Seventeen years after Athrax Voidbane left his household...
In the training room of House Voidbane.
One of this world's strongest military power, with two S rank awakeners, over one hundred A rank awakeners, and thousands of awakeners below B rank as part of the army.
A man could be seen training with dual swords, practicing without mana against the best of what the house could offer.
His mother, Celine Voidbane.
One of this world's strongest and most explosive awakeners, Celine Voidbane.
Currently an S rank awakener with an Ice S rank affinity and S rank talent in dual wielding swords.
Awakened at the age of eight while training with her father, and left the training grounds as an icy hall almost freezing her father which is an A rank awakener in the process.
"My sweet boy, are you trying to hurt your mother?", she asked with feigned pain.
"Mom, I could try with all my might and I would never put a scratch on your beautiful skin, drop the act."
The man said with irritation, as if this was something he experienced daily.
"Calux! How could you say such a thing!", Celine pouted, not liking that her son didn't play and follow on with her antics.
The other awakeners in the training ground, although used to seeing their practice rounds, could not, for the life of them get used to seeing the cold and domineering Celine, acting like a child and pouting with her son, it was something that if spread, no one would believe it.
This woman was infamous for her strong domineering will.
Her face usually aloof without a trace of emotions, only changed for her son, Calux.
For seventeen years, this boy had not awakened, but she had trained him to the best of her abilities, so much so that if he were to fight her without mana, at this point he was better than her, and that was something unbelievable.
"Well, you have learned so much over these years, your are better than me at dual sword wielding, which is just ridiculous considering..."
But she didn't continue, this was a sensitive topic for Calux, who had not awakend early as the prodigies in this world should.
You could see the downcast expression on Calux once these words left his mother's mouth.
"Son... It's fine, you will see. In your awakening ceremony in 6 days, you will awaken your true potential, and no matter what it is, mom will always love you okay?"
"Thanks mom... I'll head to my room and freshen up, I heard his majesty and my fiancé are coming for a visit right?"
His mother's look suddenly turned cold for a second, but she suppressed it.
"Yes, go ahead..."
Walking towards his room, Calux couldn't help but sigh.
Why didn't I awaken early?
My mother is a prodigy, and everything about my father leads me to believe that he is the only awakener ever to reach SS in this world.
How come I didn't inherit their talent and awaken early?
In this world, people that awaken before their awakening ceremony are called prodigies.
These prodigies usually awaken a bloodline or talent at the S rank, making them the future pillars of this world, Pollux.
Centuries ago, awakening altars suddenly appeared around the world, giving the people the chance to awaken their dormant abilities and gain access to the Apex Network.
No one in this world knows what the Apex Network is or who created it, but what they do know, is that it allows them to awaken their abilities and gain access to a detailed panel view of everything their being represents, this being skills, talents, bloodlines.
The Apex Network also serves as a guide to enter rifts, guiding the awakeners through rifts in order to gain mana cores from the bosses, and use these cores for refinement and increase their mana ranks.
Rifts are portals that take awakeners to another plane, where they have to face creatures not of this world, and only killing the dungeon boss clears the rift.
If the rift isn't cleared, a rift break occurs, and when this happens every monster inside that rift comes over to their world.
These monsters eventually lead to chaos, bringing with them destruction to vegetation and residents of this world, including beasts.
Ranks are divided from F to SSS rank in terms of what the Apex Network provides and explains, but no one in this world has ever gained a talent or bloodline above S rank.
These ranks are further divided into low, mid, and high, showcased example:
F-
F
F+
Everyone awakens at F- rank, and awakeners usually follow a path, either the mana path or the body path.
The mana path consists of using mana to enhance your mana core and increasing it's rank accordingly, this allows you to use mana more efficiently, have a higher reserve of mana, and gain access to higher tier skills that require more mana.
The body path consists of using the mana cores, melting them into pure liquid mana, and alongside other herbs and precious minerals, usually based on affinity, and finally soaking in the solution. This path is usually used for individuals that had no talent or bloodline, allowing them to fight as awakeners using another path, this was also introduced by the Apex Network when there was a sharp decline on awakeners a few centuries ago.
Skills exist in two ways, one is the skill book, it is something dropped in rifts from dungeon bosses and they are fairly rare, more so with increasing ranks.
The second way is for the person to create the skill, of course not everyone has the talent or affinity to create skills.
You could have an S rank talent, but have no affinity, therefore not being able to create a skill your self unless you use a skill book that forcefully uses your mana to gain access to it, essentially creating an imprint that uses the network as a bypass to use the skill.
Of course, using a skill without an affinity has its drawbacks, some being increase mana consumption and decreased skill efficiency.
Rarest of all were innate skills.
These skills were naturally imprinted into your being because of a bloodline or talent.
If your talent or bloodline is of a high tier, it is highly possible for it to have its own innate skills.
These skills are usually unlocked as you rank up, giving you access to skills your bloodline provides but you are not able to use because of the consumption or power, that is why it happens slowly as you rank up.
Finally, there are techniques.
Usually techniques are passed down generationally, that allow for better compatibility based on bloodline and affinities.
Techniques are used for one thing, and that is mana gathering.
The better the compatibility, the better the purity and efficiency when using the technique to gather mana for your core.
Sigh... I hope I can awaken at least a B rank talent, and either mom or dad's bloodline.
I know for a fact that mom's innate skills are extremely powerful.
As for dad... Well all I know is that he saved this empire, and was the most powerful awakener in history..