Chapter 1: Awakening 

Year: 1112, Location: Avaritia

"Ow," a small, pale, brown haired, scrawny child said, but despite his vocal expression of pain, his face didn't contort even slightly. He watched the blood run down his pinky to his palm, wearing an expressionless face unbefitting of a child.

"Fenrin!" A tall, lanky, middle-aged man yelled. This was Fenrin's father, Jack.

"Do you have a grudge against me or something?" Jack continued. "You know how angry your mother gets at me whenever you hurt yourself."

Fenrin replied, "It's fine, the blood will go away."

At this, Jack sighed and said in a sympathetic tone: "It's not just about your mother, we've both told you that it's not okay to injure yourself like that. It makes us very worried."

"I'm sorry, it just... feels natural."

"I'm really worried for you, Fenrin, but no matter what, your mother and I love you. I hope you know that. But for now, let's go get you cleaned up."

"Okay, Papa."

Jack and Fenrin walked toward their house, which was a wooden clay structure. It had windows, a single floor, and a basement. There were three rooms and one bathroom. Overall, it was a very cozy home.

After a successful cleaning session upon entering the house, the three sat around the dinner table.

The boy's mother, Rem, enjoyed a pleasant conversation with Fenrin: "Fenrin, did you have fun today? I would enjoy it if I were you. I'm sure you're going to have an A-rank core, and pretty soon you'll have to go to a big school." She spoke in a very kind and endearing way.

"I don't really want to go to a big school like that, but I wouldn't mind if it made you happy, Mom."

At this comment, Rem wore a great big smile and hugged Fenrin as if he were the softest teddy bear in the world, at which point Jack had to pull the two apart.

Jack, after eventually separating the two, told Fenrin to go to bed for the night.

A few hours later.

Inside the master bedroom, Jack and Rem were discussing Fenrin: "I'm really worried about Fenrin; he's been getting more obsessed with blood and is acting very oddly for a child his age."

At this, Rem argued back, "Fenrin isn't odd; he just happens to be a bit different. Every kid has a few weird habits, but I am worried about his enjoyment of blood... But it's not like there's anything we can do."

"We could send him somewhere."

"Send him where? Those fucking quacks would do more damage than good. I'm sure it will pass over time."

"I... I... suppose so; I'm just worried for him, but you're right."

A bit later, Jack and Rem fell asleep.

Outside the room, a small child had a frown on his face; he looked sad... It seemed this little guy had overheard everything.

Over the course of the next year, Fenrin's habits didn't change; if anything, they got even worse. But due to Fenrin's vigilance, his parents didn't realize his obsession was progressing; they actually thought it was regressing.

Jack burst open the door in a very excited mood, shouting: "It's time! It's time! Hahaha, my boy! It's finally time for you to attempt your awakening!" Afterwards, Rem smacked Jack on the back of the head. "What are you getting his hopes up for? Not everybody awakens a core; I don't have one, and you only have an F-rank core."

Jack replied swiftly, "But that's what's so great! It doesn't matter even if he doesn't have one; it's all gain and no loss!"

Fenrin, in a dazed state, was swiftly dragged away to the bathroom by his father to clean up for his awakening ceremony.

A few hours later of travel, the trio family arrived at a small town. It had a population of about 700, most of whom were farm workers. But most importantly, it was one of the locations for Awakening Ceremonies.

Awakening Ceremonies were when experienced Ren users got paid to awaken cores in children, and sometimes older people, for money.

In the corner of the town, there was a large empty space with a stage. There were around 400 people, with about half of them being children, and most of the other half being the parents of said children.

"Attention! Attention!" A middle-aged man yelled out. "There are five Awakeners here. All the parents go to the side, and all the children split up into five rows."

"We'll be over here, Fenrin," Jack and Rem told Fenrin as they moved to the side of the open area with all the other parents.

The announcer spoke again. "I will explain the process for all those that have not done this before, which will be most of you."

"You will walk up the stairs one at a time. Once it is your turn, you will sit in a kneeling position. Then, one of the Awakeners will place their hands on your back. They will infuse Ren into your core to try and awaken it. If it fails, then you can come back again, but be forewarned that if you don't awaken the first time, it is very likely you will have a core below C-rank."

After this, almost every child suddenly felt butterflies in their stomach, and their faces paled. Fenrin, instead, was relieved, "I only have to do this once," is what he thought.

After a few hours with very many cores below C-rank, with the majority being D-rank, a small amount of B-rank awakeners, and a single A-rank awakener, it was finally Fenrin's turn. He was almost the very last person, but despite that, most people hadn't left yet, due to this being a tradition.

Fenrin walked up the stairs, with his signature blank face; he started the process of awakening his core.

The person who was awakening Fenrin was named Fin. Fin was really hoping for Fenrin to be a high-ranker because every awakener gets a bonus depending on their rank. "That guy Tom got an A-rank; I haven't even gotten a B-rank! And there's already almost nobody left in my line... My luck's been really bad today."

