The Awakening Ceremony

"Let's calm down a bit! Before we begins, let's hold a minute of silence and honor the memory of those who died on the day of the "Black Day",– Kalfrid called everyone.

After a moment of silence, Kalfrid continued:

"We don't have much time, so let me explain everything quickly before we start."

Under the gaze of all the participants, a small hole opened on the floor of the stage and a platform with a small black stone with a height of 1 meter rose from it.

"For those people who don't know, it's a stone for stimulating a person's soul. Under the influence of the stone's effect, it is easiest for people to awaken their beast soul.

In ancient times, the first beast tamers could awaken on their own without the help of a stone. But as you know, there were so few beast tamers at that time that they couldn't even compare to the number of people in this room.

But we were lucky. After so many years, the powerful beast tamers had achieved a lot and had discovered a way to stimulate a person's soul, which increased the chance of awakening. They also found that at certain times of the year, the effect of using the stone increases several times. And today is such a day. All the dates of the awakening ceremonies are chosen for a reason. It is during these four days that the stone's effect is most effective."

After saying these words, Kalfrid walked over to the black stone and looked at the entire crowd again.

"Now, as soon as the stone begins to act, you will all be dragged into the so-called soul space. Once you're there, focus. It will be your own soul space. So, each person's awakening will be different." - Kalfrid paused so that all the participants could digest what he had heard. "What challenges you will face there depends on yourself. Also, don't worry. Time inside the soul space will flow slowly, and it will also be different for everyone. For some it may take an hour, for others it may take months. At that time, it will only be about 20 minutes in the outside world."

After explaining the basics of the awakening process, Kalfrid checked the time on his left-hand watch and paused for a moment.

Anon roughly knew the process of waking up from the network.

On the Web, many who passed the ceremony shared their experiences. The awakenings were different for each person. Those who failed to awaken all said that nothing happened to them in the so-called soul space. They all couldn't do anything without seeing it. 

"Okay. Everyone gets ready!" - having said this, Kalfrid went up to the stone and put both hands on it. "Let the awakening ceremony begin! And I wish you all good luck."

Immediately after these words, Kalfrid injected the power of his soul into the stone and the stone emitted a black color that enveloped the entire room, engulfing everyone inside.

After a drastic change in the environment, Anon found himself in a black space, as expected. No matter how ready he was, he was a little nervous and immediately began to turn his head around studying his surroundings. But to his dismay, there was nothing around. Just pitch black.

After checking everything carefully, Anon began to panic. It all came down to the fact that he wasn't qualified to become a beast tamer.

"Hmm, that's how you got into your soul space," while Anon was starting to panic, a strange detached voice was heard.

"..."

Anon was so scared by the unexpected voice that he fell into a stupor, even forgetting how to breathe. His heart nearly jumped out of his throat from fear and fright.

"Oh? Can you hear me?" a voice asked Anon after seeing his reaction.

Without waiting for an answer, the voice continued.

"Calm down kid! I'm not in your soul space, so don't even try to find me. Few people can invade the soul space of another being. At the moment, only my consciousness is here, and it is not tangible or visible. I'm in a completely different place right now." The voice's words did nothing to comfort Anon.

"W... who are you?" Anon finally said.

"Hmm... who am I? "What is it?" the voice asked. After a few seconds of silence, the voice said, "Well, I'm a spirit!"

"S... a spirit?" - Anon has never heard of Spirits. He knew many kinds of beasts. He had read a lot about beasts on the web. But even on the web there was not a single word about spirits.

"Huh? Are you surprised?" the spirit asked.

Anon nodded.

"Well, it's not surprising, I would say," the spirit replied.

"Okay. I see you're not able to speak properly yet. Especially since you've been able to enter your soul space, focus. Maybe you'll understand something. I don't think so, though. Before you, there were others like you who were able to get in with the help of the Law Stone before their natural awakening. But no one has achieved anything significant." Anon did not interrupt the spirit as he spoke.

"The Stone of Law? Is that the real name of that black stone?" Anon wondered in his head.

"We'll talk to you again in the future when you can awaken," the spirit's words distracted Anon from his thoughts.

"Will i awaken? Does that mean I can become a beast tamer?" asked Anon with renewed innate hope.

"Huh?" the spirit was surprised by Anon's question. But then it only dawned on him that the guy got into his spirit space with the help of the so-called awakening ceremony.

"Are you a beast tamer? Pfft..." came a chuckle from the spirit.

"Of course..." after a pause, the spirit said, "... no!"

The Spirit immediately cut off Anon's budding hope.

"Listen kid! Don't dwell on it. People like you go the other path," the spirit wanted to comfort Anon.

Anon didn't immediately understand what the spirit meant. From the moment he found out about the beast tamers, he wanted to become one of them. It was his secret dream. A dream driven by him for many years. His desire grew stronger as his father interacted with his beast partners.

All the knowledge about beasts and tamers that he had carefully memorized and accumulated before was just for this purpose.

The appearance of Susu increased this desire even more. He promised her that no matter what, he would become a beast tamer and sign a contract with her. But the words of the spirit made it clear that this was not to be.

Would he accept such a result? Anon didn't want to. He didn't want to give up on his dream. At least without trying to try.

"What do you mean, another path?" - finally calming down, Anon realized that the spirit had told him and could not ask about it.

"Eh...I wish I could tell you everything, but I can't. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to deceive you by saying that you would become a so-called Beast tamer," the spirit said apologetically.

"I feel sorry for people like you. I do not know why it still clings to you so much. But I can only assume that it believes in you," about whom the spirit spoke so mysteriously, it was not clear to Anon.

"I will not advise you or tell you anything about your path until you awaken on your own and realize who you are.

But let me give you a warning. I can't say for sure if you can succeed at anything today, but as soon as you return to the outside world, don't tell anyone anything about what happened to you. Don't tell or mention about me. I'm saying this for your own good," the spirit said in a serious tone.

"Know one thing. The main reason for my contact with you today is to warn you and make it clear that you are different from others. People like you in the outside world are unique in this era. Many forces are hunting for people like you. If any of these forces find out about you, you won't have a happy life.

Trust my words, kid. From now on, don't trust anyone and try to keep a low profile and live until you awaken. When you awaken, we'll meet again, and you'll finally find out who I really am.

From the moment you were born into this world, we were already connected and we were destined to meet sooner or later. So, I wish you good luck," the spirit said the last words softly, as if he were moving away from Anon, and the voice even gradually became quieter until it completely fell silent.