The Ancient Genes

13th November, 3031 of Mana Calendar. The day when everything changed.

It was the day when Max, the main character of our story, got the biggest shock of his life. He still remembered that day as if it happened yesterday. Every second of it was etched in his very soul.

It was the day of the Awakening Ceremony.

Standing in the awakening hall, with numerous gazes on him, he marched forward with strong steps and a confident expression on his face. When he reached near the stage, he looked back to see his father and mother waving him a thumbs up while his little sister was also imitating their action and had a cheerful smile on her face.

Smiling at them, he joined the queue on the stage and waited for his turn along with his childhood buddy, Mark, a skinny guy with glasses and a pure otaku.

"Hey, Mark, which Element do you think I will awaken?" He couldn't help but ask in anticipation.

"Who knows, you might awaken a super-strong Element. After all, your parents are among the strongest mages on the continent ". Mark replies while adjusting his glasses, an action that he always performs before going on a rampage.

"And stop asking such questions, do you want me to sing a song on the potential that you have inherited through your parent's genes, you lucky bastard! Who in this continent hasn't heard of them. Your father, Sir Zackmen, also known as the Holy Devil and his epic fight with ten thousand Mana Beasts in the Valley of Death, the wielder of one of the rarest elements, the Light Element. Your mother, Lady Lithiya, also a Beast Tamer and a wielder with very high affinity with nature magic. Even her tales of ach-".

" Stop! Stop! Look— look at that guy! He has awakened the Water Element!" Max diverted his attention towards someone taking the test.

"Hm... never thought he would awaken the Water Element with his temperament. But the light of the crystal is dim. He doesn't have a strong affinity with his element." Mark made his comments.

"Next, Mark Zatch "

As soon as the voice called him out, Mark stepped up for his test.

Max could see him sweating on his forehead from nervousness.

To be frank, Max didn't have many expectations from him. It's not that he looked down on him or anything; it's the same reason Mark gave him a while ago. His parents were commoners with weaker elements and less affinity. It was very rare to see a person with such a background awaken a strong element, and the opposite of it, for a person with a strong background awakening a weak element is even rarer.

Mark placed his trembling hands on the crystal, and as expected, a dim yellow light flashed on the crystal.

Two streams of tears rolled down Mark's face. Even Max couldn't help but feel a pain seeing his expression, he stepped forward to console him, but before he could comfort Mark, he heard a voice,

"Next, Max Edwinson ".

Mark rubbed his eyes with one hand and gave him a thumbs up with the other while trying to stretch out a smile on his face.

Walking towards the crystal, Max put forward his hand out and a blinding light shined across the stage. He felt power surging within him.

But before he could figure out anything, he heard a soft and cute voice.

"Brother, wake up!"

He turned towards the instructor beside the crystal, who repeated himself in the same soft and cute voice.

"Brother, wake up!"

Suddenly, Max felt something hit his chest, and the pain overwhelmed him. He groaned in pain, and suddenly, he opened his eyes wide. He found himself on the bed with his five-year-old little sister sitting on his chest.

"Lilly! What are you doing? Get off of me." Max shouted in anger, mostly due to the pain.

"Mom asked me to wake you up. I tried everything....to....w..wake...y...you...up..but..you didn't ". She starts stuttering as tears fill her eyes.

"No! No! Your brother is wrong for shouting here; it's not Lilly's fault, Lilly's a good girl." He patted her on the head and tried coaxing her to stop crying.

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"Lilly, why don't you go downstairs? Now that I am up, I need to get fresh." With that, Max lifted Lilly up from the bed and put her on the floor.

Seeing Lilly walkout, He let out a groan while rubbing his chest. Ah! That really hurt!

Max moved his head to stretch, but in doing so, his gaze fell on the wall clock. He rubbed his eyes to see if he wasn't seeing anything wrong. After realising that he wasn't dreaming, he couldn't help but curse in his mind.

'Damn it!'

He got off of the bed and ran towards the bathroom with a towel in one hand and clothes in the other. He couldn't be late for the Awakening Ceremony.

In the Continent of Mistellin, where magic reigned supreme, the Awakening Ceremony was one of the most critical parts in a person's life. It was the moment when legends were made.

The 31st century of the Mana calendar was the peak of the current era. Stronger than ever. Both in terms of Magic and in terms of technology.

After getting ready, he headed downstairs, and had breakfast with his family as usual and then everyone set out towards his school for the Awakening Ceremony.

