" Boom! "

The boulder beneath crumbled away into dust. But Max's body kept levitating mid air along with Sera.

Slowly, the blue color aura surrounding Max started to move back into the tattoo on his chest and as it did, it left behind a dark black line which separated the blue section of tattoo from the rest.

With the disappearance of all the extra energy, Max felt a hard time controlling himself and fell down on the ground with Sera on top of him.

" Ouch! Sera, are you fine?"

" Hm.."

And to his surprise, Sera spoke. Even if it wasn't a word. It was the first time she had made a sound to communicate.

Max got up and looked at Sera. She obviously was shorter than Max coming below his shoulders, around his chest in height. But, Max felt that she had grown a bit.

' Could it be?...It has to be...She has grown a bit and so has her intelligence. If she could nod and say yes. Her intelligence is definitely greater than a 3 year old.'

Max took Sera into his Spirit World before organising his thoughts and situation.

From whatever had happened till now, Max could sort many things related to his powers.

First, the 'Flow energy' was meant to strengthen his body. So his body could be said to be at the same level when a High Tier Mage uses his mana to protect his body.

Second, the cool energy which Max had decided to call 'Spirit energy' was something that strengthened his spirit and their bond. That was the most he could understand right now.

There still remained something which he couldn't comprehend. How to use this spirit and the spirit energy...and the most mysterious one was his core.

Max could suddenly feel and control the mana in the surrounding. Even though it couldn't be compared to the spirit energy. It was still the form of energy mostly used in this world.

And it might have been because of that, Max had finally awakened as a Mage. He now could sense and absorb Mana and had a core.

He had met all the requirements to be a Mage.

Max circulated the mana around his body letting it pass through his core and awakening his element. He looked at himself as several images flashed before his eyes.

He had awakened as a Variant. And one of the rarest ones too.

Beast men

But there weren't many changes to Max's body except his eyes turning clearer and a pair of fairy-like wings emerging from his back.

If it was in the past, Max would be happy to have become normal. He still didn't forget his mother's tears, his father's helplessness and his unknown grandfather's rejection. But now there was much more at stake.

" But it doesn't change the fact that I will still get my answers from them. I still don't believe that they would just leave me behind because I turned out to be a cripple.", Max said with a determined look before he turned around to look at his wings.

With his breakthrough, Max was feeling energy coursing through his body and all the weariness and tiredness had disappeared.

" I don't feel sleepy. I might as well take a test drive."

In this form, Max felt that the world had slowed down a bit. The wings behind his back felt no different than his own arms.

With a thought, Max began to flap his wings and slowly took off.

After practicing for a bit, Max flew down. It was tiring. He could move his wings up and down, but that was it. Anything beside it was tough as hell. He still didn't know how to use it properly.

" I need to practice or I wouldn't even be able to use it properly. If I can master it. I can fly out of this goddamn place."

Max didn't realize that he was already doing well. After all, how much time has passed since he awakened his element? If people find out Max's thoughts. They would probably beat him up.

After a few more attempts, Max retracted his wings due to the aching. He needed to take it slowly. After all, the wings were part of his body too.

" I should be careful, hurting myself here won't end up good."

Max decided to lay down on the patch of grass nearby and continue his plan of going upstream the next day.

...

After an hour...

"F*ck! I can't sleep!! "

Max got up. There wasn't any sign of sleepiness in his eyes. He was awake more than ever.

" I can't go upstream right now. It's more dangerous at night.", Max mumbled.

He was really having trouble dealing with the boredom.

After having a taste of spending time with his friends, Max who was used to loneliness, finally couldn't take it any longer.

" Let's search this place. What in hell is keeping the goddamn beasts out of here."

Max said as he began looking around. On his side, there was the forest. And nothing else. He had clearly ventured into every direction and didn't find anything but beasts. Behind him was the river and after crossing the river, it was nothing. Just a rocky terrain.

" It's probably a cliff from up there.", Max said as he looked above.But he couldn't see the top clearly.

"Can I climb it? I can't fly for sure."

Max mumbled as he took out his wings and flew over the river.

" Crash!"

Even though he managed to cross over the river, he still didn't manage to make a perfect turn and land.

" Damn it's not so easy to control myself in mid air ."

.....

Max ran a lap around the rocky terrain before finding a crack in the wall towards the west.

" Let's see where this crack leads too.", Max mumbled as he brought both his hands together. Sparks flew before a little flame lit up in his hands and illuminated the cave.

At this moment, another huge incident had shaken the world.

Arcane city was trampled upon by the beast horde leaving millions of dead and while the one who survived were left homeless.