"Zakie… Zakie… "Come down; it's time for school."
A woman in her middle age, wearing an apron, shouted while making an omelette.
A boy came out of his room dragging his feet with sleepy eyes and sat for his usual breakfast.
"Good morning, my sleepyhead brother."
A cute girl around the age of 8 or 9 is sitting in front of him swinging her legs with eyes full of mischief.
"Brother, isn't today the day you're finally getting awakened?"
"Yeah…" he said with a yawn.
The woman came near the boy. "Honey, weren't you all excited last night? Why are you looking so down now?"
"I don't know, Mom. Last night I thought about it a lot, and it made me sleepless."
"It's been 9 years since Dad died in that monster outbreak; I know how tough it is for you to raise us as a single mother."
His voice softened.
"I don't have any desire to awaken a great class; I just want something that would make our life better."
Zac felt water droplets on his shoulders; he looked above his head and saw his mother with eyes full of tears.
"Mom! I'm sorry, I didn't say all that to make you cry."
"I'm sorry, son, as parents we couldn't give you a happy childhood; it's all our fault. If only your father were alive, our life wouldn't be this bad."
Zac stood up and hugged his mom. "Don't worry, Mom. We may not have money, but I have the best mother in the world."
"What about me, brother?" His sister raised her hands while pouting cutely.
"Yeah, you are the best sister too; now come here."
They all hugged for a while and started eating.
"Brother, what type of class or ability do you want to awaken?" the girl asked with glitter in her eyes.
"It does not work like that, Carrie."
"My son will surely awaken a great class; after all, he is my son, isn't he?"
"Mom…just because your name is Martha it does not mean I will be Superman or Batman."
After they were done eating, his mother took Carrie to the school, and Zac also left for his.
Upon entering the school, he saw his friend Marty, who looked like an overstuffed cheeseburger.
He had curly hair, pimples all over his face, and a big round belly bouncing with every step.
Marty also saw Zac. "Hey, what's up, dude? Ready for the awakening?"
"Yeah, kind of…"
"What's with that half-ass answer? Be more confident, man."
"Hi Zac," suddenly another voice came from behind him.
A beautiful and delicate-looking girl with auburn hair, rose lips, and a perfect figure stood there. She is Lily, the school belle, and also Zac's childhood friend.
They started dating two years ago, and Zac loved her very much.
"Oh hi Lily, how are you?" Marty asked.
She completely ignored him and glared at Zac with squeezed fists. "Go for it, Zac; you have to get a good class, ok? I have a surprise gift waiting for you."
"Of course, Lily, don't worry. I will awaken a great class. Then we can go to the same academy and be together."
"Ok, see you after the awakening." Saying that she started walking towards the campus.
"Ah… hey, wait, where are you going? We don't have any classes today, you know that, don't you?" Zac wondered.
"I know, silly; I just left something in class yesterday, so I'm going to get that."
"Oh… okay."
After Lily went, Marty nudged Zac on the stomach. "Man, you really scored big, didn't you? A school belle as your girlfriend. Why are you so lucky?"
"Maybe I'm handsome."
"Handsome, my ass…"
"Zac, let me give you some serious advice as your friend." He placed a firm hand on Zac's shoulder with a steady gaze.
"Don't trust her so much."
Zac instantly got angry. "What the fuck are you even saying?"
"You said your father helped her family back when he was alive, right?"
"Yes, but what that has to do with this?"
"Just think about it; you two should have been friends for a long time, but she never let you touch her."
"Do you think love is all about sex?" Zac stepped forward, glaring straight at him.
"No, I don't, but you have been helping her in studies, doing her homework and assignments."
"You even bought her gift for her birthdays and festivals. But what do you get in return?"
"Ohh… talking about gifts, I just bought a lucky charm for her."
Marty became annoyed. "You didn't hear anything I said, did you?"
Zac let out a short laugh. "Hahaa…Nope. Not a word."
