“An energy source?” my jaw drops as I re-read the message. I never thought that I would find one so soon. But now is not the time to ponder on the implications. Whoever these guys are, they are dangerous. I could run away, but I doubt Johnathan will be able to deal with maniacs who can make ice shards appear out of thin air.

How did this even happen? I know I shouldn’t be surprised since the Twilight World exists, but it still comes as a shock. Maybe I’m not as special as I first thought. I take a deep breath and shake my head. I will have plenty of time to think about all of this later. Johnathan will have some explaining to do. Why did he even make a deal why those shady bastards? Looking at them is enough to see that they are trouble!

Even so, I focus on the outline and rummage through the pile of clothes left behind. Something cold touches my hand, and I pull out an item like an aluminum pen. The tip is a red gem, and there are plenty of weird squiggles on the cylinder. I move it around in my hand, and the outline follows. It doesn’t take a genius to understand that this mysterious device is the ‘energy source’ mentioned by the blue window. Looking at the other piles of clothes reveals that the other attackers also carried a similar item.

It raises so many questions. Why are they carrying these things? Is it dangerous? How do I even absorb something like that?

***Absorb the energy source? (Y/N)***

***WARNING! The Heir can only absorb an energy source once. An energy source cannot be duplicated. If spent or absorbed, the original energy source will be affected in reality.***

There’s no time to think! I can only hope that absorbing those items will give me some offensive capabilities. Johnathan is still fighting for his life, so I have to be quick! I select ‘yes’ and the pen-like object loses its luster in the next moment.

***Energy source absorbed! +10 Twilight Points!***

I’m short of breath in the next instant. My vision swirls as something stirs deep within my chest. What’s happening? Did I do something wrong? Was that a big mistake? I spit out thick black gunk as the stirring stabilizes, and I can breathe again. I can’t help but gag because of the stink of the bubbling goop. What was that? Why does it smell so bad?

***Heir qualifications upgraded!***

***Acquired Skill: Twilight Gaze!***

***Twilight Gaze(X): Nothing in the Twilight World can escape the gaze of the Heir. Allows object identification in the Twilight World.***

An electric shock course through my eyes as a blind flash fills my vision, making me fall on my back. “Fuck!” I groan as I massage my painful eyes. It takes a minute before I regain my vision. “What the—” My eyes widen as I realize that the world became more — more high-resolution would be the best way to describe it? The colors also seem less faded compared to before.

I shake my head as I grit my teeth. The implications of the new Skill will have to wait. How do I even use this Skill? I glance at the other pen-like energy sources and narrow my eyes. My vision blurs for a split second before going back to normal, and a brand new window greets me.

***Spell-In-A-Tube***

*** A simple, mass-produced discrete weapon containing a powerful spell. One-Time-Use only! Press the button to unleash a devastating blast!***

***Spell contained: Fireball (2)***

***Contains an energy source: Mana Crystal (10 Twilight Points)***

***Absorb the energy source? (Y/N)?***

I-I wasn’t expecting that. The energy source is a Mana Crystal? What’s that, and what’s Mana? I have so many questions and so little time to find answers. I stuff two Spell-In-A-Tube in my pocket while tightening my grip around the last one. I have no idea what a Fireball spell looks like, but I can assume from the name. Let’s hope that it doesn’t explode into a burst of flames, or I’m going to get some nasty third-degree burns. I position myself behind the clothing piles. The attackers shouldn’t have moved too much since I only spend a couple of minutes in the Twilight World.

Am I ready to do this? Am I going to fight a group of underground mages? I narrow my eyes. My friend is in mortal danger! I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if Johnathan got hurt, or worse. The world regains its colors, and the first thing I notice is the sheer destruction in the bar. The tables got overturned, there's scorch marks on the walls which are also damaged by icicles. The usually calm area is now filled with the screams of the panicked crowd as the battle rages on. I stop for a second as I realize that Johnathan has a red glow around him, and his hands are smoking.

