Capítulo 11: Chapter 11 - You finally made it

"You finally made it. I have been calling for quite a while. It seems you had a rough time getting here." Havok, who was already covered in blood and dirt was barely able to stand, looked up at the man who just spoke. However, he was unable to see his face because it was covered in some sort of shadow. Havok then collapsed to the ground and passed out due to a mixture of exhaustion and injuries. That voice made him relax because he arrived where that calling was coming from. Havok figured that whatever called him here and for some reason whatever was calling him made him feel safe, it felt familiar.

He was drenched in blood. his clothes were shredded and the injury to his abdomen was spilling blood at an alarming rate. Whether he would survive was anyone's guess. Havok was lying on his back on the cold stone ground. He woke up in what seemed to be a cave, but it was huge. The ceiling was several stories high, and he could hear water flowing. He looked around and saw light shining from the cave's entrance, which means it was daytime now and he managed to survive. This was also the first time he has seen the sun since his torture began. His eyes couldn't take it, they started burning, forcing him to stop looking.

After a few minutes of lying there he decided to sit up. "Ugh, fuck or hurts to move." Havok laid back down. He carefully lifted his head to avoid making his injury worse. He looked down at where the pain was coming from where he saw a large hole in his abdomen,

"How did I forget about that? Tch. It's all because of that stupid fucking beast." Havok grumbled as he placed his hand over the wound. He grunted through the pain as he finally managed to sit up.

"Where is the guy that I saw before I passed out? I am pretty sure he said that he was the one that called me here and now he is nowhere to be seen. Why did he call me here and how did he do it? I damn near died on my way here and now he is not here. What an asshole... The feeling I got when he appeared in front of me made it feel like I was an ant standing in front of a god. That energy I have been absorbing was flowing off of him in waves."

"Well, since he is not here the first thing to do now is trying to heal. After all, he called me here, so he will find me when he wants to talk. My clothes have been shredded too and my back is covered in splinters and chunks of wood. I need to wash all of this blood and dirt off of me and find a way to get rid of all the wood stuck in my back." Havok was holding his side where a gaping wound was. His back made him look like a porcupine as it was covered in shards of wood. Having been tortured for a significant amount of time gave him a much higher tolerance for pain than other people because if anyone else had these wounds they would be screaming at the top of their lungs from the pain.

Although his tolerance was higher that did not mean he didn't feel pain, it was just that the amount of pain he could take before it became unbearable for him was tremendous. He crossed his legs and focused on gathering the energy around him and funnel it into his body.

While Havok was busy trying to heal, the man he cursed was standing behind him in the shadows, watching him. He was a handsome middle-aged man with shimmering dark green hair tied in a ponytail that stopped in the middle of his back, he stood over 7 feet tall, with sharp eyebrows, a firm gaze, with green eyes, a dark green cloak that went all the way to the ground with glistening black accents lining it. It also had a black Z embroidered on the left side of his chest. He circled Havok, while staying in the shadows as he continued to watch him for a few moments and finally spoke while shaking his head.

"That's all wrong. It's truly a miracle that you are still alive, since it's clear that you don't know how to use mana properly. I guess your instincts kicked in and helped you survive on your way here."

Havok jumped up ignoring the pain from his stomach. His eyes darted around the cave to find who just spoke. He recognized the voice as the one who said that he called him here, but he was unable to see the man.

"You say it's wrong, tell me the right way and explain to me what this energy even is." Havok said nonchalantly as he was sure this man didn't mean him any harm. If he did mean to harm him, he had plenty of time to do it when he was unconscious. He looked around and couldn't locate the man. It was like the shadows around the cave were talking, he just spoke out loud assuming he would be heard.

The man burst into laughter,"Pfft, hahahah!" That laughter shook the cave violently as if it was about to collapse on them. Havok's eyes looked panicked, his hands shot to his head, trying to cover his ears. He felt like his head was about to burst so he yelled before he passed out from the pain. "Is this just from laughing!? What the hell are you!? Stop, before you make my head explode, you dick!", said Havok as his ears began to bleed.

The man said, "Relax, young man, this cave will not collapse. You'll be fine. I was just surprised at your response, someone as weak as you have never spoken to me like that before, which is amusing. Forget about that, let's get to the reason I called you here. Now, I have a proposition for you. I'll help you out, but I want something in return. I'll train you to be strong, stronger than you can even fathom. I'll tell you about my experiences and teach you anything I can, if you agree to my condition. You can say no, and I'll just put you outside this cave, I won't harm you. So, what will it be?"

Havok took a few minutes to digest what just happened and to consider the offer he was given. After a few minutes Havok finally spoke "You never mentioned what that condition actually was, I assume I won't get a straight answer, right?" Havok said with a neutral tone.

"Correct, as you are right now you wouldn't be able to handle it, so there is no point in telling you about it. It's nothing harmful, in fact it will allow you to experience something that will change your life, hopefully for the better." The man said with a little smile.

Havok thought about it only for a few seconds before he gave his answer, "Alright, you help me get stronger and I'll agree to your condition. You better not be lying to me or trying to trick me. You must teach me with all you have, or the deal will be nullified." Havok said with a stern face. The man almost laughed at Havok who seemed to be no older than 10 years old talking with such a serious face.

"You don't have to worry, we both have something we want, and we need each other to get what we want. I need you to get stronger and you want to get stronger. The first lesson starts now, it will be just the basics until you gain an understanding of them, then we'll move onto more advanced stuff. That energy you are currently feeling is called mana. As you have experienced it is extremely beneficial to whatever absorbs it. From what I can feel this world was just recently introduced to mana, so I can assume that you are just doing what you feel is natural and absorbing it without knowing what you are going to do with it. The good news is that being able to sense it and absorb it without any guidance shows that you have decent talent."

