As the chirping of birds filled the open window, the warm, soft sunlight enveloped Cale's body as he slept in bed. Cale blinked his eyes open as a warm breeze blew across his face. He shook himself out of his slumber and sat up with the energy enveloping his body.
When he found himself at home, he looked around in confusion. His hand went to his throat as memories flooded his mind. When he felt the smooth skin, he questioned whether what he was experiencing was a dream.
''Was it all a dream?'' he said and frowned.
When he got up from his bed, he saw his bloody hand on the table. Cale approached the table with surprise and fear. His eyes widened when he saw his own bracelet on the cut hand. When he lifted his right arm, it was as if his hand had never been cut.
There was what looked like a black stitch mark on his arm. Cale went to the sink to look at himself in the mirror. In addition to his bloody mouth and clothes, he saw the same mark on his throat as on his arm.
"I was supposed to have died last night," he muttered in confusion.
Why?
Cale couldn't understand it. If what happened last night was real, he didn't understand how he could have survived, or how he could have grown a new one to replace the severed limb. If what happened yesterday was real, how could he have gotten back home? He was in the forest when he lost consciousness.
No matter how hard Cale pushed himself, he couldn't remember anything more about last night. As he looked at himself in the mirror, his eyes fell on the amethyst earring dangling from his left ear.
''What is this?''
He touched the earring. Him eyes widened when he saw that the earring had replaced the earlier black earring.
''Or is the seal broken? But then...'' Cale remembered seeing this earring yesterday when that man took it out of the box. "Then I should have died of chaos energy. I wonder if I'm alive because of this earring?''
Cale took the earring out of his ear to test something. But when the chaos energy suddenly surged out of his body and black veins covered his right hand, Cale put the earring back in his ear. The chaos energy disappeared and entered his body as if nothing had happened.
''I understand that this artifact balances the chaos energy in my body. My throat and arm must have healed from the chaos energy.'' With the blue screen in front of him, he understood his situation more clearly.
-----Status-----
Name: Cale Rayne
Age: 15
Rank: G
Power: F-
Agility: G-
Endurance: F
Intelligence: E-
Mana Capacity: G-
Charm: F+
Luck: E
[-Skills-]
---> Unlimited Void (Level ???) Lvl 1 [Active Skill]
It is a skill that allows a person to defend and attack without using weapons. As long as a person uses this skill, no attack can penetrate him/her and when he/she attacks, the other side carries absolute defeat.
--> Mirror World (Level SSS--> Rank D+) [Active Skill]
The mirror world is a subspace of the universe in which the person exists. There, the person is in complete control and time flows faster than in the normal world.
--> Monarch Aura (Level ???--> Sealed) [Passive]
The person makes even those two ranks above him/her fear him/her as if he/she were a ruler and make them want to obey his/her orders.
---------------
''Indeed, the seal has been opened,'' he said and closed his eyes. He tried to feel the mana energy inside him, but all he could feel was chaos energy.
''My skills are also strange... When the main character of the book awakened his powers, it was written that he was a swordsman. Or when other characters are mentioned, I remember them using a weapon, but I don't have anything like that.''
''I have three skills, one of which is sealed, and they are all quite powerful,'' he muttered, looking at the top skill again. ''Limitless Void... This is undoubtedly the most frightening and powerful skill. Even at lvl 1, my understanding is insufficient.''
''Hah... For now, let's take a bath first'' Cale said as he took off his bloody clothes and threw them into the black garbage bag.
He stayed under the water for more than an hour, washing off the blood with the hot water. After putting on a pair of black sweatpants and a white t-shirt, he returned to the living room. Cale picked up the tablet on his desk to see if there was anything from last night.
Cale frowned at the news he saw when he saw today's current news. He opened several news articles, but all he saw was the news that Edward Xavier and all the hunters belonging to the Green Claw Guild on Deshmar were dead. Cale clicked on a news channel.
- Edward Xavier, brother of Eric Xavier, Master of the Green Claw Guild, was found dead in his home at six o'clock this morning. The fact that all the hunters guarding Edward Xavier's home are also dead suggests that this was an assassination attempt, but the Green Claw Guild remains silent on the matter.
Cale opens another channel and sees the man he saw last night next to Edward's picture. Dan Suzak was the son of Markus Suzak, one of the eleven elite families, and the news that the heir to the Suzak family was dead.
The news of Dan Suzak's death was more eventful than Edward's. The death of the heir of one of the elite families had galvanized the other families.
- It is a tragedy for us that Dan Suzak, the genius of the Suzak family, sets out to hunt the S-level monster that threatens their territory outside of human space, but even if he kills the monster, he and his team lose their lives.
Cale smiled wryly at the announcer's words. He knew best that this news was a lie told to the people in order not to spoil the image of the Suzak family.
''So that's how you closed the case...''
Cale looked at the other news stories and saw that they were no different, so he closed the tablet again. His eyes fell on the bloody hand still on the table and the black garbage bag on the wall. He took another garbage bag from the kitchen cupboard and put his hand in it.
He cleaned the traces of blood on the table with cleaning materials and put them in the garbage bag too. He was going to burn what was in the garbage bag at night. He took a backpack out of his closet and stuffed a few pieces of clothing and belongings into it.
Since his powers were no longer sealed, he was thinking of joining the Hoop Academy in Armageddon to strengthen himself. At first he felt stupid for giving up his powers in favor of a peaceful life.
Cale did not want to go through the pain and despair of last night again in his life. So he planned to go to the most prestigious academy in the human field. He no longer cared about the possibility of meeting the main characters of the story there.
Until last night he still thought he was in the world of a novel, but death had opened his eyes. This was the real world and he needed to get stronger to survive. He was not the babysitter of the main characters. So no matter how this story unfolded, he intended to go him own way.
Cale clicked on his employee ID and applied to quit his job. After stating his reasons in his application, he was done with the Green Claw Guild when his salary for the day he worked was paid.
He left knowing that it was not strange for him to quit since Edward's death had caused the Green Claw Guild's stock to plummet. Otherwise, him quitting after Edward's death would have been reason enough for them to come after him.
His next step was to call the landlord to inform him that he was leaving. Cale had spent the rest of the evening taking all sorts of steps to make sure he was coming and to take precautions so they wouldn't come after him. Finally, he had made an appointment with the Union to determine his rank to attend the Hoop Academy.
When he went to the unit, his rank was determined by measuring the mana in his body. In this way the person knew how far they would progress.
The ranks went from G to SSS and within each rank there were beginner, intermediate and advanced levels.
For example, if a hunter touched the mana orb and his rank was set to D+, he could start at G- and progress to D+. No one ever managed to cross the limit set for them.
People were fighting monsters in dungeons and chaos outside.
Rank, therefore, determined each person's status among the people.
When Cale left home at eight in the evening, he gave the key to his apartment to the building manager and left. Armed with a black garbage bag, he went to a slum on the outskirts of the city. There he passed through the drunks and beggars and found a quiet place. He threw the bag into the garbage container.
He poured the bottle of liquor he had taken from a drunkard on top of the bag to make the fire easier to start. When he took a lighter out of his pocket and threw it into the container, it instantly caught fire. Cale didn't leave until everything in the flames disappeared.
When the flames were out and he was sure that there was nothing left, he left and went to the train station. Cale bought a ticket at the ticket office. He felt relieved when he stepped inside the train and took his seat by the window.
- Dear passengers, our train is heading towards the city of Armageddon. Please take your seats. Have a pleasant journey!
The doors closed after the male voice echoed inside the train. When the train lifted off the platform and left, Cale had closed the doors of his old life and charted a new path for himself.