The flickering flames of Younes's fire cast long, trembling shadows on the cabin walls. His breathing was still ragged, chest rising and falling in uneven bursts as he stared at the fading golden notification hovering in the air.
"Congratulations. You are now recognized as a Mana Initiate. Total internal mana: equivalent to 45 years of chi."
The message shimmered for a moment longer, then vanished into the dark like a dream. But the change it signified was all too real.
He sat in silence, legs crossed, staring at the orb of blue energy still hovering over his palm. Its gentle hum resonated with something deep inside him, like a song his soul had always known but never sung.
For minutes, Younes didn't move. He just watched the orb, as if afraid that any sudden motion might shatter the fragile miracle he had birthed.
Eventually, he whispered, "Let's test this."
He willed the orb to move. It floated slightly to the left. Then up. Then right. His heart skipped a beat. This was no trick, no illusion.
Mana listened to him.
He stood up carefully, legs still sore from the escape. The herb's energy lingered in his blood, making his body feel lighter, faster. His senses had sharpened, too—he could hear the rustle of leaves beyond the hut, the heartbeat of a bird resting in a nearby tree, the low hum of mana swirling faintly in the soil beneath him.
He could feel everything.
A sudden rustle outside pulled him from his trance.
Younes extinguished the orb, crouched low, and slid to the window. A figure moved near the treeline, a shadow cloaked in dark robes, face obscured beneath a hood. They walked with a slow, deliberate pace, scanning the forest floor.
A searcher? A hunter?
No. There was mana trailing behind the figure, like smoke rising from burning incense. Whoever they were, they weren't ordinary.
Younes grabbed his satchel, slipped the remaining fragments of the Celestial Ginseng inside, and tiptoed out the back. If the stranger was hostile, he wasn't ready to face them—not yet.
He crept through the underbrush, retracing part of his earlier path. The moon was rising fast now, casting silver light across the forest. As he moved, he began to notice things he'd never seen before—glowing mushrooms nestled between tree roots, tiny insects that left trails of mana in their wake, and ethereal whispers dancing on the wind.
He wasn't just walking through the forest anymore. He was walking with it.
After almost an hour of cautious trekking, he stopped near a small waterfall and collapsed beneath a rock outcrop. His energy was spent. But his mind was on fire.
Who else had seen that notification? Was he truly the only one?
The voice that had guided him when he first felt mana returned—soft, gentle, echoing in his mind like a half-remembered dream.
"You are not the first to seek mana. But you are the first to touch it freely."
Younes sat up quickly. "Who's there?"
No answer. Just the wind.
Then, golden text shimmered again before him:
"Day Zero is coming. Prepare your vessel. Others will follow. Some will ascend. Most will perish."
His throat dried.
What was Day Zero? Why him?
The message dissolved, but the weight of it lingered in his chest.
Elsewhere...
Far from the forest, beyond the mountain ranges and sleeping cities, in a glass tower above the clouds, a council of figures gathered. They were cloaked in mana-saturated robes, each pulsing with different elements—fire, water, wind, shadow.
At the center stood Magister Voren, eyes closed, hands hovering over a floating orb that flickered gold.
"It has begun," he said.
"So it's true then," replied a younger woman with braided silver hair—Lady Arin of the Azure Order. "Earth's threshold is weakening. Someone... breached the flow."
"Not just anyone," Voren said. "A human, unmarked, unsponsored, unattached to any guild. He touched it on his own."
"Impossible," someone muttered.
Voren opened his eyes. "And yet, it happened. His name is Younes."
Silence filled the chamber.
"What do we do with him?" Arin asked.
"Watch him," Voren said. "But do not interfere. The Trial is coming. If he survives Day Zero, then he will have earned a place among us."
Back in the forest...
Younes sat near the waterfall, sketching what he remembered of the mana sigils he saw when the ginseng activated. His hand moved instinctively, almost guided by the flow.
Then a noise behind him.
He turned, startled, and came face to face with a girl—not much older than him, wearing torn traveler's clothes and a pendant that glowed faintly green.
She raised her hands. "Whoa, not here to fight. Just... sensed your mana." Her voice was hoarse, like someone who hadn't spoken in days.
Younes didn't lower his guard. "Who are you?"
"Name's Mira," she said, stepping forward. "I've been searching for someone like you."
"Like me?"
"Yeah. Someone who felt it too. The shift. The spark."
She sat across from him, sighing. "I touched mana a few days ago. Thought I was crazy until I saw the visions. Then... the sky cracked. You saw it too, right?"
Younes nodded slowly.
Mira looked at him seriously. "Something's coming. I don't know what it is, but I can feel it in my bones. I think... we're not the only ones waking up."
Younes looked down at his palm, still tingling with residual mana.
"No," he said. "We're not."