Chapter 004 | Awakening (2)

Edited 09/04/23

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'Where…am I?'

Alister tried to open his mouth but found himself incapable of doing so.

Moving his fingers over his face, he found out that he was missing a mouth.

Somehow, nearly his entire body had disappeared into thin air, and been replaced by formless smoke. Leaving only his eyes and his fingers in physical form.

He was surrounded by grey clouds, the open space around him was boundless, causing his eyes to grow weary from trying to see everything.

He couldn't feel much, but for some reason his chest felt warm. Like someone had placed a cooking pot on his chest.

However, that wasn't one of his biggest concerns.

Alister had been drifting in this unending space for god knows how long, the silence had slowly started to weigh on his mind.

"You have finally awakened…"

Just as he was beginning to lose his mind, he heard a voice, a dark, gritty voice, that resounded all around him.

The grey clouds that surrounded him suddenly trembled, surging forward and tightly wrapping around his body like a blanket.

'Who are you? Show yourself!'

He called out to the voice, as he cautiously looked around trying to find the source of the sound.

Someone was speaking to him, that much was certain, yet all he could see were grey clouds.

"Destiny is a cruel mistress, she offers you poison."

"Yet you drink from it, unknowing of your fate."

"Reality and illusion are often the same."

"Walk your path, child..."

"The shard will care for you, like a loving mother."

A terrible pain shot through his mind.

The warm feeling around his chest suddenly intensified, as if he someone had placed his body inside an oven and closed the lid.

'W-What the hell is g-going on with m-me!?'

Alister desperately tried to rouse his magic however he couldn't feel any mana emanating from his body.

His vision sped up as he found himself suddenly being pulled away. The grey clouds grew farther away, growing distant.

Before he could fully comprehend what was happening, he vaguely saw an enormously large eye looking at him from deep within the grey clouds.

The enormous eye was covered in flames, it was so huge that one would mistake it as the sun itself.

Crack!

Alister felt his vision explode into a blinding white light. The entire sky seemed to tremble and shatter into tiny shards.

The falling shards froze mid-air, before shooting forward and overwhelming his vision.

He felt a smearing pain in his chest before he jolted awake.

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"Arghh…!"

Alister shot up straight out of his bed. His entire back and face were drenched in sweat, his breathing laboured.

"Huff huff huff…!"

He tried to calm down his beating heart as he recalled his dream.

"What the hell was that!"

"It can't be a dream? No, it felt too real!"

His brows furrowed as he tried to rationalize the situation.

"Was it some kind of hallucination then?"

He turned to look at the empty green vial kept on a small stool by his bed.

"Is this some kind of side effect caused by the awakening potion?"

"But the books didn't mention any such incident."

Alister felt his head spinning as he tried to make head or tail of what had just happened.

He had just gone through a strange…dream? He wasn't even sure if you could call it a dream.

Everything in his memory seemed so vague and disorienting, the only thing he clearly remembered hearing was about some kind of shard or something.

"A shard of some kind? But what could that mean?"

"And what the hell was that thing?"

Remembering the enormous eye hiding behind the clouds, he couldn't help but feel a shiver go down his spine.

Reaching no conclusion after thinking for quite some time, Alister decided to put the matter in the back of his mind.

Turning towards the window, he looked outside, it was quite dark, telling him that he had woken up quite early.

After making sure that there was nothing wrong with his body, he decided to check out his newly awakened body.

Having gained access to mana, he could clearly sense that his body was different that before.

Although there didn't seem any major change with how he looked but it was quite obvious to him that his strength for that matter, was now equivalent to that of two male adults while his skin had become durable enough to resist minor slashes or cuts from low-grade edged weapons.

His senses had also increased exponentially as he could now smell the earthly odour of wet moss growing on his balcony, his ears now picked up even the faint chirping of crickets in the other room, while his eyes could even see the small pores within the cork of the awakening potion.

Speaking of the awakening potion, he took the vial in his palm and applied some pressure to it until the glass broke into many pieces, picking up one of the bigger pieces he tried cutting his palm yet the glass couldn't pierce through his skin.

Alister was no longer a normal human, he had now awakened as a mage.

"Finally, I am a mage now…"

He was now keenly aware of the power coursing through his body, although as a newly awakened mage he couldn't yet control his newfound power very effectively. Therefore he didn't try using his mana since he had no control over it, and without practice, he might end up destroying his home.

He took a deep breath to calm down his excitement before slowly making his way towards the bathroom.

Turning the faucet he allowed the water to fall into the sink as he used his palms to splash it against his face.

