After an unknown amount of time, Raizel finally opened his eyes.
"HAAH!" He shot up, taking deep breaths of air. With a bewildered look on his face, he quickly put his hand on his chest.
*Lub Dub* *Lub Dub*
Feeling the rhythmic sound of his heart beating in his chest, Raizel heaved a sigh of relief. He was not dead.
'I am sure my heart stopped, what happened? Did I pass out?'
Recalling events from earlier, many questions filled his mind, when suddenly he recalled an urgent matter. "What was that sound from earlier?"
He checked around but found nothing. The sound did not seem to come from his phone, it came directly into his mind, not through the ears.
"An awakening? Not possibly, right?" He smiled, a little hopeful. The events leading up to the circumstance were rather unusual, and the most unusual thing in the world was an awakening.
Just as Raizel was in his thoughts, he suddenly caught sight of his reflection in the mirror across the wall.
His eyes widened, mouth agape. "WHO IS THAT? ME?"
Before, Raizel was a young man with black hair, blue eyes and a pale complexion. He stood at the height of 5 feet 10 inches and had a rather average face.
But now?
Wavy, shoulder length, seaweed like dark-black hair that was swept back, a few tendrils cascading down his face rested atop his head. Crimson eyes that looked like rubies replaced his old blue eyes. His facial complexion remained the same pale, but his facial contours had sharpened making him seem pretty handsome. His height had also gone up a few inches, pushing him into the 6 feet zone.
Such a transformation was incredible.
"I actually awakened, didn't I!?" A smile so unnatural it looked terrifying spread across Raizel's face. He felt a joy he didn't know he could feel. His body felt warm, the fabric of clothes against his skin felt comfortable, everything in the moment felt surreal!
"FINALLY!" He screamed, taking a deep breath. "Even my injuries have healed. I must have awakened a pretty decent gift to have such effects."
In the world, many people awakened all sorts of gifts. Some were strong, some were weak but none were useless. All people who awaken their gift are strengthened in special ways to use their gift to its full potential. For most people, it is physical strengthening, their strength, stamina etc are all elevated to inhuman levels. This physical strengthening does not end there, each time their gift becomes more powerful, they will continue to grow stronger in all regards. This was the path of Awakeners.
Although it was rare, it was not unheard of to have physical appearances change due to a gift. It just meant that the gift was that much stronger!
Raizel realized this and was thus quite happy.
"But what is my gift? Don't most awakeners know what their gift is just after their awakening?" Raizel muttered. It was indeed true that Awakeners just after their awakening have the basic knowledge of their gift imparted into their brain, but this didn't seem to be the case for Raizel.
As if to answer his question, the same strange sound from earlier echoed in Raizel's brain.
[DING]
Then, just before he could do anything, a translucent screen materialized before his eyes.
[COMMAND 'STATUS' IS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE]
Raizel watched the scene before his eyes in astonishment. He had never seen or heard of any gift like this before. Only in games or novels had he seen such concept.
'Is this my gift? Did it appear in this form to make interaction easier? Or is it something else entirely.' Lots of questions pooled in Raizel's mind in just a few moments. However, to gain more knowledge of what the strange system was, he went ahead and did as told.
'STATUS'
He gave the command in his mind and soon the translucent panel before him changed form.
===========================
Name: Raizel Gustav
Race: Monster (Incomplete)
[Assessment: GRADE 1]
------------------
STRENGTH: 19
STAMINA: 14
AGILITY: 20
PERCEPTION: 13
VITALITY: 22
FORCE: 15
------------------------
[AVG MALE HUMAN ADULT STATS ARE 10 IN EACH SECTION]
------------------------
[SKILLS]
- Transformation
- Force control
- Shadow Tendrils
===========================
Staring at the screen intently, the smile on Raizel's face slowly vanished.
"Monster?" In an almost inaudible voice he spoke, his body trembled. "Nothing can be easy after all huh. I guess this gift came from the devil himself."
He chuckled but it was a hollow one. Then he clenched his hands into fists. "Well, I am grateful to whoever gave me this gift. I asked for this, I am not going to chicken out now. It doesn't matter if I have to shed my humanity, I am going to survive and that is absolute."
Raizel's crimson eyes shone with a resolute gleam; his resolve was unwavering and his determination stone cold.
'Now it is time to check if this ability is a actually a gift or a curse…'