* 1 week prior

"We have news that several people outside of the zones have been afflicted with the awakeners disease. Experts say that the earth is changing fast, and people should be aware." Dariel gets up to turn it off. He and his father live in a place where such news is almost unheard of. Most of the residents believe that these awakenings are just myths or propaganda by the news companies.

"Dariel, why did you turn it off?" his father He put down his fork and looked confused as to why Dariel hated the news so much.

"You know it's fake; I've never seen it, so why should I believe it?" Dariel sighed. "Everyone else tells me that such things are not true."

"The reporter had four eyes; did you notice that?" Dariel's father tried convincing him.

"It's cgi." Dariel didn't even glance at his father.

"Dariel, what about your mother?" Dariel quickly stood up and looked at his father.

"She... I've never seen her anyway. You always say the same thing."

They both spoke at the same time. "She was a hero for everyone in this village," Dariel continued.It's just another lie; I'm sick of the lies! She never did anything like that."

Dariel's dad looked upset. He seemed like he had something to say, but he wouldn't say it. He was left with one option, but it was time anyway: "Dariel, you need to leave; I won't have you disrespecting your mother."

Dariel took a step back. "What do you mean leave?"

"Leave this town. I think you should go and see for yourself how beautiful the world really is."

His father walked him out of the door. Dariel was speechless. He had officially been kicked out. He was clueless as to why his father was so strict today of all days. This was his fault, though, so he just went with it.

"Bye dad. I love you." Dariel said before walking off. His dad was visibly crying his eyes out. Dariel had no clue what his father had been fighting this whole time. He kept walking towards nowhere

"I gotta leave town..." Dariel thought for a moment, "Do I really have to leave though? Can't I just live on the other side of town?"

A man and woman pulled up in a car, and Dariel recognized the two as their noisy neighbors.

"Phil pleaded with us to take you to Dawn City, so you should come along now. We don't have much time."

Dariel had no way to escape the two. They were the nicest neighbors you could ask for. He understood that he was meant to leave from the beginning; his father usually had a hands-off approach to things like this, and a bird has to leave the nest.

"Alright, alright." Dariel got in their minivan and quickly got comfortable in the back. They were a very trusted couple in his eyes.

"Can you scoot over?" Dariel looked over to see a short girl with straight red hair. She had a stunned face as he made room for her, and she put her legs up in the empty space. Dariel found it rude but didn't comment on it.

"Dariel," Phil said from the front," This trip is going to take awhile, so get comfortable. "

"How far is Dawn City anyway?"

"It's around a 24-hour drive." Phil grabbed a soda from a cooler between his and his wife's seats.

"Help yourself."

Dariel grabbed some water, and the girl grabbed some as well. He had an ominous feeling when interacting with her. The car ride was going to be a pain in his neck.

*20 hours to go

Dariel leaned forward to whisper to Phil, "What's her name?"

"Oh, my wife's name is Tilda." Phil responded.

Dariel shook his head, "I meant he-"

He had his mouth covered, and he was pulled away from Phil. The girl with red hair seemed like she wasn't supposed to be there.

"Shh, they don't know I'm here. I don't know how you didn't notice until now, but please refrain from speaking." The girl did stick out with her red hair, but the adults didn't notice her at all.

"Okay, but can you not get so close? It makes me uncomfortable."

The girl moved back to where she was and sat down. She sighed and started staring out the window. Dariel laid his head back and went to sleep.

*12 hours to go

Dariel heard a female voice and woke up; it was just the couple talking about random stuff. He noticed that his leg was being used as a pillow but didn't want to wake her up.

He began playing games on his phone to pass the time; they had another 12 hours to go.

Suddenly, the car stopped and made everyone slam their heads. Phil looked back at Dariel and asked, "Are you okay? We almost hit that deer in the road."

"Yeah, It's all good back here." Dariel looked down and saw the red-haired girl on the verge of crying. She had fallen and hit her head on the cooler, but she seemed relatively alright.

Dariel whispered to the girl, "Are you okay?"

She put a thumb up and climbed back into the seat.

Phil turned off the engine and decided that they should take a breather outside for a bit. Dariel got out of the car and stretched for a bit. He walked around to the front of the car, and they all looked at the sunset. Phil and Tilda looked like they were planning some kind of prank. It was a little too late for Dariel to respond.

"You two have fun for us." The two of them were nudged by the couple, and in a split second, the environment changed. It went from sunset to sunrise, and the trees became tall buildings.

They arrived in Dawn City.

Dariel was shocked to see crowds of people with pointy ears, with some of them having horns. Others had wings or had multiple eyes. It looked like a Halloween party. He didn't believe his eyes

The girl looked frightened at the sight of so many people and clung to Dariel like glue.At the same time, a tall girl with glasses on walked up to the two of them and smiled.

