The Veilwalker

"Brother, is this your girlfriend?" Aaron asked, his eyes shining brightly as he admired the beauty before him.

"…."

The question lingered in the air, and no one had the courage to respond.

Julia had already developed a slight shade of red on her face. Her Butler stood behind her with his hand behind him. While he outwardly displayed no emotions on his face as a proper butler should, he was amused, nonetheless.

Sarah quickly moved to grab Aaron and apologized for his words, "I'm so sorry…Forget about what he said." She tried to do damage control. Her quick thinking and action dispelled the frozen air.

Alex cleared his throat loudly, too loudly in fact. But that was to be expected. He was clueless as to what to do now. He couldn't even look at Julia. Fortunately for him, James saved the day.

"Alexander, you still haven't introduced us." James pointed out.

"Arh yes… Everyone? This is Julia Knight." He began the introductions, still not having the courage to look directly at Julia. Not that Julia herself was any different, but she managed to squeeze out a hello.

"Julia, this is my Dad―William Gray, my Mom―Sarah Gray. And here; my older sister―Olivia and little brother―Aaron." As he introduced everyone to Julia, they all responded with a hello, giving their best smiles.

"And my best friend and his older brother, Ross Bongu and Eein Bongu. Ross is also awakening today." Alex completed his introductions.

"Hi, I've heard so much about you." Ross went ahead to make small talk with Julia. Any friend of Alex's was also his friend, and what better way to create a rapport than right now?

"Really? Well, I haven't heard a thing." Julia responded with a smile, stirring at Alex. After the air of awkwardness was dispelled after the introductions, Julia finally regained her courage to look at Alex.

"I don't blame him. All he could talk about was―" Before he could finish his words, Alex jumped in.

"Okay! That's enough introductions. We don't have all day, you know? Let's get to it." He gestured for everyone to follow. Knowing his friend, Alex knew he would say everything without holding back. He was that blunt.

.....

Alex, Ross and Julia were now on the third floor after they had filled in their information and paid the required fees. The third floor contained the platforms that was used in awakening a person's skill. While the minimum age was sixteen, a person can always awaken it later on in life.

The floor was divided into several sections with more than half of that being the rooms containing the activation platform to awaken the gifts. They were build using materials with high mana conductivity to condense magical energy. With the condensed energy, they could channel the required amount of energy needed to imbue a person and induce their skill awakening and physical enhancements.

The process was pretty much straight forward. And the reason for these awakening centres is due to the fact that, although there is mana around everywhere; to awaken a skill, one needed some sort of jump start to trigger the skill activation and enhancement.

Alex, Julia and Ross were each directed to a room where they were told to lie down with their face looking at the ceiling.

'So, this is what an awakening chamber looks like. It's ordinary.' Alex thought to himself looking around. The platform he laid on was circular and grey coloured. On its surface were markings that looked like a sophisticated circuitry, and the lines had a slight blue glow about them.

While lost in thought observing his surroundings, a voice came in.

[Alexander Gray, activation will begin shortly. There would be slight discomfort, but it's something you can easily handle. Try to relax.]

The short instruction from the sound system embedded in the walls resounded. Alex took a deep breath before closing his eyes.

'This is it!' Alex silently declared.

The activation soon began as the floor began to glow brightly, but Alex had no idea since his eyes were closed. The influx of mana in the room created a warm and embracing feel around Alex.

'Mm… This isn't so bad.' He thought, but that thought was quickly dispelled. As the influx of mana reached a crescendo, Alex felt strong force bound him to the floor, freezing any form of movement.

'!'

He was initially taken by surprise before he calmed down. 'All part of the process.' He repeated to himself.

Then, Alex began feeling his body heat up; followed by a discomfort that felt like his body was being bloated. The discomfort continued like this, making Alex grit his teeth.

'Oh fuck!' He cussed. Even though he was told how painful the experience could be, he believed it wouldn't be that bad. After all, nothing worth having come cheap.

The feeling of bloating continued, making him feel as if he might explode any second. And explode he did.

The influx and buildup of the magical energy within him exploded outward from his body. The relief he felt after that was indescribable to him.

"Haa…haa…" Alex found himself breathing ruggedly with sweat all over his face and body. But the awakening was not over; the body enhancement portion of the awakening was about to start shortly.

Suddenly, his enhancement began, and the feeling was unpleasant, to say the least. His muscles felt like they were being torn to shreds and being built back up. His bones felt like it was being squeezed too hard and every organ in his body hurt so bad, he almost passed out.

But Alex gritted his teeth and refused to let out any sound. After about ten minutes of the hellish torture, the process came to an end.

Alex breathed out a sigh of relief and slowly opened his eyes. But it seemed the enhancement did not just work on his body.

Alex's vision was different from what he was used to. Unbeknownst to him, his sclera had turned dark, just like a dark-sclera human's.