Chapter 7. Parent's Respect

Still in the astral plane, Thanos was absorbing cosmic energy. Because his eyes were closed he didn't notice the ball of light forming high in the dark sky of his astral plane. It illuminated the entire field like the moon, it was still dark as night but the moon like matter in the sky brought light. It started out small like a tennis ball and then grew bigger until it was about the size of a basket ball.

A dark skinned middle aged man with a hat and a coat walked into the house accompanied by a woman of the same skin tone who seemed to by slightly younger than him, and she looked to be in a nurse's uniform. They were chatting as they walked into their house. When walking up the stairs, they both stopped abruptly, they exchanged glances, "a fluctuation of energy" the woman said. They both ran up stairs they unlocked the door and tracked the energy to their son's room. They stopped outside his room at the door mouth, their hearts racing with uncertainty, they pushed the door open and in front of them was their son Thanos, sitting down peacefully with his eyes closed. They felt the energy move around him, the mother Mrs Asemota covered her mouth with both hands as tears of joy filled her eyes. James Asemota, the father, slowly walked towards his son. He frowned at first, but then he smiled. "Can you feel it Jane, ?"

He asked his wife " she quickly wiped her tears, "what do you mean honey?" She asked.

The grin on his face widened further, "it is so concentrated, this isn't Qi."

Jane gasped, "you think-"

"I don't know for sure, for all we know it could be Mana not pure cosmic energy"

Tears rolled down Jane Asemota's eyes even more, "my boy can now achieve his dreams"

"Let's leave him for now he seems to be solely focused on absorbtion, he shouldn't be disturbed at the moment, it's his first time after all. Tomorrow we can take him to a testint center to check the concentration of his energy, then we will know what energy type our son is."

They both walked out of the room leaving Thanos alone in his room.

[Cosmic energy: 100%

Energy level sufficient, any more could cause damage to your body or and your mind.]

Thanos still in his astral plane, opened his eyes. He observed the change to his surroundings. "What is that? " He asked as he pointed at the moon in the sky.

[The stronger you get and the more you gain control of your power, the more you give life to your astral plane. Your astral plane configures itself based on what you wish it to be in your heart.]

'so you're telling me that in my subconscious, I wanted... All this' he said with a raised eyebrow.

[Not specifically. It works not just based on visual representation but on emotions. What you see here is what you want in your mind for yourself.]

'it is pretty cool though' he said as he stroked his chin. 'so when can I start using cosmic energy.?'

[As soon as you want]

'so I can start now, why should I do ?' he asked excitedly.

[With cosmic energy you can create your own technique, your own power or combat style, your own type of abilities. The upside is that the only limit is your imagination you can become a god if you wish. The down side is, it is difficult to be perfect in your craft. Because of the almost limitless potential of cosmic energy, some people dabble in every aspect of it unable to master any. You can gain knowledge, create techniques, but-]

'but what is the use of buying a thousand books if you're not going to read them. It's like the medical course I'm studying. Medical laboratory science, it's divided into different departments. You can't do all of them at the same time, you have to master one part first, them you go to the next part.'

[The system acknowledges your intelligence]. Thanos smiled, 'i should take a break for now, I don't even know how long it's been, I'm hungry, plus I should check if my parents are back.'

He stood up and walked up to the door behind him, he looked back at his astral plane one more time with a smile, then placed his hand on the door knob, unlocked the door and walked out.

He opened his eyes, he was covered in sweat. As he stood up he heard a sound from the TV. He rushed to the living room where he found his parents chatting while the TV was on. "Mom, dad you are not gonna believe what happened"

"You awakened, congratulations son" his father said to him calmly. "

"Come here my baby boy" his mother said to him as she stood up to hug him. " Mom wait in covered in sweat" Thanos shouted as he held his mother back. "Wait mama let me have my bath first." He ran back inside, had a quick shower and a change of clothes.

He sat down with his parents and explained to them everything that happened. He told them about his system, about the astral plane, about the unknown war.

"So you plan on dropping out of med school, you don't want to practice medical laboratory science anymore huhh" James Asemota said staring at Thanos.

"Look dad it's not like I don't lie like med school, but you know what my dream has always been"

"Yes, yes I know" James said with a tinge of sarcasm in his voice, "to kill yourself in battle"

"Stop it James, stop trying to make him feel guilty" Jane said, then she turned to face her son "baby boy," she said as she held his face in her hand "we have thought about it and we would not want to you to join the army," she sighed "we know if we tell you not to go you might not go, because you wouldn't want to disrespect us, but we also won't take advantage of that and disrespect you by pulling you away from your dreams because of our fears and reservations. We will support you son, no matter what."

Thanos' heart was heavy, he felt the urge to cry but held back his tears, "thank you mama" he said with a shaky voice.