Chapter 1: Chapter 1 – Prologue

 

If I could name two genres to describe my life, they would be a dystopian tragedy.

 

In this Realm of advanced technologies and magic, those with no money, no home, and no hope were put directly into this world’s circle of hell consisting of the rich getting richer and stronger and the poor getting poorer and weaker.

 

—

 

My day began just like the last three and a half years did. I found myself waking up in the same old dark alley with the several dozens of cardboard boxes scattered around it used as my makeshift shelter. 

 

Nearby I saw Nico, one of the fellow homeless teens, stretching himself out getting ready for the rest of our day at school. He had ended up on the streets due to a similar situation as me. His parents had simply not been able to make enough money to feed and shelter a small family of three because of the ever-worsening economy. His greasy blonde hair swung as he turned to look at another one of the boys groaning as they began waking up.

 

Kevin upon waking immediately sat up and began rubbing his eyes as if trying to remove the tiredness from his body. He had ended up on the streets after believing that he would be able to become stronger after going out on his own, believing his own family was holding him back. During his ‘escape’ from his family he first attempted to distance himself from them in every way possible including him dyeing his hair to a completely different color, a deep blue with a few streaks of black going through it. His appearance was nonetheless more on the handsome side and most definitely would be able to find a lady willing to court him despite his homelessness.

 

My vision now turned to the individual who had the best odds of survival in the long-term.

 

Rowan was still sound asleep in the congregation of boxes; he was even using his ragged backpack as a makeshift pillow. His future was guaranteed because of his intelligence. Some of our teachers thought of him as a diamond in the rough that would come roughly once every 100 years. His immense genius however was not going to grant him an easy life, but when combined with his compatibility with mana as well as his good looks, his future was simply going to be a cake walk.

 

My eyes drifted back to Kevin as I heard the crinkle of a wrapper sound from him. It appeared he was given a small chocolate bar by one of his many secret fans.

 

I saw Nico’s face drop into a state of awe and proceeded to feel my own face do the same.

 

“Who the fuck would give you a fucking chocolate bar? That shit is worth its weight in gold!”

 

Nico had begun freaking out externally as I had done internally. Chocolate had become a much greater rarity than even gold or silver. 

 

After the Realm collisions the magic that had flowed between the Realms had diffused through the Realm and as it had done so, the magic had merged with certain plants and animals. 

 

One of the afflicted plants was the cocoa plant. As a result of the imbuement the plants had changed in many ways. The cocoa had become far rarer as it took nearly three times as much time to grow. However, with this extended growth time, it was determined that the contents of the plants were actually being imbued with raw magical energy which could then be used to strengthen the individuals who consumed it.

 

Essentially, this boiled down to whoever had gifted him this must have been from an upper middle-class family or one of the richest families in Lelour. Kevin seemed proud as I could see a small smirk flash across his face. It was quite obvious that he was gloating as there was no other reason to be showing it off in front of the three of us remaining boys.

 

I could feel my mouth watering as Kevin took the first bite of the bar as I could feel envy filling me. The crinkling of the wrapper being pushed down the chocolate bar finally woke Rowan, him sitting up and at an incredible speed immediately turning to the gloating Kevin.

 

As I could see the desire flash through Rowan’s eyes, I knew what was about to come.

 

“Kevin, could you give me a small piece please?”

 

Kevin’s eyes now carried a bright glint as it appeared that he had already planned ahead about this opportunity.

 

“Sure, but only if you pay me back.”

“Yes, anything, I’ll do it.”

 

Rowan’s answer was immediate as the hunger for the sweet candy grew too strong for him to resist.

 

“I want your promise to give me one favor that I am free to use at any time.

 

I want you to swear it on your life.”

 

As he said these words, I felt a shiver go down my spine. 

 

Kevin had never really felt very human-like to me as I felt his personality better suited that of an arrogant businessman, using any and every event as a chance to improve his means of getting more strength and power in the future.

 

I was about to try and stop Rowan to make him reconsider when his voice rang out, innocent as a mockingbird.

 

“Alright, I swear on my life!” 

 

I felt a sudden burst of energy surrounding the two, signifying the permanence of the deal.

 

Kevin immediately snapped off a small chunk of the chocolate and threw it over to Rowan who promptly caught it. He immediately popped it into his mouth and a giddy grin spread across his face.

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Rowan may have been the smarter student, but his innocence clouded what should have been logical judgment. He had never really learned social skills as he never really had the real difficulties during his time on the streets, he had just appeared from nowhere about two years ago. His future had been funded by the school because of his high academic prowess, not to mention that Rowan had an immense amount of compatibility and control in regard to manipulating magic.

 

In fact, the school had even offered him one of the private dorms inside of it. However, for no reason whatsoever, he had rejected it to remain on the streets with us.

 

In the few seconds following Rowan swallowing the chocolate I glanced at Nico as we were stunned by the obvious scam that had just been pulled upon our friend.

