Grey had imagined his awakening hundreds of times over the years, and in almost every version of that fantasy, the moment ended with the enormous crystal in front of him exploding into brilliant golden light while some legendary ability appeared above his head and forced every student who had ever looked down on him to reconsider their life choices.
He had imagined fire, lightning, gravity manipulation, perhaps even one of those incredibly rare spatial abilities that could turn an ordinary Awakener into a millionaire before they graduated from university.
He wasn’t particularly picky either; as far as Grey was concerned, anything above B-Rank would have been enough to guarantee him a comfortable future, while an A-Rank ability would immediately attract guilds willing to throw contracts and money at him.
Reality, unfortunately, had decided to be considerably more creative.
Grey stood silently on the elevated platform inside one of Lagos Central Awakening Centers, his right palm pressed against a crystal almost twice his height while hundreds of students watched from the seats surrounding the circular hall.
The crystal had remained completely dark for several uncomfortable seconds after he touched it, making him wonder whether the damn thing had malfunctioned, before a faint pink glow finally appeared somewhere inside its transparent surface.
Pink?
Grey’s eyebrows slowly pulled together.
That definitely wasn’t one of the colors he remembered from the countless awakening videos he had watched online, and judging by the confused murmuring spreading through the hall, everyone else seemed equally unfamiliar with it.
The examiner standing beside him adjusted her glasses before looking down at the tablet in her hands, apparently waiting for the awakening crystal to finish analyzing whatever ability had manifested.
She was a tall woman somewhere in her thirties, dressed in the dark uniform of the Global Awakening Association, and the three silver stars attached to her collar identified her as a registered B-Rank Awakener.
Her expression remained professionally neutral at first, although Grey noticed the slight narrowing of her eyes when the crystal’s pink light suddenly became brighter.
"Interesting," she murmured.
Grey glanced toward her. "Interesting good or interesting I’m about to spend the rest of my life working behind a desk?"
A few students laughed from somewhere behind him, but the examiner didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she continued staring at her tablet while several lines of information appeared across the screen, and whatever she saw caused the confusion on her face to deepen.
Grey’s heartbeat gradually accelerated.
He hadn’t been particularly nervous when he walked onto the platform, mostly because awakening abilities had become such an ordinary part of modern life that nearly everyone eventually developed something.
The difference between people wasn’t whether they awakened but rather what they awakened, because abilities could range from something as unimpressive as slightly enhanced eyesight to powers capable of destroying entire city blocks.
Rank mattered even more.
F-Rank abilities barely changed someone’s life, while E and D-Rank Awakeners usually found employment in industries where their abilities offered some practical advantage. C-Rank was where a person could realistically begin considering professional combat work, and anything B-Rank or higher could completely change someone’s social standing.
Then there were the monsters occupying the top.
A-Rank.
S-Rank.
SS-Rank.
And the almost mythical SSS-Rank Awakeners whose names were known across continents.
Grey had never seriously expected to become one of them.
He wasn’t delusional.
A nice A-Rank ability would have been perfectly acceptable.
Maybe even B-Rank if the ability itself had good growth potential.
The awakening crystal suddenly pulsed with a pink light that exploded through the chamber.
Several students flinched as the enormous crystal illuminated the entire platform, and even the examiner instinctively stepped backward while numbers rapidly changed across her tablet.
Grey felt something warm travel from his palm into his arm before spreading throughout his body, almost like electricity moving beneath his skin without any of the pain that should have accompanied it.
Then the crystal stopped glowing which made the entire hall become strangely quiet.
Grey slowly removed his hand and the examiner stared at her tablet.
"...Well?"
Her lips parted slightly before she looked at Grey, then back at the tablet as though hoping the information might somehow change if she gave it another few seconds.
Finally, she spoke.
"Your awakening was unsuccessful."
Grey blinked.
For several seconds he genuinely wondered whether he had misheard her.
"Come again?"
"No registered ability has been detected." The examiner turned the tablet slightly, allowing him to see the screen. "Your body clearly underwent an awakening response, but the crystal couldn’t identify an ability signature or assign you a rank."
The silence lasted approximately half a second.
Then someone laughed.
Grey didn’t need to turn around to know exactly who it was.
"You’re fucking kidding me."
The voice belonged to Damian Cole, a broad-shouldered bastard sitting several rows from the front with a mocking expression.
Damian had awakened a B-Rank ability called Steel Skin less than twenty minutes earlier and had apparently decided this achievement gave him permission to become even more unbearable than usual.
"You actually awakened nothing?"
More laughter followed.
Grey stared at the tablet for another moment before slowly pulling his hand away from the crystal.
Nothing.
Years of wondering what ability he would receive, months of reading about different awakening pathways, and several sleepless nights spent imagining what his future might become had apparently concluded with the supernatural equivalent of an empty box.
That was almost impressive.