Zalan felt himself have a splitting headache once he opened his eyes. Despite it, he was feeling somewhere between ecstatic and peeved. Ready to tackle the challenge of using the first motion in combat and annoyed at the fact that no one is able to answer his questions, all of a sudden the dull knife in his hand seemed to house unlimited potential as Zalan looked down with great expectations for its performance.
However before he began anything else, Zalan had to check something important. Re-emerging inside his consciousness space, Zalan was not surprised to see himself standing within the garden again. The surrounding lush plants guarding the default spawn area greeted Zalan as he remerged. But Zalan wasn't interested in the variety of fauna that developed around him in this instance, he was trying to get back to the training area.
'Maybe Ill get back if I think about it' Zalan thought before opening the interface in front of him.
'Show me Icarus's swordsmanship' Zalan commanded. Expecting to be transported back to the grey training area, Zalan was disappointed when the scenery around him didn't budge. On the contrary, the interface even zapped him as if telling him that he couldn't go back until he mastered the first motion.
With a pained moan, Zalan clutched his forehead with his hand to sooth himself. Apparently the interface was very strict in what information to be conveyed to Zalan. Not wanting to received any more shocks, Zalan could only curse his luck.
'I should have stayed there longer if I knew I could go back. Zalan thought with a scowl. But the darkened look on his face quickly dissipated when something popped into Zalan's mind.
'Tell me about my consciousness space' Zalan directed to the glowing screen in front of him.
Zap!
"COME ON!"
What was this screens problem? Couldn't it convey to him the information was forbidden rather than zap his mind?
Of course Zalan was determined to understand everything there was to his situation and eventually the previous lives he has lived. Although he didn't know if the information will forever taint his viewpoints on the world negatively, it couldn't be helped because only when he had all the information could he make some decisions. But it did still worry him that 'major calamity' was his description given by the interface.
Temporarily holding his hand over his head to sooth the stinging, Zalan cursed at the screen before turning it off and returning back to the cave.
'Ugh. How long has passed?' Zalan wondered glancing around.
It was impossible to tell the time given the room didn't have any clocks and Zalan didn't posses a fancy wrist watch like his parents did. Although it felt like a long time has passed from his training inside the consciousness space, Zalan didn't know if time moved the same in both worlds. In theory it should, but just in case any side was faster, Zalan wanted to know to use it to his advantage if there was a time difference.
"I should head upstairs to check" Zalan muttered to himself before making his way to the stairs. Placing his hand on the interior of the wall where the door was located, Zalan patiently waited as the black door slid open and revealed the stair case leading up to the reading room.
Upon doing so Zalan noticed a fairly important problem. The key pad that opened the reading room doors was still out of reach. Zalan could only make a deadpan face at this sight before looking at the books lined neatly on the shelves in annoyance.
"Here we go again!" he said before proceeding to make stairs again. But before doing so, a brilliant idea popped into his mind. Why not use one of the daggers as an extension of his arm?
Cursing himself for being so dumb, Zalan promptly dashed back into training cave and grabbed one of the weapons lying on the side. Upon reaching the door again, Zalan carefully used the dagger to input the code. However before Zalan could input anything, Zalan's other hand pressed against the door for support.
Suddenly a gust of wind blew inside as the sliding doors opened instantly and revealed a neatly kept reading room with a child standing in the doorway screaming with fury.
"WHY IS THERE A KEYPAD WHEN THERE ARE BIOMETRIC SCANNERS?!" Zalan yelled and cursed. But he abruptly stopped when multiple voices could be heard on the other side of the door at the end of the hallway. Quickly concealing his Aura, an ominous sensation quickly flooded Zalan.
"Is there something behind this wall?" A raspy voice said as he gave the wall a couple of knocks.
"I fucking swear I heard someone screaming in there." The man said before releasing his mental waves to scan the area and sense for any signature of a living being present. Luckily for Zalan, like the man in the consciousness space, the waves couldn't sense Zalan. Effectively keeping Zalan hidden. But this time, rather than bouncing off, the waves felt like it only passed through instead.
After eyeing the wall with a bit of apprehension, the man turned back around to stared at Alex and Amanda kneeling on the ground with an icy stare. The duo paled before answering the man's original question.
"Our son is an unawakened" Amanda stuttered in fear.
How could she not? A cohort of tier 4 men suddenly burst into their house wearing suits bearing Vermont clan crest and carried briefcases. And now, Alex and Amanda were being interrogated.
"Where is he?" the leader asked.
Smoking a cigarette with an ashen coloured fedora on top of his bald head, he didn't look nice even in the slightest. Not to mention, his scar-riddled face didn't even make the other three men feel safe, let alone Alex and Amanda. The leader was the archetype of an underground boss.
"I'm here" Zalan spoke with softly.
What surprised Zalan the most was the silence of the door that led to the reading room. It smoothly slid out making even tier 4 awakeners unaware of its existence.
Zalan didn't mind revealing the hidden hallway, but was pleasantly surprised when none of them noticed. Luckily, all four of the fearsome folks were standing with their back towards the wall. The door shut as quickly as it opened.
The leader eyed Zalan up and down before sighing in annoyance.
"Those fuckers are now getting us to do shit like this" he spat out clearly displaying his row of yellow teeth.
"What the fuck is the Vermont clan doing making us investigate this little shit!". The leader continued, now infuriated but keeping his piercing gaze on Zalan. Shivers started running down Zalan's back again before the man turned back around.
"Let us inspect him and get it over with" he said while one man opened his brief-case and set it down on the table in front of them.
Inside was a panel of sorts that had a sensor on one side and a holographic screen on the other. The leader started to fiddle with the machine as the other three stood there on watch duty.
"Bring him over!" he commanded and the burly guy picked Zalan up and placed him right next to the sensor.
'Are they trying to see if I'm an awakened?' Zalan thought with worry filling his eyes. Wondering how the Vermont clan knew about this, he turned to see his parents. Both having widened eyes and crest-fallen faces as if they already knew they were about to lose him. Amanda even started crying. Evident from the stains on the carpet along with her reddened eyes.
But before they tested Zalan, the leader put his own hand on scanner. After a few seconds, on the screen beside him, it read:
{Current Tier: 4
Potential Tier: 6
Affinities: [Fire]}
The man nodded before gesturing to the others.
"Hurry up you sack of shit, place him on the scanner!" the leader yelled out.
Clearly impatient, the burly man did as he was told and hastily place Zalan's hand right where the leader's has been earlier.
Even if he could conceal his core, the machine would be able to identify the presence of one due to the Vis circulating his body. Knowing this from doing the same thing in his previous life on Earth, beads of sweat dripped down Zalan's head as he imagined the new life he was going to live away from Alex and Amanda. One of more pain and slavery to some higher power. Again.
Zalan didn't have time to say good bye or anything since they would probably immediately take him away if they found out.
The room was deathly silent aside from the rhythmic tapping of the leader's fingers along the side the case and Amanda's soft sniffles. However it was soon interrupted by a noise made by the machine indicating that it's scanning was done. As the results displayed on the screen, a dark smile appeared on the henchman's face following Zalan's eyes widening in horror.