“W-What the fuck?” I mutter under my breath as the thugs encroach on Johnathan. One of them got knocked out. His head got slammed into the now-destroyed wooden bar. Still, my friend is still in a bad situation.

“Come on lad! You don’t have to make it hard on yourself.” The leader of the thugs, now holding a Spell-In-A-Tube, approaches. “I promise it won’t hurt.” He smiles, revealing his yellowed teeth.

“There will be consequences,” Johnathan growls. His expression shifts when he notices my sudden reappearance. I exhale and aim at the undefended back of the portly man before pressing the button at the back of the weapon. The tube heats up and vibrates before a fist-sized ball of flames appears above the gem at the tip.

“What —” the man turns around as I release the button. The spell rockets towards its target and knocks him off his feet. The smell of burned pork fills the air as the thug shrieks while rolling on the ground.

It doesn’t take long for the screams to die down as the man stops struggling, his limp body now lying on the floor. D-Did I kill a man?

“Who the fuck is that?” one of the remaining lackeys asks with wide-open eyes. “Get him!” he says to the other one as he pulls out his own Spell-In-A-Tube. I react as soon as I recognize the weapon.

***Welcome, Heir of The Twilight World.***

***Countdown : 00:22:42 ***

Shit, this isn’t good! I hide behind the now-destroyed bar and return to reality.

“Where the fuck is he?” the man grunts. “He disappeared out of—”

“Don’t forget me!” Johnathan yells as he slams his palm towards the two men, causing a loud shockwave to echo. The two criminals are blasted through the window and slammed into the nearby sidewalk with an ominous crunching noise. “Well, that takes care of that.” Johnathan groans before leaning against a wall. His breathing is irregular, and an icicle pokes out of his shoulder.

“A-are we good?” I ask from my hiding spot, my hands still clutching the now-useless Spell-In-A-Tube. Who the heck named those things anyway? It sounds ridiculous!

“Should be fine,” my friend answer with a cough. “Fuck me, that’s going to leave a scar.” He grumbles as I discard the used weapon and pull a new one from my pocket before rising.

“What the fuck was that?” I scowl as I glance at my wounded friend, who replies with a wry smile. “Who were these guys? What did they want from you?” I eye the remains of the icicles embedded in the walls. I would have been cut in half if I got hit by one of those things!

“I-I also have a lot of questions,” Johnathan says, trying to suppress the pain in his wounded shoulder. “What was that? Teleportation? Blink? I didn’t detect any Mana fluctuation. How the hell did you do that?”

Mana, here’s that word again. “What the hell is Mana? How are those things even possible?” I gesture at the Spell-In-A-Tube in my hand. “And how did you blast two grown men with a single strike?”

“Seriously? Are we doing this?” Johnathan grimaces. “Dude, I saw you. You vanished from existence before reappearing out of nowhere and blasted those idiots. Good shot, by the way. But I never knew that you were an Awakened.”

“Awakened?” I repeat, trying to make sense of the word. “What the hell is that? You have to explain everything to me, now.” I grab a nearby bottle of whiskey that survived the fight before swallowing its contents. I grimace since this is the cheap stuff, but it will do.

“Don’t tell me you have no clues. I’m not buying it.” My friend replies. “And give me that bottle. Some people here have actual injuries.”

“You have always been a big baby,” I smile as I toss him the bottle.

My friend takes a big swig before coughing. “How can you even drink this stuff? It burns my throat. Give me one of the cherry beers, that—”

“I will shoot you if you even think about drinking that abomination,” I reply as I wave around the Spell-In-A-Tube. “You need better tastes right now.”

“Fuck off,” My friend and I exchange a glance before laughing. “But seriously, you owe me some explanations.”

“You first.” I counter. “Who were these guys? What’s Mana? And what’s an Awakened?”

“You’re not shitting me, right? Now is not the time for jokes.” Johnathan warns. I answer with a slow nod; I need answers right now. “Fuck me, what a mess.”

