It was 0.48 AM for the rest of the city. But for me and the old man, it felt more like 6 in the morning. I was sitting in front of a desk inside the living room with a very sleepy face. I should have had enough sleep time but I couldn’t sleep somehow. Maybe the excitement of getting a movement technique.

I still didn’t look inside the booklet because I know that if I did, I’d have tried to train in it already. I just had to not get tempted. For now.

Seeing me in this tired state, the old man could only respond with a tired shrug of his shoulders. I’m still a child in my heart even when I am 18 already so don’t judge me! And besides, anyone that would grow up as a normal human would be excited like a little kid when they find out about the supernatural. And in front of this 753 years old madman, I am a baby.

Ignoring my obvious expressions, the old man started to talk, making me focus on him purely.

"Now you'll have to listen to me clearly today. We'll be covering how the power of Will works , what awakening is and how you can get stronger normally. I'll tell you how but I won't allow you to train your abilities yet without perfect control of your current powers , got it?"

The old man looked at me with a serious expression, especially when he said the last part. So this is more important than I thought?

"Yes!"

"Good. Let's start with what awakening truly is. We'll start with the beginning of humankind. When humankind was forming itself, humans weren't the only intelligent lifeform on the planet. Races that you'd see in fantasy novels like Elves, Dwarfs , Giants, Demons, Dragons and the like were on earth. Humans were the last race to form itself, becoming the last intelligent lifeform on this planet. These other races are able to use a power that is widely known as Mana which is known as the energy of the universe and the fifth universal force. This energy can only be seen by living creatures who are able to use this energy. Otherwise spotting the mana in the universe was extremely hard to do unless you had great affinity with it. The other races could utilise this energy very proficiently and some believed that those that had great affinity with it were of higher standing, thus creating supremacist ideals.

And this is where humans come into play. As you may already figure out, humans are the only intelligent beings that can not use any form of mana.

The other races knew about this, making them underestimate us since humanity initially was too weak to be of interest or a threat to them. Even demons, who have the tendency to mess with the different races, didn't do anything to humans since there was no gain from this.

Humans had a different trait though. The universe is fair to all and if a race is powerless individually, they are strong in masses. And this led to the foundation of humanity. Quantity. The humans started to populate the earth like crazy and the amount of land that was conquered by us was nothing to scoff at. Besides the dragon’s, who are a race that rarely show themselves, the other races were seeing the human’s as nothing but a thorn in their eyes and they started to bully the humans with their supremacist complex.

‘Only those who are chosen by the universe deserve to live as free as the universe!’ they said… Pah! Nothing but radical thoughts.

But this turned out to be a mistake for those that bullied us. Because once we noticed and started to retaliate, we hit them. And we hit them hard.

Humanity had a huge number of people and only when we sacrificed even our dreams could we win against our enemies. We had nothing but numbers. And so, humanity fought with every breath on the line, believing every moment may be their last moment. This was probably the scariest thing in the eyes of the other races. Human determination. And with this determination, we took down troops after troops while we lost army after army.

But numbers could never cover for true power in the end. We may be taking them down with us, but we will only lose at the end. Every human knew this but fought with their blood, their mind and their souls on the line to protect the future of Humanity. And when almost all was said and done.

She appeared. The first Awakened. The first of our kind. And she was amazing. My grandfather told me about her when I was still little. He told me about the amazing feats she has done. Always told me ‘ with something akin to a longsword in one hand, and with the determination of all of humanity, she would go into battle! She saved countless lives while never thinking about her own. And whenever she appeared on the battlefield, Humanity knew they would be winning this fight already. With that golden crown hovering over her head like a halo, she would be dubbed as the Royal one.’

My grandfather was the one who witnessed the war scenes at that time. And the reason why he could tell me those stories after more than 2000 years was because he was one of the few that awakened after her. After fighting for almost a decade, the next Awakened showed up. And then another one. With the new Energy, which was called Will power, humanity showed the other races that their supremacist ideals were wrong.

But they never got through those radical thinking ones. They even forgot that the casualty rate rose with only each battle. And those that were less stubborn feared the outcome of this new power. Because the first wasn’t the last and the next one won’t be either.

