Heading outside, Sonus made large strides toward the ACC headquarters, a look of grim determination on his face.
Gone was the self-satisfied look he once had, Sonus now appeared far more determined than ever. While during the past month Sonus had never forgotten his goal of killing the Shuten-Doji, it had always remained as a sort of afterthought in the back of his mind.
However, hearing the news report this morning had brought this seemingly ethereal goal back down to reality; Sonus wasn't in some sort of game where he had the time to slowly develop his power before finally defeating the final boss - no, this was the real world.
For every day that the Shuten-doji walked freely on the Earth was another day that humans would lie awake in fear of sudden death, a being far stronger than they could comprehend reaping their life like a pig to the slaughter.
Steps heavy, Sonus continued forward with a determined light shining within his emerald eyes.
--
Arriving before a rather large office-like building, Sonus wasted not time in entering through the front doors.
Upon stepping inside, Sonus bear witness to a structure awfully reminiscent of a doctors office with a receptionist desk toward the front and a number of chair lining the wall.
Stepping toward the receptionist, Sonus stood in line to wait his turn. Before him was a decently long line of people, numbering around 6-7 people.
The reason there were so many people was that within the past month, there had been an influx of either people registering as what were now coming to be known as 'Awakeners', registering for the joining of a guild or becoming a Solo'er, applying for a position within the ACC, or even guild leaders coming to get their allocation of portals.
Waiting patiently in line for his turn, Sonus lazily glanced around him. However, what shocked him was that there seemed to be a decent amount of people that were glancing at him.
What was truly strange however, was that a majority of those that were looking at Sonus were female. This led to Sonus wondering if there was something wrong with the way he looked or something.
After his parents death, Sonus had fallen out of the habit of taking care of himself, this led to his previously near malnourished state. It was only a month ago when Sonus first awakened his powers that he had finally started taking care of himself once again.
However, Sonus took taking care of himself to the extreme after he had awakened his powers, not like in the past where he had only done what was considered necessary. This meant the whole shebang, using good skin care products, using the proper shampoo and conditioner for his hair, etc.
This, naturally, meant Sonus had little to no clue as to whether his current appearance would be deemed as attractive or not.
After thinking all this over, Sonus chose the most sensible option regarding how to deal with the stairs he was currently receiving, and that was to ignore them.
After around 15 minutes of waiting in line, it was finally Sonus' turn. Stepping up to the receptionist, Sonus looked down at the rather attractive young man sitting before him, a slightly forced smile taking shape on his face.
"Hello, what can I do for you today?"The young man asked, glancing up at Sonus with a rather bland expression.
Sonus paid this no heed, instead giving a straight to the point answer, not wishing to waste his time on pointless chatter.
"I was wondering if I could register as an awakened as well as a Solo'er right now?" Sonus said, his tone coming out rather indifferent.
This seemingly simple sentence caused the bland expression of the young man behind the counter to gain a more serious hint to it, the way he looked at Sonus changing from a bored glance to one that seemed to be almost sizing him up.
Sonus paid no heed to this, it was only natural after all. There was a reason that most people joined guilds, completing a dungeon by oneself was a monumental task in comparison to working with a large group, especially so soon after people had awakened their powers.
That was the reason why Soloer's tended to be more powerful than guild members; to have the confidence in completing a dungeon alone showed that one had a power far stronger than the average.
After a moment of sizing Sonus up, the young man behind the counter called over another staff member who then escorted him to an office. The room was well decorated, with a number of trophies and awards lining the shelves. Clearly, this office space belonged to somebody far higher up in the ACC.
After giving the room a once over, Sonus' eyes eventually came to rest on the figure currently seated within the office chair, a man who was currently staring at him.
The man had a rather imposing look, his aura causing him to appear as if he were the same height as Sonus even while sitting down, with eyes that seemed to be readying for a fight at any moment. The man had a robust physique filled with muscles, his arms seeming almost capable of wrestling a bear.
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The second Sonus stepped foot in the room, the man seemed to be sizing him up, almost seeming as if he were weighing his chances of taking Sonus down in a fight.
Yet, even though this man released such an imposing aura, Sonus remained unaffected. This was thanks to his month-long training wherein he had constantly been withstanding the aura of a literal army. Even with the lowest amount of soldiers he could currently summon, the aura they released wasn't something that this man could compare with.
Still, while Sonus was unaffected by this aura, that didn't mean that he showed no reaction.
Sonus could feel his body tense in preparation for a battle, his mind stirring to bring his energy bubbling to the surface, ready to be used at a moments notice.
Yet, just as suddenly as it came, the aura the man released seemed to disappear like smoke. Along with the receding of his aura came a far more pleasant expression to the man's once stern face.
With a loud guffaw, the man stood up and walked over to Sonus, his large meaty hand coming to smack atop Sonus' shoulder.
