Ethan stood there for a moment, thinking about which ability he should try first. The one that interested him the most was the dragon scales.
So he tried to activate them.
Just then, a message popped up from the system.
[No mana found in the user's body. Abilities can't be activated.]
Ethan frowned.
"What the hell? You give me so many abilities, and now you're saying I can't use them."
"That's like giving someone a new car and telling them they're not allowed to use fuel."
[The user must first learn how to use mana before using his ability.]
"And how exactly do you think I should do that?"
[The user has a brain of his own. Why doesn't the user use it to think about it himself?]
"Once again this stupid system is mocking me," Ethan thought.
Back on Earth, he had seen people meditate before.
He never really tried it himself, but he at least knew the basics.
He sat under a tree, crossed his legs, and started breathing slowly. Inhale… exhale… trying to calm his mind.
He kept doing it for a few hours. Finally, he opened his eyes. "This is not working at all."
Ethan felt frustrated.
He went back to the orphanage and asked Sister Mary about it. But the answer she gave him only made things worse.
She said she had learned how to cultivate mana from the town's noble house, but they had forbidden her from teaching it to anyone else.
If she broke that vow, her soul would be destroyed.
After hearing that, Ethan returned to his room and lay down on his bed, staring at the ceiling.
"What should I do?" he muttered to himself.
"Is going to the noble house and asking them the only way? But wouldn't that just make me their dog?"
He sighed.
"And they'll probably only give me the technique if I tell them about my abilities. Sure, I could lie… but how long would that even last?"
Thinking about it only made him more annoyed.
Time slowly passed, but he still couldn't come up with any good solution.
Then suddenly, a message appeared from the system.
[[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]]
[Congratulations, user. You have been awakened to one of the greatest potentials in the universe. And thus, you are invited to take the entrance test for the Universe Academy.]
[The system detected that you are currently in a lower world and have no way of attending the test. The system will assign someone to take you to the place of examination.]
Ethan stared at the message.
Saying he was shocked would be an understatement.
Just a moment ago, he was thinking about how to learn mana cultivation. And now he was being invited to an academy that belonged to the entire universe.
He let out a small laugh.
"Just how big is this going to get?" he said sarcastically. "Well… at least they're sending someone to help me get there."
Then a strange thought suddenly crossed his mind.
"Wait… is this because of that favor from the universe too?" he muttered. "Am I actually getting pampered by the universe now?"
The idea sounded ridiculous even to him. He looked at the system panel again.
"You know, system, for someone with such a toxic personality, you're actually pretty helpful."
The reply came immediately.
[It doesn't matter what the user thinks of me.]
"And now you reply," Ethan said. "But when I actually need answers, you go silent. Is that your way of keeping me on edge?"
Once again there was no response. Ethan smirked. "No reply, huh? Thought so."
With that, he closed his eyes and went to sleep.
The next morning, Ethan woke up and continued his training routine.
If he wanted to use his abilities, he would need mana. Since he couldn't learn it yet, he decided to stop worrying about it for now until he reached the academy.
Instead, he focused on training his body even harder.
⟦ STATUS ⟧ ⟧
Evolution Tier: Tier 1
Level: 5
Attributes:
Strength: 20
Stamina: 20
Agility: 20
Physique: 20
Luck: 2
Charm: 7.5
Unallotted points: 13
A few days passed by; Ethan trained every single day without rest. He also reached level 5 by hunting wild animals for food.
Right now he is sitting under a tree and checking his status panel.
"I reached level 5, but lately my level does not increase no matter how much I hunt. Is it because the animals here are low level?"
He even went deep inside the woods and started hunting wild animals like the warthog he faced before; because of his increased attributes, he could easily kill them, but still the levels didn't increase.
But the worst thing is when he tried asking the system, the system didn't respond to him at all. Even when he asked about the person coming to get him, it remained silent.
So instead of worrying about it, he started spending time with his sister Mary because he knows that soon he will depart from here.
He helped her with daily chores, assisted in cooking, and even went on a little date with her; of course, it was a friendly one.
