the water flowed calmly from right to left, leading to its descent.
when observing under the water it was very clear, although not everything inside was completely visible, there were several animals swimming there, but all of them were small fish or crabs, even those that were animals from the tree were still quite common.
'i need to get inside the water, and let it take me, meanwhile try to obtain some control of my energy using meditation and thoughts hoping for a qualitative change before drowning' he mentally prepared himself, took off his clothes until he was only in shorts.
and then he walked into the water, it was cold, even with the sunlight from the late afternoon.
when the water approached his head, he turned and floated on top of the water, when he approached the middle of the water, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes and let his body submerge, slowly descending through the water.
he placed both hands on his belly, beginning to imagine.
'there's an energy inside me, moving freely through my body, passing through it, with no place, no path or destination' in his mind, he created several colors inside the body, imagined the mana as being various particles of different colors passing on the outside, and walking on the inside, covering his whole body and crossing through it.
10 seconds.
'this must converge, my body has a core, the energy enters it, and then creates paths, goes through my whole body like veins, and returns to my core' he imagined the best he could, still felt nothing, but imagined the particles moving, joining into a thread that intertwined in his core in his belly.
20 seconds, his air was starting to decrease.
'my core must be a space inside me, in my mind, body and soul, inside it there is water, my essence becomes water and floats without limitations, around it there is a circle, a ball that delimits where it goes, this is the core, and around it my soul sea' even if it was all in his head, he began to feel something moving, inside his body, passing through paths until it spun and reached his belly, where it disappeared, and something new was created, circulating like a whirlpool.
his body had already fallen a few meters, slowly sinking, there were no disturbances on the outside, the animals continued swimming around him.
he focused on this feeling, the feeling of something forming, things from the past began to pass through his mind, thoughts and emotions, the fear of the water, of the things that were touching him, that darkness, he had to feel everything.
his mind wandered, while imagining, he thought of his mother, his childhood, thought of the sea, so giant and scary, full of life and unimaginable things, the freedom of swimming, the things he knew about water passed through his mind.
and then, something changed, he felt his mind converging, connecting, suddenly understood more about water, the sea, life, felt that he was undergoing a bodily transformation, more than that, his mind began to be flooded by information, things about water, disconnected, strange and incomprehensible, but he would forget them.
it was like another mind, something so much greater than him, incomprehensible and so familiar, like swimming in a pool among his family, or a baby in the mother's womb.
he opened his eyes, 'it's over..' saw the sunlight passing through the water and reaching him, the fish passing by, the stones 'did i make it?'
'great.. i made it, my mind is so tired, my body is heavy, but i don't feel like i need to go back, my air is still good' he observed that view for some time, resting before resurfacing.
came out of the water breathing deeply, and laughing a little, he pulled himself to the land near the side and turned upwards, enjoying the sun.
his body was undergoing minimal, but huge transformations, it was unexplainable, he was full of life, strength, information and essence.
'show me my stats'
<
Name: James zieLevel: 1Rank: 1 (Awakened)Element: ?Race: fish (7 days until dehydration)
strength: 7agility: 10constitution: 10presence: 1wisdom: 10intelligence: 8>
'can you explain to me better what each stat represents?'
'i understand, sounds good, i'll have to learn how to evolve them like the others, i'd prefer if the system already had that in it, but i guess that would be asking too much' he rested his head, fulfilled.
'i made it, now i can finally do something, finally be someone.. if you could see me mom' he looked up at the sky, it was already getting dark.
'i'll hurry up, i need to go to the government and sign up to stay the night' he picked up his things, and enjoyed his new body as he went there.
it wasn't a big increase, but it was like being in perfect balance, his body worked perfectly, like the healthiest human in the world, he didn't have super strength, but his muscles were with all potential unlocked, and it was incredible to run with that body.
when arriving back inside the city he got on a bus and went to the center, then walked a lot until he reached the entrance of this area, the government area had no real barriers, it was like a giant condominium, with open and closed parts.
there were places with observers and other things, but the real defenses were concentrated in the schools and government headquarters.
he arrived at the school, it was very large from the outside, the gates were gigantic, maybe 3–4 meters tall, they looked like they were made of dark wood, the whole school was made to escape the mountains of concrete and iron from the rest of the city, in fact many things were made shinier than they should be to generate some optimism in that world.
there were large white walls at the entrance, but then there were several colors, this was one of the government schools in this place, there were 2 government schools, and 3 clan schools, this was a medium-large city, so there was a lot of investment from the government and the clans, that's why there were several things.
he entered through the front door, following the path to the front desk, there were several guards, but after a small conversation they let him go to the reception.
"hello, i'm James zie, i'd like to begin my admission to this school, i awakened recently and came directly here" he said to the woman at the desk, on the other side of a small wooden room with a window.
she observed him for a short time, she was above average in terms of appearance, a sign that she was awakened too, wore standard government clothing, still had a kind of similarity to xianxia, but were more formal, tight to the body and with several areas held by belts.
"alright, you came a bit late, you need to go through a rank check, did you come with a recommendation, or are you from a family?" she asked, activating her computer.
it was a routine question, if he really came from a powerful family he would have come with it, if he were from a clan he would have gone to study in one of their schools.
"no, i don't have recommendations nor come from a powerful family, i'll be happy to take the tests, i hope to get a spot to start my studies today and already be able to move in, i come from the city of Old-face, i hope to get government housing" he said.
"could you show me your citizenship card?" he took out his phone and opened his government app, showing it to her.
the citizenship cards were another form of classification, it classified people in society itself, not very different from what existed before, it was just another way of classifying people that powerful families had created.
she typed his information into the computer, "yes, this matches, i'll notify the instructors to do the test with you tomorrow, today they're busy with some things, we're preparing some events for this season" she said, handing back the phone.
"we will offer our hospitality with a room for you, with the information that you will enter the school of course" she was very receptive "i've added a code to your citizenship card, a guard will take you to room 22 of the non-admitted area" she pointed to a direction while a guard approached him.
he was burly and looked strong, his clothes were the school's security uniform, so it was different from the government's.
"please follow me" he said, walking down the hallway, through the windows it was already possible to see the school campus, and in the background its center, gigantic, with several houses, places to go, it was really remarkable, it had to have things for many different powers, so it was a very chaotic place.
he was taken to a place prepared especially for these occasions, his room was very small, almost a cubicle, but had a bed and a table, it was more than enough, when he became a student he would be treated better.
he lay down, thinking about that day, and the tiredness he had, and slept, preparing for the next day.