"so you want to take a loan" said the woman in a suit, in front of her was James, sitting properly, trying to look like a serious person.
"yes, I just moved, I used to live in Old-face, the city that was recently attacked" she looked at him with a bit of pity, before her smile returned.
"I see, you must know how difficult your case is, you only have the clothes on your back, and with the mortality rate so high, it's very hard to ask for a loan without proper collateral, especially being a civilian" she said while checking his information on her computer.
"I understand, I can use stocks to cover that risk" he said.
"stocks... theoretically you can, but you're a civilian, there's not much you can do to help the government, you'll have to offer your body as well" she said with a sad look, as if she had no other option and was just doing her job.
'of course, it's a big risk lending money to someone who might die tomorrow and return nothing, I don't want to sell my body for experiments, doing government tasks is already the most I can go' he thought.
"what if I become an awakened? I plan to enter one of the government schools, I can also take missions for the government after awakening, would that help cover the risk?"
she seemed interested, looking at his file again.
"oh you were... well, we can do that of course, but first we need to see your talent, affinity, those things" she seemed to think for a moment "let's do it like this, we'll divide the payment into 5 installments, as for the missions, let's agree on 5 missions or 1 year of work, we'll leave that open, after your awakening, if you succeed, depending on your talent rank we'll redo this contract" she typed a few things on the keyboard and handed him a tablet containing the contract and a signature area.
the tablet seemed modified in some areas, he signed the contract normally, receiving the payment within 1 business hour.
at that moment he was already in a restaurant having lunch, 'the chicken here is great, good thing I have some money, it's very rare for an awakened to worry about money for food or similar things, so I won't either' he checked the money on his phone, there were still 10,000 credits in his account.
the restaurant was divided into a few sections, he was in the common area, he could have gone to the VIP area, but that one was shared with awakened ones, he preferred staying in the common area, awakened, although a protection for humanity, were often bad people, power went to the head easily.
'come on, tell me system, how can I ascend?' he asked casually in his mind while eating.
words started to appear in his mind, before showing up on other system screens, it wasn't much information, but it was interesting, he knew very little about the awakened, only what he had gathered over the years.
his movements stopped for a moment, letting his fork fall onto the plate, the information seemed to reach a destination, easily retrievable, as if it had been recorded in a part of the brain.
'I see, it's much more spiritual than I thought, damn, it was 10,000 credits and I didn't get detailed info, I didn't use the shop to buy this, of course it wouldn't be full info, but it was more than enough, the rest has to be done with instinct, luck and talent.' he thought, picking up his fork again and going back to eating.
Awakening itself is based on activating the essence within the body and seeking the essence from outside the body, but this is just the basis, there are infinite ways to awaken, after doing this, the essence is gathered and the person tries to touch it, trying to achieve a qualitative change, where the spirit will evolve causing the person to form a core, and then be able to interact directly with the energy within themselves.
for a long time it was thought impossible to awaken manually, but after studies many ways to do it were discovered, it was even possible to use magic without ever awakening, the possibilities of everything are endless.
'but for me it's a bit special, I need to come into contact with a large quantity of water, preferably connected to a river or the sea, the way the water is can change some things about my awakening, and it will be null, in the sense that if I'm not a deviant, my body and spirit will evolve, but I won't gain any power' this meant he would have to train to awaken his Elemental affinity, if he had one.
'it's so sad not knowing anyone, I'm doing something important and I don't even have someone to talk to or spend the afternoon with, I think I'll just focus on awakening soon, I'd like to go to a government dorm before nightfall' he finished his meal, paid the restaurant and left satisfied.
'I have the information I need, now I need to use it, where could there be a large amount of water that I can use without raising suspicion?' his tablet could split into two, so by taking just one, it could be used as a phone.
he looked at the city maps searching for useful information, the city had many green and water spots, it still had various things for common civilians to enjoy leisure moments, but he couldn't use one of the city's water sources for that.
the city was inland, with no nearby sea, which was a shame for him, although with the root cracks anything could be created, even so he'd still have to take a big risk.
the roots were one of the things that invaded the world, they were connected to a tree called "yellow tree", it was like a universe aggregator, when a root invaded the world, it bent space, and in the space it created, anything could appear.
there were indeed water formations near the city, there were several rocky formations and ravines that led to large amounts of water, but getting there would be a problem.
'system, do you have any way to get me to the water safely?' after asking, a new system screen appeared.
'very well, let's go after this before nightfall, at night it's going to get much more dangerous' he said, hurrying.
a map appeared in front of him, it showed his location, and in the distance, showed the place he would go, it was a place near a ravine next to the city, he would need to go down a bit, and reach a stream, being careful not to be carried by it and fall into the ravine.
this was an open city, there were no barriers at its entrance or exit, in 3rd circle cities this was more common, but it was a huge cost to have one of those, and even with so many monsters, cities kept expanding, so they couldn't put a barrier around it.
he took a taxi to the city outskirts, and then kept walking, the exit led to a very rural area, with several different trees, the scenery changed a lot ahead, even the sky seemed to have a different color, behind him the view of the city was amazing, but he didn't enjoy it for long.
he walked discreetly until he entered the forest, and then even more carefully continued the path, he could hear other people's voices there, and there were other awakened too, it was possible to hear various magical sounds from afar.
he passed through everything, and after a few minutes he began to hear the sound of water, it sounded like a waterfall.
<194 meters to the destination>
after walking a bit more, he finally arrived, it was a small mountain, there was a waterfall up top, which descended and then formed a current down below, then it calmed down and continued until falling again into a cave in the ravine.
'doesn't matter what I think, this is the only possible place, it's going to have to be here, and it's going to have to be today' he said while letting his bag fall to the ground.
"let's begin"