Chương 11: Awakened I

Kal stared at the ceiling of the cave, wondering what had happened after he passed out. He'd woken up a few minutes earlier and was still trying to put everything together. He'd dreamed of floating symbols that he was somehow able to read. Perhaps it was a language he hadn't encountered before. But how was he able to read it? The symbols had congratulated him on his awakening and completing the Coming-of-Age quest. That wasn't even the strangest thing that had happened to him.

Kal brought up his left hand in front of his eyes. The same arm that he'd barely felt after being pinned into the tree. His arm shook slightly, and he clenched it. He raised his left leg as well. It felt heavier, but he was still able to move it. He tried moving his limbs, and everything worked as it should. As if the demon folk, perhaps even the Moonweaver, had all been a dream. The sleeve of his shirt was filled with holes and dried blood. His pants were the same.

At least that confirmed that everything that had happened wasn't a dream. Not that he wouldn't have preferred it being a dream. That reminded him of the floating symbols he'd dreamed of. The floating symbols looked closer to the runes on his sword than any other language he knew. Most had sharp angles, while some of them were curved. The only thing he'd noticed was that most of the symbols had a circle or perhaps it was a dot, while others had a line above them.

Not all of them, but quite a few had it, and the numbers of dots above a symbol ranged from zero to three. The ground beneath him shook, sending up dust into the air. Kal moved, pushing himself a few feet away from where he lay, covering his mouth with what remained of his shirt. It was the fifth time the ground had shaken; he wasn't sure what it was, perhaps an earthquake. Staring at the sharp edges of the stalactite, he would have preferred to stand up and run away, but alas, he couldn't.

He'd already tried doing so twice, and both times he'd ended up back on the ground. The awakening had done something to his body that he wasn't used to. It was as if it were the first time he ever tried to stand up. He didn't even want to imagine how difficult walking would be. The ground shook for a few more moments before it stopped. The other difference was that the cave didn't have any of the blue dots he'd seen earlier. The atmosphere inside had changed as well. He didn't know how, but he felt a change.

His guess was that it had something to do with the mana his body had absorbed during his awakening. It still felt weird to him, as he had already awakened, and instead of trying to learn what that meant, he was staring at the ceiling, thinking about a dream. He pushed himself against the ground until his back hit the cave wall. It bit into his back, but it wasn't too bad. After he found a good enough ledge to support himself, he pushed himself upright. His legs and arms shook, but it was manageable.

Keeping himself standing was even worse. The ground looked like it wanted to swallow him. He knew that if he let go off the wall, he would find himself on the ground, again. So leaned his back against the wall. Perhaps he needed to get used to his legs again, it didn't make any sense, but most of his experiences after leaving for the quest didn't. So he decided to stay put until he felt more comfortable in his body. His grip also felt much stronger, but he was holding a stone, so he wasn't worried.

It took him some time, but as soon as he felt that he wasn't going to fall to the ground, he allowed himself to relax. The first thing that came to mind was to check his core, so he closed his eyes while his grip against the stone strengthened. He thought about his core, concentrating on his chest area, and saw it. The core was floating in darkness as it gave out a soft blue light. In the center of the core was Lunvale's symbol.

He studied it for a long time but didn't manage to find any noticeable changes, it just felt like it was brighter. He felt his lips curl up as the reality hit him. He was alive, awakened, and somehow healed.

"What do I try first?" he muttered. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. His head was already swimming with spells he'd read from the old book. There were at least two dozen spells there, at least from what he understood. There was one he really wanted to try out, a spell that could freeze a puddle of water. Well, at least that was how much he understood from the book.

The spell's description wasn't really precise, or understandable for that matter. Some of them, like the spell for freezing water, had simpler wording, but most of them were much more difficult to understand. That was just a description of what the spell did. But how to cast the spell, that was another nightmare. Kal would have preferred to have the book with him, but he didn't. Just like he didn't plan to awaken on the mountain.

It had read along the lines of: before being able to freeze water, one needed to understand how the element worked. There were other things mentioned inside it as well, but Kal didn't really understand most of it or even remember it. The only thing he knew was that before he could even cast a spell, he needed to be intimately familiar with how the element worked and why. He wasn't, and he was certain that he would need a lot of experimenting before he would be able to use any spell.

