1 A Bumpy Start

'Genetic Awakening 3%'

Facing the huge anima screen as it displayed the hurtful information, the youth with dark hair covering his eyes stood expressionless.

With lips curled in a small self-ridiculing smile. His gaze was down as the youth couldn't bear to see the eyes of contempt and disdain aimed at him by the other youths around him.

He tightly clenched his fist and because of the strength used, his sharp fingernails dug deep into the palm of his hand, bringing brief moments of pain. Pain that served for him to clear his head of any depressing thoughts.

"Thomas Ries, 16 years old, Genetic Awakening 3%" Beside the huge 98 inches paper-thin screen, a middle-aged man in a snow white coat announced with an indifferent voice.

Immediately after the middle-aged man finished speaking, without much surprise, even the people outside the square and those that didn't see the screen started a commotion, ridiculing him.

"3%? Even the most ordinary adept in his class had over 30%. This guy has once again taken a step back."

"Ai, this piece of trash really is a disgrace to his entire family."

"Yes, I remember his mother works at the same police station as your mom right? It is really strange how the person with the most potential in our class is such trash."

" I know. Just how could the once famous genius here at Dexia Institute become like this over the past few years when many others on his age about to awaken as Adepts at anytime. Two days from now, I heard there is going to be an exam to all the students on the third and fourth years with those who get a unsatisfactory result being kicked out of the future Adepts training program.."

"Really? For decaying this much in two years he should have left this institute long ago."

The ridicule and laughter directed at him came from all directions and reached the youth's ears, he touched his chest as if something was piercing his heart. He could not help but breathe heavily.

He raised his head to reveal a delicate and immature face. His dark yellow eyes glancing past the people of his age that ridiculed him as well. His lips, which were previously full of self-ridicule, turned to fill with bitterness instead.

"These people, who once were so warm and friendly were always this cold? Or was it because they believe that without talent, all my value has become zero?" Smiling bitterly, Thomas turned around and silently walked back to the group of people before heading to the far back of the square before finding a place to sit.

His lonesome figure seemed to be unable to fit in with the others around him.

"Next up, Rodrigar!"

This time a teenage boy quickly ran up from in the crowd before stepping at the circle in the middle of the square. The moment he got on stage, the murmurings and discussions quietened down and every pair of fiery eyes were locked on the screen.

This teenage boy didn't look older than 13 years old. Although he wasn't delicate looking nor childish, his small gloomy face he seemed to carry huge confidence.

He stepped forward and put his thin wrist on the testing device. With the slightly pickle on his skin, a drop of blood was sucked into the machine.

As the boy breathed deeply, the huge screen shined brightly once again.

'Genetic Awakening 65%!'

"Rodrigar Lopes,13 years old, Genetic Awakening 65%" This even the voice of the middle-aged man seemed more highly spirited.

"Yay!" Hearing the tester read out the result, the boy smiled proudly before heading back to the group.

"Wow! With such a high percentage, Rodrigar could be able to be a real Adept before twenty."

"Rodrigar! Nicely done, I knew you could do it."

Hearing the unanimous praise coming from the crowd, the boy's smile turned even wider. Hearing praises is something few boys his age would be able to resist…

While chatting with his friends from his class, his line of sight weaved through the surrounding people and caught sight of a lonesome figure walking away.

The boy felt conflicted, but he finally decided against walking over. Others didn't know it, but there was a secret between them. Thomas' mother and his were sisters, which made them cousins. But this was something they kept a secret from others. And now there is a huge gap between the two, he felt it would make him lose face to be seen closer to those at the bottom.

Walking on the empty streets, Thomas thought about the events moments ago and felt depressed.

"I should go get a piece of cake from that place before getting home. Sweets always makes me feel better."

After making the decision he checked on his Anima Phone how much money he had before making a detour to the cake shop in the center of the city.

The store he went to is the branch of a famous world-wide brand. He used to go there with his friends from school back in his second year. Getting there, he had to wait behind another few dozen people before he got at the blonde girl taking the orders.

