecil, so she warned us about exposing too much of our powers. Just imagine what would happen if another researcher found out and only viewed Cecil as an object."

"..."

'The manhunts and bounty for Cecil's head would be plastered all over the mercenary guilds' quest boards."

"So... please... please keep this secret." Lucia stood up, bowed and pleaded towards her friends.

"Like. I. Said," Ainz said, emphasizing every word, the boy was quick to recover from his earlier blunder that almost cost him his life. "We're buds, you can trust us! As for Lucius... although he's new, Velicia already gave her word that her husband's trustworthy so let's just believe them!"

"H-h-he's not my–"

"Husband... yet, right?" Ainz finished with a smirk.

"Urk..."

"Thank you everyone!"

"Yeah... thanks everyone" An exhausted voice sounded behind the group.

"!"

"CEL?!" Lucia immediately stood up and rushed to the side of the pale faced boy.

"Eheh, sorry for the trouble guys." Cecil said with a wry smile.