Alex did as he was told and went to his house in the outer city. He was feeling fine until he got to his door, when a wave of tiredness crashed. He barely made it to his bed before he passed out. In his dreams, he found himself back in the darkness he had seen the last time, and the star he had seen last time was there. The star was red this time and seemed brighter than the last time he saw it. His consciousness was dragged back into the star and he found himself as the man chasing the tiger once again.

 

Last time Alex was here, he was unable to sense any mana and believed there to be none. This was not true. There was mana, but just very little amounts. He was only able to notice it now because of his awakening. Alex was paying even more attention to everything this time around. He wasn’t sure when he would be able to come here again and he didn’t want to waste this opportunity.

 

Everything went the same as before, but when the tiger swiped its claws and the attack stretched to the man, mana gathered where the claws had swiped and they were vibrating a lot while they traveled to the man. This must be the tigers power, Alex quickly realized what it was, but when the man ripped apart space to negate the attack, there was no mana. No mana was gathered nor was it excited, the void itself was incredibly dense with mana but all surrounding mana avoided it. When the attack reached the void, Alex felt a tingle in his mana core. He felt as though he now knew how to use his power. He didn’t know what the power was, but he knew how to use it. The fight went along as before and eventually Alex awoke.

 

His body was incredibly sore, and he found it difficult to move. He checked the time and found that only a few hours had passed. Alex wanted to try using his power as soon as possible, but he was drained of energy and he would prefer to test it under supervision. With the process of awakening his power being so incredibly painful and him nearly dying, he wanted to be safe with his power. Due to his exhaustion, he quickly fell asleep but did not dream of the man.

 

He woke up and felt better, his body was a little sore but just barely. He checked the time again and saw that two days had passed. I guess I was seriously drained, but it was worth it. Alex quickly hopped out of bed and took a quick shower and ate. He was seriously hungry and luckily for him, the school provided him with some food. After getting ready, Alex decided to head to the inner city again and meet with Instructor Yadao to talk about his power. Afterwards, he would officially move into his new place.

 

When Alex arrived before the arena again, he saw Instructor Yadao and Watson walking into the building together. Alex quickly approached them,

 

“What?! You’re awake already? You should've been out for at least a week!” Watson exclaimed when he saw Alex.

 

“Seriously, you're a monster.” Even Instructor Yadao was shocked. Well, with an awakening like that, calling him a monster is an understatement. Instructor Yadao thought to himself.

 

“Hehe, I've always had a pretty good constitution.” Alex responded. He wasn’t exactly lying when he said this, sure the void orb contributed greatly to his recovery but he was also born with a crazy physique. “More importantly, Instructor Yadao. I think I’ve maybe figured out how to use my power. I’m still not sure what it is but I feel as though I know how to use it.”

 

“That’s normal. Well, the feeling as though you know how to use it is normal, not you figuring it out this quickly. I’ve never heard of someone learning how to use it so quickly.” Both Instructor Yadao and Watson didn’t know what to think anymore, so they just called him an unrivaled genius and tried to forget about it.

 

“Anyways, let’s head inside and get you using your ability.” Instructor Yadao said as he quickly led Alex and Watson back to the 7th floor. When they got to the 7th floor, nobody else was there.

 

“Everyone else will show up later, I come early to help Instructor Yadao set up.” Watson said to Alex.

 

Alex was brought before a training dummy similar to the one used during his test at middle school. 

 

“Now, try using your power on this dummy. Don’t expect it to work immediately, getting the process right takes time.” Instructor Yadao said.

 

Alex walked before the training dummy, entered a fighting stance, and closed his eyes to focus on the feeling he got. He opened his fist and slashed at the dummy. Alex was standing at least 5 meters from the dummy, but after Alex slashed the air, a loud bang was heard and numbers appeared above the dummy.

 

He used his power on his first try? Instructor Yadao was once again shocked, and Watson was staring in awe at Alex.

