Awakening

The next morning, the main hall of the Earth Academy that usually remained empty, was bustling with life. To call it a hall would be an understatement; it was more accurate to call it a small stadium as it could actually accommodate a whole batch of students. All ten thousand new students were waiting in the hall, chatting with each other and making new friends.

Alexander smiled at his neighbors and briefly chatted with them. Despite his initial reluctance to speak to anyone, when he was accosted by a group of four students, he quickly let down his guard and joined the conversation. Humans were social creatures; even if he spent the last few years of his life in solitude and preferred to be alone, when surrounded by energetic young people, he was happy to chat with them.

The students were called Jack, Emily, Stephano, and Feyaz. The first two came from America while Stephano came from Italy and Feyaz came from India. The Earth Academy literally belonged to the planet and students all other the world were free to join. It was different from other universities that had to accept a quota of local students; the applications were reviewed solely based on the students' results. Naturally, a few were able to get through the backdoor but those numbered less than 1% of the student population.

Emily, the cute little blonde from America spoke with a worried look, "I hope it is not very painful. I heard that some people have died during their awakening. "

"Yes, I have a friend who warned me about the awakening ceremony. He told me I will feel like my entire body is burning and that I should try to resist that feeling for a short while but not for too long. If I ever lose consciousness in there, there is a high chance of failure or of my awakening being defective," said Stephano. He played with his glasses making him look like a nerd.

Jack acquiesced with a severe expression, "No matter what, do not exceed your limit. It is better to awaken as a weak mage than to end up dead, right?"

"Yes, I hope my Performance Index will be high," answered Emily with a face full of anticipation.

Seeing his newly made friend discussing the awakening procedure, Alexander eventually decided to join their conversation. "There is no need to soak in the liquid for too long. The important part is to soak your entire body in it. Even your face and hair should be completely immersed to absorb as many nutrients as possible. If you can, try to also open your eyes. The average time is eight minutes. Don't be scared if you take longer or shorter than that; it does not mean anything."

"Soak our entire body? What's the difference? But I guess we can give it a try," commented Stephano with a doubtful expression.

At that moment, a bright light suddenly flashed at the front of the hall, attracting everybody's attention. On the stage, a tall woman wearing a thick scholar robe was holding a microphone, looking at the students. The woman had a cute oval face and short brown hair. She had an imposing aura such that anyone making direct eye contact with her would instinctively lower their head. Alexander searched through his memory but failed to remember the woman's identity.

"Good morning everyone and welcome to the Earth Academy. I am the headmistress of the academy, Carmen Ashmore. In any other universities, you would probably be greeted by a long boring speech, but the Earth Academy is different. I would just like to say, Earth Academy is different from the other universities. By joining us, you agreed to be treated like soldiers; the rules here are strict. We put a lot of importance on our students' discipline. Without further ado, we shall immediately begin with the awakening ceremony."

The headmistress swiftly raised her hand and a bright screen was suddenly switched on. "Unfortunately, there are only 250 pods available. You will have to wait for your turn to enter the pods. Check the screen above my head at all time. When your student number appears, please proceed to the allocated room where an instructor will provide further guidance. You will be free this afternoon but report to the necessary department tomorrow. You should all have received your timetable via your X-Driver. You should know that the punishment for skipping classes is quite severe. That is all I have to say."

As soon as she finished speaking, Carmen Ashmore did not hesitate and left the stage. For many, it was the first time they witnessed such a welcoming ceremony, but no one dared to complain. The headmistress was a hot-tempered woman who rarely wasted time giving speeches. She was cold and indifferent but this treatment was better than those received by recruits at military camps.

"Carmen Ashmore... I don't remember her much from my past life. I guess she is not an important character, or she only appeared on ceremonies such as this one."

While Alexander was trying to recall the events of his past life, Emily suddenly exclaimed, "It's my student number! I'm one of the first. Wish me good luck!" The little blonde hurriedly left the group under the jealous stares of many.

"There is not much difference in being called first or last anyway," said Alexander. He looked at the screen but did not see his own student number.

Jack held his deep blue eyes fixed on the screen. Like many, he could not wait to go through the awakening ceremony. Only Alexander appeared to be completely unrelated to the ongoing event.

"Mmmm, it might take a while. I don't remember when it was my turn or what my performance index was exactly. All I remember was that it was average."

Alexander, Jack, Stephano and Feyaz sat on the floor as they stared at the screen. They did not know how long it would take them, but they could very well be staying here for a couple of hours if they were unlucky. Refreshments and snacks were provided on the side by some members of the staff, but Alexander had already prepared for this situation and had an early lunch.

Eventually, one of the student numbers on the screen finally flickered and was replaced by another one. At the same time, another set of information appeared on an empty screen:

[Student ID: gcm29 Performance Index: 6.4]

"Although not the best, 6.4 is considered to be above average. If I end up with anything above 6, I will be happy," commented Stephano.

As he spoke, the screen continued to change as more and more students were added to the list of performance indexes.

Alexander stared emotionlessly at the screen. Everyone was excited at the idea of becoming a mage. It was an exciting profession with the possibility of accomplishing miracles but what they did not know was that walking down the path of a mage also meant drastically shortening their life span.

It was precisely how Alexander ended up passing away in his past life. He died a natural death at the age of twenty-nine. He did not die from any disease but instead due to complete depletion of his mana. Magic was different from many people's dream. Novels depicted mages as possibly becoming immortals, but they were completely wrong.

First of all, there were no such things as power levels. A beginner mage casting a specific spell would have the almost result as a senior mage. The only difference was the amount of mana used, the casting time and the control exerted. Furthermore, a younger mage might prove to be stronger than a senior mage as the number of spells one could cast during a lifetime was limited.

