Chapter 3: Chapter 2: Energy Cycle

Feeling the van he was in brake furiously, Aven grabbed a conveniently placed handle.

It was the first time he felt the van come to a complete stop since he got inside, so it probably meant they had reached their intended destination. Or they had no choice but to stop.

Confirming his primary deduction, the van’s back double doors were opened after a moment and the 3 black-clothed agents politely hinted at him it was time to get off.

Not fighting against the current, Aven got off and stepped inside a relatively vast parking lot located amidst massive skyscrapers, a very strange location all things considered.

Turning his head towards his most likely destination: A gigantic sky-topping tower covered in glass that lets everyone glimpse pretty clearly at a gigantic pure white fairy surrounded by a rainbow circle, Eland’s national symbol, he became slightly dazed.

“Now that’s cool,” vocalizing his feeling without any shame, he followed after his 3 escorts who didn’t seem to care about his awe or the possibility of him running off on his own.

Entering through the parking lot’s dedicated door, they ended up in an unimpressive hall that didn’t have anything remarkable for itself. The majority of the passing office workers didn't even bother to send a glance at Aven and his unusual group before ignoring them altogether.

‘Not that much different from uni or the city in general.’

Sending a few appraisals here and there, all the people he targeted were affiliated with "Serenis City Supers Agency". Not one exception could be found, reinforcing his belief that this place was the headquarters of this faction. Obviously.

Going for an elevator which appeared distinctly different from the others as no one was waiting in line to use it for reasons unknown, its door opened the moment the elevator switch was pressed, and when they all entered it, the mostly silent women who had jested him picked the -5th floor.

‘Isn’t there enough room above? Why go underground? Seems stupid.’

Keeping his thoughts for himself, he waited half a minute before the elevator door opened again.

The escort continued from there until he was ultimately led to one of the rooms of this high-ceiling spacious underground floor.

“Goodbye Mr. Amias, your escort was a most pleasurable one,” speedily bidding goodbye the moment the door opened and the lone woman inside stood up to welcome him after receiving her cue, the 3 black-clothed people turned and headed back to the elevator.

“Thanks for the escort~” Answering in kind despite recognizing everything that happened until now was professional politeness, Aven took the clues and entered the room where he was welcomed by a new person.

The person, a woman in an office suit, offered her hand, and Aven took it by instinct as she started introducing herself, “Hello Mr. Amias, I’m Vega Calin, I’ll be going through some paperwork with you until your energy cycle settles down.”

“Hello,” Aven reciprocated with a practiced social smile as if he was finally back in his element, which he was, “I have all the time in the world to help, so don’t hesitate to make small talk.”

After they greeted each other, the woman led him to sit on a chair while she sat behind her desk and started using the computer to do whatever she was doing.

“Once we’re done, you can either choose to return home or remain here,” wrapping up what she had been doing on her computer, she started telling him what was happening, “In any case, you’ll be asked to come back tomorrow as the weekly supers crash course is organized that day and is mandatory for all newly awakened supers.”

“At what time does it begin? Very early morning? Noon?” He asked, intending to base his decision on it.

“Late afternoon,” she quickly answered after looking it up.

“I’ll be going home then,” he summarily replied.

“Understood,” nodding to acknowledge his answer, she then took a bunch of documents from one of her desk drawers and put them on the table.

“This,” she professionally emphasized the massive pile of papers again, “Is all you have to fill and complete before being left alone. I congratulate you in advance on having succeeded in life. No supers ever died of hunger, thirst, or diseases before, so be as happy as you can be while filling those depressing forms.”

Taking one of the available pens, Aven brought the first page before him, asking while he was at it, “By that, do you mean I’ll gain so much money I won’t have to worry about regular food expenses? And that my super state will protect me against any and all diseases?”

“Yes, exactly. And in the rare case where you contract a rare disease that works on a super, you’ll largely be able to pay for the Vow Church’s healers to bring you back to full health in a few hours,” painting a beautiful picture of his future with a few sentences, this motivated him to fill the documents diligently.

“And here I was studying for my next exam before this… What a quick turn of events,” sharing his thoughts as he looked at the very filled form before his eyes, he found the situation moderately silly.