Reaching the Awakening ceremony hall and looking around, he felt a sense of deja vu. As he roamed about, he found the scene very similar to his dream.

He then met up with Mark. Remembering his expression from the dream, he wondered whether he should stop Mark from participating in the Ceremony. But realising that Mark needed to face the truth, he held back the urge.

And the scene continued to follow his dream. But something odd happens when he asked Mark, "Hey Mark, which element do you think I will awaken?"

The reply this time was a bit different, and he started feeling uneasy for some reason when he heard it, "Who knows, you might awaken a super-strong element or....you might not even awaken at all." Mark said the first part normally, while he rolled his eyes in the second part and then he went on with his rampage, and the scene continued.

Although his answer was a bit different, Max didn't take it seriously, after all, earlier one was only a dream, and there is no way a person won't awaken anything, even the animals in this continent have an elemental affinity of varying degrees.

"Next, Mark Zatch"

He heard the instructor's voice, and sadness filled his eyes. He sent Mark away with a complicated feeling, not knowing what to do.

While he was busy in his thoughts on how to console Mark, a blinding fiery red light flashes, drew everyone's gaze towards the crystal.

What!? How is this possible? Even though he was feeling happy for Mark, his feelings of unease increased.

Something was wrong; this was his gut feeling.

"Whoa! look that kid, he awakened the Fire Element ".

"The light from the crystal is so strong."

"His affinity with fire is very high."

"Looks like we have witnessed the birth of a legend!"

For some reason, Mark started hearing all these voices. He looked around but didn't find the students in the queue talking.

Hub!

Hub!

The noisy situation continued, and he felt himself burning up.

'What's wrong with me?' He looked at his trembling hands. He felt drained for some reason.

Feeling an ominous foreboding, He decided to leave the hall. But as soon as he turned, a voice among the numerous voices caught his attention.

"Next, Max Edwinson ".

He saw his parents and Lilly, giving him a thumbs-up, just as they did in his dream. But this time, he could hear their soft voices even from a distance in the hall.

"Good luck Max."

Seeing things turning out this way, he decided to take it to the end. He walked towards the Awakening crystal, and the instructor stated the instructions in a clear voice.

"Place your hand on the crystal, and try to feel the energy. Try to interact with it ".

At that moment, he felt he should have listened to his instincts, but he didn't and put forward his trembling hand towards the awakening crystal.

He touched the crystal and tried to interact with the energy. But he only felt the cold and lifeless piece of crystal with his hands. And time passed by slowly.

...

.....

.....

.....

"Ah! I think the crystal broke after the previous test. Ryan, come and change the crystal." The Instructor spoke after about 30 seconds, and a man came with another crystal in his hands.

Max looked at the new crystal and placed his sweaty hands on it.

....

....

...

....

After a minute, he heard the voice of the instructor among the numerous voices who seemed to be curious about the situation.

"Try to concentrate," The instructor said with a confused look on his face.

But nothing happened even after a minute. Max felt his dreams shatter with each passing moment.

And the voices in his ears increased.

"OMG!! look, I haven't heard of anyone failing to awaken."

"Whoa! look another legend is being born, ha...ha...".

The voices kept on chiming in and he couldn't stop them even if that was the second most thing he wanted to do right now. Failing to hear the voices he wanted to listen to the most, he turned to look towards his parents and saw them looking towards him with a complicated gaze. He was unable to discern their feelings.

He got off the stage under numerous stares and mocking laughter.

All through the way back home, his parents didn't mention anything to him. They reacted like nothing was wrong.

A few days passed after he had become a topic of discussion. Although no one said anything on his face, his godly ears made his life miserable. He only had Mark with him, who tried to cheer him up.

A few more days passed, and he started using headphones to avoid hearing any unnecessary things. But after a month, he couldn't take it anymore. He didn't care about others. He just wanted to listen to it from his parents. They kept behaving as if nothing was wrong. They even forgot about their promise to let him visit his grandpa.

Was he such a big disappointment to them? Unable to continue with his life, he walked up the stairs to the terrace of the six-storey school building. He grabbed the railings with both his hands to take a look down.

Seeing the height, a fear struck him. But a thought kept revolving in his mind.

'Can I live in this world? Am I even qualified if the world itself is rejecting me?'

Steeling his resolve and with a hope of a good next life, he stepped on the railing.

