Seconds ticked by, and Michael could almost hear his own heartbeat pounding in his chest. Each student was allocated 30 seconds with the awakening orb; any more time was pointless, as it had been proven over the years.
10 seconds passed.
15 seconds.
20 seconds.
25 seconds…
Just as the teacher prepared to dismiss Michael—whose heart had already sunk into bitterness—the awakening orb under Michael’s hands suddenly emitted a bright light.
Instantly, Michael felt a warm sensation coursing through his body. His mind seemed to clear, and a surge of strength flowed through him. The manifestation that accompanied every new Awakener soon appeared.
A black, gloomy energy swirled around Michael, coating his body, while a dark staff briefly materialised in his hand before everything vanished.
Michael was momentarily stunned by the sudden turn of events, but the voice of the equally surprised teacher brought him back to reality.
“Michael Norman has successfully awakened a class, Necromancer!” the teacher announced.
“Another one?!”
“Necromancer huh? That sounds powerful and maybe a little bit……evil?”
“Be more confident in your speech brother. It’s evil as fuck!”
“Yeah, but as long as I can awaken a class, I wouldn’t even mind if it involved selling my body!”
“Just say you’re horny bro.”
As before, an uproar erupted in the hall, but it was more subdued than the previous two times. It couldn’t be helped—unlike the excitement over Lilian Stone’s unexpected awakening or the amazement at Brian Lian’s transformation into a super-genius, Michael didn’t have much of a presence in the school.
But that wasn’t the case anymore…
Also, only a few of his classmates from Class 3, Section N8, were in the hall, and he recognised even fewer of them. He didn’t personally know any of them.
“Good, good, good,” the teacher in charge of the ceremony said, repeating the word three times in delight. It wasn’t that he knew Michael personally, but rather because a ceremony he had expected to yield no Awakeners had surprisingly produced three.
If none had awakened, he wouldn’t have been surprised—such outcomes were common.
“Come stand beside me and wait,” the teacher gestured for Michael to join the other two Awakeners.
“Yes, teacher.”
Michael nodded, still in a daze, and compiled. Seeing a new comrade, Lilian and Brian both gave him a nod of acknowledgement, which Michael returned.
In truth, Michael’s attention was no longer fully on his surroundings. He could catch bits of what his classmates whispered about him, but he was too preoccupied to care.
His attention was on what had just appeared before his eyes.
A blue, transparent panel floated in front of Michael:
—
[Name: Michael Norman]
[Race: Human]
[Class: Necromancer Apprentice]
[Level: 1]
[EXP: 0/100]
[Strength: 1.3]
[Agility: 1.4]
[Constitution: 1.2]
[Intelligence: 4.5]
[Attribute Points: 0]
[Skills: Undead Summoning, Undead Revival]
[Talent: Infinite Evolution]
[Class Skill: Contract Slot{0/2}]
[Gift: Mark Of Origin]
—
Michael’s mind wasn’t focused on the details displayed on the panel. It was only now that he fully grasped what had just happened.
He had awakened! He had really awakened!
A surge of happiness rushed through him, and his tense shoulders finally relaxed. While this was only the beginning, the most important thing was that he had awakened. No matter what came next, his future now held new possibilities.
Michael let out a deep sigh of relief and turned his attention back to the rest of the Awakening Ceremony.
Only six students remained, and in about four minutes, the ceremony would conclude. Each student would soon return home, left to ponder their future based on the outcome of their awakening.
Now that he no longer felt nervous, Michael’s mind was free to think of other things.
The most important realisation was that he had awakened a class—the Necromancer class.
In truth, Michael knew little about Awakeners and their classes beyond what he had learned in school and from hearsay. What he did know was that classes were generally categorised into three types: Combat, Support, and Lifestyle.
His Necromancer class seemed like a mix of both Combat and Support, but Michael wasn’t entirely sure. Aside from the Knight and Mage classes that were so influential in this world, he knew little about other classes.
The school only taught general knowledge about Awakeners, without going into much depth. Perhaps the higher-ups felt that students who were unlikely to awaken didn’t need to know more and could better use their time studying or cultivating.
It’s also said that if one cultivated before awakening and had talent in it, they could activate a secondary class so cultivation was seen as a good thing overall.
Michael wasn’t sure if limited information was unique to Woodstone Public High School No. 3, but he did know one thing for certain—there was no discrimination between classes.
There was no such thing as an “overly weak” class, as all classes theoretically had no limits. Power depended on the Awakeners themselves. According to the teachers, this even applied to Lifestyle classes like Tailors.
Michael wasn’t sure how true this was, but he figured he’d find out soon enough. After all, he was now an Awakener, someone who should be valued by the government.
Just as Michael sorted out his thoughts and was about to check the panel that had appeared in his mind earlier, the voice of the teacher in charge of the Awakening ceremony caught his attention.
“Okay, that’s it for today. For those of you who failed to awaken, remember that failing to become an Awakener doesn’t mean your futures are bleak. During the early days of the apocalypse, at least half of our ancestors who played a crucial role in our survival and advancement were ordinary people. So what if you didn’t awaken?”
The sad students below the podium heard this, and a wave of motivation surged through them.
Even Michael couldn’t help but be impressed by the teacher’s words. However, he knew that once they left the hall, the harsh reality would soon catch up to them. Perhaps some of the students already understood this, but they needed something to make them feel better at the moment.
One must know that while this world was technically more advanced than Michael’s previous one, it wasn’t all sunshine for the average person.
For example, bankers had long become a thing of the past, along with many other jobs. Only a few establishments still employed people for tasks that machines could do—either because they were too poor or wanted to be “classy,” like some upscale hotels.
Most people in this world live in poverty, barely scraping by with the few jobs available to them.
It was only after arriving in this world that Michael truly understood a saying from his old life: technology can be both a blessing and a curse.
This desperation to escape their current circumstances was one of the reasons why these students so desperately wanted to become Awakeners.
If Michael hadn’t awakened, he would have been on the receiving end of the teacher’s encouragement too. He knew he was truly lucky.
Seeing that his words had resonated with the students, the teacher nodded slightly in satisfaction before speaking again.
“The college exams for both regular colleges and cultivation academies are in three months, so make sure to prepare seriously during this time. Just because you don’t need to come to school again after today doesn’t mean you should slack off, okay?”
“Yes, sir!” the students, including Michael and the two other new Awakeners, responded loudly.
“Alright, you’re dismissed!”
As the students made their way out of the hall, the teacher turned to Michael, Lilian, and Brian.
With a smile, he said, “You three, follow me to the principal’s office.”