KaBoooooooooooooooooooooooooooom!

The sudden sound of thunder made Astor, who was hiding in an old large tree hollow, open his eyes and then grimace in pain. Not only was his rib broken, but his meridians seemed to have also suffered a shock. Using the Spark’s effect to realize dreams must have injured them. His body was still not ready to take the backlash for manipulating reality.

KaBooooom!

Thunder struck again… the storm seemed to have started.

This weather was usually the norm following the Burning. The heavenly fire usually caused the ionization of the air, filling it with a lot of energy and this led to an entire month of unexpected heavy storms.

POP
Shhhhhhh….
Shh…
Bang….

Suddenly, he heard some other noises … It didn't sound like wind.

It couldn't be demon beasts either as he made sure to spray the bottom part of the tree he was in with beast repellent before he went to sleep!

Peeling the withered leaves, dirt, and bark covering him, a little to open a small hole in his camouflage, he could see that although it was still dark outside, there was a light source in the clearing near him, it was a torch.

A group of people, three men, and one woman, seemed to be busy building a campfire and setting things up to settle for the night a few feet away underneath him!

He frowned, although he didn’t like this, seeing someone else here was not completely unexpected.
He chose this exact spot in the first place because it was a little elevated and he was worried that it would rain in the night. He remembered this storm from his past life and it caused the base back then to be completely flooded, forcing the newly awakened kids to work for three straight days to drain it all!

Now, it seemed like some group of adventurers decided to set up their camp here as thunder could be heard repeatedly in the sky, signaling the coming storm.

“Hurry…” one of them said. Clearly, the leader. He was a burly handsome man in his mid-30s.

“Hopefully it will not rain…” another said. A lame-looking, dark-haired guy.

TSH… TCH… TSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH……

It began raining.

“Damn it, Paul! You are a jinx!” the woman, who seemed a little too haughty to hang up with this group, shouted as she hurried to cover the newly lit campfire.

“Relax Nicole, it is completely normal to rain at times like this. Timmy, go get the goods, make sure they don’t get wet!” the leader said, ordering one other skinny and mean-looking guy to run to get something as he hurried to build a makeshift cover from some fabric by tying them between some trees that he climbed with ease… He got really close to Astor but didn’t notice a thing as the latter was an expert in hiding his tracks in the forest.

“Is it safe here?” Paul asked as his friend finished making the shelter.

“Don’t worry, this place is the highest ground in the forest, even if it rains all night, we will be good!” the leader replied, looking around.

“I don’t mean that… The rain would definitely erase the repellent smell! What if some demon beast attacked?”

“Then we will have to offer you to them as bait while we escape!” the woman, Nicole, replied.

“Ha Ha… So funny…” Paul said sarcastically. He was clearly annoyed.

“Don’t worry, the repellent works by disturbing Mana waves, not smell… And even demon beasts are not stupid enough to attack us in such a storm,” the man who seemed to be their boss said. He was an Awakened, the only one in the group. Astor, who was very sensitive to Mana, could tell.

“I guess we are the only ones stupid enough to do that…” Paul whispered.

“If you want to get rich, you have to look danger in the face and laugh!” Nicole said.” Can’t you act more like a man!”

“...” Paul said nothing. It was as if he wanted to tell her that he could show her how much of a man he was, but didn’t dare to.

“She is right…” the boss said, as he slowly took off his shirt which got a little wet from the rain to dry it. Revealing a muscular body that was full of strange-looking scars that covered his entire chest and forearms. It was as if thunder passed through his body repeatedly.

“Roland… Are those signs of your knight training?” Paul asked as he swallowed. They looked painful.

“Yes…” Roland said, ignoring Nickole who couldn't take her eyes off his muscular body… No, he was showing it on purpose, acting all high and mighty.

Astor sighed, he had seen a lot of people like that throughout the years.

Being awakened without a spark simply meant that a body gained meridians and would be able to manipulate Mana. Nothing more nothing less…

Every awakened person would be confronted with three choices when he started. Those would determine his future in most cases.