[[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]]
[The time has come; the person responsible for your travel will soon fetch you.]
"Finally," just then he felt a presence behind him. He slowly turned back only to see the same old man who he once met at the library.
"You are the old man from the library. What are you doing here?" he asked.
"Aren't you waiting for me?" the old man asked. "I did...?"
"Wait, don't tell me you are the one to take me to the exam."
"Yes, I am."
"What you got, some problem in it?" asked the old man. "No," Ethan replied.
"So shall we go now?"
"Wait, you mean right now."
"Yes, you've got something to do." The old man asked.
"Well, about that, I have to go and say my goodbye to someone."
"It's that girl from the orphanage, isn't it?"
"…You were watching me." The old man didn't deny it.
"I was, for quite a while actually," he said.
Ethan hesitated for a moment and finally asked, "… Can you help her?"
The old man paused for a moment and looked questioningly at him.
"Sister Mary," Ethan continued.
"She's… she's not strong. She's just someone who chose to be kind in a world that sees kindness as weakness."
His fists clenched. "She spent her life savings on food for me. Gave me more than the other kids, not because I was special, but because she loved me; in return, she only asked me to be safe."
Ethan's voice dropped. "In a universe filled with selfish people… she's one of the rare ones."
The old man watched him quietly without speaking. Then, for the first time, his face changed a little; some kind of approval appeared in it.
His thought went back to the past. In that memory he was with a man who had almost the same appearance as Ethan.
He said, "When you give something out of kindness, always forget them, but if you receive something out of kindness, never forget them."
His mind came to the present, and looking at Ethan, he thought, "Just like his father."
"I'll take care of it," he said.
Ethan bowed his head and said, "Thank you."
The walk back to the orphanage felt heavier than any training Ethan had done.
When Sister Mary saw him enter, with the old man standing quietly behind, her face lit up in surprise.
"Blue?" she asked. "What happened? You look like you saw a ghost."
Ethan smiled. "I might've," he said lightly.
They sat together, and Mary asked, "So who is the person?"
"About that sister..." he slowly started saying everything. He told her about him awakening and needing to go somewhere far away to train and hone his abilities, and this man is the one who is going to take him there.
He also told her that the reason he is trying so hard is because he wanted to find his parents and his origins.
He told her nothing about the institution or the things related to it because every time he tried, something stopped him from saying it.
Hearing about what he said, her smile trembled. "You're leaving for good, aren't you?"
"…Yes."
Her hands clenched around her apron. She was silent for a long time. Then she stood up, walked forward to him, and hugged him tightly.
"You always were like this," she whispered. "Always looking forward and wanting to go farther."
"Even though I wanted to, I am not going to stop you." Tears already started falling from her eyes.
"But promise me something."
"Anything." Ethan said
"Take care of yourself and live your life happily," she said. "And don't forget that there is someone living on this planet who loves you."
He nodded. "I won't."
She released him slowly.
Before he went, she once again said, "Blue, I don't know if I can ask this, but if you had free time, please come and visit me; as you know, I don't have anyone el..."
Before she could finish it, Ethan hugged her and started crying because, just like her, he also had no one who cared about him.
In his previous life and even in this life, she was the only one who truly cared about him and loved him without expectation.
"Don't ever say something like that again. I am still alive, right? And trust me, sister, I will come for you one day."
From the orphanage doorway, she waved as Ethan walked away, never looking back, because he knew if he did, he wouldn't be able to leave.
She saw Ethan's figure slowly disappearing from her sight, and all the happy movement they shared came into her memory.
"Goodbye, Blue."
The duo walked for some time and entered the forest. Unable to contain his curiosity any longer, he asked, "So where is the place?"
The old man stopped walking and raised his hand, and he sliced the air. Reality cracked and space split open like paper, revealing a dark void beyond it.
Ethan stared. "So this is what real power looks like," he thought to himself.
The old man took his hand. "Ready?"
Ethan swallowed.
"…Are you sure we're going to survive this?"