'I wonder what my flaw is…' Alaric pondered silently.
It was only stated that in this era, a flaw accompanies the blessing. It wasn't stated what those flaws were.
It could be anything, really. Some might exhibit a flaw in character, while others might have a physical flaw.
'I wonder if it has anything to do with the sudden influx of emotions. If that's the case, it would be a character or personality flaw.'
Stopping himself from making any conclusions, he looked at the chains that bound his limbs.
He couldn't help but notice something strange about them.
There were symbols around the chains, from the base all the way to cuffs that held his limbs tightly.
His first thought was that it was merely for aesthetics, but his intuition told him otherwise.
Pause.
Ever since he woke up, he had been having that feeling. It felt like he was being led in the right direction.
He has never been one to trust his gut feelings alone, but he had done nothing but that since then. It felt right.
He had had moments of great intuition before this, which had led him to avoid some rather nasty situations.
Now, it seems his intuition has been turned into something that is always actively guiding him to the right path.
'It seems my intuition has been enhanced a great deal due to the awakening,' he thought, bringing his attention back to the chains.
Observing the symbols closely. He could see the effort put into the symbols as they were smoothly drawn on the chains with mastery.
He focused on a single character and was startled by what he saw. It was actually moving at a constant frequency. It was vibrating.
It was so subtle; it was practically unnoticeable. Every symbol on the chains was bobbing in a constant rhythm as though they were alive.
'Should I try to use my newfound ability to see if I can get some information about them?'
Having this thought, he decided to put it to the test. He concentrated on the symbol closest to him.
It took the shape of the number 7, but not quite. It was rather unique.
Information about it suddenly poured into his brain just like it had with the atom from before.
This time, though, it was not as overwhelming. The amount of information he received was not as much as that from the atoms.
It was not as detailed, and it was fragmented like a piece of something bigger whole.
'It seems I would have to go through each symbol and piece these fragmented informations together.'
Ignoring his rumbling stomach, he moved his gaze to each symbol, gaining fragmented pieces of information. It took him a while to put them together to form a whole.
'This is absolutely fascinating.'
From the information he pieced together, these symbols were called runes. They are a language in which each symbol holds a certain power based on the intent of the person doing the inscription.
These symbols, in particular, were written with two specific intents.
Gather and infuse.
At first glance, he thought the runes were engraved with great expertise, but after glancing at them and compiling the information of their purpose, he could also see their flaws.
He couldn't help but curse under his breath.
'Whoever engraved this is either an ignorant fool or an absolutely vile person.'
The purpose of the runes was to gather energy (origin energy), then infuse it into whoever was attached to it through their limbs.
This had been the reason he had survived for so long without food or water. His body was being forced to take in origin energy.
This energy is more than enough to sustain him if his body does not reject it.
This would be good if the rune engraver had put some thought into what they were doing.
They had only given instructions to gather and infuse. Whatever the body does with said energy is solely left to the innate talent of said individual.
'No wonder so many children are dead,' he thought grimly.
If the runist had been more thoughtful, they would have added another instruction like nourish, sustain, or nutrify; it would have been more efficient, and a lot fewer would have died by now.
'This explains why I keep feeling hungry despite feeling full.'
He was in a perpetual state of hunger because of some incompetent runist.
Feeling helpless about the incompetence of another, he decided to ignore the feeling of hate that was brewing within him.
He didn't have much else to do than to keep observing the runes of other pits too, but quickly lost interest. They were all the same.
So he tried to correct the flaws, but was stuck because he lacked sufficient knowledge about the subject.
His musing was interrupted by the sudden movement of the thing attached to his beating heart.
He couldn't help but grimace, 'it's starting again'.
He could never get used to the pain,
The suction force came again, drawing blood directly from his heart. He weakly raised his head to observe the process, but still couldn't see where the blood was going, or for what purpose it was being used.
He turned his attention to the other pits and noticed the same thing was happening over there, too.
He could see the grimace forming on the faces of the listless, corpse-like children all around. Some tried to scream, but they couldn't find the strength to.
The only ones that managed to let out a peep were the newcomers—those who hadn't spent up to a week in the pit.
His observation was cut short as weakness quickly took over him. His consciousness started to fade away, then suddenly he felt a sharp pain across his eyes.
They throbbed like two hearts that were being squeezed. He instinctively knew that this was a warning; if he fell asleep, something terrible would happen.
He desperately tried to keep himself awake, but couldn't seem to manage. Then he remembered his innate technique.
It was a technique that thrived in these kinds of situations.
He started to recite the first passage of the technique.
"My will is forged from primal chaos, my body its hammer…"
As he recited, he could feel it was getting easier to endure his current situation.
Within his mental world, the endless kaleidoscope started to churn faster.