-3 Months Later-
1 year. That's how long I have been in this world, give or take 1-2 weeks. The reality of it still hasn't quite sunk in yet. At first, it was like a fever dream. Slipping in and out of reality as a newborn. It had only been around the 1-month mark that it had truly started to set it.
Awakening had given newfound clarity to my mind. It was then that I started to comprehend my situation, but even now, a year later, I keep thinking that maybe I'll go back. Maybe I'll wake up and this will all be a dream. However, that's not possible. All these feelings and emotion I have had over this past year proves that this can't be a dream.
A big part of that is the power and sharpness Mana gives me. Mana gives me the confidence to say that I know this is real. Mana is something beyond what my mind could have ever come up with, so if it is beyond my brain to dream up and yet I can interact with, that shows this life is real.
On the note of mana, today is the day I will be advancing to the (Gold) realm(hopefully, fingers crossed). I haven't just waited the last 3 months doing nothing. I made sure to use my time wisely and efficiently. I always did the daily quest, cultivated, and read every day. That was the only thing I could do.
I was the youngest person in the manor and couldn't play many games with the adults. The few times I did try playing, I think the adults were suspicious of how good I was. I tried to hide the fact I wasn't normal, but everyone already had a pretty good understanding I was special.
By now I could speak and read fluently. I had had no chance to study writing properly. There was also the fact I walked and talked at 6 months old. My physique was also not helping the issue; I looked almost 2 at 1 year old.
I applied healing every day, probably twice most days. I had unlimited mana for the spells I had. Even if I cast healing every minute, I could go on for hours; that's what 3 million mana did to you.
"Achoo!"
A sneeze suddenly came out of nowhere, breaking me out of my thoughts. It was the maid watching over me. We had just gone in from being outside and the sun was setting. A disease also seemed to be going around.
I was the first one sick being a baby with a terrible immune system. One second thought, I think I was probably the one who transmitted it to the rest of the family. I used healing to get rid of the disease, which it did, albeit slowly.
It then passed on to my father, the maid who had watched over me that day, and my grandmother. After that, it was like the rest of the household got infected immediately. The disease was mostly likely a common cold or flu. It didn't affect the family much, only being a nuisance.
That is what I would have liked to say, but there was one person who it did seriously infect. All the others had flushed out the disease with magic, but for some reason, it didn't work on my mother.
I didn't know if she was just especially perceptible or still recovering from Noah's death, but it hit her like a truck. She was puking and retching in the bathrooms most mornings and would lie in bed or in her office all day.
She was a (Dark-Lime) nevertheless, and I wasn't too worried. It was getting dark so I focused on getting ready for my breakthrough. I was still sleeping in the crib in my parents' room and had to be careful not to wake them while breaking through.
The thing was that breaking through took a lot of time. It took up to an hour last time to get to (Perfect-Sienna), but I had learned realm breakthroughs could take double if not triple that amount.
It was around midnight right now, so I got started. The process was as strenuous and tedious as always and took all of my energy. It was somewhat comparable to labor, just without the huge amount of pain. It was around 3 hours later that the process started coming to an end.
This was the part I had to be most careful as not only was my mana core especially vulnerable to attack then, but it also shined a bright light that would attract everyone's attention. That was when the worst thing imaginable happened; my mother started stirring.
I had always known this was a possibility, but it still took me by surprise. My core was still compressing and light still shining, but my mother was waking. I had to come up with something fast.
I gathered all the dark and light mana in the air. I then used the little bit of mana I had left to create the circles for both light and dark manipulation. I then activated the magic circles using the mana I gathered.
The light magic dispersed the light coming off me and the dark magic smothered light as to let none of it slip through. I also assumed a natural sleeping position. My mother woke retching and clutching her stomach. She ran to the bathroom with her eyes half awake and turned on the magic light.
She had disappeared from my sight, but I could tell that she was spewing her guts out. The sickness was seriously getting out of hand. My breakthrough had finished at this point, so I began drawing in mana, 500 an attempt(250 a second). After gathering the necessary mana I healed my mother.
She wouldn't notice it much, but it would slightly alleviate her symptoms and help her heal sooner. I decided to help her out whenever I could by using heal, it would also help me train magic. I was still far from being able to practice outside by myself.
'Congratulations Alex, you have reached the Gold realm! As with before this comes with a few changes.
1. Now your mana capacity will increase by 1.25 times for every advancement.
2. At the Gold realm, the speed your core gathers mana from the environment will be the same, but instead of needing 2 seconds to compress liquid mana, your core will now need 3 due to the density of the mana increasing. You will get 1 liquid mana every 3 seconds now instead of the previous 2.
3. Due to the density and amount of mana you have, you will now start leaking out a natural aura.
Your advancement rate will be slowed again, Alex, but don't fret I'm sure with hard work and dedication you will be able to get stronger in no time.'
I wasn't too concerned about the cultivation right now, I had a much bigger problem; the aura I emitted. It would be a dead giveaway that not only was I awakened, but also stronger than most others awakened.
'Avery, how do I get rid of the aura?" I hurried.
'Your aura is simply an extension of your body so you can control it as such, just focus.'
I breathed deeply and focused on myself. The aura was just like mana and after feeling around the aura I withdrew it within me. It was the middle of the night and I was getting tired so I drifted of to sleep as my mother cleaned herself up and went back to bed.