A completely unconsatous young red-haired boy lay in a hospital room in the lower end of a city.
The boy was connected to dozens of machines each giving readings on his current state.
The door to the hospital room opened and a man in his early thirties walked inside along with a young woman.
The man was wearing a crystalline white, lab coat with a blue surgical mask that covered most of his face.
The man had gentle eyes that were accentuated by his thick glasses. His demeanor and attire made it obvious that he was a doctor.
Behind him, was a young woman dressed head to toe in scrubs. A nurse.
The doctor looked at the red-haired youth on the bed then turned back to the nurse and asked
"How's he doing?"
The nurse seemingly prepared for his questions answered promptly
"Much better, his fever has started calming down, his muscle spasms have decreased, and his mana has begun to stabilize."
Walking up to the bed he asked another question
"How long until he wakes up?"
"I would estimate around 3-4 hours."
"Let me see the file."
"Yes, doctor."
The nurse walked up to the young doctor and handed him a clipboard. The Doctor grabbed it, adjusted his glasses, and read.
Name: Abel Vulcan
Race: Human
Gender: M
Age: 186 months (15.5 years)
Height: 6'0
Weight: 132 pounds
Skin Color: White
Hair Color: Blood Red
Eye color: Ocean blue
Status: Orphan
Rank: 1 (Foundation realm)
"Is this all the information we have? No family or background information"
"Well we did get some but it was sparse."
The doctor looked at the nurse then back down at the clipboard and sighed.
"I don't know if this kid is extremely lucky or unlucky." The doctor sympathized with the boy, "To be forcefully awakened at this late an age is essentially a guarantee of poor potential"
The young doctor moved his gaze from the clipboard to the youth on the bed. Then gave a bittersweet smile.
"Well, it's not all bad. After all, In this world, it's better to be a weak superhuman than a strong human, and he's young enough to attend school to get some proper training."
The nurse smiled naively at the doctor's optimism, "I concur Doctor."
He looked back down at the file. Confused, the doctor turned toward the nurse.
"Wait, If he's an orphan, then who brought him in?"
"It was an older gentleman who seemed to barely know the boy. All he knew was his name. He couldn't give any useful information on his background or medical history." The nurse started to get a little annoyed.
The doctor listened to the nurse with interest and giggled slightly at her annoyance.
"Alright, since he's going to wake up in a couple of hours, I'll talk to him then."
The doctor gave the clipboard back to the nurse. Walked out of the room and left the boy to his rest.
...
The first thing that I saw when I woke up was an unfamiliar ceiling. Still kind of groggy, it took me some time to register that I wasn't in the old broken-down house I was used to.
After a couple of seconds, I shot up in shock. Which I immediately regretted.
"F*CK!!!"
My whole body cried out in pain.
After taking a couple of seconds to recover I began slowly easing my body into a more comfortable position. Laying back down I slowly started to remember everything that happened. Once I put the pieces together and recalled those strange visions my entire body shivered.
'What the fuck was that. That couldn't have been an illusion. I-It felt so real!'
It took me a little while to calm down. The whole experience really rattled me, but that's not all it did it also helped me realize something.
I looked down at my hand as I closed and opened it. Remembering my loud declaration to those bastards and all the things I said I would do. I clenched my fist as hard as I could with his newfound strength.
'I meant every word. I will not back down anymore! With my newfound strength, I'm going to do whatever it takes to survive!' Looking up from my hands, my gaze turned cold as I reflected on everyone who stood in my way and knocked me down. "If anyone gets in my way again, I'll do to them what I did to those Illusions.'
With newfound conviction, I started to re-examine my surroundings. And noticed that I was in some sort of Doctors office.
"Joe and Philip must have brought me here."
Recalling those two old men my heart started to soften again and I started to feel a little bad.
'If only the ring didn't activate then maybe they could have finished the- WAIT SHIT THE RING!'
Suddenly remembering the whole reason I got into this mess I slowly and anxiously moved my hand in front of my face where I confirmed the terrifying ring of death was still there. Something was different about it though.
The top section of the ring was glowing. Touching the glowing part, a screen popped up in front of me.
The screen seemed to be filled with a bunch of backlog messages.
{[Commencing Soul-Fusion protocol]}
{[Compatible soul detected...…..preparing dimensional gateway]}
{[Beginning Fusion process]}
{[Fusion successful!….. Congratulations!]}
{[Beginning Soul synchronization... Estimated time 24 hours]}
{[0%]}
[Current synchronization percentage... 97%]
[End of messages]
Confused more than anything I just closed it.
"What the Hell is going on?"
*Knock*Knock*
Turning my head I could see someone opening the door.
It was a middle-aged man in a lab coat.
Seeing I was awake he walked up to the bed, grabbed a chair, and sat down.
"Good morning Abel, my name is Doctor Samuel. Before we begin I felt that I should let you know that you've been unconscious for almost two days now."
Seeing my lack of reaction he gets a little uncomfortable but that doesn't last for long.
"Do you mind if I ask you some questions?"
"Go ahead."
"Great. Alright first off how are you feeling? Any pain or aching anywhere?"
Doing a quick internal scan of my body I found the biggest problem areas.
"Everywhere. My head and chest especially."
Grabbing a pen and a clipboard he started writing.
"That's normal for someone who's newly awakened. No, what I want to know is if anything unusual has happened to you either physically or mentally."
