One day in the Solphos city, the largest count of poverty, there was boy who sells charcoal to help his crippled mother.
The boys name was vanz who had three more siblings. His mother doesn't have a left eye and also she lose her right arm because of her abusive master when she was a slave.
All of them were slim and malnourished, this made vanz job even more harder because he doesn't have a enough power to lift some many charcoals. He often gets insulted by some rich people passing by. Sometimes he gets pity and gives him extra gold.
His three sibling were only seven to eight years old. Vanz endured being kicked and bullied by the people. He was an easy prey, sometimes he gets robbed. The Solphos kingdom also doesn't want illegal vendors. The guardsmen captures some of the illegal vendors yet vanz was lucky to get away.
He brings a worth of three golds back in their squater house. His mother meora greeted him with a kissed on the forehead. Vanz was disappointed when he only brought three golds in the house. Meora cheers his vanz up and cooks potato mash. The four siblings enjoyed while the mother watched while feeling hungry. Vanz noticed her grab on her stomach. He quickly gives the left potato mash to his mother.
"You haven't eaten it all, why are you..."
Meora said, but vanz didn't listen, he serves her mother with a gentle care.
"You should take care of yourself since my three beloved siblings are here with you, they need a strong mother to take care of them."
Meora smiled and eats the potato mash given by vanz.
In the next day, vanz got his charcoal supply inside a sack. Vanz sighed because it was a bigger sack compared from before. He struggled to lift it up completely. Then he just drags it on the town heading somewhere to sell. Vanz's attention was caught by a clanking sound. A blacksmith upgrading a traveler's sword.
The blacksmith hammers the sword while putting magic dust on it. Vanz watched with amazement and surprised looking like an ignorant. He notices many travelers had visit Solphos city for a reason. He continued to drag the sack until he finds a good place.
Then he gets bumped into a traveler, a adult man who wields a sword and had a cold aura. But the man wasn't the same from his looks, he gently helped vanz to stood up and apologizes. The man excuses vanz and kindly leaves to go on a mission. Vanz heard the others gossiping about the man. The man only goes solo and does the mission successfully in the dungeons.
Also, the man was very fast that could rival the five royal meriums. Vanz continued selling charcoals, it was a peaceful start not until he gets bullied by royal teens. They were three, two boys and one girl. They insulted vanz and laughed at him because of his malnourished feature. Then someone intervene, it was one of the royal blooded, Hanz Pamion. He apologizes to vanz and requested vanz if he could transport some of his charcoals on their mansion since they're running out.
The payment was six hundred golds with a one hundred gold tip. Vanz agreed and heads on their mansion with haste and excitement. His jaw drops seeing a mansion first time in his life. He then gets inside and puts the six sacks of charcoal on the furnace because there is a birthday coming tomorrow. Hanz thanks him for his hard work and vanz was given fairly like they talked about. Then when vanz was outside walking out of the place. He gets bullied by the three royal blooded from before. They grinned and looks at vanz at the same time. They force vanz to make play a game with them. "Hunter chase rabbit"a cruel game which the victim runs away for his life while getting shot by magic and weapons. The victim will be safe when he reaches the marked line. The female royal blooded marked the road with a line, it wasn't too far but could vanz ever get to there.
The three agreed to give vanz a ten seconds head start. Then when they started counting, vanz quickly runs away. When the ten seconds ended, the female royal blooded repeats throwing a firebolt at vanz that always missed. The second boy was arrogant and said he can hit vanz with one shot. When the boy shots he missed inaccurately with his water magic. The third boy pushed the second boy aside and his earth magic makes a sharp bullets. It hitted vanz's left shoulder that made vanz fall down and crawl while wetting himself. He continued to crawl and he was very close to the line.
The third boy stared at the crawling vanz coldly.
"I missed..."
The third boy said while he walks a little closer to end vanz. But the two stopped him and scolds him that what will they explain to their family if they saw them in this scene.
The second boy tries to keep the scenario cool and he said-
"Let's go now...we can find someone else to...target practice."
The third boy kicks vanz who's still in the ground while bleeding. Soon, the three leaves vanz alone while vanz cries out and throws a rock with raging anger. He quickly regains his composure and heads back home.
When he gets home, meora was worried when she saw vanz's left shoulder bleeding. meora healed his wound with her but of healing magic. Vanz's mother has a small amount of mana that can perform limited healing magic.
Vanz promises to his mother, meora, that he will get them out of the poverty life and have a good peaceful life soon. Meora can't do anything but to support her son, because of her condition, she was frustrated that she could have done something. In the middle of the night, another army that came from another kingdom marched towards Solphos city to siege it. They were successful and kills all the guardsman and made the people slaves. But some of the people had escape, one of them was vanz's family, vanz carried his two siblings each of his arms while the youngest was at her mother's gentle grasp on her one arm.
Solphos was in hell, screaming of men fighting and the pain they're feeling from being slaughtered. They ran left to right on the allet ways because vanz knew the routes. He goes to the abandoned boat that he saw four years ago, still floating and fresh. He then let's his family on first. He pushed the boat with all his might. When he gets on the boat, he started paddling quickly when he hears the raiders voices calling out for them to come back. They started shooting arrows at them, meora tried to cover her three child's wusing her back.
When they got away, vanz stared at his youngest sibling in shock and cries. Meora didn't noticed that her youngest child has a arrow on her child's eye. The youngest female sibling of vanz had died in the age of nine years old.
Vanz was devastated, when they got on north, they burried her little sister and mourned her death. Vanz lost his smile and he was stressed. He started hearing his little sisters voice and still haven't accepted what happened. He always hugged her little sisters only remaining cloth to remember her. His mother cheers him up and comforts her. Meora, was blaming herself, if she has given them a good life, they wouldn't end up on this situation.
"I'm sorry, vanz, my beloved son...I'm sorry for being your mother...I'm sorry that making you stood up for our family instead of me..."
Meora started hitting her head with her hands clearly losing her composure while crying. Vanz stopped his mother and vanz hugs her.
"Mother!!, this isn't how you solve things!, please, be strong, for my little brothers and also for me, I'll find a way to this."
Days had processed, their life became more harder. They found a home yet they're homeless in the kingdom of lutos kingdom. One of the biggest kingdoms, but poverty was still there for vanz.
Vanz has no job anymore and they started to get more and more hungry. His mother, meora started to get symptoms of fever. Vanz was feeling hopeless and he sits on the cobble stone stairs near the shore to think of something. Then a paper flew infront of him, a quest for adventurers. He then had an idea, he would assign to be an adventurer to get gold that has better prize than just selling charcoal before.
He scavage some of the abandoned barrels in a wrecked ship. He obtains a rusted hunters knife and a malice. Then he when he gets out of the ship, he takes a long sigh before nodding.
"This is my last shot, for my family."
END OF CHAPTER 1