The shopkeeper (2)

Deep didn't know where he was. He only had the sensation of flying with unbelievable speed and grace. It gave him a sense of freedom he never experienced before. Somehow the act of flying wasn't strange to him. It was even familiar. As if a long time ago, he could fly anywhere depending on whether he wanted to or not.

The strange experience came to an end as he fell, hurtling toward something that called to him. It felt like going home. He didn't panic or resist the feeling, just welcoming it. He seemed to burrow into a membrane. He suddenly gained weight that was missing during his flight earlier.

Deep's eyes fluttered and he opened them.

When Deep finally gained awareness, he expected pain as the memory of the hunting knife rending his heart apart hadn't been forgotten despite the fantastic dream he just had. Surprisingly, He didn't feel the agonizing pain. More surprisingly, he wasn't on hard ground when he came to, instead he was laying comfortably on a familiar bed. It was his own. He was in his flat.

How did I get here? More importantly, why am I not dead?

As those questions swirled in his head, he heard a sigh that didn't belong to him. Startled, he turned his gaze sideways only to see his boss, Velis seating casually on his sofa. He was dressed in leather pants, old boots, and a rock band t-shirt. He was tall but not too much and possessed the lithe figure of a runner.

Seeing that Deep was awake, Velis spoke, "I remember having a conversation with you when you started working for me. Something about leaving all the antiques in the shop whenever you finished your work." Deep didn't answer immediately because it wasn't a question.

Instead, he kept looking at his bare chest with astonishment. He had expected a grievous wound, not smooth baby-like skin. Additionally, his pectoral muscles were incredibly defined. He was still slender but his entire musculature seemed to have changed while he was unconscious.

He was always physically weaker than people his age growing up but now he felt stronger than he ever thought possible. Deep examined himself as his feet landed on the wooden floor of his room. He slowly stood up as if testing his balance. When he noticed that he wasn't dizzy, he tentatively moved his arms and legs. Everything felt great. Ignoring Velis who was on the couch in front of him, Deep went before the full body-length mirror.

Indeed, it was not just an impression, the smooth skin, the lean and solid muscles. Still, none of these changes were as striking as his new slitted silver pupils. In the dark pool of his irises, his pupils were akin to a brilliant silver gap in the void.

"This kid, you are really..." Velis was exasperated.

"Yes, I remember that conversation. My bad. Did you save me?" Deep finally spoke still looking at the reflection in the mirror.

"Saved? Yes, you can say that." Velis looked at him strangely.

As expected of that bellicose clan, what terrifying battle instincts - Velis thought inwardly.

Velis remembered the scene when he shifted into the alley. Deep seemed to be unconscious, his eyes were unseeing but he was beating the sh*t out of a reanimated corpse. The entire alley was smeared with a bit of flesh and putrid blood. Even as it was reduced to pulp the look of confusion in the corpse's eyes evoked pity in Velis.

"The thing that saved you was the crystal you brought out of the store by mistake." Velis elaborated when Deep's dragon-like pupils fell on him.

"There are beings in this world possessing immense power from birth. They are called mystical creatures. Sometimes when those mystical creatures perish, they can leave a remnant. This remnant often takes the form of a crystal. After some research, wise men came to coin those crystals, Awakening Crystal. They allow mortals to become mystical beings. That's what happened to you in that alley, you awakened as a mystical being thanks to my crystal." At that, Velis pursed his lips, obviously miffed that his belonging was taken.

Deep fell silent as he pondered on what he just heard. The story Velis just spun was fantastic and felt unreal. But Deep wasn't someone who struggled with denial. In fact, he was a very accepting person thus he quickly adapted to these new facts.

"So, you are saying that I awakened and dealt with the monster in that alley?" Deep grasped this point. He didn't remember anything.

"I don't remember anything though, is it normal for an awakening?"

"The fact that you can't remember isn't linked to your awakening, not directly at least. You already carried a mystical creature bloodline. It's that bloodline that was stimulated by your awakening and allowed you to rock that corpse."

"Bloodline? Corpse? That 'man' in the alley was a corpse?" Deep felt a chill.

"Yes, more exactly, it was reanimated corpse. Most likely raised because someone became greedy for the awakening crystal. As for your bloodline, I only know the name of the clan you descended from, the VoidBreaker Clan. This mystical creature clan is a branch of the famous dragon clan."

"My parents aren't human? I don't remember anything before I was eight." Deep suddenly said. He always felt that it was strange but he couldn't do anything about it. In his earliest memory, when he gained awareness he was already in the streets of this city.

"A parent of yours wasn't, that's for sure. You carry human genes too, which means that the other one was human. For your memory, it must have been sealed for one reason or another. There are many mystic spells able to do that."

Deep fell silent once again, everything was too much. He needed to breathe. As he exhaled a long breath he calmed down.

"Try to access your soul, you should be able to. Think about your mystic path and its name as well as your innate spells will be revealed to you. We need to understand your current self." Velis changed the subject, he could feel that the kid's mood wasn't right.

"How?" Deep asked.

"You should be able to do this intuitively, just try entering a meditative state, then focus inward," Velis explained.

Deep sat on his bed cross-legged. He tried to regulate his breathing as if falling into slumber but maintained a trace of consciousness. He suddenly became hyperaware of everything. He gathered that awareness and directed it inside.

For a moment he didn't sense anything in particular. After a while, just as he was about to give up, an image appeared before his mental eye. It was a series of unknown characters which were linked to two other chains of characters.

Despite not knowing this language, Deep managed to decipher its content;

Path: Dragon of Order

Innate spells: Observer of Law; Breaker of Law

Bloodline: VoidBreaker Dragon-eagle Clan