Elixir of Awakening (3)

Chapter 9 – Elixir of Awakening (3)

It was a given that I would join the faction of recruits who were willing to take the risk, despite knowing that there was no risk in consuming the Elixir at all.

Many of those who refused to take them would have changed their minds if only they had given it a deeper consideration.

The rate at which Dungeons appeared in the world was more than the number of Hunters available to handle them, even if there were positive signs of an increase in that number.

If they thought it through, it wouldn't make any sense that the Elixir, designed to create more Hunters, would have any side effects or consequences.

How would that help the situation?

It was basically their Super Soldier Serum and they had no choice but to churn out Hunters if humanity was to continue to survive even after 800 years.

I'd pick to take the Elixir. However, that would give me no advantage against Terence since he did the same. But with that catalyst, I would enter the Initial Ore Stage after a night of gut-wrenching pain.

After that, I would go for the next thing on my list—Skills. I already knew the Skill that I would awaken but there was an obstacle I needed to scale through, thanks to my pre-knowledge of that event.

The problem with that now was finding a suitable candidate—a candidate that wouldn't arouse suspicion towards me.

Against the intentions of the Central Government, German remained adamant about administering the Elixir to only those who were willing to take the risk.

Of course, other Hunters present took caution and possibly gave their pieces of advice and opinion but German proved to have steady hands on the tiller.

He controlled the entire situation calmly with his wealth of experience and influence, assuring them that nothing was good to happen.

German Barns had only been made an Instructor some time in the previous year and we were his first batch of admission. That was the reason for the wariness exhibited by other Hunters.

No Head Instructor, before German's time of taking the position, had ever not administered the Elixir to every recruit present at that time.

"Alright! It seems to me that everyone does not agree to my little juice right here," German said, his choice of words and delivery not helping the situation in any way.

Listening to him now, for the second time, I was convinced that he wanted to reduce the number of people that would take it, as much as I could.

I chuckled at this realisation.

'What a crazy man.'

German cleared his throat, entering the attention back on himself. "Anyways, those who are willing to take that risk, please step forward. However, do not say that you weren't warned or informed."

After he was done talking, or more like scaring the recruits, some more of us declined the request.

Those who decided to take the Elixir were barely a fourth of the total number in this batch of admission.

With that, the administration of the Gold Grade Potion began.

I purposely went to the back of the line. I had done that not to delay receiving the potion but to observe and recall.

I watched every recruit that had taken theirs and returned to their spot in the general rows and columns. To each person, I tried to remember the Skill that they awaken as that would come in handy for me in selecting someone who would make me stand out.

I watched every single one of them take their potions, drink them and walk away.

"Name?" one of the hunters asked, his finger ready to press the tablet next to him.

"Luk—sigh—Lucas," I corrected myself immediately. "Lucas Enstar."

I felt a crawl inside my throat as I mentioned this name.

Why the fuck would they register me under it even?

I'm sure the Cube knew that I had denounced the name and the organisation, not wanting anything to do with them. Well, not until later anyway.

"Drink."

The Hunter handed me the purple potion and without any hesitation, I glugged the entire thing in one gulp.

Yuck!

Like many before me, I felt a sudden bitter aftertaste that caused a crawl to race through my entire body. I continually smacked my tongue at the roof of my mouth with a distorted, disgusted face.

Eww! That Elixir still tastes as terrible as I remember it. But at least, I was done with that part.

As I climbed down from the stage after consuming the Elixir of Awakening, my eyes strayed into the crowd, darting around until I caught sight of him.

There he was.

Calm, collected and standing among those in the first row.

'There you are. Fucking Terence Kenton.'

Had it been that any action I took now would come with no repercussions, I would have jumped that little, blond brat without giving it a thought.

But there he was, standing and looking cluelessly at me like he wouldn't become the worst devil that I know.

I'm sure he was wondering why I kept fierce eye contact with me and yet, he never broke his… not even once until I turned my face away.

Terence scoffed and turned frontward, focusing his attention on the Instructors.

Beside Terence was the second person I wanted to kill the most—Claudia Emberton.

As usual, she was all over Terence, clamouring for his attention.

"What's that kid's deal, Terence?" she asked the prodigy of the Kenton Family. "Did you see how he was looking at you?"

Terence gave a light shrug of dissent.

"Do you know him from somewhere?" she inquired further. "He was looking at you with such a malicious gaze that it had me worried. I really don't want anything to happen to you, Terence."

Terence took another glance behind to look for me but I had gone into a part of the crowd where he couldn't find me.

'Yes, Hero. Be wary of me for I'm that shadow that will always follow you around until I strike.'

Terence felt a desperate tug on his shirt and finally turned his eyes to the desperate, attention-deprived Claudia.

He merely gave her a look and said nothing else.

"Are you okay, Terence?"

After a few seconds of silence, Terence faced his front and answered her before keeping mum again.

"I am fine, Claudia."

With that, he subtly removed her hand from his shirt without looking her way. An act that left the daughter of the Emberton Family exasperated.

German closely monitored the young face in front of him. He had paid no attention to them the previous day but today, he took the time to check them out a little bit.

'Hmm, the boy from Kenton Family,' he thought, singling Terence out from the first out of the frontmost row of recruits.

'Even an Emberton. In the same year.'

German's eyes moved indistinctly across the crowd, picking out the offspring of various notable Hunter Families.

'Looks like I might have an interesting year with this lineup. I hope they don't disappoint,' he thought with a satisfied smile on his bearded face.

After the final address and a few announcements that had to do with our classes and the proper resumption of activities within the Cube, we were discharged to our various dormitories for the rest of the day.