Terran waved goodbye and disappeared around a corner. This time, he waited for a few more minutes and made sure no one was following him before he stuck his arm back on. Instantly, his muscle fibers jumped at each other like a lecherous couple that had not seen each other for a decade.
From there, he quickly made his way over to the library. Contrary to the name, the library had no books, only computers. These computers specifically stored large databases of writing that could not be found by simply accessing the internet.
Apparently, not many books had made it into this city, and no one would willingly waste resources when the information could just be published on computers.
The academy worked more like a college; many people only took around 16 hours of classes each week. Additionally, attendance was not strict, but most students would not miss a day as the competition was fierce. These facts made the library busy, but there were still many open computers.
Sitting down, Terran realized he didn't know where to start. "Should I look up the fall of Gaia? No, when I asked Miss Sophie if Gaia had died, she acted like I was crazy. If Gaia is the god of all things living below the sky, like Miss Sophie said, then maybe it has something to do with the fact that this planet is no longer as habitable as it used to be. Yes, that makes some sense. It would explain why the mission statement wants me to revitalize the planet."
Terran was optimistic about this idea, but based on the reward this quest offered, he had a feeling it would not be so simple.
Opening the computer, he realized he was unfamiliar with the library system. So instead of wasting time, he decided to look around the room for a librarian.
"Excuse me, Miss, could you help find a book?"
Walking up, the woman stared at Terran with a bit of fear in her eyes.
"What is it? Did I forget to shower? Terran said as he smelled himself. Since learning about the wonders of showers, he had been terrified of bad hygiene.
The librarian just pointed to his shirt. It was missing a sleeve and had a thick layer of crusty dried blood around the edges.
"Oh, I forgot about that. Don't worry, if it makes you feel better, it's my own blood." Terran said these words as if he had forgotten his previous thoughts about hygiene.
"Uh—O—Ok, that's nice to know." The woman stammered, followed by a bit of awkward silence.
"So, how do I find books on history?"
Realizing that she had been a little rude, even though she had been rightfully so. The librarian moved to help. "Any history in particular?"
"Anything on the fall of humanity?"
"Anything? You don't need specifics?"
"Anything." Terran repeated
The look Terran then received was one he was pretty familiar with. It was the same look Oliver had given him the other day, and it was a look Sophie had given him on more than one occasion. It was a look that questioned if he was mentally ill, as this information was something children were aware of from a young age. However, because he was used to it by now and could understand the confusion, he did not mind.
"Yes, I have been living under a rock. Please just help me find the information."
The librarian then felt terrible about her actions for the second time and quickly rushed to show Terran how to use the computers.
After showing Terran how to create an account with his blessed ID, she helped him find many books on the subject he was looking for. From there, he could move them into his personal library, where his progress could be saved and where they could be accessed at a later date. She even helped him download an app that allowed him to read them outside the library.
While surfing for books, Terran noted that some needed a higher clearance level within the Federation of Blessed Individuals to read, but there was not much he could do about this at the moment. After getting over this fact, he soon found a few history books. With his many books now accessible from his phone, he decided to head back to his dorm room. Although he did not care too much, it would still be better if he could be resting in his bed when Ken returned from their class.
Entering the dorm room, Oliver was only now sliding out of bed. Upon noticing the blood on the rim of Terran's missing sleeve, he rushed over.
"Are you alright? Who did this? I'll go teach them a lesson they will never forget."
"Ha-ha, don't worry, my arm is fine. See?" Terran said as he massaged his shoulder.
Oliver gave him a skeptical look. "Ok then, but why is their blood on your shirt?"
"Oh, I just got a minor cut in my weapons training class, and since my sleeve was already torn, they ripped the rest of it off when I went to the infirmary."
Terran found it hard to believe that it would be uncommon for people to get light injuries with so many sharp objects waved around in that class. Additionally, while it would take some time to reattach an arm, closing a few minor gashes was light work for modern technology. Knowing these two facts made it easy for the lies to roll off his tongue.
"Tch, alright, just let me know If anyone is giving you trouble."
