Twenty minutes before midnight.

Twenty minutes before midnight and the sky was so beautiful at that time. The crystal clear sky showing off it’s luminescent lights, the dark void behind it and the one beautifully shining moon whose light shone down on the streets, almost making any street light unnecessary.

On top of a bridge, I waited patiently for someone to arrive. To be precise, the old man who would have almost made me refuse his offer purely by his character.

On one side of the bridge was a little part of the town that wasn’t that populated like the rest of the city. The smaller buildings and little shops would be great to go around during day time. On the other side was a thick forest with its tall trees that were the only thing blocking most of the light that came from the moon.

I was waiting on this bridge. And with each passing second, I felt even more creeped out. The town side still had some light which was at least not worrying me but the forest was in pure darkness. Like it was in a horror movie and this thought gave me the creeps.

With a bag on my back that was full with my clothes and daily necessities, I almost began to shiver. Not only was it a little cold for my standards but it was also making me anxious. Why couldn’t it have been a place which looked a bit less, you know, creepy.

‘The hell is up with this place? I really consider this being a bad choice… But no! That crazy old man showed me his powers and abilities that made me even consider this in the first place. Chickening out would be against what I have tried to this point!’

I was thinking with my anxiety seeing the environment only with the moonlight. It was breathtaking to see such clear sky in this city but that still won’t change the fact that I am hella scared. And my anxiety only peaked when I heard a laughter right behind me.

“Hahahahaha!”

“HIIIII! Holy shit!”

No malicious intent in this laughter. No making fun of me. This was almost the same as when I was with Felix but also different. Instead of the laughter of a friend, it’s like the one of a grandfather seeing his dumb grandson doing something funny yet stupid thing.

"Hahahaha! I can't believe you trusted me to come so far out here. And I don’t know if I should be happy or worried that you trusted me but also trusted a stranger. Tell me… Are you really not stupid, son?"

"Ugh! Like I said before… If you really wanted to do something to me then you’d have already done that. I’m taking my best bet and that’s you, old man. But there is one question I have… why me?"

I was really curious about why this supernatural disaster chose me to be his disciple? I bet there are more like him out there so why train someone as weak as me.

"You should have guessed but I already researched about you, kid. And I saw your knife fight with that one awakened in that alleyway and you impressed me a lot, which I don’t say often. I'll praise your character for being earlier rather than later. I’ll explain on the way so… shall we?"

the old man walked with his cane in his right hand towards the thick forest. I followed behind him with reluctant steps. God dammit, why does it have to be the scary forest! Why not in the spa that is in that part of the town on the other side of the bridge. Training shouldn’t make you scared of life…

Right?

We walked through the forest in pure silence. No word, no sound of our steps nor from our breathing. Just pure silence which put even more pressure on me.

"Do you have an idea what we are going to train, son? Or to be precise, do you know what our first goal is?"

"Isn't it something like Magic or Martial Arts? Or the mysteries of the univer-BONK-ARGH! What was that for!?"

"Take this seriously, boy. No sarcastic arguments when I talk with you seriously, understood?"

"…yes…"

It was my fault for getting hit when I moved around like a little kid after watching a fighting movie but what can I do? This is something that could be said had always been my dream. Well the unrealistic dream. Or not? I mean I’m going to learn this so maybe it’s not unrealistic anymore…

Seeing me thinking and taking too long to give a serious answer, the old man sighed visibly while looking at me. I’m sorry but I don’t know anything! So don’t give me that look!

"What we will have to do first is to awaken you, boy. Awakening is the process of unlocking your innate power that is bound by the soul. Awakening can not be done artificially, it can only be triggered by external help but evidently you'll have to go through the process by yourself. And there is no other way out of this. Only after you awakened can we begin with next stuff like Martial Arts or Magic Arts. So for now we will focus on your soul. Did you understand so far?"

"Yes."

I nodded my head to his question. We were walking through the dark forest with a slower pace now that the old man started to explain and my anxiety slowly vanished with each word he said. This was good.