As the man stood up, Sonus couldn't help but to find it a little comical that he had previously seen this man as seeing eye-to-eye with him considering the mans stature of around 5'8 compared to Sonus' own 6'4.
"Haha, Young man, the fact you can so easily resist my aura and even muster up the courage to prepare for a fight with me already gives you the qualifications to become a Solo'er. However, I must warn you of the dangers of walking down this path. It is far more dangerous to enter even an F-ranked dungeon alone than a D-ranked dungeon with a team, this is due to you having to fight an army of enemies relying solely on yourself."
Towards the latter half of his sentence, the tone within the mans voice changed from the friendly tone it once was to a much more serious one, seeming to be truly stressing the importance of his words.
Here, the man seemed to pause for a second, seemingly searching Sonus' face for something. Seemingly finding whatever he was looking for, the man continued on, his voice regaining the jubilance it had held at the start of his words,
"However, I can tell from the look on your face that you're prepared for the consequences of your actions, as such I will not try to persuade you otherwise. Doing so would make me little more than a hypocrite, I was after all, the one to create the Solo'er classification."
After this moment of tenseness, the atmosphere within the office seemed to lighten up. Sonus would spend the next few hours with the man, coming to learn a great deal about what it means to be a Solo'er as well as what the portals were truly like. Along this time, Sonus also came to know the man as Mr. Park, the current head of the Solo'er department of ACC.
After spending half the day within the ACC headquarters, Sonus finally left around noon. He left with an added ID card on him, this one a registration card for becoming an 'Awakener'. Toward the bottom, where his power was listed, it instead showed the words 'Unknown', and where his classification was, it stated the word, 'Mage'.
After spending half the day with Mr. Park, Sonus came to learn that he didn't have to register his power if he truly didn't want to. This was a safety feature that the ACC ensured, giving 'Awakeners' the ability to keep their power hidden from others.
Along with all this, Sonus was also given his starting portals, none of them rising above F-rank. This was because, just as stated by Mr. Park during their conversation, completing a portal alone was far harder than doing so with a team.
Currently, only the best of the best of Solo'er's had moved on to E-rank portals while the current top guilds had long since moved on to D-rank portals and were already making their way towards C-rank portals.
However, Sonus had also learned that along with gaining all the rewards of completing a dungeon, Solo'er's were apparently also given a special reward by the system that apparently made up for the difference in dungeon ranks.
Looking down at the list of portals he was given, Sonus decided to head for the nearest portal with the closest estimated break-out time.
This was another thing the ACC had managed to create after extensive study of the energy released from the portals, they had managed to create a device that allowed them to estimate a range of when a portal will have what was labeled a 'break-out'. This was where the portals would fully open and the creatures contained within would come out onto the Earth.
This allowed for the miraculous saving of lives of millions of civilians after the area around portals were cordoned off when they were about to experience a break-out. There were currently tons of portals that were too strong to be cleared out after all.
Upon reaching around a block surrounding the area of the portals, Sonus was blocked off from continuing forward any further by what appeared to be a group of armed governmental soldiers.
"Halt! This area has been cordoned off for the possibility of a dungeon outbreak. No unauthorized personnel are allowed past this point." The soldier in the lead stated, his tone containing a certain authority to it.
Sonus noted that this soldier had to be the leader of the group considering they were the only one with a different outfit.
While the rest of the soldiers all wore solid black gear reminiscent of riot gear, this soldiers gear contained some blue strips along the sides of it.
Deciding to get this affair over with, Sonus reached into his pocket, making sure that it was in clear view of the soldiers lest they see it as a threat, before retrieving his new ID.
Pulling it out, Sonus reached out to hand it to the lead soldier, his expression remaining as placid as always.
The soldier gave Sonus one last warning glance before his attention finally lowered, his gaze slowly scanning over the card. After a moment, the soldiers eyes widened in shock before they locked onto Sonus once more, a newfound respect contained within them.
The soldier was quick to let Sonus through, his attitude doing a near 180 from the stern seriousness it once was to a far more respectful attitude.
Sonus thought that this was only natural, being an 'Awakener with an ability classified as useful enough to enter the dungeons was considering the most respectful position on Earth by normal citizens. This was because these people were the ones that were fighting to wrest control back from the hands of the creatures that had taken hold of their planet, and among these people, the only ones that could be viewed as more respectable than a Solo'er would be a Guild Master or a higher up member of the ACC.
The soldiers led Sonus up to the entrance of the portal, their auras turning far more serious at the sight of it.
It wasn't only their expressions that hardened, even Sonus could feel a faint pressure pushing down on him from the portal, its aura nothing like anything Sonus had previously experienced.
Unlike the pressure exerted by the soldiers, the aura of the portal was more spiritual, seeming to press down on Sonus with some sort of magical force. This pressure even seemed to faintly be capable of suppressing Sonus' energy, making the amount of music he could release a tiny bit weaker.
With a deep breath, Sonus headed straight for the portal, his aura remaining as steadfastly determined as always.