*1 month later*
*Location: Canada*
*??? POV*
"This pizza is obviously burnt!. What's the name of your supervisor because I demand a refund!. YOU $*&^ &^$%& &%$^& SON OF A &*$%."
A middle aged woman could be seen screaming at a young teenager who was wearing a red uniform who just had a tired look on his young face almost like this was a common occurrence.
"Ma'am if you have a complaint you could report it on the company website. Now please stop swearing so I can go on some other orders." The teenager said through the sea of swears and insults the woman in front of him was throwing at him.
"Fine I'll stop but I will make sure too complain too your manager about your poor customer service!." The woman said before slamming the door shut.
"Freaking karen acting like I'm the one responsible for messing up her food. Hasn't she ever heard the saying don't shoot the messenger?." The boy muttered too himself as he walked back too his vehicle which was a small motorcycle which had multiple pizza boxes strapped to the back of it. The boy was a teenager who was very short for their age around 5'4" or 5'5" and had short messy blond hair and light blue eyes which were covered by a pair of round glasses. They had an average looking face and wore some sort of restaurant uniform which consisted of a red shirt and black jeans and had a very unathletic and skinny figure.
That kid was me and my name is Isaac Tesla. I'm 16 years and what you guys just saw was a pretty common occurrence for someone like me who works in the fast food industry. I would say I've lived a pretty average life I get pretty decent grades at school and while I'm not exactly popular I'm not unpopular I just sort of exist but you know what? I'm fine with that their is a fair amount of guys at my school I don't want anything to do with and I'm just waiting to graduate in a few years.
And outside of school I don't really got much going on for me. I haven't seen my mom in a while so its mainly been me and my dad most of my life and while my dad is awesome and tries his best I don't really see him as much as I would like too because of his work. My dad works as a blacksmith for some sort of big guild and so he has too spend a lot of time making weapons for guardians so most of the time I'm home alone while my dad works. But I'm not one of those kids who hates my dad for having a job I know he works hard to take care of the two of us and while hes away he makes sure to send me money so I can buy basic necessities but still I decided to get a job at a pizza delivery driver after I got my drivers license.
Why you may ask?. Because having money is awesome.
But still having to deal with annoying customers like that chick makes me wonder if I'm getting paid enough for this job.
"Luckily for me their I only have to deal with one last delivery before my shift is over. Then I get to go home and relax." I muttered to myself as I read the address on a small slip of paper attached to the two pizza boxes attached to the last few pizzas.
"Huh I don't think I've ever delivered to this address before. Probably because its on the other side of town and its not like I've been doing this job for that long. I've only been working for a few months." I thought to myself before hopping on my bike and after putting on my motorcycle helmet I begun driving to the address. It was already pretty late when I started my daily deliveries and as I drove to my location on the other side of town it only got darker as it got late as I drove through various streets to get too my location trying not to get run over by the various flying cars speeding through the street.
In this day and age things like flying vehicles are pretty easy to make by companies and are considered a sign of wealth as all of these floating vehicles are not only faster then the average vehicle but apparently have great control. With a floating vehicle drivers don't have to worry about losing control of their vehicles and some of the more advanced models can fly through the air like a airplane. Compared to these types of vehicles a floating scooter is better then the crappy motorcycle given to me by the pizza place i work for.
"Man am I at the right place? I feel like I've left civilization the more I drive." I muttered to myself as I drove into the outskirts of town and entered a more mountain like area that was essentially one big mountain. But as I continued driving down a dirt trail trying to prevent my vehicle from tilting over I noticed something strange in the distance. In the distance down the trail I saw what seemed to be two stone statues that lead to a large stone staircase that was almost connected to the trail I was driving on.
As I got closer too the staircase I stopped my vehicle as I examined a pair of stone statues set in front of the giant staircase in front of me. The statues seemed like something out of Chinese or Japanese mythology and were probably super expensive as they seemed to be of high quality. The statues depicted a large muscular humanoid figure twice my size and height who had a demon like face clad in robes and were in some sort of weird pose like they were about to fight something.
