Temple of ten thousand graves

A domain obscured from light and looked like it could only be found in an underground dome, dozens of blue flames scattered all across the place and provided eerie light to the domain.

One could see thousands of tombstones that were the graves of thousands of souls situated in a circular formation around a small temple that was in the center of this formation of tombstones, a single footpath cut through this formation of tombstones toward the entrance of the underground dome.

The place was eerily quiet that one would shiver just from standing at the entrance of the dome and not dare to take a step forward, the blue flames gave off no warmth but instead radiated bone chilling coldness while a strong smell of decay covered the entire domain to the point of turning into visible gray mist.

The whole domain would have remained silent like a scary painting if not for the sudden sounds of footsteps that echoed from the entrance of the dome.

A figure dressed in a long flowing golden royal robe that was decorated with precious gems and filled with beautiful patterns, a red royal cape hanging over her shoulder, her neck beautified with dazzling jewelries, a golden crown on her head, and a one meter long staff in her hand.

Her face was covered with a veil but could not hide her world shattering beauty in the slightest, her sky blue eyes stared right at the small temple in the distance as she took casual steps towards it.

Rumble!! Rumble!! Rumble!!! 

Creeeck!!!

The entire domain suddenly began to tremble violently as if an underground earthquake was about to occur, but the woman remained unfazed by this and continued her casual stroll.

The rumbling continued as the grave in front of every tombstone began to crack open and out of those cracks came huge fearsome skeleton warriors clad in heavy armor and each carrying menacing huge swords in knightly manner.

Each skeleton released a terrifying pressure and strong bloodlust as their red glowing eyes landed on the woman who was still casually walking past them, their bodies made clicking noises as they all raised their huge swords before dashing towards the woman.

Their speed was so fast that these skeletons in huge armors left afterimages in their wake!

Yet, despite the sight of thousands of fearsome skeletons that were dozens of times her size rushing towards her with huge swords that were bigger than her body, the woman remained calm as she slowly raised her staff that had a blood red crystal attached to its top.

"Ten thousand tombstones, ten thousand immortal warriors, yet I still receive the same treatment every time I come here. Do the residents of the temple of ten thousand graves have no regard for the mother of your emperor?" The woman voiced out slowly as she gently waved down her staff.

Time seemed to have stopped the instance she had lifted her staff as all the skeleton warriors were frozen in place until she lowered her staff, time began to flow normally once more.

Crash!! Pop!!!! Clack!!!

As if an invisible force had hit these huge skeleton warriors, every single one of them crashed heavily into the ground and their bodies exploded into piles of bones. The entire place became a sea of bone in just less than five seconds.

The woman paused for a moment to admire these clusters of whiteness, her sky blue eyes revealed a hint of familiarity to the sight before her before turning blank once more.

*They never change" was all she said before she resumed walking toward the temple.

She had walked for over a hundred meters and just had a few more meters to cross before she could reach the temple when…

"Why…have you…come here…mother?" 

A low but thundering voice came from within the temple, the voice seemed like a whisper but had reached every corner of the domain as even the tongues of blue flames flickered violently when the voice spoke. The owner of this voice was most without a doubt the emperor of these immortal skeleton warriors and the son of this woman who has destroyed them.

The woman, who referred to herself as the mother of the emperor, came to a halt at the words of the voice. For the first time since she stepped into this domain, her sky blue eyes flashed with emotional expression as she stared at the small temple with…sorrowful and pained expression in her eyes.

"What? Can't I come visit anymore?" The woman asked back but did not take another step forward.

The voice stayed silent for a while as if it was thinking of the best answer to give, it finally spoke after ten seconds.

"We all…have…our own…domains. My…warriors…you destroyed them" the voice said once more, its voice shook the walls of the domain with each word it said.

" It's their fault for not recognizing strength, they deserve it. Besides, you made them immortal, they'll come back in a while " the woman said in response.

The voice turned quiet as if silently agreeing with the woman's words.

" Then…why have you…come?" 

"I believe you should know already, he's the reason I came" the woman replied. Her eyes changed from having a sorrowful expression to a sharp glare.

"So…you came…for his sake…mother?" The voice asked, a hint of amusement could be heard from its voice.

"I just hope that you do not interfere," the woman said in a serious voice.

This time, the voice stayed silent for a whole minute before suddenly letting out a chuckle that shook the whole place even more than when the skeleton warriors had come out of their graves. It chuckled for half a minute before saying 

"Of course, of course. It…was the same…back then too. Anything…for you my…dearest…mother " 

The eyes of the woman reverted to that of pained expression after hearing the words of the voice, she did not stay any longer and simply turned around and left. 

Five minutes after the woman left, the sea of bones began to move as the skeleton warriors began to resemble themselves. Ten minutes passed in a flash and ten thousand skeleton warriors were once again standing gallantly with their huge swords.

" So…it finally started…huh? How…long…has…it…been? The words of the voice became more faint with each word before completely disappearing. The ten thousand skeleton warriors also returned to their graves. The domain became just as it had been previously before the woman in royal regalia arrived, only the constantly flickering blue flames told of what had transpired.

...…

At the awakening center.

Ralph, Ivan, and Glen had entered the awakening center and one of the staff had immediately approached them after observing the young boys and realizing that they were new to the place. The staff had previously thought that they were here to try their luck too just like the majority of the people here but was shocked to find out that all three of them had awakened their Nexus energy and we're here to awaken their talents.

The staff had immediately proceeded to call someone over before handing the three over to the new person who took them to the upper floor through the elevator. The person tried to ask a couple of questions about them but Ralph was on the defensive and did not say more than what he considered necessary.

They arrived at the upper floor and were led to a counter where they were asked to fill in some forms and answer some questions such as their age, when they awakened their Nexus energy, and if they had ties with any tower.

"Ah, I see you young lads don't have any background. But don't worry, it's fortunate for you that you are able to awaken, while this place is under the Owen tower, their requirements are strict and difficult to enter but other towers will surely extend their invitations towards you as long as you do well enough. Your futures will be limitless!" The person at the registration encouraged them before asking them to pay the awakening fee which was fifty bucks per person.

(A/N: so, I've been conflicted about which currency to use in this book but could not come to a firm decision so I've decided to use 'bucks' instead. The value will be equivalent to a dollar so fifty bucks is equivalent to fifty dollars in this book. Damn! I wished  I could withdraw all the money in this book to my account!)

Of course, Ralph had exclaimed at how expensive this was. Their parents had only managed to give them a few hundreds which could last an ordinary family for a month or two but they were about to spend half of it on awakening? 

"I can see you don't really know the importance and benefit of awakening here, if you did, you won't complain about fifty bucks being expensive. Let me explain 

While it is possible for some people to awaken on their own, there are a lot of risks involved. A person might awaken their Nexus energy but might never be able to trigger the talent awakening on their own no matter how much they try and if a person does manage to trigger the talent awakening and enter the awakening state, there are risks of them hurting themselves after waking up or hurting the people around them with their new found power because they might not know the difference between the real world and the awakening state after waking up.

But awakening in an awakening center has none of those. Firstly, some people might even awaken their talent without awakening their Nexus energy first! While having awakened your Nexus energy is a guarantee to awaken a talent, people who have yet to awaken their Nexus energy still stand a thirty percent chance of awakening a talent if they use our pod!