A few minutes later... "Why is this kid taking so much Ren? Is... is this an A-rank? Holy shit! I've never gotten an A-rank before; I can finally buy that new house!"

Ten more minutes later... "Why... is... this... kid... taking so much Ren!!! I'm literally almost out, fuck. I'm going to have to ask somebody else to help me... Fuck, this is embarrassing."

One person later... "We both didn't have enough Ren to awaken him..." Fin asked his other awakeners for help.

After a brief discussion among the awakeners, they decided all five of them had to go in a sort of centipede line to tunnel their Ren to Fenrin.

Obviously, the sudden pause made everybody impatient and annoyed, but when they saw all the examiners line up for one person, they felt dumbstruck.

A vast amount of mumbling was happening in the crowd, trying to explain what was happening; the most common theory was that Fenrin was a noble child that failed his awakening and paid a lot of money for special privileges.

So obviously, most of the crowd was angry, but none of them would voice their opinions; although they would stare angrily at Fenrin, who stared back blankly.

After 5 minutes, all five of the Awakeners were fatigued, the closest one being more fatigued than the ones in the back.

Fin was the first to speak to Fenrin. "Young master, what is your name?" He said this whilst wearing the biggest smile possible and also squatting down to be at head level.

Fenrin spoke back, "My name is Fenrin." After shaking Fenrin's hand, Fin explained the next steps to Fenrin. "Young master, the next step is to place your hand on this White Frog. Its color will change to whatever element you are. There's a bit too many to explain which color is each since if you have more than one element they will combine. But the base elemental colors are Red for fire, Blue for water, Green for earth, and gray for air."

Fenrin looked at the frog with a contorted face, "I have to touch that?"

Fin, seemingly shocked by Fenrin's complete 180 in terms of attitude after seeing the frog, was a bit surprised. "Uh, yes, young master, but it is not bad; it's very rough, it's not slimy or anything."

Fin groaned, "Alright..." He stuck his hand out to touch the white frog's stomach, while facing the other direction with his eyes closed.

The frog seemed very relaxed and almost smug, seeing the child's apprehension to it as if it was thinking, "Children fear me, Adults revere me. I truly live the life of a king."

As Fenrin touched it, he immediately pulled his hand back. "Eughh..." Fenrin said while staring at his hand.

A few moments later, the frog that thought of himself as a king suddenly stopped moving; a few moments later, he fell face forward and never moved again.

Fin stood there silent for a few moments; the other awakeners went silent; even the audience went completely silent.

Meanwhile, Fenrin didn't even notice the frog had died; he was too zoned in on his hand.

After a few minutes passed, Fenrin eventually looked away from his hand, and there he was shocked to find every single person frozen.

Fenrin tried calling out to the awakeners, "Hello, hello, can I go home now? Uh, why isn't anybody moving?"

A whistling sound played from above, "Phwoooooh." Fenrin looked up and saw a shadowy figure slowly gliding down, as if he wasn't bound by gravity.

The shadowy figure suddenly talked, but at the same time, didn't talk. It was as if his words were playing inside Fenrin's mind. "Hey there kid, hey, hey, look at me!" Fenrin stared at the figure with a stunned expression.

The shadowy figure continued. "White frog got your tongue, HAHAHA, I'm just messing with you, kid. Anyway, how are you, what's up, what'd you do today, yesterday, last year, last month, tell me everything about yourself." The shadowy figure stared at Fenrin, feeling as if he was piercing through his soul.

The figure continued, "Huh, your life is really boring, well anyway, how about you stop standing there with that stupid look on your face and start talking."

Fenrin stuttered out, "W- who... are you?"

The figure raised a hand to his lips. "It's best if you don't know, BUUUT!!! I can tell you what I'm gonna do for you!"

It spoke nonstop as if it did not want to hear a single other word, "You are a Death elemental user; you fit very perfectly for my plans. I will have you do something for me; it is a very minor thing, for now, you need to get strong, VERY strong! I will help you with this."

Suddenly a dog appeared, a Scottish Terrier to be specific. Once again, he spoke nonstop, "Hey Garmr, happy to be out of your jail? Hahaha, anyway, you are now life-bound to this kid. I forgot his name, but you guys can introduce yourselves later. Your job is to make this kid as powerful as possible. If you do not achieve this, I will break your soul into a million pieces, reconstruct it again, deconstruct, reconstruct, deconstruct, reconstruct, it will be unimaginably painful! Hahaha."

Garmr tried speaking, "What the he-" But the figure spoke once again, "Anyway, I will leave you two to it. Garmr, if the kid dies, you will die a fate worse than death. Kid, if Garmr dies, don't feel bad; it's just a learning experience. But that will be all. I will visit you once again after you graduate from an Academy."

Time started once again, but suddenly Fenrin's face looked as if a ghost punched him in the face a thousand times, and fainted almost immediately.

As Fenrin's consciousness went dark, he got a glimpse of the white frog turning black and his parents running onto the stage toward him.