"Ok where the hell am I even at the right place?. Let me double check the address because who would live all the way out here?." I thought too myself as I begun reading the slip of paper attached to the pizza boxes. Yep I followed every direction perfectly and if someone actually lived at this address their would be a house right here but all I see is this giant staircase and these two weird statues." I thought too myself as I looked up too where the staircase in front of me lead too. Since the area was kinda out in the middle of nowhere this staircase was built into a large hill that just went upwards and seemed to go on forever. Even as I squinted my eyes to try and get a better look as to what was on top of the staircase I couldn't even see an outline of anything.
"Dammit don't tell me I've got too go all the way up these stairs just to deliver a pizza. I can't even drive up the stairs because it might screw up the bike. Well who knows maybe this staircase isn't as long as I think it is." I thought to myself hopefully as I took the last pizza box attached to the back of my bike and began walking up the large flight of stairs in front of me.
*30 minutes later*
*PANT* *PANT* "W-Why" *COUGH* "Why did someone decide too live up all the way out here like a dam hermit?. God is this what people with asthma feel like? My lungs feel like their about to explode!. I feel like I've just climbed a mountain or something because my legs are on fire!." I complained too myself in a exhausted tone as I forced myself to take one last step forward as I approached a large wooden gate in front of me that stood atop the seemingly endless flight of stairs I had just conquered. If this is actually the house that ordered this pizza then I better get one hell of a tip for all my trouble.
"P-Please be the right address. Because if this isn't the right address I'm going to just give this pizza to a homeless person or something because I don't get paid to run marathons!." I muttered as I tried to catch my breath as I examined the large wooden fence in front of me. The fence seemed to be made for giants or something because it was absolutely giant like twenty feet tall or something in fact I couldn't even see what was beyond the fence and the fence was held up by a pair of two large metallic gates.
"I-I don't even want to know what type of person lives all the way up here. Let me just knock on the gate once and leave because I am not getting paid enough for this." I thought to myself as I repeatedly knocked on the metal doors in front of me. For a moment I waited for something to happen but noting happened so I turned around preparing to leave but stopped as I heard a voice from the other side of the fence.
"STAY THERE I'M COMING!."
Before I could question what was going on the large metal gates begun to slowly creak open just enough for a guy around my age to poke his head out of the gate. The guy seemed to be the exact same age as me and had very pale skin almost like he had never come into contact with sunlight before. He had an above average face despite his pale skin and short unstyled hair that was a jet black color and their pupils were a completely black color. I couldn't see much of their body as they were only sticking their head out but I could see multiple drops of sweat running down their face like they had just finished exercising and for some reason seemed nervous as they looked at me.
"Um are you the guy w-who ordered this pizza?." I said still trying to catch as the guy just nodded his head.
"Yeah that was me. Are you ok?. You look exhausted." The guy said as I just motioned to the stairs to exhausted to really respond.
"Oh you got tired from the stairs? Why didn't you just infuse your body with mana it would've been much easier if you did so." The guy said in a confused tone.
What I wanted to say was that I wasn't able too at the moment but I was to busy catching my breath so I simply waved my hand as I opened my status screen in front of the man.
Every magic user is able too access something called a status screen similar too a videogame stat screen that allows magic users too see their physical stats and magic abilities. Of course you cant alter these stats like you would in a videogame the only way to increase your stats is by training.
My stats currently read:
[Name: Isaac Tesla]
[Age: 16]
[Class: Artificer]
[Magic: Mind Manipulation]
[Mana: 150/150]
[Mana Regeneration: 5 mana/Hour]
[Strength: 25]
[Endurance: 15]
[Stamina: 15]
[Speed: 15]
[Mind: 50]
***
"Oh a mage type? I heard you guys aren't that physically strong so no wonder you didn't infuse your muscles with mana. Sorry about having you go through all this I didn't think the walk up those stairs would've been so difficult for you. Here's the money for the pizza." The guy said as he stuck his arms out and handed me a bundle of dollar bills.
