The children of the watch have begun to stir once more; like Beskars, they do not stay dead for long. Our contacts in the central and Unoros kingdoms have reported the sudden disappearance of multiple young awakeneds. We suspect their new base of operation to be somewhere in the Balaark desert, just outside of Yildirim's borders, but we have no proof of this suspicion yet. The children are an extremely dangerous group, and it is imperative that we act immediately, lest we court disaster.
Letter to His Royal Majesty, from the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Awakened Affairs (MAA)
Sunstone. Year 2275.
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It had been three hours since Aodhán left the clearing, and in all that time, he'd successfully managed to kill five creatures and take their cores. Three of them had been at the first tier, while the rest had been at the second.
He'd ignored all the creatures at Tier 0, as they were of no use to him. Unfortunately, only two of the creatures he'd killed were edible, as the bolts of lightning had damaged them so much that only scraps of meat were left hanging from their blackened skeletons.
He'd suspected the night before that the bolt of lightning had gotten stronger, but now he was certain; the difference was subtle, but he'd noticed that the bolt had gotten bigger, faster, and deadlier.
He'd fashioned himself a sort of pouch from leaves and vines that he wrapped around his waist, and as he walked, the cores he'd placed within it clinked together like glass.
"I need to find a solution to this." He thought to himself. He didn't need any of the cores blowing up in my face.
An hour ago, he'd begun to feel the stifling heat, so he'd created a small storm cloud above his head. It didn't aid his hunting, but it was good practice, and the breeze helped tremendously.
Aodhán reached a small clearing a few minutes later, and soon he had a fire going. Half an hour later, his breakfast was ready.
He'd only been able to salvage a single meal worth of meat from the two creatures, which meant he would have to hunt again for dinner, but he didn't mind. Hunting was fun.
He'd almost finished his meal when the sound of a creaking branch caught his attention, and he immediately turned in its direction. On a tree several feet away from him crouched a monkey-looking creature with silvery black fur and long metal claws. Above its head floated a line of text.
[Silver Mamacore, Tier 3]
He jumped to his feet immediately, summoning a bolt of lightning, but the Mamacore attacked before the bolt was completely formed.
Aodhán didn't bother stabilizing the lightning bolt and instead threw it at the Mamacore. A silver light flashed on its claws, and to his amazement, the Mamacore sliced the bolt apart.
It sustained multiple injuries on its hands and arms, but nothing serious enough to put it out of commission.
Aodhán attacked again, shooting out bolt after bolt in rapid succession. The Mamacore defended itself against most of them with its silver claws, but some bypassed its defenses and exploded, leaving behind scorch marks on its silver fur and pushing it back several steps.
Aodhán fought to keep the Mamacore on the defensive, never giving it a chance to get close as that would spell doom for him, but he was still only causing minimal damages, and at this rate, he would collapse from exhaustion before he was able to cause any significant damage that would put the Mamacore out of commission.
His mind raced furiously, thinking of a way he could possibly defeat the creature, when an idea came to mind.
His control over lightning had sharpened greatly, but he had no idea if it would be enough for what he wanted to do.
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“Maker, please let this work!" He muttered as another bolt of lightning shot out towards the Mamacore, but this time, as it moved to slash at the lightning with its claws, the bolt changed its trajectory, dipping downward immediately and exploding against the Mamacore’s hairless stomach.
The Mamacore let out a shrill scream as a hole the size of a tennis ball opened up in its stomach, and blood poured out of it.
Not letting his excitement get in the way of his survival, he shot out another bolt that curled in midair and exploded in the same spot as the previous bolt.
The Mamacore fell to its knees, frozen, as lightning coursed through it, and Aodhán hastily took advantage of the opening, shooting out bolts of electricity into the puncture wound.
He didn’t stop until the body of the Mamacore shriveled and turned to ash, leaving behind a silver core and a blackened skeleton.
