The town, well you could call it a town only if you had no concept of what a town actually is, a more apt description would be a fledgling city. Compared to other towns in Zion the town of Leafly could be described as quite affluent thanks to the ample trade routes reaching out to the capital city as well other well off providences and countless smaller towns, thanks to these trading routes leafly has become one of the best places in Zion for trading. Most well-known for our bustling market that fills almost a quarter of Leafly and our amazing tradesmen that craft all manners of wonderful items from jewellery to armours to weaponry, we even have a couple of people that can make hollow staffs, it truly is the great place and I’m blown away every time I see it.

Upon entering the town, the smell of freshly baked goods pervades my nose assaulting my senses. I’m almost overpowered by the scent of cake, pies and other assorted pastries wafting through the air, it’s almost enough to make me dismount from my seat in the cart and explore these delicacies one by one. Almost, I’m here for a very special reason and I shan’t be deterred by such things, but that doesn’t stop my stomach from rumbling. Hearing my stomach my parent chuckle and my dad says, “after the awakening well get something to eat before we leave.” When he started talking I was elated but upon hearing the last part my excitement suddenly dies down. That’s right after today there’s a chance I won’t be going home for a while. Putting on a brave face and stealing my resolve I reply, “Sure!” making sure to flash them both a big smile.

“Can’t we go any faster?” I ask restlessly. My mum looks at me and says, “Just a little longer sweaty, you know how long it takes to park a cart and secure the horses.” Chiming in in a gruff voice my dad says, “The boy’s just excited to find out what his class is, I was the same way.” Hearing my dad say that look up at the stadium in the centre of town my excitement once again building up, I wonder what the stadium is like from the inside, when we came in the past my parents never let me look go watch any matches saying it wasn’t good for children to watch those bloody things. But it’s always interested me, master swordsmen dueling for the adoration of the crowd, grand wizards wowing the audiences, shocking upsets and underdogs becoming champions. Just looking at those marble pillars leading up to its gigantic gates makes me conjure images of valiant warriors and mages.

Finally getting inside the Colosseum my parents are ushered into the seating areas surrounding the arena, rows upon rows of seats stacked high in the sky funneling the audiences’ gases to the sandy pit bellow my feet. I was blown away when I first stepped on the sand just thinking about the battles that have taken place here. Looking up I attempt to spot my parents in the crowd, but its impossible there are too many people giving the crowd looks. I give up but I do notice one of the observation boxes on the furthest end of the Colosseum wall and the 5 people inside.

On the leftmost side, I see a rather large man, with greasy black hair wearing a blacksmith apron and a small satchel with the ends of various craftsmen tools poking out, he must be the head of the craftsman guild in Leafy, Hector Smith.

Sat next to him is an old inconspicuous woman wearing a baby blue shall, clutching a small cane carrying a gentle smile on her. But I know better than to judge her based on her appearance she’s well-known in this town. Her name is Barbara sheer, a well-known assassin, you before her retirement to Lealfy. As odd as a well-known assassin sounds, she could kill you before you even realized what happened, she’s probably here representing the clan she came from.

On the right side were the leader of the adventurers guild, red 4 armed Majin called Dakkar, wearing a silver breastplate and blades strapped to various parts of his body. Quite an intimidating person, the average human only comes up to his chest, the scariest part is he’s actually rather small for a Majin. I've even heard the tallest can rival giants.

Besides him is his wife Sajiri a beautiful blue Djinn with a beautiful sapphire protruding from her forehead. She’s wearing a blue mage's robe with a complex runic designed decorating it. Staring at the crowd of youngster I’m part of, she turns to whispers something in her husband’s ear. I wonder if she senses any magical energy from me. What if she saw me and she’s considering making me her apprentice? I know its farfetched but what if?

Looking towards the old man in the center of the people I know exactly who he is. Father Alex, head of the church here in Leafy, a gifted healer and a kind man there are numerous stories of him visiting the slums healing diseases for free. Holding his hands behind his back he stands up and slowly walks toward the front of the observation box.

