After the Emperor's visit, Eden spent the rest of his night studying the spell, having had his rest already.
4th Circle spells were complex, but the jump from 3rd Circle to 4th Circle was not so large, since they were both Tier I. Eden could guess that the real jump in difficulty would be with 5th Circle.
Still, Divination was a school of magic Eden knew very little about, the only skill that came even remotely close to it being Analyze, so it made things harder. Fortunately, all paths of magic shared similarities, and concepts could be inferred from others.
Eden did not manage to learn the spell by dawn, mostly because he prioritized his sleep, but it was not like he just had to stop learning because the day started. He quickly found a good excuse for it too.
As the rest of the party woke up, they briefly mentioned the dream they had all shared, confirming it was not simply their imagination, and promptly turned to him for answers.
"I don't know if I'd say you could trust them, nor if they said the entire truth, but they do share the same goal as us."
Sylfine, who had been collecting tadpoles, asked, "What about these powers he mentioned? Could we really… absorb the tadpoles?"
"You definitely can, and probably won't be disappointed by the powers you earn. As you know, these are not merely Illithid tadpoles, but ones that have been influenced by Netherese Magic."
There was a moment of silence, no one really sure of what to say. Or whether they should say it. In the end, it was Astarion, who was leaning back against a pillar, who said, "Then that begs the question, do we really want to take these out?"
Lae'zel immediately reacted, quite viscerally, "You would turn yourself into a Ghaik for power?!"
Minthara, though new to the crew, and a former enemy, did not hesitate to speak her mind, "The Absolute is no god, but the tadpoles do grant extraordinary power. The few I was given to consume already granted me psychic powers, and some powerful True Souls can even kill with a simple thought. If you will not consume them, then I will."
Lae'zel clicked her tongue, and Shadowheart immediately added, "Halsin already warned us about the danger of the Mountain Pass, and that was before Githyankis took it over for their Creche. Is it really worth it to waste a bunch of time there? We should go to the Underdark right now."
Seeing that Lae'zel was on the verge of exploding, Eden intervened, "The Mountain Pass certainly is dangerous, and we absolutely will pass by the Underdark. However, the Monastery the Gith took over holds interesting secrets that would help us tremendously in our fight against the absolute."
Gale snorted, "Why do I feel like there is something you are not telling us?"
Eden smiled, and said, "The Creche is not going anywhere, so how about we slightly delay our trip? Some of you should head to the Grove. Karlach, you will find a blacksmith among the Tieflings who may be able to help you with your heart problem. Also, they should have rewards for us."
Karlach immediately perked up, though Astarion gagged, "Ugh, I don't want to have people fuss over me. You can go without me."
Eden nodded, having already expected it, "South of Moonhaven is a swamp. You will find many interesting things there as well, including a Hag. It should take you less than a day to explore."
"You sound like you're not coming to either."
Eden confirmed, "I'm not. I believe these are things you can handle by yourself. You have already recovered a respectable amount of power, enough to defend yourself. Besides, I have spells to study."
Gale offered, "I'm not particularly enthused about scouring a swamp for a hag, so I can stay to discuss magic."
Eden smiled, but said, "Thank you, but you guys cannot be separated. If any of you is too far from the Prism, it won't be able to protect you anymore."
This got a few grimaces from the group, since some did not want to go to the Grove, and others to the swamp, but since they had to stick together, they reluctantly left.
By now, Eden believed that most Players should have already moved on to Moonrise Towers, or even Baldur's Gate for some. That was what made him comfortable with letting the party go on their own without any protection, and split up.
Additionally, not only could the members of the Party defend themselves, as demonstrated with Magni's party, but there would be little rewards in killing them anyway.
Another reason Eden let them go by themselves was the Hag, Auntie Ethel. Eden needed her to appear in Baldur's Gate to trigger the quest that would reward him with a legendary weapon. And if he did go with them, he might end up killing her and stopping her from being reborn in Baldur's Gate.
Left to his own devices, Eden continued his studies of True Sight.
Technically, learning the spell was not that hard, the instructions were pretty clear, and the scroll itself was quite helpful as well, especially to Eden.
The way wizards learned spells through scrolls was not just by copying the contents of it in their spellbook. Instead, every scroll containing a spell contained a small set of raw information on how mana the Weave should be manipulated to activate a spell. In essence, it was like a spell circle engraved deep within.
Eden's magic used his mana, while wizards manipulated the weave, so the ambient mana in a sense, but it was all mana in the end. A normal Player mage would probably only be able to get the instructions out of a scroll, but Eden, thanks to the vastly enhanced senses brought by his Talent, could feel the raw information.
