The red light engulfed Rin in its crimson glow, submerging him in an ocean of indescribable sensations. Before he could even grasp what was happening, he felt his body being invaded by the same energy as during the second spiritual test... mana.
"I feel like my body is about to explode!" Rin felt satiated as if an overwhelming force was on the verge of propelling him into the beyond, but at the critical moment... nothing, just silence.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself in a familiar house. His eyes captured familiar objects, his nose detected scents long forgotten, and his ears...
"Little Rin, Why are you daydreaming? Go hang the laundry before a strange smell sets in," a feminine voice said to him.
He mechanically turned around and saw a beautiful woman, with almond eyes, long black hair, and a mischievous smile. He unconsciously noticed that he was much smaller than usual, but he was too absorbed by the woman in front of him to pay attention.
Tears started to flow uncontrollably, his face contorted with grief. He ran towards the woman shouting:
"Mom!"
He firmly grabbed his mother's pants and cried all the tears of his body, overwhelmed by a complex but balanced mix of grief, joy, nostalgia, and other intense emotions.
As he cried with his mother's hand on his head, trying to comfort him as best she could, Rin felt his body being lifted into the air. His gaze fell on the eyes of a young man with an athletic body, dark chestnut hair, and a smile as mischievous as the woman's.
"So, are we crying into our mother's apron, little boy?" he said teasingly.
Contrary to his expectations, Rin didn't get angry but cried even harder, feeling a murderous aura emanating from the woman. He then decided to turn 180 degrees: "Little Rin, how about going for a walk in the Awakening Alley with Dad? There are plenty of weapons there."
Rin stopped crying, remembering now. Memories deep within him surfaced, and he remembered that it was exactly at that moment, when his father and mother were hanging the laundry, that everything had started...
BOOM!
A huge noise shook the house, and in an instant, debris fell from the ceiling. Without consulting each other, the man and the woman left the house with Rin in the man's arms.
"A tide of beasts!"
"Quick, I need help, my family is under the rubble!"
"The beasts are about to break through! All the Awakened, go help them!"
Rin heard cries all around him, men, women, and children, all filled with sadness, shock, and despair. But in this macabre scene, a sweet melody reached Rin's ears.
"Little Rin, Dad and I have things to do. You're going to hide in the rubble and wait for us, okay?"
Rin shook his head, starting to panic, but before he could do anything, everything disappeared, and it seemed like a movie was unfolding. He found himself sitting in the rubble, watching his parents leave, his mother holding a bow and his father holding a stick embedded with a gem the size of a human head.
Rin started to cry. "They're not coming back. I didn't have time to tell them..."
"What to tell them?" A male voice he didn't know resonated in his ears.
He suddenly raised his head and saw a man sitting on the rubble, resembling an older version of himself, in his thirties, almost forty, dressed in worn leather armor with a small bird logo sewn onto it. Rin's long black hair with white streaks and his initially mischievous eyes seemed dull.
"I'm talking to you. What to tell them?" The man's tone was unmistakable.
"That I miss them," Rin replied, trying to contain the lump in his throat that threatened to release a flood of tears at any moment.
Older Rin said nothing and looked at him for a moment before continuing: "So, in this situation, do you think your words would have changed the fact that you would miss them, that they would die, and that you would endure a life of misery?"
Rin didn't know what to answer and kept his head down.
"Strength. If you had it at that moment, you could have saved them, but you were too young. You can't blame yourself for that." The man stood up and started to turn around, but stopped three-quarters of the way. Part of his silhouette disappeared. "Have no more regrets. Be strong enough to have none... As a gift of meeting, I offer you what is dearest in this world, deep in your heart. Cherish it."
He turned around and disappeared. Rin moved involuntarily. His body had become that of a young man again, but he was translucent. He walked towards the front line and saw all the atrocities of creation. He felt like vomiting, but his current body was incapable of it.
He continued to advance, seeing monsters of all kinds. Their corpses alone were enough to freeze his heart with terror. It lasted a few hours. He went around the bastion, seeing an incalculable number of corpses and wounded. Finally, his body slowed down and stopped above two people.
One had a huge hole in the chest, a broken bow by his side, a slight smile on his lips, and was caressing the hair of the other, whose arms were in inhuman angles, blood covering his whole body, his breathing weak.
Rin's mother spoke with difficulty to his father: "Little Rin will become an archer, he will survive. The beasts are retreating, we have won, darling."
She looked up at the sky and spoke for the last time: "We can go in peace. We have fulfilled our duty... Me, Mo Maana, and my dearest husband, Mo Chun, have fulfilled..." Her head fell and everything turned white in front of Rin.
At that moment, he was overwhelmed by a nameless grief. But after seeing all the atrocities of the tide, he couldn't resign himself to wallowing in it. He felt a void in him, cultivated for ten years, filling up. He had seen his parents again, he knew how they had died, and above all, he knew who he was... Rin Mo.
Ding! [ The Origin test passed successfully!]
A translucent window materialized in front of Rin.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Rin Mo
Stigma:
Name - Son of Mana
Type - Special
Rank - White
- Mana Sense (White) -
Allows perfect vision in his mind of everything within a radius of 5x Spiritual Strength without taking into account physical obstacles. This consumes mana over time.
Statistics - lvl1
- Spiritual Strength: 4
- Physical Strength: 3
Mana Exercise: -
[Bronze Promotion Condition: level 10 + ???]
-------------------------------------------------------------
Rin was amazed to see this famous unique system in every human being. And when he saw the name of his stigma, he smiled: "Even if it's not my mother's name, it's pronounced the same. She'll always be with me."