With a single thought, a familiar panel blinked into existence before my eyes.
{Amethyst}
Name: Amelioren
Gender: Male
Rank: {Foundation} — Sensing Stage
Talent: Unity (+) (to be expanded)
"Foundation stage, huh. Doesn't look like a good rank to be in."
I murmured to myself, my eyes drifting to the mirror.
A pale-faced young man stared back at me.
I studied him for a moment — then exhaled through my nose.
Well. At least I have a rank now.
No matter what it looked like on paper, having one was better than not having one. Before, there was nothing. Now there was something. That meant I was finally standing at the threshold, however low it might be.
The biggest change since I woke up was the addition of those words — Foundation: Sensing Stage. Everything else on the panel had stayed the same.
I couldn't say for certain what it meant. But I had a rough idea.
It was probably from her lesson earlier. The explanation, and the fact that I'd actually tried — really tried — to feel whatever was sitting dormant inside me.
"What was it called again?"
I stared at my reflection, reaching for the memory.
"...Right. Aether."
I hadn't lied when I told her I had a general idea. I did. It just wasn't exactly the kind of understanding you could put into words — more like a half-formed instinct, the kind that lives in your gut rather than your head.
When my mind had gone still, I'd felt something. Faint, but there. Like the sensation of water, or gas — something present without being solid. Something that was just mine.
I should be able to sense it on my own.
I rolled my shoulders, took a slow breath, and closed my eyes.
I tried to find that stillness again.
A minute passed.
Then another.
I opened my eyes in annoyance.
"Why is it so difficult?"
I exhaled and forced myself to calm down. I'd thought it would come naturally this time — but the noise in my head refused to quiet. Not noise like sound. It was subtler than that. A low hum of awareness, the kind that never fully switched off. My thoughts kept snagging on small things: a creak somewhere down the hall, the faint sound of my own breathing, questions I couldn't stop cycling through.
I knew this room was safe. I knew nothing was coming. Serein was asleep just on the other side of the wall, and nothing about this place suggested danger.
I pressed my fingers against my forehead and rubbed slow circles into my temple.
And yet.
I just... couldn't relax.
I rubbed my forehead.
Was it because of her scent and voice that had calmed my mind earlier?
I wondered, a hint of doubt creeping in as I recalled her cool but pleasant voice and the clean scent that had lingered when she passed by.
It was strange. I'd noticed it before with certain things—a familiar voice, a particular kind of quiet, the oddly grounding sensation of someone cutting my hair. Sounds and presences that just… settled something in my chest without asking permission, and I'd feel relaxed all over, like I could fall asleep right there.
I didn't know if that was unique to me or if everyone had something like it.
"Sigh~ if only I were at home..."
I exhaled and looked around the bathroom. Wide. Empty. Quiet.
Then something in my peripheral vision moved.
A flicker.
I turned toward the large window — and stopped.
"…Is that a flower?"
Outside, in the deep dark of the ocean, something bloomed.
A cluster of red, drifting in the black water like petals opening slowly to the dark. Transparent. Each one glowed with a soft bioluminescence, light rippling through their bodies in waves — rhythmic, unhurried. Like watching a pulse.
They drifted. Floated. Scattered like embers through the deep, the red of them cutting through all that darkness the way stars cut through a night sky.
"So beautiful..."
The words came out as barely a whisper.
Without realizing it, my body moved on its own, drifting closer.
I was in a daze. In my pupils, a light reflected.
The light pulsed—wave after wave, red flowing through each translucent body, slow and endless. I stood there and watched it without blinking, and somewhere in the watching, I forgot to think.
My mind just… went still.
And then I felt it.
Something moved inside me. Subtle at first, then more certain. A sensation that had no clear shape — not quite pressure, not quite warmth — but unmistakably there. Running through me like a current with nowhere to rush.
My eyes snapped wide.
"This feeling—! Aether?!"
I looked down at my hand.
It was real. I could feel it collecting at my fingertips, gathering like it had been waiting. I focused on it — tried to push it, coax it outward, see what it would do.
Something transparent shot from my fingers.
I flinched back instinctively, but not fast enough.
It hit me square in the face.
It's over, I thought, frozen.
A beat passed.
My hair lifted slightly from my forehead. A small, clean gust of air — and then nothing. No wound. No pain. Not even a mark.
I stood there.
Stared at my hand.
"…That's it?"
Ding.
The panel chimed softly.
I glanced up at it — and blinked.
{Rank: Foundation — Control Stage}
The word Sensing was gone. In its place: Control.
I stared at it for a long moment.
Then slowly, I let out a breath.
"…Huh."
"Yes!
A bright smile spread across my face.
But that wasn't all.
The panel flickered.
Ding!
{You have taken one of the very first steps in understanding the world of Amethyst.}
{First-time reward… serializing…}
"Time-limited skill: Disguise… extended…"
The panel shifted, bringing forward a glowing set of words that rapidly changed—
From a critical number to a duration that felt stable… safe.
The already bright smile on my face grew even wider.
I excitedly tinkered with my new abilities, playing with them in quiet wonder.
After a while, I went back to the room.