Chapter 356: A Bit Slow

Chapter 356: A Bit Slow

“Captain, how do you feel now?” Seeing Oss standing quietly and somewhat dazed, Gale approached and asked. Then he noticed the unusual movement of Oss, whose eyes now bore two Magatamas. It was abnormally swift; in an extremely brief moment, Oss executed several precise actions. Moreover, the speed of these movements was faster than Oss’s usual pace, yet more accurate!

“I… feel… very… good,” Oss ‘slowly’ spoke. His current sensation was strange. Gale’s words sounded normal to him, but everything around him appeared nearly motionless in Oss’s eyes. This contradiction left him somewhat uncomfortable, though it was far better than the dizziness he had felt earlier when both eyes simultaneously transmitted conflicting speed information to his brain.

Right now, only his dynamic vision was exceptionally strong; nothing else had changed. However, Oss, not yet accustomed to this dynamic vision, inevitably slowed down when speaking.

“Let me try the third stage…” After quietly sensing for a while, Oss, now able to speak at a normal pace, said. A third Magatama appeared in his eyes… Instantly, Oss felt as if his head was about to split open. Countless detailed pieces of information flooded his mind, coupled with even stronger dynamic vision. He felt as if the entire world had frozen. He wanted his body’s speed to synchronize with his current dynamic vision, but he could only watch helplessly as his arm slowly rose.

It felt as though his arm was submerged in a mass of high-strength rubber. Every slight increase in speed required several times, even dozens of times, his usual strength. Moving his arm less than ten centimeters made the entire limb feel as if it bore immense pressure.

His muscles tensed to their limit, blood vessels bulged and were forcibly pressed outward by the strained muscles, causing the skin to protrude. Then, intense pain shot from his arm. Oss knew this pain well—it was the same agony that emerged when exerting beyond one’s limit in battle. Yet now, this pain appeared during the ‘slow’ act of raising his hand!

At this moment, the expressions of Gale and the others remained unchanged. Oss saw their eyes turning, bit by bit, slowly shifting toward his rising arm. This turning speed was very, very slow. Even at his current arm-raising pace, he could move his arm back and forth three times and return it to its original position before their eyes fully turned toward it.

However, maintaining this arm-raising speed, he probably wouldn’t need three cycles; one would be enough to render his arm nearly unusable.

The power of these eyes… was terrifying!

With these eyes, who could defeat him in future battles? Just think: not only would all enemy attacks appear in slow motion, but every subtle movement of the opponent could be precisely captured. In this slowed vision, he could gradually discern the opponent’s next move through their subtle actions, striking back later. Finishing off an enemy in one move wouldn’t even be troublesome!

As Oss continued pondering, simultaneous pain surged in his brain and eyes. This sudden, sharp pain instinctively forced him out of the three-Magatama state. The slowly rising arm suddenly accelerated and smacked against his own head. The persistent pain in his brain, combined with this slap, nearly knocked him unconscious!

“Captain, your eyes are bleeding,” said Gale, bewildered by his captain’s sudden odd behavior as he looked at Oss’s face with surprise. Two lines of blood now trailed from Oss’s tightly closed eyes, dripping down his cheeks toward the ground.

“It’s fine, just some ruptured blood vessels,” Oss said with closed eyes. Through his Bloodline Power, he sensed the condition near his eyes. The blood vessels around his eyes had ruptured due to overload. Consuming some Blood Essence quickly restored them. As for the pain in his eyes and brain, he could do nothing. Neither his eyes nor his brain were damaged; the pain was simply from exhaustion.

Especially his eyes—they now felt as sore as if he had stayed up for a month straight. Slightly opening them even a crack, any exposure to light caused extreme discomfort. The headache made him want to lie on the ground right then and sleep soundly.

And this was only the third stage! These eyes had a total of four stages. Opening three stages alone left him like this. If he activated the fourth stage, would his head explode directly? These eyes were powerful, but their danger was exceptionally high. And that slap he gave himself on the head nearly cracked his skull!

Oss had no doubt that even someone else, as long as they possessed and could utilize these eyes, would already have the capital to join high-end combat power. Just these eyes alone—not to mention the third stage—even the second stage had multiplied Oss’s combat strength several times… That was no exaggeration. With the third stage, even against high-rank Professionals, Oss felt confident he could hold his own… or even turn the tables!

