As Kerren opened his eyes he didn't move for another dozen of minutes. His head was empty. He didn't know what to think!
What happened, really? Could he really talk to the tree whenever he wanted? Could he leave the place whenever he wanted? Those questions will be left unanswered, after all, he was now out.
But... it still bothered him! What if he could leave whenever he wanted!? He wouldn't need to suffer for that long! But he wouldn't be whoever he was right now... He wouldn't know as much as he knew now...
Of course, his knowledge was purely theoretical, he didn't have even an ounce of experience in whatever it was! Well, with the exception of mana manipulation... That was the first thing he tried to do as soon as he stood up.
However... He didn't have any mana! He was a normal human now! What mana manipulatin? He couldn't even feel it! Fixing that problem wasn't hard, he only needed to awaken. There were many methods to do so.
One of the simplest ones was getting used to mana, it would naturally enter his body and modify it, if one is worthy of having it - one would, as simple as that. That method, however, required time. Without external help it usually took between a year and five years... usually, that is.
In rare cases one could awaken by touching a mana crystals, usually those who awakened with such a way were special and had great talent. Was Kerren one of them?.. No, he was far from being a genius. He knew a lot, sure, but natural talent could not be obtained by knowing a lot.
Another method of awakening that didn't require that much time, but was... uh... dangerous... was forcibly injecting mana into ones body, and allowing it to do whatever it wanted. Usually though it just killed people, in some cases it made them go into a coma and in ever rarer cases it transformed them into horrible monsters...
Could use that method? Of course! Not only he was familiar with it, as he tried to research it in his previous life, well... it's best i dont talk about it, but he... was not a great person... Killing a few people was not a problem if he achieved his goal, this matter however was... Different, he experimented on critically ill patients, offering them a way to cure themself for a sum of money...
Was it cruel? Somewhat. Did he help even a single person? Uh... I guess... he was showing mercy?.. His research on that matter wasn't successful by any means, but at least he knew how to do that so it wouldn't immediately kill a person... Sometimes it really helped them for a period of that, more than that, one of the people that he experimented had managed to awaken!
So, he had proof that it works, but was worth it? Risking all he had, his second chance... Could he not wait? Well, he couldn't. A lot of time has passed already. He was not the person he once was, if previously he would think carefully about such a thing, now he didn't feel anything even about his own death.
Maybe time will return what it once took, but now... Kerren didn't think about things like life and death. He only wanted power by any cost... Also, about the cost... there's also another method of awakening... it was way worse that the previous two... It required one to... absorb... another person who had great potential.
Sadly... uh... that's not the right word... Thankfully, Kerren didn't know any great people who hadn't awakened yet. His memory wasn't bad, it's just that remembering something that happen such a long time ago was semi-impossible. If that was before he spent his time in the "purgatory", maybe we would've remembered something, but now it was really hard for him to even remember names of his parents.
Even by the time of the event in the facility he didn't have any contact with them for tens of years... Well, let's just say that a little surprise awaits him once he leaves his room. Now, however, he wasn't planning on doing that. As of now, his goal was remembering the basics and figuring out what, who and where he is.
With that, he looked around the room he was in.
-* This place is f*kked. Whoever lived here is dirt poor. -- he concluded. Funny thing is... it was his own room from 30 years ago.
When the Dragon Heart exploded, he was 46 years old. He was old, yes, but that didn't stop him from doing everything he could to gain more power and wealth. Age didn't matter for him as much as it did for other, he had no desires but to be allpowerful. Why? He himself didn't know that, he just wanted it.
As he was wandering around the room, trying to find whatever useful was insdie of it, he came across a door. It was strange, since it wasn't the only door in the room, meaning one of those led outside. Which one? The one he's standing in front of, or the one on the opposite side of it?
Why bother thinking? He opened the door. It was the bathroom. It had a sink, a shower and a mirror. It was all dirty and looked like it was raided by rats every single day. Not only it looked like that, when he opened the door he heard something move. Maybe it was a rat? Well, probably?
At first, he wanted to close door, as nothing interesting could be inside the bathroom. What could he find here? Sh*t in the toilet? Wasn't all that useful. Water? He wasn't thirsty. Medicine? Uh... i guess? But... Kerren didn't know ANYTHING about medicine, why would he? He didn't care about it, in later years every pill became useless as new potion came into being. All-cure potions weren't expensive, ever non-awakened could afford them, he used them whenever he got sick, why bother with pills when you can heal yourself instantly?
But... Something made him think -* How do i look like? Maybe i am finally handsome? -- his wish was unusual, it's not as if he was ugly, he was... normal, i'd say. Why did it bother him now? He wanted to know it simply because if he was pretty - he could use that fact while talking to other people. It was natural that people liked pretty guys more than ugly ones.
For Kerren's surprise - he looked somewhat good. At least compared to what he remembered he looked like back then. He was way younger, almost a kid, he, however, didn't like the color of his hair, he got used to it being white, so he instantly thought of removing it. Thankfully he didn't follow that idea. In reality, his own appearance didn't matter to him, it only mattered when he was talking to other people. If he didn't ever talked to them - why bother how you look like? It's not like u're going to look at yourself every single day, are you?
He then left the bathroom, continue to wander around the room. It was filled with different clothes. Some were new and clean, some were ragged, some looked like literal rags... Whatever this room was - Kerren wasn't happy. If this was his house it meant that it was his new base, it's not like he could sleep outsi... he could. Forget about it. But why would he do that if he had a house?..
