Final Exams

Final exams used to mean nothing to me. They were just another checkpoint, a mark in the passage of time—annoying, perhaps, but hardly something I worried about. But now? Now, everything was different. I had reinvented myself.

I wasn't just some high school nobody anymore. I was a model student, committed from the very first day. After realizing I had no talent as an adventurer and knowing I'd always be stuck as weak, I threw myself into studying. If strength wasn't my gift, then at least I'd become the best at something.

I believed I could make it. Really, I did. But my performance on the midterms had shattered that illusion. I'd failed miserably. The shame still stung.

But that was behind me now.

I had accepted my lack of natural talent. I had embraced it. And, for once in my life, luck had smiled on me.

The Skill Tree—my one chance in an otherwise unlucky existence.