"I would like two cheesecakes, one strawberry cake and some of these cookies." He pointed with his hands before he suddenly realized the girl before him looked very familiar.

"Clarisse?"

"Thomas?" Hearing the boy's voice, the young girl was startled and replied in shock.

Her reaction was everything he needed to confirm his thoughts. She really was her.

Back in middle school, this girl with golden locks and bright green eyes like two large emeralds used to be his classmate.

Suddenly he realized something. If Clarisse was at his age, why did she start working here? I remember she got to initiate her awakening at the same time as his. "Did you give up on becoming an adept?"

"Yes I did. That life of clashing with others everyday and the desire for power.. I have no plans to return to that, and I'm pretty happy by working at this store." She replied with a fake smile while handing his order over to him. "40 Credits."

Raising his phone, he pressed something before storing his phone back. "It's paid."

Picking the bag with three small boxes inside it, he headed to the door when he heard a voice calling him from behind.

"Thomas!"

Hearing the voice he turned back and saw it was Clarisse.

"It was really nice to meet a old friend."

"I feel the same. See you later..." Opening the glass door, he was about to leave the store when the entire atmosphere changed.

The sky that was blue moments ago turned red. His phone and another hundred phones in the pockets of those around him displayed the words.

"Red Alert. Evacuate to the nearest Adept Station in your area."

Hearing the noisy alert together with the message on the screen all the people in the store suddenly changed. Their faces displayed an unprecedented horror.

A few meters away from him a stone gate emerged from the ground together with other identical gates in several areas of the city.

"Grrrrrr!"

Red eyes, lifeless gray skin and huge horns. With sizes from two to three meters tall, those creatures invaded the street in the hundreds. Smashing the cars barehanded and wreaking chaos in the city.

A few people couldn't handle the stress and collapsed on the ground, others lost control of the own body and pissed themselves.

Clarisse despite being younger than most men and women here was the bravest. She helped take the children and their parents over to the back door as she tried to think of a way to rescue those in the cake shop.

"Guys, we must remain calm! The dimensional rifts can't exist for long, so we must find a way to protect ourselves at least until it closes or the adepts come to rescue us."

An old woman couldn't handle seeing the scene in front of her and tried to run away, but those red eyes were already locked on her.

"Old lady, on your left!" As if something took hold of him, he shouted to the old lady, but it was too late. A bloody claw ripped through her chest as she collapsed on the cold ground

"Shit!" As everyone else in the store hid deep within the store and let the others take care of themselves suddenly noticed what he did. He also knew their thoughts and wanted to curse himself.

He couldn't save the lady and instead brought the attention of the demons over to the cake shop. Seeing a couple dozen demons stare at the glass windows and the people on the other side of the glass was like looking death in the eye.

The demons suddenly dashed at the shop like hungry wolves waiting to feast on their meat.

"Thomas!"

Clarisse shouted his name before throwing a cleaver over to him. It wasn't a tool made of Anima like the weapons used by adepts but it would be enough.

"I can do this. I must become an adept." Speaking to himself, Thomas ran towards the demons with a cleaver in hand. Without thinking, his body moved by itself.

A claw came from the left, lightly touching the skin on his shoulder before a sharp flash came from above cutting that demon's heat in half.

"Gugug..." Ignoring the dying sounds of the demon he continued slashing down at the demons without end. In the special class for Adepts he was in, there is several lessons about such creatures.

Low-rank demons such as these also weren't too powerful. Having the strength of an average human male, their most unique ability was to intimidate other species with their monstrous appearance.

With his fighting techniques he learned the increased senses of the adept awakening and this knife, it was enough to beat these demons as long no higher rank demons surged.

At this point, the other demons on the street noticed the small pile of demons forming by the door of a cake shop.

"GRRRRRRRRRRAAAA!" Screaming ferociously, even more demons were attracted from other streets to gather at that single store.

"Shit." Seeing they were planning to use numbers against him, he felt anxious. His eyes that were filled with concentration started to burn as he used all the 3% of genetic awakening of his to increase his senses.