As a university student, writing somewhat came as second nature to him, so he started grinding through the pile of documents effortlessly, only asking a few questions when he didn’t know a few personal information about himself or when he didn't understand the questions asked.

And such a leisure activity lasted until a bit more than an hour later…

“Your energy cycle will start settling down soon, no one has ever died from it so don’t panic. Just treat it as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, like tasting a rare wine you don’t have an acquired taste for,” interrupting his form filling activity, the office woman made a strangely rational comparison of what would possibly happen soon.

“I’ll enjoy it as much as I’m able to then~” Lifting his head and sending a smile while answering to show he wasn’t anxious or anything, he dived right back into the pile of documents.

A quarter of an hour later, he started feeling the hot flow inside his body do something weird.

It was expanding.

Where before, the hot flow had been mainly located in his torso where it metaphysically remained relatively still, threads soon began splitting from the main source to, for a lack of better terms, visit his body.

Inevitably, during this reckless exploration, some parts of the hot flow exited his body, creating a weird airflow that seemed to burn his skin without leaving any lasting damage behind, at least not biological damage.

The whole room seemed unaffected by the event, and the office woman mirrored that unaffected state by only looking on passively without saying anything.

Her eyes, however, told something else to the slightly confused but unworried Aven as they didn’t blink once during the entire time his energy cycle was being formed.

Nature not making an exception of him, 5 minutes passed in this state of reckless expansion and exploration before the hot flow finally settled itself.

His energy wasn't restricted to flowing only inside his torso anymore, now it was cycling through his entire body, from head to toes.

Wanting to confirm if something had changed, he brought up his self-appraisal, or his status.

 

Aven Amias

Faction: MIC Serenis University

Energy Grade: 0

Energy Cultivation: 2/10

Energy Affinity: Tech

Physical Talents: None

Energy Talents: Basic Tech Energy Affinity

Spiritual Talents: Inquisitive Spirit

Universal Talents: Unawakened Fairy Ancestry

 

‘Hoh~ I’m already one-fifth of the way to grade 1!’

Rejoicing in the little thing that he knew was most likely to be something universal to everyone, Aven smiled and started grinding the document pile again.

“All risks are gone now. Your energy cycle was a bit above average in settling intensity, and if an unawakened had been next to you, I would bet he would have been at death’s border before he even realized what was happening to him,” the woman informed him of a pretty morbid fact without a change in expression.

“Let’s be happy that nothing like that took place, right?” Bringing up the positive of the situation and not the negative, the office woman surely had a lot of experience managing difficult newly awakened supers.

“I’m happy, that’s for sure,” not lifting his head this time, Aven assured her there was nothing wrong with his state of mind as he continued filling forms enthusiastically.

Just like that, a few more hours passed before he signed the last document detailing he had honestly answered with all his knowledge and capabilities.

“Done!” He exclaimed and put down the pen he had kept using for more than 2 hours, the average time of a midyear exam for a single course.

Taking the last page in her hands, she read through it and confirmed it was done correctly once again, as she had done for every other document page prior to this one.

“That will be all in this case. Thank you for your efficiency, Mr. Amias,” she congratulated him as she stood up, waving at him to follow after her as she headed towards the door, “The weekly supers crash course is planned for tomorrow at 6 pm, please be here, even if you’re amazingly late.”

“Sure,” Aven replied while thinking about other things, like if he could make the whole journey on his bike to not have to care about traffic or parking. The Serenis City Supers Agency’s headquarters seemed to be right in the middle of the mass traffic area after all.

Taking the same elevator, he was escorted back to the main hall where he exited from a different entrance to the one he had used to enter. This one looking much more glamorous than the unremarkable one he had gone through at first.

‘Did I use the staff entrance first?’

Stepping onto a busy parking lot, the office woman waved at a particular row of cars before explaining the situation, “These are taxis, I’ll pay for your trip back to where you want.”

Thus Aven got inside a taxi driven by a middle-aged man and reached the front of his building half an hour later, much longer than when he rode on the mad and crazy black and white van, but not overly so.

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“Thank you,” exiting the taxi while thanking the driver, he didn’t dwell on useless contemplations and made his way back to his apartment swiftly.

Night had already fallen, but night never really fell inside a major city such as Serenis, so he encountered no problem and passed through his home’s door without any problem. It wasn’t locked yet.

