'Where am I...'
Opening his eyes, Zane was surrounded by an unknown, but strangely familiar environment.
He looked around with indifference. It was a small compartment. The walls were painted light-grey and it was quite simple. He was sitting on the bed in the corner of the room. On the other side of the room, there was a wooden door, which was painted white. Next to his bed, he noticed a small night-stand, barely big enough to be able to accommodate a book. Opposite to the door, there was a window, through which he could only see another building, around 10 meters away. There also stood a desk and a scrawny plastic chair in the room.
'I reckon those guys brought me back to the Shelter.' Zane thought, while scratching the back of his head.
But he had better things to think about. First of all, his awakened ability. He sat up straight. He heard before that awakened ones have cores, which was likely created for him when he felt that pulverizing pain in his chest.
Closing his eyes and focusing on that exact point, he could sense, and strangely see his core. It was a dark shade of purple. The tier of a Valiant was based on their core's colour. There were six tiers, and each had a different colour. The tiers and their colours were: Awakened - purple, Ascendant - blue, Exalted - green, Champion - orange, Prime - yellow, Paragon - silver.
As you progressed through each tier, the colour of your core would turn from a darker shade to a lighter shade, so to go from Awakened to Ascendant, you would grow from dark purple to light purple, which then would turn blue, repeating the process, until you reached the most advanced state, where your silver core would fade into white.
So far, the most advanced human has only reached the Ascended tier, which could be considered a fairly quick advance, just 2 years after the apocalypse started and Valiants first appeared. The first one was named Arthur, who supposedly had the ability to control electricity, ruled Castle Nathril to the West. Perrington, the city Zane was residing in, was in the Southern part of the continent.
Zane knew two ways through which you could cultivate your energy core. The first one was by killing something and shattering their core, whether it be human or zombie, it didn't matter, and the second one was by a weird kind of meditation.
'Alright, let's try this cultivation meditation stuff.'
With closed eyes, he expanded his awareness throughout his whole body.
A few moments later, there were tiny dust-like sources of purple light scattered all around his body. Illuminating his body, the tiny specks of sparks were like a myriad of stars on the night sky, with his core shining darkly in the middle. The spectacle was enchanting. He was off the opinion that it was strangely mesmerised.
Next, he tried to gather all those tiny specks into his core.
It was much harder than it seemed at first. You had to focus on your entire body, while creating a whirlpool of awakened energy, which would then assemble all those tiny sparks of purple light in your energy core. By the time you amassed them, new ones would materialise.
This way, you could go on for as long as you were able to.
Another thing you had to pay close attention to was your breathing, since the sparks of light would only draw closer to your energy core while you were inhaling. This meant you had to keep a steady rhythm of inhalation and exhalation.
After a few minutes passed of this meditation, Zane had a few drops of sweat running down his face.
"I would've never thought I'll sweat from meditation one day." Said Zane after a long exhale.
To his surprise though, he felt a tad bit lighter than before. He couldn't really grasp whether he physically got stronger or not. Perhaps if he did it longer he would notice
"Now, for the main event. This should be interesting."
Recalling the sensation of using his power, he gave it a shot again. However, this time instead of just gathering the energy in his palm, and directing it outward, he channeled it only a few centimetres away from his palm.
Slowly, a few glassful of viscous crimson liquid emerged from thin air, floating in a rough shaped ball.
"WOAH! So cool!" With a wide grin on his face, he almost jumped in excitement.
Zane tried to summon more, but he was just drained. He could now only kinda keep the rough shape of a ball. As a last effort, he tried to make a weapon out of it. He tried to copy his own dagger, and well, it turned out shorter, and a bit peculiar. It had a few dents on the blade, but it was relatively similar. If he wished to better imitate it, he needed more blood, which either meant getting stronger to summon more, or having blood in the environment.
He was getting a bit exhausted, so the last thing he did was hardening the weapon in his hand. Similar to before, the blood started coagulating and a few moments later it was harder than blood should ever be able to be. The crimson dagger looked menacing in his hands.
After finishing the process and completely hardening it, he actually didn't need to exert any more energy to into it.
After giving it a few thrusts and slashes, he put down the dagger on his night-stand , and plopped down on his bed.
"I wish I could summon more blood... Still, this doesn't look half bad to me." Noted Zane, as he fantasised about what else could his ability be capable of as he grew stronger.
"Like reversing the blood-flow in the arteries of my enemy, killing him without a single notice. Out of nowhere, thud, and he just collapses." Zane frantically giggled.
However, a loud gurgling sound disrupted his daydreaming, which came from his stomach. Remembering that he hasn't eaten in a day, he quickly hid the crimson weapon under his bed, and took the original one with him. He still had other matters to think about, but he decided to leave those after he fulfilled his appetite. Stepping out of the room, he scanned the surroundings.
He guessed he was in the right-wing in the above ground part of the Shelter.
"I hope I'll get to the cafeteria before the end of breakfast." Said Zane as he started walking towards the cafeteria.
The Shelter had two parts, one above and one below ground. The mundane survivor who were just here for the food and accommodation were placed in the above ground rooms. These people mostly did the chores, like cleaning and cooking. The more important places, like the storages, cafeteria and the rooms of Valiants and people who were part of the scavenging groups or had useful skills were underground.
'Nothing changed here since a year ago.' He observed.
Looking around, he saw the mundane humans just passing their time and doing chores with a slight inert expression on their faces. There were around 300 people in the Shelter, of which 25 or so were Valiants. Most people who lived in the Shelter were Conformists. They are content with their situation, since some Valiants hunt and scavenge food for them, so they don't bother fighting against Strugglers.
Another reason for his antipathy was that he was rather an Iconoclast.
Iconoclasts were the people who wanted to take back control over the continent and erase all Strugglers. There were probably some in the Shelter, but most of them lived in the Castles. After the apocalypse, many humans established themselves in the old Castles that were still standing. The closest one was Castle Cadine, around 10km in North-West direction from Perrington.
As he walked through the corridors, he assessed that he didn't like this place one bit.
Although, that quickly changed. Stepping foot into the cafeteria, his mouth immediately started watering. He was completely mesmerised by the magnificent smell of roasted meat, which he hasn't eaten in a year. He was consuming only canned and preserved stuff which he could find in the supermarkets, so he couldn't wait to devourer some real food. Zane was a real sucker for good food. This was honestly the only reason that almost made him give up on living in the city.
'Actually, this place isn't so bad after all...'
As he swiftly approached the serving counter, he noticed a some familiar faces.