Warmth. Everything felt safe. Quiet. Time didn’t matter.

Kaden was in an extremely strange state. Sometimes he was partially awake and then not. Time passed. Even, if Kaden had thought about measuring passing of time, it would have been difficult. Strange thoughts flashed in his mind. Dreams showed him foreign places and things the he did not know what they were. There were even memories mixed in that were not his, but seemed to be his. Things that he knew, but wasn’t sure how he knew those things. Then he fell asleep once again and forgot passing of time.

He wasn’t really aware of what was happening to him or why. Being in such half aware state, he didn’t really even think of such things. He just was.

It was warm. Thats what he mostly remembered and thought of. It felt good. Safe. Calm.

Good things won’t last, though.

Eventually the state he had been dissipated. The warmth was there, but it was him and since it was him, it felt different. This disturbed him and he began thinking more. Remembering things before the long now. Another kind of warmth came to be, no… not warmth, heat, rage. He had things to do, but something was strange.

Where exactly was he? Kaden slowly became more aware of his surroundings. The surroundings being a shell. Why was it there? Where was he?

“Out”, Kaden thought.

He started feeling the inner surface of the shell. Then he began striking at it. He wasn’t sure where he was, but he knew he wanted out.

*crack*

His beating finally created a crack and something poured in from it. Then a thought came. “Light, thats light.”

The more he acted and the more he thought of things, his memories and what was opened up. Its like most of his mind had been in slumber. Now that part of his mind was awake, the rest was coming along.

Kaden beat at the crack again. Then harder. Then his hand broke through the shell. Air felt cool on his arm that was covered in some liquid. Then Kaden used his other hand and tore away more of the shell. Finally it was large enough that he could crawl out.

Light of the day burned Kaden’s eyes at first, but then he got used to it. He was lying there, just breathing, outside of the egg as memories started flooding in.

He had been bleeding to death. Anuu, the phoenix and the offer. Everything returned to his mind.

“I remember now!” Kaden thought. He remebered Anuu’s words that there was no telling what would become of Kaden. He decided to immediately inspect himself.

Self inspect should show everything about you with clarity whether externally or internally!

Externally Kaden found out that he generally looked the same. His hair color was different. It had been dark brown, but now it was somewhat unusual … blonde with some reddish streaks. It seemed to be naturally like swept backwards. Like he had used gel that could be gathered from certain plants to shape hair. It looked strange. If it had been feathers on a bird, it would look nothing odd. On human? Weird hairstyle choice.

There was also small tuft of hair right above his forehead starting at the hairline, like a plume. It wasn’t very big, but somehow Kaden knew instinctually that this was important part of him. He touched it and while it looked like hair, it was much tougher. It bent and twisted, but wouldn’t snap. Could it even be called hair? Hair plume? Its color was different, it looked like tongue of flame.

He continued to inspect himself. His hands felt odd. They looked normal, but he felt like he should have something sharp at the ends fingers. Like claws. With that in mind he felt similar feeling from his feet. They looked normal human hands and feet, though. He would think of that later.

His body in general was leaner than it had been before, but he felt stronger. Much stronger. How much? He couldn’t say.

His eyes were strange. They could perhaps pass for human, but he noticed he could see really far by… extending his sight. Like zooming in. When he did that, shape of his pupils changed in way that definitely wasn’t human.

There were indeed physical changes. Ones that could be said to resemble bird, but still in general human like appearance. Kaden wondered, if he was even human anymore. Did he even want to be human? A beast then? He didn’t feel like a beast either. He honestly could not say what he was.

As for when Kaden tried to inspect himself internally, but found it difficult. It was like trying to look through glowing fog.

“What is this? Why can’t I use self inspect? No, rather than it not working, I just can’t make out what is in there.”

He put more force into the simple magic skill. As he used more mana, an enormous burst suddenly came out of nowhere rushed into the magic. This shocked Kaden and he lost control.

He had slight headache, but nothing more. In fact, it had just surprised him, he had felt no danger.

Kaden tried again. Another burst of mana was released from somewhere within what his self inspect could only see as glowing fog. This time he knew it was coming and allowed it to pass. It felt like it circled throughout his body and then returned where it came from. The self inspect had worked for a moment, only when the large amount of mana passed through it.

Another attempt. He let out a contionuous stream of this strange mana. It felt like liquid power was flowing through his body. This time he could see with more clarity through the fog. It wasn’t perfect, but it could be used.

There were channels. Mana channels? Did he skip all the layers to Channel Opening? They were in odd shape like a ball. Just how far he had progressed. Didn’t Anuu say phoenix hatchlings start out much higher than that. Kaden didn’t even know what he should expect from higher stages.

