Chapter 5: Awakening

"Grandma! Please help this man!" Angela arrived at a small townhouse and barged through the door. The living room was an open space with a fluffy carpet so Angela grabbed some pillows and laid Samuel down on the floor. An elderly Chinese lady walked into the living room with a ladle in her hand.

"Angie. I thought I tell you that I will not use my ability." But when Grandma Hu saw the man laying in her living room, missing an arm and pale as a sheet of paper, she sighed and put her ladle down.

"He's a brave soldier who sacrificed his arm to stall for reinforcements. Please save his life." Angela pleaded for her friend.

"Aiya. I will do it." As Grandma Hu said this, she channeled mana through her arms and an illusory set of acupuncture needles materialized in her hands. These needles were both corporeal and incorporeal. With deft hands, she began to take needles from the kit, sticking them in specific points on Samuel's body with great accuracy. It was clear that she was an expert at acupuncture.

After an array of needles was stuck into Samuel, Grandma Hu closed her eyes and put her hands on his body. Her hands began to glow with a fluorescent green light and the energy started to flow into Samuel's body.

"Angie. Get the medicine from the cabinet in the kitchen. The label say 'Blood Restoration.'"

As Angela ran to the kitchen to retrieve the medicine, Grandma Hu continued to infuse energy into Samuel to stabilize his condition. At this time, Samuel was undergoing the process of awakening. The Reincarnation Game stabilized his spirit so he wouldn't die immediately, but his physical body was still in danger.

Grandma Hu took the medicine from Angela when she returned. She took some needles, stuck them in Samuel's neck and his mouth opened automatically. From there, she quickly poured in the liquid medicine and closed his mouth by manipulating the needles, forcing him to swallow.

After a few more minutes of treatment, Grandma Hu stopped infusing energy into Samuel and removed the needles from his body. After putting the needles back into her kit, the entire kit faded away.

"He is stable. Just let him rest now. As for his arm, I cannot do anything about it." Grandma Hu was a healer-type Awakened. Her Aspect was the Mending Needles, which allows her to infuse mana into a person to induce an internal healing process. The acupuncture technique causes the mana to gain healing properties and then circulates it throughout the bloodstream, repairing tissue and speeding up natural healing processes.

An hour later, Samuel woke up. He sat up and looked around groggily. As his brain processed what was going on, Grandma Hu came down from the second floor. When she saw that he was awake, she smiled and went to the kitchen.

"Rest up, young man. Angie is at work now."

"Angie? Ah. You must be Angela's grandmother." Samuel noticed that his arm, or rather the stump, was bandaged. He tried moving it and his shoulder just wiggled a little.

Soon, Grandma Hu came back to the living room with a large bowl of stew.

"Here, eat. You need the nutrients. There is chicken liver in there. Good for health." She set the bowl down on a small coffee table as well as a small Chinese soup spoon. The stew smelled delicious. Samuel's stomach rumbled. Seems nearly dying really took a lot of energy out of him.

"Thank you very much. I'm indebted to you." Samuel scooted over to the coffee table and picked up the spoon. He was right-handed so his movements were unsteady but he managed to eat.

"Aiya, should thank Angie instead. She brought you here and ask me to treat you. Ok. If you want more stew, just ask." Grandma Hu went back to the kitchen while humming.

Samuel ate the stew quickly. While eating, he wanted to test some things.

'Status.'

[Status]

[Name: Samuel Mo]

[Title: None]

[Aspect: The Infernal Guide (Incomplete)]

[Race: Human]

[Stats:]

[Strength: 10]

[Vitality: 10]

[Agility: 10]

[Intelligence: 10]

[Willpower: 16]

The familiar status screen popped up in front of him.

"Ohh. It's real. It's really real…" Samuel was somewhat expecting nothing to happen. He thought maybe he was just dreaming that entire encounter. But it was real. This also meant that Samuel had technically Awakened. It meant that he had abilities now. It meant that he could actually sense and manipulate mana now.

Actually, he already felt that the world around him seemed clearer. The air contained a minute energy that invigorated him when he breathed.

'So this is mana. It's really a nice feeling. My body feels good.' He took a deep breath and exhaled.

'I wonder what Mammon is. He said 'you humans' as though he wasn't human. Strange. I've heard of some monsters being very intelligent, but I've never heard of any that could speak English.' Samuel was somewhat skeptical. So far, even though monsters rampaged around the world, there weren't any cases of intelligent humanoid monsters being able to communicate with humans.

'Oh right. Mammon said he left something in my inventory. Let's see…Inventory!' When Samuel willed the inventory to open, a new window appeared floating in the air.

[Inventory]

[-Special Note]

[-Small Book]

When Samuel tapped on the special note, it suddenly appeared in his hand. He put the note on the coffee table and then took the small book out as well. First, he read the note.

'Hey hey! Looks like you made it. Here's your little gift. It's actually originally part of the package. I just stored it inside the inventory space when I created this spell. It's an Aspect.'