The entrance hallway was lit up, he got off his shoes, and headed straight to his bedroom while passing by the living room where his mom was watching TV to drop off his gears.

Once he did that and turned on his computer by habit, he headed to the living room and served himself a glass of peach iced tea, one of the possible culprits behind his awakening.

“When is dad coming back?” He asked as he took a sip that sent shivers of pleasure down his spine. Peach iced tea was clearly his all-time favorite drink to have a single glass of every few days.

“Soon, he ordered from a 3-star caterer to celebrate, so he’s a bit late,” focused on her TV series, his mom replied offhandedly.

“Okay~” Leaving behind this word, he headed back to his room and started organizing his desk that he left in a mess after turning on his speakers and putting on a chill background music.

“Do I even need to continue studying?” He softly considered as he cleaned everything and put his desk back into computer mode from study mode, “Or more like… Why would I continue studying to become a journalist when I know for a fact it’s not going to be my job?”

Beginning on an existential-level conundrum, Aven eventually relented as he was just missing too much information to have a clear view of what his future held for him.

Once his desk was cleaned, he moved his keyboard and mouse back to their right position and started searching for more information about supers. The only difference compared to any other research he could have done before was that now, he was serious.

Minutes passed just like that, until…

“Dinner's here!”

Pulling him out of his thoughts and online search was the extremely familiar call of his mom informing him it was time to eat.

Cutting off his music, he turned off his screen with a single button press and headed towards the living room.

There, the whole Amias family had gathered.

Flexing his new innate ability, he appraised his mom and dad.

 

Hana Amias

Faction: Eland 7 TV Channel

Sen Amias

Faction: Amias Urban Journalism

 

Hana Amias, a brown-haired 47 years old beauty with clear blue eyes. Due to pregnancy complications, she only had a single son in her life, so she loved him maybe a bit too much.

Sen Amias, a handsome dark-haired 51 years old man with dark brown eyes, the backbone of the Amias family. He made a large amount of money during his 2 decades-long war reporter career, and could arguably be said to be the perfect dad.

And finally, Aven Amias, taking fully after his mom with brown hair and clear blue eyes, a slightly tanned white skin, 21 years old, no chronic diseases, and not mentally unstable. At least according to his own criteria.

“Hehe, Aven! So you became a super? Hahaha!” Upon watching him enter the living room, his dad started making a ruckus. As could be expected.

Aven added more oil to the fire by adopting an arrogant pose and bragging, “Yes! I! Did! I’m a super now! Thank you mom and dad for the amazing genetics you gave me! I’ll be sure to pay you back with an awakening serum when I accomplish world domination!”

“That’s my son! Anything less than world domination would be setting the bar too low! Hahaha!” Happiness oozed from him as he followed up naturally.

It was a truly joyous celebration after all, one where his son stepped into a totally new world many dreamed of setting even a toe into. He did it naturally too! Moreso, he had completely obliterated the average 60 years of age that was the average norm for natural awakening!

“Come here now! I bought something crazy to celebrate, I was so enthusiastic that I'm sure the caterer knew something amazing had happened when I ordered it!” Attacking the large package on the table, Sen opened it and an amazing tantalizing smell started emanating from it, filling the air.

“I introduce to you: The ultimate sea dish! Eel, salmon, cod, sole, halibut, sea bass, and trout! All marinated in white mushroom sauce, all fish bones preemptively removed! Eat as much as you can, because it’ll not be until next winter’s festivities that we’ll have something like that again!” Mouth-watering words escaped Aven’s dad's mouth, and he himself seemed entranced by the dish he had unpacked.

“Let’s not wait then,” talking from the side, Hana went to fetch the cutlery and plates while the two hungry men had fun adding all the freshly prepared fishes to an enormous pot of sauce while the electric heater underneath maintained the boiling heat of it all.

This was a celebratory dinner, and it was spent harmoniously, eating a fabulous dish worthy of the winter festivities while discussing all the implications of becoming a super on the side.

Only Sen had some idea of what a true super could realistically do thanks to his years spent in conflict zones.