Humans began to use Will with each battle better and better. It was an innate power, dormant in the connection between the body and the soul that would only come forth with the determination to back it up. And only those with true determination became able to activate their abilities to fight. The thing we call Abilities are the manifestation of their Will, something unique to each Awakened. Even if two humans had fire control as their Ability, they would use that completely differently. This meant that unless the enemy knew who was participating in which war, it was almost impossible to guess the tactics of the humans.

The fight became desperate and now even those stubborn bastards knew it. Even if the humans began to gain the upper hand , their sacrifice was still too much compared to the other races. Each side lost a significant amount of soldiers, warriors and civilians. But the peak of this war was about to happen.

The destroyed planes where later the city Paris was founded was the last battlefield. The Royal One was fighting against an army of monsters brought by the demons. And at its front was the King of all Beasts. With a gigantic body on all fours, 4 pairs of bat-like wings and scales resembling splinters of a rock and furr over it. It was a grotesque beast that had the mixture of a lion and an eagle as a head with the beak and teeth.”

Amazing… the other races, the great war and the history of the first Awakened, the Royal One, was so interesting to listen to. But there is only one thing that disturbed me.

‘The dream… those two godlike beings were almost the same as the ones from history. Is there a connection?’

But without considering the fact that I was thinking deeply, the old man continued with the story.

"The fight went on for almost a month. The two opponents that were the strongest beings at the time were fighting with all they had, tiring each other out with every move they made. They changed the land's form. Hits created craters, stomps created holes that were deeper than one could see and a full swing of their limbs created little mountains. And after all this time, those two vanished all of the sudden, leaving the destroyed lands in pure silence. When the rest of the Awakened arravide after fighting their own fairs of battles around the world, what they saw made their jaws drop to the ground.

Nothing to be found. No traces, no visible corpses of either of them nor was there any signs of fleeing. They purely vanished. This hit the two sides greatly but with the great king of the beasts gone, the other races knew their chances were very slim. They declared defeat five days after the two vanished.

With the victory of the humans , the other races abandoned their homes and left this dimension to the sub-dimensions of earth. This meant that there were no traces of any other race besides the Dragon's that left afterwards as well for reasons we don't know yet. But after the great war , every Awakened on this planet got together to discuss their next step.

Known as the first Awakened council, the discussion felt like they never would end. There were ultimately three options to choose from. The option to eradicating the traces of the supernatural, making humans forget that they actually evolved through this battle and leaving this trauma only to those that could bear it, the option to make every human an Awakened or ruling over the humans as the Awakened were clearly stronger than the regular humans.

The second choice was out of option because awakening was never a guaranteed process. Those that couldn’t handle it only met death when they tried to. Only one out of ten thousand can awaken while the rest would die trying. The reason I didn’t tell you that was so this wouldn’t affect your process. As well as I had my ways to prevent you from actually dying. So stop glaring at me like that!

Now… The third choice was something that would go against the cause of this war. But Humans are greedy by nature. And with that, people started to form groups that planned a coup d'etat. This could have almost resulted in an irreversible situation. That is until the comrades of the Royal One arrived and took out every last one of those that believed ruling over Humanity was the right thing to do. They later took control over the council as supervisors, not meddling with the choice of the Awakened unless necessary.

All the while families began to form which held the tradition of making their children awake, even if that meant against their own will. The council tried to rebuke those actions since Awakening someone without consent was a great Taboo but those same dirty families gave the excuse of protecting the humans even in the future, growing capable Awakened that were ready to fight for humans if needed.

The council later evolved into the Association , which is the forefront protector of every human being. They are still guarding the first choice, making the humans not know about the traumatising event of the great war.

This was the story every Awakened should know if they want to know about the rest of the world of Awakened. Haaa…. Now! Any questions?"

Processing all this took time. Honestly I could have forgot some key parts with the information loaded onto me if it wasn’t for the fact that after awakening, my memory became better.

Going through all this one more time in my head, I realised some information that was missing. And asking now felt more like a test instead of the old man truly asking if I had any questions.

