This has to be some sort of record. I told myself I’d be responsible and wait until I got to the AA to delve deeper into the System, and yet here I am, in the middle of the night, doing just that.
James, it turned out, was not as patient as he had believed himself to be. He had managed a few hours of sleep, before the image of Sally screaming in pain woke him up.
He cared deeply for her, and not being able to protect her would stick to him for a long time. He could only hope she’d recover soon, and maybe they’d be able to see each other again. For now, he would respect her father’s request.
Fortunately, he had a shiny new toy to distract himself with. The System was the single most important thing to an Awakener, he knew that much, and getting acquainted with it was fundamental.
Thakinesis, he had already learned, meant Willpower Manipulation. According to the internet, there weren’t any active users of the same exact Talent - which was not a surprise, as unique Talents were by definition very rare - but he could cobble up enough information from similar powers.
Basically, it boils down to using my Willpower to enhance my actions. I can empower my body, senses or mind with it. At higher levels, I should be able to do some very nifty things, but for the moment, it’s just a slightly better Warrior Talent.
He was being uncharitable, he knew. Warrior was one of the most common Talents out there, and though some Awakeners could rise to high ranks with it, it was generally considered a pretty bad one.
When he had realized that his Thakinesis was unique, or at least rare enough to be unheard of, he had gotten very excited.
People like Michael Towers, the highest ranking Awakener in America, were well known for their Unique Talents. Son of War was such a cool power that even just its name was enough for anyone to know who it referred to.
With it, Towers had broken the siege of Tampa by the Crocodilians and defeated innumerable enemies. His visage was plastered everywhere, even in James’ room. That was a true powerhouse.
As he looked at the lightly armored man, dressed more for fashion - like a modern superhero, he remembered reading on a forum once - than for any real defensive reason, the boy sighed. He wouldn’t be the Unstoppable Juggernaut from the beginning, but then again, Towers hadn’t begun his career as the monster he now was.
He, too, had to slowly grind his level up. He had to fight countless monsters, probably many of whom were even more disgusting than the sewer rats he had faced.
Though a high ranker’s level was not information one could find by simply looking for it online, the web was rife with speculation.
Some would claim the most outlandish numbers - 6666? That was not even good trolling - but a few more serious people attempted to infer the real numbers with thorough observation and compounded their conclusion with data.
Though there were no official level requirements to reach a specific ranking, as given by the AA - everyone knew that depending on one’s talent, their destructive power would be more or less, even at the same level - unofficial ranges were easy to find. Every fifty levels or so, an Awakener’s ranking could be expected to increase. The scale started at H, with level fifty being the capstone, and then on and on like that.
The most accredited people agreed that Towers had to have surpassed level 400, making him an S-rank Awakener. One of the very few around the world.
Considering how growth slowed down a lot at the higher levels, it was a monstrously high standard to achieve in little more than ten years. Projections went as far up to the 600s toward the end of his career, if he survived that long - and given what the eggheads thought about the possible effects of VIT on the human lifespan, it was very likely he’d do so if he wasn’t killed in action.
Of course, the average Awakener was nowhere close to that. Most reached E or D rank after years of effort and were content with their lot in life. That kind of person was revolting to James. He couldn’t understand having the world at your fingertip and wasting it.
Their guilds would send them on easy extermination missions, where they would barely get any experience, and they’d be lucky to get a few levels per year.
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People, James knew, got used to their lot in life quite easily. The 2012 Apocalypse had shown how adaptable the human race was, as when the world turned on them, after a moment of collective panic, they shrugged and went back to their lives, slowly but surely getting most of it back under control.
It was one of the fundamental qualities of humanity. But it also meant that if there was no external push to greatness, many would simply stop growing.
On the other hand, James knew just how low one could go without the ray of hope offered by the System. Just like its appearance had pulled humanity out of its death spiral and into a new age, it had saved him too.
And I won’t let it go to waste. I have the chance to make a difference, and I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t take it. Dad wouldn’t forgive me.
Shaking his head, James refocused on why he hadn’t been able to sleep. The two points he had banked in his Status Window burned something fierce.
It was commonly shared advice for new awakeners to wait until they got picked up by a guild and received some guidance before they assigned their first stat points. Depending on the path they chose, they’d have to prioritize different attributes, and without the resources of a guild, making the right choice was like tossing a coin.
However, James had little intention of participating in the guild system. Beyond the personal issues he had because of his father, he genuinely believed that allowing private organizations with little to no oversight to run society was a recipe for disaster.