With that thought he cleaned the room. Everything he didn't like went straight into "F*kk off" pile that he would throw away, another pile was named "Pretty Princess", those were clothes that were... uh.. strange? They looked girly and given the chance Kerren would burn them, sadly, the only fire-spell he knew was a fireball, it was too big and he could use mana, another one, lighter, could be used to set them to fire, but again, he didn't awaken yet... What choice he had? To burn them using the good old way!
Well, that is if he found something to make fire with... This room he was in had cigarettes, but he couldn't find anything that could produce fire...
Oh, i almost forgot, Kerren wasn't that bad with style, of course he kept most of the clothes, it's just that some of them weren't his thing, the rest were placed to the places they belonged to. A few hours passed. As Kerren was working he tried to remember anything of use from his... previous life, maybe he could use it somehow? If he was in the past, which was possible considering that he didn't find any popular every-day artefacts in the room.
Soon, he searched the whole room. He didn't find anything of use but a few packs of cigarettes, a dead lighter and a knife under his bed. The knife was dull and resembled a kitchen knife, but it's handle was handmade with an ugly design, so he preffered not to use it - while it indeed was a knife - it was too weak, at best he could kill a non-awakened or a low-ranking awakened, which weren't that many.
As he sat on the bed, thinking about his own stuff, he heard a knock on the door, the one he didn't open.
- Sweetie, i know u're angry, but please, try to understand us -- woman's voice ringed in Kerren's ears -- You made too much things for people to forget, we dont have any other choice but to do it... -- from the sound of it she was almost crying.
Kerren didn't care about the woman but he was interested in this body's life. What the hell did he do?
Following that thought he came closer to the door and said - Do what? -- he didn't sound angry and his voice cracked, it was pathetic, but Kerren didn't care about such things.
- Sweetie? -- a woman said worryingly -- The camp, sweetie, you have to choice but to go there, we tried our best but... -- as he was about to continue...
- What camp -- Kerren interrupted.
- It's called "I want to awaken", if you pass it you will have access to lowest rank dungeons and will possibly awaken, by then, you can drop out of school if you dont like it that much... -- she then explained what this camp was exactly, but Kerren didn't listen to that, he thought that this trope was familiar but couldn't understand why...
- When am i going? -- He asked, interrupting the woman again.
- Will you actually go!? -- her voice changed for the first time, it was now somewhat happy, as if she was surprised -- I-it's today, sweetie, people that will take you there will arrive soon, are you... really not going to run away again? -- her previous, concerned and worried voice came back.
- I won't. Tell me when they're here, i will come -- he stated as he walked back to bed.
The woman tried to talk to him, but Kerren didn't care, the only thing that concerned him was familiarity of this trope. he felt that he already knew what was about to happen next, why is that?
He spent several dozen of minutes lying on the bed, thinking about everything that could possibly remember, starting from stories he read when he was bored and continuing with biographies of famous people, but nothing seemed to fit this trope. It bothered him a lot, why is that?
Because it was strange to him. If this body wasn't his, where are it's memories? He couldn't remember anything new. If it wasn't - why couldn't he remember his own life? Did he chose to forget it, or was it simply too long ago?
Thankfully, as time went by Kerren understood more and more. It simply clicked for him at some moment... This body was his own! He came back in time! It was truly a miracle! Of course, Kerren was not happy, he couldn't even remember his mother's name, what about the rest of his younger days!? Did he have friends? Hobbies? What if people noticed that he started behaving different? Will they do something out of suspision?
Possession was not something extremely rare in this world, it was just... rare, i guess, it didn't happen a lot, but it did happen from time to time. What if they thought that Kerren got possessed? After all, he cant prove that he is indeed himself! What to do!?
He decided to not waste any more time on that, he will think of something when the time is right, he couldn't remember anything useful anyway, why bother? Kerren't didn't want to force himself to think of useless things, he wanted to remember major events!
Artefacts? Rare dungeons? Opportunities that were close to this time? Anything would be of use! Even if he couldn't take them for himself - what of it? He will still get a hint from his own mind, if he remembered one thing - he could remember another! As of now, the only thing he could remember was a somewhat major event few years in the future, it wasn't something that he could change or profit from, it was something to run from.
What was it exactly? Well, people of his time called it "Gwaners Wrath". It was a sad story about an ex-convict who escaped prison and was chased by guilds and authorities, was forced to enter a "stale" S class dungeon. What a stale dungeon? Inactive one that didn't react or erupt, but was too dangerous to enter, usually those were guarded and were forgotten, of course, it changed after this incident.
As he entered the dungeon every chaser of his thought that this is the ned of it, and they soon forgot about him. Who would've thougth that three months later he would exit the dungeon and start his rampage? He singlehandedly massacred several high-ranking guilds, killing elites and normal members, not even sparing clercs. He didn't bother to explain the reason behind his rage, whatever he did or how he got his power.
The story ended as tragically as it started. Strongest awakened of the world gathered and killed him, his body was never found, but it was speculated that he was taken to unravel the mystery behind his sudden power-up. Nothing major happened after it, none of those that were gathered to kill Gwaner got any sudden powerups and those who were left interested in this matter soon lost their confidence. They too accepted the fact that he simply was dead.
Why did Kerren remember that? He himself didn't know, he only knew that it happened in three something years from now on. He had a lot of time until that, so he tried to think about something else he could use to make himself stronger. The best he could do now was to enter that camp his... mother told him about. It was far from perfect, but was still useful, his body needed training, but if he didn't like it there - he could simply escape, it wasn't hard to do so. For him, of course.