Rael: The Journey of Creation

'Ugh.' I groaned as I awoke, only to find the peaceful outdoor scenery I'd expected was nowhere to be seen. Instead, I was greeted by the dim light of a rocky chamber with iron bars lining the entrance. To make matters worse, a tight, constricting sensation around my arms and feet quickly made itself known.

"Hey, the new guy is awake!" a girl's voice called out. Her words didn't take me by surprise since she—along with two others—was right in front of me. I ignored them for the moment, focusing instead on the bars and the room around me.

"Tch!" I clicked my tongue in frustration, letting out a small sigh before relaxing my body. Closing my eyes, I focused on the red orb within me. After all the pain I'd endured, something had to have happened. It didn't take long for the familiar black space—no, that wasn't accurate anymore—to reappear in my mind.

'Completely yellow!' I realized, startled. 'This space now radiates the color of the orb's previous stage. Wait—where is the orb?'

Curiosity set in as my eyes darted around the vibrant yellow expanse. Thankfully, the orb came into view almost as quickly as I began searching. It had transformed from its once pure-white hue into a radiant, bright red.

'Is this... a breakthrough?' I wondered, my curiosity growing as I studied the orb.

'It can't be this quick. It doesn't make any sense, I jumped straight from the black stage to the yellow stage in one leap! But... maybe this time is different. This body was crafted by a goddess, after all. It might still have residual energy stored within it, accelerating the process. Yeah, that has to be it! There's no way breakthroughs happen this fast under normal circumstances. Not even a full day has passed since I started, and this one wasn't even intentional.'

I scrutinized the glowing red orb as my thoughts raced. It felt more solid, more tangible than its earlier white counterpart. Meanwhile, the dazzling yellow space surrounding it shimmered with intensity, far more vivid than before.

'I won-'

"HEY!" I couldn't even finish my thought. The girl from earlier interrupted me, breaking my focus. I opened my eyes and stared at her. I wasn't aggravated or upset, I really didn't care but my neutral expression seemed to make her flinch more.

"Um... shouldn't you call me annoying or something? It looked like you were cultivating to me." This girl…

"So you knew and still disturbed me? Is that part of your culture?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"No. I just thought we could be friends!"

I stared at her blankly. Her words were completely unfitting for the situation. We were clearly kidnapped, and she wanted to make friends.

'What kind of strange girl is this?!'

Contrary to my thoughts, I wasn't nervous. I could still feel my mana, which meant I had a means to escape. But if these people were confident enough to keep us here despite that, they clearly had the ability to handle us if we tried anything.

I turned my attention back to the girl, this time actually focusing on her appearance as best I could.

She had long black hair, messy from lack of care, and bright sky-blue eyes similar to my own emerald ones. She was dressed in bluish-gold clothing which resembled a karate gi more than anything else. I couldn't see anything else due to the poor lighting. 

Behind her stood a boy with short black hair and calm, dark-blue eyes. He had the same clothing but just Blue and Purple in color. 

'Sibilings, perhaps?' I thought briefly before continuing. Something about their physiques seemed different, though I couldn't quite place it. Causing me to believe the two weren't human.

Finally, I shifted my attention to the third person: a girl with short ice-white hair and bright ruby-red eyes radiating with strong will. Even without knowing her, I could tell she had a temper. Her white skin was healthy-looking, and I could even see it with the lack of lighting Not to mention, her clothing looked like something for the night or dark areas rather than normal clothing you'd wear out in the sun which made her skin stand out more. 

"Ahem! My name is Selene, and behind me is my little brother, Kyle! The girl to my right is my best friend and sworn sister, Kyoko! Me and Kyle are true dragons, and Kyoko is a High-Demon! Now you!" Selene introduced herself with boundless energy. She was clearly extroverted, maybe trying to lighten the mood or perhaps she was raised in an environment like this.

"Uh. Name's Rael. High-human." I kept my introduction short and straightforward.

"Ohhh! A High-Human! Are you of the Pendragon family or the Asgardian family?!" Selene asked excitedly, her brother and Kyoko mirroring her enthusiasm.

"No. A different family. We typically stay hidden because we don't like attention," I replied with a perfect cover.

"Aww! I thought all the High-Human families were discovered, but I guess Dad hasn't found them all." She dropped some useful information, and I mentally filed it away for later.

"It doesn't really matter, does it?" I followed up with a question of my own. If she was truly a True Dragon, it didn't seem important to locate undiscovered High-Humans.

"Jeez~! You just don't get how dangerous your people are. Even we True Dragons are scared of High-Humans. Not to mention, a whole family or clan of them!" Selene exclaimed.

"Really? Scared? Your earlier reactions didn't exactly show fear," I retorted.

