Dale was sitting on a chair with his knee bouncing freely. He didn’t even bother placing a hand over it.

His fingers twirled his dark hair, then quickly untwirled it, only to twirl it once again.

Once in a while, his eyes fell to the laminated card in between his fingers. It was completely white with only the number ’24’ written on it.

On both sides of him sat people, either just as nervous as he was or extremely calm.

’I am sure I’d also be calm if I hadn’t used my life savings to buy this ticket!’ He cursed in his mind.

He shook his spiralling thoughts out of his head. There was one thing on his mind: not messing up.

A door to the side opened and someone roughly a year younger than Dale walked out briskly, a smug smile on his face — you know, the type that screamed trust fund.

The boy twirled his finger in the air and a mass of purple flames erupted, vanishing just a second later.

Dale’s eyes widened, ’A fire ability and it looks powerful too!’

Soon however, his wonder was replaced with envy though he’d never admit it.

"Tsk. Showoff." He scoffed, echoing the thoughts of at least half the people there.

Either ignoring him or not hearing him at all, the boy walked out of the building... most likely headed to his father’s mansion.

"Number 23 please come in. 24, please get ready." A voice echoed through the waiting room.

’Shit! It’s already so close to my turn?! Maybe I shouldn’t have come early.’

Dale’s eyes scanned across the room, ’Barely ten people after me.’ He sighed. There was no point in being scared.

The person beside him stood and entered through the same door.

Minutes ticked by and the door opened once more. Unlike the one before him, he had a deep scowl on his face. He clearly hadn’t gotten an ability from the awakening pool.

Awakening pools were, as their name implied, pools of a strange substance that reacted with animals to awaken abilities in them.

No one knows where they came from, but what is known though is that a single pool is a very important asset to any state.

He had even heard of cities built around pools.

"Number 24 please come in. 25, please get ready." The same voice spoke, breaking his chain of thoughts.

Dale stood without wasting time and passed through the door.

When he closed the door behind him, he saw a woman sitting on a desk. Her expression seemed lazy as though she wasn’t the one standing on the threshold of dreams being made and killed.

"Come closer." Her voice was as monotonous as her dull eyes.

Dale stepped closer and the woman began reciting what he could only assume were the rules. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"Welcome, number 24, to Grilon City’s awakening pool. Here, we hope that the ticket you bought also assures your success." She paused to catch her breath.

Then she continued, "Terms and conditions. Although it is a pool within our jurisdiction, we are not to be held responsible for any undesirable events. Such as lack of an ability, nausea, pneumonia, brain tumors, cancers, skin rashes, and death — sudden or otherwise."

Dale’s blood ran cold, ’Wait, what?’

Before he could speak, she quickly added. "No refunds. Thank you."

He opened his mouth and closed it like a fish out of water. On one hand, he didn’t like the thought of dying but on the other... he’d die anyway, either from hunger or disease.

She nodded to another door. "Pass through that door and good luck." At the end, she forced the most inauthentic smile ever seen.

Dale spent a minute on his thoughts. The idea that people faced the risk of death just for a chance at awakening an ability seemed crazy but it was just the way the modern world worked.

Ever since the discovery of awakening pools, the demand for unique and useful ability users has been exponential.

In almost all sectors, people with abilities were preferred and he couldn’t blame them.

If he had to choose between a normal human and a human who could turn into a living statue to be his bodyguard, he’d choose the latter.

Same with a librarian who had superspeed or a construction worker who can manipulate earth... one way or another, you’d die off if you didn’t have an ability. His dad was living — or rather dead, proof of this.

Dale sucked his teeth and walked through the second door.

Behind it was a large cave. Rocks neatly stacked on one another gave a feeling of zen.

And in the middle of the cave was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

It looked like someone had melted a mirror and poured it out into the ground. He knew that it was just silver in color but that didn’t take away from his awe.

He stood by the side and looked into it, flinching at his own appearance.

Just like his dad, he had onyx hair but he inherited blue eyes from his mom.

His skin had paled over the past few months of barely seeing any sunlight or eating. Needless to say, the world wasn’t kind to orphans.

Stairs led into the pool which he followed. As he placed his foot into the pool, he shivered at the cold.

Soon, he walked in and spent about a minute standing.

"Here we go." Dale held his breath and dived in.

The world beyond his eyelids was completely dark... until it wasn’t.

Dale opened his eyes and nearly gasped. It was like he was in space.

Millions of stars, each a unique color, burned brightly in the dark void. Despite their brilliance, they failed to illuminate anything.

Some of these ’stars’ were the size of planets while others were the size of a fingernail.

’And this is why it is good to remember that size doesn’t always matter.’ He mentally chuckled at his own joke.

Unlike what most would think, picking a bigger one didn’t mean a more powerful ability... or an ability at all. It all depended on luck.

He once heard of a lady who picked a giant one. She got the ability to speak to pebbles. Not control or create, just speak.

Pushing those thoughts aside, it was time to choose.