Havok looked confused and was just about to ask when the man noticed that, and he spoke before Havok got a chance. "Let me get through the intro and you can ask all the questions that you want at the end." Then he continued talking about mana.

"Before we begin, I need you to understand what comes with being a ranker, a ranker is what you will need to become to accomplish whatever your goals are and to fulfill your part of our deal. Especially one with your affinity. I will explain more about affinities later, but just know that the one you have is seen as the most dangerous and that is darkness. You will be an enemy of most humans as they fear your affinity. Others will also want to kill you, but for a whole different reason."

He continued, "You see, deep down most humans have a basic fear of darkness. The darkness is a representation of the unknown, people usually create some type of monsters hiding in the shadows and that fear is you now. They will fear you and see you as that monster that haunted them when they were kids scared of the dark. If they don't fear it for that reason, some dumbasses will deem it to be evil. Humans will always find some justification to rally others to kill you or smear your name and reputation. You will have to kill to achieve whatever your goals are, and the number of dead bodies will be astonishing. Having anyone dependable will be difficult because it's difficult to know the hearts of humans. If you can find people that you can truly rely on, do your best to cherish and protect them because there will not be many willing to be seen as your ally or acquaintance. Anyone who is close to you or has a decent relationship with you will be targeted as well. So, youngster, are you prepared to step into a world of danger and death to achieve your dreams? Let me know now if you don't want to because I can't waste my time and energy on someone not giving it their all." He looked at Havok for his answer.

Havok responded damn near instantly. "Hahahaha! I have no problem ripping through anyone who even thinks about taking my life. I don't care about anyone's opinion unless they are one of the people I respect. I strive to be strong enough to achieve my dream. Anyone who thinks they can stop me is going to find out what happens to people that get in my way."

The man nodded, "This training will be unlike anything you have ever experienced before, there is a high percentage that you will die. I hope you keep that resolve throughout your journey. It's one thing to talk about it, but another to do it. Even if you can do it, it remains to be seen what type of person you will be when you have finally achieved your goals. Power can corrupt anyone and that is especially true for humans."

"You have been gathering mana already, but you just have it sitting inside you not doing anything. The first thing you need to do is gather all the mana in your body just behind your belly button. Then once you have gathered a certain amount of mana, a small sphere will start to form, and you need to keep gathering mana and funneling it into that sphere. It will continue to grow the more it's filled, keep filling it with mana until you are unable to anymore. It should be around the size of a small ball when it's finally formed. What you are creating is your mana core. It will also be the color of your current rank. We'll worry about ranks once you are done." The man stopped talking and waited for Havok to finish.

Havok focused on his task, and it was pretty easy, this place had a lot more mana than his former living arrangement. He could see the core slowly forming, like a black hole he just kept giving it mana until it was full and became red. 'That must be the color of my rank, red. I wonder how many ranks there are and how much strength they have.', Havok thought to himself just as his mind was beginning to race, he was assaulted by this revolting smell.

A strange black substance started oozing out of Havok and he promptly started to freak out thinking something was wrong. "What the hell is happening to me? Uggh! Why the fuck does it smell like that!?" Havok looked around for answers, still not able to locate the man in the shadows. He kept his hand on his mouth to try and prevent himself from vomiting,

The man smiled "Relax, that black substance is all of the impurities your body has collected so far being expelled. It's a sign that you have ranked up every time this happens, it also enhances your appearance. This process also heals any light injuries you have automatically. However, the life-threatening injuries or any scars will require you to heal it yourself. I see your body is covered in scars. You can use this moment to erase those by circulating your mana inside of your body and direct it towards the area you want to heal. Now, focusing the majority of your attention on any scars you want to remove. If you are going to do that then do it quickly. There is a small window for this process. The scars from your fights earlier have already been healed as they were lighter and required no extra effort. The ones on your back seemed to be scars on top of scars. If you want to heal those you will need to rank up again to do it." The man was going to ask what happened but refrained as he thought Havok would tell him when he wanted to.

Havok needed no time to think and quickly responded, "I'll keep those scars on my back. They are a reminder of a debt I need to settle." The man nodded and said nothing more about the topic. Havok's control of mana increased now that he was a ranker. He was able to move his mana to the rest of his body which made the scars lighter. They didn't go away completely, but it was far less noticeable. Havok finished in a couple of minutes and then the smell which he was able to ignore for a few minutes assaulted his nostrils again.

"I need somewhere to wash this filth off. I heard the sound of water sloshing around earlier, but I didn't see it." Havok said as he scanned the cave.

He told Havok where could wash away all the filth he was covered with. Havok followed his directions. He turned the corner and saw a waterfall. He rushed over to it as this would be the first time, he was able to clean himself since the torture started. He jumped in with all of his clothes on and stood under the waterfall, the impurities washed right off, but he continued to stand there, just relaxing. It was the first time in a long time that he was just able to not think about anything and just stand there relaxing.

After he got the impurities Havok noticed his skin was ridiculously soft, 'This feels weird, it's so soft', Havok thought to himself. When he was done washing up, he got out of the water, and he noticed a problem. "My clothes have all been shredded and I would rather not walk around naked, do you have anything I can wear?" He looked over to the shadows and spoke.

"Just wear those rags for now. You will have something to wear in a little while." Said the man in the shadows.

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