Awakening

Nolan's consciousness drifted along in the dark space of the grimoire. He could feel nothing from his surroundings and there was nothing in his surroundings. Just pitch black. Not even a trace of the mana he had infused into the book was seen anywhere within this mind space. It was as though it had fell into a dormant state after a long period of inactivity.

"Hello?" 

No response. 

"Is anyone there?" 

Emptiness. Maybe whatever is in here might be asleep?

"Wake up!"

...

The black space shook. Very slightly.

"WAKE UP!"

A muffled rumbling sound could be heard as a gigantic eyelid lifted up to reveal a huge eye. Its sclera was golden in color, scintillating with the movement of the eye as it focused on Nolan's consciousness. The eye was slightly lizard-like, containing a vertical (slit) pupil that contained a deep abyss within. Somehow, despite being stared at by a giant eye, Nolan did not feel much fear. Instead, a sense of wholeness was what he felt, as if something lost to him was returned. Staring into the depths of the giant eye, Nolan heard a faint whisper by the side of his ear:

"Good luck...wanderer…we have faith in your journey…"

as his consciousness left the grimoire and returned into his body still sitting on the tree stump.

===

Opening his eyes back in his own body, Nolan felt a searing feeling in his left chest area, namely in his heart. His heart, or rather his mana core was furiously absorbing the surrounding mana. Under this huge influx of mana, Nolan could faintly sense what was happening inside him, and of course, upon seeing the massive mana agglomeration around his heart, to say he was flabbergasted would be an understatement.

"WHAT IS THIS!!!???"

Followed by

"Oh shit I'm going to die"

And

"I still haven't experienced my first love yet…"

After going through the five stages of grief within 10 seconds, Nolan had accepted his fate of exploding from mana overload. Bracing himself for the pain, he curled up into a strange looking ball. (Strange enough that anyone walking past would've thought that he was slightly mentally impaired)

The anticipated pain had not come.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Nolan wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Intending to check the condition of his body, he found that he could now sense and feel anything that his internal mana could touch, thanks to the earlier influx of mana that opened up new mana pathways throughout his body and connected his mana core to his brain. Letting out a blast of mana, Nolan could feel his mana circulation and mana reaction speed increase by a siginificsnt amount, enough that he could feel it easily.

"This is interesting…I can feel all my inner organs and blood vessels clearly just by brushing over them with my mana."

Experimenting with his newfound mana sense, Nolan found that it was quite possible to extend the range of his mana sense in the future by releasing his internal mana in a thin radial field, but as of now, it was taking him all his efforts just to see limited parts of himself using mana sense, so it would probably be in the far future before he could do something like that. Having being distracted by his abrupt absorption of mana and his newfound mana sense, time passed quickly, and the sun had already set. Nolan decided that it would be safer to move camp in the next day when it would be light out.

While Nolan was dozing away to sweet dreams of magical powers, in a nearby magic tower:

In a room covered with display magic circles from the ceiling all the way down to the floor, a mage in charge of evrionmental mana data documenting seemed to have found an anomaly in the data logs of mana sensors planted in the wilderness.

"Hey Drew, detector B597 picked up an abnormal mana flux in the wilds outside Cameron city around 2 hours ago."

Seemingly bored out of his mind with all the mundane office work, the mage referred to as Drew shrugged.

"It's just another wild animal undergoing an awakening again…just send an observer to take a look as per protocol...zzz"

The moment he finished his sentence, he fell asleep. The other mage sighed. He was also in a similar tired, burned-out state. Picking up a small pulsating grey orb, the mage spoke into it.

"Observer dispatch request to sector B597, likely wild animal awakening mana fluctuation…"

And with that, he too fell asleep, dropping the communication orb onto the desk with a heavy clunk.

===

After the mage tower employee had informed the dispatch center, an observer was quickly informed of the situation and headed over to the location of Nolan's recent awakening.

But it was no normal observer. The observer dispatched this time was a peculiar old man. While most observers utilized a standard issue skyhook or transport vehicle, this old man was flying using wind mana to stabilise and levitate himself above the ground, moving at absurd speeds towards Nolan's approximate location. Flight, a feat only achievable by sixth order mages (first order being the weakest classification and the higher it gets the stronger the mage), indicated that the old man was at least a sixth order mage, if not higher, due to his incredible flight speed.

"Ugh, how did we run out of observers...this is absurd. Why do I, the head of the environmental monitoring department, have to head out myself just to check on a wild animal awakening…"

===

Oblivious to the high order mage approaching his location, Nolan continued snoozing peacefully. Until, his sweet dreams were interrupted by a strange sensation on his cheek.

"Hrmph…?"

A stick was poking his face. That by itself would not have been strange, since Nolan was sleeping in the wilds, but connected to the stick, was an old man squatting down next to Nolan and eyeballing him warily. Upon seeing Nolan wake up, the old man jumped back, lost his balance, cartoonishly regained it, then stood up straight to assume the appearance of a dignified senior mage. Nolan had just woken up completely, but seeing these antics, he started wondering if he was having a lucid nightmare.

"…"

"Ahem…"

"You are…?"

"My name matters not. Have you seen anything strange around this area, boy?"

Nolan knew. You just didn't want me to know your name in case I ever see you again right?

Fine…I'll give you a wild good chase then.

"I saw a strange looking bird run that way…"

Pointing to the right, Nolan gave the old man an answer after pondering about it for a second.

"…are you lying to me…?"

Nolan grimaced. As a loner isolated from human society, he had no idea how to lie convincingly. Giving up, Nolan raised his hands in surrender.

"Alright, I didn't see anything since I was blacked out until just now…when you were poking me with the stick."

"Ahem…alright then. Just put your hand on this orb and you can go on with your day."

The old mage seemed greatly embarrassed by his own childishness.

Seeing how the mage seemed to be an official of some region, due to his iconic robes adorned with a clearly shown sigil of his department, which Nolan recognised from seeing the magic tower officials from afar during his days of training, he put his hand on the offered orb.

The moment Nolan's hand touched the orb, a blinding light emitted from it, temporarily disorienting both the old mage and Nolan. Almost instantaneously, the orb shone a brilliant orange. Immediately, the old mage leapt tens of meters backwards, distancing himself from Nolan.

"You were a third circle mage? Why didn't you say anything…?"

"What's a mage?"

"…"

"WHO DO YOU WORK FOR? AND WHY ARE YOU WITHIN THE BORDERS OF THE REDISLE EMPIRE?"

The old mage was highly on edge now, having not detected a shred of mana from Nolan the moment he met him, he had assumed that Nolan was utilizing some form of disguise tool or enchanted artifact to hide his mana. His childish demeanour from earlier was nowhere to be found, and in its place, a serious, battle-worn expression glowered at Nolan.

"State your name and affiliation immediately…or I, Noctus, the thirteenth seat of the Redisle mage council, will utilize all means to capture you and bring you to the council for judgement."

Through gritted teeth, the old mage, now known as Noctus, gave a threatening warning to Nolan, whom he believed was a high mage concealing their mana with malicious intentions. Confused, but slightly intimidated, Nolan didn't know how to answer Noctus.

"I…"