Jack exhaled lightly as he got into his room through the window.
The room was dark, and with a low sigh, he began taking off his already tattered clothes when the light in the room was suddenly turned on.
Jack paused for a brief second, and he suddenly turned around in a swift motion, but he soon froze as he saw his mother staring dagger at him.
"Mum", Jack called out with a sheepish grin on his face as he tried hiding his tatted cloth.
"Where have you been? And don't you dare lie to me", his mother asked worriedly in a cold tone.
Jack flinched, and he nodded as he began narrating how he had broken through to level 1 and decided to go near the forest and test out his new strength. He somehow came in contact with a level 1 beast, which was why his clothes were torn beyond recognition.
"Mom I swear that's everything", Jack gulped with a wry smile on his face.
The cold expression on his mother's face remained intact, but as she stepped closer to him, her voice softened, "Are you hurt?" she asked as she checked him for any injuries.
"I...I'm fine", he muttered.
Breaking through to level 1 doesn't mean you should start endangering yourself; you should learn to keep a low profile and not attract danger for yourself, okay.
"I understand", he replied.
"You should take a shower before going to bed, but there's no water at home, just change your clothes and go to bed". "Your sister is already asleep, so you too don't waste time", she patted his head gently, and she walked out of the room.
Jack sighed as he crashed on the bed. He could tell his mother knew he wasn't telling the truth, but she didn't press him as she saw that he was okay. He couldn't tell her the truth, as he, too, was still trying to process most of the events.
His thoughts went back to earlier in the forest when he heard footsteps approaching his direction, seeing he had nowhere to run as the footsteps were already drawing close.
He quickly scanned the surrounding trees and found one that would be able to hide his presence.
Up in the tree, he saw two figures in power armor approach his previous battle spot. With a brief scan of the surroundings they sighted the lifeless body of the creature.
They spoke in a low voice as they examined the body of the creature.
"Check the surroundings carefully, whatever killed this creature should still be close by", Jack heard one say to the other. At that moment, one of the warriors' gazes suddenly stopped on the tree he was hiding in.
Jack's breath caught; he didn't dare move, but he tried to hide his presence even more.
The warrior soon retracted his gaze as he only saw darkness on the spot of the tree he was looking at. With that, the two warriors bolted deeper into the forest.
Jack froze for some time before he finally exhaled in relief. He looked down towards the ground, but his gaze caught sight of his hand, which was covered by a dense layer of darkness.
Jack was completely stunned as he brought the hand flowing with a mass of darkness towards his face, "Did I awaken my elemental ability just at level 2?"
It is known that most people tend to awaken their elemental abilities around level 5 up to level 10. It is not a rule or concept, but something that happens to most awakened people, and it was normalized. so for someone to awaken an elemental ability at any level below level 5, they would be tagged as a prodigy.
Does that mean he is also a prodigy? Jack thought to himself. If his words awaken an elemental ability merely at level 2, there's no telling the amount of favor he would receive, but what about the dangers it would bring along?.
Still lost in thought, a sudden wave of dizziness washed over him on the tree. Jack looks at the flickering mass of darkness around his hand. He figures that the sudden wave of dizziness he feels is from using his elemental ability with his depleted spiritual energy.
Jack sighed as he lay on his bed. He was surprised by the previous events; he was still trying to understand that he had not only broken through level 1 and level 2 in a single day, but he had also awakened two elemental abilities.
All these were possible because of the diamond-shaped object he was somehow able to assimilate because of his strange ability that allowed him to absorb it.
There are several treasures and natural resources like plants and other related things containing spiritual energy that people can absorb, but he has never heard of people being able to absorb things from any creature's body. Even the beast core can't be absorbed by humans.
This made Jack concluded that him being able to absorb that diamond-shaped object was because based on his analysis the other ability he had awaken seen to be able to let him do so, but thinking about it now that creature didn't even bleed a single time during their battle even when his hand pierced it's chest which was extremely strange if it was a living creature.
Jack rubbed his temple in exhaustion from the series of situations raging in his head. He sighed helplessly, as there was no one he could confide in about these matters, in fear of his own safety , except his mother, but the help she would be able to offer would be extremely limited.
There's one place he guessed he would be able to get answers for all his questions, including his abilities, and also probably about that creature, without attracting unwanted attention; that place is none other than the academy.
For now, he was still stuck in this situation for the rest of this week, as he would only be going to the academy in the following week.
Still drowning in thought, Jack yawned as a sudden wave of exhaustion washed over him, probably from the stress of the day, as he drifted into a deep sleep.