Before going to bed, Sophie made a call and scheduled an appointment. With her status as a blessed, she could get Terran tested without much of a wait. The government had plenty of manpower. Even so, testing lines were often crowded. Every person in the city hoped that their child would be blessed. So many parents would often get their kids tested every year until the age of 12, which had been discovered to be the last year a child could awaken their first blessing. Because of this, there was often a long wait. However, blessed got priority when scheduling appointments for their children. While it was far from one hundred percent, if one was blessed, their kids would have a higher chance of being blessed. Additionally, if a blessed gave their word that they were confident their child had been blessed, they would be able to skip the wait altogether.
Soon, Sophie retreated to her room for the night, leaving Terran to himself. Pulling up the system, Terran noticed that one of his 5 daily quests had been completed. He was sure the system was surprised to see that the one quest he had completed was, in fact, the 60 minutes of conversation.
Although the couch was calling his name, Terran decided to complete the other 4 quests after finding a book on the coffee table. He wanted to get stronger, and he was hopeful that the lottery could give him some more kiwis to gift Sophie. Although it might be tough to come up with an explanation, after learning how rare the tasty green delicacies were, he was sure it was worth the risk.
The exercises were rather easy to complete. Although Terran's mind continued to grow heavier, his body seemed inexhaustible when it came to energy.
The book was a fictional tale about a goddess named Artemis. Although Terran didn't find it particularly interesting, he was thankful it wasn't something mind-numbing.
An hour later and a system notification popped up.
[Daily Quests Complete! + 3 Stat Points | +25 EXP | +1 Lottery Spin]
Unfortunately, Terran was too mentally exhausted to even use his spins by this point. So instead, he had just decided to hit the hay. A big part of his mind had been on a siesta for the past few years. But for the past few hours, it had been working in overdrive. Now it was struggling to categorize the influx of information.
That night Terran had the best sleep of his life. Sophie had brought out some extra blankets and a pillow, and Terran slept on the couch. Granted, as far as Terran could remember, he had only slept on the cold red rocks that littered the surface of the planet. Previously, he did not even have the luxury of leaves. On top of that, he had had the endless hunger to keep moving until his body physically could not move forward.
Terran woke up to the warmth of a sunray shining through the window in the kitchen. Outside, the city was bustling. Sophie was already awake, getting some nutrient fluid out of the fridge. The mixture was tasteless, but it cured hunger and kept everyone that could afford it in perfect shape, assuming they were at least slightly active.
"Morning Terran, I stopped by the store this morning and picked you up some clothing. Hopefully, they fit you well."
Terran could not hide his joy seeing the nice fabric clothing laid out on the couch. He Immediately started reaching for them, but before he could lay his hands on them, Sophie snatched them back up.
"Before you put them on, let me give you a haircut. You look like a little barbarian girl right now, and afterward, you should take a shower. I'm going to put this in the nicest way possible; you smell terrible."
Terran hadn't realized it at the time, but the blue barrier he had walked through when entering the city had taken off most of the dirt and grime covering his face. Still, while it helped him not look like a goblin walking down the streets, it had not entirely suppressed the smell of his body odor that had stuck to him after two years without showering. Additionally, his hair currently reached past his shoulders and had more than a few knots in it.
"Ouch, Miss Sophie, that hurts." Sophie was finishing up the haircut and was currently brushing out the last of the knots in his hair.
"No, this is what hurts," Sophie said, slapping the back of his neck. "Now stay still, were almost finished here."
Stepping into the shower, Terran felt refreshed. Of course, it could not compare to the feeling of when he stepped through the barrier, but it was unlike anything else he could remember.
If anyone knew that Terran was imagining the barrier as a glorified shower, they would most likely gouge his eyes out.
While he was unfortunately stuck using a shampoo that made him smell like a tulip, he did not mind in the slightest. In fact, he was captivated by the great smell.
Clean and with a new pair of clothes, Terran stepped out of the bathroom only to be met by a tease. "Well, would you look at that, under all that messy hair was actually a handsome young man."
