Zash breathed deeply as he settled into the capsule and swung the door shut. As he had read, the lights went out, and he was left in pitch black, but within a moment a swirl of colors flew past him, as if he was flying at the speed of light down a winding tunnel made only of colors. As he adjusted to the startling experience, he saw the colors more distinctly, a mix of yellow, green, blue, purple, red combined in the tunnel’s ring, both mixing together and distinct in their own right. Zash knew from reading the manual that soon the lights would branch off into tunnels of their own, and that whichever tunnel Zash ended in would determine the grade of his new ability: yellow for basic, green for moderate, blue for advanced, purple for legendary, and red for mythic.
Ever since the Outbreak, humanity had relied on the Awakened to hunt monsters and protect them. When the first monsters charged through the portals appearing on every continent, a handful of people developed powers, and they were referred to as the Awakened. As time wore on, with more portals appearing, more and more people began fighting and awakening as they defeated monsters. Eventually, they realized that by entering the portals themselves, they were able to beat the monsters in the “dungeon” before they escaped wreaking havoc on Earth, and these people were called hunters. Waging a fight without powers was dangerous and many lives were lost. 25% of Earths population perished with the first wave, and a large portion of that was people attempting to awaken themselves. However, as scientists investigated, they discovered a technology to artificially awaken people, and suddenly, artificially Awakened hunters flooded the Earth. It was the most dangerous, exciting, popular and lucrative job out there, so pricing to be awakened was high.
Zash was lucky. Although his father had died when he was 8 in a dungeon, he still had his mother. Unfortunately, they were dirt poor, which was a huge deterrent to Zash’s dream of becoming a hunter. Other children were groomed from a young age to learn to fight before their awakening. But, Zash learned by watching, practicing, and doing. When he turned 15, the minimum age for awakening, he thought it was all in vain. Pricing for the awakening was still too high, and his family could never afford it. By the time he would have saved enough money to be awakened in a job, he would be well past his prime. Until, one day, the British government released a new announcement.
It was the opportunity of a lifetime; the government would pay the awakening fee, and in return, applicants would spend the next 6 years working in the Department of Awakened Management. Zash jumped at the chance, and 2 weeks of brutal testing and interviewing later, he was finally there.
As expected, the yellow lights suddenly formed into a solid ring and veered off to the right. Zash held his breath, praying he wouldn’t be diverted down that path. As he continued past he sighed in relief; he would receive a moderate ability at worst now. Then the green lights veered left. Again Zash held his breath; again he passed. Zash knew he was lucky when he passed the blue tunnel. The only two that remained were purple and red. At this point he was guaranteed a legendary skill, but he held his breath, hoping to receive a mythical ability. The two colors swirled brighter, faster, practically enveloping each other, then, in the distance, they shot. Purple flew to the left, and red to the right. Zash watched the diverging paths as he sped towards it. He was there! Waiting to be pulled left or right, he inhaled sharply… and continued straight. He felt as though he hit a wall but with a burst of light and overwhelming sound, he passed through. The darkness once again formed around him. He looked back but could not see the trails of light. It was as though he were in a void. Zash cursed his stupidity; he had failed to be awakened. He had never been lucky. How could he have thought he had received a legendary ability. He would not go down in fame as the newest Awakened to receive a Mythic ability; he would be the first that didn’t awaken. Then a dark black window with bronze trim and lettering popped up.
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“Congratulations on successfully awakening. Your ability is:
Sword Sense (Bronze)”
Zash stared in awe and confusion. This must be the hunter display system that he had read about; it conveyed information about everything, from personal level and stats to notifications from other hunters. But in a single glance, he noticed something wrong. He had seen other hunters with the ability, Sword Sense, but never with the grade “complete” before. It was always one of the standard basic-mythic modifiers.
Before he had time to contemplate further, the door to his capsule swung open, and Zash stepped out, blinking several times from the stark white light. A voice rang out on the facilities PA system, “All participants please return to the waiting room for processing and further instructions.” Zash started walking, and immediately was lost. This place was a maze! He silently cursed the building architect. After stumbling around trying to remember where he had come from, he finally found a technician who pointed him in the right direction. When he arrived, he realized that he had not missed anything. Being the government, the ridiculous amount of protocols had caused them to make little progress in processing the new recruits. In the 20 minutes Zash had been lost, only hunters from A-G had been finished. Zash settled in to wait. His last name, Ward, would not get him called any time soon. While he waited, he pondered his experience.
The Complete Applicants Guide to Awakening Procedures, or, as everyone called it, the Manual, had said, there were never any ability grades past mythic, but some conspiracy theorists had proposed an unknown grade, commonly designated “complete” based entirely on no evidence. They were the ones everyone had called crazy. Everyone laughed and shook their heads when thinking of them, and the joke, “Did you awaken a complete ability?” was always an appropriate icebreaker for conversations among the Awakened. Zash now began to wonder if they hadn’t been right, as he had a bronze grade skill. While mulling this over, he finally heard his name: “Zash Ward to booth 7!”
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Zash was handed a bundle of paperwork. He set to work filling everything out, and once he finished, he headed back to the booth. The employee sighed as he set up a new profile and printed out the results. Eventually, the clerk motioned to a crystal and grunted, “Place your hand there so we can measure your grade and potential.” As Zash did, the clerk’s eyes popped open and he stomped off. Confused, Zash twiddled his thumbs for a minute until the clerk appeared with a manager in tow. As Zash replaced his hand on the crystal, the manager, left to get his supervisor. Finally, for a third time, Zash, now quite irate, placed his hand on the crystal, and when the supervisor squinted and stared in shock, he asked, “What’s going on?” The supervisor looked him up and down and said in a deep Texan accent, “Son, you caused the crystal to malfunction. It ain’t reading an ability grade, but it’s showing your potential as 99. Highest I’ve seen is 89, and that was William Burton.” Zash blinked in shock at the Texan accent in the middle of England, and did a double take when he mentioned Burton, the first SS-grade hunter, and the current North American Master.
The Continental Masters were a group of 7 hunters that included only the strongest and most experienced hunter of each continent. The seventh member was the strongest hunter in the world who wasn’t already one of the Masters. Competition was fierce as the extra hunter from a single continent could sway a vote quite easily in their annual meeting.
The supervisor shrugged and entered it into the system, thanked Zash, and gave him a sheaf of documents orienting Zash to his new position amongst the Governmental Department of Awakened Management. Zash was excited about his new position, knowing that it would be a long 6 years of hard work, but at least he would gain good experience as a hunter.