Chương 10: Awakening

The cooling sensation spreading throughout Kal's body stopped the pain momentarily. Everything that had happened previously felt like a dream. The dream shattered moments later as all of the pain came back at once. He let out a scream at the suddenness of it. Before he could even get used to it, a warmth enveloped his chest. It was slow at first, just a feeling at the back of his mind, but slowly, the warmth started increasing. In moments, the small warmth had grown enough to distract Kal from his thoughts.

The warmth didn't stop growing, and after what felt like a minute to him, it started burning his chest. As if a fire had started underneath his skin and was cooking him from the inside. Even though he felt like it was burning him, it didn't hurt. He didn't know why that was. Perhaps the pain he was already in was so overwhelming that the little burn was nothing. Or perhaps the burning feeling was some kind of magical effect.

It didn't matter at the moment, as the burning sensation was keeping his mind off the pain, and he was able to think much better because of it. The feeling was changing constantly; there were other sensations besides the burn—prickling, numbness, pressure. Whatever it was doing to him, it was much better than the unrelenting pain. It took him some time before he was finally able to focus his mind on awakening.

It was a difficult and complicated process, but at the same time, the book had described it as easy, along the lines of the body knowing what to do as soon as the process had started. Once the awakening starts, the body becomes thirsty, and it will quench the thirst by itself. The person going through the awakening only needs to guide it. Forming the shape before flooding it with all of the accumulated energy—the mana. Kal had no idea what that meant, but he hoped that it would become obvious when it started.

Now, he needed to take the first step toward awakening. To focus on the sensation the wyvern's core made and force it to form a core. How was he supposed to do that? He had no clue, but those were the words the book had used. He focused on his chest, on the burning sensation, and thought about forcing it to form a core. Just as he expected, nothing happened. He had a feeling that it wouldn't be as easy as the book had described it. Kal cursed inwardly.

He felt like he needed to close his eyes, but he didn't want to. He was already close to dying, and the darkness didn't feel comforting. It took him some time, but he finally managed to close his eyes. Even if he was afraid of the dark, it was the only thing that could help him awaken and hopefully make it through the whole ordeal alive. The darkness behind his eyes wasn't as bad as he thought. He exhaled slowly and focused on the warmth in his chest. It was… different.

He had no idea how to explain what he was currently experiencing. It was like his eyes were somehow seeing what was happening inside his chest, but at the same time, he was seeing the darkness behind his eyes. The chest—well, he was mostly seeing the energy, perhaps the mana inside it—was a blue light, just like he'd seen it inside the wyvern's core, moving like being blown by the wind, but it had no real direction or purpose. It just existed while some parts of it split and spread throughout his body.

He wasn't sure how he knew the things he did, but as he watched the energy, he came to understand it. He tried pushing the energy towards the center of his chest, willing it to gather together. But it didn't. It just maintained what it was doing without any change. Force it… How was he supposed to force it to form a core? During his attempts to force the mana to do what it was supposed to, he forgot about the pain that was eating away at him.

He was certain that the energy inside his chest had something to do with it, but it wasn't the time for that. What did awakening mean? Awakening was the process of forming a core that would allow him to perceive and guide the mana. He recalled multiple things he'd read in the book, but none of them provided him with the answer. It was the only step he was supposed to take on alone, as everything else would happen by itself. All he would need to do after the process had started was guide the mana.

He frowned and willed the mana to form a core. Just as he thought about it, the warmth inside his chest intensified. The temperature doubled in moments, and it kept growing hotter. Something he did had finally had some effect. In moments, his chest felt like it was burning hotter than a blacksmith's smelt, but it wasn't painful. A little uncomfortable at worst. The mana inside his chest became smaller, but its color grew brighter and somehow more… alive.

It took him a few moments, but he finally understood what was happening: the mana was compressing itself, and from that, it kept growing hotter. Kal scrambled his thoughts, trying to figure out if he was meant to do anything at that point, but he didn't know anything. The book—Pursuit of Mana—was missing a few pages, and at least one of them was from the awakening chapter. He cursed inwardly and watched how the mana compressed. As soon as he thought about it, a new vision appeared.

It showed small blue dots swaying. It was the same as the blue things he saw on the edge of his vision inside the cave. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Was that mana as well? The dots he assumed were mana collided with each other, one of them vanishing while the other grew brighter. Dozens of mana orbs collided within the scene he watched. It took some time, but as soon as all of the duller dots were gone, the process started again.

Kal tried to influence the process, but he couldn't do anything. The mana continued compressing while he only watched. He wasn't certain how much time had passed, but in the end, the mana grew as bright as the wyvern's core had been, they stopped. Nothing else happened even after some time had passed. As more time passed, the pain slowly started returning, and the burn in his chest grew more uncomfortable, as if some kind of pressure was building up inside his chest.

He waited, thinking of ways to do something, but nothing he thought of made any change. The uncomfortable feeling started to feel like pressure that was building up and would have to leave his body at some point. Nothing he knew about awakening mentioned that he should expel mana. He also had a feeling that the buildup wasn't a good sign. The mana was supposed to do something, but… what? As the pressure grew heavier and the pain returned, Kal grew worried.

He was certain that he had to do something at this point, perhaps he needed a vessel that would hold the mana? Nothing else made sense, since the mana was flowing freely inside his chest, and some parts of it still occasionally moved away from his chest. He recalled how the wyvern's core looked, like it was made of glass, and the mana swayed inside… A container to hold it? Wasn't that what a core was supposed to be? He willed the mana to form its own container… the core, yet nothing happened.

