After I was done checking my skills, it was still before 10 am, and it was time to go to the association to register as an awakener and for the awakener business.
Previously, I thought I would never cross another path with the association again. But fate could be so spontaneous that I would even approach them myself.
The association building was located in the Gangnam area, just a moment away from the tower dungeon. The main building was there to secure access to the tower and also to protect the surroundings if any dungeon break ever happened from there.
Gangnam was not that far from the house, but I needed to ride the bus to reach the building because I still didn't have a vehicle. Thankfully the bus stop was not that far, it was only a 10-minute walk from here. So I grabbed my bag and walked out of the house. I heard Grandma Kim calling for me as I walked out of the gate.
"Agassi!" I could see her sitting on the roadside in front of her house. She was waving her hand excitedly.
"Grandma Kim, Good Morning!" I walked over to her.
"Are you going anywhere, dear?" She asked maybe seeing that I dressed up more neatly.
"Ah yes, Grandma. I am planning to go somewhere to register my business. I'm going to re-open the tea shop." I said with a smile.
"Omoo, omoo. Are you sure, dear?" As she heard what I had said, she jumped up happily.
"Umm-hmm…" I nodded my head in confirmation.
"Omo… I'm so happy to hear that. I can't wait to taste your craft."
"Yeah come during opening day, Grandma."
"Of course, I'm going to invite the others to." She patted my arms as she talked. I knew that I had just met her recently, but her gestures and way of talking made my heart warm up to her in just a short moment.
"Grandma, I'm sorry, I can't talk for too long as I need to catch the bus. But please make sure you come okay? I'd like to hear you share some stories that I didn't know before."
"Sure, sure. I'll come and help you later if you need anyone. Be safe on the road."
"Bye, Grandma."
I waved back at her as I looked back at her. Then, I continued to walk towards the bus stop. Thankfully shortly after I arrived, the bus just came right on time. The journey to the building was short as there was not much traffic before noon.
When I arrived at the front of the building, the exterior was in the modern architectural style that was famous in the post-apocalypse era. A style that was not only focused on the artistic style but also on the strength of the foundation. I walked inside the building and to the lobby.
There, I went to the receptionist and registered for the new awakener report. After filling in some documents needed, they asked me to wait for the call for verification of my awakener rank.
Awakeners can only be ranked by their ability to absorb aether or can also be measured by how fast their aether recovery is. This allows the awakeners to have more adaptability to the aether and helps to improve the awakeners' stats. Thus awakeners' rank varies from F to S, F could mean they have a hard time So, F-rank awakeners have a small amount of MP and little improved stats, as their stats are just a bit improved compared to the non-awakeners. While S-rank awakeners would have the biggest MP pool and the best-improved stats among other awakeners.
Therefore, a higher ranking awakener could be stronger or could use their skills longer.
That's why not all countries in the world have a lot of S-rank awakeners even 190 years after the first awakened human evolved. In Korea, there are only 21 S-rank awakeners since the first awakener could be ranked, and only 8 awakeners are still alive now.
While waiting in the lobby area, some awakeners passed by as it was a weekday and these awakeners either just came back from regular dungeons or just wanted to find some dungeon jobs to do. Those are some usual jobs for regular awakeners to do if they were not assigned to tower climbing.
Suddenly a loud siren rang out across the entire building.
Another dungeon break had happened somewhere. All of the awakeners present there were in a hurry to find the location. Turns out the break happened in a certain national park area, on the outskirts of Seoul.
As many of the awakeners were still contemplating going there, a person carrying a big katana on his back bolted out of the lift and rushed to the lobby door. Behind him, another person called for him to wait and followed him out of the lobby area.
Despite the chaos, the administrative department was still functioning as normal, because sadly dungeon breaks had become more frequent in the last 10 years. Therefore, not long after the commotion they called me to the room that was labeled the verification room.
As I walked into the room, 2 awakeners helped the process run smoothly. They helped me to get into some type of chamber that looked like a cryo chamber. But that machine was helping to measure the amount of aether that was being absorbed.
The process was not that long. In just around 5 minutes the door of the chamber was open and they helped me again out of the chamber and checked the result. After checking it, the machine printed out the result of both the aether absorption, stats prediction, and my awakener's rank.
I looked on to the paper once they handed it to me over and my eyes locked directly on the corner of the paper where the rank was.
It was an E-rank mark.