The fist encounter

"It was 16:00 (4pm) when Bruno left his hotel, ready to venture into his first gate. His body had already digested the pizza and was now slowly wandering around the city, trying to find one of the low-rank gates. The Awakened Association (A.A.) didn't provide him with a map, and walking around asking for directions to gates would make him look suspicious, so he hoped to find one on his own.

Without having any luck for thirty minutes, he searched the internet and found what he was looking for: a Rank 3 gate had just opened about twenty minutes away from his location. He started heading towards it with his normal walking rythm.

After fifteen minutes, he could already see the gate. It was dark red and oval-shaped, with the only visible thing inside being a whirling and mixing stain of orange and red.

Approaching the gate, he was stopped by two soldiers. One of them was quite fat and short, holding a red cup in his right hand, while the other was tall and well-built. They exchanged a look before sighing. The fat one said, "Guess it's time to work," and the second replied, "Yeah, I guess so." They went back into their outpost; the first sat in front of a computer, and the other positioned himself beside the half-opened window, ready to welcome their new guest. They asked for identification...

"Here it is," Bruno answered, handing them an Awakened card that read:

Name: Giulio

Rank: 2

Power: Self Haste.

The card included a photo that looked exactly like him and an engraved red magic stone in the top left to identify it as legitimate. After reading that he was only Rank 2, they asked if he was sure about his life decisions. A dozen seconds later, they let him pass and saw him enter the gate. The chubby guy repositioned his cup on the desk and said with a desperate voice, "Mhh, mhh, what a pity for a guy that young to give up on his life. Sure, it's difficult to adapt, but you can always find solutions to your problems."

And so, he found himself inside the gate, while the guys outside thought they would never see him again.

The inside of the gate was vastly different from the normal world: the sky was gray even without clouds, the trees were dead without a single leaf, and the majority of the terrain was gray soil with a consistency like mud. A thick fog limited his vision, allowing him to see only up to six meters (almost 20 feet) ahead.

He started venturing deeper into the swamp-like biome, moving away from the starting point.

For a full minute, he walked straight ahead without noticing anything strange. Until he heard a dead tree branch snap right behind him. In a hurry, he rotated his head and body, and his eyes identified his first foe: a Bauk.

The black fur emanated a dark aura, and its three pairs of crimson-red eyes stood out along with its two rows of white, sharpened teeth. Saliva dripped from its mouth as it watched its prey, ready to pounce. It retracted its legs. The next second, the dark figure vanished. Luckily, Bruno, understanding the situation, reacted as fast as he could and yelled, "STOP!"

The monster's black claws were barely five centimeters from his forehead, suspended in the air, with no sound to be heard. Time stopped.

Bruno had stopped, but his brain didn't. Thanks to his first time-related skill:

Name: Time Stop

Proficiency: Rank 62

Description: You can pause time; while time is paused, you can't move but can still think.

Duration: You can pause time for as many minutes as the skill's level, with the duration resetting every midnight.

Time left today: 62 minutes.

He had used this skill since the very first day of his awakening, gaining extra time daily, extending his days by nearly an hour. The skill could also be used in battle for decisions or calming down. Now, he faced a tricky situation: the Bauk was in front of him, and his body couldn't react in time. Luckily, he noticed the monster's attack was slightly miscalculated to the right. He used the rotational force he had accumulated to duck down to the left, evading the blow at the last second.

With the monster's momentum destroyed, Bruno dashed towards it as fast as he could, drawing a dagger from the sheath on his waist. He cleanly cut off its head. Despite a Rank 2 Awakened usually having a Rank 2 or 3 body, Bruno's two years of training without advancing ranks had made his body exceptional. Thus, the head of the Bauk, with its Rank 4 defense, was sliced like tofu under his blade...