Awakening

While the wolf that pinned him down was gnawing at his right arm his thoughts began to darken and fade.

'I'm going to die right here. I couldn't even say that I was sorry for the things that I said and snapping at them.' His life started to flash before his eyes but was halted by a feeling that something big was going to happen.

He was losing consciousness from the blood loss and the pain but he stretched his hand up as if to reach something when a lightning bolt suddenly struck him and sent his body into a shock.

It went from his hands to his chest then to his head. It was more painful than even having his flesh ripped by bear claws or being torn apart by wolf fangs.

This was leagues beyond pain.

"AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!"

The pain was all he could feel as he yelled out.

As the raw and powerful electricity coursed through his entire system.

A loud and powerful explosion occurred that sent the wolves and the bear a couple of meters as they were thrown by the impact.

The heavy rain suddenly stopped.

It was dead silent.

A couple of hours after the explosion caused by Elric being struck by lightning, he slowly opened his eyes as he regained consciousness.

The first thing he saw was the clearest and beautiful starry night sky. Crickets chirping and Owls hooting with every gust of wind blowing and swaying the trees in the dark.

Elric realized that he was still alive but he laid there for a couple of minutes to enjoy the view in front of him.

Then he realized that he felt no pain from his injuries. He quickly got up to inspect his body to check his limbs and not only were they all still intact but there were no wounds.

His hands and the side of his torso were fine like the injuries were never there in the first place.

Remembering the pain made him flinch and on guard as he inspected his surrounding to see if the Onyx Wolves or the Giant Bear were still there.

He was standing on a crater caused by the explosion leaving the ground scorched and roughed up. While scanning his environment a few status screens popped up from a few meters away from him.

He quickly walked towards the figure and saw that it was the Onyx wolves lying on the ground, lifeless and burned from the blast.

"How powerful was the explosion to kill all these monsters in one strike." Elric thought.

He then noticed something different about the bodies of the wild animal. Something was covering the carcasses that were not there before. Ash like substance coated the lifeless bodies and moved around like smoke.

Elric crouched down and extended his hand slowly to touch the unknown substance but as soon as he made contact with it, the smoke-like aura got sucked into his own skin and inside his body coupled with a rush to his head and a ring like a bell.

*RING!*

Then a message at the corner of his eyes appeared that said, "Enliven Assimilation Complete."

"Assimilation? What did I assimilate?" Elric blurted out from confusion and shock.

He tried to calm his mind and think about the events that happened.

"The smoke-like-aura got sucked inside my body and I felt some sort of rush to my head. The message said 'Enliven Assimilation', it does make sense if I think about it." Elric thought out loud.

"So the smoke is Enliven and I assimilated it inside my body?" He added.

Elric then stood once more and walked towards the 2nd of the three Onyx Wolves that chased him. The same smoke-like-aura enveloped it so he tried to touch it once more, curious if the same thing would happen. And as expected, it did happen once again with the same message popping up at the corner of his view.

He approached the 3rd wolf to 'Assimilate' the smoke-like-aura that seemed to be Enliven. As soon as the message rang inside his head and unto his view he felt a surge of power unlike the ones before.

Enliven was now coating his arms as he stretched them out to check them. He waved them around to see if the smoke would dissipate but it didn't.

'I need to check what happened to me to fully understand my situation and all that's happening right now.' He thought as he searched for a puddle of water to check his reflection. It seems like he needed to see his reflection if he wanted to view his status.

Hesitating to look at his reflection, afraid of what he would look like as he felt astoundingly different just a few hours ago.

To his surprise, he didn't appear to be any different than when he last saw his face this morning. It was still the same pale face with a dull but striking face. However, he was sure that something did change.

He focused his mind and willed his own status screen to appear.

"It's been a long time since I checked my status." Erlic recalled as he carefully reviewed his information.

Name: Elric Greyreid] [Race: High Human]

[Job: Apprentice Miner ] [Age: 12]

[Class: Classless] [Stage: Newly Awakened]

[Sub Class: Transmuter] [Stage: Not Available]

[Sub Class: Caster] [Stage: Not Available]

[Status: Normal]

[Physical]

Strength - 14

Agility - 12

Vitality - 840

Dexterity – 15

[Mental]

Intelligence - 12

Wisdom - 14

Charisma - 16

Sense – 15

[Skills]

[Transmuter]

Electric Absorption

[Caster]

Propulsion

'Am I not human anymore? Why does it say High Human? The last time I checked my status both my Physical and Mental attributes barely reached 10 and now they're all double digits?' He reacted.

'And what happened to my Vitality? Why is it insanely higher than the rest.'

'I thought I was Classless but now I'm both Transmuter and a Caster at the same time!? How is this even possible?' Questions flooded his mind but they weren't being answered so he tried to rationalize his thoughts and come up with his own conclusion.

'Does this mean that the Classless is not restricted to just one class? Are we discriminated against because they're afraid of us?' A conspiracy started from in his head but was halted by a realization that he could now do more. He could be more than just a miner.

He could provide for his grandparents and give them the life that they deserved. All of these things gave him hope to live a better life.

This made him forget all the pain and suffering that he went through and all the confusion from the situation.

He was now brimming with life and hope and couldn't wait to go back home and tell his grandparents.

As he turned around to return, he saw the huge bear's corpse that was coated with significantly more Enliven than the wolves that he previously took from.

He quickly ran to it and touched the Enliven escaping from the carcass and went through the same process.

He felt more power from the rush that he gained from the assimilation process. His hand began to spark with weak electricity and remembered the skills that he gained.

'If 'Electric Absorption' made me absorb all that lightning did 'Propulsion' cause it to be expelled from my body making an explosion?'

He then raised his hand and pointed it in front of him and started to concentrate.

*BBZZZZTT!!*

*CRACKLE!!*

The lingering electricity in his arm started to buzz and crackle wildly then shot out towards the trees ripping the thick tree trunks to shreds, leaving scorch marks on the nearby trees that were grazed from the powerful blast.

"WHOAAH!!" Elric bursted with a laugh of satisfaction.

"It works! It really works!"

'I have to show this to Grandfather!' he thought excitedly as he ran as fast as he could to their house.

After running for almost half an hour, Elric was panting heavily still with a big smile on his face.

He knocked on the door a few times but quickly stopped himself realizing that it was deep in the night and that his grandparents must be sleeping by now.

He grabbed the knob and gave it a slight push hoping that it was unlocked. It was. He thought that his grandparents left it open for him.

However, something felt eerie. He slowly opened the door with a slight creak and quietly called out for his grandparents.

"Grandfather? Grandmother?"