Chapter 15: Eye To Eye Contact With Death

[This is it? I guess we were stressed for nothing!]

Cia was also in disbelief. Such forceful employment, he thought he was going to face demons and other creatures at his job in the library. It had already been three hours and all he did here was sit and walk around, dust the books and stare blankly at the sleeping old man on the side.

"Was I too paranoid? This job might be special, but special doesn't pertain to deadly." Cia reflected about his thoughts. Maybe he had been too stressed. He kept assuming the worst.

He picked up the book that was placed on the counter. It was already placed there the moment he entered the door.

Awakening Beginners Guide.

It was a very simple and straightforward title. Cia gave the sleeping old man a glance and thought, 'is this for me?'

He opened the book. Inside were basic information about awakeners. It was a good thing for Cia as he really had no clue what the normal circumstances of awakening are.

Whatever the old man's intentions were, Cia was grateful for him.

The first page of the book is about an outdated legend. There are supposed to be 33 Gods that governed the world. They had been living in peace for many years until there was a disagreement as to who would really own the world.

Thus started the Battle of the Gods.

The result of that battle was the perishing of all the Main Gods. It resulted in both destruction and life. After the war, the first life that appeared was the birth of the 'Nature Gods'.

That was the beginning of life in this world. It is believed that humans came from the Main God Isinda and the demons came from Main God Fula. There are also other races, but in this continent, the main issues are the demons.

Shhhhh

Cia looked up. The wind was blowing an open book that he read a while ago. He pulled the window closed and placed the book underneath the counter.

[This world had such an interesting lore] the system was reading the book together with Cia. Its eyes were filled with amazement.

The next content was about awakeners. What are the criteria that need to be fulfilled in order to become an awakener?

Listen, here are four things.

1. Either of your parents needs to be an awakener because of bloodline inheritance (genetics) matters when it comes to mana.

2. You ate something that changed the composition of your body.

3. You are a miracle. Or you have an ancestor that is an awakener.

4. You awakened through a ritual.

Cia's eyes paused at the last number.

Ritual?

It reminded him of Sam's dream about Ain's death. He was lying in what seems like a Devil's circle. Being in that position after dying means he probably did a ritual before his demise.

Combined with Cia's task about Ain's successful awakening, could it be that Ain used rituals to awaken his body?

Hey, it could be it but something went wrong during the operation which caused Ain's death.

"Hmm...? There's more?" Cia thought that was all information about the ritual awakening when he noticed a bold red warning below.

"Highly Risky. Don't use this method unless you are desperate because there is a 97% chance of the user being able to accidentally summon a demon. And being a victim of demonic possession."

Cia's hands that were flipping the page stopped. He looked up and saw that the old man was still sleeping on the rocking chair.

Is he imagining things? Why does it feel like someone was staring at him.

He shook his head and continued reading.

Cia touched the note. His head was beating fast. Based on the original owners memories, Ain values his life more than anything. Does he know the risk of doing the ritual?

There is more information about the awakening. Unlike Cia where he needs to kill sinners in order to upgrade, those other awakeners used what they call as Mystic Pearl.

Mystic Pearl is commonly found underground. There are different levels of this kind of stone. It was divided into F to SSS+ grade.

Pale Yellow - F grade stone.

Yellow - E grade stone.

Orange - D grade stone.

Red - C grade stone.

Violet - B grade stone.

Blue - A grade stone.

Green - S to SS grade stone. (Depending on the purity)

Black - SSS+ grade stone.

Unless Cia doesn't want to kill sinners (which is very impossible even if he wants to) or there are no longer sinners in the world (even more impossible), this Mystic Pearl would have nothing to do with him.

His way of leveling up is different. But even if he doesn't need it, his siblings are soon-to-be awakeners. They will probably need this.

So Cia glanced at the price of the stones...

"Hiss... Damn, why don't I just rob?!" Cia almost fainted seeing such absurd numbers of gold coins. The cheapest one was about 300 gold coins!

[Host, no! I'm sure you can find a way to earn money legally!] The system was already wary about such thoughts after remembering what Cia said to Rena.

Cia's eyes looked dead as he mechanically read the rest of the contents written on the books, "Sure. Prostitution is legal in this world right? Maybe I should just head straight to my main plan of selling myself to a wealthy widow for money."

The system now started a new round of comforting. Cia wasn't even in the mood to act like it worked. He flipped a page and saw a very familiar name written inside.

Dawn...

