Awakener

Slash! Slash! Ethan violently slashed the neck of a goblin. "Kieeek," it screamed as it fell on the rocky ground, clutching its necks. He wiped the blood on his dagger and sheathed it. "Congratulations! You have killed 105 goblins. Now exiting the simulation." Shhh! The hatch of the VR capsule lifted as he slowly got up.

"Damn! That capsule sure is stuffy," thought Ethan as he put on his shoes. "Ethan! The Tower's closing in half an hour! Are you done?" A voice called out to him. "Yes ma'am! I'm done. I'm just getting ready to leave." He shouldered his backpack as he walked towards the entrance of the store.

"How much for today," he asked. "50 credits," smiled the receptionist. Ethan fished out a card and slid it across a terminal. Beep! "Done," he said. "Alright. I'm heading home now." He waved his hand. "Will you be coming here tomorrow," she asked. "No," he said without turning back. KGS entrance exams are in a few days. I'm going to Dragopolis. Hopefully I won't see you again."

"That makes it sound like you hate me or something," she protested. "Maybe I do," smirked Ethan. He started whistling as he headed out of the building. He smiled. The receptionist had been really kind to him these couple of weeks. Maybe the fact that he saw her almost everyday was why she had grown fond of him.

She probably wouldn't like him as much if she found out his potential. His face soured. Whatever. He'd be in KGS in a couple of days anyways. He'd forget about her soon enough. He adjusted the straps of his backpack as he headed home.

.

.

.

.

Evelyn worked as a receptionist in Centin's branch of the Tower. She had worked here for 2 years now. Her job was simple. Manage the Tower and don't let stuff get stolen. The job was easy, and she enjoyed sitting at a desk all day. It suited her. She felt that training for hours to kill monsters was pointless. Ironically, she had to work with people who wanted to do the same.

Gatekeeping was a dangerous profession. Most gatekeepers had to risk their lives everyday just so that they could earn enough money to survive. Sure, most gatekeepers were rich, but the job was an incredibly risky one. Sitting at a desk and arranging files seemed a lot easier.

Evelyn thought about the boy who came here today. Ethan Miller. She'd seen him a lot the last couple of weeks. She had searched him up once when she was bored. And she was surprised by what she found. Ethan's potential was F rank.

Though Evelyn wasn't a gatekeeper, she was a C ranked awakener. She managed an entire branch of the Tower, after all. The fact that she was an awakener was how she had managed to land this job. Managing an entire branch of the Tower wasn't something a non-awakener could do.

Originally, Evelyn had wanted to laugh at Ethan. To ridicule him. His potential was garbage. How could he hope to get into Keystone and compete with those monsters when his maximum rank was lower than that of their graduates? She sighed. For some reason, she couldn't bring herself to laugh at him.

She had watched him over the past couple of weeks. That kid was relentless. He came here everyday, spending most of his time locked up in those capsules, fighting monsters. His persistence was seriously amazing. How could she laugh at somebody trying their best. Slowly, she had come to appreciate him. She really hoped that he would get into KGS. Though she knew his chances were practically zero.

Click! She pulled out a pen as she started scribbling something on a notepad. That kid wouldn't come back here anymore. He'd probably fail the exams terribly and start facing reality. She continued her work, putting all thoughts of Ethan out of her mind. She'd already forgotten him.

Slam! "Excuse me! Have you seen a boy called Ethan Miller here?" Evelyn looked up to see a group of boys staring at her. One of them gave her a greasy smile. She shuddered in disgust. "Ahem!" She put on a professional smile. "I'm sorry. I'm not allowed to disclose the information of our visitors." A boy stepped forward. "Oh, is that so?" He pulled out a token. "Can you tell me what this is?"

Evelyn squinted as she took a closer look. She paled. "Is that...the emblem of Centin's Head of Stella corp?" "It sure is," smiled the boy. "Now I'm a close friend of Douglas Mathews, a promising candidate from around here. He's being sponsored by the Head. He's given us permission to weed out any.....anomalies that Douglas might face while preparing to enter KGS." He grinned.

"Now, I would hate to tell him that a certain Evelyn working at the Tower didn't share his aspirations." He winked. "So I ask you again. Where is Ethan Miller?"

.

.

.

.

