Rather than feeling fear or any other emotion, James's laziness was what was making him hate this place.
"You know, I'm not even scared that we're stuck here. We've killed a bunch of monsters, we've powered up, it's all good. I don't care that some agent dude sabotaged us or whatever. I just hate the fact that we have to continue fighting for god knows how long. I'm tired, I wanna go home. And this whole shtick of fighting monster after monster is getting really old. Whenever we get out of here, the next training method has to be something different."
Helios smiled. “I get what you're saying, but this is what progress is all about. I hated it too, but it's all about pushing yourself beyond the point of exhaustion. When you're bored and tired and sick of it all, that's when you know you're on the right path. Besides, it should be much easier from now on since you gained quite a few levels. You have more mana, it regenerates faster, and your spells will be stronger."
James was chasing the number, too focused on seeing the numbers going up. So he kept forgetting that leveling up meant that he was, in fact, quite a bit stronger now. It still felt weird to him how a few numbers can change his circumstances so much.
“Our circumstances are very different now, actually." Helios continued. "We’re a lot stronger now too.”
“Oh, right. Cause your levels are dampened down to mine, so now that my level is higher, yours are too.”
Helios’s smile became even bigger. He had a small surprise James hadn’t anticipated.
“Not only are our levels higher, but now we can also use the skills from our first awakening!” Helios declared with excitement.
James was stunned for a second. Maybe the rest of the Soul Grinder won't be so bad.
He had wondered why his friends' skillsets seemed so limited up until now. He knew they couldn’t access a lot of stuff since their levels were dampened, but it still seemed like Helios and Lunaris were way too restricted in what they could do.
“We really underestimated just how many skills we’d lose by dampening our levels. Well, we could still technically use all of them, we just didn’t realize how weak they would become. So it was functionally the same as not being able to use them.” Lunaris chuckled, a bit relieved that she now had access to a lot more tools that could keep her friends alive.
James heard the term awakening several times before. He had enough experience with fantasy terms that it was obviously some sort of power up, a specialization of some sort, like picking a class. But the whole idea was still foreign to him.
“So, what are your awakenings?” James asked, both curious about his friends' powers', as well as trying to learn more about what an awakening actually was.
Hearing the question, Helios blushed. Under that fiery temper and go-getter attitude, he was actually quite shy.
“Umm … look, it has a stupid name. Promise you won't laugh." Helios said with an awkward smile while scratching his head. “Mine is called Righteous Marauder.”
Seeing his friend acting so awkward, James decided to carefully tailor his reactions. He wanted to make them feel cheerful and happy, this awkwardness didn't sit right with him.
“Hey, no need to be embarrassed!" James said. "I’m sure mine will sound really stupid too. Not that yours sounds stupid, it’s actually quite intriguing. Sounds quite powerful!" James laid it on thick, although his intentions were genuine and positive. "What does Righteous Marauder mean?”
Flattered by his words, Helios seemed to have changed his attitude, excitedly responding as if he received an energy buff.
“Actually, it’s a quite useful awakening. After a lot of meditation, I think I figured out what the name means. The marauder part represents the viciousness and strength with which I can deal with my enemies. So it’s a build mainly based on physical skills enhanced by fire. The Righteous part balances the Marauder part I guess. Because I'm not an actual marauder. I'm vicious like one, but I do it to protect what's important to me. It’s why I use a shield a lot of the time. While it’s a build that can use a lot of weapons and various attacks, it also excels at defending. Lastly, the two words combined signify the strong, fiery emotions that I can actually use in battle. Some of my skills are enhanced by strong emotions.”
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Helios explained without even taking a breath. It seemed like he enjoyed sharing this with his friends, but he was too shy to bring it up. He didn’t want to seem like he was bragging.
Seeing Helios’s reaction, James praised him a lot and and acted really impressed. He was actually impressed, but he laid it on extra thick in order to make his friend feel good.
James loved seeing his friends happy. That warm feeling in his chest when seeing someone close to him being genuinely happy was better than gaining hundreds of levels. Helios and Lunaris were like family to him by now, they were like his brother and sister. So he was glad to see them reacting this way.
As shy as Helios had been, Lunaris seemed to be even more shy.