Samuel's eyes widened. This Mammon guy was transferring an Aspect to him? He'd never heard of such a thing being possible. He continued to read the note.

'Technically speaking, I'm not transferring an entire Aspect to you. It's only part of an Aspect. Remember how I said the Reincarnation Game chooses a worthy successor? Well, there's only one way to be the worthy successor, and that's to possess the Infernal Guide. This gift is one of the chapters of the Infernal Guide. It's the chapter that I owned, and I am now passing it to you.'

Another bomb. Somehow, Mammon knew about his Aspect. Honestly, he wasn't that surprised. The magic spell called the Reincarnation Game was activated and it awakened his Aspect. Since Mammon was the creator of the Reincarnation Game, he definitely knew what the conditions were for activation.

'Anyway, if you take that book from your inventory and infuse some of your mana into it, the Chapter of Greed will fuse with the Infernal Guide. The information and abilities that come with the Chapter of Greed will automatically enter your brain, and you'll have instant access to that knowledge.'

'The Chapter of Greed gives you an ability called the Eyes of Truth. It's a very powerful ability, but logistical in nature. I've tweaked it a little to incorporate it into the Reincarnation Game. The Eyes of Truth can analyze the atomic composition of any object or living being, and compile some information regarding it. In video game terms, it's an Identification spell. Of course, it's not omniscient. For certain objects, only a very limited amount of information will be available. As for living beings, it can only reveal the complete information of beings weaker than you in mental strength. Anything that has exceptional mental strength over you will be able to resist the effects and little to no information will be revealed. And be careful. If they are experts in mental warfare, they might be able to retaliate against you through your mind and spirit.'

'Don't bother asking me where the other chapters are, because even I don't know. But the quest system will help you with that. If you come into contact with the residual energy signatures of any chapter of the Infernal Guide, the quest system should activate.'

'Bye again! -Mammon'

Samuel read the note a few times, focusing on the part about the Chapter of Greed. Once he processed all the information, he mentally noted down some key information.

First, Mammon is someone or something very powerful. Magic spells were still a relatively new concept to humanity. Someone who could create such a powerful spell had to be extremely powerful themself.

Second, the Infernal Guide has something to do with succeeding somebody. Samuel didn't know why or how his Aspect was the Infernal Guide. All he knew was that he now had the power to change his fate.

Third, he needed to track down the rest of the chapters. The answers to his questions might be where the chapters were.

Once Samuel oriented himself, he decided to try meditating. He needed to develop his mana cultivation, so that he could absorb the book's information. Sitting cross-legged in the middle of the floor, he began to breathe slowly and purposefully. The mana in the air was sucked into his body, spreading to his organs and limbs. When he was young, his parents taught him a meditation technique in hopes that he might awaken something or just to help develop his body. Unfortunately, without the Aspectus Gland, he wasn't even able to sense the mana in the air, let alone interact with in. Now, he could use this meditation technique to cultivate his body with mana and gain some elementary control over mana.

Once the mana permeated into his body, it would automatically become a part of him. Then, he could manipulate it through his body and use it in many wondrous ways. He continued to meditate, absorbing mana from his surroundings. He also noticed that there was some residual mana in his body from something.

'That must be from Grandma Hu.' Grandma Hu's mana was a light green color. Many Awakened had a light grey-colored mana which seemed to be the natural state of mana. Other Awakened had various colors of mana, usually corresponding to the element of their Aspect.

Samuel guessed that his mana would be red or orange, considering his Aspect was related to Hell.

After a few hours of meditation, he finally felt something spark in his body. When he examined, he saw that mixed in with the light grey and green mana was a small speck of black.

'Black mana!' The speck of black was obviously Samuel's mana. As soon as he saw the mana appear, he remembered something his father had told him.

'Obtaining that first speck of mana is exciting, but never forget to circulate it throughout your body. This step is important because it lets the body adapt to the mana, molding it to be a worthy vessel.'

"Don't underestimate the power of that little speck." Samuel whispered to himself. His father's words.

As he circulated his mana throughout his body, he could feel his body becoming lighter and more vigorous. The effects of his personal mana on his body's state was miles ahead of the mana in the air. Clearly, this was how the Awakened tempered their bodies with mana. As the mana circulated faster and faster, suddenly he felt an intense wave pass through his entire being. A loud pop sounded out from his body as a black, greasy liquid forced its way out of his pores and coated his skin. A pungent smell wafted in the air.

Samuel's body felt lighter than ever before. His senses were extremely clear and each breath of air felt crisp and energizing.

"What is that smell? Grandma? Are you making stinky tofu again?" At that moment, Angela walked into the house. Seeing that Samuel was awake, her eyes lit up.

"Samuel! You're okay! Wait, what the hell?" Angela ran over to Samuel before realizing what the source of the smell was.

"You've Awakened?!" An astonished shout rang out.