Nodding, Terran got a fresh pair of clothes and took a quick shower. While he was still not particularly close to Oliver, he was glad he had gotten roomed with such a nice guy.
Once he washed the smell of iron away, he got his phone and crawled back into bed. He had not imagined this was what his first day would consist of, but at the same time, he could not complain.
While his actions in class may have been unnecessary, he would now be getting trained with swords. Not only that but for a time, as he was one of the only ones that had gained the teacher's approval, he would be able to learn a great deal in a short period. However, this would not last forever; as once more people passed, the teacher's attention would get spread thin.
Content with his choices, Terran became engrossed in the history books stored on his phone.
"Angels, huh? No wonder people started praying as their lives depended on it." The day had flown by. Oliver and Ken popped in and out of the room throughout, but Terran had been too busy to notice.
It had all started almost a century ago. Angels descended from the sky, and people got on their knees and prayed at that moment. Finally, the affirmation that so many had sought had appeared, confirming for them that their gods were real. However, contrary to the various religions, the angels did not serve gods, or at least they did not care for their prayers. Instead, they summoned legions of monsters that ravaged the land. Humanoid monsters subjugated most of the human race and sent them to farms where they were turned into cattle.
There were little humans could do to resist as modern artillery was useless. Bullets would bounce off the monster's impenetrable skin, and bombs, at most, gave them a light scorching. While nukes proved capable of wiping out the weaker legions, they were drowned by numbers. Humans had the home field, but this only proved troublesome when the trade-off for killing a legion was wiping one of their own cities off the map.
Humanity's long reign at the top of the food chain ended without much of a fight, yet this period did not last for long. Nature craved balance, and soon something changed within the environment. It was not known until a later date, but this change introduced world energy. Still, even now, the cause of this phenomenon remained unknown to man.
One would think these events would lead people to give up on their gods, believing they had been forsaken, but that was not the case. Instead, trapped in cages, forced to breed like livestock, not knowing when you would be killed next, their only option was to pray.
There were trillions of humans living at that point, and young children were in abundance given the circumstances. When the first blessed started to appear, the humans that had managed to evade capture saw the light of opportunity in these children. With newfound hope, they raided the farms. At first, these raids were quiet jailbreaks, but as the army of the blessed grew, they no longer needed to hide.
Humanity had found its grasp on freedom, and it was not going to let go without a fight. A two-decade-long war ensued, led by the many S-ranked blessed. The various monsters were slowly crushed under the feet of humanity. Meanwhile, the angels ignored the rebellion. It was learned that the angels had invaded in search of something, and they were already close to obtaining it. While the angels were extraordinarily powerful, their numbers were very few. To search for the unknown treasure, they had released the monsters.
Unfortunately, by the time the humans grew strong enough, the angels had already found what they were searching for. With their spoils of war in hand, the angels left as quickly as they had arrived, and with them, so did the production of world energy.
For a short time, humanity saw a boom in technology, led by the new energy source and the various blessings. However, this development was short-lived as the depletion of world energy became noticeable. Years went by, and life began to fade. Many plants, animals, and even the water cycle had become dependent on world energy during the short time span of the war.
As the resources depleted at an unimaginable rate, human greed stepped in to play its role. The powerful blessed leveraged their power over those weaker than them to lay claim to as many depleting resources as they could grasp. The previous union of humanity was broken as countless civil wars broke out.
This was because unimaginable power was lying in a few thousand hands. Any S-ranked and even some A-ranked blessed were one-man armies. The matchstick for these wars was sometimes as simple as one of these powerful blessed letting themselves get impaired, turning what would have been a simple bar fight into the destruction of half a city.
The ensuing battles burned through the remaining world energy like gasoline.
Decades passed, and the world became uninhabitable. While peace treaties were formed several times, none lasted when it only took one man out of many for them to fall apart. Famine spread across every continent, and graves piled up. Even the mighty S-ranked blessed could not survive without food and water.
That's when the Oasis was founded, one of the powerful blessed managed to erect a blue dome that trapped and preserved a pocket of world energy.
With this final bastion, the remaining world powers, which had fallen into the hands of a number of small families, decided to pool their resources together to form the federation of blessed individuals.