He clears his throat, “Well, those guys were members of the 7th Street Family, a local gang of lowlifes. My family made a deal with them regarding certain resources, but they tried to double-cross us and take the resources for themselves. So we showed them our discontentment and took back our payment along with the items we wanted. It looks like they were trying to take revenge.”

I raise my hand, “I have several questions.”

“That’s all you’re going to get from me on that front; I’m not that privy to all the details of the deal, and you are not a Lockheart.” Johnathan makes a sheepish smile. “Some things have to stay confidential.”

I sigh, “It still does not explain why you would even consider making a deal with people who look like the perfect generic villains. But it will have to do for the time being. Now, what is an Awakened? And Mana?”

“The two notions are interlinked. An Awakened is someone who can use Mana, or more accurately interact with the Mystical Energy World Stratum and—” he stops when he notices how confused I look. “You have no idea what I’m talking about.”

“How astute,” I reply with a wry smile. “To me, it sounded like you were jamming random words together.” What the fuck is a World Stratum? Is he making fun of me?

“Well,” Johnathan sighs. “You picked the worst person for explaining that to you. I did not pay attention to that part of my education. But, to put it simply, Mana is the easiest and most common way to interact with this part of our reality. It allows us to influence the laws of reality to bend it to our will.”

My jaw drops, “Isn’t that completely overpowered? Thinking about something makes it happen? So if I wanted to make the Moon explode, I could?”

My friend chuckles, “I wish it would be that simple. No, you have to follow complex formulas to get the result you want, and it will consume your internal Mana reserves to do so. As an example, making a fireball will barely use any Mana since it is not that extreme of a phenomenon. But creating a black hole will take a long time and a ton of Mana. Even my mother can’t do such a thing.”

My ears perk up, “Your mother? You’re telling me that your entire family is— is also Awakened?”

Johnathan chuckles, “Oh, if only you knew. I remember when we were children. My brother and I tried to levitate a cookie jar off the fridge, but he messed up and jammed the thing through two walls. The beatings we went through were legendary. We got blasted by lightning and —”

“Wait for a second,” I interrupt. “Your mother struck her children with lightning? That sounds insane. And very irresponsible.”

“Am I irresponsible, young man?” a sultry, hoarse feminine voice freezes me in my tracks. Turning around reveals an older woman nearing her fifties with graying hair neatly tied into a bun. The business attire she is wearing looks very expensive. But what worries me the most are the dozen people wearing something akin to a thinner set of riot gear behind her.

“Oh, mom. It seems that I made a bit of a mess.” Johnathan says with a forced smile.

“For fuck’s sake.” A deep voice sighs as an almost identical copy of Johnathan, except with a buzz-cut instead of short hair, approaches. “That could have been dangerous, you fucking idiot.” He then puts a cigarette in his mouth. “And who the fuck is this?” the man, wearing a woolen overcoat that covers a thin set of black metal plates covering most of his body, gestures towards me.

“He’s a friend, he saved my ass,” Johnathan answers before I can say anything. “Zach, he’s my brother, Nathaniel.”

“Hello?” I wave at the massive man.

“Zach, huh?” Nathaniel grunts as he lights his cigarette. “Wait, are you the Normal?”

“Well, he’s not a Normal.” My friend answers. “I thought he was, but I was wrong.”

“Huh,” Nathaniel approaches me and narrows his eyes. “He looks weak. No Mana fluctuations at all.”

I turn my head towards Johnathan, “Is your brother aware of the concept of personal space?”

My wounded friend chuckles. “I would even settle for basic manners. Hello, Nathaniel, nice to meet you.” I say with a fake smile.

“Pay attention to who you’re speaking to, kid.” Nathaniel growls.

“Dude, you’re like two years older than me at best.” I snap back. “Is he always acting like this?” I ask Johnathan, who can’t help but laugh.

“That’s all well and good,” the Lockheart matriarch speaks up, “But I need answers. Who dared to attack my son like this? Maria Lockheart will not take the offense lying down!”

Johnathan sighs and narrates the events that led to the destruction of the bar.