The First Inkling of Power

The line outside the door was fairly short, but once inside Cain could see that the line extended to another door at the other side of the room. The wait for each person seemed to be around five to ten minutes depending on the intensity of the light that flashed from the gap at the bottom of the door.

Most of the people coming out had features reminiscent of the things he saw in the book Twilight showed him, most looked quite ecstatic but a rare few seemed to be unhappy with whatever it was they got. There were also guards posted around to make sure someone didn't get too over-excited and tried out their newfound abilities then and there. Cain spent the time waiting to organize what he knew about Lapis-bound golems.

Low-grade golems were made of poor materials; dirt, fragile stone, softwood, and sometimes dull crystals.

The uncommon Medium-grade golems were made of a wide variety of materials; anything from heavy stone, sturdy wood, to fabricated materials like steel.

Outside of the mysterious country, High-grade golems were very rare, but not unheard of. Most sightings concluded that they were generally made from high-tier magical metals, compacted crystals made from dense mana, and even powerful monster materials like dragon scales.

It had to be said that while some people tried to make golem fabrication a job it was mostly seen as a hobby, it seemed to be quite a hard subject to learn for the denizens of Lapis. The number of people on the primary and secondary continent who could actually make High-grade golems could be counted on one hand, and only a single person had made a golem that was actually a capable war asset.

Compared to the golems spawned by the dungeons the Low-grade golems were just a joke, very few could barely even contend with the weakest of the dungeon golems, let alone the stronger ones.

There was also a bunch of small facts about golems he learned from the Library of Worlds and the pair of drunkards that were from Lapis, but most were useless trivia such as what type of golems were good for labor and so on.

-~-

"Next!" The voice of the man next to the door snapped Cain from his thoughts and seeing it was his turn he went in. The inside of the room was spacious, there were curved stairs on either side leading up to a platform suspended over a blue pond the was swirling around slowly. Above the platform was a large white crystal floating in the air. "Climb up to the platform," A voice came from a speaker, looking to the right Cain could see a musclebound man standing behind a glass window embedded into the wall.

Cain climbed the stairs and followed the instructions to stand in a marked area directly under the floating crystal. The musclebound man seemed to be adjusting some instruments on a large panel in front of him before pausing, "Oh? This is Twilight's mark. Hmm, this is going to hurt more than it should so brace yourself, ready?" He said with a bit of a smirk. Cain gave a thumbs up, he was used to pain so it shouldn't be that bad. The man flipped a large switch and crystal erupted in blinding light and...

Oh, how wrong he was.

Even with the soundproofing, those who had lined up outside could hear bloodcurdling screams and had looks of worry. Not for Cain but for themselves, it shouldn't hurt that much right? In the corner Old Somer could only give a bitter smile, he figured this would happen since Twilight did something unnecessary. One could get used to physical pain but it was another matter entirely when it came to the soul.

Under the divine light of the crystal, Cain's body melted away and his form as a soul was revealed. A floating wisp the size of a head floated in place and caught fire with black and white flames, and his screams filled the chamber. Even the musclebound man behind the glass winced, this was the first time he's witnessed someone with Twilight's mark go through awakening. All he knew was that the individuals with the mark had their souls forcibly expanded and integrated with the mark and while extremely painful it helped immensely with the recovery and strength of the soul.

Under the baptism of the light and flames, Cain's soul slowly grew. Sparks of varying colors flashed and collided with one another and appeared to fight one another. In the depths of his soul, a glint of silver appeared and began to spread like a cobweb, the luster changing depending on which flame it touched. Soon the black and white flames that permeated his being started to die down and the light from the crystal focused on the core of his soul. The sparks of every color imaginable calmed down and settled among the branches of silver forming a nebula.

The man behind the glass was awed at the sight, at some point during the transformation Cain's soul had obviously mutated when Twilight's mark collided with some unknown variable hidden away in the depths of the soul, resulting in an incomparably beautiful jewel-like soul that looked like it had the night sky frozen inside. The strangest part was that he couldn't even sense any changes, in fact, it felt like his soul had even less presence than before.

Once he confirmed there were no more changes the musclebound man flipped the main switch off and the light from the crystal started to dim, causing Cain's body to become visible once again, and his screams were much quieter than before. He didn't look any different from before other than the silver in his eyes seeming to shimmer with glints of various colors flickering every now and then. As soon as his body was fully back in his control he fell down while sweating and panting, "The hell do you mean 'hurt more than it should'?! What was that?!" He yelled, feeling something like a sense of betrayal.

"... I... If you have problems please take them up with Mr. Twilight, it's all his fault," The man quickly shifted the blame, though he wasn't wrong.

Cain sighed and stood up and began making his way down the stairs and out of the room, at the very least he felt like he could move much better and was more comfortable in his own skin. The whole process took fifteen minutes and when he came out he saw that the people waiting were a little pale and looking at him with varying emotions. Somer also gave him an odd look before standing up and laughing.

"Not bad, you even got the coloration right."

"Huh?"