This doesn’t seem like I have been scammed. And seeing the old man’s face right now explaining our next steps made me only more assured. The old man looked at me and nodded as well. He was satisfied that this boy wasn’t a total idiot.

"Good. Awakening is usually a process over time but an instantaneous awakening is nothing super rare as it may save the life of the awakened. We do not have the luxury to awaken you over time so we have to work with different methods to awaken your soul. There are mainly 3 ways people usually awaken instantaneously. Out of self protection , out of the creation of a goal with a strong emotion tied to its very core or out of hatred and anger that can shake the soul to its foundation. We will only practise the first two unless you later want to turn into something grotesque that we call a Rotten Soul. We will have plenty of time for now so do not worry about it. And lastly… I better take your bag and glasses for now. Oh look at those broken glasses… I’ll buy you a new one later, son."

Huh? Is there something special to my stuff? Why can’t I hold them myself? When I thought of this, I naturally asked about it like a normal person.

"Wait why are you taking them?"

"hehe…Sorry in advance."

But instead of an answer, I heard an apology. But it felt too fake when he couldn’t even hold back his laughter. And exactly this was the last thing I heard before the old man put his hand on my chest.

With his slightly wrinkled and weak looking hands, he slowly put them on my chest. And that was a moment that I will never forget. One of my greatest traumas that I will remember even in the future. Because right after laying his hand on my chest that I almost didn’t feel,

I began to fly. To be precise I got flown away. With speed that almost broke the sound barrier and spin that made me want to throw up the last ten days worth of food, I was flying through the forest, hitting trees on my way. Any moment felt too dangerous and every hit could have almost killed me. How am I able to withstand this?

My momentum only slowed down after some time that felt like an eternity. And then I landed. Perfectly. On every part of my body I landed perfectly for a moment.

Rolling my way through the forest, I finally stopped. But I didn’t feel so good at all.

"Cough cough"

SPLAT

'Fuck! Now I'm coughing blood!’

When I stopped to roll and was able to stand up after the amount of blood I coughed, I could see a rather well built wooden hut that was very large by normal standards. The ground around me was clean with a garden full of unusual herbs on one side and a pond that looked rather deep on the other. I slowly approached the hut ,not thinking about my body that wasn't hurting that much anymore, with a feeling of pure interest. Until I saw someone that put me into this mess.

Not the flying, not this place that looked like out of a fairytale and not even the whole awakening story shook me as much as what I was about to see.

Out of the beautifully designed wooden door came a man with black hair that had white strands , a body that looks like it was formed after the Greek gods and a face with only a little amount of wrinkles showing that hiding his age wasn't fully possible. Or maybe he just liked himself this way. Whatever it is, this look suited him more than the old man way as the face this man had looked more like a middle-aged Casanova rather than an old man.

But I'd rather call him a crazy old man than anything else!

"You crazy old man! What happened to you all of a sudden? Trying to look better with some magic?"

Those were my last words before regretting them as I could see a vein popping onto the old man's forehead while holding his cane by the neck. Oh no! Did I trigger something I shouldn’t have?

The old man was actually rather tall with about 3-4 cm more than me. But to be honest, with these kind of muscles, he looks at least 10 cm taller than me, who was like a toothpick.

The old man looked at me again and I could visibly see him calm down. Smirking at me, which made me more uncomfortable than his angry face at this moment, he opened his mouth that made me maybe regret having him as a master.

"Yaaaaa~ I don't wanna make all the girls in the city fall for me yet so I'm not showing my real face. If I did, I'm sure even that dirty blonde girl would fall for me~ oh what a shame! She is quite a beauty and would be wasted on someone like you with your shitty personality and worrying body." Said the man with a grin holding his head while shaking it from side to side.

This irritated me very much. Make fun of me, fine I'll take it. But saying something like that rubbed me in every wrong way possible. And he'll pay for that.

