Chapter 2: Insult to Injury

A year after humanity stabilized its operations on Earth, a baby was born in United States. His name was Samuel. In the present age, when babies are born, they are taken to a room where special nurses measure the babies' potential and aptitude for mana. Unfortunately, Samuel's reading came up as zero. He was born without an Aspectus Gland. This meant that he was destined to never awaken and obtain an Aspect of his own. Without an Aspect, he could not manipulate the powerful energy known as mana. Without being able to manipulate mana, he would not amount to much in a world where Awakened dominated. He was essentially a cripple. But luckily for him, his parents didn't mind.

For fifteen years, Samuel was raised with loving care by his two parents as they did their best to survive in an unpredictable and dangerous world. Samuel's parents were expeditionists, meaning they were strong enough to embark on journeys into Gates and explore the great unknown. Using their Aspects and the skills they obtained over the years, they would venture into Gates looking for artifacts and information that they could bring back to Earth. They were members of Orion, a guild operating in the east coast of the United States, in the Washington Sanctuary. One day, when Samuel was fifteen years old, his parents disappeared. The official statement was that an expedition into a B-rank Gate went horribly wrong. Only one member of the expedition survived.

Samuel, of course, was devastated. His parents went missing. There was an extremely high chance that they had passed away in the Gate. He'd looked up to them for his whole life. Powerful Awakened who could slay monsters with ease. Tender and caring parents who loved their child even though he was a cripple. He knew he was lucky. He'd heard about elite families who would neglect their crippled children, or even abandon them at birth. But his parents didn't do that. Instead, they treated him like any other child, raising him and teaching him. Now, they were gone.

Most guilds will compensate the families of expeditionists if they die while in a Gate. For Samuel it was no different. Orion did compensate him. However, they pulled a fast one on him using legal loopholes to only compensate him with the amount for one person's death.

Humans are strange creatures. Even with the threat of monsters and gates looming over the heads of humanity, they still find the time to squabble amongst themselves.

Luckily for Samuel, his parents had saved up enough money for him to live for a few more years. With the addition of the meager amount he was given by Orion, he could survive for maybe five more years. After that, he'd have to figure out how to make a living as a cripple.

——

The year is 2050. Twenty years have passed since the Fall of the Modern Era. Five years have passed since Samuel's parents died.

As soon as Samuel turned 17, he enlisted in the Sanctuary Guard. The Sanctuary Guard was an official fighting force that focused on protecting the Sanctuaries from the monster threats. Although the main fighting force was always comprised of Awakened, they could always use more cannon fodder. Manaless like Samuel often opted for this route. Even without mana, with enough physical training and the assistance of weapons made of special materials, Manaless could kill low-level monsters. They wouldn't be fighting on the frontlines, but they would be stationed around the Sanctuaries or at smaller towns under the jursidiction of the nearest Sanctuary. They generally acted as a middle-line of defense to take care of any low-level monsters that may have been missed by the more powerful Awakened who focused on eliminating high-level threats.

After a basic physical training period, Samuel was stationed at a small town called Stoneburg about 20 miles away from the Washington Sanctuary. This town was protected mainly by a small guild called the Stoneburg Defenders. Luckily, in the past five years, Stoneburg had no history of large-scale monster attacks, meaning the pitiful number of eight Awakened in the Stoneburg Defenders were able to protect the town. Soldiers like Samuel were stationed there periodically, mainly as a reserve guard. The Stoneburg Defenders were able to easily take care of any monster threats in the area.

Samuel idled away his days stationed in Stoneburg for three years. As he was a soldier with no family, no wife, and no kids, the Washington Sanctuary didn't feel the need to recall him or redeploy him. The most action he got was in 2049, when a small-scale monster attack occurred right near where he was patrolling. He took his anti-monster rifle and gunned down one of the mutated deer creatures before the Stoneburg Defenders arrived to take care of the rest.

Back to the present day. March 24th, 2050. As usual, Samuel was at work. His normal day of patrolling Stoneburg with his partner, Lewis. All the soldiers stationed at Stoneburg patrolled in pairs.

"Hey Sam, you tryna go to the club tonight? It's been a while since we've gone." Lewis was a tall Caucasian man with short blonde hair, big ears, and a crooked smile. He'd been Samuel's partner for three years and was always looking for fun things to do.

"Fine Lewis. You've been asking me for three days straight. Might as well go, if only to get you to shut up." Samuel joked around a bit with Lewis.

Samuel had always been a friendly person. His parents had encouraged him to be amicable with other people and to always treat others with respect. They said it'd make his life easier and they were right. After his parents died, a little part of him died inside. He still tried his best to be friendly and respectful, but it wasn't always easy. The relationship between Awakened and Manaless was frayed at best. Many Awakened liked to bully Manaless, knowing that there were no real consequences for their actions. In the eyes of the people, Awakened were a thousand times more valuable than Manaless.

"Samuel and Lewis. Looks like you two are slacking off at work." A nasally voice sounded out from nearby.

