Close One II

"Ah, I failed once again." Luke walked out of a very massive eleven story building It's walls were made of blocks covered with marble slabs. Cars of different designs and sizes were parked in the parking lot just in eont of the building. 'What the hell is with the test and why can't I even manifest the tiniest bit of mana!?' He screamed internally. His blue eyes were tired of his repetitive failure.

He had been at it for the past two years. He always visited this building to get tested if he had awakened his innate abilities which he believed were like a sleeping dragon inside of him.

He would come now and then, claiming he felt a difference in his body but meh! he failed every single time he came for the test.

He walked for an hour back to his house. When he arrived at the tired-looking two-story building that looked as if it would fall on its residents, he sighed and walked in, climbing to the top floor.

He arrived at the front of his door and heard noises inside his apartment. 'Shit… who the hell entered? I'll break their neck when I get in. Hopefully, it's not an armed robber.' He thought as he walked in.

A sweet aroma embraced him, filling his nose and even his brain started hallucinating about eating whatever was being made. He was drooling as he walked over to the kitchen. His thoughts of beating whoever was in the apartment had been washed away. He stood at the entrance of the kitchen.

"Hey, where the hell did you go off to?" A familiar voice asked.

'Ah, shit. I forgot I lived with this bas***d.' He said to himself.

"Hey, I'm asking you a ques…" The masculine voice spoke again.

"Oh, would you shut up? I just went for a walk. A walk!" Luke replied before he could complete his sentence.

"You better come up with a better lie. You always say that whenever you come back from the awakening test center." Luke became tense at his words. He had been caught so easily, but the voice was not done.

"Why the hell do you keep going there even after failing? I'm sure you won't be entering any dungeon anytime soon." The voice asked as the owner walked over to him. It was Obed, his closest friend from childhood.

Luke pulled out a device from his pocket and looked at the screen. "Who knows? I just keep getting drawn to that place every damn time." Then his belly growled.

Obed's black eyes were fixed on him after he heard the sound. They looked at each other for a moment then burst into laughter together. Luke then asked "When's the food gonna be ready? As you can see and hear, I'm really hungry."

"It's ready. I just finished." Obed replied and walked back into the kitchen with his body which was bigger than Luke's. He was almost a head taller than Luke with more developed muscles.

"I'll join you pretty soon. I need to clean up first and also, you know I don't like eating really hot foods." Luke excused himself and walked into the bathroom.

A few minutes later, he was out with only a towel on his waist. He looked well built with well-developed muscles. His black hair which was usually tied in a bun now fell all the way to the middle of his back. His pointed nose had water still dripping from it. He looked too handsome to be looked at just once, but someone had a different opinion.

"How many times have I told you to thoroughly clean those threads attached to your head before you get out of the bathroom?!!" Obed, who was already eating, shouted at him.

"I'll just have to clean it. Tch." Luke clicked his tongue as he wiped away the water on the floor.

With a towel on his waist, he walked to the table and began to eat. He didn't utter one word till he finished eating. "Thank you for the food." He finally spoke and cleared the plates on the table. He quickly cleaned them all and walked back to the table.

"So, how was the test today?" Obed asked as he toyed with his short curly black hair.

"I failed… again," Luke replied. "We'll talk later, I'm heading into the room since I need rest and sleep." It was barely past noon.

"Sure, go ahead." Obed replied and they both left the table with Luke going into the room and Obed moving over to the couch to relax since it was more comfortable than the chairs they'd both been sitting on.

Entering the room, he walked over to his bed and sat on it. He cussed inwardly. "Damn it all. If only mum was here." He sighed when he remembered she wasn't here anymore and he'd have to live like that for the rest of his life. That's when he remembered the pills left behind for him by his mother.

He opened a drawer close to his bed and pulled out a wooden box that seemed like something from a thousand years ago. It looked worn out but it was very much in good condition.

Opening the box, he saw the two different sets of pills sitting in different bags that looked back at him. "Those are cleansing pills. You'll know when to take them, but don't ever start with the white ones." He recalled her words even though he was only eight years old when she told him.

Then he remembered how Obed had spent all night in the toilet after putting two of the pills in his food when they were in the final year of their high school and he started laughing like a demon king.

"I've taken two previously, but it did nothing for me, unlike Obed." After Obed had spent all night in the toilet, he seemed better at everything he did. Even though he hadn't awakened like others, he could keep up with low-tier individuals that had awakened with abilities. Obed was like an awakened who wasn't awakened.

"I'll go with five this time. Hopefully, there'll be a change." He took five of the pills and swallowed them all. After ten minutes, night happened so he took another five and returned the box into the drawer.

Soon after, he was asleep. He found himself in a dream. Walking around in a place surrounded by big trees. Then the ground started to rumble.

At first, it was a subtle rumbling but it soon started shaking and the huge trees swayed like they would fall if the rumbling got any worse. That's when he saw the source of the rumbling. It was something like a big serpent that coiled its body around itself. He couldn't find the head. But it was big enough to be seen even with the huge trees blocking everywhere. The snakelike thing seemed to sense him and it slowly rose.

He looked at it very well. A snake was supposed to have scales but this thing had nothing like that even when its size was this big. Then he heard growls from it. A snake should be hissing but this thing was growling and he could smell something weird. It was a poisonous gas from whatever that thing was. The trees touched by the gas withered in an instant. But why did this gas smell so familiar? He didn't know. But the growl got louder and the thing began to chase after him.

Luke ran for his life. He kept running and he never looked back. Soon, he would be out of the forest. He was happy since he didn't hear any more sound from the thing chasing him. "I must've outrun it," was what he thought. A few yards to the exit of the forest, that's when he saw the thing waiting for him. With its head raised staring at him like it would eat him completely. The smell was back and felt more familiar than before.

That's when it hit him. This was no snake… This thing was a massive crawling poop. It seemed to sense that Luke now understood what it was and it descended on Luke who was on the floor screaming. "Ahhhh…" then it fell on him.

"Ahhhh." He was back on his bed but the smell from that dream still hung in the air. The rumbling continued and his body seemed to be the source of the rumbling. "Shit." He jumped from the bed and bolted into the toilet. He almost pooped on himself. The intensity of the poop came to haunt him as a dream.

"That was a close one." Luke said as he freed up what had just haunted his dream.