A vein showed itself on my forehead. I gritted my teeth while grinning from ear to ear, showing all his teeth like a canine hound. Hahaha! I can’t wait to mess with him when I am stronger than him!

"Old man… When do we start ?"

FLICK

"Ah! Fuck!"

Dammit! Why did I have to get punished for showing the urge to train! There is no justification for you to flick my forehead that hard. Let me remind you that I am physically weak by normal human standards and you can teleport!

"You are 400 years too early to fight me yet. Before we start with the training, there is still something I need to tell you that I can only do in this enclosed space which helps us to not get interrupted and only lets phone calls in. Do not question how it works because you won’T get high ranked rune circles yet."

"Hmph fine…"

Shrugging his shoulders with a visible sigh, the old man started telling his final piece of words he wanted to say. When I saw his serious face again, I became focused. The only time when I’d show my respect to him was when he would put on that serious face. Even with the new, younger and more handsome looking face, I could still understand his serious attitude.

"First comes a formal introduction that we both should make. My name is Akira Hashimoto. I'm 753 years old and I'll be your teacher from now on. It's a pleasure to work with you."

The old man gave a slight bow while introducing himself in front of me. The flow took me away, only realising mid-sentence that something wasn’t quite right.

"I'm Laith Arslan. Son of Aziz and Aylin Arslan. Im 18 years old and WAIT A SECOND DID YOU SAY 700!?-ARGH!!"

“Finish your introduction before I smack your head harder than the last one.”

“Ugh… I'm Laith Arslan. Son of Aziz and Aylin Arslan. I'm 18 years old and I’ll be your disciple from now on. It’s also a pleasure to work with you from now on.”

The old man had a satisfied smile on his face while looking at me introducing myself with a slight bow. I guess sometimes it can be normal as well… but then when I raised my head and stood straight there, I saw him smirking. Oh no! That smirk is literally screaming ‘I’ll have fun torturing you, kiddo’! Please go easy on me.

"Now that we got this out of the way I'll tell you about your first Task, boy. Like I said, our first goal is to awaken you and we'll be using the first out of the two ways we will try to awaken you and that is the need of self protection. Now I hope you are ready. Because I am not able to be gentle here, boy! So… Show me your Will!"

That smile. This feels kinda psychotic but… I don’t think that’s bad. Reminds me of myself in the alleyway. Yes… I’ll show you my will with the greatest grinn I can muster. With the greatest fear that haunts me at night, I will show you my determination.

And with the greatest Will, I’ll show you that you can’t get me down so easily, old man!

Seeing now the same grin on my face, the old man showed even more enthusiasm, almost making me feel pressure. But screw that! I won’t gain anything without any form of struggle.

"Hahaha! I like that smile on your face, boy! Now… Your first task will be to fight me with all you got and don't you dare slack off as I'll always make sure to torture you enough to make you remember that for at least a couple of centuries."

Shit... this may be a bad idea… but no! Don’t chicken out now, Laith! This man brought you all this way yet you still want to be held by the hand and guided to the end? I just have to push my courage to the limit!

But I felt like something was missing. Something in my hand was missing.

"Fine! But I have a question… Will I at least get a weapon?"

"Do you know how to use one?"

"No…"

"Then no weapon. We are trying to awaken your power not to train your weaponry. Now… come and give me your best shot!"

The old man stood there still, not even taking a stance but I knew. I knew very well that this monster doesn't even need to take a stance against me. But this only made my heart beat louder! My blood flow became faster, every muscle in my body tensed up and my eyes only focused on the monster in front of me. This man looked more dangerous than even the god-like beings in that dream.

And seeing someone that strong in front of me, ready to beat me up would have scared me shitless. But ‘would’ was the word. Right now the only thing in my mind was to fight!

Fight to get stronger! Fight to never be humiliated again! Fight to never feel the same regret I felt when I first died! I'll take this chance I have and give it every shot I have!

Because I will take my first step! Even a small step. So small you’d not count it. But I will take that step!

And I will take my next step right after that!