"Man this guy is surprisingly nice I thought he'd be weird since they lived all the way out here but I guess I was wron-DAMN THAT ARM!." I stepped back a step due to shock as I saw the guys arm which was handing me the dollar bills. The guy for some reason was only wearing a tank top around their torso which exposed their extremely muscular and scarred arm. The arm was like twice the size of mine and looked like it was made of nothing but pure muscle and his hands and knuckles looked like they had been abused by countless fist fights. As someone who watches a bit of MMA only fighters who've practiced karate have fists that look like this guys. As I nervously took the dollar bills out of the guys hand my hand connected with theirs an jesus christ!. This guys skin didn't feel like skin it felt like leather like something a baseball glove would be made out of.
"Hm I forgot too give you a tip....Grandpa always told me too hand out tips and you seem tired from walking all the way up here. If you want you could come in and rest a bit while I get some extra cash to tip you with. Its the least I can do since you had too walk all the way here." The guy said as he opened the large gates and jesus christ this guys body!.
If this guys face was that of a teenagers then he had the body of a modern day hercules. Even as the guy slumped his back almost like he was nervous and even then he was twice my height around 5'11" or 6'0" and even though he wore a white tanktop along with a pair of jeans they did little to hide this guys ridiculous figure. While he wasn't exactly large and was pretty lean it looked as though they had converted every ounce of flesh on their body into raw muscle. The guy looked like a marble statue and almost looked like the legendary Spartan soldiers from the land of Sparta or those legendary mercenaries from the deadly country of Nepal known as the gurkhas.
And that was mainly because of the almost countless scars covering their torso. Wherever their was muscle their were scars covering this mans torso and back that made him look as though he had fought in every war known to man and won. Some of the scars looked like they came from blades while others looked like they came from and either I'm hallucinating but I'm pretty sure I saw several bullet wounds covering the guys back and chest. As he motioned for me to follow him he turned around and I couldn't help but notice that his back and core muscles were abnormally muscular even compared to the rest of this guys already muscular body.
As I followed the guy into the gates I saw that the gate mainly surrounded a pretty large yard that was mainly dirt and had plenty of space. In the middle of the yard their stood a temple like building that was two stories tall and was made mostly of stone and wood.
"Huh that's a weird looking place to live in but it looks expensive. Maybe hes apart of some super rich family if so then that would explain a lot. Maybe his family are like those noble families who force their kids to train. That would explain his ridiculous physique but I don't see anyone else around here. Maybe hes just like me and lives alone while his family works." I thought as the guy lead me too the temple like building and opened the wooden door as he lead me inside. The inside of the building was pretty standard as their was a living room and a small kitchen where their was a small dining table. In the corner of the room their was a small TV that didn't even have a stand and was set on the floor in front of a old small couch that could barely fit two people. And on the other side of the house their was a staircase that led too the second floor.
"You can just set the pizza down on the dining table while I go upstairs to see if I can find some extra money to tip you with. Sorry if this is an inconvenience I'm not used to this type of stuff so you can just stay here while I'm gone." The guy said to me as he went upstairs. Man I've dealt with some weird customers before but I've never dealt with someone like this. He isn't rude hes actually pretty polite but I've never had a customer act this relaxed around me in fact he didn't even close those giant gates behind him as we went inside. Maybe because were around the same age. Even though our physiques are completely different.
"Man why am I still judging this guy when hes been nothing but nice to me?. Maybe I should just be happy someones trying to give me a tip after all money is money." I thought to myself as I set the pizza box on the dining table and waited for the guy to come back. A few minutes passed until I heard someone walking down the stairs.
"Oh hey man your back. Look I usually don't say this but thanks for being so cool about all this. I mean I kinda thought you were going to blow up on me because I spent like 30 minutes going up all those stairs but your very chill. I mean I thought this because the last person I delivered too right before you was an absolute bi-" I couldn't finish my sentence because as I saw the guy walk down the stairs I saw they had a literal butchers knife clutched in their hands.
I don't think I've ever ran as fast as I did as I ran out of that house.
"Why are you running?!." I could hear the guy shout behind me as I ran out of that house and past those gates and begun running down the giant trail of stairs at top speeds.
"OH FUCK!. OH FUCK! OH FUCK!. I KNEW THIS WAS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE!." I shouted out in fear as I continued running as fast as my short legs could carry me not even bothering to look back and ignored the pain in both my lungs and legs as I continued. Even though It took me 30 minutes earlier to reach the top of the staircase just by walking I was currently already halfway down the large staircase.
