1 Chapter 1: Orphans

Hombre Realm, Hone City

March 10, Year 1,000 of the Mystic Calendar

"Thousands of years ago, humans are living in a completely different world than ours. With the help of technologies, humanity managed to set foot into the different realms in our galaxy. The humans terraformed a lot of the realms in the galaxy and turn them into one that is suitable for living beings to survive and flourish. "

"However, even after all that, humans still haven't discovered any other lifeforms aside from us. That in itself is fine but since we haven't discovered any precious or interesting thing in those realms, our progress in understanding the universe eventually stagnated."

"Even if we want to exit our territory to visit other parts of our galaxy or even other galaxies, our technology is still not enough for that."

"Too bad that humans are really curious creatures. Although the concept of the universe being a 'fabric' is just a way for us to understand things easier, our curiosity still won over us."

"The scientists of the past tried to create a machine that will be able to cut space itself, in hopes that it will help us travel into the other galaxies that we were never able to set our foot on."

"That was a big project that was eventually known as 'Project of Doom' because of its result."

"Its name was pretty self-explanatory as humanity was doomed because of that project. The project in itself can be called a success as it looks like the machine really managed to cut space itself but .... the end result is horrible."

"One thousand years ago, humans managed to cut a meter of space but we only saw a black chaotic world inside. Our scientists were still trying to analyze the cut in space when a white or should we say, colorless cube came out from it. "

"The cube that is now known as the 'God Cube' fascinated the scientists but it was also the cause of their deaths. In just a matter of seconds, the cube exploded and it changed the world."

"The explosion isn't a violent one we are used to. In fact, in our theory, the explosion spread to the whole universe but it didn't leave damages as one will expect from it."

"This explosion only destroyed the realm that it appeared from along with the closest ones to it. However, both the explosions of those realms and the cube almost wiped out humanity."

"The destroyed realms affected the nearby realms and killed a lot of humans living in them. As for the cube, it took the most number of human lives."

"More than 50% percent of our population was killed by the energy that spread to every corner of the world. If not for the Project Doom being broadcasted worldwide, we might not even know the cause of our own doom."

"If it's just that, humans wouldn't be in such a sorry position. Our population grows to the point that we need to use thousands of realms to house us. Even just a percent of us is still a huge number."

"However, soon monsters from other dimensions attacked us and occupied most of our realms. More humans died because of those beasts and that further lessened our population."

"Those beasts are something that we have never encountered before and they came from different dimensions. They have supernatural powers that science cannot explain and there are some of them that can literally destroy an entire realm using their own powers!"

"Fortunately, the humans discovered hope and this hope might also be the reason why a lot of humans died after the cube exploded."

"The humans discovered the existence of a cube inside our heart. That cube was later known as the Cube World and inside that world is our soul!"

"That was the first time that humans finally saw our souls and it is inside the Cube World! Our souls' shape is the same as our physical bodies that are slightly bluish in color and in our soul's chest area, our Cube Core can be seen. It was basically just a golden cube that is located in our soul's chest but it is extremely important!"

"The Discovery of these three- Cube World, Soul, and Cube Core gave us our hopes. It gave us the ability to wield Supernatural abilities just like what the beasts have and these people are now called Mystics!"

"The powers from the cube inside us are what we called Mystic Power and it comes with an uncountable number of forms. The forms all depend on our imagination. They can be swords, bows, guns, lasers, rings, basically anything that we can imagine! "

"With our Mystic Power, humans finally had the ability to defend ourselves from the beasts attacking us but we are still new to the concept of Mystic Power and not all of us can skillfully use it."

"Fortunately, four heroes arise from the masses! These four heroes used their Mystic Power and connected the last four realms that we humans occupied and covered it with an invisible protective barrier."

"The barrier was made through the sacrifices of humanity's strongest Mystics and the beasts weren't able to enter us no matter how much effort they exerted except when they got lucky and find a weakening part of the barrier that they can enter. Still, a limited amount of beasts can enter our territory as the weak parts of the barrier can be repaired. "

"The four realms were later on given the names of our heroes and they are - Styca, Hombre, Kana, Acan. Each realm is now ruled by their descendants that also changed their surname into the heroes' names."

"We, the surviving humans must put all our efforts in restoring our race back to its former glory. We must reconquer our former territories that are now being occupied by those damned beasts. And to do that, our Mystic Power is the key!"

Ring Ring ...

As soon as the old man finishes his long history explanation, the bell immediately rang indicating that the class finally ended.