Just like before, he tried multiple ways to do it—pushing it, moving the mana in certain patterns–but nothing happened. The process wasn't as easy as the book had led him to believe. He had to do something there as well. He recalled the wyvern's orb again, how it looked and how it felt. Then, he focused on the mana and imagined it forming the same container. At first it didn't work, but then he imagined an empty core, just like the wyvern's one had looked, and willed the mana to form it.

The mana swayed lightly before it moved, flooding into the center of his chest. Slowly, it shaped into a ball-like form, almost translucent. At first, the shape didn't look stable or strong enough to contain the mana, but slowly, its walls grew thicker and thicker. Kal knew that he'd done what he was supposed to, but the problem he found was that the pressure was still building, and the pain had grown enough that he wanted to scream. At least he didn't feel any of the wounds or the fever.

That would be enough to shroud his mind and possibly cause him to fail his awakening. He kept trying to will the mana into moving faster, but nothing happened. If the pressure was allowed to build up more, he would eventually burst like a bubble. He couldn't allow that. After everything he went through to get there, he deserved to experience the wonders of mana at least once. The wyvern was a magical creature that used Wind. Perhaps that was what he was missing.

He was currently using the creature's mana core to awaken his own. Did that mean that the mana inside him was Wind Mana, or something similar? But what if it was wind? Would knowing that even change anything? His mind kept trying to find an answer as the pressure continued building up. But he didn't have an answer. The mana continued forming the core, but it was too slow. Far too slow. Perhaps his body wasn't accustomed to the mana within and was fighting against it.

He studied the mana, flowing as if blown by wind. Maybe the answer lay within. What did he know of wind? It was something he couldn't perceive, and only feel. The wind within the core was gentle, slow. But wind didn't need to be gentle; it could also be dangerous and fast, deadly. He remembered all the types of wind he'd seen. The wind that followed the storms… that type of wind wasn't gentle. It was unstoppable and aggressive. Slowly, he realised the problem. The mana was too gentle.

Perhaps that was how a normal awakening was supposed to go, but he couldn't withstand the gentle wind as the pressure in his chest kept building up. He needed it to be fast, and aggressive… like a storm. Was that the answer to his problem? As with everything since he'd begun his Coming-of-Age, he had no idea. The only thing he knew was that if he didn't make a change soon, his body was going to explode. Kal gritted his teeth and let out the scream of pain he'd been holding back.

He focused on the mana and commanded it to rage, to move, to become a storm. As soon as he let out the words, the mana within him changed. It didn't become a storm, yet the gentle wind became a bit faster. The speed kept increasing slowly. From a gentle gust, it became like the wind before a storm. Before he even had the chance to study the changes, the mana was moving dozens of times faster, and it kept increasing. The pressure steadily built up.

"Faster," he shouted as his throat burned. In moments, the gentle wind transformed into a storm. The mana blew in a circular formation, taking the shape of a tornado. The core's intensity grew faster and faster until, a few minutes later, in the center of his chest stood a lone core, glass-like, just as the wyvern's had been. But it was empty, and the blue light that once. There was no mana inside his body, and the pressure was gone. Before he even had the chance to let out a sigh of relief, he felt hunger.

Primal hunger that came from within. His eyes snapped open. Kal's eyes glanced all over the cave, but there was nothing except stone, dirt, and the blue dots drifting along the edge of his vision. The floating dots, entered his whole vision instead of just staying on the edges. As Kal watched it, his hunger—or perhaps it was thirst—grew larger. Then every blue dot around him shot toward his body. As soon as the first entered his body, he felt as if he'd drunk a cool glass of water on a hot day.

It was hard, but he managed to close his eyes and think about the core. He saw the core and the mana flowing toward it from every direction. It entered the core without any resistance before settling inside it. His mind recalled the next step: to form the shape of his core. He had no idea what the shape was going to do, but at least he knew what he was supposed to do in this step.

He thought of his family's symbol, but instead of the blade from the symbol, which was much larger than his own, single-edged, with a bow-tie crossguard, he imagined his own—double-edged as long as his arm. It wasn't hard, as he'd practiced with the training sword for the last two years, and his new sword looked exactly the same. The only difference was that it wasn't wooden. The image was created in his mind before he focused on the orb. It was an orb with more shading on one side.

It was harder to make since he didn't even know what it actually represented, other than that it was used by the founder of his family. Ithon… Which he now knew was called the Demonsbane, just like the family's sword, Demonbane, which was wielded by his father. He wasn't sure how much time had passed, nor what was happening inside his core, since most of his attention was on creating the perfect image in his head. When he was satisfied with the results, he focused on the core again.

Inside, the mana that was flowing toward his core was entering it, and was creating his family's symbol. The sword formed first, starting from the blade before it formed the details. It took some time for the sword to form, and after it did, the mana started forming the orb. Kal kept most of his focus on keeping the image in his head while he studied the core. It… it wasn't as before. Before, the mana had moved like wind.

Now it stood in the shape he'd given it, floating so slowly that its movement was almost unnoticeable. The shape had a much brighter blue and was the only reason he could see it. The whole core was flooded with mana, but it was almost translucent, with a blue hint. His best guess was that he was watching pure mana, and not the Wind Mana he used before. The process moved smoothly and at the same speed. Then, the shape settled inside his core, just as it had been inside his head. Nothing changed at first.

Then the core shook, and the mana inside it burst out of it, spreading all over his body. An enormous amount of pain hit him all at once, bringing with it a weird sensation all around his body. He didn't even have time to let out a scream before everything went dark. [Congratulations, host, on your awakening.] [The Hidden Quest 'Coming-of-Age' is completed.]