It was around eleven at night. For most people, it was sleeping time while only a few high-level practitioners took this time to practice mana.
There were no television, no computers, no cell phones, or even radios in this scientifically backwards, mana biased planet. Most of the regions still followed a feudal system of governing. So the entertainment was limited to mainly pleasure houses, hunting and other backward hobbies.
And even most of these activities were confined to nobles and wealthy families because of their expensive services and dangers. So most commoners only bullied weaker ones or populated among themselves to relieve their stress and hence slept early to initiate their life early again the next day. Hence nightlife was almost non-existent here.
At such times, in a pitch-black room in a nearby inn, a small silhouette of a little boy could be felt meditating with a frown on his face. This boy was obviously Kiel.
It was so dark in there that, you couldn't even find one ray of light. Windows were closed, the front door was locked, curtains were drawn to prevent even a bit of light from entering inside. However, in such an environment a weird shrill noise was permeating the setting of the room.
If someone lit a candle in the room now, they would be even more surprised to see that every object was vibrating in the room like they wanted to break free from their position and fly away.
Sometimes the vibrations would slow down and then sometimes they would increase to the maximum bringing frowns and joys respectively on the little boy's face like a periodic cycle.
Everything inside seemed to want to break free from the control of gravity and fly away. They were struggling to gain their freedom from their natural forces. But it seemed to not be enough as indicated by the prominent frown on the little silhouette making him even more adorable.
Time slowly continued to pass away as the struggles of every object seemed to have reached their peak but then they became still silent. The frown on the boy's face rose even more as success was nowhere to be seen. But then the cycle began again as everything began to struggle again. Even as more time passed, the little boy seemed persistent in his efforts as he held on.
.
.
.
After who knows how long in the night, a small vase suddenly floated up just a little. Then just like following it, every other small and light objects floated up one by one. Well, levitating would be the best term to describe the phenomenon.
"Success" Seeing that his endeavour succeeded, Kiel suddenly opened his eyes seemingly overjoyed with the sudden success. But then like getting their strings cut off, they all fell down one by one. As it seemed it was the boy controlling them.
Kiel, however, didn't care. He just was overjoyed with his success. Just as he wanted to get up to celebrate, sudden dizziness and long-time exhaustion overtook him.
[Beep! Energy signature recorded. Deep body scans terminated 9 hours prior to calculation due to maintaining a high energy state. Congratulations to the host on mastering The Force!]
After coming to the inn, although he knew that he may be under observation, he still could not break himself away from exploring what new things occurred within his body. And when his system informed him that maintaining his meditation would allow him to complete his scans early, who could stop him more? So, he locked himself in the darkness to avoid the night gazes and started his experi… exploration. And this was the result…
However, this was not the end. Just as Kiel was about to faint away, his eyes started to radiate a deep crimson light. Kiel was already in a state of suspended animation. However, in this state, he felt like the confines of the room and the door did not exist at all. He felt like he had a 360 degree of everything around him in red. Everything felt like a dream.
And dreams are out of one's control. Kiel felt like his vision and hearing went out of the room and entered the nearby room. He knew it was his aunt's room. But he neither had the will nor the energy to stop himself.
And just like his predictions, he saw his Aunt Ena inside. However, there was someone else there too. But his face was covered by a hood. Kiel became curious to know who his aunt was talking to so late at night. Or was it meant to be a romantic rendezvous?
Just as he wanted to close in to hear their meeting, Kiel heard a line from the hooded man, which took away all his enthusiasm. His eyes became totally blank, his body froze and the smile on his face disappeared completely. His eyes lost their glow, as he stood their lifelessly like a puppet.
"Derek is Dead!" The words in themselves were so shocking to Kiel that he just stiffened up. But before he could ascertain everything, he saw the hooded man stare at his direction. Kiel felt a heavy pressure bore down on him and his already faint consciousness faded away instantly.
[Beep… recorded the partial awakening of the First Stage of Samsara! Calculating the early awakening of the gift.
Result: Stimulation of the surrounding high-intensity energy. Recording down the energy signature into the log.]
