In my dream, I saw my friend, Aries, fussing over the details of the villain ‘Mikael Harpoon’. He had busted into my room at dawn, after pulling an all-nighter to create the new character.

‘Happy, look, I just made a new villain. He is going to be a Spiritualist. He is gonna be one of the new Classes of Awakened Beings that I have been working on.’ His eyes sparkled as he talked about his novel.

I remembered this day very well. The day I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life.

The landscape in front of me slowly faded into another. It was night-time now. Happy was outside the dorm building, trying to call someone on his phone, a look of urgency on his face.

In the distance, a silhouette appeared, slowly limping towards the building. As the person got closer, I could make out his face. It was Aries, his lip was busted and his right eye was slightly swollen.

“Oh my god, what happened to you?”, Happy asked his friend, supporting him by his shoulder.

“Ah nothing happened. Just some drunk man got into a fight with me. He got dragged away by the police.”, Aries explained, leaning on Happy.

Happy slowly walked Aries to his room, where he gave him first aid.

‘I wish I knew you were lying at the time.’

Slowly the scene around me started to fade away. I could sense myself waking up.

I opened my eyes to find the ceiling of the tent. I was covered in blankets, protecting me from the chill of the desert night. Beside me, Mike was hugging his knees.

“You are finally awake.”

“I am. Thank you for keeping watch.”

I sat up to converse with him.

“Listen, Mike. I am sorry about your town. But honestly, I am too weak to defeat Vritra alone. If I had even one more Awakened Being with me, I could do something. But I am powerless on my own.”

“Then, how about we focus on Awakening me? I mean, you already Awakened. You can give me tips.”

“Awakening isn’t something you can just wish for, and think it will happen. Awakening is something that just happens. Heritage plays a big factor in it too but I doubt your father was one, considering he didn’t leave for the Human Continent.”

“Please, you must have something.”, Mike grabbed my hands. “Our town will be destroyed if you don't do anything about it.”

I sighed. Drinking the healing potion before fainting had fixed my body and I could feel myself brimming with mana.

I could use ‘Appraisal’ on him, but I was hesitating. Using Appraisal on him would clear the doubts I had about this boy, but I still had my concerns. Not to mention, knowing someone would Awaken is not something technology in this world could do. ‘Appraisal’ was too overpowered a skill for me to use in front of others.

“Please!”, Mike begged me.

I gave up. I hadn’t spent much time with him, but I really liked this boy. The way his eyes sparkled, talking about Heroes and the Hero League, reminded me of Aries when he talked to me about his novel.

“Fine but what I am about to do, you can’t tell this to anyone. And I mean, no one.”, I warned him.

Mike nodded his head.

“Appraisal”

Name: Mikael Harpoon

Rank : Unawakened (Awakening: 95%)

==========LOCKED==========

Potential Rank: SS

Suitable Class: Spiritualist

Mana Compatibility:

* Darkness: 90%

* Light: 60%

On seeing the name on the screen, I facepalmed myself.

“Mike, is your full name, by any chance, Mikael Harpoon?”, I hesitantly asked the boy next to me, despite the answer staring me right in the face.

“Yes! How do you know that, Sir Ray?”

I cringed at his response, facepalming myself once more.

‘How dumb can I be to bring the person I was stealing from to the crime scene.’

Well, let’s let bygones be bygones. The only thing that Mike’s presence can change is the fact that the reward I was hoping to get in this Dungeon might go back to its original owner. I will have to go to another Dungeon if that happens. Aries had made an entire list of Dungeons and their locations in his notebook, many of them he never used in his novel. I can always have my pick next time, if this didn't work.

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‘God, that boy sure was brimming with ideas. I am pretty sure I remember some of those locations. Hopefully, just being in the notes of the novels would allow them to materialise in this world that I had transported in.’

“Listen, Mike. I will help you Awaken but we need to do it as fast as possible.”

I only had five days left, before I had to go back to the Human Continent. Not to mention, the second wave of monsters would be happening soon too. My arson might have pushed that deadline by another week or so, but we still needed to close this Dungeon quickly or Mike’s entire town would be annihilated. Also, now that I personally knew Mikael, I couldn’t very well, in good conscience, let him turn into the cold-hearted Fallen he would have originally become in the novel.

“Mike, you should rest for now. I will keep watch. Tomorrow morning, I will train you to Awaken.”

Mike obediently went to sleep. He must have been quite exhausted after looking after me all night. I, on the other hand, didn’t think I would be able to sleep after the dream I had.

Instead, I pulled out the Dungeon Map I had made with 'Appraisal'. It took almost no mana to materialise the map right now. And by the looks of it, the map also got updated real-time with next-to-nothing mana intake.

‘Guess the only time it needed mana was the first time when it was scanning the entire terrain.’

I started to analyse the entire Dungeon one more time. Vritra's newly sprouting forest seemed to be 10 kilometres north of the burnt-down one. The majority of the monsters were sleeping around it now with Vritra at the very centre of the nest, as means to guard their territory. A few monsters were scattered individually around the desert, most probably the small-fries.