In the universe, everything has a price including the use of magic. The price was people's life force, also more commonly known as mana. Depending on which spells they used, the mages would end up spending a few seconds of their life, a few minutes or even a few hours. It did not seem like much but with the number of spells used every day, the usual life span of a mage did not exceed thirty-five years.

Magic was a relatively new field of studies and had only been here for a little over a decade, but the people had yet to realize that they were draining their own life to use spells. In his past life, Alexander had been an innocent hard-working student. Spending a lot of time training and as a result, his life span drastically went down. It was only later in the future when he went through the rift that he learned the truth about magic and since then he limited the spells he used but it was already too late.

It was not that the governments were deliberately harming the people but rather, they themselves were unaware of the side effects of magic or maybe they knew about it and were trying to monopolize the positions of power.

Even if he knew the truth, Alexander had no intentions of spreading rumors around. In any case, even if it would affect their life span, people still needed a certain degree of training to master the use of magic. It was essentially a trade-off between mastering the spells and the total number of spells they could use. Even if they could use an infinite number of spells, what would be the use if they always ended up failing? The key was to balance those two factors.

As for the performance indexes, they were simply a way for people to measure their mana source. Humans always liked to quantify everything and to compare themselves. As magic was discovered, they quickly tried to master the arts and needed to compare each other. And so, some brilliant scientists came up with a performance index in order to measure people's mana source. It was an arbitrary scale ranging from 0 to 10. The higher someone's performance index was, the brighter his future would be. It was not a wrong statement as the greater the mana source, the more spells one could cast during a lifetime but that was not the only defining factor to being a good mage.

As for the mana source, it was a mysterious energy hidden within the human body. For mages, the human body's magical components could be divided into three main parts: the mana source, the mana reservoir, and the spirit circuits.

How big the mana source was could represent how many spells one mage could cast in their lifetime but unfortunately, they could not cast all the spells at once. This was because mages only had immediate access to the mana in the mana reservoir. One could think of the mana reservoir as the stamina of the mages, representing how many spells one could use in a short period of time. Mana would naturally flow from the source to the reservoir but alternatively, one could also meditate to replenish the reservoir at a faster rate.

While the Mana source could never be replenished or expanded, the mana reservoir could increase in size simply by forcefully injecting mana into it. Under the pressure, the reservoir would slowly expand, allowing the mages to cast more spells than before. Naturally, this process would result in more losses from the source but again, there was a certain balance that mages could aim to achieve.

The spirit circuits were different from the source and the reservoir; they were used to cast spells. If the source was the input and the reservoir was the storage, then the spirit circuits were the output of the system.

Spirit circuits were very often described as magic muscles. They were located all over a human's body and by using specific circuits, one could cast different spells just like one needed to use specific muscles to perform certain physical movements.

The spirit circuits were the very reason why all the students were so impatient to go through the awakening process. Those three essential components of magic have always existed hidden within the human body. Even with advanced technology, people had failed to discover it and it was all because they were never meant to be used. To protect itself, the human body would instinctively hide or try to get rid of anything that might be harmful to it.

However, it was possible to forcefully awaken people's spirit circuits and all that was required was to soak into a special fluid. The components of the fluid were completely unknown to the people but its effects were definitely there.

After soaking for a few minutes, one's body would start to heat up as the spirit circuits would slowly awaken. The connection between the mana source, the mana reservoir, and the spirit circuits would all be set in one go during the awakening. Then even if one's body was against it, there was nothing it could do but comply with its owner's wishes. In short, going through the awakening process was equivalent to going against the course of nature. Naturally, this process contained a certain amount of danger but it was found that as long as the user was at least eighteen years old, the awakening process would be safe.

Time went by as the number of students in the main hall slowly decreased. Alexander was still waiting for his turn. Jack and Feyaz were lucky enough to have been called. Although it did not change anything to the awakening process, at least, they did not need to wait for an entire afternoon. After awakening, one would usually feel weak and want to rest; as a result, the students did not come back to the hall and simply returned home to prepare for tomorrow's classes.

The large screen at the front was already filled with several performance indexes. They were all arranged in ascending order and at the moment, the highest one was 8.3. When it appeared, it caused a brief commotion in the hall, but the excitement quickly died down when the following students only obtained average performance indexes.

...

Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, Alexander finally saw his student number being displayed on the screen. He did not hesitate and walked toward the room he was allocated to.

There, an instructor stopped him. "Alexander Vagras?"

"Yes, that's me," answered Alexander. At the same time, he took a peek at the room behind the instructor. The room was filled with alien-looking pods. They were precisely the devices used for awakening.

Each pod had an instructor constantly monitoring the situation inside; they were ready to forcefully stop the awakening in case of an emergency.

"I will assume that you have your swimsuit on. Follow me. There are still many students waiting."

Alexander silently nodded and followed the instructor's steps. They stopped in front of an empty pod. Although it was called a pod, it was more accurate to call it a high-tech bathtub with a lid.

"You should already know the procedure. Scan your X-Driver here and get in. Press the red button when you are ready and when you can no longer resist the heat, press the blue one."

"Got it!"

Alexander quickly entered the pod and without a warning, the lid slowly started to close down on him. With the lights flashing everywhere, it felt like he was in the cockpit of a space module. In his past life, he might have been impressed and wasted a lot of time staring at the device but this time, he quietly took off his shirt and jeans, leaving him wearing only a pair of trunks.

"So this is how it will all begin."

Alexander lay down in the pod and found a comfortable position. Without hesitation, he pressed the huge red button on his right before closing his eyes.

At the same time, outside the pod, the instructor soon received the notification that the process had started. He briefly looked into the pod, only to see that Alexander was slowly being drowned by the fluid.

"Another one trying to be reckless and absorb as much of the fluid as possible..." said the instructor while watching the numbers on his screen going up and down.