chapter 1 the start

a young man was sitting at his workbench sharpening a tachi-like blade while listening to the tv playing beside him

"Today marks fifteen years since the first foothold was taken back from the beasts and the general himself is here to commemorate the occasion" blared the tv

he looked over at the tv to see the general walking to the podium he smiled seeing his childhood hero on the screen

"thank you all for attending and tuning in for this very special day in human history, as you heard it has been fifteen years since I helped save this city from the clutches of the beasts I know the world has changed immensely since the gates first opened but so have we more and more of us are awakening every year and as this happens we will continue to grow strong and claim more of the world as ours again," said the general as he heard the crowd cheer

"Everyone please settle down settle down, I know we all are celebrating but I do have an announcement to make, I three-star General Braxton Wellnare is resigning from my position as general of the awakened division," said the General

as soon as those words left his mouth the crowd went quite mouths ajar from the news even the young man at the workbench was shocked to hear this but before anyone could say anything else the general continued

"I know this is startling news but I belaved you'll like what comes next as of today I am no longer the general I am here to tell you all everyone in the world who is watching, that the world governments have come together to form a school but not just any school and awakened academy to teach all awakened how to better fight the beasts from the gate how to better defend our people, I am here as the Headmaster of New Eden Awakeners Academy," said the Headmaster as he looked at the silent crowd

the crowd was silent for what felt like forever them suddenly everyone was cheering as they saw a banner fall behind him. The young man had a smile on his face seeing this he put his whetstone down and stood up

"Now all awakened who are able and ready make your way to New Eden your time is now it is located 20 miles out of New york city were welcome all to attend," said the Headmaster before be walked off the stage and away from the crowd

the young man smiles wide grabbed his tachi like a blade as well as a strange blue crystal and walked to a set of curtains drawing them open in front of him was a cab he set the blade on the dash sat in the driver seat and inserted the crystal into a hole in the dash itself. Then suddenly the dashboard lit up he turned the key and the engine roared to life as he drove towards New Eden.

"58 miles to New Eden 58 miles to a new life," said the young man as he looked to the horizon ahead

20 miles into his journey he had to bring his vehicle to a stop as it was slowing down and the crystal was losing its bright blue color in turn for a dark almost black blue. He brought it to a stop grabbed his blade and gathered a few supplies and exited the vehicle, looking around he saw a small game trail in the underbrush of the massive first the makeshift road cut through after the gates opened the world changed its forests grew to the size of jungles with trees harder than stone and steel, savannahs of multicolored grass with strange effects on the body to desserts so hot the sand melted to glass during the day but so cold during the night that frostbite would be minutes away. Currently, the young man was walking through the forest using his blade as a machete cutting his past, after being in this area for three months he know most of the beasts that inhabit it. He comes to a dead stop and looks ahead seeing an elk like a deer with antlers that looked like sharp needles, the Young man knew this beast well it was a spikling a decently dangerous beast but nothing he couldn't handle he stared it down and readied his blade waiting for it to charge him. The spikling snorted at him and charged its head angled down to try and gore him but as soon as it was close enough the young man sidestepped and swung his blade up at an angle striking the spikling in the neck and leaving a deep cut it fell the ground writhing till it stopped dead from blood loss. The young man wiped the blood from his blade grabbed the beast by its back legs and began to drag it back to his vehicle, he arrived a few minutes later with a smile on his face seeing his vehicle was a repurposed school bus turned camper with everything he would need it served him well and it has been his home since he found it and made it his, he walked around to the back of the bus and grabbed a winch attached to his roof-rack and looking the wire to the back legs of the spikling turning the winch on and hanging the beast and skinning, gutting, and quartering it down as fast as he can while removing the head and storing on the roof while quartering the spikling he found not only two more blue crystals but a black orb in its heart and the young man was ecstatic making him work even faster. The young man took the meat into the bus and shut the door storing the meat setting his blade back on the dash and staring at the back orb smiling the orb is a beast core the only way for an awakened to grow stronger each core does something different some make you faster some make you stronger and on a very very rare chance allowing and awakened to us magic but there's very few who have unlocked that power, but no matter what a core was rare and expensive, unlike crystals which you get from every beast no matter what cores are at most one in twentyish chance of getting one. The young man quickly swallowed the orb and felt its power surge through him he felt his skin get harder allowing him to have a better defense, he had hoped for his strength to upgrade but he was happy no matter what never the less he put the crystals in the hole started his vehicle and began his trip again. Soon he saw more vehicles and more and more till it was a chain of them on the makeshift road one by one entering New Eden Academy, soon he could see the gate the massive gate to the even bigger academy the entire area around it was logged out the massive stone like trees made up the wall and gate and outside of their fields of short colorful grass he's never seen before and fences with the weakest monsters inside he knew a far but others he's never seen but what drew him in was the gate which was getting closer and closer till he was looking the guard in the face.

"name," asked the guard as he looked at his tablet

"Seth deken," said the young man now known as Seth

"go to distort C they'll give you a parking ticket there don't lose it or your vehicle will be U.S property," said the guard as he handed him a ticket that said District C on it

Seth nodded and drove where he was told to meet another guard got his pass parked his bus and saw the line of similar large vehicles mostly buses and RVs but he was at the end of District C and could see D which had a few semi trucks with transport trailers but he ignored the vehicles and made his way to the main building of New Eden academy.