"Why are you being like this?"
Zac met Marty's gaze, unwaveringly.
"It's simple. Because I love her."
Marty froze for a moment. Zac's words caught him off guard. He searched Zac's face and found nothing but raw honesty… and didn't know how to respond.
"You wait here for me; I will go and give it to Lily and come."
The charm he carried looked like a big-sized, black-colored train ticket with complex runes on it. It was left to him by his late father.
There was also a tag with it saying, 'with love, Zac.'
His father told him to keep it with him all the time.
When he asked what it is, his father told him that it is a good luck charm and warned him to never show it to anyone.
But today he wanted to gift it to Lily.
He had an idiotic smile on his face thinking about the sweet memories he shared with Lily on the way to the school building.
After entering the building, he started walking towards his classroom. When he neared it, he heard sounds of talking and moaning.
He slowly went near the window and peeped through it.
Zac's body trembled, not from fear, but from what he was seeing. The smile faded slowly, replaced by a storm of shock and uncontrollable anger.
"Mhmm…hmm…" Lily stood there with her shirt unbuttoned, skirt raised to her stomach. Her panties were completely lowered till they reached the floor.
A tall boy is standing behind her with one hand inside her shirt and another hand below her belly button teasing her while he's thrusting from behind.
"No… no… this must be a hallucination; how could this happen?" Zac can't believe it.
"I saw you were talking with that idiot before coming here." The boy questioned her while still fucking.
Lily, with saliva dripping from her mouth, struggled to answer, "I have to talk to him here and there to keep the relationship."
"And why do you want to do that? Am I not enough for you?" he asked as he pinched her rose bud harder.
"Ahh… I am coming… coming."
"Answer me, dirty slut."
"My dad said his father left something valuable with him before dying."
"So you are only fucking him because you wanted that item, huh?"
"What do you mean by that? Do you really think I would let that stupid to even touch me?"
"You are the only one to ever taste me."
Watching everything that was going on, Zac felt like the entire sky broke apart and fell on his head.
For a moment he just stood there in silence.
Outside the campus, Marty was talking to his classmates and saw Zac coming out of the building.
"Hey, Zac, I'm here," he waved towards him.
But Zac didn't see him and walked to the place where the awakening is going to be conducted.
"What the hell, why does he seem like he saw a ghost?" Marty thought.
Time slowly went on; everyone started gathering around the open place for the awakening.
Zac stood among the crowd with a confused expression on his face.
"Why?" That was the only question on his mind.
"I don't have money, status, or anything that would entice a woman, so why did she cheat on me?"
"Why did she even accept to date me?"
"Is it for this?"
His fingers tightened around the charm in his hand.
"Is it okay to crush a human's heart for this simple paper?"
He suddenly felt a pang in his back. "Hey, I called you back there; why did you not reply?"
"Oh, you did? Sorry I didn't notice it."
"What happened?" Marty asked with squinted eyes.
"What…nothing I… I'm fine," he said stammering between lines.
"Well, you don't look like it," Marty questioned even further.
"I'm just nervous because of the upcoming awaking, that's all."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, yeah, don't worry."
Just then,
"Welcome to the awakening process, students."
An old man in mage clothes stood on the stage with the school teachers and principal.
"I am an array master from the Awakened Association. Today I came here to help you all get awakened."
Loud cheers and clapping came from the crowd of students.
Marty looked at Zac; he just stood there with the same confused expression. "Something is definitely wrong."
The old man pointed at the crystal hovering beside him, "this is the awakening crystal found in the deepest part of the mana vein."
"When an unawaken person touches it, the pure mana in it will be sent to their body and unclog their mana meridians."
"Then they will awaken a class by the system."
"The crystal will change color based on the potential of the class you awaken."
"Red means 'E' class, the lowest potential, which is followed by orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet, which is the highest potential, also known as 'S' class."
"Now the awakening process begins."