Left, left, right, left, above, right, right.... Left.

His eyes observed the battlefield and he could predict the attacks of those close to him. With a single slash, a demon would fall down as Thomas grew incessantly bloody.

Looking back, Clarisse made a signal to him. Telling all the civilians had been evacuated.

Throwing his knife on the skull of the demon clenching on his arm hers and smashing the cake on another demon, he ran towards the cake shop. As long as they left through the backdoor to another district that hasn't been infested with demons there was a chance to survive.

"Thomas, good work. Now there are only the two of us. Come here quickly."

standing next to the backdoor, Clarisse waves her hands at him who was just a few meters away from the cake shop when he felt the ground right below his feet shaking.

Right in front of him, standing between him and the cake shop was a massive stone gate. On the other side of the gate wasn't an army of a hundred demons like the other gates, but a single figure.

Tall, Strong, and those white eyes without any emotion, A high rank demon!

Seeing the appearance of a high -rank demon was like a bucket of ice cold water on him. Draining all his hopes of escaping with Clarisse.

"Hey! Your asshole! Yes, you with this ugly ass face and white eyes I'm talking to you. Didn't your mom tell you it was not nice to invade the human world?" Thomas screamed those words as he picked a stone and threw it on the white-eyed, and silver-haired demon's face before shooting himself in the opposite direction

"Yes, I remember his mother works at the same police station as your mom right? It is really strange how the person with the most potential in our class become such a trash."

He ran without looking back and for some reason all the demons opened way for him as if they wished to see their lord enjoy the hunt.

But the lord didn't give chase, instead he let the boy escape a few hundred meters away before he shot a jet black spear towards him.

"I did it!" Far away, when Thomas felt there were no demons around him he rejoiced but then everything froze. His eyes were filled with terror as a jet black spear pierced through his heart leaving a massive hole before hitting a nearby building.

"Oh no." Flashes of his entire life played in his mind. From a young age to middle school when he decided to become an adept and the failure he became after leaving high school.

Back then he was just a young and naïve child, when he got the news he had the potential to become an adept, he didn't think too much before giving his all towards this objective.

The first step to become an adept is to let the anima energy in the atmosphere slowly delve into the cells, as more and more cells absorb this energy, they will start to transform which is a process known as Genetic Awakening. With each 10% of cells being awakened, the person will start feeling great improvements in all his physical abilities as well the capability to process and calculate information.

This keeps going until it reaches 100%, only then will anima energy start to be produced inside the human body, giving even greater power and superhuman abilities.

When he got to an adept-specialized Institute, the first two years were amazing with him being the first of his class with a whole 60% genetic awakening with one year of training before the percentage dropped. First it was from 60 to 56, then 40, 30, 15 and now 3.

Thinking about it, maybe he was never destined for anything other than becoming food for the demons.

Am I about to die? he thought, and let out a faint laugh. He laughed at the bitter shortness of life. He laughed at his life of confusion and hesitation. Only when he was about to die did he finally awaken to reality.

Shortly after this realization, tears began to streak down his cheeks.

As his conscience blurred, he dragged himself towards a building where he sat on the stone stairs and waited for everything to end. He then thought about his mother who raised him all by herself and felt bad about leaving her so soon.

"I hope Clarisse has managed to escape..." Whispering those words, his eyes slowly closed.

But his life wasn't supposed to end like this.

A yellow rift opened in mid-air, with a strange force that pulled his body into the rift leaving only a trail of blood stains on the ground.

[Potential user detected. Starting the affinity test...]

[Affinity over 95%. Starting the contract with the potential user.]

[Does the potential user accept the terms of the agreement?]

In his unconscious state, Thomas could hear several voices in his mind, but in his current state of near death, how could he say anything?

[The silence was perceived as confirmation. Procedure to register Thomas Ries as a single user. Please, do not die before the procedure is completed.]

[Starting all system functions. Time to finish: 10 seconds.]

[Procedure completed. Welcome to the Deity Index System.]