Chapter 1 - Slum boy

"Students, tomorrow will be the day of the aptitude test. This will be the most important day of your life and so to that, I would advise you to have a good night's sleep as studies have shown it to have a slight, but positive effect on your results. Do make sure that you do not miss the testing and with that said you are all dismissed!"

As the students made their way out in groves. One particular student stood out. There was something about his demeanour that stood out from the other students.

He had a straight back and walked with long strides in conjunction with his lanky build. He carried himself confidently yet with enough reserve to not draw attention to himself. His dismissive aura helped to draw attention away from himself, which he preferred.

As he headed home, through the countless turns and alleyways, he bumped into a man.

"Out the way ye slimy little rat!", the man was large and had a beer belly; when compared to a 13-year-old, the size difference had become more apparent. When the boy did not listen, the man had become enraged and yelled again. He was drunk; a wine bottle in one hand to indicate that.

The bystanders walked on not even sparing a glance as though this was a common occurrence-which it was. This was after all the Swamp unit. the largest slum within the Forkland Kingdom, filled with all sought of illegal and underground dealings, something as vanilla as a drunk man causing a commotion wasn't worth taking note of, it wasn't as though the sanctum guards whose job was to maintain public order would have acted.

The slum was located in the south of the Forkland kingdom and all schools were by law built on recognized governmental land. This was due a previous cases of slum schools yielding less-than-ideal results and dealings between large criminal organizations and school heads taking place. Which would siphon funding from the Command Centres, the Syvernisi, and the Temple of Ilios to the organizations.

Anka, which was the boy's name, stared deep into the murky brown eyes of the man in front of him. When his black eyes met the man's eyes, the man shivered. This was not what he had imagined would happen, this rat in front of him should have been shitting his pants, legging it the moment he had commanded him to get out of his way. Why was he not complying with him? Was he trying to undermine his superiority and emasculate him? No this could not happen, his pathetic hubris would not allow for this to happen, especially not in a public area like this causing him to burst out shouting, "Oi, ye ain't 'ear ye little shit, ye got two seconds to fuck off before I beat ya half dead.

Anka turned, causing the man to smile. He moved to take a large gulp of wine and that was what Anka needed, he quickly turned another 180 degrees and infused his muscles with soul power. This allowed him to jump and clasp onto the man's head, twisting it within two seconds making the man unconscious. Fortunately, he wasn't strong enough to kill the man as even in the Swamp murder in broad daylight wasn't socially accepted. It is illegal after all and the guards would have to arrest him. Still, he bent down to search for the man only to find 100 S credits.

The bystanders who had thought the man would have gotten what he wanted were shocked at this sight, however, they did not intervene and left the man to be robbed

Anka turned and continued on his walk home which he was enjoying, especially the summer breeze. He preferred to not have to act, only moving and talking with purpose, but when he was bothered by that nuisance, he could not help but act. 'What a pointless excuse of a man' he thought before preceding to remove all records of this instance from his memory

People like that were common in the swamp- a dime a dozen. Pathetic and useless just like nats, continuously bothering everyone around them.

Most of them were photos, men, and women who could not generate over 200 soul power before their aptitudes were defined therefore locking them in the first rank of protoperios they also wouldn't receive an aptitude . They were drawn into the Swamp like moths to light as though it was a haven for them, not realizing that the criminal organizations would use them like cheap labour to complete their deeds. Those who could not advance were doomed, they were destined to never succeed, They could not produce the same amount of results as rankers and so it's a demoralising rank with justified reasoning

There was a way to increase soul power that didn't rely on talent and natural ability and that was consuming soul power-rich beast meat as a diet. This would nourish your body and streamline the process of gaining soul power, this was expensive however, unless you could somehow hunt such a beast for yourself. This was obviously impossible for many.

Anka's home was located in an interesting location. Here, large mountains created from mechanical parts of soul devices were left to rust and scavengers would come to find any hidden treasure that may be hidden in the depts. He liked this place as it allowed him to understand the workings of the devices ever since he found it 5 years ago

Anka was smart and knew he had to hide his house because in the Swamp unless you lived in the more populated areas, you would wake up to find most of your belongings gone, sold and shipped away before you awaken. To prevent this from happening, Anka blended his house in with the surroundings and fortified it using parts of the soul devices.

A few years prior, he'd found a device that was the equivalent of a keyhole, it worked by inserting soul power and then inputting a series of numbers. He had tried fixing it and it took him multiple tries over the course of a year to succeed and in doing so applied it to his house. Truly one of his most treasured belongings

Upon reaching his house and inputting the required code, he entered his empty house.

This had been his reality since he'd been 5, raised by a single mother in this hellhole. It was a mystery to him how his mother had managed to raise him by herself before passing away due to overwork. He had no relatives to rely on and he could not trust anyone in the Swamp lest he get used and betrayed.

This had toughened him up mentally, leaving him inquisitive and unyielding

Inside, was some food he had stolen from a local restaurant. It hardly posed any difficulty to complete that task. So long as you'd planned beforehand. After finishing the food he sat down on his bed to think about school.

The Syvernisi and the Temple of Ilios, created a standard education module to educate as many as possible. They believed that with even some basic education the human race would be able to continuously evolve and propel itself to the top. They were required to learn arithmetics, reading and science. In addition to that they had to learn to manipulate soul power smoothly in their bodies to prevent accidents and improve their SP count before the aptitude testing. Those who became protos are prevented from entering any of the Novaium academies due to not being able to improve.

Anka knew that within a few hours, he would have his soul power measured and that his aptitude would be Tested. One could roughly tell what their soul power was with an uncertainty of roughly ± 100 soul power. This wasn't very accurate at low ranks but it served its purpose, besides as one progresses in rank the percentage uncertainty would decrease as the amount of soul power required increases.

There were two ways to accurately determine soul power, the first being heading to the Novaium to get your aptitude determined, the benefit of this was that it was free, however it is a one-time offer, and it costs money after all. The second way is to get a soul band. These are worn like watches, they work by pressing the button adjacent to the interface causing the number 0 to appear, then by directing a few units of soul power at the band the number displayed would increase only stopping at the number corresponding to your soul power. These were relatively expensive however, at the academies they were provided free of charge to aid the students.

This wasn't a problem as after a certain rank they were pretty much useless due to the larger amount of soul power in the body

Lying on his bed to sleep, Anka could feel it in his body that his soul power was higher than average. However, he knew better than to radiate arrogance only showing calmness at all times... most of the time. At school, he would only perform well enough to be placed within the top 25%, but not much more to reduce attention on him. His mind drifted slowly into the dream world forcing his eyes shut, and he embraced it.

A good night's sleep was required for a strong healthy body especially for a 13-year-old child