Cia realized that he arrived at the part where it explained the power levels of awakeners. He was a bit surprised to notice that it seemed to be based on flowers.

There were 10 levels:

Sprout (beginner)- Daisy - Lily - Tulip - Iris - Rose - Orchid - Lotus - Peony - Dawn (???)

Most mana users and knight class shared the same power level names. There is not much explanation as to why it was named this way, but at the end of the explanation, there was a note saying 'courtesy to the God of Flower'.

Cia didn't think much of it. He continued flipping and he finally arrived at the potential class.

"Sigh..." He cracked his neck. His eyes kept glancing at the bookshelf. Cia felt like he was being watched, but the old man is clearly also an awakener. He didn't react so it was probably nothing.

He looked down and tried to distract himself.

Just like the stone, the potential class was divided into F to SSS, the only difference is that it is a class and not grade.

F level class are the weakest and had the lowest potential. Their mind space is very weak and tiny, they could not absorb much mana. They are the weakest type of awakeners as most of them are doomed to be stuck at Sprout for the rest of their lives until their lifespan perishes.

Then there is the SSS class which Cia is in. Awakeners of this class had unlimited potential. Although it is not guaranteed that they would reach Dawn as they might die in the middle of the journey, if they really survived, most SSS class awakeners are high level players in this world.

"It looks like I can't play those trash to genius troupe." Cia said humorously. It looked like his potential is great, but of course if he is not cautious enough, potential would always remain a potential.

Then in the next part explains the right way to 'cultivate'. An awakener just needs to absorb mana to the point where their mind space feels satiated. Cia commented that he couldn't relate as his way of upgrading is murder.

After he finished reading the book, he closed it and placed it back on the counter. He raised his head and saw that the old man was nowhere to be seen.

He was just dozing off at the rocking chair a while ago. Where did he go?

[I didn't notice... I was also too engrossed at reading. Sorry host] The system felt guilty at his lack of caution at the surroundings.

It somewhat knew that it could help Cia by paying attention to movements that Cia couldn't always track, but the system is a very easy to distract guy.

"It's okay." Cia said carelessly. It already gave up on relying to the system and just treated it as some kind of pet or record tracker.

His idea of treating the system as a pet strengthened even more when he saw the system in his mind space.

Cia stretched his limbs and stood up. He glanced at the window beside his head to check what was going on outside.

He was expecting to see the desolate road that leads to this library... oh, well maybe a few birds perched on the trees? Or the strange purple plant that was planted on the pathway?

But no.

What he saw was something else.

Oh... So I wasn't imagining things.

He came in contact with another 'person's' eyes staring directly to his soul. Cia's face was very close to the glass, and so is the eyes.

It was the color of pale red. It was round but the lines inside of the pupils looked jagged. Staring at it for a few seconds, you could see the resemblance of those curves to a dying rose.

A dying rose inside a blood soaked marble.

Cia flinched back like a startled cat. He blinked a few times and the eyes vanished.

"System? Did you see that?!" Cia felt goosebumps rising on his arms. He looked around and the library was quiet. There was no one in sight except him.

For the first time, Cia realized quiet doesn't mean peace. It could be a prelude of a hunter stalking a prey.

Cia of course feared demons, but he also had an irrational fear for ghost. Not because they look scary, but because they are known to be a creature that 'humans can't hurt' as they were in a soul state.

The system was also shocked by Cia's exaggerated action. It looked like as if Cia got electrocuted by something. Hearing his question, the system shook its tiny head inside Cia's mind space.

[What's going on host? Are you okay? There was nothing there] Because of the guilt, the system had been very observant seconds ago but it didn't see anything.

Cia sat back to his chair, his back drenched in sweat as his eyes erratically surveyed the library.

"Am I hallucinating from stress?" If he still didn't care about his image, he would have pulled his hair out in frustration.

The system was startled. It quickly checked Cia's mind space and aside from the complicated mood, there were no signs of mental illness.

[You are okay host. Although you are under stressed, your mental state is stable as of now... Maybe you did see something on the window] The system hesitantly admitted that Cia is probably right about what he just saw.

Cia was still in a state of shock. It wasn't just about the suddenness of the situation that caught him off guard, but also because of how that eyes looked.

Remembering that gaze filled with sharp mania and death gave Cia chills.

It wasn't about the eyes.

But the feeling of Cia being seen by something he shouldn't have known.

That something was beyond human.

"Hah..." Cia exhaled.

He could still feel the gaze.

It was behind him.