The Wake-up Call

The disgusting stench of boiling blood was perpetrated through an entire room. The ashen-blonde girl leaned over a small pot of thick, blackish liquid that bubbled and boiled.

She sat on the floor of her old, dusty room. The rain drummed on her window, the distant rumbling of thunder occasionally interrupting the silence.

The air shivered around her outstretched pale hand while her eyes shone like a pair of blue stars as she used her power to control and regulate the fire burning under the pot.

'I hope you are not tasting as bad as I remember.'

//

Fire Heart Concoction:

Description: A concoction prepared out of a heart and blood of a fire-attributed being.

Effects: Random effect from a pool upon usage (Each effect can be obtained only once): (

+5% to effects of fire-attributed powers;

Skill: [Minor Fire Resistance];

+5 VIT;

+2 MAG;

)

//

Concoctions weren't like regular potions. They required expensive and hard-to-get materials. Even the recipes were also much rarer and harder to obtain. But, they were all worth it as they offered permanent bonuses upon consumption instead of temporary effects like potions.

She felt how the mana signature slowly altered with her hand, the liquid's colour gradually shifting from blackish-red to reddish-orange.

Her white fingers moved quickly and elegantly, like those of a dirigent directing an orchestra, as she carefully drew the fire mana from the flames into the pot of boiling blood with pieces of the cut heart.

'Let them think that I am crazy. It is a better option than them finding out about alchemy.'

The liquid kept bubbling, quickly reducing in quantity as it vaporized. But instead of it turning more viscous, it was becoming washier.

The knowledge of the recipe from the system led her hands and mind as if some experienced alchemist stood right behind her, moving her hand with the instincts and precision of someone who produced the same formula hundreds of times.

'It should be done!' With a wave of her hand, the flames flickered out, leaving behind enough of the concoction to fill a single spoon.

The invisible force moved from her fingers and levitated the liquid from the pot like a pump. She opened her mouth, bathed her breath, and closed her eyes, already preparing for the disgusting taste she remembered.

'Nah, what is a little bit of bad taste in exchange for more power?'

She swallowed it, and the taste, akin to a soup boiled out of garbage and a metric ton of chilly, hit her with full strength, making her gauge and cough.

With a loud bang, she slammed her fist against the ground and kept the contents of her stomach in with great effort.

'Now comes the bad part...'

The next second burning sensation flared in her stomach, enveloping her entire body and making her eyes flare up in colourful lights.

"Ahhh!" She screamed as she felt like she was burning, her stomach on fire. Her vision slowly blacked out.

Sometime later:

She didn't know how much time had passed, but suddenly the female voice of the scary woman spoke to her, "Are you alright? I mean physically."

Her eyes snapped open. She was lying on the cold floor, and the scary woman stood beside her, looking down at her with empty, emotionless eyes.

'How long was she standing here? Was she just watching me as I drooled on the ground?'

Ding!

//

You have obtained the skill: [Minor Fire Resistance]

//

Tia stopped twitching, her pain vanishing under the stern gaze, "I am."

"Then move. Your time of lazing around is over. If you have free time, you will spend it training and training. Everything about you is horrendous... you can't shoot, and you can't fight in close combat without flailing your hands like an idiot. If it wasn't for your powers, you would be useless... even worse than any random child picked from the streets."

The cold words struck her where they hurt her most. She hated how powerless she was. Even now, she was dependent on some unknown organization to survive and hide from the planetary guard.

'She is right... even through all the years as a witch, I never learned any advanced form of combat. I just depended on my powers blindly, and how it ended? I got killed like an absolute amateur.'

She no longer wanted to depend on anyone. She wanted to live by herself, act by herself, and do whatever she wanted. But all of it required power, skill, and, most importantly, will and determination.

Without her even blinking, the woman's fist turned into a blur, the air howling around it as it shot straight toward the still absent-minded girl.

Tia awoke from her thoughts, her mind moving to intercept the fist.

Suddenly a pain exploded in her stomach, the woman's knee digging into her belly.

Her eyes almost popped out of her skull as she fell back to the ground, clenching her hurting tummy with her hands.

"How truly pathetic... you can't even pay attention to what is going around you." The woman's cold, dead eyes stared into her teary eyes, something in them enjoying her pain.

"You have such a talent, but you are wasting it with your uselessness..."

Tia wanted to shout angrily, and she did it, "Damn, I was locked up for years?! What should I do?!"

"Work on yourself? But instead of working on getting better, you have sulked for years in your pathetic self-pity. If you didn't awaken as a psychic, you would be still..."

The words hurt her even more because she knew they were true, 'I would be a loser without my systems... in both my lives. I was never one of the talented prodigies. I was just lucky to get the systems.'

Now, she was ready to change it. She suppressed all of her pain and stood up again with a smile on her face and a glow in her lilac eyes. She was finally going to work, 'The systems are powerful. But both of them are extremely focused. It is up to me to work on their shortcomings. There is stuff like combat instincts that I have to form on my own.'