Samuel turned around to see a stocky Asian man. His black hair was messy, as if he'd just walked through a wind tunnel. His facial features were all pointy, as if someone had shaved off parts. He was dressed in a polished and gleaming set of form-fitting armor. This type of armor was made with special monster materials and was durable but still flexible enough to move around in naturally. Only Awakened could afford this type of armor; regular soldiers like Samuel and Lewis would never be able to use it. The stocky man also had an assault rifle strapped to his body, but unlike the standard-grade anti-monster rifles that regular soldiers used, this rifle was higher-caliber and had more sophisticated technology in it. With the exact same ammo, this rifle could kill a low-level monster in a few shots while the standard rifles might take a whole magazine.

"Ugh. It's Rick. We're not slacking off. We just talked for like ten seconds." Lewis rolled his eyes.

Rick Quan. An Awakened who was part of the guild Stoneburg Defenders. He had a superiority complex and loved to mess with Samuel and Lewis whenever he could. Constantly slacking off on his own duties, he preferred to leave the monster-killing to his fellow guild members.

"Yeah whatever. Samuel, were you talking to my girl the other day? Don't you dare think you can do that without any consequences." Without warning, Rick appeared in front of Samuel. In spite of his stocky figure, Rick was very agile. He glared at Samuel and suddenly, his eyes seemed to morph, changing into a pair of yellow snake eyes. As soon as they changed, Samuel felt an immense pressure bearing down on him, inducing a strange feeling of fear. This was the result of Rick's Aspect. Awakened had the natural ability to manifest their Aspect in some form, granting them magical abilities.

Luckily, Samuel's mental willpower was quite good. Even though he was sweating and resisting the mental assault, he managed to squeeze out some words.

"Angela? She's not even your girlfriend." Apparently this was the wrong answer.

"Don't you dare talk to Angela anymore!" Rick shouted and the pressure on Samuel multiplied. Samuel resisted with all his willpower but still he nearly buckled from the pressure. Just as Samuel was about to collapse, Rick's eyes reverted back to normal and the pressure disappeared.

To Samuel, this was somewhat strange. Rick loved to use this ability on him. Normally, he'd go as far as forcing Samuel to collapse and then some. If this was about jealousy, Samuel felt as though he would have gotten worse treatment. But instead, Rick seemed to be lenient and let him off easier than normal.

Or not. When Samuel recovered and looked at Rick, he saw an expression of surprise and fear.

"What the fuck is that?!" Lewis exclaimed while pointing behind.

Samuel turned around to look in the direction that Lewis was pointing, he saw a sight that made his skin crawl. Just a few meters away, a frenzy of energy swished around a hole in mid-air, as though someone had ripped open the fabric of reality with two hands. A Gate. As the visible streaks of lights shook around the Gate, a creature popped out of the hole. It was a giant, humanoid figure with hideous features. It looked like an ogre from the classic fantasy movies that Samuel liked to watch as a kid. Except this ogre had four arms. In two of its arms, it held crudely formed wooden sticks. It looked as if they had just been ripped off a huge tree. When it recovered from its disorientation, it immediately spotted the three humans in front of it. The ogre grinned, its mouth missing many teeth, before roaring, spittle flying everywhere.

The roar was earth-shattering to Samuel and Lewis, and it seemed that Rick was not much better off. The primal sound forced them to cover their ears, lest their eardrums burst into blood. With their heads rattling from the noise, they could barely move without staggering around. The ogre stomped towards the three of them while they were in a stupor. As an Awakened with a mana-tempered body, Rick managed to recover and immediately began to run away from the ogre while firing shots towards it. Rick looked back occasionally to aim, but he saw that although the bullets were hitting the ogre, it didn't seem to do much damage. Seeing this, he became more afraid, wanting to get as far away from this place as he could.

Samuel and Lewis had just recovered when the ogre reached them. The ogre lifted one of its clubs and took a swipe at them. At this moment, time seemed to slow in the perspective of Samuel. Adrenaline pumped through his body like crazy. In a feat of insane reflex, he managed to turn towards Lewis and grab him, diving onto the ground with him. The club narrowly passed over their heads while the ogre roared in anger.

"ROLL!" The two of them rolled to the side, each of them going in a different direction. Immediately after the ogre had attacked, it took its other club and slammed down at both of them. From their prone positions, they scrambled to their feet and began to run away from the ogre. At some point, Rick had stopped firing and just focused on running away.

Samuel and Lewis ran with all their might while following Rick, without even bothering to fire at the ogre. If Rick, who had better quality ammo than they did, had already stopped firing, there was no point for them to try. It was better to focus on getting as much distance between them and the ogre as they could.

Lewis had already pulled out his communication device and yelled into it, requesting backup. Samuel listened while running.

"Backup will be here in a few minutes! We just gotta survive until then." Lewis shouted.

Although the ogre was relatively slow in speed, it was more than three times the size of Samuel. It's legs were much bigger and it actually began to gain on them. Suddenly, Samuel watched as Rick turned around. He saw that Rick's eyes had become snake-like again. He thought, 'Rick can slow down the ogre with his ability!' However, Samuel suddenly felt a familiar pressure bearing down on him. The intense wave stopped him right in his tracks, allowing the ogre to catch up. The ogre grabbed Samuel, crushing his arms. Samuel nearly blacked out from the pain but managed to catch a glimpse of Rick smirking in the distance.

'This fucker.' He thought, right before the ogre tore his right arm off and he passed out from the pain.