He did know that formation stage required one to build formation with mana channels by either letting it grow naturally or by adjusting that or even completely constructing the formation yourself. He saw nothing he would identify as formation. Channel Opening then?

Kaden wasn’t a phoenix. He already had a human body and structure unlike growing phoenix hatchling. None of the energy was wasted, but unknown to Kaden, most of it had gone to alter his body.

Kaden knew that Channel Opening stage required one to create a mana channel from within mana storage, constructed with layers, to outside world. Once succesfull external use of mana became possible.

Kaden tried that. He could notice no external effects or he simply did not know how it worked.

He looked at the channels again. He noticed that it probably was actually a single channel. It was not connected outside and it was instead coiled tightly in a ball like ball of yarn. How was that even possible. There was one more thing about Channel Opening he knew. If you couldn’t create a proper one and one would bend over itself and touch, it would collapse. This could cause major internal damage.

That was supposed to be big problem for many intending to advance due to low level foundation and other such matters. Another problem was simply lack of power when creating mana channel and then suffering a collapse again. It was less harmful, though.

“This is strange”, he muttered. He had been using quite a bit of mana. Not to mention the bursts of mana he had used. If his weird mana channel ball was going to rupture, it would have done so already. He was breaking some rules, it seemed.

He still felt like he had missed something. Where did the burst of mana come from. Kaden released some more mana again and observed. It came out of the ball and eventually returned in it. Something was inside. The self inspect skill was barely working, he could not see that deep. He would need better self inspection method, but that wouldn’t help him now. He did the only thing he could think of. More mana.

The rush. Kaden had never felt something like that. Mana filled his entire body. From every muscle, fiber and nerve all the way to his bones. With greater amount of mana available he could forcibly look inside the ball. What he found shocked him.

A core!

A solid core of mana about the size of thumb. It color was rather dark and dim.

Humans were not supposed to have those. He should have exploded already! Those bursts of mana! Those were the bursts of mana from the core that were supposed to shred human body apart. He was fine. He even felt good. Kaden realized his body had to be extremely tough. Was he human shaped beast?

Then again, he had mana channels coiled around the core. Beasts didn’t have mana channels.

He could also not find a trace of the chaotic mana he had absorbed before. He expected that it was probably condensed inside the core. This meant he probably could absorb chaotic mana quite a bit just like beasts. It would be compressed inside the core and not bounce around uncontrollably in your body. As long as he didn’t take in more than his body and core could handle, it would be fine.

Question came up again to Kaden. “What am I?”

While pondering such a deep question Kaden felt sudden hunger. He felt a tug in his mind like he was supposed to do something. He looked at the egg. His mouth watered. Yes, the egg was edible!

Kaden sat next to the egg and picked up one of its shards. He tasted it. His eyes opened in shock. How wondrous taste. Kaden might have doubted these instinctual feelings, if he knew what it had originally been made from. Mana probably had changed it in many ways, but still it was random matter pulled from surroundings.

Despite that, its felt extremely good to Kaden. He had never eaten something quite as good. It crunched in his teeth in such a lovely way. Each crunch would release wave of taste across his tongue. Not to mention he felt energized by eating it. Could it be filled with mana? Kaden kept munching on the egg enjoying it to fullest. He didn’t feel like there was anything odd about it.

“I don’t really care what I am right now.” Kaden thought as he munched on the egg pieces. Somehow he could keep eating it despite the relatively large amount of it. “What should I do now. I think I’m at the limit, just at the edge of reaching Channel Opening. I only need to somehow create that mana channel out of my body.”

Then he sighed. “Still too weak. I need to grow stronger, much stronger. Channel Opening is just the first step...”

Soon he noticed he had eaten all the egg. Kaden felt slight loss. He knew he likely would never eat something like that again.

“I need to leave this place. This is too far from ...”. Kaden stopped that thought. Far from what? Human lands? What would he even do, if he returned? No one would know who he is… possibly even what he is. He had nothing and he was still too weak. He couldn’t kill anyone relevant yet.

“I think… I think I need to wait”, Kaden finally thought. Then he turned to look at the forest. Thats where he truly wanted to go. There was prey in there. He knew he would get stronger with each defeated opponent. Thats what he felt like. He would grow a bit stronger so that he would be able to return.

He noticed his old boots, the ones his mother made for him, on the ground. He put them on, but still otherwise naked, and looked around. Instead of going back to human controlled areas, he headed deeper into the forest.