1 Chapter 1 - Johnston town (prologue)
Early in the morning, the sun was just peeking out from the horizon, painting the immaculate town of Johnston in an other worldly splendor of colors.
As the sun slowly crept above the city walls, the originally quiet and dormant city slowly woke from slumber. Being one of the bigger towns in the province of Soldor, in the kingdom of Uravicz, it had quite the amount of visiting merchants and adventurers that set foot in town for various trades.
In a less populated district, in the outskirts of the city near the five meter tall city walls, lay a run-down shack built out of wood. The shack looked old and abandoned, with broken windows and rotten wood sustaining the barely stable foundations.
Inside the square-like shack lay a boy curled up in the corner, with dirty and teared brown leather pants and a used to be torn white shirt. The boy had short white hair and a cute little face which showed an age of no more than six although with the black dirt smeared on his face his age could not be easily discerned.
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Jack slowly opened his eyes, he felt extremely tired and sore with his body still aching from yesterday's beating. The small amount of clothing on his body could not even keep him warm during the night and the cold dirt floor permeated his body with the low temperatures of the night.
Jack slowly got up and stretched himself in the middle of the shack. He felt lucky. He was alive for another day, what else could he wish for. He smiled at the sun that was slowly making its way up in the sky and felt refreshed as his dirty face basked in the comforting warmth of the morning sunshine that made its way in through the broken window.
Today was the day for the knight training camp exam for his own district. Each district of Johnson town had the knight training camp exam open for one day each year. The knight training camp was open for kids from the of six all the way to twelve. The kids are supposed to make it through three of the four exam to be able to pass, and those who were able to were accepted in the training camp which could lead them to have a future in the knight corps of the Uravicz kingdom. If someone was lucky enough and passed the magic elemental exam they would have a splendid future as a possible wizard apprentice.
Jack had no such delusions, he would be content with being able of becoming a knight for now.
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Jack slowly opened the door and looked around left and right, seeing that there was no one waiting for him he sighed relieved. Quickly closing the door behind him, he darted off the streets and back alleys that he was so familiar with in the red light district.
The town of Johnson was medium sized and as such it had a total of nine districts. The most populated and well known were the 'Populace' district, where most of the residents resided in and was the closest to the main avenue, the "Market' district that was in the middle of town was a large square with many stalls and workshops surrounding the area. As well as the 'Noble' district where all of the companies, guilds and aristocratic families resided in, as well as the red light district, which was behind the Populace district and the furthest one away from the Noble district, where the town hall and city lord resided in was at.
Jack ran through the various districts and slowly made his way to the Knights guild in the northernmost region of the town.
Silently zapping through the main avenue while being undiscovered was Jack's main hobby in his free time as well as a necessity to be able to survive in his harsh poverty. He remembered that ever since his first memory he was a kid living on the streets. Abused, beaten, harassed, looked down and trampled upon, Jack did not know of the many joys of life. Nevertheless Jack was always positive, the harsh environment and childhood did not tear him down but rather built his willpower and endurance. His hatred towards the ones that have always been beating him turned to ambition and willpower towards gaining strength and status.
While Jack was reminiscing on his beautiful days when he was smaller and could look under the long skirts of the ladies without getting beaten every time, the knight guild slowly rose majestic in the distance.
