It has been five months since my home was torn apart by only a group of unknown mad Scientists or Cultists and I have lived with my Uncle Daven, a man of few words.
My quiet life was disturbed for three months when the daughter of the neighbor decided to make friends with me, Liyia, an imperative girl.
Everything happened with the visit of her adoptive mother Erilea who came to get another kitchen set and other utensils, my uncle does not refuse any work, so I had to accept her request, although our store is only to sell weapons, she doesn't was the first to ask for something similar outside of our sales target.
"Understood! A kitchen set and a Teapot with engravings of a Fenix in the shape of a heron" I said from my place on the other side of the counter, I wrote on the parchment with medium handwriting acceptable to my taste, and with another parchment, I checked the cost of her order, a scroll where I had written down all the prices that the uncle has made for the wide variety of orders that we have accepted.
"Ara~! What a good boy, you are so cute writing with such vigor and good manners! Not like my daughter!" Liyia's mother said with a big smile as she glanced at her to see what reaction her daughter would have, who only grumbled.
"I too can grate a parchment and speak like adults!" Liyia crossed her arms as she avoided looking at us.
I didn't speak afterward, just silently watched as Erilea enjoyed her daughter's behavior with a motherly smile as she played with Liyia's fluffy cheeks.
I didn't interact with her at all, so I didn't think I'd see her again. . .
Well. . . She came the next and next day after the previous one, at first she just bother me to play with her and the other children, but I have no interest in joining, I will be a child and I get excited easily, but that does not make me an imperative child, so I kept staying at the store.
She then tried to run with me in the morning to see who is faster, I left her biting the ground, easily, this only seemed to motivate her to annoy me more, now I would see her every morning and later in the store a few times to invite me to play.
In the second week, she brought hers of her things and sat next to me at the counter, she had brought her calligraphy set and a children's story to learn to read and write, all apparent ideas of her mother.
The uncle only told me afterward that he had forgotten that Erilea had made an appointment with him one day so that Liyia and I could spend the afternoon playing together, which became normal soon after.
So it became normal to have Liyia sitting next to me trying to master calligraphy and learn to read, something that became easier with the material that her mother brought us, I was trying to learn with an advanced book, that's why I was struggling so much.
Liyia's appearance is that of a sweet girl, with peach pink hair, pink eyes and healthy fair skin, big eyelashes, Liyia is very cute and stands out a lot in this small town where everyone treats her like a little lost princess because of her appearance.
Speaking of appearance, I like my parents I am not ugly, but neither normal, I am above average, handsome, but not beautiful to the level where you always want to see my face, not like Liyia, which is a pleasure to see how beautiful she is and it is something objective that all the town agrees. [A Real Man never is Cute - An old Thought]
My hair is straight deep blue, I don't let it grow any more than my eyebrows because it just gets in the way but I still have to have the rest of my hair long out of habit, so my hairstyle is a ponytail with bangs I loosen up to the eyebrows, my eyebrows are thin and the same color as my hair, then there are my big eyes that I inherited from my father who presumed to have the eyes of a tiger or a predator, the color of my eyes is black, but When the light hits them one can see a golden color flash, that I don't know where I got it.
My uncle also has blue hair, but with a touch of gray, and has the same eyesight as my father of Tigre like hazel brown with few freckles on his cheeks, oh! I have too but on my nose.
Our skin tone is pearly, but my uncle is darker, I was more like my mother in that trait.
--
My studies progressed like a rocket ascending to the stratosphere, at an accelerated rate, I reaffirmed my knowledge by sharing what I understood with Liyia, who was spending more and more time with me.
At first, studying will never be fun unless you have an interest, mine was discovering more about this world, while Liyia was the stories and novels of her mother.
After three months we had mastered writing, it only remained to refine our calligraphy, at first I did not plan to do it... but when I saw how much a good parchment with words with deep meanings and good looking could be sold, it was enough to convince me to improve. my handwriting, Liyia only followed me because she couldn't accept that I had better handwriting than her.
Having the hobby of drawing in my previous life, I knew several exercises to improve control over my wrist to make better strokes, so I had to improvise a bit because it is not the same to use a brush to a pencil, but the results are as desired.
As for getting a traditional pencil from my previous world... it was easy, I just had to tell my uncle what the pencil he wanted was like and the obvious properties of the pencil lead, my uncle as a Master Blacksmith, easily understood recreating the graphite leads and creating the pencil was super easy, especially when he can use his SoulPower to do the whole thing.
He gave me a kit of 20 pencils and a pencil sharpener the next day, I just stared at the gift surprised and grateful.
It didn't take long for Liyia to request her own game when she saw me drawing the following days.
So when I manage to master the language of this world, I develop my calligraphy for economic interest, I will achieve that within a year... thus leaving me with a lot of time without clear or achievable objectives, learn to forge, I could only awaken my spiritual veins, so I only had to spend time on my hobbies like drawing and doing normal calligraphy.
I did not sell anything at first, but the calligraphy began to sell slowly since I left it for sale in a part of the Workshop together with Liyia who was competing with me to see who sells more, I began to have an advantage when I also decorated my scrolls.