Cold water splashed against his skin as a much needed cool spread throughout his body, forcing him out of his drowsy state.

Creak!

Alister frowned as he turned the faucet, off, and zoning in on the creaking sound he had just heard.

Thanks to his newfound heightened senses, he successfully pinpointed the source of the noise.

The sound was coming from the ground floor, from his workshop.

"Someone has broken in?"

A serious expression appeared on his face as he quickly extinguished the lights around him.

He quietly made his way towards his room and locked the door behind him.

Alister was no fool, his dealing with the nobles was bound to attract attention, and he knew that much.

However, the Business district was a heavily guarded area of the capital, he didn't think anyone would be bold enough to attempt a robbery here.

'Desperation breeds insanity, indeed. But what should I do now?'

Although he was now a mage, he had yet to learn any spells, not to mention that he was still getting used to his newfound strength. He didn't want to accidently kill the intruders in case there was an alteration.

The laws of Astral Kingdom were to be followed diligently, and to make sure of it, there were enforcers within every city to make sure that those who dared to commit crimes were punished. Even though you were allowed to retaliate against thieves with lethal force, he rather not expose himself to be a mage, for now.

Alister was no noble, he was but a commoner so he had to be cautious.

His background had to be crystal clear if he wanted to progress forward.

He didn't know anything about the intruders, how many of them were there? Were they armed?

And although they were most likely normal humans, and his body was now augmented, he didn't want to take any unnecessary risk.

He had already spend most of his hard-earned money to procure the awakening potion, now he only had some money left, that he ought to use sparsely.

Alister considered his options, he didn't have many.

After thinking for some time, he came up with a plan.

There was only one way out of his shop, through the main door on the ground floor. He could try and sneak his way out, get the local enforcers to apprehend the robbers and be done with it. With his heightened senses, he was very confident in avoiding the robbers.

After making up his mind he stashed all his money in a cloth pouch. Opening up his window, he tied the pouch using a strip of Lenin, allowing it to hang freely from the window. Ideally, he would have liked to keep it on him but the gold coins within would undoubtedly make noise that would attract the robber's attention.

Nevertheless, he was very sure that the robbers would never find the pouch. Heck, if it was him, even he wouldn't see it coming.

Now that his money was secured, he slowly moved towards the door, unlocking it and moving out.

Pushing his senses to high alert, he cautiously made his way towards the stairs and descended down.

Thanks to his enhanced senses, he could hear the soft murmuring, coming from below.

'He didn't keep the money in the workshop…it is probably in his room.'

The intruders had obviously ransacked his workplace, hoping to find his stash and escape, unfortunately, they couldn't find any money since all of it was kept within his room.

They were now planning to explore the upper floors in hopes of finding what they came for.

Typically, a robber would get anything valuable in order to increase his haul, however, the intruders knew that nothing within the shop would yield more profit than the large amount of gold coins, Alister 'supposedly' had in his possession.

Alister numbly moved down the stairs, carefully making sure not to make any sound.

'There seems to be two of them, judging by their voices, both male…'

He couldn't see their figures but he could draw clues from the outline of their shadows, and their continuous murmuring.

Keeping an eye on the intruders, he made his way towards the open door and quietly made his way out.

The local garrison was located within the Business District. It spanned across quite a sum of land, it was surrounded by three-story tall reinforced walls with armed soldiers, donning pristine white armour and silver halberd, patrolling the place.

Within minutes he reached the enforcers office and made his way inside, where two soldiers stood guard.

"Halt!"

One of the soldiers stopped Alister from entering and demanded him to state the purpose of his visit.

Acting all panicked, he beckoned the soldiers to follow him to his house.

"Two thieves have broken into my house! Please apprehend them!"

The two soldiers looked at each other as one of them took out a whistle that hung from his neck and swiftly blowed into it.

Phweee!

Thump thump!

Following the sound of heavy boots, a squad of soldiers, consisting of 13-armed soldiers, made their way towards the office.

One of the soldiers, probably the squad leader, spoke up.

"Squad 1A reporting for duty!"

"At ease!"

"This individual claims that two thieves have broken into his house, follow him and apprehend those thieves!"

"Yes sir!"

The squad leader turned to look at Alister asked him about the location of his house.

"Where do you live, commoner?"

"My shop is located in Business District, sir...it is also my home."

"Someone dare break into the Business District!? Bold!"

"Are the thieves armed? If so, then what kind of weapons are they using?"

"I don't know sir, I was only able to see their shadows before escaping."

"All I know is that there are both male of average build."

"Alright then, lead us to your shop, commoner!"

"Thank you, sir! May the Lord bless you…"