While handsome would not yet be the proper word to describe him, his features were certainly not lacking. His hair was dark brown with the exception of a few strands that had been bleached by the overexposure to the sun. His skin was a golden tan, that sharply complemented the depth of his emerald eyes. The only things lacking were his height and how skinny he was.
The two wasted no time and left the small apartment after eating breakfast. Terran needed to be registered as a blessed to join one of the academies. While they could have taken it slower, Sophie could not take too much time off and needed to get back outside the city to make up for her lost catch. Additionally, Terran wanted to experience life as fast as possible, he was desperate to make up all of his lost time.
As they walked through the city, Sophie pointed out to Terran where various shops and facilities were. After speaking of the multiple facilities, a question came to mind in Terran's head.
"Miss Sophie, what was past the wall? Why can't we go over there?"
"Past the wall? Well, the heart of the city is home to the aqueduct that supplies the city with its water supply. However, that's not exactly why the wall is there. If I tell you now, though, I'm sure you will have many more questions. As I do not have the authority to explain it to you, it would be better to wait until you learn about it in school."
Terran's curiosity grew as he learned whatever was there could not be described within a few words. In turn, he also became increasingly more excited about his registration, as it was his first step to entering the school.
It did not take long for them to arrive at a building that clearly stood out from the others surrounding it. What particularly stood out was the fact that this building had no windows. In addition, it was constructed out of a black material that did not seem to be cut cleanly. Since the shabby cuts didn't do a great job complementing the building's aesthetic, one could jump to the conclusion that the black material was highly durable, making it hard to construct with. Above the large doors were words that read, 'Federation of Blessed Individuals,' or FBI for short.
Terran was looking the building up and down when he felt a tug on his wrist. "Come on, you don't want to be late for the appointment I scheduled."
With Sophie's reminder, both entered the fortress together.
Walking up to the clerk operating the reception desk. Sophie pushed Terran in front so he could talk. While she knew he was fine talking with her, it was better to make sure that Terran was comfortable talking to strangers before she let him go on his own. After all, Sophie had just found him in the wasteland, and only God knew what such a drastic change would do to a kid of Terrans age. Luckily, from what she observed, Terran was somehow doing just fine.
"Excuse me, miss; I have an appointment for Terran at 11 o'clock," he said while wearing an innocent smile and looking up at the pretty lady handling the front desk.
Finding the kid in front of her cute, the pretty receptionist gave Terran a friendly smile and replied, "One moment, ah, Terran, I have you down right here. Please fill out this form, and an official will be with you in a second."
The form was quite simple. It asked everyday things like your name, age, and birthday, along with when you had awakened and a simplified explanation of your blessing. In Sophie's case, this explanation would be as simple as tracking, while Terran only needed to write healing.
Looking at the document, Terran realized he didn't know his birthday nor how old he was. Saddened by this sudden thought, the pen in his hand trembled slightly. Yet, as quickly as it started, Terran felt a hand grasp his.
"Why don't you write the date we met as your birthday?"
Although Terran couldn't help comparing this method to how a pet was sometimes given a birthday, he still felt jubilated by the thought. These small things felt like holes in his heart. Although Sophie's gesture made him feel warmed, he couldn't help but ask himself why he didn't have these things in common with everyone else.
Terran wrote down that he was fourteen. While he could have passed as someone younger, the leading blessed academies accepted students from the range of 14 to 18. If you couldn't get accepted by 18, you were considered a lost cause. There were schools for the blessed before this age, but they mainly concentrated on writing and math. The government wanted to cram as many of those common skills early on. This was so they could focus on other subjects once they were a little older. It was good to get all the blessed to start training at the same age to avoid giving those who awakened at an earlier age too much of a boon.
While you could not become blessed after the age of twelve, not everyone realized they had been blessed. In order to compensate, two additional years were given for kids to have the chance to discover their blessings. These two years also gave the children a little more time to mature, even if it was only two years.