Thanks to this, he made sure to transmit to his son his surface understanding that no matter the energy system he ultimately chose to go with, from the kingly martial and elemental systems to the relatively weaker pure and tech energy system, passing by the intermediary psy energy system, he would still be seen as a potential killing machine by the world.

As for his innate ability, Aven didn’t reveal it, and neither did his mom or dad ask him about it.

Despite all their good intentions to see their son succeed, Aven’s parents knew they weren’t supers. They were only a former war reporter reconverted into a freelance urban journalist and a TV announcer. Nothing revolutionary or in a position to help him.

If they ever had hopes or plans of buying him an awakening serum, they would have had more to say, but that had never been a consideration of theirs. Awakening serums belonged to the world at the border between the supers and the unawakened, not the unawakened world.

The celebratory meal ultimately ended late into the night due to no one wanting to stop their discussion about what the future looked like as a super.

Everything looked amazing for the family who didn’t know anything concrete about this minority that controlled the world and kept their civilization from being swallowed by the remaining disasters that still plagued their planet following the disaster era.

Eventually, Aven went to sleep with his mind full of ideas of what he could potentially become, from a being manipulating the elements at his guise to someone able to overturn a building with a punch.

…

Waking up the next day around noon, Aven felt as normal as normal could be.

Only pieces of knowledge about his innate ability and a hot something cycling inside him informed him that he hadn’t dreamed yesterday and that he had really become a super.

‘I can create floating text screens, and energy is cycling inside me. How could a day begin in a better way than this? And I don’t have to go to uni today~ Now that’s life.’

After his new status as a super was confirmed, his university basically offered him full autonomy and authority over his schedule. It was so straightforward that Aven asked himself if the administration was basically assuming he would leave soon.

‘Not that they would be wrong…’

Turning on his computer, it was booted up and ready half a minute later. Music automatically started again, and he began his day by checking his emails.

“Hu~ Of course,” talking aloud to no one, he impassively observed the 30 mails he had received.

One belonged to his university: Media Information Communication Serenis University, or shortened, MIC Serenis University, a few belonged to the government, and the rest… Were all offers and congratulatory messages from dubious sources having learned through mystic ways his new status as super and had gotten his mail.

Deleting all of them without opening them, they would remain in his trash until he had learned more about what it meant to be a super in this day and age where everyone learned from a young age that their planet and civilization was always on the verge of collapsing at the whims of fate.

‘Now. Back to super’s special admission. All the doors are pretty much open from what I gleaned until now.’

Resuming his online search where he had left it yesterday, he kept in mind that from what he found, even mastodons like the Vow Church and the Conglomerate had their door wide open for newly awakened super.

The market was factually starved of supers, and thus from what he read, every group who wanted supers needed to massively invest into not only their upkeep, because their salary apparently didn’t only include money, but also needed to find ways to attract the newly awakened ones who all favored their birth nation.

‘Only super specific or sensitive ones like Star Trail or the Bright Canopy aren’t open to me. I would either need a major scientific contribution to enter Star Trail, or I’ll need to start dealing with shady things and organized crime to contact the Bright Canopy…’

If there was one thing his current degree at MIC Serenis University had helped him learn, it was that all information was available as long as you knew where to search for them. And he most certainly put that knowledge to profit as he went through dozens of websites that couldn’t be found just with a web address.

Another plus was that he had learned a lot about geopolitics, economy, and the hierarchy of Green, the planet he was on before he started his serious research very recently.

‘Moving out of Eland is out of the question for now, why would I do something stupid like that? And where would I go if I really decided to move out? The chaotic and contested Emma Continent? The sub-arctic Vow Continent? The rich desertic Athal Continent? All these ideas certainly sound like crap!’

Passing through 4 of the 6 continents in existence, Aven dismissed every idea implying moving to a different continent. And from there, it progressed to dismissing every idea related to leaving the Nation of Eland.

“Sigh…” Sighing hard at his predicament of awkwardly sitting between the normal citizen’s chair and the super’s chair, he stopped trying too hard and just continued gathering more intel that would become useful once he attended the supers crash course.

“Anyway, time to eat something! Huh~” Motivating himself, he stretched and yawned loudly as he stood up and exited his bedroom.

From there onwards, time passed quickly, and eventually his phone signaled him it was time to head down and start making his way towards his destination.

He had decided to go there by bike.

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