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ:; ============= [Time Skip] ============= ;:
"Move over Ethan!! We have to get there early to awaken our spirit veins as early as possible!!" Liyia said ecstatically as she pushes Ethan who is walking half asleep.
Ethan couldn't sleep last night because of the excitement so he is now quite sleepy and his reactions are a bit slow, but he was able to keep up with Liyia who was now holding his hand as she dragged him to Seelenstern Academy one of the So many academies abound in the Stardust Empire, but this is the closest academy to their village, so they have to attend there for their awakening and studies.
A few days ago Ethan and Liyia arrived in Almadora City and stayed with a relative of Liyia's mother who could not stay with them due to superior reasons such as giving birth to a child, Liyia's younger brother, and Ethan's cousin.
Liyia's mother used Ethan and her daughter as a bridge to get to Daven and after several dates, they got together, Liyia's mother's food and her organized personality won over Ethan's uncle's heart, apart from the fact that she is beautiful.
Their union did not surprise anyone, since the town knew well how in love Erilea was with Daven since they were children, only for that reason Erilea had not left town with how beautiful she was, she could ensure a good future in the Almadora City.
So, in the middle of this year, Erilea's stomach lumped, thus announcing that she was pregnant, a small party was held in the house where all lived now, so, with her pregnant, Daven took the two children to the Almadora City and left them with the Cousin of Erilea and then return as quickly as possible to his beloved.
Daven being Rank 23 has a physique superior to that of a normal person, so running back to his house is not much of a problem for him, less when his body is tempered by the forge.
..
It didn't take long for Ethan to be fully awake and full of energy again, he achieved this by synchronizing his rhythm with Liyia's rhythm, a trick he learned a few months ago when he managed to control his rhythm when he was learning to Meditate since it is something he will have to do a lot when he awakens his Spiritual Veins.
Soon he and Liyia were running down the street among other children and families who were also coming for such a great day.
The Academy had very high walls that surrounded it and kept snoopers away, but now the large golden doors with red details and engravings of various mythological beasts, were open to the public, a beautiful garden could be seen from only the entrance with a path of gray tiles that would take one to an esplanade where the awakening would take place.
Inside the academy several Senior Students were guiding the families and children, all of them gave support to control a large number of visitors and examinees, there were only 8 teachers while all the others were Senior Students from the outer circle.
Ethan and Liyia were guided to hexagon B where a teacher would wake them up, she calmly stood in the center of the hexagon while looking around with a silent but pleasant look, this made many of the children relax when they saw that they did not get any of the other teachers who looked more severe or less friendly to the eye.
Behind the teacher was another Senior Student sitting in a chair with a table with various special certificates.
"Silence, we are about to start, all the children line up and move forward when it is your turn and appear on the inner pentagon in front of Miss Lirlia for your awakening, then go to receive your certificate, those who pass, go with Fellow Rithan and wait for the following indications "
All the kids got nervous when they heard the spokesperson and saw him use SoulPower to amplify his voice.
Soon the first child of Ethan's group passed by and they were able to observe what her awakening would be like.
"Name and Age!" Yelled the student sitting at the desk.
"Li Shun-! 7 years!" The little plump boy said while his whole body trembled, in his yellow and blue clothes with gold edges, one could still see crumbs from the cookies that he had been eating until a few seconds ago.
"Close your eyes Li Shun and focus on your inside, you will feel something out of the ordinary and it will be easy to notice, and once you feel it, try to reach it" Miss Lirlia's sweet and calm voice easily calmed the plump child who only nodded and followed her instructions.
Soon everyone was surprised when they saw how the Hexagonal Array on the ground began to come to life from the position of Mis Lirlia, a celestial color like the sky filled the Array, in an instant all the SoulPower gathered around Li Shun as the center.
Li Shun's face was filled with concentration for several seconds, everyone was silent until Li Shun slowly stretched out his left hand as if he was trying to reach for something, then a strong flash of light blinded everyone for an instant and the next moment, he had a Soul mystic behind.
An Abacus was the spiritual manifestation of the child, a tool-type Soul mystic, the secrets that this tool hid could only be discovered now by the child or known by his clan if he has any, which seems to be already by the happy group of men who celebrate the awakening of the little lord of his clan.
"Uhh! It's the same boring Abacus again, I wanted an Imperial Tiger like Uncle Lee!" The little boy was dissatisfied with his spiritual manifestation.
"Rank 4, Impure Spirit energy, Promising Talent, I suppose the Li Clan has a good future ahead of it if it is the same spirit as Lord Li Yung" One of the adults observing the children from afar commented.
Soon the next child passed and a similar situation was repeated, the only difference would be the Ranks that would range from 1 to 3, with everyone having Obstructed Spiritual Energy instead of impure, only a few were lucky enough to be born with impure energy and only one rare case with pure energy.
The higher one's energy purity, the easier it is to cultivate, which is why it is an aspect desired by everyone to ensure their future, Ethan's parents had Obstructed Energy and Rank 1, so Ethan did not expect something very different, but that didn't stop him from waiting any longer.