Chương 12: Awakened II

[Congratulations, host, on your awakening.] [The Hidden Quest 'Coming-of-Age' is completed.] [Calculating rewards for completing The Hidden Quest 'Coming-of-Age'] [Tallying Achievements...] [Surviving an encounter with??? — Partial due to interference] [Surviving an encounter with??? — Partial due to interference] [???] [Encountering a member of a Noble Race as a Lesser One] [Fighting a member of a Noble Race as a Lesser One] [Killing a member of a Noble Race as a Lesser One] [Escaping a member of a Noble Race as a Lesser One] [Awakening in unique circumstances.] [Awakening a step away from death.] [Calculating final assessment...] [Final assessment: Superb!] [Calculating rewards...] As soon as he read one part of the symbols, they moved before settling, revealing new lines of information. What was that?

He thought about the previous part again, and the symbols moved again, returning to their original state. Kal stared at the second line of symbols.

"The hidden quest," he muttered. What did that mean? How was his Coming-of-Age a hidden quest? Wasn't it just a tradition his family followed? He went through the symbols, reading line after line. The symbols were stating his achievements. He guessed the first lines with the question marks were the Moonweaver, but what was the other line? What else had he survived that the symbols had marked with question marks? Kal felt a headache approaching the more he tried to understand what the symbols meant.

Perhaps he would have doubted it more, but he was certain this was what everyone meant when they talked about experiencing it. How would someone explain floating symbols that… well, he wasn't sure what they did. It was all too strange. And what was the line with only question marks supposed to mean? He went through the list again, stopping at the fourth line of symbols from the end. Had he really been a step away from death? The memories of his condition after the fight with the demon resurfaced in his mind.

His body shook slightly, but after a few deep breaths, it stopped shaking. He didn't want to think about that. At least not until he was out of the mountain and within the safety of his house. There was also the line about awakening during unique circumstances. Was that because he was close to dying, or was it because of the wyvern's core? Kal frowned. He really needed someone to explain what everything meant. It took him quite some time to go through every line and try to find an explanation.

The ones mentioning a demon were self-explanatory, as he, too, found killing a demon as a mundane human to be extraordinary. He did glance at the reward section a few times and was curious about what that could be, but with everything going through his head, it was hard to get excited about it. Kal wasn't sure how much time had passed, but after taking a deep breath, he thought about changing the symbols. Toward the… second page? The symbols changed at his thought, revealing more lines of information.

[Due to the host's extraordinary achievements, the rewards had been adjusted.] [Host life lies a breath away from death.] [Adjusting… A second chance.] [Rewards granted: Bringing back the host from certain death.] [Reward points remaining… adjusting.] [Detected an attempt at creating a mythical Shape.] [Reward granted: Helping host with creating Shape.] [Moonpiercing Convergence] [Reward points remaining… adjusting.] [Reward granted: Mana Core of the demon slain by host.] [Reward points remaining… adjusting.] [Reward granted: Mana Sense] [Reward points remaining… denied due to outside interference.] [Due to outside interference with the Hidden Quest 'Coming-of-Age,' remaining reward points are locked.] [To use the remaining reward points, the host needs to complete more quests.] Kal went over everything a few times. Had the symbols helped him create a Shape? A mythical one? He felt another headache coming as there was too much information to go through, most of which he had no idea what it even meant.

He barely had an idea of what a Shape was, and now he had somehow acquired a mythical one—Moonpiercing Convergence. The symbols had also brought him back from almost dead to fully healed. And it had treated it as a reward for his efforts in the quest. But then, his quest had outside interference. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. It was a lot to go through. He would need quite some time to go over everything, but it didn't seem like a good idea.

His time was limited, and he needed to get back control of his body. But he could allow himself an hour before he had to do that, and one more before he had to leave the cave. The symbols vibrated slightly, and he somehow understood that there was another page of information, and all he had to do was think about it to see it. There were also more quests somehow. Kal wished he was already back in the library, researching whatever was happening to him.

"Next one," he muttered. It didn't seem like thinking too deeply about it would help him find answers, as he knew almost nothing about what happened after awakening. [Host] [Name: Kal Lunvale] [Third Heir of House Lunvale] [Association: Clan Lunvale] [Rank: Awakened] [Class: Undecided] [Mana Core: Light Blue] [Core Shape: Moonpiercing Convergence] [Mana Core Absorption: 1] [Affinities] [Lunar: 74] [Wind: 53] [Insufficient affinity with other types of mana] There were quite a few things bothering Kal.

