With his hands in a prayer gesture, Akally begged in mind all the gods and forces to help bring his old friend back to life. Darcy watched him in amazement, waiting to see what would happen. Kartz’s wretched helpless body was gradually absorbed by the glow, sinking deep into the golden-white light, the clear outline disappearing into a gleaming oval of magical energy. The glow gradually intensified to the point where it suddenly disappeared without a trace. Kartz’s body remained in the same condition as before: torn limbs ripped pieces of entrails, and a pool of blood flowing from his wounds. Was it too late to bring his life back to him? Akally looked at Darcy in confusion: “Why doesn’t it work?”

The girl in the red robe took a breath to answer, but the man behind her put his hand on her shoulder to indicate that she had nothing to say. Akally tried again. [Rise] The glow disappeared again without a single change on Kartz’s body. The lad kept repeating his words, clutching his intertwined fingers, his eyes closing on the truth he had to face. “Work!” he shouted, still repeating the spell. [Rise] [Rise] [Rise] [Rise] [Rise] After the last attempt, the man in the green armour took the redhead by the shoulders and turned Akally sharply to himself: “Open your eyes!”

Laddie shook his head.

“Look at me, do it!”

One lid opened in disbelief, and then the second lid opened. He saw a sweaty face stained with purple blood in front of him: “You can’t save him. What the beast had done to him was too much for a newly awakened guy to save him.”

“He said he would give me the power to change it,” whispered the desperately devastated young man.

The man in green armour wiped his face and looked at the dead old man’s body: “Nobody has that much power, boy.”

“I’m sorry, Kartz,” the redhead cried as he unexpectedly fainted in the man’s arms. The green knight turned and lifted Akally onto his back. He held him in a saddle with one hand and grabbed the hilt of his weapon with the other: “Let’s go, shorty. We’re done here. “

“But what-” Darcy stuck as the muscular man shook his head.

“First we have to take care of the living. The boy was lucky, but that alone would not always protect him. We’ll take him to MITEM.”

Lad opened his eyes. He stood alone on an unknown street in the middle of the night. There was no living thing, no sound. Not even the cold wind blew his cheek. The whole world seemed to stop in time. He followed the path in small steps forward, lit by old lamps. His breathing quickened for an unknown reason, and his body began to shake, his footsteps getting harder and harder as if he were moving in liquid sand. Although he felt immense calm in the silence, his body became more and more panicked. He began to realize that he heard footsteps. In a world where he could only hear his breath, he suddenly heard strange footsteps. They were coming. They were accelerating. The steps turned into a trot. The trot turned to a clatter. The clatter of the hooves began to resemble an avalanche. Akally turned behind him to see the originator. He saw the mouth of a horned monster. It stretched as wide as a snake before eating prey whole. The stinking breath flowed between the black-and-yellow broken fangs. With one clap of its mouth, death swallowed the redhead’s entire body.

He awoke from his nightmare with a horrified scream. Full of fear and confusion, he shouted. He kept fidgeting in horror. Some tiny hands wrapped his arms around his head and pulled him to their flat chest. A girl’s voice soothed him: “It’s good, it was just a nightmare. It’s okay now,” she stroked his rusty hair.

Akally’s panic attack slowly faded as he realized he heard a stranger’s voice until he stopped screaming.

“He’s quite a milksop, don’t you think?” A man’s voice snorted.

“Shut up, Zold! Can’t you see he’s had enough? How would you feel if they killed someone close to you right in front of your eyes?” shouted the girl holding the boy.

“Okay, I’d better go get the examiner to get this over with,” he said angrily before the door slammed behind him.

Lad pulled away from the embrace and looked around the room for the first time. Four grey walls without a single window and two small LED bulbs at the ceiling were enough to illuminate a whole room. The dark blue couch on which he lay was squashed against the wall opposite the door. In the middle of the room was a metal table with two chairs on each side. Darcy sat in front of him in civilian clothes.

“Wh-Wh-Where did you t-take me?” he stammered.

Darcy nodded at the wall behind Akally. As the redhead turned, he saw a large sign that read Mors in Tenebris et Monstris around a skull with horns pierced with a sword from the top and an arrow from the side.

“Death to darkness and monsters,” Darcy said proudly, “in your place, I would remember it now that you are one of us.”

Meanwhile, Zold has returned with a woman in her early thirties with short wavy light brown hair in a black suit with the MITEM crest on her right breast. Holding her laptop in her armpit, she placed it on the table and sat in a chair on one side of the table: “You two, please leave. I need to talk to him in private.”

“Don’t worry, they’ll just ask you a few questions,” Darcy brushed his hair softly and left together with Zold.

“Sit down,” the examiner paused, waiting for the coward’s name.

“Akally, miss,” he said cautiously, sitting on a chair in front of her.

“Hunters Zold Varga and Darcy Spencer have reported that you have been awakened.”

The redhead blinked incomprehensibly.

“I see, I have to start over from the beginning. The Awakened are those to whom their Patron offered power, and they accepted it. Not everyone will accept this power, but it is a debate for another time. The important thing is that by accepting that power and the Patron, you have the right to become a hunter. “

“Does that mean I’m going to have to kill monsters?” he asked in a neutral tone. “I won’t lie to you, Akally. I know why you’re here and I heard what happened. Death is more common in this industry than we would like to admit. No one will force you to become a hunter, but some people would give anything for such a chance. You should-”

“If I’m a hunter, will I have to kill monsters?” he repeated his question.

