The monsters rampaged for twelve terrifying hours before retreating back into the rift as suddenly as they had appeared.
The crack in the sky sealed itself, leaving behind a bruised-purple twilight and a world scarred and broken.
Jax made his way back home through a city that looked like a warzone.
Buildings were toppled, cars were overturned husks of burning metal, and the silence was punctuated by the wails of ambulance sirens and grieving survivors.
He found his mother huddled in their apartment, safe but terrified.
The relief in her eyes when she saw him was a balm to his soul.
In the days that followed, the world scrambled to make sense of what happened.
The event was named 'The Eclipse'.
The monsters were dubbed 'Riftfiends'.
And the golden seeds, found scattered in the chaos, became humanity's new hope.
The first 'Awakened' began to appear.
A firefighter who could generate water from his hands.
A police officer who could harden his skin into steel.
A teenage girl who could speak to animals.
Governments around the world moved quickly, establishing agencies to manage this new paradigm.
The term 'Hunter' was coined for Awakened individuals who would fight the monsters that now began to emerge from smaller, persistent rifts that came to be known as 'Dungeons'.
Jax watched it all unfold, playing the part of a normal, traumatized teenager.
No one knew he was, in all likelihood, the world's most powerful Awakened.
He kept his S-Rank Telekinesis a closely guarded secret, practicing only in the dead of night, levitating small objects in his room, learning control, precision, and strength.
His plan had changed.
Selling one seed was thinking too small.
Why have a monopoly on money when he could have a monopoly on power itself?
He spent the next few weeks refining his telekinesis, pushing its limits in the privacy of his room.
He started with small objects—a pencil, a book—and then moved on to the dresser, the bed.
The weight of his telekinetic lift grew exponentially as he gained control.
He found he could not only lift things but also manipulate them with incredible precision, forming shields or blades of raw force.
He had no level-up points to invest, only his own discipline and training to rely on.
The system was a tool, not a crutch.
He began earning money secretly, using his power to locate lost items for reward money, or to win a few hands in online poker, making sure to stay off the radar.
He used the cash to get his mother the best medicine and food he could, making sure she was comfortable and safe.
His haunted look began to fade, replaced by a quiet confidence.
His body, already honed, became even more powerful as he incorporated his telekinetic training into his physical regimen.
He would lift weights and then use his mind to add a hundred pounds of resistance, pushing his muscles to the breaking point.