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It’s hard to say who in the crowd noticed him first, but suddenly the atmosphere suddenly changed, everybody in the Colosseum had their attention focused on this simple man. Clearing his through father Alex begins to talk, ”Thank you for coming everyone,” pausing for effect he continues, “it always makes me so proud to see young buds at the start of their lives, about to embark on their own journeys into the world, the amount of happiness I feel from being the one to give you that first push Is unbelievable, now let us begin.” The crowd applauses.

The first person to step onto the podium was a cheetah kin girl with brown shoulder length hair, confidently standing atop the podium she gives a slight curtsy to father Alex and awaits her awakening. Seeing this father Alex smiles and extends is right hand, a green glow begins to emanate from it and then it extends into the sky warping it letters finally become the word ranger. The crowd explodes, but the girl takes no notice of the crow instead looking into the air in front of her for a while before dismounting the podium.

Surprisingly, the next up was Baxter practically flying up the stairs, in fact, I swear I saw him skipping a couple of them. Smiling at father Alex he gives a stiff bow. He’s always been like that leaping about, sometimes it’s just hard keeping up with him it’s like he’s a beast kin and half as heavy. I wonder what class he is? Probably some kind of scout? Father Alex repeats the same process as before but this time something I wasn’t expecting happened the words that were formed were Eagle blade. Wow, a tier 2 variant class, makes sense he’s always liked heights and one time when we were kids he fell out of a really tall tree and only got a couple of scratched from the fall. I'm happy for him, but now the chances of us going on adventures are slimmer, he’ll probably get scouted by a clan. At least I’ll be able to say my childhood friend was an eagle clan member.

The rest of the awakenings happened like this with a few exceptions like one guy got spell blade a few attributed knights classes, a necromancer, a few healers and priests, some tier 1’s the most surprising ones were an arrogant looking young girl who got hero as her class and a gloomy boy who got seer as his class. But now it’s my turn I’ve finally made my way to the podium.

I’m so nervous. It’s like my legs are made of lead. Each step I take feels like a mile, the silence of the stadium is deafening. I swear I can hear my name being called, looking at the source of the noise I see my parents in the crowd yelling with gusto, with new resolve in step confidently on the stage and give a bow to the father Alex. Looking at him this close I can years of stress and worry etched upon his face but kind blue eyes that seem to contain oceans of knowledge and love, he smiles and beings the awakening.

Name: Joseph Kamer

HP: 140

Stamina 120

Energy:100

Class: Explorer LV1

Job: Farmer LV5

Past jobs: N/A

Race: human

Level of being: average

Stats

Strength:21

Agility:27

Dexterity: 24

Endurance:20

Willpower: 15

Wisdom:17

Intelligence:19

Luck:12

Faith:10

Affinities

Minor nature affinity

Minor earth affinity

Skills

Grit lv2

Heavy load LV3

Repair LV1

*Stealth LV1

*Keen eye LV1

*mapping LV1

Passive skills

Green thumb LV5

Shepard’s presence LV2

Climbing LV3

*Danger senseLV1

Titles

Happy child

Beloved son

Mischievous

Pin cushion

Budding adventurer

Achievements

N/A

Equipped items

Plain cloths

“Huh, an explorer,” I couldn’t help but blurt out without thinking almost forgetting where I am, I’ll have to look at these later, but first I should probably get of the stage. i give a polite bow and leave the podium.

After I got off the podium I met up with Baxter and we compared states and skills, he’s so lucky he’s got amazing stats and cool skills most of them are passives but feather fall, light bones and light step sound super useful it basically he'll eventually be able to run up cliff faces and jump of mountains without getting a scratch I’ve even heard tales of people being able to run in the air aside from those he also got beginner sword mastery compared to his mine seem rather plain.

Once the ceremony was finished father Alex dismissed us and told us we have an hour to come back before the sorting begins. Baxter and me look at each other and sigh, neither of us are looking forwards to this, well most likely get separated, I’ll probably train at the adventurers guild and Baxter will almost defiantly get poached by a big clan somewhere, hopefully their isn’t a representative here today and we get to train together for a while.

We walk out of the long corridor and meet our parents outside for one last time.