Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Celestial Toad Gazing at the Moon, the Countenance of the Mage

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The newly activated professional skill, “True Word Dominion: Life,” could shape controlled material forms according to the will of a True-Name Mage. Whether one flattened and stretched the material or crafted it into an intricate, delicate structure depended entirely on the mage’s own ability.

This reminded Lin Bo of a spell from the Multiverse Network.

The fourth-circle transmutation spell “Masterwork” could transform a raw material into a finished product made from that same material. A pile of timber could become a house, a heap of thread could be woven into clothing, and steel could be shaped into weapons and armor.

Lin Bo had only heard of the spell and did not know its specific details.

However, after carefully experimenting with Life Dominion, he had summarized several important principles.

Although Life Dominion could freely reshape objects, it could not gather objects of the same kind together. In other words, if one had a pile of iron filings, Life Dominion could not fuse them into a single iron ingot.

Likewise, controlled objects could not be divided.

There was, however, a way to work around that limitation. He could not split an iron ingot directly, but when stretching it, he could draw out a slender connecting strand. A gentle twist would snap it, achieving, in effect, the division of the whole.

Finally, and most importantly, the precision with which Life Dominion altered material forms depended on sensory ability, primarily sight and touch.

The perceptive precision of Tactile Exterior-Inward Perception was finer than a strand of hair, allowing Lin Bo to carve flowers on the tip of a cow-hair needle. His visual perception was somewhat less precise, but with the aid of a magnifying glass, he could still surpass the limits of ordinary physiology.

Since the effective range of Dominion depended on his sensory abilities, Lin Bo was also considering ways to improve his eyesight.

He browsed through the product catalog of Multi-Union Trade and found himself unable to decide.

For Multiverse players, the simplest and easiest way to improve their vision was an eye transplant.

Technological prosthetic eyes, ocular bloodlines, beholder eyes—the Multiverse was rich in products. Different types of eyes possessed different visual abilities, and there was always one capable of satisfying a player’s needs.

If one truly did not wish to replace one’s original equipment, technological gear was another option. A pilot’s helmet, a soldier’s night-vision goggles, a watchmaker’s high-magnification eyepiece, and so on.

There were also various magical blessings that could provide a range of visual enhancements, including long-distance vision, night vision, image magnification, magical sight, blood-trace vision, soul vision, fate vision, and more.

By comparison, general-purpose skills capable of enhancing eyesight seemed rather unrewarding. Skills with powerful effects had high learning requirements, while weaker skills were inferior to simply purchasing equipment.

He discussed his needs with Anglen.

[Anglen]: Skill books that improve eyesight are produced more frequently in martial-combat dungeons. If we sell one here, the price is indeed somewhat steep.

The two discussed the matter at length.

Lin Bo intended to use the ocular skill primarily for combat, so he needed both dynamic vision and visual precision. Night vision would ideally be included as well, lest he lose combat effectiveness in dark environments.

Anglen recommended a book titled *Celestial Toad Gazes at the Moon*. It cost ninety Calamity Coins on the Multi-Union Trade platform, but through a colleague’s connections, he could purchase it from another trade platform for only eighty-five Calamity Coins, plus a one-coin purchasing fee. Entirely reasonable.

Lin Bo spent another sixty-six Calamity Coins on a set of ocular enhancement intelligence modules. They could be installed on his voice-changing mask and provide excellent visual assistance.

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An item like this was already sufficient for the needs of most combat situations.

But Lin Bo had always believed that one could never have too many skills. *Celestial Toad Gazes at the Moon* would work even better in combination with the ocular enhancement modules.

A sea-blue trade channel opened.

The skill book for *Celestial Toad Gazes at the Moon* was a piece of plain white silk, its surface covered in tadpole script written in multicolored ink.

Lin Bo held the silk in his hands and examined it. Before long, the book dissolved into a streak of light, which streamed thread by thread into the center of his brow.

A coldness sharp enough to sting surged through his mind and gathered in his eyes, as though it intended to freeze the aqueous humor within his eyeballs into ice crystals.