Day broke, by the time I finished going through the entire map and making a plan. At the same time, Mike started to stir in his bed.

“You are up! Let's start your training.”

On hearing the word training, Mike jumped from the bed, ready to go. I packed up the tent and we started moving towards the nearest Snake Monster. It was only a kilometre away from our resting spot, so we found it quickly.

The snake was quite small compared to the ones I had seen before, about 25 feet long, looking like an anaconda with red scales and yellow eyes.

Name: Red Snake

Rank: E+ Rank

This monster has fangs strong enough to crush steel and usually kills its prey by grabbing them with its tail and biting their head off.

Weak Point: It has a soft chin.

‘Seems like the ones I killed yesterday were the top brass.’

I handed Mike the Lightning Dagger.

“Go and kill that Red Snake.”

Mike looked at me as if I had told him to kill himself. Well, looking at the situation, it might look like that, since Mike didn't really have any form of formal training using weapons.

“Don’t worry. If you are in danger I will come to save you. You just need to strike the chin and you will be able to kill it.”, I advised him.

This was part of the process of Awakening. People who have the potential to Awaken have to draw in large amounts of mana from their surroundings. The time taken to absorb sufficient mana depends on several factors, that’s why people Awaken at all ages, but it usually happens before they turn 18, since it's the time when the human body is still developing.

In the Human Continent, where Dungeons open on a daily basis, along with the many already Awakened Beings living there, the mana densities in those cities are pretty high. So children living in those cities didn’t have to do anything special to Awaken. But in the Sanskriti Archipelago, where there were almost no Awakened Beings and Dungeons popped up few and far between, it was almost impossible to Awaken.

Mike probably Awakened because the Dungeon opened so close to his town. And when the monsters attacked, they naturally released mana in the surroundings, allowing him to absorb it and Awaken.

But bodies have a natural resistance to mana. That’s why I was trying to get Mike to fight with the monster. Exhausting his body will lower his natural mana resistance, allowing him to take in the monsters’ mana with ease and Awaken. This lowering in mana resistance was also the reason why Awakened Beings get bursts of power when they reach their limits during a fight.

Mike got into a stance. Although his stance was full of flaws, it was evident that he had been trying to practice swordsmanship on his own.

With his slim and flexible body as well as years of experience as a sailor, he grabbed the Red Snake’s slithery body, preventing it from wrapping its tail around him. As they wrestled for dominance, the monster tried biting Mike’s face. But before it could get the chance to do that, Mike plunged the dagger into his lower jaw.

Mike slowly got off the monster’s corpse, his hand was covered in blood. I took out a handkerchief and handed it to him.

“You did really well for your first-time monster hunting.”

“So am I close to Awakening yet?”, he asked, his eyes sparkling, giving no regard to the blood splattered on him.

“You might need to fight a few more monsters.”, I said, checking his status.

I took the corpse and placed it in my ring. Monster materials sold for quite a good price in the market. It would be a waste to leave it rotting in the sun. After that, we moved on to the next few targets. Mike killed the rest in the same manner, while I kept an eye on our surroundings with the Appraisal Map. Vritra hadn’t moved from his place yet. Neither had his subordinates. I had a bad feeling about it.

When Mike finished his 9th monster, the Awakening hit 100%.

All the stored mana in his body started going on a rampage, concentrating at the centre of his body, before it finally exploded. A huge invisible force pushed everything around him away. I slid away a little too, due to the unstable ground.

Name: Mikael Harpoon

Rank : E

Stats:

* Strength 1

* Stamina 1

* Agility 1

* Perception 1

* Magic Power 1

* Intelligence 4.1

* Charm 6.7

Skills:

* Foresight(B): Allows the user to see things that normal people are not able to see.

* Spirit Master(S): The ability is used to capture spirits and make them do their bidding

Potential Rank: SS

Suitable Class: Spiritualist

Mana Compatibility:

* Darkness: 90%

* Light: 60%

All the newly Awakened started with Rank E and all stats except Charm and Intelligence from 1.0 point. But the foundation that has been laid when the Awakened was human, plays a big role in how fast those stats rise in the future. Since Mike was a fisherman, his physical Stats will surely rise quickly.

'Clap! Clap! Clap!'

“Congratulations on your Awakening, Michael.” I congratulated him for his achievement.

Mike rushed towards me and hugged me. Tears were streaming down his face. In the Hero Academy, the students took it for granted that they will naturally Awaken when they come-of-age. But for someone from the Archipelago, where being Awakened was equivalent to becoming a representative at the Olympics, it was a much more joyous occasion for them.

I gently patted his tall head. “You did great.”

After a few more moments, I pulled Mike out of his hug.

“That’s enough celebrating for now. We got a snake to hunt and a town to save.”

Mike nodded with tears on his face.