Re-Awakening: Cannon Chapter 2 - 2: The Strongest Talent

The hologram flickered in Ethan's vision as information crashed through his mind in violent bursts.

"I actually have a talent?" Ethan muttered, with excitement rushing through his veins.

'I might be able to escape,' He thought, as he quickly studied the screen in front of him.

He had always read about systems and talents. The golden finger of every transmigrator, and it seemed like he had also unlocked one.

Back in his previous life, he had wished that he would unlock a system in the modern world, become rich, retire his parents, and take revenge.

Unfortunately, fate stored something else for him.

He had always thought.

'Where is my Damned system.'

"Devour?" The word tasted foreign on his tongue. The screen hovered before him, waiting for a response.

He pressed it, he didn't have time to second-guess. Especially with the wolf closing in.

Suddenly, Power surged through his body threatening to consume it.

Different from anything he'd experienced in either life. The world changed, his eyes seemed to become sharper, and he could almost feel that the world had become slightly slower.

Seeing the immense amount of stats that he received, Ethan did not hesitate before immediately heading to the previous corpse and looking for the same crystal.

After finding it, Ethan devoured it without hesitation and the same lines followed once again.

<

5 Agility >

Feeling a burst of energy, running through his body, Ethan ended up checking his status.

His rank had become mid-iron. Glancing at the attribute values, Ethan evaluated that mid-iron rank had a threshold of 20 attribute points in any of the four attributes.

Ethan also realised that what takes other people ten or so, low-iron cores, took him only two. And, he did it almost instantly. Unlike others, who need time to slowly extract the pure energy from the cores.

Glancing at the second wolf, that he had recently just killed. The devour prompt once again appeared before his eyes.

However this time, he didn't need to touch the wolf for it to appear.

Ethan's body vibrated with anticipation. Two wolves in one day. Two opportunities to grow stronger. The forest around him held countless beasts, each one a potential source of power.

He selected Devour without hesitation.

< 3 Agility>

Ethan felt his body grow stronger, he could feel that his speed had indeed increased. But glancing at the status screen, his talent grade did not change. Even though the talent grade did not change, he felt that it was more powerful than before.

Noheless, Ethan was immediately excited. The golden finger he had received, was incredibly powerful.

'I transmigrated with the strongest talent' Ethan thought with a smile on his face.

The talent he had received made him feel slightly better. He felt bad for leaving his father and mother, they were in their late forties and they only had him as their single child.

"Father... Mother... I hope you live a better life and get a better child. Hopefully, when I get stronger, I will try to get back to earth. This world seems to have endless possibilities and maybe there is a chance..." Ethan muttered, feeling emotions overwhelm him for a few seconds before he oriented himself using his predecessor's memories.

"The city should be towards the north, about half a kilometre away," he muttered, analyzing his position.

Strategic considerations demanded a swift return—remaining in beast territory alone invited unnecessary risk.

He reverted to human form, the transformation flowing smoothly in reverse. Without pause, he activated his Enhanced Speed talent and began his sprint toward the city.

'What if I was caught by some random hunter from the city that would hunt me down, it's better not to risk it.'

The talent manifested immediately. The world blurred around him as he achieved speeds beyond normal human capacity, surpassing any Olympic athlete from his previous world.

The forest became a green smear in his peripheral vision as he covered the ground in rapid succession.

Two hundred meters disappeared beneath his feet. Then three hundred. At four hundred meters, the city's defensive walls emerged from the tree line, their grey stone facades stretching skyward.

Guard patrols maintained their vigilant watch from the ramparts, their silhouettes were distinct against the cloud-streaked sky.

A guard captain spotted his approach, immediately raising his hand in a halt gesture. "Hold fire! It's one of ours," he commanded. The defensive unit responded with military precision, lowering their array of cannons and composite bows.

"Open the gate," the captain ordered.

The massive gate opened slowly.

Inside the gates, Captain Morrison awaited him. The officer's E-Grade Enhancement talent had earned him his command position, though it wasn't powerful enough to secure him a more prestigious posting.

"Aren't you from the seventh squad?" he stated, his frown deepening. "Where are the others?"

Squad Seven's casualty rate was well-documented—an information gathering unit composed entirely of talentless soldiers, assigned to patrol the dangerous 500-meter perimeter beyond the walls.

"They're dead," Ethan confirmed. "We encountered a Shadowfang Wolf. The others..." He paused, crafting his narrative carefully. "They engaged while ordering me to seek reinforcements. By the time I could return, it was too late."

Captain Morrison nodded, accepting the report with detachment. The death of talentless soldiers was a daily occurrence, a statistical reality that the military had long since normalized. "Take the remainder of the day for recovery," he ordered. "Report tomorrow for reassignment to a new unit."

As Ethan departed, Morrison released a heavy sigh. The burden of command weighed particularly heavy on days like this.

His E-Grade talent had elevated him above the ranks of the talentless, but not high enough to effect meaningful change in the system. He remained caught in the middle—high enough to see the injustice, too low to reform it.

A reminder of his own limitations. His position allowed him to assign missions, but not to challenge the fundamental structure that treated talentless soldiers as disposable resources. The system's efficiency relied on this arrangement—using those without talents to gather essential intelligence while minimizing risk to more valuable enhanced personnel.

The status window of Morrison appeared briefly in Ethan's vision before his departure.

Unlike the Shadowfang Wolf, the captain did not have a devour icon next to his talent.

There were only two explanations, either Ethan needed a dead corpse to devour talents, or he could only devour the talents of beasts.