"Why? Do people normally have unusual things happen when they awaken?"
"Not typically, but yours is a special case. Personally, I've never examined anyone who's been forcefully awakened before."
"Are there any side effects to being awakened forcefully?"
The Doctor looked a little reluctant to answer but eventually told me
"Normally yes, There have been cases of trauma, headaches, paranoia, runny nose, liver damage, weakened immune system, and temporary schizophrenia to name a few, but when we examined you there didn't seem to be anything wrong."
Inwardly I let out a huge sigh of relief, but on the outside, I remained calm and collected.
"Am I not suffering any side effects?"
"Well we're not 100% sure, but luckily now that your awake it should be relatively easy to tell by checking the conditions tab"
"Conditions Tab?"
Noticing my confusion he realized his mistake and began to explain
"Sorry, that's my bad. I forgot that most normal humans don't know much about the system. You see, the system is a special privilege that is granted to every being capable of using world energy. Now that your body can house and utilize world energy you can use it."
With a smile on his face and expectation in his eyes, the doctor started egging me on.
"Go on, give it a try."
I became curious and a little excited. As a kid, I used to hear the kids talk about the system all the time, Of course since I had no mana I never really understood what they were talking about. but that all changes today! So I calmed my nerves and whispered in my mind.
'Status'
[Status]
Name: Abel Vulcan
Race: Human
Age: 15 years
Moniker: N/A
——
Rank: 1
Realm: Lower Foundation
Strength: 8
Agility: 7
Endurance: 9
Stamina: 11
Dexterity: 6
Intelligence: 7
——
Mana Core: Red
Affinity: Fire
——
Ability: Overheat
——
Techniques: N/A
——
Class: Warrior
——
Skills: N/A
——
Condition: Confused, Excited, Motivated, $#%&,
——
"Oh my god"
IT'S REAL! After so many years and so much pain, I finally obtained mana. Seeing the status was confirmed. Confirmation that this wasn't a dream and that I can use mana. I started tearing up a little bit but immediately started pulling myself together.
The doctor, Smiling at my reaction asked me
"What does your condition say?"
Scrolling down to the bottom of the page I answered a little confused.
"Confused, Excited, Motivated, and something else I can't quite read."
Hearing what I said the doctor paused.
"You can't read it? Is it in a different language?"
"No, it doesn't seem to be any kind of language. Just a bunch of symbols."
"Can you write them down?" The doctor asked while handing me a pen and some paper.
"Sure" I took his pencil and wrote them down
The doctor looked at the symbols and turned quiet. He just sat there with a contemplative look on his face. After a minute or two, he let out a defeated sigh.
"Well, I'm stumped. I've never seen anything like this before. At the very least I don't think It's anything life-threatening, but just in case we're going to keep you overnight for observation." The doctor got up from his seat and looked down at me with his best customer service smile "Any other questions?"
"Yeah, a lot. First, What do the numbers next to my stats mean?"
Looking down at me I see his eye twitch a little and his smile starts to stiffen.
"Are you being serious? this is common knowledge."
"I wasn't raised in a common house"
The doctor just stared at me, then let out a sigh and scratched his head.
"Well, The number next to the stat is how proficient you are in that particular area. Rank 1 humans such as yourself have stats that are normally between 1-25. 25 is the considered the peak of the 1st Rank. Anything above that is considered lower Rank 2 "
The fog clouding my mind was cleared. 'So, to get stronger I need to increase my stats first and then eventually increase my rank'
"Seems simple enough."
"Glad you understand"
"Wait, How do I increase my rank?"
"You do that by progressing through the realms of that rank. Each realm is a stepping stone that is meant to help you slowly build up enough strength and mana to push through into the next rank. Rank 1 has three Realms Lower foundation, Foundation, and Higher foundation. The realm you're in right now is Lower foundation the lowest realm of Rank 1. To increase your realm you'll need to channel your mana and strengthen your mana core's color."
"Wait. A Mana core? What's that?"
Sighing again the doctor Reaches down and points at my heart.
"A mana core is a crystal located inside your heart that helps you controls and circulate your mana. Mana is the core of a human's strength. So, if you want to get stronger you need to increase the size and color of your mana core."
after taking a second to digest, all this new info I was getting I asked the most important question
"How do I get stronger faster?"
The doctor was baffled by my question and just gave up
"Look kid, I'm not an expert at that stuff. If you want to know how to get stronger enroll in an academy. You're an Awakener now. I'm sure if you pass the entrance exams they'll let you in."
Standing up the doctor does one final checkup concluding that I'm fine and perfectly healthy he gets ready to leave.
"Well, you seem to be ok, But just to be safe we'll do a few more tests on you before you leave. Anything else?"
He says giving me a 'please no more' look
"No, I got it"
"Great"
Smiling at me, he turned the door handle and left.
Turning back to the status screen I started looking through everything.
'Man I can't believe this is real.'
Getting some time to myself I couldn't help but reflect on everything I've been through.
'I've had some tough times but those all end now, my fate of dying as a trash collector is over. It's time for me to make a name for myself and get stupid rich.'
Just the thought of me showing up to the orphanage in a fancy suit and waving money in my face made me salivate a little.
'But how do I do that?'
A familiar and unemotional voice resounded through the room.
[…..99%]
[…..100%]
[Synchronization complete]