Honk....honk....honk! Ethan walked along the street as a car passed by. "Noisy idiot," he muttered as he inched closer to the wall. He didn't want to get crushed by a car before he even attempted to get into KGS. That'd be a pathetic ending.

Crunch...crunch. The gravel crunched underneath Ethan's feet as he turned into a street. He fished a watch out of his backpack. Beep! The watch whirred to life as soon as it came in contact with his body.

.

.

[Displaying user information]

[Name: Ethan Miller]

[Age: 15]

[Status: Awakener(Physical)]

[+Stats]

.

.

What Ethan was wearing was the cheapest version of an A-watch. These watches were something every gatekeeper used. It could display your statistics in real time, and could help you understand how much you had progressed. It was a handy tool, and was a required item in Keystone.

Beep! Ethan pressed the 'stats' option.

.

.

[Displaying user stats]

[Rank: G-5]

[Strength: G-5]

[Agility: G-5]

[Stamina: G-4]

[Mana: G-5]

[Magical circuit: G-4]

[Personal stat(unnamed): G-5]

.

.

Ethan glanced at the display. A wave of excitement surged inside him. He was looking at his own stats! Any webnovel enthusiast could understand his emotions right now. As a reader, he had always read stories of various protagonists getting their own system. Sure, he didn't get his own system- fuck you Mercator- but he was looking at his stats. His STATS!

A wave of laughter bubbled inside him. He was so excited that he wanted to laugh. "Hu...hu...hu." He took a deep breath. This was just the beginning. There was no need to lose his calm right now. His stats would only improve after today. He took another look at the display as he viewed his stats.

Strength was a measure of raw physical power. It dictated how strong his base attacks were. Ethan's strength was G-5- an excellent number. He'd expected his strength to be a stage lower than his actual rank. But he wasn't complaining. More strength was something that'd help him, and any advantage, however slight, would help him a lot.

Agility was a measure of speed. It basically affected how fast you could move and how quickly you could react in a battlefield. Ethan's agility was G-5. Again, it was high, but this time, he expected it. After all, spending 3 months slogging in a VR capsule had helped sharpen his speed. If his agility didn't match his rank, he'd be wondering if the heart was actually working or not.

Stamina was a measure of, well, stamina. It was an indication of how long you could work at peak performance in a battlefield. If your stamina ran out, you'd probably react slower and be weaker than usual even if your mana reserves weren't empty. Ethan's stamina was G-4. Nothing out of the ordinary.

And the last two stats were Mana and Magical Circuit. Mana was the capacity of magical energy, while Magical Circuit was related to the flow of mana through one's body. But the problem was....they were too high. He'd expected his mana to be G-3 and Magical circuit to be G-2 at most. Hell, he'd been prepared for both of these stats to stay at G-1. But his mana was G-5 while his magical circuit was G-4.

All awakeners had 5 basic stats. Strength, Agility, Stamina, Mana and Magic Circuit. While Physical type gatekeepers had high Strength and Agility, Mage type gatekeepers had high Mana and Magical Circuit. Stamina was something that both types generally were equally proficient in. But Ethan, a Physical type awakener, had high Mana and Magical Circuit.

Ethan wouldn't have been surprised if he was a Mage type awakener. Physical type awakeners generally had terrible values for these two stats. But, to be honest, he was a G rank awakener. Generally, stats stabilised only when awakeners reached F rank. Their stats would properly tilt in the direction of their specialties once they became F rank awakeners.

The difference between G and F rank was pretty big. G rank awakeners couldn't absorb the mana of monsters. While G rank Physical awakeners mostly lacked any specialised skills, G rank Mage awakeners could wield mana to control the four elements to various degrees. They were like clay- unmolded and easy to crush.

Ethan was lost in thought as he turned into an empty street. "Oi Ethan!" Suddenly, a voice called out to him. He snapped to attention. Tap...tap...tap. He could see a faint shadow. It was James along with a couple of kids. He froze.

Ba-dump...ba-dump...ba-dump. "There you are, Ethan," he smiled. "Why don't you come here? We'd like to have a nice talk with you. You wouldn't refuse, would you?" Ethan stumbled back. Crash! A couple of boys walked from behind him. "Don't worry, Ethan." James stepped forward. "We're here to help you. You're Douglas' special friend, after all."

Ethan stared back into Douglas' face. "Huff...huff...huff." "Ethan," said James. "Let's talk." His face widened into a wide smile.