 

The climbing number above the dummy finally stopped at 100. The attack he just did was the strongest attack a peak soldier could do. But what shocked Alex was not the number, but the attack itself. This is the power the tiger had! Why do I have it? Is my power not actually the void thing the man did, but this? Alex didn’t know what to think. 

 

“Your power seems to enable you to send out powerful streaks of mana from your body. It’s quite the powerful ability with its speed and the power exerted considering you just barely became a peak soldier.” Instructor Yadao quickly figured out the nature of his power. It wasn’t that great of an ability when considering its utility, but the power and speed demonstrated make it quite powerful.

 

“Try spending some time messing around with it, making the process itself muscle memory. One more important thing I forgot to mention last time, keep powers a secret. For one, not every corporal is going to awaken a power and it’s something that only those with the talent to awaken one should know about. Anyone can become a corporal, but only those who have awakened their powers can go beyond.”

 

Alex agreed with keeping powers a secret. From what he understood, Alex’s awakening was assisted, and others would have to go through the same process to awaken their power. Most would die attempting, and the government probably wishes to regulate the powers anyways. Having this power also gives Alex an extra lifeline, so he wouldn't have to use his void powers as much.

 

The feeling of using a power was still fresh, so he continued using it. After an hour of practicing with it, he was able to use it without much thought. The process was simple, just new. He would gather his mana towards wherever he intended to use the power from and release a small amount of mana to excite and gather the surrounding mana before releasing the rest of the gathered mana straight ahead. The mana itself seemed encoded with instructions on how to behave, so not much was needed on his end. It was a pretty simple power, but it was definitely not weak. This made Alex plenty happy.

 

There was one major flaw that Alex noticed with his power, it’s mana consumption. He could use his power maybe 30 times before he would be low on mana. This worried Alex slightly, especially because of the nature of his power. Once the opponent understood how the attack worked, it would become much easier to dodge and his power would become more of a deterrence.

 

“Why does using powers consume so much mana?” Alex decided to ask Watson.

 

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that too much. As your core becomes stronger and you become more used to the process, the cost will lower. Each power has a different cost. Mine uses a bunch of mana since it moves my entire body at insane speeds towards a point while protecting me. Yours won’t use as much because you only need more mana to incite and guide the mana.”

 

This made sense to Alex, so he put that worry behind him. He decided to stop training with his power as it was just another thing he could do. At the end of the day, learning more ways to use mana was more important than just using his power. His proficiency with runes in specific was weak. After learning about powers, he realized that runes give instructions to the mana and that each application is ‘power.’ Someone could theoretically have the power of forming a mana shield, and the only difference would be that they wouldn’t need runes to do so. This revelation made Alex excited to learn more about runes when school started, but for now he would train in the basics and raise his combat skills. 

 

While Alex was training, a few students entered the arena alongside Instructor Yadao. 

“Alex, I have some people to introduce you to.” Instructor Yadao said, and Alex quickly made his way over.

 

“This is your captain, Roland Lavore. He is a third year and a peak corporal. Next to him is vice-captain Kelly Casvoid. She is also a third year and peak corporal.” Alex bowed to the two of them and introduced himself,

 

“My name is Alex Gedeon, I am a first year and a peak soldier. I will be joining you guys as a reserve fighter.”

 

Roland and Kelly were surprised by Alexs’ introduction. This was the first time a peak soldier joined their ranks, even with a platinum badge. Everyone else had been early corporals. They didn’t dare underestimate him though, as Instructor Yadao informed them that he was a true monster.

 

“Instructor Yadao has told us a little bit about you, but I can’t say I'm not curious about your strength. Would you mind sparing me?” Roland asked Alex.

 

Huh? Roland wants to spar with someone? And a reserve fighter at that? Interesting. Kelly thought to herself.

 

“I would be honored, Captain Roland.” Alex responded quickly. He could finally test his new power on someone.