 

However, now was not the time to dwell upon Rowan’s thoughtless decisions, we would need to get to school early in order to shower there, we all had been doing our best to present ourselves with somewhat above average appearances, or in the case of Kevin, well above-average appearances. 

 

We had been doing this for ages in an attempt to attract some wealthy students to try and get into a beneficial relationship with them. Kevin had attracted some with his appearance while Rowan had attracted sponsors with his intelligence while Nico and I competed for those remaining.

 

This might have been degrading, but if we were able to live a better life it was far more worth it than remaining on the streets with the estimated death rate being nearly 50%. 

 

This was due to the small wormholes that the government failed to detect with their technology only being able to detect Tier 1 - Tier 8 Wormholes and stopped development on the technology to be able to find and register the Tier 9 - Tier 10 Wormholes. This was because Tier 9 - Tier 10 were supposedly killable on normal human level standards, however, this doesn’t help those malnourished and stranded on the streets like the four of us.

These thoughts were flashing through my head as the four of us were walking to the school. It was a sunny day, the four-winged giant bird-like beasts were flying above us, undisturbed because of their herbivorous nature. 

 

Their shadows had flowed across the streets like water. A shadow drew across the faces of Kevin and Nico and disappeared just as quickly. 

 

I immediately dismissed the thought of the wrongful scamming of my friend and began to mentally review the content of a test I would be having in Beast Studies today. I recalled a bit of the information that regarding the four-winged birds that were flying above.

 

‘People who had talent in taming were actually able to tame these creatures, and when their bond grew, the birds would occasionally allow its tamer to mount them and fly with them around the globe, being able to traverse it in no less than 4 hours. The people on the Beasts had to wear wind resistant armor in order to not have their skin literally be ripped from their bodies.

 

These Beasts were classified as Tier 8, but in reality, they were only classified as such because of their immense speed. If they were based purely on their level of combat, they would be Tier 9. This was due to the fact that the birds had no reliable way to attack other than their beak which was quite dull, leading to the only way of them being able to attack by bludgeoning its target. 

 

The bird's beak being dull likely was due to them eating hard nuts from the Realm of Beasts which would be quite high in abundance.

 

These birds held the utmost importance in a world where dangerous beasts lurked above the clouds and in the depths of the sea. They were the means to exchange information amongst the several continents since the destruction of international satellites.’

 

As we drew closer to the school, I had already noticed the other homeless students converging on the school as well, it wasn’t like we had a choice. After the 2101 Act was passed, homeless individuals under the age of 18 were forced to attend school as a means to replace lower class citizens who died during the occasional high tier Beast attacks. To ensure compliance with the Act, cities were required to have capable magic users scan the city to ensure there were no homeless children not attending school.

 

The students who had already arrived at 4:30 were already clean and prepared for the school day. The schools were left open from 3:00 AM to 7:00 PM as a means to support the students without shelter. The schools had drastically improved in their level of dedication to the students but had not received enough funds to establish a large enough dormitory to hold those who were not amongst the most gifted of the homeless.

 

This was the point at which our small group diverged as each of us had already planned out most of our days and what needed to be done to ensure our physical wellbeing would be guaranteed as being kept out of school for longer than a week was basically a death sentence, in fact this is why most of the homeless did their best to maintain a good reputation while at school.

 

I found the first thing on my agenda to be my most definite favorite part of the day, cleaning myself in the school showers. My body tended to get grime all over it during the nights in the alley.

 

My hair had begun to get fairly long once again as I felt strands going down past my chin. My dark brown hair finally got the attention it needed.

 

After drying myself off and putting on the uniform I had stored in my small bookbag I started heading to the cafeteria where they would likely be about to start serving breakfast.

As I walked, I found another student walking alongside me, Ally Cawtorne. Her family had recently had a streak of luck as her brother had excelled and gotten an amazing job opportunity allowing the family to reach new levels in the monetary hierarchy.

 

We had only become acquaintances a month ago where she had gifted me the very book bag, I held with me right now. Despite the bad representation the higher-class students got she felt much more down to Atlas. After all, she had been in nearly the exact same situation we were in a year ago, the only difference being that her family had gotten lucky.

 

It was clear to me that Ally at least had some kind of ulterior motive in approaching me, otherwise she wouldn’t have gone out of her way to be friendly to me and not somebody else who held more value like Rowan. 

 

As I snuck a glance at her, Ally’s vibrant blue eyes seemed to shine in the early morning’s light.

However, I put all thoughts of what motive she could have in using me aside and began to talk.

 

“Ready for the test?”

 

I had felt the casual approach would be better received when talking about the stressful test that was soon to come.

 

Suddenly I could feel a burst of rage emanate from an individual who had taken a look at me. They were wearing a school hoodie so I was unable to recognize their appearances. It was clear today would be quite eventful…

 

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