With the underground garage inaccessible for the monsters, Haize couldn't help but sigh in relief. In a one on one fight, winning against the White Bear would be possible, but very difficult. As for winning against the Horned Lizard, it would be even more difficult, as it could use these strange attacks.

Relaxing his body, Haize's left arm was limp. The only feeling he got from it was the burning, sharp pain coming from it. Then, he said calmly towards the hidden room, as if the pain was nothing, ''Ly, you can come out. It's safe now.''

The hidden room suddenly opened, and Lyse came out of it while staring at the dead White Bear, and the unconscious Horned Lizard. Patting Lyse's shoulder, Haize gave the youngster his Desert Eagle 50, ''It was as I thought. If you kill these monsters, you can awaken Mana, shoot it in the eyes.''

However, Lyse only stared at Haize's arm before asking with worry, ''Brother, what happened with your arm? It is too injured, isn't it painful?!''

Ruffling Lyse's hair, Haize felt proud, ''I really taught you well, didn't I? Stop worrying about me, and get the kill to awaken your mana. Just shoot it in the eyes till it dies, 'kay? Also, it was the one who injured my arm, take revenge, hm''

Nodding, Lyse stopped before the Horned Lizard, at a distance enough for it not to attack him, before he shot it in the eyes continuously. In mere seconds, it died while feeling excruciating pain.

Haize's lips curled up slightly before staring at a blue screen floating in front of him.

Name: Sol Haize

Age: 25 years old

Title: First Blood

Mana Stage: Semi 0-Star

Abilities: Unawakened

Do you want to open the Tutorial of Mana?

'Tutorial? Hm, given that I know nothing of mana, I'll see the tutorial.' Haize thought with curious eyes before saying 'yes' on his mind. A light blue-colored screen quietly appearing in front of his face.

Mana Stages are the stages that represent your strength, and status. The stages are from 0-Star to 7-Star. Semi 0-Star are beings that only have the presence of Mana on their bodies, but didn't complete the process of shaping it as a ball After all of your Mana is shaped like a ball, the physique will change and you will completely enter the 0-Star Mana Stage. Your innate abilities will be awakened according to your Genes. Do you want to see the tutorial on how to shape all of your Mana into a ball?

Without hesitation, Haize said 'yes' inwardly. In a situation where he didn't know how to do so, he would need to try and fail many times before succeeding. Knowing that this would certainly delay his growth, Haize agreed without hesitation.

Information suddenly started overflowing on his head along with a faint headache. On his side, the same happened to Lyse, who seemed to take it a bit worse than Haize did.

After the process was introduced to his mind, Haize was sure to mesmerize how to do it before starting. The theory was already known, the next thing was to put the 'theory' to practice. Closing his eyes, Haize started to feel the Mana flowing through his body carefully, it was a warm energy that was gently nourishing his body.

'First step: Sense the Mana. Now, the next step is to guide it to the position of my navel/belly button. Hm, so this is the Mana World? This was easier than I expected, now that my Mana was poured here, I need to compress it in a spheric shape.' Haize thought while clearing his mind. He was dragged into an empty world, where Mana was poured as a solid substance that covered the ground.

Moving the Mana wasn't difficult at all, at least Hazie found it as easy as controlling the different parts of his body like arms, legs, etc. He frowned as a sensation of pain came with the compression of his Mana, but it wasn't truly painful. It was just as if many syringes were inserted on his arm to collect blood.

'I wonder if Ly can do this without crying, he is always horrified of syringes collecting his blood!' Haize thought while chuckling lightly. Even though he was putting most of his concentration on compressing his Mana, it wasn't difficult for him at all. As such, he had the privilege of thinking about his brother's fears.

A few minutes passed, as all of his Mana was compressed into a ball. Haize's eyes shot open, before closing once again as his mind was dragging into a world of Genes. A mix of golden and black genes crossing each other passed through him, before enveloping his entire being.