“It’s not entirely mandatory at this age, but yes, although it depends on your Patron and your abilities. Some awakened can use weapons or even magic, but some create these weapons, drugs, armour or elixirs. First things first. Darcy told me you knew how to open your Status.”

He nodded at her and said a magic word. [Status] A profile appeared in front of Akally.

Name: Akally

Title: Saint

Patron: Last survivor

Health 87/100

Mana: 200/200

Attributes:

Strength: 10

Swiftness: 15

Endurance: 10

Magic power: 20

Abilities:

[Rise] Level A – Resurrects dead person and heals all injuries.

[Healing] Level F – Heals insignificant injuries.

[Strengthening] Level E – Increases little attributes of allies.

“Great. Only you can see your Status, others will only see their profile instead of your information. You don’t have to worry about anyone seeing anything you’d like to leave hidden. Another ability that every hunter can use is Shared Status. This will allow another person to see your Status. Try to show it to me.”

[Shared Status] Akally’s profile remained visible, and it appeared in front of the young lady.

“Let’s take a look. The average person has all three first Attributes under 10, specialized athletes can reach up to 11, but that happens in extreme cases. In addition to the average values for newly awakened, you have a slightly increased speed. On the other hand, your magical power is very high. The average person has none, freshly awakened with a focus on weapons usually have 5-10,” she explained as she made notes on her laptop.

“Does that mean I won’t be able to fight?” He looked at the MITEM member expectantly.

“According to your abilities, I must say no. Healing and Strengthening are supportive abilities, although their levels are surprisingly low. But your main advantage is the Rise ability, which can revive a dead person. Surprisingly, it is too high for somebody who has just woken up yesterday.”

“Yesterday?” exclaimed the redheaded boy.

“You slept all night. No wonder, yesterday’s event must have been too much for you.”

Akally’s mood dropped again as a bloody scene came to mind.

“Do you want to take a break, or should I continue?” she smiled a little at him.

“Please continue.”

“As I said, Healing and Strengthening are very low, on the other hand, Rise is at its maximum level. Normally, abilities appear at level C or D. I haven’t seen yet a difference in abilities like yours. But who knows what your Patron thought he was doing? After all, he is the one who gave you your abilities.”

“Who exactly are the Patrons?”

“Good question. Nobody knows. Some people think they’re alter creatures who want to help us. Others claim that they are gods or something. All we know is that they give us the strength to resist the danger of the alter and the things that live there,” at the end of the sentence, the tone of the young lady’s voice darkened.

“Whoever or whatever it is, its power has not helped me. Kartz, a family friend, died, and my exceptional ability didn’t help me revive him.”

“It’s not your fault or your Patron’s fault. Cursoros made a real mess. Even our abilities have their limits. Whether they are of a high standard or not.”

“Are you the hunter too, miss?” The young man asked in surprise when he heard ours.

“Yes and no. I was also awakened like you, like everyone who gains power from the Patron. Being a hunter is a job. I have joined MITEM to help novice hunters and prevent unnecessary deaths. Darcy and Zold, who brought you here, are also members of MITEM but they belong to a different department.”

“How was your awakening, miss?” asked the lad curiously.

“You don’t have to be so stiff. You can talk with me casually. I’m not that much older than you. My name is Sidy,” she offered him a friendly hand.

Akally accepted it with a smile: “How was your awakening?”

“Don’t expect anything heroic. A couple of years ago, when I was home alone and…” she paused to think, “watching the… educational… movie,” she said uncertainly, her face flushed with shame, “I was doing something… and it just happened out of nowhere. Light, the message from the Patron, Status and the like, you know,” she concluded the topic quickly.

The young man did not notice her visible shame, he was not very attentive. He went on to ask another question, “And who is your Patron?”

“Red Marquis,” Sidy answered, “um, it’ll be better if we get back to you. Because your abilities are on opposite sides of the scale, it is even more important to know your limits. According to the Patrons, skill levels are ranked from F as the weakest to A as the strongest. Like your attributes, your abilities will increase depending on how difficult alter you complete. By alter we mean portals and what is behind them, in short, everything that does not belong in this world.”

“But if my ability to revive others is the strongest, then why doesn’t it work,” the boy said angrily, “why I couldn’t save-”

Sidy stopped Akally before he could finish his sentence: “Levels are not everything. They show your maximum, but the real capacity depends on the magical power. There are two reasons why you were not able to revive the old man. The first may be the very limit of your ability. For example, the body must be whole, it must not lack limbs or organs. It is possible that your ability can repair damaged parts, but it cannot replace them. Given the condition of the body, this is a highly probable possibility.”

“And the second reason?” Akally calmed down.

“Your magical power or mana. Maybe you are not limited by the condition of the body, but by the overall damage. Heal wounds, regenerate blood, limbs, repair organs, broken bones… You have just woken up, you are not able to reach the ceiling, even though your magical power is high above average.”

“So, it’s possible I’m not strong enough?”

“Unfortunately, there is only one answer - practice. You will have to use your ability and find out what its limit is,” she replied sadly.

“Are you saying I should let someone die without knowing if I can revive them?!” redhead banged on the table, “I won’t wait for someone to die to try a power I didn’t ask for. “

“Being here means you had a reason to accept it,” Sidy said, “think about how many people your power could save,” she picked up her laptop, “think about it. MITEM always welcomes new hunters. With your potential, you will no longer have to mourn the dead.”