Back to the present time

After a few minutes of chattering between the people in the room, the person on the corner said loudly:

"Listen here, children; the room allocated for your awakening has been prepared. Form a single file line and proceed to the door in front of me."

"Also, refrain from chatting from this point onwards. Focus on yourselves in this awakening event by gathering your resolve. This procedure will be your first step to adulthood and it will significantly impact your future in more ways than you expected, so do your best. Good luck to all of you brats!" said the man with a slight smile but a stern expression.

After the man talk, row by row the children started standing up. And One by one, the group in the room formed a single file line waiting in front of the door. After a while, almost all of the children in the room was in that line before they let people enter gradually in succession.

Maria, and Clarice, who were in front of the line, also entered, but before they entered, they bid Nicholas a short farewell and wished him to do his best. Nicholas returned the sweet gesture, and by his turn, he opened the door, entering a long and narrow hall.

Besides the hall, there are cubicles where people from the room are attempting to awaken. he was escorted to a free cubicle, which was larger than the rest of the hall.

Maybe it was nepotism, but it was fine for Nicholas; he might be able to concentrate better if he had a bigger room.

As he entered the cubicle, looking around, he noticed that the wall facing the hall was a one-sided mirror. He had thought earlier that it was just a clear glass as he saw people inside the cubicles.

Nicholas: *Maybe they need to observe us if things go awry they can do some counter measure to save us* he thought

Then he looked down on the floor and saw a basket where the materials necessary for awakening were placed.

Nicholas: "This is a suitable place for awakening; soundproofing is nice, there is even a soft pillow for more comfort, I guess I should start now" he talked himself into the awakening process since he is also slightly nervous.

Shortly after observing his surroundings, he sat down in a meditative pose, composing himself for his impending awakening. He took a deep breath to clear his mind and remembered the steps for the awakening for the final time.

*breath in* *breath out* *breath in* *breath out*

It took several minutes to clear his mind and condition his resolve to go through the awakening procedure. He felt his breathing was calm and steady, his mind is focused, and his nervousness is at its lowest.

Nicholas: "Let's do this." he mumbled as he closed his eyes.

After that, he reached for the basket of awakening material. Nicholas nimbly removed the enhancement stone from the basket earlier, replacing it with the enhancement stone given by the Gacha.

Actually, it was the day before the awakening ceremony. Nicholas's father called him to his office to advise and reiterate the tips on awakening; he also gave him higher-quality enhancement stones. However, its luster is still lacking compared to the stones given by the Gacha.

Now that his mind is fully composed, Nicholas felt through the basket and grabbed a small knife and the conduit, he then punctured his finger tips with the knife, and dropped blood on the conduit.

Then he gently attached the piece of paper to his chest, waiting for the conduit to attach to his body. Feeling a little bit of sting, he knows that the conduit is slowly engraving itself on his chest, he waited patiently.

Feeling that the conduit had mostly been engraved, he quickly grabbed and firmly grasped in his hand the promotion gem, dropped blood on it, and then placed it next to his chest, focusing and waiting for it and the conduit to interact.

He slowly opened his eyes and looked at the gem, he waited for a slight glow to appear inside it. Afterward he let go of the promotion gem which was still on his chest, but contrary to falling down on the floor, the promotion gem just floated near his chest, where the conduit is located.

Nicholas slowly closed his eyes again while taking in deep breaths. "This is it," he whispered while picking up two enchantment stones, one on each hand.

Stolen novel; please report.

"…"

Focusing on his hands, he felt the mana from the stones is suddenly being sucked up by his body. He didn't feel startled, instead he carefully manipulated the pure mana contained inside the enchantment stone. Slowly circulating it around his arm, up to his head, down his back through his spine to the soles of his feet, then coming up his torso through his chest, finally settling on the conduit.

Nicholas: "2 stones down..." he said his hands slightly trembled due to the unnerving pain but easily bearable.

Feeling confident that he could handle more, this time picking up four stones. Using the same method of circulation, this time, a lot more mana surged around his body, and he definitely felt his muscles trembling, feeling a little bit electrocuted due to the stimulation of each nerve that mana passes through his body.

Nicholas: "6 s-stones down." he said with a slight tremble in his voice.

Idling for a few seconds, he contemplated whether increasing the number of enchantment stones would yield better results. He then examined himself for a quick second and felt through his promotion gem. He then found out that only on its half capacity, "Might as well do it," he thought.