The super-strong dynamic vision provided by the eyes made movement difficult at that time, but he hadn’t activated Blood Essence Frenzy then. He hadn’t excessively burned Blood Essence to enhance his combat power, nor had he tapped into that mysterious source of power to increase his enhancement limit. Previously, exceeding the enhancement limit made him feel unable to fully control his strength.

Now, with the assistance of these eyes, unable to control over-enhanced strength?

He only felt the enhancement might be a bit too low, unable to keep up with the speed he could perceive. Considering all these conditions together, high-rank Professionals? They didn’t seem so unreachable anymore.

“How many seconds did I maintain that state just now?” Oss rubbed his eyes, still unable to open them. Not forcing himself, he asked his companions about his condition.

“Seconds?” Gale gave Oss, who was rubbing his swollen arm, a strange look. “It wasn’t that long at all! In the blink of an eye, Captain, you slapped your own head.”

“…” Oss fell silent. These words gave him an odd feeling, as if he were utterly unworthy of these eyes. The third stage—could it only last for an instant? This was something he had to pay attention to. If in battle, carelessness could lead to failure to defeat the enemy. Instead, he might lose most of his combat capability due to his current state…

He shouldn’t become overly arrogant just because he gained these eyes. He needed to proceed as before. These eyes could serve as a trump card, but relying on them too much… at least he didn’t have the conditions for such reliance now.

“It seems our schedule for today is out of the question,” Wood said, shaking his head as he saw Oss resting for over ten minutes, still looking pale and listless. Their captain was ultimately too young… prone to getting carried away. He could have tested slowly, but he’d gone too far all at once, wasting some time. But perhaps this was for the best, letting Oss recognize certain things early to avoid issues in critical moments later, like a disease—early detection, early treatment.

“Then let’s rest here for a while. Perfect, I didn’t sleep at all last night either, so I’m going to catch up on sleep,” Lena said with a smile, returning to her tent. These tents were rented. When renting, a deposit was required first, refundable upon returning the tent after use. This was a new convenient little feature recently introduced in the Trading Zone.

The rental business. This service was just a small function integrated into the Trading Module, not particularly innovative. Even before the Trading Module appeared, similar services existed. So, with this feature, such services simply became faster and more convenient.

Her tent was a magic tent. When closed, it could not only block sound but also had warning and defensive effects, making it a very popular type of tent. After Dan Marina returned to her tent, Oss also felt he couldn’t hold on much longer and similarly returned to his own tent to rest. While resting, he could still feel his eyes continuing to ‘take root and sprout.’ This rest was anything but peaceful. Even after waking up, Oss felt his eyes within their sockets pulsating like a heartbeat.

He really might have been too overconfident. The breaking-in period wasn’t even over, and he directly tested the third stage. That it caused a headache and made his eyes extremely fatigued was only normal. Rubbing his eyes, Oss re-examined his condition. Aside from being black, these eyes were extremely clear, without even the bloodshot appearance that should come with excessive fatigue.

Truly modified eyes. They were different from ordinary ones.

Stepping out of the tent, it was already night outside. Gale and the others gathered around a campfire. Noticing Oss emerging from his tent, Rick greeted him, waving a skewer of roasted meat. “Captain, come eat something.”

“Lena hasn’t gotten up yet,” Oss said, gently stretching his body as he walked over and sat by the campfire. Not seeing Lena, he couldn’t help but ask.

“Want to go check on her, Captain?” Gale said with a grin.

“Forget it,” Oss shook his head. Lena was destined to leave their team sooner or later. They should understand each other. It was already dark; waking her up was pointless. As for hunger, she would surely come out to find food herself…

Times had changed. Now, as long as there was a Magic Weapon Summoner in the team, eating hunted game during outdoor activities was more for nostalgia and cost-saving. If a quest yielded rich rewards, through the takeout function in the Trading Module, what delicious food couldn’t they get?

Unless a team had someone skilled in cooking who could make tasty game, some teams found even eating game superfluous. Roasting meat wasted time. Takeout allowed them to eat quickly right away. The difference was huge.