Adam

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Hey, quick note before we start, as the novel is mostly written in first person POV changes, will be prefaced by **XXXX's POV**

Thank you for reading and enjoy.

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**Hero's POV**

Waking up my entire body radiated with pain, my bones practically felt like they were made of stone as moving any part of my body felt like hell. 

My mind was hazy, and I had a killer headache, like I was having the worst hangover of my life. 

After yelling curses at the air for a solid minute or two in my failed attempts to move, I gave up and tried to calm down. 

I recalled what had happened before I passed out, the invasion, the retreat and...

'Losing.'

Right, I lost. To that katana wielding madman, I still remembered his laughs as he inflicted me with puncture wound after puncture wound. 

His demonic visage filled me with anger as I saw him cut down my allies one after the other, an emissary of death on the battlefield. 

His sadistic smile as he left me to bleed out and my futile attempt to try and drink a potion. 

'Right... So how am I here?'

Didn't feel like I had any wounds, I was made pretty comfortable as well, and was that smell... food? Fuck, I'm hungry. 

With great pain I moved my head to the direction the smell was coming from and saw another person standing there. 

'A kid?'

Holding a dagger and wearing a hoodie and jeans was a figure about 6 feet tall, he looked like one of those teenage idols that rivaled us heroes in fame, the definition of 'pretty boy'.

Though he looked a bit worse for wear, his hair was a mess, his clothes had some dirt on them, and his multicolored eyes seemed to convey fear and distrust. 

"Uh... hello?" 

I voiced out to the kid, he didn't look like a corrupted and I assumed he was the one who saved me, so I didn't feel like I was in any danger. 

The kid held up the dagger, stepping away from me slightly.

"Who are you?"

Upon hearing the question, I couldn't help but laugh. What did this kid live under a rock or something? 

 "Adam... Adam Kane."

I wanted to joke around but I could see the kid was pretty shaken up, so I responded honestly. 

This seemed to ring a bell as he lowered the dagger falling into thought for a minute. 

"Do you have your hero ID?"

He asked wanting to confirm my statement. Did I look that fucked up from battle that he couldn't recognize me? 

"Yeah, it's in my storage ring if you'll let me use it."

He nodded slowly, lowering his dagger as he realized that I probably couldn't do shit even if I wanted to. 

Channeling mana into my right-hand ring finger, a small metallic card materialized into my hand.

'Fuck.' 

As I raised my arm and tried to hand him the card a surge of pain shot through my body causing me to drop the card to the floor. 

In an instant, he went from standing about 4 feet away from me, to being right next to me, having caught the card. 

'He's an awakened.'

I had no doubt about it in my mind, that agility wasn't something a normal person could exhibit. 

As he stared at the card, I drew mana into my eyes as I saw various colored particles floating in the air. 

Looking at him, I couldn't help but frown, he did have a mana core as I expected but it was pitch black, unlike the vibrant colors one would usually see. 

'No circulation though.'

A new awakened then, he still hadn't developed a way to distribute the mana accurately to the rest of his body. 

He returned the card to my side, having confirmed it was me. 

"Sorry."

He said in a much softer voice, his previous aggression was gone. 

"No problem, as you probably saw, there's a lot of people who want to stab me." 

In response to my stellar joke the kid didn't laugh simply nodding before sitting down next to me. 

Fatigue was evident by his demeanor; he was probably hiding it before to avoid making himself look like an easy target had I wanted to harm him. 

'He's a mystery.' 

Who was he? More importantly, what was he doing here? Is it possible he got left behind during the evacuation? 

I wanted to ask him a lot of questions, but I decided on just one. 

"Hey... could you help me drink another potion?" 

In my defense everything really fucking hurt especially my arm which felt like it was on fire. 

He nodded and helped me drink a low tier potion I summoned from the storage ring. 

I felt the relief almost intensely, the headache cleared up as my arm made a few cracking noises before the pain subsided. 

Everything still felt numb, but I could actually sit upright without feeling like my body was being torn apart. 

I closed my eyes and breathed a sigh of relief as I finally felt alive again, some of my strength returning to my body. 

As I opened my eyes, I saw that the kid had passed me a water bottle and a lunch box. 

"Thanks."

I said as I downed the water bottle before greedily opening the lunch box as a delicious aroma filled the air.

I downed the sandwich in seconds. 

'This is really fucking good.'

I can't be faulted for assuming that food handed to me by a mysterious teenager in a warzone would not be that great. 

However, while I didn't know how much my hunger played a part in this, the meal was amazing, almost as good as the stuff you could get in restaurants. 

Looking over he seemed to be having trouble eating, he had only taken one bite and his eyes seemed vacant staring off into nothingness. 

"You alright?"

My words snapped him out of his dazed state, and he responded in kind. 

"Yes."

He then noticed my emptied box and likely me eyeing his food as well. 

"Do you want more?"

He asked, producing another box from his bag pushing it in my direction. 

"Coming back from the dead makes you pretty hungry you know?" 

I said as I snatched the box from him. 

In the end I had like seven of those boxes. 

They were all different as well, I basically got an entire restaurant menu each dish just as good as the last. 

Steak and mashed potatoes, fried rice, pancakes, with each meal I felt like I felt more and more alive. 

Before judging it's important to note that the stronger an awakened gets, the more food they need to sustain themselves. 

Besides the kid was offering, and me wolfing down food like an absolute glutton seemed to lift his spirits as he finished his meal as well. 

I could finally think clearly as I sat up and breathed a sigh of relief, finally feeling ready to ask some questions.