Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Awakening

In my dream, I saw my friend, Aries Eldrich, fussing over the details of the villain ‘Mikael Harpoon’. He had busted into my room after pulling an all-nighter to create the new character.

 

‘Lector, look, I just made a new villain. He is going to be a Spiritualist. He is gonna be one of the new Classes of Awakened Beings that I have been working on. I even created a custom Gate for him. Like literally he would be the only one who could close that Gate.’

 

I remembered this day very well. 

 

The landscape in front of me changed. It was nighttime now. Lector was outside the dorms, trying to call someone on his phone, a look of urgency on his face. In the distance, someone was limping towards him. As the person got closer, I could make out his face. It was Aries, his lip was busted and his right eye was slightly swollen. 

 

“Oh my god, what happened to you?”, Lector asked his friend, supporting him by his shoulder.

 

“Ah nothing happened. Just some stupid drunkard got into a fight with me.”, Aries explained, leaning on Lector.

 

Lector slowly walked Aries to his room, where he gave him first aid.

 

‘I wish I knew you were lying at the time.’

 

Slowly the scene around me started to fade away. I could sense myself waking up.

 

I opened my eyes to find the ceiling of the tent. I was covered in blankets, protecting me from the chill of the desert night. Beside me, Mike was hugging his knees.

 

“You are finally awake.”

 

“I am. Thank you for keeping watch.”

 

I sat up on the ground.

 

“Listen, Mike. I am sorry about your town. But honestly, I am too weak to defeat Vritra alone. If I had even one more Awakened Being with me, I could do something. But I am powerless on my own.”

“Then, how about we focus on Awakening me? I mean, you already Awakened. You can give me tips.”

 

“Awakening isn’t something you can just wish for, and think it will happen. Awakening is something that just happens. Heritage plays a big factor in it too but I doubt your father was, considering he didn’t leave for the Human Continent.”

 

“Please, you must have something.”, Mike grabbed my hands. “Our town will be destroyed before the Hero League sends people.”

I sighed. Drinking the healing potion before fainting had fixed my body and I could feel myself brimming with mana. I could use ‘Appraisal’ on him, but I was hesitating. Using Appraisal on him would clear the doubts I had about this boy, but I still had my doubts. Not to mention, knowing someone would Awaken is not something technology in this world could do. ‘Appraisal’ was too strong a skill for me to use in front of others.

 

“Please!”, Mike begged me.

 

I gave up. I hadn’t spent much time with him, but I really liked this boy. The way his eyes sparkled, talking about Heroes and the Hero League, reminded me of Aries when he talked to me about his novel.

 

“Fine but what I am supposed to do, you can’t tell this to anyone. And I mean, no one.”, I warned him.

 

Mike nodded his head.

 

“Appraisal”

Name: Mikael Harpoon Rank : Unawakened (Awakening: 95%) ==========LOCKED========== Potential Rank: SS Suitable Position: Spiritualist Mana Compatibility:  Darkness: 90% Light: 90% Air: 0% Earth: 0% Fire: 0% Water: 0%

 

On seeing the name on the screen, I facepalmed myself.

 

“Mike, is your full name, by any chance, Mikael Harpoon?”, I hesitantly asked the boy next to me.

 

“Yes! How do you know that, Sir Ray?”

 

I cringed at his response. 

 

‘How dumb can I be to bring the person I was stealing from to the crime scene.’

 

Well, let’s let bygones be bygones. The only thing that Mike’s presence can change is the fact that the reward I was hoping to get in this Gate can go back to its original owner. I will have to go to another Gate if that happens. Aries had made an entire list of Gates and their locations in his notebook, many of them he never used in his novel. 

 

‘God, that boy sure was brimming with ideas. I am pretty sure I remember some of those locations. Hopefully, just being in the notes of the novels would allow them to materialise in this world that I had transported in.’

 

“Listen, Mike. I will help you Awaken but we need to do it as fast as possible.”

 

I only had five days left, before I had to go back to the Human Continent. Not to mention, the second wave of monsters would happen soon too. My arson might have pushed that deadline by another week or so, but we still needed to close this Gate quickly or Mike’s entire town would be destroyed. Now that I personally knew Mikael, I couldn’t very well, in good conscience, let him turn into the cold-hearted Fallen he would become in the novel.

 

“Mike, you should rest for now. I will keep watch. Tomorrow morning, I will train you to Awaken.”

 

Mike obediently went to sleep. He must be quite exhausted after looking after me. I, on the other hand, didn’t think I would be able to sleep after the dream I had.

 

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Instead, I pulled out the Gate map I had made. It took almost no magic to materialise the map right now.

 

‘Guess the only time it needed magic was the first time when it was scanning the entire terrain.’