"What happened with the Royal one? Is it still unclear if she is alive or not? I mean you have survived for that long and you don't look that old in this form , wouldn't it be possible for her to be alive as well?"

"Even though Awakened have longer lifespans than humans , their lifespan depends on their willpower and the level of existence they are on which I'll get to later. With the history of the Awakened, it is thought that the Royal One has either vanished to not meddle in the affairs of the Awakened or died after the fight with the king. But we don't know about this which makes any theory a plausible one. Anything else?"

Then the last thing I am unsure of. Should have been asked when mentioned but if I interrupted the old man while he was telling me these, he’d have definitely hit me hard enough to fly to the other side of the forest.

"Hmmm maybe about the sub-dimensions? What are those?"

"A dimension is like a tree that has different versions of itself growing out of it like branches. Our world is the trunk of that tree, the main dimension. So the dimensions that have similarities with our world and are connected to it like branches are what we call sub-dimensions. You can travel from sub-dimensions to main dimensions easier than from sub-dimension to sub-dimension because of this form. That's why giving the tree example would be more accurate. Of course there are some dimensions that touch each other which makes travel between them as easy as to the main one but it is never easier to travel between sub-dimensions than to travel to cross the main dimension in this process. Travelling dimension is in itself a difficult task almost no one can do by themselves, not to mention taking the hard route. "

The old man walked in front of the desk and stretched his hand out facing his palm upwards. His hand started to emit a tangible energy. With its steamy look that was mesmerising to watch, the energy was forming a ring over his hand, never dissipating.

"Now it's time to talk about Will. As I have said before, awakening happens when the person activates the Will that lies between the soul and the body of the person. Only by activating this Will can someone reach into their soul and use their ability. I'm not sure if you had felt this dizziness as you awakened but normally when you awaken the Will that lies between the soul and body starts to move through those 2 and circulate itself passively.

This makes the body more sturdier as well as enriching the soul and makes the connection between those two closer than it was before. The closer your soul gets to your body , the stronger you typically get as you'll be feeling like you gain new freedom with your body , moving your body in ways and speed you never imagined before as well as use your Ability in new ways you never thought you could do. That is thanks to the awakening moving the will away from a single point and instead through the 2 entities of what makes a person."

I only nodded after the short pause of the old man. I felt slightly dizzy at that time but because of my emotions at that time, this dizziness was almost forgettable. And after all these torture sessions for more than 200 days, I think I gained slight resistance with my mind.

"Now your Will is a part of your body and your capacity will never decrease in normal situation and only be able to increase. The reason we call it Will is because the determination of the awakened affects his usage of Will. With weak or no determination at all, one won't be able to utilise all of his Will as they want. They'll also be inefficient. Using too much Will to use moves that would need far less is the worst thing that can happen in a fight. Never run out of Will or you'll be empty-handed with nothing but your body strength. This is also why you should never neglect your natural strength and always advance in the same pattern.

To use Will like a true Awakened, you'll need to be aware of your Will. It is a part of you so training to gain something you already have is not possible. Meditate and feel your Will, know exactly where and how much it is. It must be like a new limb, a new muscle you should be able to use perfectly."

The ring over the old man’s hand started to change shape. It turned into a humanoid outline, the size of two palms. And with more Will coming out of his hand, the inside started to have some spots on it, like you’d show acupuncture points.

"The moment you know this much is when you can start to circulate it by yourself through your body. Your body and soul do this passively because it's different for most people so first follow their path and then try to move your Will along the path. At the same time you'll have to try to move your Will that's leaking out of your body back into your body. This will make you not lose any Will you might need but most importantly not release any pressure. If you can do that then you won't be needing that armband."

My mouth was now half open. My memories of countless cultivation novels and comics went through my head. This circulation was almost exactly like that so I could understand what the old man meant with circulation, that every person had different Will pathways and that listening to your body is the best option here. The idea wasn’t hard to be honest. Meditate, know your Will by heart and try to move it inside your body and soul while not making it leak anymore. Easy, right?