"Welcome to Dawn City, the true habitable zone. Would you follow me to be registered in our database?" Dariel followed her through all of the commotion, having no idea what was going on.

They arrived at a counter, where she put a paper down for him to fill out. "You forgot about me."

"Oh dear, I'm sorry! I hadn't noticed you." The lady in glasses handed a paper to her as well. After filling out the papers, Red Hair handed them back. Dariel seemed to be struggling.

"Do you need help?" The red-haired girl leaned to look at what he was struggling to fill out. She was shocked to only find his name and gender. "Are you okay?"

"I don't know what to put in any of these boxes."

"Well, for you, you would mark humans here. For the rest, mark none or unknown if you can't fill it out."

"Where do I put my age?" Dariel asked the glasses girl.

"There's no need... You are considered an adult if you can complete the testing process. If you fail, you will retake it every year until you pass. Don't worry, the test isn't hard for an adult."

Dariel took what she said into consideration: if he failed this test, he would be treated as a kid, even though he is around 19 years old. He quickly asked Red Hair what would be on the test, but she had no clue either.

All of a sudden, he felt a pulse throughout his body, and everyone ushered the both of them to a different room

"Everyone, prepare! They are about to awaken; don't let them get hurt." Dariel was left stumped, but quickly found himself having serious pain in his body. He felt like he was being squished and molded into something else.

The red-haired girl seemed okay and was actually enjoying the refreshing breeze manifesting in the room.

Dariel felt dizzy, and his vision was blurry. He managed to recover, but was heavily breathing afterwards.

Every employee in the building was astonished at how quick the process was for both of them. They all clapped and welcomed the both of them into their city once again.

They both quickly passed the test. Dariel noticed the red-haired girl holding her stomach, and a loud growl could be heard across the room. He didn't think much of it

Dariel asked around and was informed of what had transpired. In this world, the habitable zones are places for people to live and possibly awaken, but the cost is a random curse that hinders your life. Not everyone here was human, and humans were fairly uncommon around here.

People in Dawn City have many opportunities, and many became adventurers because many of these abilities shone during combat against monsters. After awakening, people grew stronger by either slaying monsters or adventuring to new zones for the chance to awaken once again. Of course, adventuring to new and unexplored zones can be quicker than strengthening your current abilities, but it is more dangerous.

The reason the employees were evacuated was to make sure they didn't get a terrible curse. There could've been a disaster if measures weren't taken.

There was currently no way to tell exactly what curse someone had until it went into effect, but when awakening, only the person who awakened their ability knew how it worked. It also turns out that awakening with multiple abilities was more common than with one.

The most common types of abilities to awaken were as follows:

Qi, Mana, Aura, and Instinct.

These abilities vary greatly from person to person, but they were easily split into these categories.

Dariel had awakened an ability that caused his blood to have a strengthening and healing effect. His body could heal quicker as well. It wasn't anything to brag about. His curse, on the other hand, caused his body to ache. His nose also started hurting really bad.

Everyone was glaring at Dariel with a strange look in their eyes. He felt anxious, and he knew everything could go wrong in a second. He had a bloody nose, and his heart felt like it was struggling to pump any blood. He had an excess of blood that was putting stress on his body, and the scent of his blood was alluringly sweet. He received some tissues from the city workers and eventually managed to stop the bleeding.

"We welcome Dariel Morrigan and Kilia Alicante to our city!" The two of them had a long day, to say the least.

"So your name is Kilia?" Dariel was making conversation to pass the time.

"Yes, and I'm sorry for clinging onto you back there." Kilia sincerely apologized because Dariel had complained earlier about it.

"No worries; you seemed scared of the crowd, so I can deal with that much."

"Thank you; I don't like that there are so many people. I want to make friends, but I'm basically undetectable if I don't speak up."

Kilia and Dariel received a free pass to live in the apartments for 1 week before they had to start paying for it. The city gave them a list of companies accepting new employees and a place to capture and hunt monsters if the jobs around the city weren't to their liking.

Dariel felt concerned that they were both being thrust into an entirely new place with no time to adapt. He was especially concerned about Kilia.

"We can be friends. You're the person I'm most familiar with here anyway." Dariel reached his hand out for a handshake. He was left hanging.

"Thank you," Kilia said before they went into their respective apartments. Kilia held on to her stomach as it growled one last time.

Dariel walked into his apartment, and his vision got blurry again, like before. His heart began pumping blood harder before his nose began bleeding again. After a few minutes, he cleaned the blood off his face and went to bed. He decided to visit the doctor in the morning.