There were only two heirs of Lunvale since his brother Luke had been disowned. Since he had no idea how the symbols knew that much about him, he ignored it for now. The other things seemed more immediate. After studying it for a few minutes, he felt that if he wanted to, he only needed to focus on a line to learn more about it. Kal focused on Class. [Class: Undecided.] [The Shape allows the host to choose between different classes. Options will become available when the host makes a decision.] Kal chuckled.

Could everyone on the mountain read his thoughts now? He was pretty certain that the Class would be determined by whether he chose the path of a warrior or the path of a mage. It seemed that he hadn't fucked up his future too much, as a Mythical Shape with the options to choose from sounded perfect. He spent a few more moments reading the description, trying to see if he had missed something. But he didn't get any new information from it, so he continued with the next one.

He was pretty sure he knew what it meant, but still, he wanted to make sure he had understood it correctly. [Rank: Awakened] [A being with an awakened Mana Core, strengthened by mana, and able to wield mana.] He took a breath before he focused on the next one. [Mana Core: Light Blue] [A newly awakened core that is yet to be refined.] Despite his lack of knowledge about awakening, at least he knew a bit about cores. The core color was different in most species and races. Humanity started with a light blue core.

The next core was green, at least in warriors. He wasn't sure if there was a difference in mages. But he planned to figure out everything after descending out of the hellhole he'd found himself in. [Core Shape: Moonpiercing Convergence] [A Shape forged by??? in an era of bloodshed and despair. Born out of a desire to protect and a resolve to destroy. Lost to history after the death of???.] Kal frowned. The question marks continued, and the whole thing was more cryptic than he would have preferred.

It didn't answer any of the questions he had; it only raised more. He couldn't even guess the era in which the Shape was created. Most of the history of the human race was filled with bloodshed and despair. Perhaps only recent history was spared from it. He lay on the cold, sharp ground as his thoughts spiraled. Awakening turned out to be much more complicated than he'd initially thought. Instead of getting an answer, he got even more questions. The thing that bothered him the most was the Coming-of-Age.

There was nothing that ever mentioned that the Coming-of-Age was more than a tradition. Everyone had acted as if it was a tradition, an important one, but still a tradition. And now, somehow, he'd completed a hidden quest and had gotten rewarded for it. He wasn't sure how good the rewards were. Well, they were the only thing that had saved his life. He guessed the Shape was really good, but he had no way of knowing. And Mana Sense? He already had a pretty good idea of what it did.

He wasn't really certain how he knew, but his guess was that the cave wasn't random. Mana was never visible to the naked eye, yet somehow, the first thing he saw after waking up in the cave was the mana. After a few minutes, he stood up from the ground, using the cave's wall as support, and started walking around the room. It was difficult at first; his steps were longer than he wanted, then shorter. It was difficult to control his strength. The more he did it, the more his body got used to it.

He thought about everything the symbols had said, endlessly, but it was all in vain. The only way he could get answers was by experimenting, though he could only get answers about his strength and perhaps whether he was capable of using mana. Mana training usually happened after awakening. The other answers were more difficult, as he would have to get them from somewhere. His family, or perhaps the Moonweaver, Naezil. He felt that the Coming-of-Age was a lot more complicated than he'd expected.

And he could only find out more after descending the mountain alive. Kal stopped worrying about the symbols and started getting used to his new strength. After he felt comfortable walking, he increased his speed until he adjusted to it before increasing it again. Just running had taken him more than an hour before he finally fell into a stance. He took out his sword and stared at its edge. The blood of the demon was still there, and the demon's core… well, it was with him.

He wasn't sure how, but as soon as he'd read the line describing the reward, he knew that all he had to do to receive it was think about it. But it was too early; his body was still exhausted from his awakening, and he wasn't sure what would happen when he bonded with it. He didn't want to risk it so soon. The blade had already tasted the blood of his first enemy, so the first step was completed. He also planned to study the shape, but that would have to wait for later.

His mind was even more exhausted than his body was. The light from the cave continued to fade as Kal tried to adjust to the changes in his body. It was already too late to leave the cave, so he decided to leave it for tomorrow. He would have enough time to clear his head, get comfortable in his body, and be well rested. Those were the most important things before a fight.