"After you came this far is when you can truly utilise martial arts or magic."

"Wait then why did you give me the booklet when I'm not ready to use the technique."

Yes! Was it to make me depressed when I realised that I can’t use any yet? That’s heartless even for you, old bastard!

"Because not every martials arts wants the user to start training with Will. Sometimes you have to execute some moves without Will first to then add Will with it. [Phasing Flash Step] is a technique like that so you should be fine until you come to the steps that actually require you to add Will."

"Alright!"

You are a great person to give me a technique I can actually start training, old man! Did anyone tell you that you are a great person?

"Stop thinking about unnecessary things!”

Was it that obvious? I didn’t mean to let the old man read my thoughts but I guess it was obvious when my expression was that of a hungry idiot.

“Now listen. I can help you with your advancement in Will control and Training as well as your body strength training but I won't know how to train your ability. The reason is that every ability is different even if something looks similar it will be applied differently which makes the style to grow the ability different as well. You'll try out all your abilities after we are done with your Will control training. As if to grow your ability that you should instinctively know. Every Awakened when they gain their ability, they usually understand how to do this instinctively. And won’t try to look cool and talk about their ability like a chuunibyou that I know."

"Ugh…"

Unfair! I never did this on purpose! And even so, let me have a moment! Normal people want powers to look cool. There are no exceptions.

"Your's has something to do with Weapons. Meaning you should have gained knowledge about that and it's sub ability and how to grow that power. So I'll skip this for now and explain what will happen when you really advance your ability. There are 5 stages that are evident to your very being. Commonly known as [Mortalis] , [Discipulus],[Illustratus],[Transcendens] and [Caelestia] meaning mortal , student , enlightened, Transcendent and celestial respectively. These are the stages of existence one can achieve. Every human starts as [Mortalis] having no ability and not being awakened. They can get to the peak of this stage by only training and adapting their bodies to the extreme but only so little can actually achieve the breakthrough to go to the next stage.

This is the awakening breakthrough , when a person realises their existence and uses their determination to fully escape their previous shackles. Increasing your power and evidently raising one's existence is the way for most awakeners to reach their goal. It is different for everyone to reach that level but each can be divided into 5 levels. This has been concluded after realising that even inside the same existence, Awakened ones have different weights of existence. Some are therefore more powerful or resilient. These differences are only visible and won't affect someone as much as the difference in true stages.

It is usually impossible for one of lower existence to fight against one higher existence. This is still true between someone like level 5 [Discipulus] and level 1 [Illustratus]. And you need to remember that the universe is always fair. This means that Humans aren't the only ones to increase in existence though there are only three beings currently on earth that have even reached the [Caelestia] rank.

And this was all you'll learn for now about this. Any more detail will come with each subject such as weapon ranks , quality of materials as well as the jobs of different Awakened will be when I'll talk about them in Detail. Any questions?"

"Yes! You said that it is usually impossible for someone of lower existence to fight someone of higher existence. This means that it's possible, right? Are there any exceptions?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure there is only one right now and this exception is in front of me."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

I asked in a confused voice. I really couldn’t understand why this old man started to grin like a madman again.

"When your principal used his pressure , you said that you were bleeding from your orifices and would faint at every moment , right?"

"Yes."

"To hurt you so far with just his presence means that he had to use at least one stage higher than you. But not only didn't you faint at that moment, you crazy disciple even cut his pressure and cut him ,even if that cut was as shallow as it may be , you did injure him. This is something that should definitely be impossible. Even I would never believe such a thing if I didn't see that cut with all your potential in it."

Now I understood what this old man meant. Am I really that extraordinary? I mean I knew I had talent when this old man did take me as his disciple when he could have chosen any one. Hehehehe… I like the sound of it. I’m talented!

The old man started to explain an important part of the Will pathways, how Will interacts with the world and the usual cases of how Will is handled, as well as how it is used in different scenarios. And this went on for a good 5 hours more. And when he was finished with still 3 hours left, he finally started to talk about what I was interested in the most.

"I think now is about time… I'll talk about 'the Break'…"

"!!!"