He harvested till his chaos core was full and his legs started cramping.
Azaroth stood up and stretched. "How much time has passed now? I have to get some sleep."
The eyes laughed. "Time? I don't know since time works differently here, but you will return when you wake up unless I send you back."
Azaroth wanted to go back, but there was something he had to ask. "You said something about training the other time."
"Of course, but there's not much to be done with your core right now. Your training with me starts when your core advances." The darkness shifted as one of the eyes closed.
Azaroth put out his hand and drew his energy out. The chaotic energy crawled over his hand like an angry wound. Azaroth couldn't wait to see what he could do with it. He had seen the energy eat through a monster.
He dissolved the energy and looked at the darkness and the red eye shining in it. "What is this place? It didn't... feel like Earth."
Azaroth couldn't say how, but he knew this place was far removed from his world. He could just feel the wrongness, the strangeness.
The red eye focused on him. "This is your head. Well, part of your head anyway."
"What do you mean?" Azaroth demanded.
"This is your consciousness. Part of it. It was made real by the enchantment on the chaos technique."
"And you? Where do you stay?" Azaroth asked.
The voice chuckled. "Here, of course. Your head."
Azaroth frowned. He didn't like the idea of an eye living in his head, but he needed it, and it hadn't bothered him physically in real life.
"Alright. Send me back," Azaroth said.
The voice chuckled again. "Okay."
Darkness closed around Azaroth, and he was pulled down with its weight. He woke on his bed, slumped to the side.
"I must have slept off while harvesting." He stretched his neck and back. "I was harvesting..."
Azaroth checked his normal core and it was full. "Well, at least I didn't stop when I went into my head."
He lifted his hand and summoned the energy in his core. It came out like a white smoke, and he let it hover and drift before directing it to cover his hand. He could cover his entire right hand with it, unlike the chaos core.
He rolled his shoulder and bent his arm. The energy moved with him smoothly, like a fitted glove.
"This is good. The first step. But why is it whitish and invisible? Kael and my chaos core had colors." He let the energy drift away.
Azaroth stood up and went for a quick wash. He dressed in his uniform and went downstairs, where he met Kael Hound with a cup in his hand, sitting on a chair. How was he drinking? Azaroth thought. With that mask on his face.
Kael lifted his cup. "Rough night?" He pointed at the table filled with food. "Help yourself while we wait for the others."
Azaroth nodded and sat down to eat.
He was eating his last bread when Stallus came downstairs dressed in her uniform. She greeted Kael and joined Azaroth at the table.
Not too long after that, Alex and Catena came down too.
"Today we will have the big talk," Kael said when everyone had finished eating and was now sitting cross-legged in the training space.
"As you know, techniques are what our essence becomes, what our essence reacts to. Like the fire techniques now, the essence becomes the fire. Right now you all have unrefined essence. You haven't chosen a technique, and your core hasn't changed to your technique core." Kael paused, looking at them.
"Techniques are difficult to get or create. It is one of the most important things an Awakener can have, and there are always fights over techniques," Kael said.
"Almost all the techniques existing today were made by error and trial of previous Awakeners. Interestingly, some techniques can be found in ancient texts, like the 'Heavenly Fist' found in the deep Western Doomhaven." Kael gestured west.
"The most common and still powerful are the Elemental techniques—fire, wind, darkness, lightning, water, and the rest of the elements. Thousands of techniques exist today, but that doesn't mean anything. Can anyone tell me why?" Kael asked.
Stallus raised her hand, and Kael nodded. "Most techniques are weak. How powerful you will become depends on your core and how much essence you can hold, but all that is useless if you don't have stable, quality techniques."
Kael nodded and touched his mask. "The Hounds have third-rate techniques at most. Only a selected few of us have quality techniques."
Alex spoke next. "But the Hounds are respected! They are powerful! People know to fear them."
Kael looked at Alex for a while before speaking. "Of course, people feared us. The question is, which type of people feared us? You are becoming Hounds now too, though a different kind."
Kael leaned forward. "The Awakened world is more dangerous than you think, and before you become fully fledged Hounds, most, if not all, of you might have died."
That shut Alex up, and he clenched his jaw, his dark eyes growing darker.
"As I was saying, the superiority of your techniques will determine your fate as an Awakener. Two fire Awakeners of the same rank will not have the same power because of differences in techniques. Having bad techniques can and will stop advancement," Kael said.
"I have two gifts for each of you today, but before that, let me tell you this— you are special Hounds. A new unit was created within the Hounds: the Yama. This special order came directly from the seat of the Inferno Legion, and it's being carried out throughout the Inferno Legion." Kael breathed.
So that was one of the reasons, Azaroth thought. Children with potential were raided from outposts for this special unit, but Azaroth knew it couldn't be that simple. Something deeper must be going on.