Honk! Honk! A large truck pulled into a driveway. Shhhh. It slowed down as it screeched to a halt. Tap...tap...tap. "Hey Ethan! Come on out and see our new house!" Ethan's sister called out. "Yeah, I'm coming. Just a minute!" Ethan sheathed his dagger as he got out of the truck. He stared at house in front of him.
After being kicked out of Centin, Ethan's family had moved to Dragopolis. A dangerous decision, given Dragopolis' great number of young masters, but something they were forced to do. Turns out that an up-and-coming mercenary group was recruiting people and his father was invited. That was why his father had gone to Dragopolis two months ago. He was recommended by an acquaintance of his.
"Hey Ethan! Can you help me unload some stuff?" Ethan's father called out. "Sure dad! I'll be there in a moment!" The three of them hauled their stuff all morning as they set up their house. "Ok! I'll pick this room, you can have that one, and dad can have the one downstairs," declared Estelle.
"No! I want this room. You take the other one." Ethan protested. "Guys! Guys! Stop fighting for a moment!" Ethan's father glared at both of them. "Alright, listen up! I've got to do some work today so I'm going to head out. So you too behave yourselves. Don't roam around too far."
Ethan's father frowned. "And Estelle, please, don't swear when you greet the neighbours. God knows how many people have complained to me about that damn tongue of yours. Keep it in check here!" "Fucking sure, dad!" She winked. "You...you." He sighed. "Ok. I'm leaving. Bye!"
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Crunch. Crunch. Ethan climbed up the rocky path. Whoosh! "Whoops! Almost slipped there." He was climbing up a small hill close to his house. Estelle had wanted to go around making friends, but he wasn't that interested. He hadn't had any good luck with making friends in both of his lives, after all.
Last weeks events were still playing in Ethan's mind. He could feel the same emotions that he felt everyday from his father. Rage. Sadness. And a sensation that he couldn't breath. He clenched his fists. Stella G-Corp. Those goddamn bastards. They'd hurt his family in so many ways
Huff...huff...huff. Ethan controlled his breathing. What did he know about Stella G-Corp, or SGC, from 'The Ghost System'? Practically nothing. The book hadn't mentioned them much. But he did know about them in this life. The Stellas had sent their most promising heir to KGS, and, surprisingly, he was the same age as the protagonist.
In fact, every family had sent a heir to Keystone this year. So he had found the worst time to enter KGS. The Stella heir was Damian Stella. His interactions with Noah were practically none. Which was an indicator of how strong he was. Damian Stella was probably the weakest out of the bunch. Yet, that didn't make him an easy target. His potential was S rank, just like the other heirs.
The Stella family was a Mage type family. They were one of the two Mage type families. They controlled wind. Ethan had seen many demonstrations of Stella family members dismembering monsters on screen. And their power was frightening. As Mage type gatekeepers came, they were extremely powerful. Their precise attacks provided them with lethality, and their concealment powers enabled them to be fit as assassins, though nobody could openly claim that they were assassins.
The Stella family was headed by Arnold Stella, one of the five SS ranked gatekeepers, just like Paul Gibson. He was now 75 years old. His son, Zack Stella was an S rank gatekeeper. And Zack's son was Damian Stella.
Ethan had never had a favourable impression the Stellas. After all, Douglas flaunting their name wherever he went was enough to leave a bad taste in his mouth. But Stella.....SGC had driven his mother to death. No, they had killed her. He had seen enough contracts to know that SGC employed people based on insane terms of service. And their control over the media was probably why nobody talked about this.
Crunch...crunch...crunch. What should he do when he meets Damian. Should he kill him? No. Again, he wasn't strong enough to handle the consequences. He didn't want to get his revenge at the cost of his family. So he'd wait. He'd bide his time. And then he'd strike.
Crunch! Ethan had reached the top of the hill. Tap...tap. He took a deep breath. The view here was amazing. He could see a large city sprawled in front of him. There were a cluster of apartments in one corner. He was thankful that he hadn't ended up there. Their house was a bit far from the city, but at least there was enough room to breath.
Ethan stared into the distance. He could see large glass buildings- places where the offices of large corporations existed. There were probably even a few young masters living in one of those houses. He smiled. He was getting a glimpse into the world of gatekeeping.
Further ahead, he could see a large skeleton sleeping over a hill. It was a dragon. A huge dragon. Apparently, the original five heroes- who gave rise to the five families- had slayed a large dragon and ended the war against monsters. This was an incredible feat. Five B rank awakeners had managed to kill an S ranked monster with nothing but their wits and a couple of weapons. It was a legendary story, almost as if it was out of a fairy tale. Or a webnovel.
This was Stone, the site where a dragon had perished. And it was the entrance to Keystone Gatekeeping School. Ethan took a deep breath. A wave of excitement surged inside him. He might go here. He might go to this legendary place, where hundreds of people gathered, where humanity's best trained to fight monsters.
A hundred thousand- that was the number of people trying to enter KGS. The city was bustling with the arrival of so many people. And out of all of these promising candidates, only a thousand were selected. Plus, these hundred thousand were mostly people who were confident that they could pass, so the competition was really tough.
The test was going to happen in two days- all applicants would be invited to a number of centres in Dragopolis, and people who passed would go to the next round. As for the people who wouldn't get into KGS, they would be in a tough spot. KGS had a separate entrance test from all other institutions- they deemed their tests too easy- so they had established their own method of examination.
#ChangeKGS was the trending tag on Bitter. It always was at this time of the year. People would complain about the difficulty about the exam and demand change. But KGS never budged. It never had. In a sense, the exam was fair. It was equally cruel to everybody. Anyways, if any people didn't want to give the test, they were free to do so. After all, there were plenty of willing applicants.
Hu... Ethan took a deep breath. Thinking about the KGS entrance test had depressed him. He turned around. Crunch...crunch...crunch. He had spent enough time here. His father would be worried if he was any late. Jump! Whoosh! Bam! He landed at the base of the hill with a heavy thud. He'd rest for now. Life was going to get much tougher tomorrow.
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He stared at the altar in front of him. Pant...pant...pant. "Send every monster you have, assholes. I'll never back down." "Kieek." He could hear the chattering of goblins. "Come on," he shouted. Slash! A goblin pounced on him as he fell to the ground.
"Aaaaaa," he screamed in pain. "Kieeeeek," the goblin screeched in delight. Splat! Drip! Drip! Drip! Blood trickled down as his only arm was chopped off. The goblin pounded a club onto him as it tried to finish the job. "Mmmph." The goblin raised its club....and fell onto him as he jerked his legs forward.
Stab! It ended. He had clutched a knife in his mouth and had thrown the goblin into it with his only remaining limbs- his legs. "Cough...cough...cough." He slowly got to his feet. Drip! Drip! Drip! He stumbled towards the altar. Drip! Drip! Splat!
Crash! A loud sound echoed as he fell onto the altar. Drip! Drip! Drip! He could hear the sound of his blood pouring as he slowly closed his eyes. Drip! Drip! Drip! The blood continued to trickle.
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Huff...huff...huff. Ethan woke up violently from the strange dream. He was sweating a lot. Drip! Drip! Drip! Water dripped from a tap. He sighed. So it was that goddamn tap that was making the noise. Who knew his dreams would mold it into the sound of blood.
Ethan looked at the time. 2:03 a.m. He yawned. He shouldn't be staying up before he got into KGS. He fell on the pillow, drifting off into sleep. He'd already forgotten the vivd dream he had just experienced.