CHAPTER 10 : FALSE AWAKENING

Today, I was planning on awakening my core or pretending to awaken as you may call it.

I'm already 10 years old, reaching an average range of age for children in dicathen to awaken.

As the sun began to peek over the horizon, the scent of sizzling bacon and freshly brewed tea wafted through the house. It was a typical morning, with Mom busy in the kitchen whipping up a delicious breakfast for us, while I could hear Dad bustling around, getting dressed for work.

Manipulating mana from my core, I  conjured a barrier of highly compressed air around myself.

With a heavy heart, I let go of the barrier, fully aware of the impending cost of the damage. The moment it gave way,

*Boom*

A thunderous boom echoed through the air.

The world around me was suddenly hushed as if a switch had been flipped to mute all noise. All that remained was the rhythmic thumping of my heart and the gentle ebb and flow of my breath in and out of my lungs.

As time passed by, I was suddenly stirred by the sound of my mother's desperate cry coming from the outside "Al! Oh, my baby! Are you okay?"

With a bang, the door of my room opened and I saw Mom and Dad rushing towards me.

Seeing me sitting with crossed legs on the bed, safe and sound, My mother rushed over to me and held me in a tight embrace. Tears streamed down her face as she sobbed.

"Mom, don't cry. What's wrong?" I asked, still keeping up the act, while also feeling extremely guilty for making my mother cry.

She didn't answer, just continued sobbing while hugging me. My father

came to stand next to her, patting her back and stroking my head, giving me a weak smile.

After a brief moment, I pulled my face away from my mother's chest and looked around my room.

The whole room was an absolute mess. Books that I had cherished and used for mental training over the years were now rendered unusable, with pages ripped to shreds and covers blown off. The entire room was a chaotic scene with wooden bed pieces strewn about and cracks in the walls. It was as if a whirlwind had swept through, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

"Mom! Dad! I....don't know how did this happen." I said, trying to sound as surprised as I could.

"Congratulations, Al, honey," my mother said weakly, while my father exclaimed, "You awakened, son."

"I'm sorry, Mom, Dad. Am I in trouble?" I asked worriedly.

"No, Al, honey, you're not in trouble. We were just worried about you. I'm glad you're all right." There were still tears in my mother's eyes, but she managed to let out a soft chuckle.

Despite lacking magical abilities, her origins from the land of Dicathen had made her well-versed in the social hierarchy present between mages and non-magical individuals. And upon learning that her son had successfully surpassed the initial stage of becoming the superior one, I could sense the immense joy radiating from within her.

My father, on the other hand, seemed excited. "We'd better clean this mess up," he said as he grinned, patting my head.

My parents quickly reverted to their usual selves after a brief moment of astonishment. I suppose my sudden awakening was not as earth-shattering as I had anticipated

Now that my father knew I had excess to mana, he began to teach me its basics, and how to train in it. And I gotta admit, he was a damn good teacher.

He used simple language and provided examples to help me understand the concept of mana core and its stages, as well as how to progress in it. Despite my prior knowledge, I paid close attention to his explanation.

For today, we also began incorporating augmenting training into our routine. 

However, only after a few hours of training, I perfectly augmented my body with mana and showed it to my father, who nodded with satisfaction

Then we did some sparring by augmenting our bodies and weapons with mana to get used to it.

My life continued like this, with me sparring with my father in the morning and doing my own training in the remaining time.

And a year passed without much deviation from this routine.