Sitting in his poorly lit room on a comfy gamingchair, Ian was deeply focused on the RPG game he was playing.
He was currently in an intense boss battle he
had been stuck at for weeks on end with no
victory.
But Ian Would'nt give up no matter what.
He followed one major principle, as long as
he knew his foes patterns he could surely beat anyenemy.
The boss he fought had the appearance of a
ghostly yet divine figure shrouded in holy
light and wielding a large lance.
As the figure swung down its lance clearing alarge portion of the ground Ian stood.
Ian expertly controlled his character to evade the attack as though he had been expecting it for some time now.
He quickly rushed at the figure and delivered the finishing blow with ease.
Seeing the victory screen appear, Ian couldn't help but be excited as he jumped up from his chair and did a victory stance.
After his victory stance Ian slumped onto his soft bed and heaved a sigh.
Soon after he received a call.
Hearing the buzzing sound coming from his
phone, he couldn't help but frown.
Who could be calling him at this time of the
night.
Seeing the caller's name he was even more
confused, it was his father Dylan Jinn.
Usually his father would be engrossed in surplus work overseas as he was a Historian.
So he helped researchers and explorers and
sometimes the government in the identification of ancient artifacts and translation of documents and parchments.
So you could say he and Ian didn't have that
close of a relationship, with him only
providing Ian with an allowance and paying school fees.
And Ian was an only child so he didn't have other siblings to confide in.
Plus Ian's mom had died sometime ago in an accident, so it was just him and his dad.
Picking up the call Ian heard his dad's stern but calm voice.
"Ian, are you awake ?" his dad said.
"Yes, I am, what's up dad ?" Ian asked confusedly.
"Up as usual, i thought i told u to be going to bed early" his dad said in an unsurprised manner.
"I will dad, I just had an ... .Important Project to deal with" he said trying to cover up his gaming session.
"Anyways, i called you to tell you some pleasant news, i'm getting married soon" his dad said with a bit of a joyful tone.
"What dad, your remarrying?!!" Ian said in shock.
It'd been about 3 years since Ian's mom had died, and he obviously expected his dad to find someone to fill up the hole his mom had left.
But it happened sooner than he thought it
would, though he was still happy for his father.
"Yes i sure am, and she is a beauty at that, her name is Vanessa Rorsted" Ian's father said joyfully.
"What a lovely name" Ian said, he could clearly tell his father was deeply in love.
"Right, you'll meet her soon, don't worry, after your combat assessment exam we'll discuss more on this matter" Ian's father replied.
"Alright, have a good night dad" Ian said and cut the call.
As Ian lay on his bed, he couldn't help but enter deep thought.
The combat assessment exam, it was an
obligatory exam taken by youths with the sole purpose of gauging their strength and granting them various opportunities at prestigious schools.
This sort of thing came about due to one specific event in history that still baffles humanity to this day.
The day the rifts appeared.
One day things plunged into chaos, giant rifts appeared around the world, and out of these rifts came monsters of various kinds.
Humanity was in peril, but with this came an
opportunity.
These rifts carried an immense amount of energy within them called aether, and harnessing aether enabled humans to gain abilities.
With the help of these abilities humanity pushed back the monsters into the rifts and contained them.
These abilities were called odysseys.
If one cultivated in an odyssey, they could access special powers beyond a regular human's capabilities.
And these were what changed the world forever.
Soon after the events, the world government
announced the creation of a separate department called The Quadrant.
Made up entirely of the major families that took part in the events to contain the rifts.
This department handled all matters regarding the rifts and people who cultivated odysseys.
They would also have some power in political affairs.
Now it was obligatory for schools to train youths to become odyssey users, this was a sort of precaution in case the rifts went out of control again.
Although it is optional to become an odyssey user, you must still take the combat exam.
Truth be told, Ian had no intention of taking the exam, cause either way he could still make it to a good college with the help of his dad's connections.
But, his dad had always obliged him to become an odyssey user.
Although he never felt like that kind of thing was meant for him, he would prefer to make his dad proud.
Ian only had 1 goal in life, and that was to live the most peaceful life doing nothing but gaming.
He had spent his entire life slacking off and
playing games, while others were training their odyssey.
It was said Ian could gather aether at a greater rate than most people at his age, but without the resolve to train this skill was wasted.
This led to him being belittled by his peers, but Ian never cared.
And neither did his father.
Ian's father always believed one day Ian would make a major breakthrough, he trusted his son completely.
But this didn't help things.
Unfortunately Ian's father himself had a poor
affinity to aether, so he couldn't become an
odyssey user.
This led to others looking down on the Jinn
family completely.
Ian's father became a historian in a bid to raise the family name a little bit, but it couldn't help that much.
In a way, Ian was the last hope of his family.
After getting lost in thought, Ian got up from his bed and turned his PC off, he decided to turn in for the night.
He lay on his bed and began thinking about the combat exam coming up next week.
At his current level he could most likely get a
pass but with the lowest score, and that won't be able to get him an admission into one of those prestigious combat schools like his dad wants.
"Welp, guess I've gotta start putting in the effort" Ian said before drifting off to sleep.