The old man is currently standing on top of a platform and behind him was a long rectangular blackboard that has the highlights of human history.

His speech was timed perfectly as after his last sentence, only then did the bell rings.

"Class, there is only a few days before the Orphanage will help you all to connect into your Cube World. Use this time well and become humanity's future!" The old man said before arranging his things and exited the classroom, leaving the students behind that starts talking to themselves.

"Argh, I'm already sick of hearing the history from Teacher John, can't he tell us other interesting stories, right, Keon?" One of the students asked while nudging the man named Keon on the side.

"Huh? Sorry, what did you say?" Keon asked his classmate that rolled his eyes at him.

"Why are you zoning out, did you enjoy our Teacher's regular storytelling?" The man asked in a sarcastic and joking manner.

Keon laughs at that and decided to answer his classmate in a joking manner too "Well, who wouldn't?"

Although Keon said that in a joking manner, he really enjoyed that old man's recap on the history.

The God Cube, Mystic Power, Cube World, Soul, Cube Core. All those things are something that Keon is extremely interested in. Even after hearing that history for an uncountable number of times, Keon's blood is still always stimulated by it.

After all, Keon is an ambitious person. He and the other kids inside their normal classroom are all Orphans.

In today's era, Orphans like them without the backing of any powerful Mystic can be bullied by anyone. The world of today contained Mystics and those Mystics are the ones protecting humanity as a whole, how can those people in power not have anyone with them that will abuse that power?

Fortunately for these Orphans, the Orphanage has a rule. All of the kids inside it will be taught basic knowledge like reading, writing, math, and history.

After that, they would then train their physical bodies and fighting skills. This would ensure that after they became a Mystic, they already had some fighting power.

Humans greatly needed manpower and what's the best way for that than to use homeless and parentless children?

Keon is already fifteen years old today and he was an orphan for a long time already. When he became six years old, the Orphanage's management already ordered him to do some basic exercises.

After almost ten years, Keon's physique is now stronger than even full-grown men by the standards of the previous humanity thanks to all his efforts.

Keon wants to become a strong Mystic in the future and he exerted a lot of effort into his training. He can't even wait for a few days as he already wants to connect to his Cube World so that he can finally wield the power that Mystics has.

"Bastard, why are you zoning out again?" Keon's classmate asked while playfully punching him in his arms and that returned Keon back to reality.

"Hahaha sorry, I'm just really excited to become a Mystic" Keon answered with a laugh but deep inside him, he was already annoyed. If not for Keon wanting to have a good reputation, he wouldn't even interact much with other people and just solely focus on his training.

Too bad that Koen knows and realizes a lot of things even though he is only fifteen years old. Having a good reputation will help him a lot!

"Let's go, our physical training class will start in a few minutes" another one of Koen's 'friend' said and their group of five starts walking towards the Orphanage's locker room to change their clothes.

As the real goal of the Orphanage was to foster useful Mystics, most funds went into the things that will help the children's power to grow.

The training area was large. One side of it has a weapon rack with practice dummies that are made from either metal, woods, or even grass as targets. Next to the dummy targets was a huge field that is painted with multiple lines, the students use it to jog or run.

Next to that was a space that has pieces of equipment that the students can use to do more physical exercises. There are dumbbells of various sizes and weights, there are also training benches and other things that people can mostly find in gyms.

The last part is the physical combat field wherein one can see several battle rings. The orphans use that space to practice their combat skills by sparring with each other.

Overall, the whole training field was not aesthetically pleasing but efficiency is the most important thing. All the things that the kid needs are present there and they don't need to change their location and waste time just to train in other things.

Keon's group started running at the field as a warm-up since their instructors are not there yet. Well, the instructor didn't necessarily show himself to them regularly as the training the kids have is redundant.

The kids would just work out then train by either using weapons on dummy targets or have someone spar with them.

The instructor already taught the basics to the students and it would be a waste to teach them more general combat styles.

One's combat style will largely depend on what Mystic Form they will have. The Mystics can influence what Mystic Forms they will have but a large part of is still up to luck.

A Mystic can exert effort into having a sword type Mystic Form just to get a bow type one. And the Mystics will either need to adapt or try making more Mystic Forms until they got what they want.

After running for five laps, with Keon being faster than his 'friends', they decided to stop and turn to use the gym equipment.

A lot of women were currently looking at Keon due to his several positive qualities like good looks, talent, hard work, and also 'kindness'. He was quite popular because of all these positive traits and a lot of women already confessed their love to him.

To bad for them that Keon doesn't like romance as his goal is to become a powerful Mystic.