Awakening

Zac's vision faded to darkness, the bright lights filling the cavern disappearing, being replaced with a pitch black emptiness.

He fell to the ground, writhing in pain, every single one of his muscles cramping and seizing up, the pain was so extreme that Zac was sure he was going to die.

He tried to scream, but no sound that he could hear came out.

Zac could barely piece his thoughts together, his vision was gone, he couldn't feel anything apart from the excruciating pain, and even the sound of the gentle dripping of water that had filled the cavern had disappeared.

He was completely alone with the pain.

Zac's mind slowly gathered itself, as he became used to the pain. He started to realize that though this was the most painful thing he had ever felt, the pain wasn't the same throughout his body.

He could feel it most severely in his hands, that were locked closed around the Mana Crystal in a vice grip. The pain spread up his both of his arms, meeting in the very center of his chest, around his solar plexus area.

From there, the pain spread out to the rest of his body, completely spreading out to every inch of his body.

'It can't be! Why the hell am I forming a Mana Core? This makes no sense at all?'Zac's thoughts were filled with confusion, just like everyone else on Earth, he had been tested to see if he was receptive for a Mana Core.

This was done to see if a person was capable of being an X-Type Augmented, one who could wield supernatural energies. Those who had even the slightest amount of mana present in their bodies were the only candidates for the Awakening.

For anyone else, the Mana Crystal used in the Awakening would just be wasted.

But even though Zac's test had shown he had no latent mana, his body was forming a Mana Core.

Either the ITC had lied about who could become an X-Type Augmented, which was unlikely, given how so many people other than X-Types handles Mana crystals, or the more likely option, Zac's G-Type Augmentation, for some reason, had allowed him to form a Mana Core.

"Yes! Yes! I'm going to be an Augmented! This is it! Finally!" Zac wanted to scream and shout in celebration, the reality of what was happening had sunk in, and he was overjoyed.

Finally, he would no longer be one of the dregs of society, he would be able to fight his way to wealth and recognition.

But the Mana Core was still forming, and Zac continued to writhe around in pain, waiting for the transformation to be complete.

As the pain grew more and more intense, Zac felt something shift within his mind, and all of a sudden, he could 'see' wisps of light floating in the air all around him.

There were wisps of every color, more concentrated further away from him, and even within his body.

Zac turned his 'mind's eye' to his body, and saw the green wisps of light coursing through every inch of his body, and swirling around his chest. But even as they moved around, white wisps of light entered his body from all over, all of them collecting in his chest.

'So the rumors are true? No matter what element Mana Crystal is used to awaken an individual, the Core that's formed is based on some other quality, theorized to be based on their genetic information.' Zac knew that the green Mana Crystal would have been a Plant Element Crystal, but it seemed that he had no Elemental Affinity.

The pain continued to grow more and more intense, the green wisps of light leaving his body, and the white wisps becoming more and more numerous, forming a glowing white core within Zac's chest.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, the pain slowly started to fade away, leaving behind the cool sensation of the Mana Core within his chest, and the mana spreading throughout his body.

Zac's vision was the first of his senses to return, the soft light of the Crystals all around the cavern lighting up his vision. Then the dripping of the water returned, and then Zac could feel the rocks digging into his back.

Zac stood up, stretching his tight and aching muscles, after all the abuse that his body had recently been put through, it was a miracle he could even stand at all.

Turning his mind's eye to his body, Zac realized that the white mana was still moving around his body, fading into each and every muscle and nourishing them.

This was why the X-Type Augmentation was so prized above the others, not only was once able to receive supernatural abilities, the mana they gained could be utilized to reinforce and repair their bodies.

'Alright, time to see what my ability is.' Zac took a basic fighter's stance, he knew the basics of hand to hand combat, ever since the Transition, every single child had combat lessons in addition to their other lessons at school. After all, you could never know who might become an Augmented who fought on the front lines.

'What? Why can't I feel what to do?' Zac was still frozen in his basic fighter's stance, it was said that one would know after their Awakening what their ability was, and how to perform it.

But Zac could not feel anything at all.

"Hah!"

"Hiyah!"

"Yah!"

Zac began to kick and punch the air, picturing energy attacks flying from his blows, but nothing happened.

He stood there, his face turning red with embarrassment. 'I can't believe I did that.' He thought.

But that wasn't the end of it, Zac closed his eyes and pressed two fingers to his temple, focusing on a large stone in front of him, waiting for his Telekinesis to activate.

He snapped his eyes open, expecting to see it floating, but the rock just sat there, it's stillness mocking him.

Tears of frustration began to well up in his eyes.

"Of course, even if I got a Mana Core, it'd be without an ability to go with it." Zac felt the sadness that had only lifted moments ago come weighing back down on him.