"Yawn"
Nyx slowly raised his head from his bed in the orphanage. It had been two weeks since his assessment made by Father Timothy, and it was now time for him to go to Everdusk Academy.
Everdusk Academy was the best educational facility on the continent and was located in the empire in the center of the continent, Acrelux. It was so good, in fact, that many other states sent their best prospects to Everdusk to combat the persistent threat of Daemons.
In those two weeks, Nyx became a member of the Acrelux Empire by taking on the last name of a nun, Maria Crimson. Nyx read a lot of books about the world. He now had a rudimentary understanding of Magic and Valor. He was, of course, not able to use them yet, as that was only taught at the high school level, which Everdusk coincidentally was at.
Nyx had learnt a lot. He had learnt of the God Age and its unknown history; he learnt of major technological milestones that allowed humanity to live in luxury.
He also studied theology; he learnt of the seven churches worshipping seven different gods, which together defeated the Devil, the master of all Daemons.
After waking up, Nyx followed his morning routine, which started with checking his stats page. What he saw on those blue immaterial pages was a sight he had grown accustomed to.
Nyx Crimson - 16 - Male
Vitality VIT
4
Strength STR
2
Agility AGI
2
Perception PER
7
Intelligence INT
12
Overall Ranking
Flawed
----- Valor -----
Strengthening
None
Acceleration
None
----- Magic -----
Mana Capacity
150
Mana Regeneration
Breathing
Lv. 1
Creation Magic
Lv. 0
Manipulation Magic
Lv. 0
Destruction Magic
Lv. 0
----- Gifts -----
The Ring of Tenebris Lv. 1
The Ring of Tenebris, a soulbound equipment, has given you this Gift. It bestows on you 5 extra INT and increases your Mana Capacity by 50.
This Gift can level up through further understanding of Darkness.
Nyx knew his stats were abhorrent, and he knew his Gift, his Ring, was what allowed him to go to Everdusk Academy. This is why he decided that at Everdusk, he would give it his all, training all day long, to prove that he is better than just his Gift.
He wanted to grow strong. Strong enough to figure out his existence. Why did he suddenly appear? Why did he appear in that forest? Why was he wearing this ring?
And most importantly, why did he feel a bit different from everyone?
It wasn't a big feeling, but Nyx felt a bit disconnected from everyone. He, at times, couldn't understand their reasonings and emotions.
But Nyx knew it wasn't the time for such thoughts. He had to get ready to visit Everdusk Academy, which was still foreign to him. He knew it was the best school on the continent. But its systems were still a mystery to him.
He was very excited to satiate his hunger for knowledge. So he dressed into the school academy which was sent by post three days ago. He slipped into his new shoes and looked around his cleaned-up room for the last time. While at Everdusk Academy, he would stay at the dorms provided to the students.
He had lived in this room for two and a half weeks and he enjoyed it. He couldn't count how many hours he was lying in his bed reading books or pondering about his purpose.
But now it was time to go. He opened the door and stepped out. But what he saw there surprised him.
All the nuns working for the orphanages and all the other children were there to see him off.
"Big Brother Nyx! I'll miss you so much!"
"I want to become like you when I grow up, Nyx!"
"We'll miss you, Nyx!"
Nyx couldn't help but break out into a smile seeing them. They had only known Nyx for two weeks, but they grew very close in that short amount of time.
He went and hugged all of them goodbye before promising he'd come back as soon as he could.
With that done, Nyx left the orphanage.
**********************************************
Making his way to the train station heading towards Everdusk Academy, he saw many other children wearing the same outfit as him heading the same way.
"Those must be other students. I wonder how strong they are. Well, it doesn't matter; they're definitely stronger than me," he thought.
Some students had huge muscles, visible through the relatively thick school uniform. Others were just as frail as Nyx.
Nyx concluded that those muscular students had to be up-and-coming crusaders or, in other words, Valor users. The other ones were probably magicians.
Nyx himself wasn't sure what to become, but his current stats were heavily favored toward being a magician, so if he had to choose a course, he'd therefore pick the magician course.
He had already arrived at the station while thinking about this, so he had to wait for the train.
During his wait, many more students came. In the end, there were over 100 students at this one train station.
Seeing this, Nyx frowned.
"How am I supposed to sit during the train ride? And also, how many students are there? This is just one train station out of how many, again? Nine?"
The nearest train station that served the Everdusk Line was near a noble district, so Nyx concluded that Everdusk Academy had many noble students.
This also made sense considering that Gifts that can give extreme advantages are often hereditary, and noble lineages often have Gifts.
Having all this in mind, Nyx got ready to board the train that was arriving. The doors quickly opened, and a dinging sound invited the crowd into the train.
Nyx saw that there had been very few people on the train so far, but this was now about to change as all the students scrambled to sit somewhere.
Nyx, not wanting to offend some arrogant noble, quickly accepted his fate and just stand in the train.
After all the students had boarded, the train took off, and then Nyx knew it was time to go to Everdusk Academy.