And even if there is little I can do about it now, at least I don’t want to take part in it.
Which meant he would have to take the risk of choosing without that guidance.
His research online had yielded more than he feared, but less than he had hoped for. When it came to MIND oriented Talents like Telekinesis, putting aside STR and VIT was the easy choice. For others, like Warrior, MIND and SENSE made little sense to invest into beyond the minimum.
His Thakinesis, however, was not that easily defined. Each of his skills touched a different attribute, and his main draw of power, his Will, was not given a numerical value. It seemed to depend entirely on how much he wanted something and how strong his focus on that thing was.
Ultimately, the only thing he could count on was the enhancement his skills would have on his attributes. It had taken some finicking, but James eventually understood how to activate them.
The results were, to put it lightly, awesome. Level 1 of Thakinetic Empowerment lifted his STR, VIT and AGI by at least 10%, which while not as impressive as the skills of high ranking Awakeners, made a world of difference to a previously average human. Especially considering that he wasn't in a situation where his Willpower was stimulated.
Putting it to the test, James had tried to lift his dumbbells with and then without the enhancement. Concentrating on the specific skill and willing it to happen seemed to do the trick, and he easily lifted his twenty-five lbs weights, doing a full set with little to no strain. Without the Empowerment, he felt his muscles working.
James wasn’t one to be obsessed with weightlifting, but he had bought the dumbbells to try and keep up a decent level of fitness. However, simply willing himself to be stronger had more of an effect than a month of hard work.
There is the fact that it’s temporary. James felt the strength leaving his limbs now that the task he had set his mind to had finished. More than anything, that seemed to be the main limitation of his power. He needed to keep wanting to do something, otherwise it’d turn off.
It makes sense, what with it being Willpower Enhancement, but still… It’d be cool if I was a magic swordsman who can buff himself and not worry about anything else.
Thakinetic Awareness, on the other hand, was a different beast entirely. Twisting his mind into wanting to feel more turned out to be more complex than expected. He first tried by focusing on something he knew was beyond his physical senses - his bathroom sink - and wasted a lot of time.
Only by rereading the skill text did he realize that it was not a simple enhancement, like that for his physical stats. Awareness worked by empowering his SENSE to feel other beings. A bathroom sink did not have a mind, which made it ineligible for the skill to work.
When he focused on his grandparents’ room, where he knew they would be sleeping, he finally felt something. A faint knowledge, coming from the recesses of his mind, informed him of where exactly they were laying. It was almost instinctive, which explained how he had used it during the fight with the rats without even noticing.
The last skill refused to answer his call, though admittedly, he didn’t try that hard. It sounded like the kind of thing he’d be able to use only when there was a real need for it, and his worries about the future didn’t seem to count as a mental attack.
At last, knowing he’d have to go to sleep soon if he wanted to be presentable tomorrow when he went to register with the Awakener Association, James turned to assigning his stat points.
Since his build didn’t seem to be focused on anything in particular, he’d probably have to keep an even spread between all his attributes. Still, for the moment, MIND could be left aside, at least until he figured out just how much it influenced his willpower.
I don’t think it’s as connected as it looks like at first glance. MIND governs a person’s brain capacity, in both processing power and versatility. It does nothing to help someone with a lousy personality, which makes me think Willpower is not wholly dependent on it.
He’d experiment in the future as soon as he got a few more levels under his belt, but for now, he simply decided to put one in STR and one in SENSE, thus bringing them respectively to 6 and 5.
James knew from his studies in school and personal research that raising one’s stats could feel very odd, but he was still unprepared for the surge of electricity that touched every fiber of his being. His hair rose all over his body, and he felt his muscles twitching as they expanded and then condensed again.
The process took only a couple of seconds to finish, but when it did, James opened his eyes a changed man. The increase in power was tiny compared to what he’d achieve in time, but for the first time, he had felt himself grow in real time. This sensation, he knew, was one he’d chase after his whole life.
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The AA building in Downtown Manhattan was as sleek and well-maintained as always. In the heart of the financial center, it gave the impression of being one of the country’s true powers.
James knew that, though it had been initially conceived to be that way, greed and corruption had allowed the Guilds to strip it of all the powers it should have.
The glass facade shimmered with countless protections, meant to serve as a last resort shelter for the entire New York City government in case of disaster, their power enough that even as a normal person, James had been able to feel it.
Now that he had unlocked the system, however, it was like a flashlight in the dark.
James took a deep breath, exhaling his anxieties. A grin crept up on his face, excitement taking over, and he stepped forth into the unknown.