[Beep… Unknown interference detected. Launching a defensive mechanism…
Beep… Override code activated. Shutting down defences. Deleting records of the activation of the gift.]
…
Somewhere in the unknown nowhere beside a huge black gate, a wisp of white light was glowing dimly
"OH, the gift activated even faster than expected. Interesting… However, I can see something interesting up ahead. So let's keep the gift for the surprise moment. Hehehe! Will you be able to use it adequately to pass the challenge?
.
.
.
I wonder what will happen to someone who is not bound by the casualty? Can't wait to see it!"
If a wisp could grin, a cod chilling grin could be witnessed.
***
Waking up in the morning, Kiel felt like he had a very strange dream where he heard about his father's death. His heart chilled down thinking it but realising it was just a dream and he should not bother talking about such ominous stuff, Kiel threw it to the back of his mind.
"BYE, Aunt Ena!"
"Bye, little Kiel. Take care of yourself on the way. When you reach home, say hi to your mom from me."
"Hmm. I will. Take care of yourself too aunt Ena!"
Today was the day Kiel would be starting his journey home. His long vacation in the city was completed and it was time to return home.
Although he didn't get to have an element, Kiel didn't mind. After all, he spent his whole life without one once. But it was needless to say he was disappointed by the result.
And surprisingly his aunt also didn't seem to mind it much. She just told him to keep working hard and maybe in the future, he could get his chance, which was quite odd. After all, there was a famous quote here 'every mortal awakens once'. But asking his aunt about it was also not much of a help, as she would always smile and feign ignorance. It loomed like there was a lot to know more.
But the strangest thing was Aunt Ena didn't seem so simple now. She seemed to know some things more than what she usually showed herself.
And furthermore, now that he gained elemental sight, a dense cyan coloured fog seemed to be surrounding her. But that was not all. Kiel could even feel a swift razor-sharp pressure from her, which was odd too, although it was very light.
'Odd everything is odd now'
She seemed to be much more under the surface than above. Of course, no one would suspect Kiel having gained elemental sight just the day of the awakening itself as only peak Inceptor mages gain that ability after fully incorporating the mana within themselves.
After all elemental sight is when people can visualize the mana in the environment via their eyes. Well, obviously it was restricted to seeing one's own elements. You can't see anything else that you can't understand right? But they can feel others mana, without the element though.
It was like how everyone knows there are more colours than the seven original life colours of VIBGYOR, but our brain has no way of defining those colours. So even if we see something that has this made of let say ultraviolet colour, all we can see is the seven colours. Everything else is invisible. But you may touch it to feel its shape and size, and may even smell it. It's the same feeling.
So even if aunt Ena was an expert, she would just notice Kiel having great potential. Nothing more to doubt. But let's keep Kiel's element for another story and continue with this one.
Seeing his aunt's antics, Kiel smiled as brightly as he could to assure her. But as he wanted to take his leave, Awenasa hugged him tightly. That would have been a warm hug if not for the whispering of his aunt.
"Remember little one not to disclose anything to your mom. What happened to your dad is an accident. Your mom won't be able to take it."
"Wh-what do you mean by that aunt Ena?" This time Kiel was astounded to hear these from his Aunt. Stuttering as he failed to interpret what she was talking about, Kiel had question marks all over his eyes.
But Ena just winked once and smiled at him implying him to answer. Seeing such behaviour from his aunt, he knew he would get no more answers. So he just nodded at her. 'Maybe aunt is referring to the current rumours of the prison? Hmm… mom will definitely overreact. So I will not tell her'
"Don't worry aunt. I know what to do." Kiel strongly ascertained her.
'Hehe… I am mentally older than you aunt. How could he not know what to do!'
"OK go on now. Remember you will be taking a detour from Wallert city. So stay safe. And get the Inmate spells that you want from there. Wallert is the most experienced in producing Spell-glyphs. You can find all kinds of spell glyphs there" She then removed Kiel from her clutches, tousled his hair a little and let him move out to the caravans ahead.
"Hmm. I will. Bye," Kiel looked at the city once more as he bade his farewell to his aunt.
