[Awakening]

"Meet me after class"

These words sent a shiver down Aster's spine. He started to sweat, his knees got weak and breathing became hard. His brain went hyper speed trying to find out why he was being called.

"No, no way... Why am I being called? Did I fuck up on the last test? Or did I offend her in some way? I didn't do anything noteworthy today, last week or this term and the last test was a month ago so it wouldn't make any sense for me to be called."

Such thoughts were running through his head for the remaining sessions.

Although he had no reason to be afraid of her, he just couldn't help but be intimidated by her. Alas the remaining time wasn't enough for him to discover why he was being called so he took a deep breath, steeled his nerves and knocked on the door of her office.

Aster has never been to Miss Silver's office before so it was his first time entering the room. The room had one big window that let sun light in and illuminating the whole room in warm light. There were green plants in the corners and bookshelves between them.

Each bookshelf were labeled after a class and had bunch of files of the students. On a closer look, Aster couldn't find his file in the bookshelf 10A which made him confused even more. The office was smaller than what Aster expected which relieved him a bit.

'She is just a teacher at the end of the day, who cares if she is a bit strict... and can beat 8 grown men alone..."

Miss Silver was sitting by her desk in front of the window and was observing Aster. She nodded him to sit so he complied. He couldn't speak because he felt a invincible pressure. After a while she finally spoke

"Aster Gaelcius, just turned 15 last month, student of class 10A. Pretty decent grades, solid 80% in every subject except P.E, no affiliated clubs, no extracurricular activities joined, reported as a young man without any ambition and procrastinates often."

Aster felt uneasy. He felt like he was participating in a very important job interview and it baffled him why she was reading his file.

"Hmm procrastinates often huh? Not a good trait to have... Maybe you should start working hard now since you are going to graduate year 10 soon so you can get into a university of your choice." Silver said with a monotone voice

"Anyways I'm getting sidetracked, here is my question to you: What would you do if you had absolute power?"

'Huh?!? Absolute power? Is she talking about money and authority?'

"I, uhh, would buy a hou-

"No, no no" Silver suddenly cut him out

"Not that kind of power but REAL power. Do you understand? The power to obliterate mountains and cut the sky, the power to summon an undead horde or a tactical nuke. I'm talking about that power."

'HUH!?!?!? Real power??? Power to split the sky and destroy a mountain, what the hell? This sounds like a villain monologue, what if she is actually a demon and is trying to scam my soul out of me?'

Strangely enough, the concept of such powers existing on earth did not seem strange to Aster. It is not because he spends a lot of time watching animes, playing video games and reading novels, no it is because he was inflicted with Silver's [Enticer Lv 3] skill.

Silver is a person with low tolerance to wasting time so she resorted to using a skill provided to her by the government for this mission to make it easier for Aster to digest information without making a fuss.

"I... I don't know."

"You don't know?" Silver raised an eyebrow and increased the output of her skill to force the truth out of him "Don't you want to be a king? A conqueror? A bunch of wives maybe?"

To be honest, even Aster himself doesn't know the answer but he felt compelled to answer for whatever reason.

After pondering for a bit, he replied "Being a king sounds like hassle for me, at least for now. Being a king is like a lifetime appointment right? I'm too young to settle down. And forget about caring for not just one wife but multiple and an entire kingdom sounds painful"

'I can't even take a pen and a paper to scribble some stuff down as homework so any kingdom that is lead by me would surely end up fucked.' he thought 'And multiple wives huh? I bet that all of them would leave me and I'm not ready for that level of emotional trauma'. but he kept his thoughts to himself.

"I think I would do some stuff as a professional athlete and get rich I suppose? And quit school, or maybe finish it since I'm no longer pressured to get a scholarship to get into university. I would then travel around the world, buy loads of property and live life to its fullest. Then once I think I'm ready, i would settle down."

Miss Silver seems to have approved his answer as she nodded and the pressure Aster was feeling up till now has finally receded. Only now did Aster realize the silliness of the conversation.

After thinking for a bit, she pulled out two briefcase. One was considerably smaller than the other.

She gave him the smaller one and told him to open it.

There was a blue gem embedded on a square rock attached to a small chain. It was a necklace. It had a simple design and there wasn't anything noteworthy except the blue rock which seems to be lapis lazuli but there was an invincible pressure radiating from it similar to Miss Silver.

Asters eye widened as he looked at it and he could tell it was no ordinary necklace. 'Perhaps she wasn't joking about that absolute power thing. Haha is this a dream? If so then this might be the wildest dream I have had for a while'

He put on the necklace and felt immediate changes. Suddenly everything seemed foreign to him. The air that he was breathing for his entire life, the sun, the ground, kids all around the school, laughing and talking, they all felt different.

The very planet Aster was born on, grew up on... He felt he didn't belong here anymore.

After this shocking realization, Aster felt terrified. He reminded himself to breath but the air seemed lacking to him now. He tried his best to not breath more than necessary. It all felt wrong.

Becoming impatient, Silver gestured him to open the second briefcase but Aster didn't listen. After spending about 10 minutes convincing himself that he was still on earth and not some alien territory, he finally opened it.

"Whoa"

This time, it was a prism shaped crystal. Out of nowhere, he started to feel at peace for the first time since wearing the necklace. The crystal was bigger than his hand but not as big as his head and had many sides.

He looked Miss Silver for further instructions and she said "Absorb it"

"Huh what?, how do I do that?"

"Just hold it and focus. Focus until you feel it then slowly guide it to yourself bit by bit."

Aster took the crystal out and focused while thinking 'This sounds a lot like those novels that I read'. He cleared his head and focused until he felt something hot on his right hand. 'This must be it!'.

He concentrated on the heat and tried to will it towards himself. Although he did not get it on the first try, he felt something change within the heat. Starting to feel excited, he continuously tried to absorb the crystal.

After two hours he finally succeeded.

He felt a bundle of heat separate from the main source and travel through his body. Every where it went, it got extremely hot but it wasn't unpleasant at all! In fact, Aster felt it was quite good. Everything was fun and games until the bundle of heat reached his heart. That's when the pain started.

He felt his body's temperature get amplified dozen fold. Once the heat started to spread through his body, the heat from the crystal started to pour into his body at a continuous pace. As time passed, it became more and more difficult to endure but Aster started to see cyan wisps travel around his body and the crystal became a blue fierce flaming ball.

'That must be the heat I have been feeling!'

He also sensed something in his heart, something that looked like a glass container. As the wisps of blue flame reached it, it kept getting fuller. Aster instinctively realized that he must endure until it gets full. And endure he did.

After some time has passed, just when he was about to give up, it finally filled up and shone in a brilliant white light and Aster fell over.

"Took a little longer than what I would have liked but that's expected. Hmm? He absorbed all of it? Not bad"

Those words were the last words Aster heard before he lost unconsciousness.

***

[The individual 'Aster Gaelcius' has absorbed grade B mana crystal]

[Sufficient amount of mana has been absorbed]

[The soul of the individual 'Aster Gaelcius' will now awaken]

[Awakening complete]

[Awakening soulguide]

[Awakening complete]

[System is now active]