The village was quiet, unnervingly so. The usual bustle of children and villagers preparing for the day's work seemed distant. Word of Noah's Awakening had spread fast, like wildfire, and with it, a strange unease had settled over the place.
Noah's steps were deliberate as he walked away from the obelisk, his mind a quiet storm of thoughts. He felt the weight of the elders' stares, but they didn't matter. What mattered was what had just happened—what the system had revealed to him.
Echo of the Dead.Causality Drift.
He didn't know what either meant yet, but he was certain they were powerful. The world was going to change now, for him and for everyone around him.
As he walked through the village, Noah noticed how the other children watched him—some in awe, some in fear. They were the same kids who had mocked him for his quiet demeanor, who'd never understood why he preferred the solitude of the forest over the noise of the village square.
But that was before.
Before the awakening.
He reached his home at the edge of the village—a modest wooden cabin with a thatched roof, smoke curling lazily from the chimney. His parents were inside, his father sharpening a sickle, his mother tending to the small garden out front.
"Mother," Noah called, his voice steady but colder than usual. His mother looked up, her soft smile faltering when she saw his face.
"Noah… What happened?" she asked, standing up quickly, her eyes searching him. "The elders… They said something—"
"Don't worry about it, mother," he interrupted, his gaze distant. "I'm fine."
The words felt foreign to him. Fine? How could he possibly be "fine" after what had happened? He wasn't just fine—he was different now. He could feel it deep in his bones, this new power stirring within him.
His father looked up then, eyebrows furrowed. "Noah, we heard the rumbling from here. You caused that, didn't you?"
Noah's eyes met his father's. "Yes. But it's nothing. A test."
"A test?" his father repeated, voice thick with suspicion. "Son, this is no ordinary test. What happened to you out there?"
Noah didn't answer right away. What could he say? That he had no idea how it had happened, only that it had—and now his body was mutating in ways that defied understanding?
Instead, he simply walked past his parents and into his room.
His small wooden bed creaked as he sat down, the weight of his thoughts pressing against his skull.
[System Update: Echo of the Dead activated. Combat Experience: 13%. Absorbing the residual power of fallen warriors.]
He closed his eyes, focusing. He could feel the power inside him, faint but growing, like a fire waiting for the right spark. What did it mean?
There were no answers here. But there was a plan forming in the back of his mind.
He would leave.
The village no longer held anything for him. It had never truly understood him, and now, with his Awakening, it was a place he could never fit into. The world outside would offer the answers he needed, and he had no intention of staying in a place that would only see him as a freak.
Noah stood, walking over to the small chest in the corner of his room. He didn't need much. The simple necessities—his father's old sword, a small satchel of supplies, and a few coins he had saved over the years.
He looked at the door for a moment, then turned back to his parents' room. They would never understand, not the way he did now. The world was bigger than the village. Bigger than anything they could see.
Noah knew what he had to do.
And it started with leaving.
The wind outside picked up as Noah gathered his things and stepped out into the crisp morning air. As he left the village behind, the familiar roads faded into the distance, and for the first time, he felt like he was truly free.
The world is waiting.