Grabbing six stones simultaneously takes more time to circulate the mana inside the stone. When the mana from the stone surged into his arm, he started sweating profusely trying to control and channel the mana up to his head; then his eyelids started twitching even though it was closed but he bared through the pain; every part of his body where the mana passed through started trembling.

Nicholas: *Just a little bit more* he thought, feeling the gem on the verge of being completely filled as he absorbed the mana inside the enchantment stone.

Nicholas: "Success." feeling happy and surprised for himself. A slight grin appeared on his charming face. He was honestly surprised that it took 12 enchantment stones to fill the promotion gem.

Honestly, he was expecting a lot more pain. The description of awakening is to feel something scraping your skin while being electrocuted while he only felt the zap on his body.

Nicholas: "Maybe it's due to the lack of impurities on the stones." he said as he didn't feel that much resistance in the enchantment stone.

Nicholas: "Alright, time for the real test." He gritted his teeth, picked up a stone, and then clenched it.

Nicholas: "50% over enchant' huh?" carefully absorbing one stone each time, he circulated the mana all over his body.

Nicholas: "That's one." he mumbled as he successfully absorbed the mana inside the stone. He then discarded the emptied enchantment stone and continued absorbing the rest.

Nicholas: "2.." He again discarded the emptied enchantment stone as he reconsidered his decision to over-enchant due to the pain that suddenly and still gradually increasing.

Nicholas: "3.." His fingernails were digging into his palms as he clutched the remaining 3 stones in his hands.

*huff* *huff* *huff* *huff* After a few minutes, his garments were drenched with sweat and grime while coming out of his body, which accumulated in a short amount of time.

Nicholas: "4... I hope this is worth the power boost."

Nicholas: "5... For my future self, be grateful." His nose and gums are already bleeding. He then used the last piece of enchantment stone and started absorbing the mana inside of it. The corner of his eyes was bleeding, and he was trembling uncontrollably and after a few minutes.

Nicholas: "Yeah." he weakly mumbled as he succeeded in incorporating 6 more enchantment stone to his body.

[Mission Completed]

[Awaken your soul core]

Falling unconscious on the ground. The symbol on his chest changed to a dagger while the gem turned ethereal, changed color, and was then submerged in his chest.

Meanwhile outside the cubicles, a supervisor is currently making rounds observing the kids awaken saw Nicholas's body fall into the floor.

Seeing the thud, the supervisor monitoring the kids quickly rushed into the cubicle. Seeing Nicholas was bleeding, he was not that surprised; it was quite common for achievers to try over-enchantment. It was a necessary risk to take if you wanted to be stronger than most of your peers.

He then quickly checked his constitution to check if he's in immediate danger. The supervisor heaved a sigh of relief because Nicholas is doing fine, and after that he yelled outside.

"Hey Drakin!! Take the young master to the recovery room. Let the maid clean him up and bathe him. After that, take him to the head doctor to get him checked for any internal injuries. He did a great job, and the count would be proud of his efforts."

Slowly and gently, he picked up Nicholas, who was unconscious, and transferred him to the person he called.

...

Nicholas woke up after a few hours of resting. He opened his eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling.

"Ughh." A tired moan came from his mouth since he tried to move and discovered that his body was still aching from the awakening procedure.

Groggy and still a bit tired, he immediately closed his eyes again to go back to sleep.

But before successfully getting sleep again, the voice of a maid suddenly crept up to his ears.

Edela: "Young master, are you awake?"

She asked Nicholas in a polite and nearly muted voice to avoid disturbing him.

Nicholas: "mmh"

Nicholas groaned as a response; he was too tired to respond.

Edela: "Young master, you need to eat first before returning to sleep. You expended a lot of energy during the awakening."

Nicholas just opened his mouth, slightly too tired to reply to Edela.

Edela, however, got his gesture and immediately but gently fixed Nicholas laid posture to a sitting one. Then after, she fed him slowly, letting Nicholas slowly chew the food.

Nicholas: "How are Maria and Clarice?" he asked

While eating, Nicholas got to thinking about what Maria and Clarice's awakening went through. Were they fine? He didn't know and was a little anxious about them, so he asked Edela if maybe she knew about their situation.

Edela: "They are fine, young master; like you, they are just a bit tired and also resting. You guys can meet tomorrow after a nice rest."

Nicholas: "Thanks; I'm full and tired."

He said this to Edela and wiggled his body, returning to his previous sleeping position. As Nicholas wiggled to find a comfortable position, Edela stood up from her seat and then left the room to let his young master get some nice rest.