Chapter 7: Graduation

A few days passed, it was finally the time for Randi's graduation.

Inside the school's auditorium, a lot of students were lining up with a bright expression on their face. Today, they would officially graduate from the basic school. It meant that they could finally select whichever path they wanted to take. There were a lot of choices even for Unawakened. As long as they were willing, they could become a government official, merchant, or even scientist. However, the world was still in the hands of the Awakened.

Awakened had more capabilities than Unawakened. Because of the influence of the Soul, their overall abilities were improved. Enhanced physique, better memory and even faster cognitive ability, all of them were the advantages of a Soul Bearer.

Randi moved forward to the podium. As the best student in his year, he was chosen as the representative to give a speech. Even if Randi wasn't an Awakened, he's just as bright as them. No, he was even smarter than them. It was partly because of everything that he had experienced these past years. All of those feelings and hard work had tempered him to become more mature.

Randi delivered his speech calmly. During the last sentence, he glanced at Tania and Brann. They were smiling and cheering at him, making him feel slightly complicated. Today should be a great day, but the fact that they had to separate soon made him feel sad.

The ceremony had come to an end.

Randi, along with his father, exited the Auditorium. There were many familiar faces near the gate. Everyone seemed to be unwilling to just go straight home. They wanted to cherish their last moment of being together.

"Randi, do you really not want to come together with me to Bandung City? You can continue your Soul Engineering study there... We can live together!" Brann asked.

Randi smiled, "I'm going to stay here with my father. As long as he's here, I can still learn about Soul Engineering from him. Now that I realize it, he's more capable than I thought. I'm sure that he still has a lot to teach me."

Brann had a dejected expression on his face. He then turned around, facing Tania,"You too... Why do you even have to go to the capital? We can just keep everything as a secret."

"I can't, Brann. It will be exposed sooner or later. If my parents know that I've been keeping it as a secret from them, they would be very disappointed. It's alright, I had a long talk with 'them' and they said that I could still visit my friends. Plus, my family will also live nearby. I've been told that they will spare no effort in nurturing me," said Tania with a sorrowful smile. "Of course, that also includes my family. I'm sure they'll be happy with their new status and treatment..." Tania tried his best to look calm, but tears started flowing down from the corner of his eyes.

Dana suddenly tousled the girl's hair. He said, "I know you don't want it, but there are a lot of people who are wishing to have even a small portion of your talent. This kind of power, you might disdain it now. But in the future, you'll regret it more if you don't have it. After all, You can only protect the people that you care for only if you have the strength to do so."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"My son here, Randi, doesn't have that kind of power to protect himself," he grabbed Randi by his shoulder. "Can you promise me that you will protect him after you become strong enough?"

"Dad!" Randi yelled.

Everyone except Randi laughed. But because of this, the sorrow on Tania's face slowly dissipated. She wiped the tears from her eyes, and replied with a firm tone,"Mm! I promise."

Randi felt wronged, but after seeing the expression on Tania's face, he decided to let it go. He's okay being embarrassed as long as he could see his best friends' smile.

The day after, Tania and Brann had left the city.

...

Another few days passed.

Batan City was as calm as ever.

It was early in the morning and Randi was jogging around the town. As a Soul Engineer, he needed to maintain his physical condition because almost all of the higher grade Soul Weapons required perfect endurance and concentration.

This problem should've been solved easily if he was an Awakened. As long as his Soul grows, his physical condition will also improve accordingly. Unfortunately, the only way left for him was to do raw training like this.

Randi didn't dislike it, though. After the graduation, he spent all of his time inside the workshop because he didn't have to go to school anymore. This morning routine could be regarded as a break for him.

Strangely, Randi's physical condition was improving at an astonishing rate. He only spent at most two hours each day for training but he already had the stamina and endurance of a normal adult. As an engineer who basically didn't have much physical work to do, Randi's current physique could be considered as amazing.

Suddenly, Randi saw a dozen of soldiers being transported by a truck. They wore pitch black uniform with the flag of the Empire on their chest. However, the most distinguishing aspect of them is the light blue emblem on their left shoulder.

'Soul Bearer Corps,' Randi muttered.

In this day and age, the army held a lot of influence and power over the country. Because their job was to protect the citizen, they were being respected by many. Naturally, they had their own ranks inside the army and the Soul Bearer Corps was one of the most elite groups they had.

Even the minimum requirement was having a Soul Power of 3rd Stage! That was quite ridiculous since almost the majority of the Awakened couldn't break through the 2nd Stage.

'They must be heading toward the Ruin,' Randi thought. The Ruin was creating a bit of an uproar currently. The scientists and archeologists believed that the Ruin held some mysteries but no matter what they did, they couldn't discover anything.

'Now that I think of it, I never went there.' Even though the Ruin seemed sacred, there were still many people who came just to take a closer look at it. Of course, as long as they kept their distance, no one would send them away.

In the end, Randi decided to slightly alter his jogging route to visit the Ruin.

...

"This spot seems great!" Randi arrived at a small clearance on top of a hill near the Ruin. There was no one here because it actually wasn't the designated place for people to watch. People had to walk and climb through the hard terrain of the hill to arrive at this place.

Randi wasn't satisfied with the designated place and he wanted to take a closer look toward the Ruin, thus resulting in the current situation. Fortunately, the soldiers had already swept this part of the forest clean from Soul Beasts. As long as he didn't cross the border, he would be fine.

From this place, he could clearly see the Ruin. There were strange inscriptions on the Ruin's walls, but the thing that stood out most was that the Ruin actually looked like it just burrowed out from nowhere.

This world had gone through a multitude strange and bizarre things, that's why people regarded this occurrence as just slightly unusual. Of course, everyone was trying their best to uncover whatever secret there was.

Suddenly, Randi realized something strange. This place... was strangely comfortable for him. He felt rather relaxed being here.

He adjusted his position to rest, and before long, he had fallen asleep.

Inside his sleep, he had a dream.