Black String of Fate

*********

Notification: Any conditions incurred in the trial will not be reflected in reality. This includes, but is not limited to, physical injury, mental injury, soul injury, Pathwalker progress, etc.

*********

For the first time in weeks, Xavier saw a blue screen pop up in front of him suddenly.

'Oho, this is quite good. The system notifying me of such a thing can only be a hint towards initiating myself... I shall get to that, but first...'

"Boss, is something the matter?"

"Nothing, continue with your explanation."

"Alright. Towards the east side of the town, we have the gang of..."

Right now, Xavier was talking to the crooks who had been in contact with the neighboring gangs. Upon his orders, they recounted every single detail they knew about the enemy. They had to, because Xavier might just kill them otherwise.

He had decided to get the gangs in his neighborhood under him. While they were not bothering him too much, there was still a chance that some ambitious idiot would try some less-than-pleasant things. He had to make sure they knew their place.

'Well, since I'm trying to get these rabid dogs under control, I might as well initiate and take care of the whole thing.'

"....And in the south side of our town, the gang of-"

"Quiet."

"..."

A single word was enough to ensure a pin-drop silence in the warehouse. The crooks listened attentively with nervousness, fearing that they might have said or done something not to his liking once more.

"You three. Since you know so much about the other gangs, surely you would have no problem doing a job related to them, right?"

"Y-Yes." The three had no other option except to say yes, anything else was playing with death.

"Good. Go to the leader of the gangs of every town in our prefecture, and tell them to come here. Tell them if they refuse or don't show up, your new boss, Xavier, will personally eradicate them. Got it?"

The three had cold sweat running down their backs after hearing this. What was this devil even trying to do? He was basically sending them to their deaths by telling them to go to their home base and threaten dangerous Elites to their face.

"Don't worry, I won't care how much you paint me in a bad light to survive. Just say something like I forced you guys to say this." Xavier guessed what was going on in their minds and was right on the money. Not to forget, he had also once lived like these crooks in his previous life. He knew very well how their minds worked, and how to manipulate them.

"I-It shall be done!" The three crooks were surprised, but didn't raise a single question in case he changed his mind.

Xavier just gestured to them with his hands to leave, and they hurriedly left, each going in a separate direction, to begin with their task.

Once he was sure they were gone, Xavier proceeded to walk out of the warehouse, his steps leading him to a place far away from any life. If he wanted to awaken, he needed to ensure that he would not incur even the slightest disturbance.

'Hmm... there it is.'

Xavier arrived at such a place, one he had scouted around a week before. It was an abandoned building, with moss and ivy encroaching the walls. The musty smell and haunting silence hinted at the total lack of any life except flora. He sat down on the dusty floor, pulling out a small, bright mana core that shined an ethereal red color.

While he was eradicating the gangs, he found a mana core in the possession of one of the gang leaders. It was quite surprising for him that a local ruffian had gotten his hands on such a precious resource.

'Well, this will make good practice for when I initiate in the real world. After all, initiation can occur for a person only once.'

The process of initiation was a hurdle not hard to get over. It just required focus, patience, and most importantly, talent. One had to hold a mana core obtained from a monster, or rather any object dense in mana, and try to absorb its essence and form a core. It was simple but difficult to execute properly.

'Alright, now that it's come to this, should I initiate like I did in my previous life, or do it the normal way? At the time I didn't know, but my method of initiating was quite ridiculous.'

Xavier, in his previous life, had initiated himself in a completely radical way. Instead of attuning, synchronizing, visualizing, absorption, and formation, the normal way of awakening...

He had eaten it.

'I don't know how dumb I must've been to eat literal rocks to gain power... To be fair, it felt alluring and tasted sweet to me, unlike what the others say. Later, I discovered it was because of my physique.

Now, what I'm unsure of is whether this body possesses that physique or not. I'll apparently die if it does not, and the chances of it not possessing are significantly higher, so...

Yeah, let's be normal for once.'

Xavier brought the mana core away from his mouth and kept it in his lap. He closed his eyes and started to focus on the frequency of the mana. In order to sense the mana present inside the core, the breathing of the uninitiated and the core should match nearly perfectly. this was the reason why people used core and stones to awaken, instead of atmospheric mana.

There were too many frequencies of mana mixed in, making it difficult for the uninitiated to focus on one. In concentrated sources, the mana resonates at around the same frequency, making them ideal for initiations.

'Alright... It feels a little difficult... Let's give it more time.'

Xavier, to his surprise, was not talented at sensing mana. No, it wasn't that he had difficulty grasping the frequency, but rather, he couldn't sense any frequency.

'Uninitiates are supposed to feel a frequency from a mana core... Why am I sensing only a blurry haze like I have since forever? Aren't I supposed to feel a frequency when I'm uninitiated?'

Time passed, and Xavier continued to try to sense a frequency. He had now formed the conclusion that in terms of talent in this area, he was abysmally bad. Even the most mediocre would take around 10-12 hours, but Xavier was sitting here for 16 hours.

He was getting frustrated, but he knew that such emotion would only make it worse. He kept trying for a long time, and when finally a whole day had passed, Xavier opened his eyes. He had a calm smile on his face as he recalled the fruits of his efforts.

'...I can't sense shit.'