As I lay in my bed, drenched in sweat and tears streaming down my face, I struggled to understand what had just happened. It had been a dream - or at least, I thought it was. In it, I was chained up and unable to move as a mysterious figure approached me. It was a girl, nearly my own age, with black hair, red skin, and eyes that looked like raging flames. "I told you to run," she said, before touching me and causing me to wake up.

I sat up, still trying to make sense of it all. It was still night, and everyone else was asleep aside from those on watch. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep again, but sleep never came.

Suddenly, a strange sensation began to build in my chest. It was something I had never experienced before, but I had heard of it - it was the awakening.

The awakening is when mana starts to be naturally absorbed into a person's heart, enabling them to cast magic based on their basic affinity. Basic affinities include wind, earth, water, and fire. Magic is something that almost everyone has access to, but it can differ greatly based on one's heritage, talent, and work rate. When the awakening happens, a circle appears around a person's heart, imbued with a rune based on their basic affinity. Magicians are ranked based on the number of runes they have in their circles - the more runes, the more mana a magician can control, and the more powerful their spells. The current best magician in the world has five runes in their circle - something that is unheard of.

After awakening, a person can gain more runes based on the type of mana they absorb. If they choose to continue absorbing their basic affinity, it becomes intermediate at two runes, then advanced, and after that is expert. Some people choose to have multiple basic affinities, which allows them to be more versatile and create unique magic. For example, two basic affinities can be combined, such as wind and water, to create ice spells.

Now that I had awakened, I would need a special device or a higher-ranking magician to tell me what kind of rune I had. Trying to manipulate mana that was not of my rune could result in dangerous strain on my heart. While this was exciting, it was also frustrating. If I had this ability before the attack, maybe I could have helped my father.

But thinking about what had happened wouldn't help me now. Now that I had gained the ability to cast magic, my new goal was to cultivate it so that I could defeat the demonoids. To do that, I needed to know what kind of rune had manifested in me.

To Be Continued.