After testing out his strength, Miles decided to head back home and make plans for the future.
He knew the most important thing of all else was to get some of these stones.
The stones will allow him to get stronger and depending on how many he gets he could be able to beat some people who have gifts.
Even with no magical capabilities, Miles was no longer upset about earlier. He had his sights set on the future and how he would get himself stronger.
Hand-to-hand combat was always Miles's preferred fighting style even if he still sucked at it, the fighting style still felt more natural.
Dranmir, Miles's favourite hero, was said to focus on hand-to-hand combat and likely had a placebo effect on him.
Tales were told that Dranmir could destroy small mountains with a single punch and that he was so fast no one could land a hit on him.
This had always been the favourite hero of Miles.
Many people had always laughed at Miles for believing the tales of heroes and thought that it was too insane for anyone to have that power.
They assumed the heroes were exaggerated for entertainment purposes, but Miles never believed that.
He always thought that they were real and were just as strong as they were told.
Thinking about how much he loved these heroes he arrived home and made his way to his room.
As he was entering his room his parents called out to him.
"Hey Superstar, how was the ceremony? I want to hear all about it."
Hearing his parents so excited, sadness built up inside of him.
He knew it was no use hiding it, so he went on to explain everything that happened. He conveniently left out the forest and gained improved stats leaving his parents thinking he got rejected.
"Maybe it is a gift that will develop later that's why it shone black." His parents tried to make him feel better and cheer him up.
He felt relieved they didn't change and still loved him just the same.
"It's okay, I am not too upset and might just have some time in my room," Miles said before hugging them both and heading to his room.
Now it was time to plan.
Unsure if he would be taken to a gifted school given what happened, he still planned on it happening.
It was explained to all those who go through the processes of mana awakening would get a 2-week break. This was to allow for each person's body to fully adapt to the changes and relax before getting thrown into more work.
They are given 2 weeks to get everything done that they want before they head to Calvoth and attend a gifted school.
This gifted school is already pre-chosen and all students are forced to go to it.
Miles suspected this was to keep a much closer eye on the kids so they could control them and make sure they didn't have an uprising.
It's not like he minded, he just wanted to get stronger, so strong that he could do as he pleased.
After the two weeks, a bus will pick up all the students and they will be given new clothes books and other resources for the school year ahead.
This gave Miles 2 weeks to become as strong as he possibly could. He wanted more rocks, and he wanted them fast.
This was his one chance to get strong and he wasn't going to blow it.
Tomorrow his grinding would begin.
------
Standing up Dean and Marta stretched with their arms above their heads while making eye contact across the room. It had been a long ceremony and they needed a break.
They walked over to each other and clearly both of them were worried about Miles and how he was reacting.
They were obviously very excited to test out their new gift and how it would work but wanted to make sure their friend was okay first.
As they looked around, they couldn't find him anywhere.
Looking for 5 minutes around the place they still couldn't find him and thought he must have gone home.
They decided they would go past his house to check up on him.
However, upon arrival, he couldn't be seen at all. No one answered the door and nothing looked like it was moving inside.
"I guess he isn't here and maybe needs some alone time," Marta said as they walked away.
"Yeah, I guess so. Wanna try out our gifts at my place anyway?" Dean responded now getting a bit excited.
"Sure, sounds good."
And with that, they headed to Dean's place.
Dean, the wealthiest of the three of them had a training studio. It wasn't gigantic but it was still great to train in.
The walls were made of stone with natural light at the front and back and certain places on the roof.
In the middle was a matted floor to spar on with some training equipment around it.
They both headed into the middle mats to practice which was around 15 meters in length and width.
Compared to real training studios this one was quite small especially since gifted people required more room to have proper fights.
Dean went straight to the wall and grabbed his favourite katana getting in a fighting stance in the middle of the matted area.
He started moving the katana in certain patterns, it started slowly and gradually increased in speed. Activating his gift, the movement sped up quickly, and now, not even the natural human eye could discern the blurred movements.
For Dean, this was the most beautiful he had ever made and felt in complete control. He felt like power was surging through him and that he could take down anyone. His speed far surpassed anything close to what he was before.
This wasn't surprising though given some purple was seen on his sphere at the awakening ceremony.
While this was happening, Marta was trying to transform. This time she wanted to transform her arms and legs as they would seem to be the most important when fighting.
Concentrating, Marta's arms and legs seemed to grow hair except the transformation didn't quite go as planned. She was waiting for them to turn into wolf's arms and legs and needing to drop to all fours like a regular wolf.
For an unknown reason, she seemed to stand fine and even her arms and legs grew a lot muscular.
This wasn't what she was expecting and when Dean looked over, he thought the same thing.
'Maybe it's not a wolf transformation' they both thought simultaneously
------
Tomorrow morning couldn't arrive fast enough for Miles as he left the house in a hurry.
He knew there was a risk to his life with the beasts out there, but he felt much faster and stronger thereby decreasing his chances of being in danger.
This was going to be his plan for the next few days and hopefully gain some more treasures.
The first three hours were gruelling, and he was praying that he would be able to find some or any stones.
He was hoping he was unlucky last time, and he would find many stones today but had yet to find one.
'Maybe I was the lucky one yesterday,' Miles thought as he continued searching.
The forest was a hard terrain to cross given he wasn't very strong yet. He was just a bit stronger than before the energy was absorbed.
This put a strain on his body and muscles and made him need to take more frequent breaks.
As he continued to walk for the next half an hour, he got that feeling once more.
'YESSSSS' Miles screamed inside his mind.
He wasn't going to scream outside and alert the beasts to his position.
'I almost thought I lost my ability to sense it.'
He quickly made his way over to the spot he felt the pull from and there it was. Another rock just slightly larger than yesterday lying in the grass.
With zero hesitation, the rock was grabbed and placed in his bag.
He decided to continue his search and absorb it when he returned home where he knew he would be safe.
In the end, he wouldn't be able to do anything if a beast ate him while trying to absorb the crystal.
Walking around for the following few hours, he found no more stones. He decided it would be best to head back before he got too tired and wouldn't be able to escape from the beasts.
After a full day of searching fortunately no beasts were spotted and only one stone was found.
This stone was now placed in front of him with his hand reached out. He closed his eyes and entered the space where he could feel the energy.
This time the energy felt a lot larger and denser. Unbeknownst to him, some of the energy of the last rock helped him escape the beast by giving him more power.
With so much more energy inside the rock, he reached out in his mind and it happened again.
The rush of power through his body was exhilarating. His muscles felt stronger, he could think clearer, sounds were more distinct.
He loved this feeling and was hoping he would be able to continue to improve.
As all the energy left the rock and went into him over a couple of minutes there was one more thing that caught his eye.
Looking up in his vision there was a different number this time.