Awakening [1]

𝟱𝟬𝟴𝟰 𝗜𝗘

"I would like to awaken as soon as possible."

"Muhahaha...You're not a patient man, my son but I like it that way...."

"I know you've been able to sense mana since birth, but I'd like to know why you want to awaken so soon, just after turning 14 years old this month."

"Well, it's not just anything, Mother. I believe it's important to awaken now, especially with the competition in the academy when I join. And I feel ready to awaken as a hero.

Plus, it's better to have strong strength to protect oneself rather than relying on others. And it wouldn't look good if the heir of the family is weak, right? So, I need to be strong if I want to take over the family with my iron fist," I said, plastering a gentle smile on my face.

"Well, you're certainly right about that," replied my father, ecstatic due to my sudden motivation. Even Aria, my mother, too was happy about it.

"If you wish to awaken, then I won't have anything to tell you. Honestly, be careful and try not to get harmed, okay?" Aria said to Shion, expressing her worry that he might get injured.

"Okay, Mother."

"Don't worry about your awakening, son. I'll get Arnold to prepare everything with the best conditions for awakening as soon as possible," my father assured me, calling Arnold, the head butler of the Averill family.

He was the head butler of the house and even witnessed Luis's birth. Arnold had been the head butler of the family since my grandfather's time.

"Thanks, Dad," I said as I got up to leave the table, having finished dinner, while a gentle smile emerged on my face.

---

Serpentia, the capital city of Gracefall Dukedom, is one of the most advanced cities in the whole Fallen Sky Empire, even rivaling the imperial city.

There were tall buildings and mansions everywhere one can see in this large city of Serpentia.

The city is divided into three regions: the core region, where only the Gracefall family and their servants lived, while the inner region was where different nobles and rich people lived, and the commoners lived in the outer region.

𝗔 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿:

Morning arrived, and Shion got ready as Evelyn informed him that today is the day he's going to awaken as a hero, which was arranged quite quickly despite his sudden request.

Even he was a little surprised by this quick arrangement.

Just then, Evelyn called him, and they walked out of the mansion while getting in the car and arriving at a teleportation gate near the eastern side of the inner region of Serpentia, which was quite bustling with people going around.

The car stopped around the two big, semi-circular-shaped stones with some glowing blue carvings on them, placed with one of them behind the other, forming a circle if one looked at it from the front side.

This was the teleportation gate, which was used by the high-ranking heroes and their families to travel a large distance.

Evelyn got out of the car and signaled the security group to clear the premises while she was with me.

Then I got out of the car with the illusory foxed mask to cover and moved towards and stopped at the circular runic carvings just below the teleportation gate.

"Destination?" a man in the black coat asked.

"Lusitania," Evelyn replied with a nonchalant look. Lusitania was the headquarters of Genesis Guild which the Gracefalls owned and also the place where I was going for awakening.

This was a high-ranking teleportation gate where only nobles and high influential individuals can use as the distance it covered was very large and protected by high-ranking heroes.

"Are we leaving now?" Evelyn inquired as she looked at me.

"Yes," I replied as I moved towards the teleportation gate in front of us.

As we arrived at the teleportation gate, again, a man wearing a black suit walked towards us and asked, "What's your destination?"

"Lusitania, Genesis Guild." I said, but due to the effect of the mask, my voice was altered.

"Okay. Step inside the teleportation gate over there." He pointed at the teleportation portal, which was in the northeast.

As he said, I went ahead and entered the portal while Evelyn and the rest followed suit.

This was not the direct portal towards the Guild, so we only arrived in Lusitania. As we walked out, we got into another car from the teleportation gate and started driving to our destination.

𝗛𝗮𝗹𝗳 𝗮𝗻 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿:

The car arrived in front of a massive, pure white building that pierced high into the sky. One of the strongest guilds in the whole Fallen Sky Empire, the mythical rank Genesis Guild, was the name of the towering structure before me.

There were thousands of guilds in the whole Fallen Sky Empire, but the Genesis Guild was the number one guild. The ranking of guilds are:

- Iron Rank

- Platinum Rank

- Emerald Rank

- Epic Rank

- Mystic Rank

- Mythical Rank (Highest Rank in the Fallen Sky Empire)

- Unknown Rank (Highest in the whole Evernia Continent)

A pure white building that pierced into the clouds themselves. That was the structure before me. I got out of the car and saw the sight of the marvelous white tower soaring high in the sky.

The tower consisted of more than 100 floors, all imbued with space magic, so the interior was way bigger than what appeared outside. Arnold was waiting for me alone outside the tower.

"Young master, the family head is waiting for you in the awakening room inside the tower. Let's get going," Arnold said so as soon as he saw me with a happy smile on his face. After I entered the building, Arnold directly took me to the elevator and ascended to the upper floor.

Only he and I were in the elevator, while Evelyn and others were waiting in the reception room.

The elevator door opened, and we stepped outside. After stepping outside the door, my father, dressed in a formal navy suit, greeted me with a black suitcase in his hands, which must have the mana gem.

"Son, you're finally here. Come, let's go to the mana room," he said this while moving happily.

"Okay," I replied while we went down the hallway. There were paintings all over the hall, along with pedestals.

We soon reached the front of a massive metallic door that had "Guild Master" labeled on it. There was a massive amount of mana concentrated even outside of the room, which can even be seen with the naked eye.

