I stood in a forest of burning silver trees, each one pulsing with a heartbeat and vibrant. A shadow moved between them, whispering my name, calling out to me. Then it shattered and I woke, gasping for air. When I finally opened my eyes, sunlight streamed through the academy infirmary. Its ward familiar to me as it was a part of the academy I always found myself in after getting beaten by the bullies.
"You’re finally awake," a voice said, which was familiar to me. It was the healer who always heals me up whenever I came in here.
I was not able to hear what the healer was saying as my mind kept reliving the scene of what happened to me before I lost consciousness how I was beaten, how I bled, how they left me to die there without a care in the world for me. I clenched my hands so hard that it made a cracking sound, and looking at the healer’s face, I knew my injuries must have been serious when I was brought into the infirmary.
"I almost thought you would die, you were beaten very badly and lost a lot of blood this time," she said with relief. "Luckily, a student was able to see you injured in the alley and brought you to the infirmary to be healed. But I have to say, when I saw your condition, there wasn’t much I could do as you had a lot of your bones broken even your ribs. Whoever did this to you wanted to make sure you didn’t survive from it. It was a miracle you even survived. It was like your body was healing by itself like it was fixing itself" she said while pondering about it.
I just nodded at her. "How long have I been unconscious for?" I asked her.
"For about a day, I think. Like I said, it’s a miracle you even survived. I have already logged a complaint to the academy. I will make sure whoever did this to you will get punished for it," she said, trying to console me. But I didn’t care. I already knew how unjust the academy system was, and I knew that she knows how the academy is, it didn’t care about such matters , as the school was meant for the strong.
I just told her to leave me alone for now. She just nodded and left, clearly seeing I didn’t want to talk to anyone right now. Just as she left, I was finally able to check what I saw before I lost consciousness.
"System," I called out.
And there it was. A screen manifested in front of me. I felt something inside me ,was it relief or was it happiness? I finally did it. I awakened my system, even though it took me getting beaten half to death before I awakened it.
[Congratulations, you have reached the requirements to awaken the Divine System]
[The Divine System has awakened]
[Awakening begins...]
[Awakening successful]
[Class: Shadow Monarch]
[Affinity: Divine Shadow & Lightning]
[Innate Talent: Lineage of the Shadow God]
There it was, the last thing I saw before passing out from the beating.
"My divine system... what’s that?" I thought, clearly having never heard anyone awakening such a system. I decided to leave that for now as I focused on the class awakened. In this world, a class was very important for an Awakened—each one of them unique. Your class was your ladder to great heights, but in this case, great power. I decided to focus my eyes on my class and the description of the Shadow Monarch.
[Shadow Monarch: "The gods witnessed your pain. The Shadow God heard your silent cries and, in his mercy, marked you with His legacy. You are the Shadow Monarch, ruler of the unseen, sovereign of the dark. The shadows heed your will and commands, for they know their ruler—their king."]
"Wait, what? The gods? So the gods truly exist... and it seems that the Shadow God chose me. But why?" I asked myself, even though I knew why. The answer: "The gods—especially the Shadow God—had mercy on me." I didn’t care much about the mercy part. What I cared more about was that I had caught the attention of the gods, wherever they were.
I decided to check my affinity next.
[Divine Shadow: You are a shadow chosen by the gods, and you now possess divinity in you. You are blessed by the shadow, and the shadows chose you. You are the champion of the shadow, and the shadow acknowledges your divinity.]
[Lightning: Once cursed, but free ,You can call down lightning and control it. You are lightning itself and one with it’s storm.]
While the first affinity description made sense from its name, what truly shocked me wasn’t that I bore the mark of divinity, but it was the lightning affinity description that got me thinking. What did the system mean by I was once cursed? By who and why? It looks like being blessed by the Shadow God freed me from the curse, which scared me more. If it wasn’t for the Shadow God, I would still be cursed till now—and maybe I would even be dead by now. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. Why was I treated unfairly by this world? What did I even do to be cursed by anyone? I was just a boy from a poor family. But I decided to leave that for now, as there was one more thing left to focus on—my innate talent.
[Lineage of the Shadow God: You bear the blood of divinity, chosen and marked by the Shadow God Himself. You are the heir of shadow, the vessel of His will. You are the Monarch of Shadows. Darkness bends to your command and bows before you.]
While the description was short, it still made sense. After that, Michael continued through the system to see his complete system. The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the NovelHub(.)net
Class: Shadow Monarch
Affinity: Divine Shadow & Lightning
Innate Talent: Lineage of the Shadow God
Essence Capacity: 2.05
[Warning: Core system still evolving. Further functions will unlock as system evolve .]
That final line still evolving made my heart beat faster.
"My... divine system? What even is that?" I muttered. I’d never heard of anyone awakening a system like that, one that could evolve by itself but I decided not to think too much about it as I knew I didn’t awaken any ordinary system.
"So that’s all about my system," I thought,
I decided to sleep, as the past few days have been quite stressful for me. But all I know is that I had a lesson to pay back in kind and it would be very soon. I could bet on that. After all, my mother always told me to repay in kind, and I was planning to do just that right away.