"I-I must have the luck of the Irish on my side because I've left that psychopath in my dust!. Why out of all the pizza delivery drivers did it have to be me who gets chased by the crazy psychopath?!. I'm quitting after this because I'm not dealing with this bullshit." I thought too myself as I cautiously looked behind me just in case the guy was following me.
"Why are you running I haven't given you a tip yet?." I heard a voice behind me say as I turned around and saw the guy was right behind me knife still clutched in his hands as he ran at speeds equal to my own. The guy didn't even seem to be struggling as he caught up with my speed and this was enough too make me shout in panic causing me to slip on the ground beneath me. Even though I was halfway down the staircase there was still like 50 more flights of stairs and due to the speed I was running as I tripped I knew that I had fucked up?.
"I-Is this how I die?. Cracking my skull open falling down a bunch of stairs while getting chased by a potential serial killer?." I thought as my vision began to turn as I flew through the air before my head neared the concrete floor. Suddenly I felt a single hand grab me by my waist as someone grabbed me. I then felt my body move forward as someone begun carrying me down the flight of stairs at superhuman speeds and in the blink of an eye I had already reached the bottom of the staircase.
As I was dropped too the floor I tried to catch my breath still trying too process what had just happened as I tried to stand up but my legs felt like jello as I struggled to stand up. The only reason my brain matter isn't covering the ground is because I was carried to safety by whoever was behind me.
Wait a minute....
I felt a wave of dread as I turned around behind me and saw that my "savior" was none other then the same guy I was running from in the first place. They had a casual look on their face as they stood over me staring me down a butchers knife clutched in their hands as they spoke.
"Stick out your hand please." the guy said to me as they motioned to my right hand. Oh my god is this guy going to cut my hand off?! Maybe I can use this to my distraction and run away after he does. He'll be too distracted to notice me as I run away!.
"God this is going to hurt." I thought to myself as I nervously stuck out my hand as I braced myself preparing myself to have my hand get cut off by this psychopath. I even closed my eyes not wanting to see my hand get cut off.
"Here you go." I heard the guy say as I felt him place some sort of paper in my stretched out hand. I nervously opened my hands and saw that he had placed a 50 dollar bill in the palm of my hands.
"Here's your tip also why are you sitting on the floor like that?. Here let me help you up." The guy said as he reached for Isaac causing a look of panic too crawl on Isaac's face as he saw this. Countless thoughts flooded Isaac's mind.
"Should I thank him?"
"Should I get up on my own?"
"Is he still going to try and kill me with that knife?"
"Should I accept their help?"
"How have I not pissed myself yet?"
Overwhelmed by these countless thoughts Isaac did what he thought was the best option.
"AAAAAHHHHH!." Isaac screamed in terror as he crawled back in an attempt to get away from the black haired teen who just had a "Bro what are you on?" look on their face as they frantically crawled on the ground as they struggled to stand on their wobbly feet while also shoving the 50 dollar bill in their pocket. As the confused teenager saw this they took a step forward in an attempt to help Isaac but this only made Isaac scream louder as he frantically ran to his bike at speeds that were impressive for the already tired Isaac as he quickly got onto his bike and drove off at dangerous speeds. Even as Isaac drove off into the distance his screams of fear could be heard leaving behind a very confused Trevor who just had a look of "what the fuck?." on their face as they saw this.
"Man what was that guys problem I just wanted to give him a tip. I even made sure he didn't break his neck from falling down the stairs and that's how he reacts?. Was it something I did?." Trevor thought before a look of realization appeared on his face as he looked at the butchers knife clutched in their hands.
"OH it was probably this that freaked him out. I should've probably told him that I was going to use this to cut my pizza since I don't got a pizza cutter. But in all fairness why is he acting like hes never seen a dude cut their pizza with a butchers knife?. Grandpa uses a machete so I'm pretty tame compared to him." Trevor thought as he begun walking up the large flight of stairs.
*Isaac POV*
*Huff* *Huff* "I'm safe. I'm perfectly safe their is no way that guy knows where I live." I thought to myself as I hid under my bed curled into a small ball trying to calm down my rapidly beating heart. The first thing I did when I got home to my small apartment was lock every door and window and hide under my bed something I haven't done since I was a child.