It is difficult to explain such a magical scene, something that Haize thought to be movie-like. Lock-like shackles broke, as Haize's Mana started circulating through his body as if it had its own will. A mark suddenly appeared on his forehead, it was an open circle that shone with a golden brilliance, representing the sun.

On the side of each eye, two black-colored horizontal lines stood there. If someone tried looking at them, they would find themselves in an endless abyss of desperation, and despair.

It is worth mentioning that as Haize became a 0-Star being, the process of advancing healed his left arm. It was as if a snake shed of its dead skin, and growing new skin.

Haize's short, black-colored hair was also like an endless abyss, but a nearly indetectable golden brilliance seemed to envelop it. Suddenly, his closed eyes shot open once again, as a faint black-colored breeze surrounded his body. Golden flames burned deep inside his eyes as if to burn the entire world to nothing but ashes.

His hair was kept short, and it has an abyss-like, black coloring. Haize's bright golden-colored eyes were just as sharp as his face. When coupled with his tall stature and athletic body, he was very handsome. [1]

Even though he is so handsome, Haize is still a lone wolf!

Looking towards his side, Haize saw that his younger brother sat in lotus position while frowning as if he felt a strong pain. A few crystalline tears gathered on the corner of Lyse's eyes. The black-haired man couldn't help but chuckle, while secretly thinking that maybe his brother could break his fear of syringes by compressing his Mana.

'That would be quite fun, hm.' Haize thought, before instinctively calling inside his mind, 'Status.'

Name: Sol Haize

Age: 25 years old

Title: First Blood

Mana Stage: 0-Star

Abilities: Abyssal Wind

Infinite Sun Flames

Around ten minutes passed since Haize became a 0-Star being and he was quietly observing his brother, who had both brows furrowed together.

Just as Haize was going to start trying out what these two abilities are, he saw that Lyse's eyes opened. A similar sun-like mark shining with the same golden brilliance as the sibling's eyes stood in the middle of Lyse's forehead.

Though, Haize noted that different from him, there was no black-colored breeze around Lyse, nor did his younger brother possess the two abyss-like marks on the side of his eyes.

Noticing that his brother seemed a bit confused, Haize said with a faint, teasing smile on his face, ''So you overcame your fear of syringes coming to collect your blood, Ly? There are still tears on the corner of your eyes, you better wipe it off, hm?''

Lyse embarrassedly wiped his tears, 'Dammit, I actually cried because of this, even though I killed that thing without feeling anything? I'm so embarrassed, man!'

As the two of them stared at the two dead monster bodies on the ground, Haize said after a thinking for a second, ''From what I noticed, it will be hard for Guns to harm these things with bullets. Even my Desert Eagle 50 loaded with .50 AE ammunition could only do considerable damage after shooting at the eyes, and through its mouth.''

''I think that the Katana, and dagger will still be useful with the usage of Mana, so we can keep them. Gun should also be kept to use against other humans, but won't be effective against these monsters.'' Haize said after a bit of consideration.

Lyse nodded in agreement, though still inexperienced, the black-haired youngster was also very smart. He understood instinctively that their abilities would boost their cold weapons, and that in the situation of an apocalypse, the most terrifying thing wouldn't be the monsters themselves.

Instead, the most terrifying thing would be humans. As such, he said, ''I agree, brother. I think that we can try to dismantle the bodies, they probably can provide us with some defense, this is how it works on games, after all! Also, I think that the horn should be useful as a weapon, aight!''

Haize nodded in agreement to his brother's suggestion while deciding that the horn, and even sharp nails of the White Bear and Horned Lizard would be useful as weapons. The hide can be used to make some body protection while the meat can be used as food.

Since it is a magical being, the meat should be very useful to them, who can now use Mana!

Deciding what to do, the siblings went to dismantle the bodies.

[Note 1: If you want drawings on how our dear Haize looks like, join the discord! Link will be on the author's thoughts from now on!]