The first peaceful night in years should have felt like a blessing.It didn't.
Kael woke up early and opened the window of his hotel room.
The whole room was illuminated by the sunlight as it threatened to blind him.
"Ah. A beautiful morning I guess."
Another thing he found out was that each awakened received some credit points, which were usually awarded to government employees as salaries.
It was simply put equivalent to an allowance, which would be enough to last him a week or so depending on how he managed it.
With it, he booked a room at a hotel that was modest by middle-settlement standards, but to someone like him, it was rather luxurious.
In a place where even a decent place to sleep wasn't easy to come by, a proper hotel was a dream.
There was a hot shower—which he had never used before—a cafeteria where he could eat to his fill, and most importantly, no noise.
Even the bed seemed something straight from a fairytale; the pillows were so comfortable that he fell asleep the moment his back touched the bed.
It was amazing.
Or at least it should have been.
No matter how he tried to push it off his mind, he couldn't forget the things he went through in the challenge.
The near-death experience and dead people just wouldn't go away.
He managed to shrug off the pain that was gripping his heart for a bit and walked into the bathroom to take his shower; he couldn't be late for his new job.
After a few minutes, he strolled to the cafeteria to get breakfast.
He looked around, appreciating the neat environment, and then took a look at his watch; he still had an hour and a few minutes.
After having a sumptuous meal for breakfast, he left the cafeteria.
It took Kael about twenty minutes by foot to get to the intersection closest to the gate he was headed to.
'More than thirty minutes left, not bad for the first day.'
He looked at the streets full of ordinary people, some awakened; he even noticed two ascended simply walking into a restaurant a few blocks away.
Everything seemed so peaceful.
"That's enough sulking for one day.
He took a route he had previously found out to be a shortcut.
"Almost—"
Just as he came out at the end of the route, the roar of an engine tore through the quiet street.
Kael's instincts screamed before his mind caught up.
'What the hell, Isn't the traffic light red?'
Before the car got any closer, Kael dove out of the car's path.
'Damn it.'
He got up cursing under his breath as the car pulled to an abrupt stop.
His heart was beating violently against his ribs; if he had been a fraction late, he would be headed for the hospital instead of his workplace.
"Are you crazy? Didn't you learn how to drive?"
Heat from the engine washed over him.
The vehicle screeched to a violent stop several meters ahead.
A brief silence followed.
Then the sharp hiss of cooling metal.
As he got up to his feet, the door of the PCV swung open and a young lady came out of it.
The lady was probably a few years older than Kael.
Her calm brown eyes were slightly covered by her long black hair, she rushed over to see what happened to the person she thought she had hit.
Kael fell back to the ground for a bit.
Once she arrived, he simply held his foot and looked up at her.
"Damn it, did it break or something?"
"Are you okay? I'm really sorry about what happened.
I was in a rush to get to somewhere and missed the red light."
Her voice carried urgency — but not panic.
Kael looked at her for a bit, and an idea came to mind.
"Well, there's not much of an issue except I'll need to go to the hospital to get this foot checked out and give a statement to the officers when they ask me about how I got injured."
The lady's face grew pale.
"Please calm down; let's not involve any authorities."
There it is.
She hesitated—calculating.
She paused and thought for a bit before she continued her statement.
"Okay, what if I take you to the hospital and pay all the bills, then give you a bit extra?"
Kael noticed the worrying look on her face.
Kael hid the small smile that almost formed.
'Hooked.'
He let out a reluctant sigh.
'So, she's either related to a famous guild and can't afford to get in trouble or she's a government official.
Though the first seems more likely.'
He sighed.
"No, that won't work.
I need to get to work first and inform my boss that I won't be able to work for a while.
It's my first day you see, I can't have him think I'm not serious with work.
After that, I'll go to the hospital so you can just drive to work and give me the money."
The girl gave him a suspicious look.
"Okay fine, let's go.
I have somewhere to get to."
"Thank you."
When they arrived at the gate, she gave him another questioning look.
"This is where you work?"
"Yeah, it's my first day just like I said."
Her frown changed into a smile, though Kael didn't see it because she had looked away.
"Then let's go inside."
As they headed to the barricade that surrounded the huge oval-shaped spatial tear.
'A gate—I haven't seen one in a long time."
Gates were measured by a grading system based on the amount of essence measured upon indication of the spatial tear.
Grades 1-7.
