6 The Awakening

The roosters crow, as the sun was finally peeking out at the horizon, seemingly blessing the land with its radiance.

People of different household are preparing their breakfast. The aroma of different food wafts in the

morning air of the village.

Waking up their little children was a task they found hard back then. Now however, it was pretty easy waking up these little monkeys.

Today was the Awakening Ceremony in the village. Everyone wanted to watch ceremony as there will always be a mini tournament to determine the talents of the participants.

Alex and his mother were currently preparing their breakfast as a series of knocking resounded through the door.

*Knock Knock Knock*

Alex quickly went towards the door and opening it. Upon opening the door, he was surprised to see who the visitor was.

He was a bit taller than Alex, standing tall at about 180 cm, with black hair and eyes and a bit muscular.

"Brother! You're back!"

"Haha. Of course I would be back. It's your awakening today so I decided to go home."

After the greeting, both of them sat and waited for their mother to wake up Mari. As soon as they saw Mari rubbing her eyes with her little hands they couldn't help but smile at how adorable this

little creature was.

"Mari."

"Big Brother!"

Mari ran towards her brother, Arthur and hugged him. He asked his little sister questions like, how

was school and if she made friends. Mari boasted that she made new friends and played with them at the school grounds.

She then complained that his brother, Alex had flicked her forehead so hard. As the subject of complaint, he was yet again scolded. Seeing his little sister laughing at him, he too laughed back.

The breakfast was a hearty and happy one. Arthur shared the knowledge he learned at his school, he boasted at how he was named as one of the prodigies of the school. He shared the experiences he had when fighting against beasts.

Of course he didn't get away from his mother's scolding. She told him that he should take missions less so as to not get hurt.

Alex shared his time at school too, just that he knew it would be boring and decided to stop. He talked about the family's current state. He said things positively and took the roundabout route of explaining their problems so that his little sister would not understand.

The breakfast continued for a few minutes and ended when Arthur decided to leave early because he needed to greet the representatives from other schools.

He asked Alex to leave early after finishing up because he knew that the villagers will surely watch. Arthur bid them farewell for now and headed towards the school.

After seeing his brother out, Alex washed himself clean. He was donned in white shirt and khaki pants, which was his style when he was on Earth.

When he walked out of his room, he saw his mother and Mari already waiting for him.

…

As they were making their way towards the school grounds, Mari couldn't help but get all jumpy and excited as if she was the one attending the ceremony. She even tripped and didn't care about the dirt on her knees. She just laughed it off.

Alex was still wearing his poker face, he didn't seem to care yet on the inside, he was really excited. He waited for far too long for this.

By the time they arrived at the school grounds, it was already filled with people. They were given way towards the center only because Alex was participating.

He sat down on the grass with his classmates. Since they were only in a village, there were only 20 or so hoping to be awakened, yes, Hoping.

Participating in the Awakening does not mean you will be fully awakened to become a mage. One can be a Warrior, a Knight or an Archer. But that doesn't satisfy these young adults. They aspire to become a Mage.

Being a Mage means status and fame and it also brings a lot of money. They didn't want to be a brute swinging around their swords, firing an arrow that may hit their allies, or being at the very front of a war. Controlling the elementals would surely make them cool.

Soon enough, an old man walked out and made a silencing gesture towards the crowd. The noise immediately died down as the old man appeared.

However, the kids were shocked, because the old man was the newly employed teacher yesterday.

Seeing the shocked faces of the kids, he grinned then laughed at them.

"Shocking right? Hehe. Jokes aside, we will now proceed with the Awakening Ceremony."

As soon as he said this several men and women came out and gave them a blue crystal. These people were the representatives of the academies. The kids noticed that the crystal was quite cold when they held it in their hands.

The old man then explained that these blue crystals were called Mana Crystal.

These mana crystals can either be a used to recover mana or it induce a person to be awakened.

The former was only used by the wealthy, while the latter was given to the public. However, several wealthy merchants and nobles who hoarded a huge amount of mana crystals started to nurture their children with mana crystals; helping them to become a mage when they come of age.

What can others do about it than be envious.

The representatives who gave out the mana crystals were tasked to help the kids in the awakening. Since the number of participants exceeds theirs. They can only do it twice.

They sat in front of the participants and asked them to hold the mana crystals with both of their hands, while they too stretched out a hand a place it on top of the crystal.

Since Alex came almost last, he was place at the second batch.

The school grounds descended into silence as soon as the awakening started.

…

10 minutes have passed and only 3 kids were successful in their awakening. The first one was a boy named Kael, which made the mana crystal into bright red in color in just two minutes.

This feat shocked everyone because they knew that Arthur, as a prodigy even in the city, only managed to light it up at the 3-minute mark. They knew that this silver-haired kid would surely become famous in the future.

The second one was a tall and bulky kid that awakened the element of Earth. The third was a girl of the water element. Both of them awakened at the 5th minute.

It was now the second batch's turn.

As Alex was wondering what to do, a shadow covered him. Looking up, he can see his brother smiling at him.

Arthur sat down and faced Alex. He told Alex not to do anything against a warm flow of energy that will enter his body and asked him to stay still.

Alex nodded as a response. Arthur then directed the mana from the crystal towards his brother's body. He noticed that the rate of absorption was very fast and within 10 minutes it will definitely be depleted.

On Alex's side however, he was feeling great as streams of warm energy was satisfying his hunger. Which was brought to unknown part of his body and it keeps on eating mana.

He later saw a forest, just a glimpse of it. However, he felt that he was a tall and sturdy tree, like he was the forest itself. He could feel the surrounding communicating through the roots, like they have their own sentience.

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to fully comprehend what he just experienced as it was ended by a continuous beeping on his mind.

*Beep … Beep … Beep*

[Absorbing Mana … 50%]

[70%]

[90%]

[99%]

[100%]

[Initiating System …]

*DING*

[Elemental Affinity Unlocked: Wood]