Reincarnated as a Doomed Extra

On our modest dining table, Solon and I sat opposite each other.

The cold night air entered through the window and caressed our bodies. After I Awakened, my senses had sharpened, making me feel it more clearly, although I didn't even feel cold.

How contradictory…

I looked at Solon, who was looking at me with a mixture of confusion and happiness on his face, before he asked me with palpable excitement, "Your body… how is it now? Do you feel healthy? Better than before?"

Previously, after he threw a huge amount of questions at me about how I Awakened, I felt the need to give him some of the truth to make things normal as they were.

I started by telling him how I - Selas, had been meditating a lot in the past, which he already knew, which helped me. After I discovered from the memories and Solon's reaction that Selas hadn't told anyone about his inability to see mana, things became smoother.

In fact, Solon didn't know how much effort Selas was putting into his desperate attempt to Awaken. He was trying harder than Solon himself even.

After finishing explaining that to him, I told him what happened today without much detail. How I woke up about an hour before him before I came to help him.

I didn't even want to imagine his reaction if I told him what really happened…

And thinking about the evil entity that might inhabit my body now, I have a plan to deal with it soon enough.

I'll make it regret the moment it inhabited my body, but we had to survive this first.

I shrugged and replied, "Much better than before. I'll be able to move freely and maybe even train."

In fact, I didn't want to do anything more than train now, and I'd drag Solon by force to train if I had to. I didn't know how much time was left until the damned event began, so I felt like there was a guillotine hanging over my head from the stress.

"Really? It's really good to hear that. You've been trapped in your room most of the time, it's good to know that you'll be free now." Solon spoke with a bright smile on his face.

Ah, so bright… Who will tell him that everyone will die soon…?

I shook my head. "Now that I've Awakened, what will you do?"

"Hmm? What will I do now? We'll celebrate, of course! Do you know how great what happened today is?! The whole village will be happy when they hear the news!" He shouted excitedly like a little child full of energy.

What he said about telling others about my Awakening made me panic. I leaned towards him and grabbed his shoulders. "Hell no! You won't tell anyone about this, do you understand?"

"Eh? But why is that?" He tilted his head innocently, surprised by my question.

Well, there was no doubt that my request was strange, but I couldn't help it. I hated being in the spotlight as my former self and as Selas!

What would happen if Solon told them about my awakening was more like a nightmare than a celebration!

I sighed. "Listen, Solon. It's okay to say that I've recovered somehow, but don't you dare say that I've Awakened… do you understand?" I looked at him with scrutinizing eyes. I knew his tongue was very loose after all, so I needed to instill that in his head.

"Umm, okay. I'll just say you've recovered, but can you at least tell me why you're doing this?" he asked with a dissatisfied pout.

With the attitude of a responsible older brother, I patted his head and spoke with pity, "You'll know when you grow up, little brother. You're still too young to understand."

"…"

Solon froze and his jaw dropped in shock before he let out a hearty laugh and replied with amusement, "Hahaha. Okay, big brother~"

For some reason, my chest puffed out and my chin lifted when he called me big brother. In a moment of recklessness, I spoke grand words with confidence, "Don't worry, from now on, you will rely entirely on your older brother. Now, don't slack off because you've Awakened and go train!"

"Okay, okay."

However, I pushed Solon away to see his "Status" on the screen and went into the kitchen to get the food he left for me and indulged in a delicious meal as usual.

✦

"Fooo…"

I let out a long sigh as I cleared my mind and recalled information from the game about the life cycle of an Awakened.

For an Awakened, forming the core was the hardest part. Of course, this didn't apply to nobles and the wealthy, as they were able to easily buy cores to help them awaken quickly; this part was about us who were building our cores over the years.

"How unfair… Why does it take us so long while they can do it faster and easier?"

Again, this world was unfair to me.

My only consolation was that no one was able to form his core before the age of fifteen, due to the weakness of the human body.

Anyway, in addition to what was said earlier, there was a risk of disabling yourself while forming your core. Yes, a truly permanent disability.

Although it was a rare occurrence and often happened to people who were trying to break through to a higher rank, it still happened to those trying to form their core.

Just imagine working tirelessly for many years to elevate yourself as a person in this world with twisted rules, only for luck to coldly raise its middle finger at you, ignoring all the effort you put in. Frustrating, isn't it?

It's really good that I got past this…

Now after awakening, for an awakened person to break through to the next rank, they need to dismantle their core from the inside and rebuild it from the outside. Literally.

But to explain the process more simply, the awakened one pushes the mana accumulated inside the core on the walls of the core completely, which in turn hollows it out further and expands the space in which they can store mana.

At the same time that the awakened one is hollowing out the walls of the core, they must form additional layers from outside the core so that the process does not fail and they disable themselves.

In case the awakened person hollowed out the core too much more than building enough layers from the outside to restrain the mana inside, boom would happen inside them and their journey as an awakened person would officially end.

This was the most common case where an awakened person disables themselves. There are a lot of fools who rush to get power after all.

Otherwise, the term talent here was somewhat natural. Talent here didn't determine who would stop at any rank or something like that, but rather branched out into who was talented in manipulating mana, creating spells, mastering elements, weapon arts, bloodline purity, and more.

And these factors were what indirectly determined the rank at which the awakened one might stop or the difficulty they might face in breaking through to the next rank.

But in general, there were areas for everyone to shine in.

That's how this world worked.

As someone who had played the game, I was inclined to start creating and structuring spells, which in turn would maximize my control over my elements, both in terms of efficiency and mana flow.

Fortunately, my physique gave me a strong foothold in terms of mana flow in my darkness and frost elements. Water was a basic element and it was easy to deal with, so I'll leave it for now.

Now, I had no choice but to let my body slowly regain its strength until I became able to start training it…

After a moment of thinking, I stood up from the bed and decided to try doing some exercises to test my body's limits.

'Okay, what about a simple push-up…'

I stood over a clean space and removed my loose shirt, revealing my pale and emaciated body.

I assumed the exercise position on the ground, letting out ragged breaths in an attempt to regulate my breathing.

"Fooo… Let's start!"

I lowered my trembling arms lightly downwards and lifted them again. Or at least I tried.

-Thud

I fell on my face directly and my lips kissed the cold ground beneath me.

Damn it.

"My face!"

I screamed in pain at my face more than the actual pain.

If my face is disfigured now, I'll lose everything I have!

In the end, it turned out that my body's limits were half a push-up.

Not bad… right?