Using this raw information to replicate the spell made learning it much easier.
But Eden did not just learn spells, he mastered them. So, he refrained from going for the obvious shortcut, and instead forced himself to first understand the concepts before attempting to apply them. This, he believed, would allow him to gain an unbiased vision of the spell, and grasp it in its entirety.
And it appeared that Eden's method was not so far-fetched as after a few hours, when Eden felt he had brought his understanding of the concepts behind True Sight to a satisfactory level, he dive into the scroll through his soul.
Eden's Talent only worked within his body, but physical contact formed a sort of connection that allowed him to feel objects nearly as clearly.
His hours of preliminary work allowed Eden to understand why mana was manipulated the way it was, instead of blindly following the instructions.
One of the points of the spell that had confused Eden the most was its nature as a Divination spell. Dark Vision, which was the most similar spell Eden thought he had to it, was a Transmutation spell that slightly altered one's eyes to become capable of seeing through darkness.
True Sight, which also allowed one to see through darkness, among other things, should have worked similarly.
But Eden had been wrong. Although the two spells might seem like they worked similarly, they operated very differently in fact, something which he discovered thanks to a sudden bout of enlightenment.
True Sight did not alter the physical body, or even the self. In fact, it did nothing to him, be it in body, mind or soul. Instead, it granted him a 'deeper' access to the universe.
His vision was not changed or altered per se, but his eyes were allowed to see more than they should.
For example, the main effect of True Sight is to allow one to see through invisibility, and things in their true form.
Invisibility was the manipulation of light, reflecting it perfectly to make it seem something was not where it was. But invisibility did not make things disappear from the physical world.
Even with True Sight activated, Eden would not be able to see past the reflected light, but at the same time, he would be allowed to see their essence, in a way.
This meant that the spell was even more valuable than Eden had initially thought, and made the discipline of Divination suddenly much more interesting to him.
The main reason behind Eden's choice for True Sight were the many invisible enemies and passages strewn through this world, as well as the whole cult of Doppelgangers and the Changeling Orin the Red.
Eden had been limited by his game knowledge, however. Although this world was extremely similar to Baldur's Gate 3 in many aspects, there were also differences. Even between the rules of the larger Dungeons and Dragons universe and Baldur's Gate 3, there were differences, not to mention with reality.
True Sight, even when perfectly mastered, was only a Level 7, or 4th Circle spell, so it only gave Eden limited insight into the truths of the universe, but no matter how limited, a better understanding of the universe was considered a way to power in many worlds.
And even ignoring those, being able to see how the world worked would undoubtedly help him grasp the concepts of the world, and apply them to his spells, allowing him to create, learn and master spells more easily.
Thanks to this bout of enlightenment, Eden managed to master True Sight almost as soon as he learned to cast it, turning it into the equivalent of a 7th Level Spell.
[True Sight (4th Circle): Allows the user to peer into the invisible, discerning things as they actually are, seeing past any magical disguises for 1 (4) hour. Cost: 480 (120) MP.]
The system's description was impressive enough already, but Eden knew it was more than that. Moreover, the unsaid parts had also been improved with his mastery, as Eden was able to see deeper into the universe than with the base version of the spell.
"I cast True Sight."
As expected, Eden did not feel anything change within him, not even with his soul. Looking around, he did not see anything any differently either. The walls were still made of solid stone, the air was as elusive as always, and the flames lighting up the candles flickered with the same low intensity.
Yet, the very same vision told Eden a very different story. It was something that was hard to put into words, as it was mostly instinctual.
One thing he did perceive clearly, however, was the magical dimensions parallel to his. The Ethereal Plane, for example. Or the Weave itself. How it seeped into everything, everywhere, binding them together.
Eden had thought of it as the mana of the world before, but he now realized he had been wrong. The mana of this world was no different from any other world. The Weave was not the mana itself, but a metaphysical construct attached to it, something that could be tapped into.
Curious, Eden stretched his finger to one of the nodes. It was intangible, of course, but as he infused his finger with just enough mana to make it brighten up, he felt something.
The Weave… trembled. Not in a bad way, simply that it reacted to his touch. That caused a disturbance in the surrounding mana, which Eden observed curiously.
But before it could spread, it suddenly stopped. Not only the mana, Eden realized, but the entire world came to a stand-still as the endless threads of the Weave thickened.
[Wisdom Check…]
[Wisdom Check overruled by 'Soul Overlord'!]
The flow of time halted, yet Eden remained free. Free to see a young woman appear in the room, glaring at him.