Kennesaw Metropolis, Earthen Hunter Continent, Mortal Realm
In a city twice the size of New York City, there were flying cars rapidly zooming across colorful sky channels, shrouding the city in rainbow light. One mid-sized building looked a century older than the buildings surrounding it, which all looked futuristic and artistic. This mid-sized building was of dated design but was made of a mysterious stone that made it glow at night. Thus, it had its own charm among these other buildings. This was a high school near the downtown region of the city, thousands of students were present in their classes studying.
Marathon High School.
As a beautiful day slowly became afternoon, loud bells were ringing throughout the campus.
"Class dismissed!"
"Thank you, teacher!"
In a class on the third floor, thirty-three students were rapidly scattering, all excited that school was out. As all these students rushed out, four students walked leisurely out of the classroom at their own pace.
"Stephon is completely gross, he confesses to me nearly every day," a fair-skinned girl, with pretty features and green eyes walked backward with her thumbs in the loops of her backpack's straps as she spoke to the three boys now in front of her. The student I.D. on her blouse read Lucara Angels.
"What's so bad about Stephon? He's captain of the varsity duggerball team!" replied a short and stout young man with falling glasses, as he shifted them up to the bridge of his nose with a finger. His student I.D. read Charles Carter. Charles had always had a crush on Lucara, and he secretly felt that if not even the class hunt Stephon Graham could enter this beauty's eyes, then where was the hope for himself?
"Who is into that? I don't know how you play duggerball. I'd much rather have an intellectual like you, or Carl," Lucara shrugged her shoulders and turned around, sashaying down the hallway.
"Like...me?" Charles looked completely dazed for a moment. His heart raced and he felt like he just walked into a room full of gold credits. However, just as quick as happiness came, it was gone. A bucket of cold water washed away his elation as he exclaimed in frustration, "Wait, Carl?! Did she really just say, Carl? So she's calling Thomas by his forename now? Since when are they so familiar? But why Carl? Intellectual, pah, pah! Just because he scored one friggin' point higher than me on the quarterly assessment, damn it!"
"Dude, she's playing you like a fiddle. How blind could you be?" laughed a tall dark-skinned young man with an incredibly deep voice. Believe it or not, his student I.D. read Simpson Simpleton. He was obviously bullied about this a lot, which gave me a bit of a bad temper. Of course, that was prior to Simpson shooting up nearly two feet in one year. People no longer dared to speak so arrogantly or openly call him Simple Simpson the Simpleton now. Of course, this was still his nickname behind the scenes, and the jocks never hesitated to try their luck.
Simpson chuckled as he turned to the handsome young man on his right, "Bas, get your boy before it's too late."
"You can't light someone's path if they keep blowing out the candles..." said the handsome youth with a big afro walking in between the other two young men. He had a well-toned body and was only a head shorter than the giant Simpson Simpleton, making it so they both effectively towered over Charles and Lucara, who were both shorter than 165 cm with Charles being 162 cm tall. Meanwhile, the handsome young man stood straight as a sword at 185 cm. He a student I.D. that read Sebastian King, but his friends called him Bas. To Bas, Sebastian was just a name he had to deal with until he surpassed mortality, "Anyway, I'm definitely the one Luke is actually in love with. You should know this in your hearts."
"Come off of it, you're a complete mental patient!" Charles roared at his friend Bas. He puffed his chest out, a false sense of security welling thanks to Lucara's praise, "Why would she want a pretty boy like you? She's far too sophisticated for that, as you can see."
"Aww, do you really think I'm pretty? Is it my eyes? Or my legs?" Bas King fluttered his eyes and held up his pants leg to reveal a rather muscular leg. Charles grimaced deeply..
"Just you wait! I'll definitely make Lucara Angels my woman!" Charles harrumphed and hurried after Lucara. After he ran off, the smiling and laughing Simpson suddenly frowned and held out an arm to stop Bas in the middle of the busy hallway.
"I don't trust that chick, man. Something is real...off about her," Simpson said very seriously while looking Bas in his eyes.