Aodhán wheezed as exhaustion hit him, but he couldn’t help but grin. The difference between mundane and evolved awakenings might be little, but apparently, it was large enough to bridge the gap between Tier 1 and Tier 3.
After a moment, though, he frowned. This was the first Tier 3 monster he’d seen in the forest, which meant he was probably getting closer to the center, but if a Tier 3 monster was this hard to kill, then he couldn’t afford to go any further until he advanced another tier or two.
He immediately took the silver core from the ashes, but instead of adding it to his collection, he sat down, took out two of the 2nd-tier cores in his pouch, and let the energy of the three cores flow into him.
The rush of power that followed was even greater than the last time he’d advanced, which made perfect sense as he was moving to a higher tier.
The energy moved through the same pathway it had previously followed and settled in his abdomen, where he now realized his core was located.
Just like before, the energy filled his core to the brim before surging out, rushing through him like a tidal wave, and instantly his fatigue was washed away as well as all the minor injuries he’d sustained navigating the forest.
When the energy settled back down, he could feel the strength coursing through him. He was now a little faster and stronger than he had been a minute ago.
Excited, he grabbed a small stone and squeezed. Nothing happened.
Aodhán frowned. So, maybe he wasn't strong enough to crush stone yet, but he was getting there. He could feel it.
High on the feeling of power, he poured out all the cores in his pouch and, without delay, began to absorb them. Seconds later, after he absorbed the last core, he waited for the energy to surge out of his core, but nothing happened, and his core remained still.
Curious, he called up his status screen to determine what had gone wrong, when a line of text caught his attention.
Tier: 2–44.4%
Aodhán couldn’t believe it; he’d absorbed a total of six cores. Granted, half of them were Tier 1 cores, but he’d absorbed two Tier 2 cores and a single Tier 3 core along with it; how was that not enough to propel him to the third tier?
Frustrated, he dismissed the status screen, doused the fire, dismantled his wooden construct, and tied it to his back before making his way deeper into the forest.
He had no idea where this forest would lead him or even if it led to any form of civilization, but he knew he would have to advance to survive it.
A few more hours passed, and in that time, Aodhán managed to kill another five creatures. Unfortunately, only two of them were at the elusive Tier 2, while the rest were Tier 1.
He'd absorbed the cores immediately, which had moved his tier up to 80%.
It was mid-afternoon by now, which was still a little too early to start hunting for dinner, so he focused on finding more cores instead.
Also, his abilities had grown once again. He was yet to test {Storm manipulation}, but his control over lightning was much better than when he began; he could now alter its trajectory midair and even control it when it exploded.
Also, he’d noticed that the bolts of lightning weren't as pure gold as he’d thought; instead, they were white gold. Come to think of it, why wasn’t his lightning the regular blue-white color? Was there a reason for the color? Or did it mean his version of lightning was stronger than normal?
He had many questions, but he couldn’t get his answers inside the forest, so he focused on sharpening his control for now.
Instead of summoning lightning into his palms, he tried summoning it from his fingers. Of course, it was incredibly hard and dangerous, but now that he could control the explosion, there was very little damage.
As he moved through the forest, a thought brought him to an abrupt halt. He hadn’t realized it before, but his class and his tier looked very similar at the moment.
His status appeared before him, and his eyes widened as he confirmed his suspicions.
Class: Evolved storm awakened: 1%
Tier: 2–80%
It seemed his class could grow the same way as his tier, but if he could advance his class by absorbing cores, why had he needed the tribulation then?
Still, if his suspicions were right, then it would seem that the world wasn’t cruel enough to subject a person to tribulations every time they needed to evolve.
Hope blossomed within him, and with renewed vigor, he resumed his hunt for cores. Before long, he found himself standing before a river narrow enough to cross without a boat but large enough to harbor dangerous creatures.
He needed to find a path across, but just as he turned, a loud hiss caught his attention, and he turned around to see a black snake-like creature as it slithered out of an opening at the mouth of the river, and above its head floated a single line of text.
[Aqua Slytherin, Tier 3]