Everyone heard that terrifying scream of Drasika. They rushed toward her room and saw—
Little Rudra was covered in a lotus flame.
When Ruzel saw this, he exclaimed,
"Fire awakening? But how? He was just born today. What catalyst is responsible for this awakening? Judging by the intensity of these flames, the catalyst must belong to some legendary beast. Drasika, calm down, our boy is all right—it's just a fire awakening."
Drasika's voice trembled with worry.
"But he's just a baby…"
Ruzel replied, "Try to remember what caused his awakening, Drasika. It's impossible without a catalyst of some kind. Did anything unusual touch him?"
Drasika was thoughtful.
"Yes, a feather flew in from the window and landed on his chest. As I went to remove it, it transformed into an aura, covering his whole body. Then it took the form of this burning lotus."
Ruzel's curiosity grew.
"What did the feather look like, Drasika?"
Drasika answered, "It was orange with red and blue stripes running through it."
Ruzel's eyes widened with excitement.
"Drasika, it's time to celebrate! Our guardian beast has granted his blessing to our son. That feather belonged to a phoenix!"
Everyone was left stunned and speechless.
The blessing of a phoenix was an extraordinary event; even seeing such a legendary beast was rare.
(Now, you must be curious why the phoenix gifted his feather to Rudra. The truth was, even the phoenix didn't know. The majestic creature belonged to the nation's previous king, tasked with protecting the village. It lived in the dense forest nearby, and while flying through the sky, one of its feathers broke off and drifted to Rudra purely by chance.)
Eventually, they set aside their astonishment and waited for the awakening process to complete. Awakening triggered by a legendary beast's catalyst was a phenomenon rarely witnessed.
Hours passed. People began to leave, until only Rudra and his parents remained.
After fifteen hours, the process ended at last. The lotus shrank and merged into Rudra.
Ruzal and Drasika were overjoyed.
Rudra finally awoke from his deep sleep.
Rudra's Thoughts
"Mom, Dad—good morning. You both look so happy… Did something happen? But first, what is this warm feeling? It's like my whole body is burning, but it doesn't hurt. On the contrary, it feels soothing and wonderful. I don't know what this is, but I like it."
Ruzel's laughter filled the air,
"Rudra, my boy, you are truly lucky! Your first awakening, on the day you were born!"
Rudra was confused.
"Rudra! Is that me? So they named me Rudra… Nice, my new parents did a great job! Wait, what's this awakening Dad mentioned? Is it why I'm feeling so warm and comfortable? Well, there's no point in pondering—I can't even ask them anything."
For now, Rudra decided to focus on accessing that mysterious book.
After some time
Ruzel said, "Drasika, it's late. We should get some sleep."
Rudra's mind lit up.
"Today luck is on my side. Now I can visit that book without worrying about slaps!"
He concentrated hard, picturing that strange place and the floating book ,this time he pictured it correctly and suddenly, his consciousness shifted, and he arrived.
At the center hovered the magical book, bathed in dazzling golden light.
He reached out. The book opened, its pages turning on their own. One page stopped.
Magical letters appeared, forming words:
"Magic and Its Origin"
Rudra smiled with delight.
"Thank goodness—it's in my language! At last, I'll learn about the magic I've always dreamed of."
The Book's Teachings
"Magic and Its Origin
Our creator, Lord Lionir, when he came into existence, created many things. Our world and us are two among them. Everything seen and unseen, felt and unfelt, is formed from his essence. That divine essence flows through all living and non-living things.
Living beings with consciousness can shape some of their imagination into reality using this essence like the seven elements and their sub-parts
Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Space, Light, Dark.
Combine Fire and Light to create Lightning.
Manipulate temprature of Water to form Ice.
Teleportation, and storage fall under Space magic
Shadow walk, drain, and darkness belong to Dark magic. Mastery allows creation of Black hole on a limited scale.
Healing, purification, and light are features of Light magic. Mastering Light lets one become invisible and create illusions.
In this world, this essence is called Mana.
For humans and human-like beings, mana resides in the soul. To use magic, one must first absorb their soul core which resides deep within the soul."
"By absorbing the soul core, one gains the ability to channel mana from the soul dimension to their physical body.
But performing magic requires two conditions:
First, affinity with an element. If one lacks affinity, they can obtain it from someone who possesses it.
Second, awakening the element inside the body, which requires a catalyst.
Absorb the soul core before or after awakening."
Pages turned, revealing new chapters.
Soul Core and Dimensions
"To acquire the soul core, transfer your consciousness into your soul dimension.
Soul dimension: The soul and physical body exist parallelly in distinct dimensions. The dimension where the soul dwells is called the soul dimension.
Soul and body are bound by a thread—the thread of life.
To shift your consciousness into the soul dimension, you must create a stable dimensional tunnel within that thread."
"How to Create a Dimensional Tunnel
First, calm your mind and let your thoughts flow.
Then, visualize this diagram step by step."
(A diagram of the dimensional tunnel is drawn on the page.)
After reading, Rudra thought,
"Awakening… Dad mentioned something about that. Oh yeah, my first awakening! But for which element? It's felt like burning and it was warm so the probability of fire element is at most , but I don't know it's really fire or not because I am not aware of the rules and process of awakening, and to find out the elemental,I need to harness mana to try doing magic, and for that, I must create a dimensional tunnel, get the soul core, and absorb it. That's my next mission—create a dimensional tunnel."
He flipped through the rest of the book, but the remaining pages were blank.
Rudra grumbled,
"What's this? There should be more chapters teaching how to perform magic, but it's all blank. Where am I supposed to learn magic after harnessing mana?"
But he quickly decided,
"There's no point in arguing. My first goal is to get the soul core by creating a stable tunnel. That's what I'll focus on."