The room was very quiet.
"The corruption is not severe," the young official added quickly. "It's not treatable yet, at least. The nature of this kind of mana corruption, born directly from an awakening event of this magnitude, doesn't respond to conventional healing methods, but—"
Cohen let out a short laugh.
"Ha..."
It came out quiet. Barely a sound at all. But it stopped both officials mid-sentence.
He wanted to laugh more. He could feel it sitting in his chest like something that didn't know whether it wanted to be grief or absurdity.
It was the laugh of a man who had spent years doing everything right—working twice as hard, asking for half as much, carrying what most people would have put down long ago—only to find that the one moment the universe had reached down to bless him, it had done so with its other hand already holding the supplementary curse.
He didn't let the laugh finish. He swallowed it back down and it settled somewhere low and heavy.
"So there's no treatment," he said, his voice even. "What does that mean for her? What does corruption actually do?"
The woman didn't flinch from his gaze, which he appreciated.
"It destabilizes her body's natural mana flow," she said. "She already had a weakened constitution. The corruption... compounds that. It won't kill her immediately. But over time, untreated, it will worsen. Her body will struggle to regulate itself. There will be episodes. Deterioration."
"Over what timeline?"
"We don't know precisely. This is genuinely unprecedented territory."
Cohen nodded once.
He was doing that thing he always did when the situation was at its worst—retreating into the part of himself that asked practical questions and measured distances and refused to drown.
"Is there anything that can help her, even if it doesn't treat it directly?"
"Mana stabilizers can slow the progression. High-grade ones. There are also certain Class abilities — we've seen, historically, in cases adjacent to this — that have shown capacity to interact with corruption in ways conventional healing cannot."
The woman held his gaze.
"As compensation for the accident, the Guild will cover her stabilization for two years. That's enough time for us to find a treatment or for you to grow stronger."
Cohen instantly understood what she hinted at.
'Right. I awakened. I can obtain the funds needed for her treatment more easily than before. Heck, I can even venture into the wild, looking for some medicine.'
'"Your will is my will," the being said after I requested to save my mother. It means there's a chance, right?'
He had known, somewhere in the part of him that had grown up fast and learned early how the world distributed its gifts, that it wouldn't be simple. That nothing given to him would ever arrive without something asked for in return.
Fine.
He would pay it. Fortunately… this wasn't the worst situation he had faced.
Like his mother once said, "The longer you drown in sorrow, the deeper you bury yourself. It only makes the climb out harder."
He would figure out his Class, master whatever it had given him, and find a way to obtain a solution.
He had carried her out of a collapsing building on a broken body. He would carry her through this too.
"Which ward is she in?" he asked.
- - - - -
After meeting his mother and discussing how he would move forward as an awakened, Cohen was finally briefed on what had happened that night.
On Tuesday night, there was a huge explosion in the environment.
The unspoken realization was that the Guild was responsible.
The leeway they had was that there were zero casualties.
But all the buildings within 2 km of the Guild headquarters collapsed.
Reconstruction had begun, and it was estimated to be complete in a week, so for now, the victims had to stay at the City edges under very intense protection.
Cohen had returned home that day.
It was a similar residential building to his older one, only this was closer to the walls… closer to danger.
Walking into his assigned apartment, Cohen was met face-to-face with his sister.
She hurried over to him and stared at him silently.
"Mom's in a coma again. Another lock-in period."
"This time, I'll be the only one locked in," Cohen smiled. "I awakened so I can make more! Well, mom's treatment costs a lot for normal awakened too, but I'll be a locked in awakened!"
"I'm glad you said it yourself. I won't be working like a madman with you."
"Sneaky brat, so you were just acting all enthusiastic as a farce."
They both laughed… the hidden sorrow behind it evident.
It was too much. Ceha couldn't hide it anymore.
Amidst the tears, she began crying.
She walked closer to Cohen, her head resting on his chest and her hands gripping his shirts tight.
Cohen stood silent as he hugged her.
After a minute or so, Ceha's tears subsided.
"Will mom be alright?"
"Has anything not been alright under my care?" Cohen released a dry chuckle.
Ceha stepped back, holding her brother's face with her hands.
"Cohen… will you be alright?"
"I don't know actually," Cohen said with a shrug. "Awakened do even crazier shits, y'know?
"It's tough enough to handle monsters when they're dead, how am I supposed to handle them when they're not?
"Then again, I could be a non-monster based Adventurer. But I don't think that racks enough."
Cohen realized he was feeling too comfortable when he concentrated back on his sister.
"Don't worry, Ceha. At the very least, I promise I'll try my very best to be fine."
Only then did Ceha feel slightly better.
Her worries didn't lie with her mother; they lay more with Cohen.
""Ceha… I need to go in now. I have to prepare for tomorrow."
"You agreed with the guild terms?"
"Of course, that's the best way to move forward."
Cohen was going on an impromptu training adventure with other Outliers tomorrow, under the supervision of the Guild.
The motives of the guild were obvious, but the newly awakened didn't have a choice right now.
"Wait, you haven't told me your class!" Ceha said.
"Yeah… Even I barely understand it right now, that's my preparation. I need to understand it before tomorrow."
Without adding further, Cohen moved to his room.
- - - - -
Cohen's room was small and simple.
There was a bed, a desk and chair, and a wardrobe occupying most of the space.
Sitting at the desk, he looked at the familiar system panel he had seen for the past 8 years.
But there was a difference now. There was now a Class and a Talent.
- - - - -
Name: Cohen Bennett
Race: Human
Age: 20
Class: Priest of Primordial [Mythic]
Talent: Baptism [SSS]
- - - - -
Whatever had spoken to him in that void… had clearly not been ordinary.
When Cohen thought he had seen it all, his eyes fell on the Event section.
- - - - -
Event Type: Personal
Title: Save Your Mother
Description: Sorry, I wasn't able to save your mother properly…
- - - - -
'Huh?'