"Man what type of psychopath did I run into?!. Its already weird enough he lives all the way out in the middle of who the fuck knows where but he started chasing me around with a butcher knife!. And even weirder the guy still gave me a tip and let me escape!." I thought to myself as I crawled out of under my bed.
"You know the weird thing is now that I think about it I didn't sense a single ounce of a mana coming from that guy. That probably means hes a blank....." I thought to myself shuddering at the thought as the face of that black haired monster appeared in my mind.
Currently their are about 8.1 billion humans in the world. 6 billion of them currently live on earth while the remaining 2.1 billion live on the one hundred or so planets under humanities control. And all 8.1 billion of these humans can go under three different categories.
Mana sensitive duds and blanks.
Those who are mana sensitive make up 94% of the human population and are those who can control and use the mana in their bodies to perform superhuman feats. Think of them like TV remotes that are powered by the batteries in their body. And as a result they are also able to sense the mana of others around them.
Those who are classified as duds make up 4% of the population and duds are those who do have mana in their body but lack the ability to control or manipulate the mana in their body so while they have bodies tougher then the average human they cannot perform superhuman feats or abilities. They are like TV remotes that do not work even though they have batteries inside them. But like those who are mana sensitive they at least have the ability to sense the mana of others around them.
But those who are classified as blanks are even rarer then duds as they only make up 2% of the human population. Unlike duds who at least have mana in their body have absolutely zero mana in their body making them essentially normal human beings. They are like if you took the batteries out of a TV remote. They can't even sense the mana around them and as a result are considered an inferior species by the rest of humanity.
But at the same time they are slightly feared by humanity.
No one knows why but those who are born as blanks are all born with a mental condition known as the E.S syndrome. Short for emotionless syndrome this syndrome could be hard to detect as the more mild cases could be confused for other conditions like autism ADHD and even dyslexia but the more serious cases could be considered straight up psychosis.
Those who are born as blanks tend to have trouble communicating with others possess anti-social traits and have trouble paying attention to things and often have trouble following authority and even struggle to display emotion even when in pain or very emotional situations. It is because of this those who are born as blanks struggle to form human connections and are usually loners who often say they don't feel like they belong with the rest of society.
But during the great holy war a test was performed on soldiers who were blanks who were deployed in battle and as a result the government learned a surprising fact about blanks. While blanks have no physically advantages over others in battle they definitely make up for it with their mental fortitude.
It was revealed that blanks who usually have trouble paying attention to things in day to day life and posses traits similar to ADHD possess uncanny focus during battle and have natural combat senses that even the most veteran of soldiers do not possess making them natural marksman. And while they struggle to relax during day to day life blanks tend to feel strangely calm and relaxed during battle and while committing acts of violence even if they are a blank participating in their first ever battle.
They also do not flinch or are bothered by the act of killing and treat it as a natural way of life and their are even cases of blanks finding the act of killing relaxing and addicting. So in a way while most blanks have absolutely no combat power physically blanks are born as natural born killers mentally. This a fact that tends to make people nervous around blanks. Because if they ever decide to they could kill all of those who are close to them without a second thought.
"Well hopefully I never run into that guy again." I thought to myself as I walked into my kitchen to get something to drink. I think all that running for my life made me pull a organ or something because now my sides hurt.
*Trevor POV*
"997...998...999....1000!." I did one last pull-up on the pull-up bar set up in my room before letting myself sit on the floor as I tried to catch my breath.
"Man even after a daily workout I cant get my mind off that pizza guy I still feel bad about scaring them like that. And the fact tomorrow I'm going to school for the first time ever tomorrow is already stressful enough. In fact I've already gone through more then half of the "stress toys" grandpa left me." I thought to myself as I examined my surroundings.
Trevor's bedroom was rather large and mostly barren of anything other then the small pile of blankets in the corner of the room and the small pull-up bar he had over his door. And the floor of their room was completely covered by the remains of torn punching bags destroyed remains of what seemed to be wooden mannequins and what seemed to be the shattered remains of various wooden pillars.