Boarding on a medium-sized caravan was the start of his journey back. However, what he missed the determined glint in his aunt's eyes staring at his back, as he made his way out of the city gate.
The caravan was driven by a pair of Ferghana Horses. This type of horse was a tamed level 1 beast of this world and was known for its high endurance and stamina capacity, very useful for long-distance travels. But it was mostly used by the wealthy. Looks like Aunt is rich as always.
Although Kiel was travelling alone this time too, unlike his visit to Raii, this time on his way back he had two big bags with him, filled with many appliances. Kiel also had his usual katana on him too. But it was on his back this time. His hands were full with the two bags. Although the bags were a bit heavy, Kiel was baptised by mana just a while ago. His strength reached a new limit now. So he didn't affect him much. Kiel just sat quietly in his place without any disturbance. Moreover, he was excited to soon return home to see his family and master, but before that, he needed to buy a few materials, and also buy a few spell-glyphs.
There were three caravans in the front. The one in which Kiel was, was actually in the back. The front caravan was so decorated so lavishly and had such a long guarding crew that you could tell that it carried some VIPs. The ones in the middle also had their own guards guarding them. The one in which he was on, was, however, rather ordinary compared to the others. Well, it still was made from good materials. Although he didn't know much about them.
'It seems that I'm just tagging on…'
Soon the wait finished as the caravans began to move. Many among the people travelling in the carriage wore high-end dresses. Seeing him as a low-class child whose clothes were just regular ones, many distanced themselves from him.
Kiel was also happy about others getting away from him. He could be alone now and most importantly be more cautious about whether there would be anyone tailing him.
There may be some spies tailing him inside the caravan. Or maybe yesterday night they were conserving him. Last night Kiel stayed in darkness to cover for his tail. So this time also he didn't want to give anyone any chance to get any dirt over him.
Kiel didn't mind showing a little of his strengths, but he knew that giving out one's secrets was the work of a fool. If he gave it enough time, people may also forget about him and then he could make his comeback.
Kiel also wanted to ask his system some questions. So he just closed his eyes, cause if anyone saw him talking to himself they would think that he was an idiot.
'System show my stats'
When Kiel woke up this morning, the system informed him that his in-depth body scan was completed and he could view the results. But Kiel had no time to check it before. And there were a lot of things he wanted to ask his scls94. And now seemed to be a good time to converse with it.
[ Initializing stats…
Personal Information
Name: Kiel Dmitriev
Race: Human
Age: 05
Statistics
Level:0
Attribute: ??
Strength: 10
Agility: 13
Vitality: 15
Intelligence:??
Energy Available for use:
Mana: External world energy
Life energy: Inner biological energy
Chakra (specifications unknown)
Acquired Skills:
Initial sword mastery
Initial bow mastery
Mana Manipulation (LVL 1)
Life energy Manipulation (LVL 2)
Innate skills:
Seven stages of samsara (LVL 0)
The Force (LVL cannot be calculated. Unknown Innate skill)
Spells:
Elemental sight
Kp(Knowledge points): 0
Bloodline Composition:
78% Neo human Heritage
16% Three-eyed Demon Heritage (Degraded)
5% Reptilian Heritage (Deteriorated)
1% various other unascertained bloodline heritages too small to be measured.
Remarks: Host is rather lucky to contain three types of energy within himself!]
'So I'm a hybrid'
Kiel was excited to see his stats in a game like a manner. But the last bloodline composition totally extinguished his enthusiasm. Imagine someone in your ancestral family copulating with a lion! And within you lies the blood of a lion. And you heard it from your family today. Yes sounds cool, but in reality, doesn't it feel kinda… disturbing! That's what he was feeling now and there was a demon term there too.
Kiel was previously from a world where only purebred humans lived. So such things we're a little too much too handle.
[Host does not need to be discouraged. There are approximately 268 humanoid races currently on this planet. So mixed breeding is not something uncommon here. And you even have more than 70% purity of the previous homo sapien species. People are called humans even if they have just 50% pure human blood.]
'I am not a racist you know!'