 

I started to analyse the entire Gate one more time. The newly built forest seemed to be 10 kilometres north of the burnt-down one. The majority of the monsters were sleeping around it now with Vritra at the very centre of the nest. A few monsters were scattered individually in the desert.

 

Day broke, by the time I finished going through the entire map and making a plan. At the same time, Mike started to stir in his bed.

 

“You are up! Let's start your training.”

 

On hearing the word training, Mike jumped from the bed, ready to go. I packed up the tent and we started moving towards the nearest Snake Monster. It was only a kilometre away from our resting spot, so we found it quickly. 

 

The snake was quite small compared to the ones I saw before, about 25 feet long, looking like an anaconda with red scales and yellow eyes. 

Name: Red Snake Rank: E+ Rank This monster has fangs strong enough to crush steel and usually kills its prey by grabbing them with its tail and biting their head off.  Weak Point: It has a soft chin.

‘Seems like the ones I killed yesterday were the top brass.’

 

I handed Mike the Lightning Dagger. 

“Go and kill that Red Snake.”

 

Mike looked at me as if I had told him to kill himself. Well, looking at the situation, it might look like that.

 

“Don’t worry. If you are in danger I will come to save you. You just need to hit its chin and you will be able to kill it.”, I advised him. 

 

This was part of the process of Awakening. People who are supposed to Awaken have to draw in large amounts of mana from their surroundings. The time taken to absorb sufficient mana depends on several factors, that’s why people Awaken at all ages, but it always happens before they turn 18. In the Human Continent, where Gates open on a daily basis, along with the many already Awakened Beings living there, the mana densities in those cities are pretty high. So children living in those cities didn’t have to do anything special to Awaken. But in the Sanskriti Archipelago, where there were almost no Awakened Beings and Gates popped up randomly, it was almost impossible to Awaken.

 

Mike probably Awakened because the Gate opened so close to his town. And when the monsters attacked, they naturally released mana in the surroundings, allowing him to absorb it and Awaken.

 

But bodies have a natural resistance to mana. That’s why I was trying to get Mike to fight with the monster. Exhausting his body will lower his natural mana resistance, allowing him to take in the monsters’ mana and Awaken. This lowering in mana resistance was also the reason why Awakened Beings got bursts of power when they reached the end of the fight.

 

Mike got into a stance. Looks like the boy had been practising swordsmanship on his own.

 

With his slim and flexible body, with years of hard work as a sailor, he grabbed the Red Snake’s slithery body, preventing it from wrapping its tail around him. As they wrestled for dominance, the monster tried biting Mike’s face, but before it could get the chance to do that, Mike plunged the dagger into his lower jaw.

 

Mike slowly got off the monster’s corpse, his hand covered in blood. I took out a handkerchief and handed it to him.

 

“You did really well for your first-time monster hunting.”

 

“So am I close to Awakening yet?”, he asked, his eyes sparkling, giving no regard to the blood splattered on him.

 

“You might need to fight a few more monsters.”, I said, checking his status.

I took the corpse and placed it in my ring. Monster materials sold for quite a good price in the market.

After that, we moved on to the next few targets. Mike killed the rest in the same manner, while I kept an eye on our surroundings with the Appraisal Map. Vritra hadn’t moved from his place yet. Neither had his subordinates. I had a bad feeling about it.

When Mike finished his 5th monster, the Awakening hit 100%. All the mana in his body started going on a rampage, concentrating at the centre of his body, before it finally exploded. A huge invisible force pushed everything around him away. I slid away a little too, due to the unstable ground.

Name: Mikael Harpoon Rank : E Stats: Strength 1 Stamina 1 Agility 1 Perception 1 Magic Power 1 Intelligence 4.1 Charm 6.7 Skills: Foresight(B): Allows the user to see things that normal people are not able to see.  Spirit Master(S): The ability is used to capture spirits and make them do their bidding Potential Rank: SS Suitable Position: Spiritualist Mana Compatibility:  Darkness: 90% Light: 90% Air: 0% Earth: 0% Fire: 0% Water: 0%

 

All the newly Awakened started with Rank E and all stats except Charm and Intelligence from 1.0 point. But the foundation that has been laid when the Awakened was human, plays a big role in how fast those stats rise in the future. Since Mike was a fisherman, his Perception and Strength Stats will rise quickly.

 

“Congratulations on Awakening, Michael.”

 

Mike rushed towards me and hugged me. Tears were streaming down his face. Being an ‘Awakened’ was as great an achievement as representing your country in the Olympics.

 

I gently patted his head. “You did great.”

 

After a few more moments of this, I pulled Mike out of his hug.

 

“That’s enough celebrating for now. We got a snake to hunt and a town to save.”

 

Mike nodded with tears on his face.

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