"What the hell?"
Nora stared at his hand bewildered.
'This... Energy? Mana? What is this?'
Nora quickly stood up from his bed and looked at his own body. He could see the faint bluish energy flowing like a calm water all over his dantian.
Nora swallowed hard. This flow of energy is what make the difference between human and Paganin. But, how did he have it? He is not a Paganin.
"Alright, let's not think too much about it. Maybe I'm still dreaming, yeah, thats the only explanation."
Nora chuckled dryly as he shook his head and sat on his bed, getting ready to sleep again.
"Yeah, when i wake up in the morning, everything will turn normal. Yeah, right."
Nora laid his back again, close his eyes and waited to be drifted away.
One minute passed in silence. Ten minutes. Twenty minutes—
"ARGH!!! Goddamit!!"
Nora screamed and sat abruptly on his bed. His mind keep thinking about the flow of energy in his body so sleep wouldn't welcome him anymore.
"Fuck it, let's see..."
...
Nora stepped out from his home with a yawn. He greated the old lady who live across his and be on his way to find Jayden and Chrystal.
The dark circles below Nora's eyes are visible from working his ass so hard last night. Thanks to the surprise his body had for him.
Everything is so simple yet hard. The flow of energy in his body already stabilized without a need to do so. It flow seamlessly in his dantian. So, what he did last night is the harder part. That is to use its energy and materialize it. The reason why he looks so hagard right now.
Another yawn escaped Nora's lips as he walked to the front fence, where his friends are waiting for him.
"Good morning, Nora."
Chrystal greated him first then Jayden greated him with a wave of his hand, and a yawn.
Huh?
Nora blinked his eyes as he stopped right in front of them. Looking at his friends who somehow looked... like him?
"Why did you guys look like you just run a miles?"
"Speak about yourself, Nora."
"Well, the thing is..."
Chrystal started telling Nora about what happened last night. Appearently, both she and Jayden woke up in the middle of night because of the sudden burst of energy inside their body. So, despite of the surprise, they both tried so hard to calm the burst of energy by meditating all night long, just like how they heard the Paganin did it.
The awakening, –by how Jayden and Chrystal called it, is a bit diffrent with what Nora experienced last night when he didn't need to stabilized the energy.
"Did you guys have a weird dream before waking up?"
"A dream?"
Jayden asked while trying to remember last night event.
"No, i don't have any weird dream last night."
Chrystal added.
"Yeah, me neither."
Nora close his mouth and knitted his brow, deep in thought.
'So, its only me, huh?'
What was the dream about then.
"So, you got it too, Nora?"
Jayden's voice bring Nora back to reality and nodded his head.
"Yeah, i got mine too. I wonder why we got it at the same time."
"Beats me."
"So, in this town, we are the only one who have it." Chrystal said after being in deep thought.
She is right. No one in this town ever had an awakening. So, nobody could teach them and tell them about it. Even now, they're just doing things based on what they heard from a friendly Paganin who occasionaly come to the town to slayed the monsters around it.
"Anyway, let's go and let's find out more about this energy together. If we work together maybe it will be easier."
Jayden suggested while streaching his limbs then start walking.
"Alright."
With so much in his head, Nora walk side by side with his friends. They're planning to go a bit far today and find something to exchange for food. Though, he hasn't feel the hunger now, he will later. So, he'd better find something.
The power, the energy, the Paganin, and the dream. The more Nora think about it, the visible the headache he felt and no matter how hard he is thinking about it, there is no answer.
How did he get it? Why his are different from his friends? And for what reason?
From Nora's knowledge, only the Paganin are able to wield such energy. Human can't. The reason? He doesn't know. Thats another question he wanted to find the answer.
'I feel like my head is going to explode.'
There is so many things he doesn't know and he just realized that after being awakened.
'I want to know more...'
Nora sighed as he looked up at the sky. Its gray again today. Its been a week since the last time he could see the sun shining annoyingly bright in the sky. Now, he is starting to missed it.
...
Nora, Jayden, and Chrystal begin scrapping as soon as they arrived at the ruins. They walked 10 miles more from the yesterday's field of ruins.
Unlike yesterday's field, this place feels a bit cooler because there is trees and alot of bushes among the moldy ruins. Nora even noticed a butterfly, flied past him.
Nora worked diligently for the sake of having dinner tonight and for his luck, he didn't need to search for a long time. He quickly find some metal and screws. Rusty but it will find its use at the town and someone must need it.
Jayden and Chrystal also found their share quickly. Left with nothing to do, the three of them decided to dive more into the energy inside their bodies. If lucky, they could quickly materialize it and begin hunting monsters. Monsters part has value and maybe higher than some scrapping.
The three of them are too caught up in their conversation about the probability of the energy that they didn't noticed the sky are getting darker. They keep talking, voicing their idea about how to materialize it, noting the others idea to put it into action later.
A deep growl stopping them from talking. Their eyes widened and exchange looks with one another.
"What was that?"
Chrystal asked in low voice, almost inaudible because how scared she is.
Jayden looked up at the sky.
"Shit, its getting dark."
"Quickly gather your things and let's leave this place."
Nora said in hurried as he begin picking up the scraps he gathered before. The two followed suits.
Before they could stand up from the ground, the corner of Nora's eyes picked up a big silhoutte on their side. When he turned his head toward it, he couldn't even let out a breath.
There, standing tall in front of them is a monster. It grotesque body is so big that they had to look up to look at its eyes. It has six eyes, and the sockets looked like its melting while its eyeballs are moving around in six different ways.
The three of them frozen on the spot. Chrystal covered her mouth with her hands, afraid she will let out a scream. Nora and Jayden are in no better shape.
Nora screamed on his head.
'W-what should we do?'
They haven't materialize the energy so fighting the monster is the same as suicide.
Run away?
Nora stared at the monster tilting its head. His heart beating like crazy and his whole body shaking in fear. He wanted to try to move his foot carefully. Throw the scrap to divert the monster attention and run away.
But, before he could do any of it, he felt its six gaze on him. Chills run all over him.
"Don't move."
A low serene voice of woman rang on Nora's ear. He move his eyes to his side to see an adult woman with black long hair, a pair of deep black eyes and somehow... an eerie smile on her face.
Nora swallowed hard and did as the woman told. The other two who noticed the presence of the strange woman also followed.
They stayed unmoving for another minutes then slowly, the monster move its feet to another direction. Leaving them who still frozen on the ground.
"You all can move now."
The strange woman said at a certain distance of the monster has gone.
A breath of relief escaped their lips as the three of them slumped down on the ground, breathing heavily like they just did a marathon.
Nora was the first one to come to his sense and raised his head to look at the strange woman. He then realized the woman wear such a luxury black dress. Something that he never seen all his life.
"Thank you. Your advice save us."
"No worries."
The woman smiled, her eyes making a little crescent then turn normal again. She continued stared at Nora silently.
'Huh? What a strange woman.'
"Are you a Paganin?"
Jayden, who already come to his sense, got up from the ground. Shouldn't you thanking her first before asking?
The strange woman tilted her head. Her deep black eyes glinting with amusement at Jayden's words.
"Me? No. Lyn is a human like you."
"Lyn?"
"My name."
What a strange woman indeed.