Soon, just my father and I entered the room while Arnold was guarding from outside, as the moment when one is awakening through the mana gem is a very venerable state.

The room was filled with white marble and runic language all over the borders of the room.

Even without knowing what the runes did, I could guess they were Mana Gathering runes and were some of the best ones one could possibly find in the whole empire.

It was something created by my great grandfather, and only his bloodline are allowed to use it to awaken; not even the children of the council of elders were allowed.

As we entered, my father also quickly opened the box, which made me dumbfounded.

"What the fuck?

The fuck, man?

[SS] rank mana gem?"

What Father had just pulled out was a [SS] rank, Tier 8 mana gem.

Tier 8 mana gem, was a mana gem which was only sold in some specific places, but due to its demand being high and supply being very low, only a few people sell it, and with an equal amount of its worth too, as this was not something that can be brought or sold by money.

A mana gem is a highly rare mana stone that is only found in some monsters, and only in above rank [C] are they found.

People used mana gems for their awakening because it was a pure form of mana, and there would be no injuries while forming your mana core during your awakening.

To awaken with a mana gem, one first has to gradually absorb the mana from the surroundings and consolidate it into one place and form a mana core to increase its power.

Then one had to use a mana gem to move that mana inside your body through a mana vein and slowly nourish the mana core with it.

But using mana gems to absorb mana and increase rank all the time is not advised, as it'll just lower the potential of one's core, which helps one to increase their rank.

One should use mana gems only when they hit the bottleneck to cross the threshold and rank up.

Awakening through the mana gem was not really that difficult. One just had to absorb the ample amount of mana from the surrounding mana gem and complete the mana core in the lower chest.

They are usually called Dantians.

Most people are generally awakened at the age of 14, as declared by the [World Voice]. For those that have enough funding, they use mana gems to awaken privately, just like Shion, but for common people, they usually go to dungeons and awaken through the power of the system, whereas some are chosen by the hero association, and they usually awaken through their support, which they have to pay by working for some time until the tenure is over.

"Now, be ready to absorb the mana gem," Luis said as he took out the [SS] rank mana gem, which was dark blue in color, leaking some concentrated mana from it.

Shion quickly took off his t-shirt and sat in a lotus position. This was done so that the mana could circulate smoothly.

"Son, focus on my mana movement inside your body and guide the mana from the gem accordingly. Be careful; otherwise, you'll get hurt," Luis said this while placing his hands on Shion's back.

He was a little worried about this awakening, as he was confident about his son's potential and sword talent but not sure if he would be able to memorize the mana pattern.

While Luis was so worried, Shion himself was not even a little bit worried, as he was confident in himself.

After a few seconds, Luis started guiding the mana first through his upper chest area, then stir it in the direction of the lower chest, then pour some mana in it, just like pouring a drop of water in a pond.

He then took his hand out of Shion's back and said, "Repeat this again until you form a perfect mana core."

Just as Luis took his hand out, Shion guided the [SS] rank mana gem's energy, following his mana pattern.

Luis was a little surprised by just how quickly, in just one time, his son got used to mana circulation.

He was now even sure that his son would be able to suppress something that even he or his father couldn't.

A yellow-green energy slowly started to gather near the lower chest area of Shion, and soon a grain-sized chaotic crystal was formed.

He kept pouring the mana inside the core while circulating it around his body.

While awakening, one first had to create the mana core in the lower chest area, which is called dantain.

Second, one needs to guide the rest of the mana through their vein to remove the impurities from their body, and after they finish removing the impurities, the vein is called the mana vein.

As mana was the fuel and the body was the vessel that contained it, it was very important to make your foundation as strong as possible during the awakening if it's done with a mana gem.

Shion wanted to improve his foundation to the extreme; he wanted a core beyond perfect, he wanted a transcendent mana core which was something none has ever achieved.

Luis saw that Shion had already formed the initial mana core in his lower chest and was cleansing the impurities, so he stepped back and let him continue.

Black, goo-like substances began to come out of every pore in Shion's body; it was the impurities that were in his body. Due to the special room, the impurities disappeared as soon as they touched the floor.

The process of cleaning the body through mana was much more painful than it seems, and a normal human cannot even handle it for a minute, but due to Shion's previous life experience and his current body, he can handle it for a very long time.

An average person in this world might only be able to handle it for an hour or so, but Shion was doing it even after

one hour passed,

two hours passed,

three hours passed,

....

....

.... And six hours were about to pass. Red blood was coming out of his body with dark impurities from his pores, and new blood was replacing it while the veins in his body were bursting and changing their structure too.

Even though he was very attractive previously, now, due to his body structure being changed, he looks even more attractive right now.

"That's my son. Yes, you'll definitely break the record for the longest foundation building in history of the entire Empire," Luis thought to himself.

The longest foundation building in history previously was held by none other than the grandfather of Luis and the great-grandfather of Shion, which was 6 hours, 27 minutes.

During all of this, Shion was experiencing mind-numbing pain, which was very familiar to him as...

He was someone who had lost everything, everyone dear to him.

He was someone whose life was but full of regret and pain.

He was someone who has embraced the pain, the regret, the memories of those time.

He can never forget those memories as those are the ones which had made him who he is today.

Those memories are the ones which has shaped him to become who he is now.

If it were any other person other than Shion, they would have lost their mind and sanity, but he could withstand it as he's but someone who has embraced the pain, the regrets.