The highest that had been experienced in the NUSC, with the exception of the first gate that appeared 40 years ago, which was a grade 6 gate known as the "Calamity gate" that appeared 9 years ago when Kael was still a child.
An alert would be sent to all citizens in the area via smartphone, which would also provide an estimated time before the gate opened as well as the time before the appropriate response squad arrived.
The very thought of gates opening was a terrifying thought in the outskirts, so the alert sent most people into panic because even a grade 2 gate would spell doom for entire cities because ascended were the minimum requirement to close it.
As the strongest in the outskirts were merely awakened, most of the people who were strong had left to work for guilds in the middle settlements.
Kael personally knew how terrifying gates could be since he lost both of his parents, and his younger sister also went missing during the "Calamity Gate."
"By the way, my name is Nova."
Kael had been lost in thought for about a minute before she spoke again.
"Sorry?"
"I said my name is Nova; what's yours?"
Kael gave her a weird look.
"We'll be going our separate ways now, so why?"
He had a feeling they would be seeing each other more than he would have wanted since they got out of the car and someone greeted her in a respectful manner.
'Just who is she anyways?'
"It's Kael.
Are you part of the team that's going to enter the gate?"
His question surprised her.
"How did you know that? I didn't mention anything about it."
A smirk appeared on his face.
"You were in a rush to get to work, but you were wearing your usual clothes, mostly worn under armor, and the moment we got here, the worried expression on your face eased."
Although those reasons were not the most determining factor, he simply saw the flow of essence in her and checked her status details.
"Yes, that's right.
But you also didn't mention that you were awakened."
Kael smiled and turned to face her.
"No, should I have?"
"You swindler."
She had given him money to cover medical bills as well as compensation.
"Wow, is that a way to address a coworker, even though we have completely different jobs?"
Nova frowned and cursed.
"You – "
She was interrupted by a figure that seemed to be addressing her.
"Miss Nova, you're here now."
It was a man who looked to be in his late twenties, clad in armor.
"Ah, squad commander Derick, I assume everyone's waiting inside?"
"Yes, we were waiting for you to arrive."
The man looked at Kael.
"You're part of the porter team, right? Shouldn't you be inside with the others?"
"Yes, sir, I was delayed due to an unpleasant incident.
He turned and looked at Nova for a moment; she responded with a disgusted look.
"Anyways, it was nice meeting you, miss.
I'll be going now."
Nova returned to her usual quiet and calm appearance, with her face not betraying any hint of the emotion.
Kael got inside the barricade and met the leader of the porters, Allen.
"Why are you already late on your first day?"
He bowed slightly before responding.
"I'm sorry, I was involved in an accident with a member of the Raid team."
Immediately after he said it, he could feel the stares of most of the porters fall upon him.
'Did I say something wrong?'
Mr. Allen sighed, pressing his palms onto his face.
"These youngsters are always getting in trouble.
Listen, kid, you're new here, so I'll give you a piece of advice, okay?"
He placed a hand on Kael's shoulder and continued.
"Don't get involved with the raid team; people like them have no business with us."
"Okay sir, thank you for your concern."
Mr. Allen smiled a bit.
No worries, just try and stay away from trouble, okay?"
"Yes, sir."
Just then the Raid team walked towards them with Nova in front along with two other people.
There was a man and a woman, both dressed in plain clothes.
Just then, plates of armor wove into existence to clothe each of them.
'Armor-type armaments, huh?'
He activated his "Inquire" skill to check their stats and the rank of their armor.
Name: Magnus Stormfang
Level: Ascended
Soul core potential: Feral
Innate ability: Kinetic Capacitor [Can harness Kinetic energy and momentarily use it to increase strength.]
Ascended ability Kinetic armor boost [Can use stored-up kinetic energy to empower equipment.]
Stats
[Strength: 103]
[Stamina: 98]
[Endurance: 79]
[Agility: 73]
[Intelligence: 31]
[Essence: 145]
'Wow, 103? Even three of me would struggle against this guy.'
Name: Lilith Stormfang
Level: Ascended
Soul core potential: Beast
Innate ability: Sonic sound [Can amplify sound produced.]
Ascended ability: Kinetic boost [Can turn sound into amplified sonic blasts.]
Stats
[Strength: 68]
[Stamina: 71]
[Endurance: 77]
[Agility: 68]
[Intelligence: 42]
[Essence: 210]
"Stormfang? Isn't that the same last name as that Nova girl?
I guess things aren't as simple as I thought."