"W-Well, I mean we're not the cowering type! Every race just fears your potential! You guys are insane! Our dad told us that if we ever faced a High-Human of the same rank and we were alone, we should run."

'Seriously? Does this race come with more benefits than I thought?' I felt my mouth fall open slightly in shock. I'd chosen High-Human because it felt familiar, not realizing it was so revered. True Dragons had really seemed like the better pick!

"Ugh! Can they just get this over with already?" Kyoko snapped, clearly fed up. I couldn't blame her. Judging by their appearances, at least from what I could barely make out they'd been captured for at least a week.

'Speaking of... where are our captors?'

"Hey, um, Rael." Selene's little brother, Kyle, drew my attention again. I looked at him questioningly.

"What kind of natural magic can you use?" he asked, his question confusing me.

"What do you mean?" I replied, genuinely puzzled. I understood the question but not the reason why it phrased it like that. 

"You really don't know? How does your family operate?!" Selene and Kyoko stared at me in disbelief, as if I'd just confessed to some unthinkable crime.

"I mean... we can do whatever we want with magic, so we didn't separate it into categories," I lied smoothly, improvising on the spot.

"A-Anything?!" Kyle exclaimed in shock.

"..." Selene and Kyoko were speechless, their expressions blank.

I shrugged off their reactions. "Yeah, pretty much anything, as long as we're at the right stage."

"..." The three of them remained silent, staring at me in what I could only assume was awe or terror.

"What's your family name? I want to make sure to avoid them in the future," Selene finally said bluntly.

"My last name is Zenith."

"Noted. Kyoko, Kyle, if we see anyone from that family, we run away!"

"Yep."

"Understood, Sis."

"G-guys, I don't think you'll have to worry about that," I said, trying to sound reassuring, though I couldn't completely hide my stutter. Their curious gazes immediately shifted toward me, clearly expecting an explanation. However, I refused to say anything more. That little line was all I was willing to offer and thankfully it was enough to help them relax.

'I mean if I knew about the powers of the world I wouldn't need a fake family. Actually, if i have a family in the future then technically I was never lying in the first place. Anyways-' 

"Kyle, right? What is this natural magic?" 

"I think Big sis would be better at explaining it then me so I'll let her do it! Sorry." Kyle apologized but he really had no reason not to but maybe that was just how he was. I turned my attention over to Selene who didn't even wait to see if I was listening to begin. 

"Natural magic is magic you can use after being naturally exposed to mana hence the name. Then there, is Unique magic or rather Unique Traits which are special traits everyone is born with! These traits depending on their rank can determine what natural magic one will be able to use." 

I nodded my head at her explanation and signaled for her to continue but she was continuing anyway. 

"Now, you might wonder how we can tell the rank of a person's unique? We tell by the brightness of their eyes, unfortunately, I don't have a way to show you the difference since everyone here has a S-rank unique." 

I analyzed the eyes of everyone present and I could see a difference compared to my last life but I thought it was just a natural difference in terms of genetics but apparently this isn't the case. I can understand me having a S-rank unique as I got it from Izanami which definitely adds some weight to Selene's explanation. 'Looks like I'll be able to skip some stuff when I get the chance to properly research!' 

"I see, but what exactly makes an S-rank an S-rank or the other ranks their ranks." I asked as it this was just as important as knowing the difference between natural and unique magic. 

"I'm unsure of the specifics but dad always says it's about versatility. OH! Don't ever ask someone about their unique, its just respectful not to. That's why Kyle opted to ask about your natural magic because he knows that he could narrow done potential unique attributes from that."

'D-Damn kid is kind of cunning?!' I glanced at Kyle and he wouldn't even make eyecontact with me! Thankfully, there was a little lighting so I could even see his reaction. Selene's words hit the mark and of course they would since they were siblings!

"From your words, I'm assuming that this unique trait affects the type of mana one absorbs into their body and whenever they awaken or precede to the proper stages of cultivating that absorbed mana manifest as a 'Natural Affinity'?" 

"..." The group of three just stared at me blankly. 

"What?" I didn't see a reason for their reaction. 

"Kyoko! Kyle! Not only are they strong but they also have brains, we must make sure to NEVER piss them off!" Selene declared even louder and firmly then the last causing my mouth to twitch. 

'Haha, if only they knew I made my family up.' I laughed internally while just shrugging my shoulders. I wasn't clearing up anything this time as I didn't want to risk losing my lie and "background". 

I kept silent and closed my eyes. This time I wasn't going to cultivate but instead try to understand my own abilities more. I already discovered [Trace] and [Dismantle] but had no clue of anything else. I understand that these are basic abilities tied to projection somehow but what else could be considered basic and attached similarly! That was what I needed to figure out.