"Wait! Hold up, Kid! Don't jump!" A voice came which gave him a scare, and made him slip back to the floor on his butt.

"You! What in the hell did you think you were doing? You almost made my one month of hard work go puff!" He saw an old man standing behind him, shouting at him.

Looking at him, he couldn't help but ask "Are you a cultivator?" It can't be blamed on him. This old man with a wrinkled face, just look at him, white hair and a long beard. And that sword hanging around his waist.

"What are you talking about? I am not a cultivator.", He paused before continuing in a deep voice "I am a God."

'Pfft!'

"Sorry, please continue." Max looked at the old man who was staring at him with a stern gaze.

"You don't believe me, do you?" He asked.

"Don't feel bad, I can't help it. If you said you were a cultivator, I might have been fooled. But a God, don't you think you are overdoing it?" Max replied, trying to hold back his laughter.

"I would have loved to explain everything to you, but I have already wasted too much time on finding you. So I would like to get to the main topic ".

Without giving him a chance to respond, the old man continued, "A long time ago there was an era when Demonic beasts ruled the land. Humans were at the bottom of the food chain. But there was one man who refused to submit to his fate of the weakest and rebelled against heaven. That was his and humanity's first step towards the top of the world. But it wasn't easy, after countless years of training and battle, he finally developed a method that gave humans the power to fight the demonic beasts. The power of 'Flow'. The path towards Godhood ".

Hearing him, Max couldn't help but curse in his mind.

'Damn it, in the end, he admitted to being a cultivator. 'Godhood' my ass, ain't that all the same?'

"And finally the ruler of the Demonic Beasts, the Heavenly Demon Vacaria, was sealed by that man. But the cost of the battle was too much for any side to bear. As a result, both the humans and demons of that era vanished. While the few remaining ascended to Godhood ". He paused for a second as a look of reminiscence appeared on his face.

"But we underestimated the Heavenly Demon. After we ascended to Godhood, the demons emerged again. And the fight continued. But with our help, humans of the new era were able to resist them. And the seal was protected. After the end of the last era, the demons never appeared again. And the next era, the Mage era thrived." He turns to look towards me.

"But a few days ago, there was a huge surge of demonic energy from the seal, signifying the weakening of the seal. It looks like all these years, he has gotten stronger and has been working on destroying the seal. And when the energy got out of the seal, it led to some changes in the world."

Finding the old man's tale amusing, Max couldn't help but ask, "What happened then?"

"Some humans reacted to this demonic energy and their genes, realising the threat, awakened in an attempt to fight. Although there were a few who awakened, only 5 awakened the 'Ancient Gene'. The gene of the first Human God. So, now as the carrier of the genes of that man, they have to stop Vacaria or else humanity will end up at the bottom of the food chain again, and this peace will be destroyed." He ended his story.

"And you are one of them." He speaks in a deep voice.

"Hm... why don't you stop him, aren't you a god?" Max asked him for fun.

"There are some things you won't understand until you have a certain level of strength. Just think that I can only give you my blessing and can't interfere anymore." He replied.

" Ha..ha..you are still maintaining your character. You don't need to do it anymore, old man. I won't commit suicide. I don't have the courage to do it anymore." Max spoke, shaking his head.

"I am serious, kid, hurry up and receive my blessing, I need to find the other four too." He spoke as veins bulged on his forehead.

" Ah! Sorry, I get it." He moved forward while handing out a note of 10 zen from his wallet.

Seeing his face getting red, Max couldn't help but say "Old man, even though your story was pretty good, I can't give you more than this only for a basic introduction."

"Kids these days. It looks like I need to prove myself. A few days ago, your genes awakened. You must have awakened some kind of supernatural ability." His words froze Max.

After a while, a realisation struck him. It made him spew out curses from his mouth, "Wait...WAIT!!! YOU ARE TELLING ME THAT IT WAS YOUR GOD DAMN FAULT THAT I HAD TO GO THROUGH SUCH SUFFERING UP UNTIL NOW. GOD DAMN IT, I WAS EVEN ABOUT TO COMMIT SUICIDE! YOU ARE FUCKING KIDDING ME!!"

"Looks like I need to discipline you as your senior." The old man had had enough, as he balled his hands into a fist.

With that, Max only saw a fist heading towards him. And the next thing he knew was his world had now turned upside down along with a DING sound ringing in his head, and after that, he lost his consciousness.