The sensation was somewhat similar to what he had experienced when Tactile Exterior-Inward Perception reached Level 3, except that this time he was not plunged into darkness. He was immersed in light.

The radiance was so intense that it could just as easily cause blindness.

Several dozen seconds later, the cold current receded, and the glare before Lin Bo’s eyes faded as well, allowing him to see the colors of all things clearly once more.

He blinked and surveyed his surroundings. The colors he saw were somewhat brighter than before.

But that was not the main point. Lin Bo tried rotating his eyes and found the movement as smooth as oiled bearings.

*Celestial Toad Gazes at the Moon*: Level 1 (0/30)
Significantly enhances dynamic vision.

A tiny autumn insect resting on the windowpane suddenly took flight. The moment a moving object entered Lin Bo’s field of vision, his focus locked onto it almost instantly.

“Steel.”

The small knife transformed into a silver streak and tore through the air. It struck the autumn insect, and fragments of its shattered body shot away in an instant, vanishing from Lin Bo’s sight once they had flown too far.

The effects of Level 1 *Celestial Toad Gazes at the Moon* were already quite apparent.

The method for increasing proficiency in this skill was the application of eye drops.

Unlike Apothecary Tongue-Taste and Tactile Exterior-Inward Perception, which placed greater emphasis on knowledge and experience, *Celestial Toad Gazes at the Moon* simply consumed resources. One applied a special potion to the eyeballs, and once the ocular tissues had absorbed enough of its medicinal power, one practice session was complete.

The eye drops came in many grades, and even the cheapest cost five Calamity Coins per vial.

If possible, Lin Bo felt he should try to reproduce them himself.

After his purchases, he had 342 Calamity Coins remaining. There would be many more places to spend money in the future, while his current means of earning it were few.

The ocular enhancement intelligence modules were blue-quality equipment, an engineering product.

They appeared to be a silver mask with an attached headband.

The entire mask consisted of a curved visual display. A primary camera lens was set into the forehead, while six spherical lenses were distributed across the headband. A dish-shaped disk at the back of the head housed the intelligent computing unit.

With seven lenses in total, the planar field of view approached 360 degrees. Aside from a small blind spot above and below, the surrounding scenery was integrated into the facial display. The device also provided infrared night vision and image magnification of up to ninety times.

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The head-conforming design was ergonomic and fairly comfortable. It did not catch in the hair or pinch the flesh.

Lin Bo brought out his voice-changing mask. This time, he decided to modify it himself.

His knowledge had continued to grow, and simple mechanical work no longer required him to rely on others.

Not long ago, he had dismantled the voiceprint eliminator inside the mask and replaced it with a component he had reproduced himself. Its performance had not diminished, and he had already destroyed the original voiceprint eliminator.

The voice-changing mask was made primarily of steel, so he did not need a cutting machine. Using his sense of touch through the paint, he sensed the steel beneath it, recited a true word, and used Life Dominion to reshape the mask directly.

The entire shell of the mask spread over the ocular enhancement modules like soft clay. An opening formed in the forehead, and the steel along its edges bent inward, gripping the facial display and securing the two pieces together with perfect precision.

Ding—

[Crafting judgment passed. Equipment successfully created.]

[Please name this equipment and choose whether to leave a message.]

**Mage’s Visage** (Blue)

Type: Engineering Product
Weight: 1.4 kg
Equipment Effects: Enhanced field of view, night vision, voiceprint elimination
Description: Originally a personalized mask, modified by two players and endowed with a degree of practical utility.

Some clients are truly strange. —Modification Comment, Old

It will become more useful and more useful. —Modification Comment, New

Lin Bo put on Mage’s Visage and examined his appearance in the mirror. The matte-black skull face was framed by a silver-white lining beneath the eye sockets, while a curved glass lens the size of a ping-pong ball protruded from the forehead.

The face of the three-eyed skull was deep and terrifying.

He nodded, satisfied with the equipment’s appearance. Dark aesthetics were aesthetics too.