บท 16: Chapter 16: The Awakening I
"This- Are you really sure that you want to give this to me?"
Ingrid looked at Herbert as she handed him back the Awakening Crystal. Although she had acted shamelessly toward Herbert, she still knows how to draw a clear line between them. Viewed from her perspective, she didn't see any clear reason as to why Herbert would even decide to give such a precious thing to her. The first thing that popped into her head was a suspicion that she might be biting off more than she could chew. Their partnership was based on them having what each other wants, but if she were given something that she wants without her asking for it, even she would start to doubt Herbert's intentions.
"What, don't tell me you don't want it?"
"No, but even if I accept this, I still won't marry you, you know?"
Hearing her words, Herbert was reminded of the reason why he had purchased this Awakening Crystal in an auction. Looking back at it now, he felt stupid that he had even thought of giving away something precious just to get someone's attention. He didn't even intend to ask her to get married then and there. Although he thought that it was awkward giving away the gift that he bought for another woman to someone who is acting as her replacement, Herbert did not let it show on his face.
"Just take it. If you ever feel thankful then all you have to do is to use your powers for me. After you finished awakening, just lend me a hand or two every now and then."
"Geez. You sound like you already know that I will awaken an ability that's useful to you or something."
"Alright, I'll take it. But if you keep this up then I might misunderstand, you know? I'll consider being your real fiance for now."
"Oh, shut up. Use it now or I'll take it back."
Ingrid giggled before hopping over the bed with her back upright. As she closed her eyes, she started to sense the energy that was extending from her hands that were grasping the Awakening Crystal.
Seeing her in a meditative state, Herbert once again regained his piece of mind. The room was finally enveloped in silence, although Herbert could have decided to relax, he didn't let his guard down to prevent anything unexpected from happening.
According to the original story, after Ingrid had gotten her revenge on the Rozebloods, she had looted an Awakening Crystal from Cloven. He had originally planned to give it to one of his sons when Ingrid who had the help of the church launched an attack on them.
While Herbert continued his watch, he reminisced the memories he had as Albert. Herbert who was more talented had naturally awakened and did not need the help of the Awakening Crystal while he was given one purely based on how the adults had seen Herbert's talent. They guessed that although Albert's talent would be bad, it wouldn't be that far off from Herbert's. But the truth was far from what they had expected. Albert only had mediocre talent and was not even an inch of Herbert's potential. As a result, he had been ostracized and was less favored. He didn't let it get to him though as he was still fortunate enough to be an awakened.
On the topic of Awakening Crystals, Herbert also brushed up on the knowledge that he got from the original book and compared it to what he knew from the history taught to him since young.
In this world, it is commonly known that during the primordial era, when monsters were rampant, humans were nothing but rats that continued to run and barely survived. It was only during the gods had blessed them that they had awakened all sorts of powers. With the help of these unique powers, the humans had started to build walls and created cities, eventually, they dominated most of the land. Although there are some variations of this story, most of the commoners believe it to be true. However, based on the lore that the protagonist would uncover in the future, Herbert knew that the humans were in an even more dire situation. They didn't even have the chance to run away as humans back then were treated as nothing but slaves to legendary monsters.
By chance, one of the said monsters had died due to old age and one particular human happened to have the balls to crack open its skull to find an Awakening Stone. This stone is different from the widely used Awakening Crystals. If the Awakening Crystal can help someone with a bloodline to awaken their power then the Awakening Stone can help create an entire lineage of humans with an Awakened bloodline. Once this had been discovered, the other humans that were treated as slaves soon caught on and started a hunt to get Awakening Stones and this drastically reduced the number of monsters in the world.
While Herbert was thinking that, he suddenly saw Ingrid dropping to the bed and starting to convulse. He felt confused. This wasn't something that was supposed to happen, he knew because he had once undergone through the same process as well.
As he frowned, he went closer and quickly removed anything hard or sharp near Ingrid to prevent her from hurting herself during her seizure. Thankfully she was on the bed which cushioned her body whenever she moved. He didn't know how to do first aid during a time like this and he didn't think that it would help. All that he could do at the moment was to be calm and think about what went wrong.
"This…. The novel didn't mention this at all."
The process in which Ingrid had awakened slowly replayed in his mind as Herbert tried to reconstruct images of it. Originally, she should've used the Awakening Crystal that she had looted from sacrificing her uncle and his children, but she did it in the cave where the treasure is hidden. From then she had awakened her the bloodlines of both the Rozenblood and the Larksong.
"Location shouldn't matter when using an Awakening Crystal, and neither should the time and age. If there's anything that is different, it should be the Awakening Crystal itself. But there should be no problem as this should've been effective because one of the story's heroines was supposed to use this."
Soon, Ingrid's moans made Herbert use his head quicker. Ideas popped in and out of his head but none seemed to give him the correct answer. Being left with no choice, all that he could do was to give encouragement to Ingrid and hope that she could sort this through on her own.
"Ingrid, listen to me. I know that you can still hear me. Follow my voice and do exactly as I say. Do not panic. Take deep breaths, you need to control your power."
From his point of view, Herbert really didn't know what he was saying. He had given up on trying to understand what was happening and decided to give her moral support.
"I am right here, don't worry. Nothing will happen to you. You just need to concentrate. You can do it. Focus the energy on your forehead. You need to relax, breathe."
Although nothing seems to have changed, Herbert thought at least that it was better than doing nothing.
"I'm going to touch your forehead. I want you to focus and direct your energy at that particular point."
สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์
-- การจัดอันดับด้วยพลัง 
-- หินพลัง