The first was the ELEMENT. Every man had a different kind of elements associated with it, like water, fire, and thunder. Usually, once the meridians got used to some element type others would be very hard to use, and in most cases, totally unusable and even dangerous. This usually limited the Mana sources one could utilize.

The second was the TECHNIQUE. It was how the elements work or are stored inside the meridians by shaping them. Most people can use only one, two, or at max three techniques in rare cases. Those techniques would determine whether the Awakened was a mage who shot Mana attacks at his enemies or a knight who used the Mana to strengthen his body like the guy here who was clearly using a low-level Thunder technique to build a good physique.

The third was the MASTER. By taking on a Master, an awakened person would advance in leaps and bounds by sacrificing his freedom and limiting himself to his master’s element. But that was a choice very few people knew about, especially nowadays that the existence of sparks was still considered a secret by the world powers. A master needed a spark after all!

…

“They are awake?” the boss suddenly asked the guy, Timmy, who returned with two tightly wrapped bundles… No, they were two kids, a boy and a girl about 1 or 2 years older than Astor. They were tightly wrapped in ropes.

“Yes… That fucking drug was useless… I told you not to trust that alchemist…” he said, placing two bags that he was carrying on the ground, right below Astor’s tree. “You two better behave… or I will let my trusty knife dig some of your flesh! You don’t want your dear sister to be missing an eye tomorrow morning…” he said to the boy, making both of the kids shake a little as they glared hatefully at him.

Those two were newly awakened, Astor could tell… They didn’t have sparks, but from the way Mana in the air reacted around them they must have some very high affinity.
They must have had some pretty shitty luck getting captured right after awakening.

Astor clicked his tongue and then looked at the guy Timmy, who had an ugly scar on his face. He could tell now that those Adventurers. were Grabbers. It was a profession to kidnap those kids who naturally awaken from small villages and towns and then sell them.
Those who naturally awakened were always considered valuable goods as they usually had very excellent Mana amplitude.
And although such a business was illegal, it was usually overlooked as long as no one made trouble and the victims were not anyone important.
Their customers were the ones who ran the world after all!

Turning back to look at the kids with their very dirty little faces, Astor sighed at their grim fate, if they got sold to some evil organization or some demonic institute, their… He paused…. Wait, why did those two look familiar?
Well, he could have seen them somewhere in his previous life, as the awakened society was only that large at this point in time, and he might have spotted them somewhere before. He did travel a lot!

He frowned as he tried to remember, cross-referencing the kids with everyone he knew… Wait, that mole under the girl’s eye… At first, he thought it was a police of dirt, but it was a mole, a heart-shaped mole!

“HSSSSSSSSSSSSS….” he almost revealed his hiding place as he gasped, thankfully the rain was strong enough to mask any mishaps.

“Shit…” he silently cursed. Why was this slut here? Her name was Amber, and in his previous life, she was one of the top sluts…Ehm, Courtesans who worked for the Roza family, one of the families that ran the underground world and owned many of the brothels and gambling houses around the world.

They turned out to be secretly demons when the demonic invasion began about 10 years later, and most of those who attended their ‘facilities’ turned out to have been infected by some kind of parasite that made them turn against their own powers and help the demons.
This girl who grew up to be a stunning beauty, was very famous as she alone was responsible for infecting many royals who sought her services.

Looking at the boy, Astor was fairly confident he might have seen him in one of the underground Arena’s fights. Although it was illegal to enslave an awakened and make him fight like a gladiator, no one was really enforcing those rules, especially for some nobodies.
Yes, Astor could remember seeing this guy winning in the arena, he was just a lot more tan and muscular than the skinny boy in front of him.

“Ah…” Astor sighed and shook his head. Those two must have been sold to the Roza family. Their luck was worse than his!

“Well… Hopefully, they would not suffer a lot in this life,” he thought as he began fixing his cover while shaking his head.

He was not going to ruin his plan to help those two. He was already injured, and he had many things to worry about, like how he would reach the capital in just seven days without a proper ID. He needed to be there in time for the Royal Academy’s students' test!

