Chereads / Masks of the Tower / Chapter 1 - Evsalrae's Backstory (1)

Masks of the Tower

🇺🇸NotRenZu
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Synopsis

Chapter 1 - Evsalrae's Backstory (1)

The man named Evsalrae was an inhabitant of the tower's closest city, Caer, which was built after the tower's mysterious appearance over 100 years ago. Caer was known for housing many adventures who came seeking the treasures of the tower, and so the headquarters of the adventurers guild was located there.

Evsalrae was the child of an adventurer and a cheater, soon after he was born, his mother had left him, not wanting the repercussions of cheating on her husband, the current city lord of Caer. So, he was left in the hands of an overzealous adventurer, who soon died in one of the tower's trials.

He was sent to an orphanage at the age of 6 months, the other children didn't like him since he was quiet and ceased interaction with him, but soon after he was placed there, the caretaker in charge of him was killed due to stray magic in a street brawl between two adventurers.

Thinking nothing of it, the other caretakers soon transferred him to another caretaker, a few months later, she was killed due to an incurable illness. After this, the caretakers had some suspicion of him since the two caretakers who had supervision over him had died.

So, they made a request to the owner of the orphanage to transfer him to a different orphanage, he made a call to the city lord, and he accepted it. Evsalrae who was barely a year old at that time had 3 deaths circulating him.

But since the caretakers had mistakenly left out that he had misfortunate happenings surrounding him, his new caretaker who was blissfully unaware of the death that was awaiting him, and soon died just 1 year after he got Evsalrae. But the new caretakers thought it was just a coincidence until they remembered that he had gotten transferred to their orphanage.

They had thought that he had been transferred because the other orphanage needed to make space, but now that Evsalrae had his first unfortunate happening, they had looked into it a bit more and gotten some crucial information, his father had died in the tower, his previous caretakers had died in less than a year after they got him, and they soon came to the conclusion that he had an aura of misfortune or had been cursed by black magic.

So, in less than a year after being transferred he was thrown to the streets. But, Evsalrae was 2 at the time and had basic arithmetic drilled into his head, and he could have broken conversations with people. So, he had the basics to live on the streets, and he used that to his limits. He figured out if people were cheating him with their prices, haggled, albeit slowly, and found a suitable hiding spot from the guards that would sweep the street every night, looking for leaches on the street.

"Kid, are you by yourself? You look like you're buying something for a sick mother." A street vendor said to a now 5-year-old Evsalrae. "I food." said Evsalrae less than a second after. " Aww you poor child, you can't even speak correctly, your mother must be very poor." The street vendor replied. "Well, the vegetables are 3 copper each, fruits are 4, and meat is 10." Evsalrae then said, " 3 veg, and 2 fru for 15." The vendor then retorted a whisper, "Are you messing with me!? the lowest I can go is 16 for that!" "Yes." Evsalrae then said.

And soon Evsalrae had reached his 7th birthday, although this day wasn't to be celebrated, it was the day that the city lord had decreed a new law, that children over the age of 4, should have free education. This policy was made to ensure that there would be more people with higher intellect who would be indebted to the city lord in the future.

So, Evsalrae had entered the pit called education. He had to wake up before the sun rises just to get ready for school, and he enters school just 1 hour after that. He was forced to sit through grueling lessons all day until noon where he got a small half-hour break to eat. And after that, it was lesson time again until it was evening. Although it was harsh, he got to know much new stuff and learned to structure his sentences for better haggling.

And soon he was 15, the minimum age for getting an adventurer's card and being an official member of the guild. He learned much new stuff, such as magic, how to cast it, its origin, how to advance in magic, and the mage ranks. He also learned much about swordsmanship and how that started, he also learned the history of the world, advanced arithmetic, and better language skills. So, he walked up to the adventurers guild and made his way through the gigantic double doors.

He got in and saw many of his own age in the adventurers guild, some parties strategizing what to do on their current floor of the tower, and the reception he walked up to the one closest to him and conversed. He waited in line for a few minutes and walked up to the desk. "Hello, I am here to register for the adventurers guild," Esvalrae said to the blonde man. The blond man then said, "Hello, my name is Drayl, a transfer from the elven branch, I'm guessing that you are coming to be an adventurer. Fill out this paper and put it in the box to the right."

Evsalrae quickly said his thanks and filled out the paper, put it in the box, and went off to the testing room. He arrived and sat down at the nearest bench. There were around 13 other people waiting, some sitting on the ground, others on benches like him, and some leaning against the wall. He learned that every adventurer's test had to have a minimum of 15 people before it starts.

He waited for half an hour and 2 more people came in together, it seemed like they were siblings or a coincidence. After they came in, the examiner came out from the door and he gave a little speech about the importance of being an adventurer. He then promptly started the exam after giving the directions. They were supposed to have 3 separate parts, written, solo battle, and team battle. After Evsalrae had completed the written test about the history of the tower and what dangers were in it, he got to the part of the solo battle.

As the examiner had said before, "The solo battles are a fight against wild animals such as wolves." For an unknown reason, they were unable to bring the monsters from inside the tower to outside the tower.

Soon it was Evsalrae's turn, He was called up to the stage, with his legs shaking a little. As he got to the stage, he said to himself, "Being scared isn't gonna help you fight!" As he breathed in and out calming himself. The signal to start the fight began and the wolf was let out of its cage. It jumped at him at high speeds, although through Evsalrae's self-training this was just manageable. He cast a buff on himself using white magic, "Haste!", he murmured. He got a bit faster and with that speed, he was able to outrun the wolf, and he spun around quickly and the wolf can't just go from full speed to stopping abruptly and so it had go head first into a sword.

He got down from the stage as soon as he heard the examiner saying that he passed. He sat down and removed the buff even though it was going to disappear in the next few seconds, since more mana means less recovery time. He was feeling tired and he had to take a nap, just a quick nap, he thought, he was right. He woke himself up 5 minutes later with the skills that he learned from the streets, he had once almost been found out, but with this, he had escaped just 20 seconds before a guard found his hiding place.

He woke up refilled, and waited till the solo battles were done. But, something unexpected happened, the examiner said, "We're in a rush so the people who had passed the first two exams may leave." He called out a few names including mine, so the few of us left. Evsalrae said to himself, "What an incompetent examiner, he didn't even let me take part in the team battle. Now I can't get experience with a team until I am an actual adventurer."

He went back to Drayl's line and stood there until it was his turn. Drayl started up the conversation this time, he said, "Oh, it's Evsalrae from the afternoon. Did you fail or pass?" Evsalrae replied, "Pass." Drayl said, "Ok then here is your adventurers card! Have a great tower climb!"

Evsalrae then walked out of the adventurers guild and went back to his hiding spot. He then said to himself that he couldn't hide here anymore. He had to get a decent living space now that was an adventurer. So he took his home down and got his satchel and walked to an equipment store, as he still needed a good weapon.