Born In Ashes: The Enigma

Azrael and Ashara returned to the living room, where Maelir was still waiting for them.

Seeing the two of them, he smiled and offered, "How about both of you stay here until the academy starts?"

He then turned to look at Azrael. "There are also all the necessary things you'll need to activate your powers here. Since you've already completed your trial, you must be wanting to activate your powers, right?"

Azrael turned to look at Ashara, only to see a thoughtful look on her face.

People could directly absorb a source item to activate their powers. However, because it wasn't easy to absorb source power, most people generally did so with the help of high-level formations.

Azrael and Ashara had originally planned to go to the Awakening Association branch on Planet Arkanis tomorrow to activate his power, but now that Maelir was saying everything Azrael needed was already in his mansion, Ashara began to reconsider.

Although she wasn't afraid of anyone, she still didn't want Azrael to use a precious item like the Heart of Wind in a place she wasn't familiar with.

She knew Maelir very well and trusted him enough to be certain that even if he found out about the Heart of Wind, he wouldn't even think of taking it away from Azrael. Though, of course, she would never tell him outright that she trusted him.

"Thank you, Uncle. We'll do as you said."

Ashara snapped out of her thoughts upon hearing Azrael's voice. She looked at him and saw him looking at her calmly.

After Ashara had told him to ask Maelir for help if he ever ran into trouble at the academy, Azrael became certain that she didn't actually hate Maelir, and even trusted him enough to suggest asking him for his help.

However, knowing his mother's personality, he was sure that since she was acting coldly towards Maelir, she would feel uncomfortable accepting his offer on her own.

So, instead of letting her be the one to respond, he took the initiative and accepted Maelir's offer himself.

'I wonder what happened between them?'

Azrael shook his head inwardly and noticed Maelir smiling warmly after his offer had been accepted.

"Good. I knew both of you were coming here, so your rooms are already prepared."

Ashara raised an eyebrow when she heard Maelir's words. "What do you mean you already knew we were coming here? I don't remember telling anyone about coming to Arkanis for Azrael's admission."

Maelir's face froze for a second upon hearing Ashara's question, but he quickly recovered and returned to his usual calm expression.

"I meant that I already knew you would accept my offer to stay here, so I asked the maids in advance to prepare the rooms while you two were talking earlier."

Ashara looked at Maelir silently for a moment before nodding her head.

Azrael, on the other hand, couldn't help but think about the military-grade scouting device Silas had given him.

Since he hadn't told Ashara about how he had made the Tower Masters fight against each other, he also hadn't revealed the scouting device to her—especially because he felt awkward telling her that he used the scouting ball to spy on Claudia and the others' private deeds.

'Did Father get that scouting device from Maelir and also tell him that we were coming here?'

As this thought came to Azrael's mind, he quickly realized that Silas was likely trying to mend the relationship between Ashara and her family and must have informed Maelir about their arrival in advance so that he would be prepared for them.

'Well, if Father is trying to mend their relationship, then that must mean the Blazehearts don't have any ill intentions toward Mom.'

Thinking this, he glanced at Ashara and Maelir, then shrugged inwardly.

'If that's the case, I'll also try to help Father in what he's doing—if I get the chance.'

Maelir called for a maid and asked her to guide them to their rooms.

Azrael's and Ashara's rooms were next to each other, and both were very neatly decorated, as if someone had put a lot of effort into arranging them just right.

Maelir had a few matters to attend to, so he left after confirming that Azrael and Ashara were satisfied with their rooms.

Some time later, Ashara also went out, saying she needed to buy some auxiliary materials that Azrael would need tomorrow for his class advancement.

Azrael was left alone in his room. He lay on the bed, gazing at the ceiling with a thoughtful look on his face.

After a moment of silence, he opened his status window.

=====

---) Name: Azrael Thorne

---) Age: 16 Years

---) Level: 10 (Peak of Apprentice Warrior)

---) Status: Awakened

---) Traits: Infinite Comprehension (Eternal Grade), Cold Blooded (White Grade — Evolvable)

---) Attribute: None

---) Rune: None

---) Substance: None

---) Title: ??? [Locked]

---) Bloodline: None

---) Strength: 44.3

---) Agility: 41.5

---) Stamina: 45.3

---) Cosmic Energy: 207

---) Skill: Cosmic Energy Breathing Method (Mid Level)

---) Shop

---) Inventory

---) Task Points: 6045

====

When Azrael saw his stat points, a faint smile curved on his lips.

"Looking at the results, all the sh*t I went through during the trial was definitely worth it," He muttered to himself as his eyes landed on the task points.

He thought for a moment before opening the Shop to see if there was anything useful for him.

Now that he suspected the abnormality of his status window might be related to Eonrift—a place full of treasure and the origin of many of the shop's items—his wariness toward those items had decreased considerably.

Most of the high-level items people possessed came from Eonrift, and since the items in the shop might also originate from there, he figured they shouldn't be harmful.

Azrael browsed through the shop, finding several items that were both affordable and suitable for him.

He took a mental note of all the items he thought could be useful and decided to buy one of them after activating his power and awakening his class tomorrow.

*****

The next day, Azrael woke up fully refreshed, feeling as though all the fatigue that had built up during his time inside Eonrift had completely vanished from his body.

"I can finally activate my powers today and get a class," He muttered, stretching his body a bit before leaving the room.