That got him thinking about his experience during his awakening. In a way, he had already used the wind. He was forced to find a way to speed up the process of forming the core, and he'd used Wind Mana. Perhaps it wasn't Wind Mana. Thinking about it wouldn't help, as he didn't have enough knowledge about mana. The book talked about mana, but just like the spells were difficult to comprehend, that section was as well. He'd always left it for after awakening.

He guessed that he would be more familiar and knowledgeable after experiencing his awakening. But that didn't mean that he would stop experimenting. If he was able to use wind during his awakening, he was going to use it to create an effect in the real world. He kept thinking about the spells he'd already read about, imagining himself wielding mana. But it didn't last long, as his stomach grumbled. Kal was hungry, and there was no food or water source available in the cave. He frowned.

His life was going to become much harder. The little time he'd spent thinking and imagining himself wielding magic had felt great, but the reality of his situation wasn't any good. He was still stuck on the mountain that was filled with demon folk, in a cave that had an enormous drop that would certainly kill him, and with a body that he barely felt comfortable handling. Well, the cave part was mostly a guess, since he had no idea how he even ended up inside it.

"Great," he muttered. Magic could wait, but if he didn't start preparing for his descent, he would die of hunger and thirst before he even had to fight another demon. He walked around the cave while holding onto the wall. The cave looked like any other he'd seen. Most of it was stone, while dirt filled the ground beneath him. The ceiling had stalactites spread all over. It wasn't big, it was barely half the size of his own room. The light was coming from just a few feet away, from the opening of the cave.

Slowly, while holding onto the wall, he walked over. Soft sunlight seeped into the cave from the entrance. He stopped beside it, and after finding a ledge strong enough to hold his weight, he took a glance. Outside stood a narrow trail, barely wider than his body if he were lying down. Across the trail was a trail of blood that led all the way to another stone platform. Kal took a few steps and left the cave. As soon as he did, he felt the wind caressing his cheeks. Below him was an enormous drop.

It even looked deeper than when he'd looked down the mountain. His legs shook slightly and his body swayed, and he stepped backward. The wind vanished as soon as he was back inside the cave. It didn't feel right. He waited a few more seconds, but didn't feel anything, as if the wind didn't reach him inside the cave. Kal wanted to go outside again, but he didn't feel comfortable doing so. His body swayed more than he liked, and it would be too easy to fall to his death.

He returned to the cave and lowered himself to the ground in a place that didn't have any stalactites above him. Kal took a deep breath. He didn't like his current situation. Hunger gnawed at his stomach, he didn't trust his physical capabilities to leave the cave and find food, and he couldn't get the symbols out of his head. No matter how hard he tried, he kept thinking about them. Like he was missing something, but what? Hadn't everything been just a dream? There was also his body.

He wasn't quite sure what had changed, but he knew it had. He made a fist and studied it. It felt stronger, but he wasn't sure by how much. There was only one way to find out, but that would be for later. Now, he still had to deal with the symbols. If he didn't, he felt like they would keep gnawing at his mind. He tried to recall how the symbols looked and what they said. The memory was slightly blurry, but he still recalled what they said without any issue. He wasn't sure how much time had passed.

He kept trying to recall the symbols, until suddenly, they appeared before him, floating in the air. He pushed himself back, but the symbols followed him. Staying a couple of inches away from his face. After a few moments of unnecessary panic, which he felt awkward about, Kal studied the symbols. They looked exactly the same as in his dream… or perhaps it hadn't been a dream. For whatever reason, he could read them as if they were written in the Common Tongue. Or perhaps even the Lunnian language.

[Congratulations, host, on your awakening.] [The Hidden Quest 'Coming-of-Age' is completed.] Host? A hidden quest? Kal's thoughts spiraled before he realized what the symbols could be. Everyone he'd spoken to about awakening had mentioned that, besides their bodies growing stronger, something else would happen. They never told him what it was. They all said he would have to experience it himself. Could this be the same thing? The symbols this time were much longer, taking up much more of his vision.

[Calculating rewards for completing the The Hidden Quest 'Coming-of-Age'] [Surviving an encounter with??? - Partial due to interference] [Killing a member of a Noble Race as a Lesser One] [...]