“Come on Lunaris, I won't bite. I want to hear about your awakening as well! I'm sure it's great.” James said enthusiastically.
Luckily, it seemed like no monster was about to attack them. Even though they were protected by a formation, it still wasn’t the best idea to chat like this while in a very hostile environment. An environment that was sabotaged by an agent of the Darkness.
But morale is a very important part of battle. They couldn't just trudge ahead without a bit of rest. But now that they were above level 100, perhaps the Soul Grinder wouldn't be as much of a struggle anymore.
“Well, all right.” Lunaris chuckled. After seeing Helios go first, being praised so thoroughly by James, it made her want to be appreciated as well. "But don't laugh."
“Mine is called Holy Atom.” Lunaris said, cringing a bit at her own awakening's name.
"Hey, what's with the awkward reactions? Sounds fine to me. It's unique! Intriguing! What does it mean?" James replied hurriedly.
After his cheerful reaction, Lunaris stopped cringing. She seemed to be slowly getting excited to tell him all about it.
“It’s actually quite simple! The 'Holy' part is pretty straightforward, I have access to a lot of light and holy spells. The holy element is quite weird, but that’s why I like it. It doesn’t actually require a belief in a god, although there are thousands of flavors of holy magic, some exclusive to their respective gods. But holy in itself is a force of the universe, related to the mystery of existence itself, I guess that’s why I was drawn to it.”
Lunaris gauged James's reaction. He had a bright smile and his eyes showed nothing but enthusiasm and excitement. Helios already knew all of this, but he was excitedly listening nonetheless. Happy to have such a reaction, she continued.
"As for the 'Atom' part, I'm not sure I can fully explain it. It even seems like a bit of a misnomer to me. But I guess its ambiguity is also why it's so versatile. After meditating on it, I assume it means that just like how atoms are the building blocks of matter, my skills are the building block of ... something, I'm not sure. The building block of battle, or society, or the study of magic. I'm not sure." Lunaris trailed off, seemingly in thought.
After gathering her thoughts for a few moments, she continued. "But what I am sure of is that the atom part of my awakening is responsible for the many support and utility skills I have such an affinity for. I believe atom in this context reflects my decision to study magic in-depth, to become a scholar and dive deep into understanding the mysteries of magic. Working from the ground up, bit by bit, humbly and slowly. Appreciating every ounce of knowledge. I guess it’s the opposite of your … avant-garde approach.”
Lunaris smiled and chuckled. She was still amused and a bit confused about the way James went about studying magic and creating his own spells.
“Your awakening sounds awesome! I don't know whose is more impressive, you're both just so amazing!" James clapped enthusiastically.
"All right, stop that, it's embarrassing." Helios said shyly. Both him and Lunaris seemed happy though.
"So what exactly does an awakening do? The names seem to have a lot of meaning, but what are the actual benefits?" James asked, eager to know more.
Lunaris took it upon herself to inform him. “Well, I suppose we may have gotten you too excited about it. It's pretty simple. In a nutshell, you just receive a few skills. It also raises your affinity for skills that are related to your awakening. So if you receive a fire skill, you'll have an easier time learning fire skills, and they would be more powerful than normal. For example, that’s why I was suited to being the support, why I have buffs and shields and foods and heals, and a bunch of other skills. The Atom part of my awakening is very versatile, and so I have an increased affinity with utility and support skills. I suppose Holy also offers support, although I mostly use my Holy attribute offensively "
James was very impressed, and he let them know it despite their shyness and objections. James praised and gushed about their abilities to the point that Helios and Lunaris turned beet red from embarrassment. They had to remind him that they were still in the Soul Grinder, and that they should probably get going.
Hedonia was a very positive and pleasant society, but even they weren’t used to this level of positivity and wholesomeness. Perhaps James went overboard, since he wanted to make his friends as happy as they usually made him. But even though the two weren’t used to it, they were very happy to have been appreciated and praised so much. They just didn’t know how to express it.
After the little bonding session, having recovered their strength, the trio was ready to fight their way out of this hellhole.
James still didn’t unlock his awakening, but he already felt different. It was probably purely psychological, but he was feeling a lot more confident about tackling the challenges ahead.
His friends were doing great, his level was higher, and the skills he developed all by himself proved to be very useful. That gave him confidence and hope about his future in this world.