Bas' eyebrows furrowed as his easy-going face suddenly turned mature and engaged. Among his friends, only Simpson was worthy of his true undivided attention. The others simply never saw this side of Bas. However, Simpson knew very well that Sebastian King was very different from what most people thought. He wasn't as quiet or reserved as he appeared to be. He was more like a ticking time bomb. Bas possessed this terrifying momentum that could explode at any moment.
Unlike most mortals, Simpson recognized this feeling due to his father's stint in the military.
This was the power of hunt qi!
The invisible atmosphere of a hunter!
Hunter's were the elite of this world! Every child all over the Earthen Hunter Continent dreamed of one day becoming a hunter and soaring into the heavens with their own ability. Of course, the reality was crueler than the dream. Millions of people all over the world were born with no affinity to hunt qi. Those like Simpson simply didn't even know anything about hunt qi other than the bits of information he learned from his father. These people who couldn't utilize hunt qi in their entire lives were known to the Hunter's Society as mortals. In spite of the fact that being a hunter did not immediately make one immortal, they were still far more powerful than mortals and even had longer lifespans. They were the true peak existences in this world.
"Interesting," even though Bas King valued this gentle giant's point of view, ultimately Simpson was just a mortal. Could Simpson's discernment surpass the great scion of the sun? Could he be more intuitive than the peerless pharaoh of both the Great Divine and Eternal Realms, renowned with heavenly fame? This was unlikely. However, Bas King knew that this mortal boy Simpson possessed a stainless soul. Such a thing was quite rare, even among druid. Simpson's pure ability to perceive misfortune was likely unmatched even in the Great Divine Realm. His ability to perceive fortune was likely twice as good. Thus, Bas couldn't completely rule this boy's opinion out. "As long as we stay alert things should be fine. After all, she's just one mortal girl. How dangerous could she be?"
"I hope you're right." Simpson didn't sound too convinced. However, he was satisfied now that Bas seemed to have taken his words to heart.
After leaving the campus the boys split up to go home on their specific routes. Almost every student was either received by a flying car or rode the sky bus home. Bas King, however, was walking over to the bike rack. He unlocked his hoverbike from the bay and hopped on it. Hoverbikes worked just like bicycles and you had to peddle to form your own kinetic energy or the bike wouldn't move. Bas started moving his legs in a blur and zoomed off onto a sky channel.
Sky Channels were highways full of soul power and were impossible to access unless one is a hunter or in a vehicle protected by hunt qi such as most standard flying cars. Actually, this mortal sky channel was made from hunt qi and not the more powerful soul power. Not even the most expensive of hoverbikes should be able to move in a sky channel made up of soul power. Bas didn't find it challenging to ride in a highway made of hunt qi at all. Many drivers were stunned daily to see a lean young man who looked like an athlete as he cruised along, peddling on his hoverbike in the sky channel. He looked unperturbed by the passage of time and unworldly.
'Could this young man be a hunter?' everyone found this hard to believe.
They found it harder to believe that his hair wasn't even singed a little, despite the violent hunt qi winds. That afro was huge and perfect! The only known hunters in this city were the weakest Hunt Neophytes, fifth class. However, what shocked the witnesses of this event to no end, was that this peddling young man wasn't just cruising in the sky channel. He surpassed the speed of the flying cars in the sky channel. His legs moved in a blur as he rapidly peddled for a full seventy miles, before getting out of the sky lane and peddling another ten miles to his home. This was simply impossible for a Hunt Neophyte to accomplish. People continued to stare at Bas' descending figure, wanting to understand more about him.
In fact, Bas King was not a mortal of this society.
Sebastian King was currently a regular junior at Marathon High School. On the other hand, he was also a hidden expert who was forced to be here for three years by his family's elders and his father. However, Bas King was also not actually Sebastian King. Two years ago he had been reborn into this body as the original soul was dissipating. They had similar names and birthdays so Bas chose to embrace the life of this fallen Sebastian.
On that day he was reborn a King!