The one who was impersonating him would be there, and so would his Grandmother! He heard about it in his previous life how she was there for the opening ceremony to make sure her favorite grandchild, who was supposed to be him, fitted in perfectly.
She was so famous that her appearance in the academy kept being a talking subject when Astor was sent to the Academy one year later.
Meeting her without a rare opportunity like this would be very difficult, and maybe even almost impossible.

According to his current plan, it would take him about a day and a half to reach the nearest city, and then his only options were to sneak into a truck that was going toward the capitol, or steal a car… Nah, his body at this point was still very short, his feet would never reach the pedal and some nosy police officers might spot him directly.

He could declare that he was awakened at the train station, he remembered that there was a program to allow the awakened to travel free for the next week after the burning, but he was not stupid enough to do that, as about half of those Awakened who used such a method ended up being kidnapped, especially those who didn’t have any background like him. And even if he managed to reach the capital like that, he would end up leaving a trail that might be detrimental to him later when he planned to take back his position.

This was going to be risky. If only he was not in a hurry.

Wait… Those guys planned to auction those two kids, this might mean they were also going to the capital. That was where the money was. He did hear about a shady auction that was usually organized there, it was supported by the crown prince or something.

Crossing his fingers, and his toes too, Astor slowly reopened his cover and put his ear on it to hear clearly. The noise the rain made was too loud, but thankfully, being Awakened had already enhanced his hearing.

So for the next half an hour, Astor made sure to secretly eavesdrop on the grabbers, but sadly, no useful information could be heard as the group settled and began to prepare a dinner composed of some wild mushrooms and a few energy bars.
They only talked about what they were doing with the money after selling the kids.

“I plan to buy an apartment in the capital!” Paul said.

“It will be a small apartment, and you will be spending all your money for that… You would never afford to live in it, life in the capital is very expensive!” Nicole criticized him.

“I plan to rent it and in a few years I am sure its price will double!” Paul said. “My uncle did the same in his youth! And now he has a harem! A damn Harem. Do you know how much tax the imperials take to give permits for a harem?”

“Like any stupid girl would marry you!” Nicole criticized.

“Let the man dream!” Roland said finally, Paul was about to really flare up.

“Are you planning a harem too?” Nicole pouting a little asked Roland. “I heard that Awakened doesn't need that permit…” she added in a downcast voice.

“Every man has his preferences…” Timmy interrupted, helping his friend.

“For me, it is not that easy…” Roland sighed. “I would be lucky if I found just one girl who understands me well!” he sighed in a sad tone.

“Ah… Really…. I am sure you will find one… Who knows, she might be nearby,” Nicole said with a dreamy voice making Astor raise one eyebrow, was there some kind of scamming going on here? Not his business.

“Wow, the forest is really beginning to flood…” Paul, who seemed to have enough of that fluffy atmosphere suddenly said looking at the distance, “Will we be able to reach the station on time tomorrow to catch the train?” he asked, making Astor perk his ears. Train?

“Don’t worry, it will recede by half by noon, and I know the path by heart so we can go then. We will have to carry our bags on our heads and wade through some water though…” Roland said, throwing a twig into the campfire.

Astor listened and waited to hear more, but no more info was provided.

If those guys wanted to go on a train with their ‘goods’, it would mean they had some kind of a VIP ticket, one that gave them access to a VIP compartment with no questions asked. Wasn’t that what he just needed?

No, he would still need some other pieces to make this work, but it was doable. The question now was how to get the tickets… This was a little tricky, and he might need the two kids’ cooperation.

Pondering for a second, he peered through the hole at the two miserable kids who had collapsed, seemingly having been drugged again. Damn it, he couldn’t use them.

Wait, those two were not asleep. His spark could detect when people were asleep, as its domain was Dreams, and those two kids, although a little drowsy, were awake. It was just that the ropes around them were firmly tied to the tree nearby, stopping them from escaping.
That guy did mention that the drugs they used were fake or something… It could also be that the kids have some innate gift to resist drugs. Interesting… This might be how they survived in the underworld in his past life.

Never mind that he needed to plan his next move carefully, as that Roland guy was an Awakened knight, and those usually had some very sharp senses, and a direct confrontation with him was simply courting death.