A short man was thrown out of two golden gates which had magnificent decorations of scaled dragons interlacing with each other, they were so lifelike that no one in Rongvale city dared to look at them for a long time, fear gripping their hearts in apprehension that the four-legged dragons would suddenly come at life to kill them.
As the man tried to stand up, four men and women garmented in similar golden clothes came and began to stomp him with fervor. For them, making the young man feel the humiliation of being thrown out wasn’t enough, they also mixed minor curses and abusive language while stomping him.
The black-haired young man couldn’t care less about what they were saying and how scum-looking he was right now in the middle of the city with everyone looking at him with scorn. Though at first, defiance and feelings about the unfairness of this world dominated his glare and heart until he quickly extinguished all those feelings beneath a false mask of fear and submission to the golden people.
He was used to being looked down and had to look at the big picture, acting accordingly to the way it was certain his father wouldn’t be affected by his actions here today.
He thought. “I already sold my pride and shame a long time ago to have a chance to cure Father. If you people think just this amount of humiliation is enough to me lose my temper, you are completely wrong.”
Soon enough the stomping stopped, the ‘superior’ people got bored of the scrawny man as he didn’t show the reaction they were hoping for and went back to their Society.
The young man in shabby clothes stood up and spat blood from his mouth, leaving the location while everyone sneered at him.
He didn't care for other people’s opinions and walked uprightly, proudly to his house, making people not understand how he was capable of doing that after receiving that beating.
Outside of people's hearing range, he said. “Do you think I would really go provoke the Golden Society and not collect what I went there for?” Slowly opening his left hand, he eyed the small, sturdy bottle filled with a brown liquid.
Inside of the bottle, there was a medicine of Rank 3 that had a good chance of curing his father’s disease by what he was told by eavesdropping some Golden Society's disciples chitchats.
If someone knew he had gone to the only society in Rongvale city to steal one of their low-grade medicines and risked their wrath just for a cheap thing like this, they would go crazy for his stupidity and desperation.
But that is a normal and daily thing to Roland, he had until now survived only by stealing from others. However, every time he remembered that his heart would be full of guilt.
It wasn’t like he was taught to steal by his father.
“Remember, this isn’t ‘stealing’. It's just an early investment, I will come later to give back everything I stole with twice the amount and quality.” Only after saying this to himself and grabbing a notebook together with a pen he keeps with himself all the times, he did calm down and forget about his guilt.
“Let me see… Golden Society, Golden Duke, a bottle of Rank 3 Invigorating Blood.” He wrote the specifics on page nine and swore to not forget.
Reaching close to his house in Rongvale's slums, scenes of violence and murder happened around him without stopping, nobody about them enough to stop them and the aftermath of their attacks never reached close to the area where the said 'superior' people lived.
People shouted the names of their attacks as all kinds of wondrous magical effects surged, but the most seen was of Elemental attacks that called the forces of nature to their bidding thanks to the techniques they trained here in Rongvale.
All of this was only possible because of the supreme invisible energy known as Essence that exists in the world, although maybe this isn’t the correct explanation since nobody in their current level can harness its power. What people do normally is to dilute and mutate it using secondary energies like Spiritual, Demonic, Qi, Vital, Karma, Divine and many others together with Techniques or Arts to train and gather Essence inside of one’s own body.
Roland ran to his house, trying to ignore the gore and death around him. It wasn’t the first time he saw someone dying and it will of course not be the last, but he didn’t like about all the fighting and killing that he has to bear every day. Nowadays he can somewhat bear this, however, he remembers puking in the first time he saw gray matter coming from someone’s head and an intestine being spilled when he was only six-years-old.
“After today, no matter if this medicine works or not, we're leaving this place.” He swore in his heart and after twenty minutes he finally found the ramshackle house he lived with his father.
He went inside of it and found his father reading a worn out book found in the trash while lying down on the only bed in the house. “Roland, did you already come back from the job? Why are you bloodied?” Steven, Roland's father, was a middle-aged man that always had a worried look on his face adorned by a flowing, long red hair when looking at his son; the years of poverty didn’t do any good to his complexion and weight, nevertheless, he still had a bright look in his blue eyes which were the only semblance he had with his son.
The rest of Roland's features seemed to be a copy of his mother.
“I was fired, Father, and they gave me a beating for daring to go against them just because I didn't want to swindle an honest client,” Roland said with a puppy look and tears gathering in his eyes. “But, do you remember the young and fair lady I told you about that was really kind? She gave me the medicine we were searching for after seeing my plight.” Roland lied while showing the bottle that he stole.
Steven thought, ridiculing his son’s bad lie. “As if there would be someone kind enough to give you a Rank 3 medicine. Brat, how come you are acting so alike your mother despite never meeting her? This must be in her cursed genes.” Steven accepted the bottle and drank it. “When I get better I must get his notebook and compensate everyone he is stealing from.”
Gradually, small red spots where his blood was always spilling out from him when sleeping began to disappear.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
The medicine cured him of Blood Extinguisher, a disease seen in the ones contaminated with bad Essence and was good enough to make him jump through the house in liveliness and feeling more alive than ever.
Roland gave a sigh of relief seeing his father not lethargic anymore, however, this meant the reason to continue in this rotten city didn't exist anymore. “Father, sorry for dampening your mood," Roland said in a stern voice. "Did you hear about the competition which will begin today at noon?”
Steven looked seriously at his son, dreading what he is going to say next. “I heard about it when they announced it through all the city, even at the slums. But it isn’t really a competition, the Magus from the middle stratum, Existence, will come and select someone to go with him to Existence to become his disciple based on something called Augury.”
