Stepping through the door, Moros waved his teacher goodbye. Gladly ignoring her lecture about responsibilities to parents and gods and whomever he still owed something to.
He was busy enough surviving as is and earning enough money so his family could go on living their life. He did not need someone to talk about morals, when these did not pay the bills.
Outside his classroom, he was greeted by the usual cold walls and empty halls of this place.
Funding for this place had never been the greatest, who could have predicted that given all the beloved students of this place.
The peace and quiet of this place had always been Moros' favourite part of the day.
Nobody would disturb him as he walked casually to his mind-numbingly boring job at his home.
If it had been any normal day, that would have been the case. Yet, the sound he disliked the most entered his ears, a bunch of kids screaming in their high-pitched voices about their excitement of entering this school.
They discussed loudly about what Gods they would serve, how levels would make them strong and dreamt loudly about defeating dragons, demons and endless monsters.
Apparently once a human awoke mana in their body, a god would talk to them in their mind and they discussed a contract of servitude.
They would kill monsters, offering the monster souls to their new masters. In return, they would be granted mana. The higher the quality of the monster killed, the more mana was given back.
Yet, Moros never had any god come knocking in his mind asking for his services. Nor had he received any levels despite killing way too many monsters as his "job." From birth he had way too much mana in his body.
These kids however needed to have their magic invoked by external help, since unlike the talented brothers and sisters, they did not feel a thing.
So, now for a hefty donation they got to enter the magical device room of the school, lay their hand atop of it, and were granted a drop of mana, so that a god could come into contact with them.
In the end, Moros knew that the name of the Gods did not matter. People might claim that this great god does this and the other does that…but in the end they were all the same.
The gods, with names Moros could never have been bothered to learn, would be more efficient than another god, other gods may be more efficient if the monster killed in their name is weak. There are different elemental affinities that they can strengthen.
And that was about it.
How the magic was wielded was still up to the human in question and how talented they were. Gods were merely there to tax the work of people and give them a bit more mana in return.
The higher your level, the more mana your body could hold.
What magic you used was up to your bloodline, to your talents, the gods did not care. They also did not care if you murdered monsters or other humans. Souls were souls to them.
In the end, higher levels meant absolutely nothing, more magic meant absolutely nothing.
To determine the power of people and their magic a new, separate system was developed.
The magical visor every student got, gave them information about everything and put it into numbers making strengths comparable.
Spells were ranked from 1-9 stars with destructive capabilities as their base. A 1 star barely tickled a monster and 9 stars would end all of existence…or so, Moros did not really care about the classification of spells.
Despite having tons of mana, he could not use magic spells to save his life.
To him it felt like the mana stayed in its body as if it was kept in a cage and he could not draw any out of it.
Had he been able to, he would have been world famous and known all around the planet for his talent. Instead his genius brother came along, with next to no mana in his body, but what he did not have in that regard he compensated with an unparalleled sensitivity and a lot of brain cells.
Smart cookie, Moros called him that often.
Now, his brother noticed that one could use the mana of nature in the air to supplement spells if the natural magic was found lacking.
This discovery enabled people to use stronger magic spells, without having to kill countless creatures to do so.
Once again, the magical visor system had to be revamped to include details all about the surroundings, while they were at it, they added physical aspects of the monsters they fought, limiting it to estimations about their defensive capabilities, their strength and general vitality.
Moros' brother had made that discovery 10 years ago. Now, he was touring the whole planet, with his father and Mom, getting world famous, spreading the name of the Terra fame world-wide
Smart cookie was given the successor spot of the Terra family and Moros got to be the guardian of the family dungeon, as was tradition.
In truth, Moros gave up his spot out of his own free will, since he realised his brother to be more suited for the position.
However, what never failed to make the older brother laugh, was the fabled magical visor he had. Changed for the better through the efforts of his brother, the one Moros had did not work at all.
It barely delivered information to him.
Mostly it just gave him lots of question marks since the whole system seemed to malfunction just by being near him. He had no idea if he should feel proud about it or cry.
He did not need it, so it would not matter.
Maybe it was the magic in his body skewing all the data or he just got the cheapest version ever, since his parents could not afford a different version for him back then.
It did not interfere with him earning his money, so he would not be bothered to change it or ask for a newer model. Sometimes, it just gave him information that no one needed, but that did deter him.
Sometimes it showed him the stats of his teachers, students and other creatures. At other times it gave him the measurements of man and woman alike. Other times he got the cup sizes of the woman in his surroundings, although he never knew what to do with that kind of info.
Who would be invested into the sizes of a woman, when a man should truly care more for the size of his wallet.
Moros stood a bit still in the hallway waiting for the excited young kids to pass him by.
He did not want to be the one to ruin their innocence, the world would take it from them anyhow. Dreams died slowly, high in spirits, high in hopes, they would all come to his dungeon and leave their hard earned money there.
The longer they dreamed, the more money he made for his family.
He never felt bad for taking the money, what would the disappointments do? Talk to their parents who put them into this school for rejects?
They needed more souls and the dungeon provided the easiest picking on the whole planet of Elysium. They got what they wanted, Moros got what he wanted…that was the end of the story.
He could not change reality, even if they hoped that they could.
After the new students finally went outside of his view, he enjoyed the beautiful silence once more.
His eyes stared at the ceiling for a bit, making him wonder if this was the life he wanted to live.
Then he remembered the money and stopped questioning himself.
His footsteps echoed throughout the empty halls as he made his way outside of the school. It was a long, silent walk, but Moros enjoyed every second of it. Moments like these were precious, one might never know when a screaming child might come around the corner…
Arriving at the doorstep of Cannivore High, a few steps away from the outside world, he braced himself for the walk home.
It was the middle of the winter and it was really cold. He feared his nips would fall off, if he had to stay in this blistering cold for too long.
Opening the door, the results were about as he expected. It was as cold as one could expect the winter to be, with snow lying around and the ground being slippery. With a heavy sigh, Moros moved forward inwardly cursing as he made his way out of the school grounds.
"Why is there no god that could keep me warm?" Moros muttered under his breath as he walked forwards slowly. Last thing he needed would be falling onto his butt.
He spoke from experience, he had fallen onto his 3 letters all the damn time when he was in a hurry to his job.
Arriving at the gate an old friend awaited him.