World Evolution

Chapter 4: Leaving

To Hans and the others who had come with him, it was not surprising that four people had directly failed their awakening.

They quickly cleared the formation, allowing the next five people to step onto the platform and undergo the Awakening Ceremony.

The five lines moved extremely fast, with one batch of five people going through their awakening every fifteen seconds.

As more and more people underwent their awakening, the anxiety Ethan was feeling continued to grow as he realized that the failure rate was extremely high.

Out of the five hundred people who had already gone through the awakening, only about sixty had successfully awakened an Aspect, and even among those sixty, all of them had awakened only low-level Aspects.

One of those people had awakened a fire Aspect from the Elemental Aspects.

However, it was an extremely low-level fire Aspect, something only useful for replacing a lighter.

Although Aspects could be strengthened further through cultivation, the upper limit of such a low-level Aspect was not high, and it was very difficult for it to evolve or grow stronger.

The five lines continued to move forward, and soon it was Ethan's turn to step onto the platform.

'Just don't fail the awakening. As long as I awaken an Aspect and that thing successfully works, I will have a chance to leave this place and go further.'

Ethan took a deep breath to calm his racing heart, which felt as though it might leap out of his chest at any moment, and walked toward the formation.

Just like before, Hans reminded the five participants not to leave the formation during the awakening and then activated the formation.

As the formation was activated, an itching sensation spread across Ethan's entire body, making him feel as though countless ants were crawling over his skin.

Ignoring the itching sensation, he focused all of his attention on the sharp, burning pain coming from his heart.

It felt as though a strange energy was gathering there.

'Don't fail... don't fail.'

He prayed inwardly as cold sweat trickled down his forehead.

Suddenly, Ethan felt as if the strange energy gathering in his heart contracted, and a warm sensation spread throughout his entire body.

Even the pain in his swollen left arm decreased to some extent, as if he had taken a strong painkiller.

As the warm sensation spread through his body, Ethan clearly felt that his physical strength was increasing.

Although the degree of enhancement was not very large, it was still noticeable.

In just two seconds, the warm sensation that enveloped Ethan's body disappeared.

At the same time, a small phantom image of a red-furred ape with crimson eyes appeared behind him.

As the image appeared, a status window which every person awakened after undergoing the ceremony also appeared before Ethan's eyes.

However, he did not examine it carefully because he first had to leave the formation.

"Rage Ape..."

Hans raised his eyebrows slightly when he saw the phantom ape behind Ethan, but he was not particularly shocked.

Unlike ordinary beasts, the Rage Ape was considered a monster.

However, it was only a low-rank monster and could not be considered powerful even among low-rank monsters.

In simple terms, this Aspect was only slightly better than ordinary Aspects, nothing particularly remarkable.

Ethan did not care whether the Aspect he had awakened was good or bad.

He was simply happy that he had successfully awakened an Aspect and that his awakening had not failed.

"Alright, move quickly."

Ethan came back to his senses upon hearing Hans's voice and immediately stepped out of the formation.

As he moved away from the formation, one of the people standing nearby handed him a book.

"It's a basic Primal Energy cultivation book. Now that you have awakened, you can perceive the Primal Energy around you and cultivate," the man said calmly before waving his hand, signaling Ethan to leave.

Ethan thanked the man and quickly moved away from the central platform.

He did not immediately try to sense the Primal Energy around him, nor did he open the book to read it.

Instead, he stepped aside and finally looked at his status window.

=== ---) Name: Ethan ---) Rank: Unranked ---) Aspect: Rage Ape (Spirit Aspect) ---) Talent: None ---) Skill: Rage

Ethan's status window was very simple, with nothing particularly remarkable about it.

The rank section on the status window represented a person's level.

Because Ethan had just awakened and had not yet started cultivating, his rank was currently listed as unranked.

His gaze paused on the Talent section, and his heart stirred slightly.

During awakening, there was a chance that a person would awaken a Talent as well, but this possibility was extremely low.

'Will that thing work?' Ethan wondered to himself before shifting his gaze toward the skill he had received.

=== ---) Rage: Upon activation, the user enters a frenzied state, increasing the user's physical stats to a certain extent.

It was a simple skill, but Ethan could not help feeling happy when he saw it.

Although the skill was straightforward, it was extremely practical and could help him survive in dangerous situations.

'Time to go back and see if that thing really works.'

Even though he was excited, Ethan knew what was more important, so he did not waste any time and immediately decided to go back.

He closed his status window and, after taking one last look at the ongoing Awakening Ceremony, silently walked away.

As he moved, Ethan could feel that his body was at least ten percent stronger than before, mainly because of the Rage Ape Aspect.

Every Aspect provided a different kind of enhancement, and the Rage Ape mainly increased physical strength.

Although he had not yet started cultivating and still had no rank, the awakening of the Aspect had already provided him with some benefits.

About twenty minutes later, Ethan was close to his home.

"Holy crap! What the hell is that thing?!"

Suddenly, he heard a loud exclamation nearby.

Ethan quickly turned his head, only to freeze in shock.

"That's... someone has awakened a very powerful Treasure Aspect," he muttered in a low voice, looking at the distance.

In the distance, a gigantic phantom of a spear hung high in the sky.

Unlike the small phantom of the Rage Ape that had appeared behind Ethan during his awakening, the phantom of the towering spear was truly enormous, so large that Ethan could clearly see it even from such a great distance.

A sharp, piercing aura radiated from the spear, as if it could pierce through anything in its path, pointing directly toward the heavens.

Ethan could not help pursing his lips, feeling a trace of jealousy as he stared at the towering spear.

'What's the point of feeling jealous? It won't make my Aspect stronger, will it?'

He shook his head and began walking toward his house again.

However, after witnessing that powerful Aspect, the joy he had felt after awakening his own Aspect had decreased by half.

Human nature was very complicated.

Sometimes, your own failures did not make you feel as miserable as someone else's success.

Feeling somewhat down, Ethan soon reached his home.

Entering his house, without wasting a single moment, he picked up an iron hammer.

He intended to dig out the thing that he had hidden three years ago.