Magus are the ones that went beyond the normal natural mortal limit of Essence gathering and began to have their longevity and inner power changed into the Essence itself at the smallest organ human, the Polus.
“My plan is for us to escape-”
A booming voice sounded from outside, it was so loud that anyone in the vast city could hear. “Ladies and gentlemen, sorry for disturbing your life here in this city of the lower stratum Lower Existence, but this is the most important moment of my life. Now my relic will found its true owner and will take whoever it is with me.”
Before the pair of son and father could discuss the situation, a chill went through Roland’s spine and then the ceiling of his house suddenly exploded.
As soon as the dust settled down, he was able to see a small black cube hovering at his father’s front saying, “I found you, my user.” It shone and promptly merged into Steven’s body, completely disappearing inside of his body and causing him to scream in such immense pain that he got knocked out in only two seconds.
“Oh, there is another person here. What to do in this case?” A man with white and pure clothes surged floating in the broken house. Everything seemed holy just for existing around him, it was as if his very own existence demanded everything to look like so. “Well, I don’t know what’s your relationship with this man but unfortunately I won’t be capable of bringing you too with me. Just take this small reward for surviving in the Lower Existence and forget about him.” He unceremoniously threw a brown bag to Roland and disappeared with Steven, not caring about Roland’s feelings about this whole situation.
“Father!” Roland uselessly shouted to the sky as he lost the most important person in his life without being able to do nothing to stop it.
It all happened so quickly, after all.
And there is no way for him to go search for Steven unless he goes to Existence. But how could he be able to do it if it was impossible to travel between strata?
***
Four days after the incident which shocked the entire Lower Existence, one of the four layers of the world, with the Guardian of the Second Wall choosing his disciple, Roland was sighing while walking through an immense deep green jungle to the next city where he will live, Lakepoint.
And nobody knew he was the said disciple’s son since Roland didn’t have the same surname, Naraka, of his father because his mother's family was matriarchal, and the Guardian of the Second Wall didn’t let Steven announce to the outside world that for being too lazy and because his disciple was constantly disobeying him.
Meanwhile this, Roland more or less accepted the situation after crying a lot despite swearing to try to find a way to visit his father in the Existence. Though, after spending two days in Rongvale he couldn’t find any hint for that, forcing him to become a nomad until encountering his father.
In this way, giving him more chance of finding the correct way to travel between strata by meeting new people.
“At least food won’t be a problem for me because of this.” He patted the small brown bag he received from the holy Magus and begrudgingly decided to hang it on his waist after discovering its uses.
It was a magical item that could infinitely bring forth any kind of mortal food Roland could think and also have an extra function of storing almost anything as if it had an interdimensional space there.
Roland was using it right now to store all the items necessary to travel and also sentimental objects like the first book his father read to him that was in his broken house.
“I wonder how many years it will take for me reunite with Father? Ten? Twenty? Fifty?” Roland mused. “If I take that long I will be an old man and my father will still be the very same middle-aged man from when he initially became a Magus' disciple, advancing in the Essence Training to have his longevity altered.”
The reason he was so absorbed in thought and thinking about anything that came to his mind was that in the ‘road’ - which was just a bunch of papers put as talismans in the jungle - to the next city, he was in an unbelievable situation, trying to escape from reality to calm down.
He was weak and only had just as much Essence as any other normal mortal, so he knew it was dangerous for him to walk in any place in this jungle other than in the ‘road’ made of square papers that safely protect the travelers from wild animals. For the last two days it was a normal journey, so why must it now become wondrous and strange? He wondered in his heart while sighing, he just wanted to have a normal and tranquil life until finding his father.
“Mother, Mother. Don’t go away! Hang in there, Mother!”
“My son, I think it is time for me to go. Don’t ever forget of me and eat my body if necessary, I am sure it is full of proteins just as much I am beautiful.”
“But aren’t you ugly?! I will die by food poisoning!”
“Shut up, you piece of shit.”
There at his front on the road where it was impossible to encounter with any kind of animal, there was a greenish turtle hugging a fallen skinny white fox. And to make it, even more, weirder, they were talking while calling each other of mother and son.
Roland thought after coming to reality. “Am I somehow hallucinating? This scene begs for too many questions. How come a turtle and a fox are son and mother? How they came to a habitat not suitable to them? And how they are talking? I am getting a headache just thinking about this. Should I just ignore this and leave?”
“Mother, if only there was something for you to eat you wouldn’t die! Only if there was someone kind enough to donate food for you.” The turtle wailed in the most dramatic way possible.
“Yes, my son. Only if there was someone kind enough to do that I would teach him all about the Great Arts and even give him superb techniques to train Essence.” The fox sighed while crying. “I would even make him my disciple and make him the second most important thing in the world, with of course you, my son, being the most important thing in the world.”
“Ah, Mother! So pure and majestic even at the death's door.” The turtle opening his tiny arms, shouted to the skies. “Please, O Mighty Hero appear to save my Mother! I will teach all the secrets about Flesh Essence training to you!”
Roland blankly watched all of this and didn’t take long for him to understand the theatre they were making to receive food. “But did you really need to make everything so exaggerated? If you didn’t talk maybe this would be more convincing.” He thought while ignoring the animals and continuing in his way without caring for the face of despair the turtle made and the resignation in the fox’s eyes as if the whole world fell apart when he ignored them.
“I have more food than I need with my strange bag and would give it to you, but after this theatre-”
An enormous and genuine rumbling of stomach sounded coming from the fox that was so skinny that was possible to see its bones, it interrupted his thoughts and made him stop indecisive in the middle of the road. Sweating, he needed to decide if this isn’t another big trap, maybe even to kill him despite their small sizes.
“Why my instincts are telling me that no matter my decision I will regret coming to this place?”