Chapter 9 - Episode 8-A Shower of Sympathy

"John, do you know what an awardless mean?" asked Smith as he sat across me in the dining hall.

"I presume it means what it says, having no award." I replied back

"Not just that being awardless means more than that, before that do you know the source of award." questioned Smith

"No" Every power has a source, for example, the source of cultivation in normal cultivation novels is chi/qi/ki or the element that lets people use magic in magic fantasy T.V. shows is mana. Like that, I believe there should be a source for this award to. But strange enough I haven't been able to detect what the source is when I used my soul to scan the energy source of this world when I arrived here first. So, this means the energy source of this world must be different from the typically encountered energy sources of other worlds.

"No one knows who discovered it first, or who harnessed it first or even who named it. As long as we have known we have been aware of this element. It's called the Principle particle. This particle once in contact with people will awaken their award."

So it's like being exposed to radiation and slowly mutating the gene to give special ability, like a certain green giant. This principle matter once exposed to the body mutate the body to give a certain ability.

"But then why doesn't everyone have access to award if everyone is exposed to it"

"Because contrary to what people usually believe principle particles don't exist in this world directly."

"What?" Ok now I am stupefied, an energy source that doesn't exist in this world can come here and give people superpower.

"So is memorial stone a condensed form or principle then?" I asked since that should be the only logical explanation. Since everyone must use a memorial stone to awaken, but that leaves the question why was the notion that everyone one has a potential to awaken passed along, if there are people like me who can't awaken their award?

"Not quite, what I am about to tell you is purely theory and listen carefully, as it may be a lot to understand and take in"

Okay now this is getting interesting

"We believe Principle particles exist in another realm, that is ever so closely connected and bound to our world. We call this realm the Dream realm, because of it granting people all sorts of dream-like abilities called award.

The particles can only enter our world through a special conduct, and we believe it to be our soul. But our souls are like closed gates in the realm where Principle exists, and to open that gate we need a key." Wait that is strange, as I feel no gates or realm thingy within my soul now or even when I first arrived here.

Smith took a few seconds of break, before carrying on and asking me a question "Do you know what magi particles are?"

"Yes, they are the particles that enable a magi like Jacob to perform feats similar to certain award abilities like shooting a fireball, or casting an earth wall etc."

"Correct" nodded Smith "Unlike Principle particle, magi particles are of this world. Those who train to be magi can accumulate their magi particles and grow stronger and cast what is known as magic, to even be able to challenge people who have really strong awards. Magi have certain ranks as we have for award users."

Once someone has awakened their award, they are capable of evolving/upgrading their power, 11 times. These 11 times are denoted as ranks. Someone who has just awakened his power will start with Rank 0. If he manages to upgrade/evolve his power once after he has awakened, he will be a Rank 1 Award user, and if he managed to upgrade/evolve again he will be a Rank 2 and so forth till the maximum of Rank 11.

This is the reason why no award once awakened is never looked down or exalted upon. Because once, that award is upgraded or evolved in the right direction to the max rank it has the capability of causing massive destruction. But if it is evolved or upgraded in the wrong direction and it will cause no harm to even a fly.

For example, an award like having nice handwriting once evolved/upgraded in the right direction can have an ability like killing someone off by writing their name down. A godly award like controlling the weather can be upgraded/evolved to the stage of only being able to summon soft clouds to sleep on.

The only way to upgrade is to imagine the direction you want your award to go in, in a desperate situation or use it a lot of times and reach the threshold to rank it up. You can't imagine the end result of your award straight away but must go through it step by step.

For example, a person with an award that can generate electricity may want the end result of his ability to summon devastating lighting upon his enemy from far away. Thus, to do that for his first rank he has to evolve his ability to summon electricity outside of his body. Then next few ranks he can upgrade his range of summoning electricity outside of his body. Then next rank he can evolve his ability to make all electricity he generates to go in a downwards direction, instead of the random web-like direction of lightings. Then next evolution he can choose to evolve his electricity into lightning. Then for the last few, he can just choose to strengthen it. Thus, ending with the desired effect of the award.

He can also choose to evolve his ability to generate electricity, to simulate his body cells or control electrical impulse in his body, to make him faster, stronger and quicker to respond and think if he has the necessary knowledge. The possibility for a single award is quite close to endless being only limited to one's imagination and knowledge.

However, if you were to lose grasp on what you are imagining your power to be (like being knocked unconscious while evolving your power), then the award will choose to go in any direction it wants, either to upgrade/evolve randomly in any way, thereby making an electricity award turn into a human lightbulb award. Therefore, it is important to make sure no one is around you to disturb you while ranking up your power.

"Magi users have ranks from Rank 1 to 11, like an award user. But their Rank is primarily measured by their accumulation of magi particles, and secondarily their ability to fight an award user of the same rank." Said Smith as he awakened me from my thought process

"We believe these magi particles to be very attracted and at the same time hated by the principle particles. The reason for that is because magi particles are the key to open the gates of Dream realm to let principle particles into our soul, thus giving us an award for freeing it. This is also the reason why we believe the Dream realm and our world is closely connected and inseparable.

The reason we believe that principle particles hate magi particles is that, once someone awakens their award, they lose all their accumulated magi particles and their ability to accumulate their magi particle"

"So how does that correlate with me being awardless." As soon as I asked this I could see sympathy cropping up in Smiths' face. What is with all this sympathy showering me today?

"John, magi particles can only be detected by your soul..." paused Smith. Why is this old man making so many pauses, does he want me to figure something out? Look old man I have no idea what you are trying to imply here

Probably because of the clueless look on my face he sighed and carried on "The principle particle and magi particle have one thing in common..."

"They both interact in the soul, while the soul act as a catalyst for them. What I am trying to say here is that John, there are 2 reasons for you being an awardless:

One your soul is damaged or

Two..."

I interrupted him "I don't have a soul."