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Orion Retracer Academy, 12:35 p.m.
Under the rays of the golden sun, a man sat on a bench under the shade of a tree. This man was Dawn, currently contemplating about his predicament.
His elbows pressed down on his knees, as he looks out in the distance, making out the silhouettes of Kane and Aurion.
He didn't know when it started, but there would be times that he would get instantly disappointed with himself and always ponder as to why, even though he suppresses the feeling most of the time. He called it the Explosive Bereavement Syndrome.
'Is it because my effort wasn't enough to at least stand on par with Kane, the star student of the academy?' Even though Dawn knew it was impossible, he still felt there was a small chance to close that gap.
'Or is it my parents' fault that I was born with this aptitude, which made not stand out amongst my peers?' Dawn definitely knew that he was grateful for being born, if not, he wouldn't be able to sit on the bench and contemplate as of the moment.
Gradually, Dawn's rationality came back to him and suppressed his condition. As he did so, he let out a sigh.
'Or maybe it's because of this syndrome that I easily get disappointed with my effort, even though I know every person has a different destiny.'
Thinking for a bit, he continued to suppress the syndrome until he was able to gain full control of his body again. He shook his head from left to right vigorously and slapped himself on both of his cheeks, pushing his rationality to full gear.
All of a sudden, he stood up and shouted, slightly shocking the other students sitting on nearby benches.
"Ahhh, what am I thinking! Mulling over these things won't get me anywhere, only effort shall let me decide my future even more!"
With a firm resolution in mind, he headed back towards the Seed Formation Chambers where Aurion was.
...
"Oh? Back already?" Aurion looked at Dawn with a bit of a surprised look on his face. Since they were bestfriends, he definitely knew that Dawn had a syndrome he often had to combat against.
Dawn nodded with a firm gaze, rather than a depressed one. "Yep. I've decided to head back to a capsule and continue my seed formation. You can head on out first without me, who knows I might be able to increase my formation by a percent or two," he chuckled at the end.
Seeing that Dawn was not affected by the syndrome, Aurion let out a light chuckle as he said, "Alright then, I'll be heading home. Good luck man." Afterwards, Aurion turned around and continue to walk towards the school gates.
'I hope you don't let Kane affect you that much,' Aurion thought inwardly.
Dawn headed towards a nearby capsule and closed it shut, preparing to go on a continuous formation session for a few hours or so.
He rummaged something out of his pocket and brought it out. He brought out a silver coin.
The currency used by the current era of humanity was somewhat similar to those of the ancient periods. Bills were no longer used, but instead easy to mint coins that were made from a strong metal alloy. The color of the coins denote their buying power, from weakest to strongest: rust, steel, silver, gold, jade, and crystal.
So for someone like Dawn coming from a modest family, having an allowance of around 5 silver coins a week was enough for Dawn's expenses.
"I would like to buy 1 set of Grade 1 Nutrient Fluid," Dawn said as he inserted the coin through a specific slot.
Seconds later, a robotic voice could be heard.
"User has successfully bought Grade 1 Nutrient Fluid, would User like to use it now?"
"Yes," Dawn said as he closed his eyes, preparing to start his seed formation. Concurrently, multiple tubes with intravenous needles at the end injected themselves through certain areas of Dawn's body, pumping green fluid at a stable pace.
This green fluid made Dawn lose the feeling of hunger and gave him a high amount of energy, which was needed in seed formation.
'With that taken care of, I can officially start my session.'
Dawn started with the first step of seed formation, which was visualization. But this time, rather than visualizing the creation of a race car, he visualized the nurturing of a flower, which was closer to the building of a tower than the race car creation.
At the instant Dawn started to visualize the formation, a small whirlpool of energy started to coalesce where the unfinished god blood seed was, hastening the creation of the next floor.
Each second that passed took a toll on Dawn's mental energy, but that was solved with the nutrient fluid continuing to be pumped inside him.
...
Orion Retracer Academy, 3:58 p.m.
Dawn opened his eyes with beads of sweat covering his forehead. In the midst of it, his eyes glistened like a bright flame as he had a huge smile on his face.
A few minutes before he opened his eyes, he heard a small explosion occur throughout his body, signalling that another part of the seed was created, thus bringing his seed formation to 16 percent!
Dawn removed the numerous tubes connected to his body and got out of the capsule, doing some basic stretches.
'Who knew the combination of continuous nutrition fluid injection and changing my method of visualization would result in a one percent increase?' Dawn couldn't help but laugh at his efforts.
'With this increase, me and Aurion have the same amount of increase today!' The fact that this was the case made Dawn skip with joy.
As he was skipping his way through the campus, he looked at the time and decided to. run towards the gates. 'It's already 4 p.m? I should hurry up, lest Mom hits me for being late!'
Without delay, Dawn used his full strength and exerted it through his legs to move faster. As a person that was aiming to become a Retracer, he wouldn't neglect his body at all.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
He weaved his way through the sidewalks and civilians without injuring in the process.
"Ouch! Watch where you're going!"
Well for the most part.
As he continued to make his way back to his home, his eyes caught a glimpse of a shiny item, making him abruptly stop.
He came closer and bent down to get a better look at it. The shiny item was some sort of coin that had 8 sides rather than a huge circle. In the middle was a square-shaped hole with its borders emphasized. On each side of the hole were random scribbles that Dawn was sure to be some sort of different language.
"It looks interesting. Since no one has taken it, I'll just grab it for my own."
Without hesitation, he pocketed the odd coin and continued to run towards his home.
What he didn't know was, the coin glowed a faint green as he ran.