The morning sun shone in from the window waking Ian up from his dreams.
Sitting up he looked out the window and breathed in a substantial amount of air.
He quickly picked up his phone to check if he got any messages.
None at all.
He leaped up from the bed and did a quick stretching session.
"Day 1 of training my skill i guess" Ian said to himself before giving out a dry laugh.
He arranged his bed then went out of hid room still in yesterday's shirt and shorts.
Heading to the kitching, he couldn't help but fantasize about what amazing breakfast he could cook up for himself.
But he was stopped in his tracks by the sound of the doorbell.
"Someone at the door, who could it be?" Ian wondered.
Opening the front door, he was shocked to see a man in a black suit at his door.
The man seemed to be in his 70s with some white hairs at the edges of his hair.
But surprisingly the man had a sturdy physique.
"You are young master Ian ?" the man asked in a sophisticated tone.
"Yes I am" Ian responded.
"Good, M'lady Rorsted has requested i present this to you" the man said, bringing out a slender black box with a note taped to it.
"My dad's fiance sent this for me ?" Ian was confused, they had never met before so there was no reason to send him a gift.
"Thank you, I guess" Ian responded as he took the box from the man.
Opening the note, he quickly read it :
Hello Ian, I realize it must be confusing for you to recieve a gift from me without warning, but i felt it would only be right for me to send my honest regards. I would love to meet you quite soon, your father talks so little about you.
The note was short and didn't explain what the gift was at all.
Ian sighed and stuffed the box into his pocket.
"Thanks again" Ian said to the man.
"Its alright, also M'lady says if you need anything at all you may contact me, Rhodes" The man said as he gave Ian a piece of paper with his contact info.
Ian nodded and took the paper, then watched as he drove off in an expensive looking black car.
"This Mrs. Rorsted must be pretty influential" Ian said to himself as he went back inside.
Ian took the black box and say down in the kitchen to examine it.
He flipped and turned the box every which way but he couldn't figure out how it worked.
So he decided to leave the box for now and make something to eat.
He quickly started preparing some noodles with soy sauce.
Once the meal was done, he satisfied his hunger and headed straight to his room to begin training for the combat exam.
Upon entering his room he suddenly felt stumped.
It had been so long since he last cultivated so he didn't know where to start.
He decided it was best to train his ability to gather aether.
Placing the black box on his table, he got on his bed and sat in a meditating position.
Closing his eyes, he slowed his breathing and cleared his mind.
2 minutes passed, 5 minutes passed, 12 minutes passed.
He couldn't do it.
He felt the aether flowing and gathering at his chest region, but within a few seconds that aether would disperse no matter how hard he tried to keep it together.
The longest he could keep the aether gathered was 9 seconds.
This was mostly because he couldn't keep a clear head.
He hadn't cultivated in years so it was almost completely new to him now.
Seeing he couldn't make any progress he decided to take a break and play some games.
Hopping up from the ground, he went straight for his gaming chair and slumped down in it.
He turned his PC on and fiddled with the black box while he waited for his home screen to pop up.
Once the home screen opened up, he set aside the black box on his table and opened a random game.
It was the same RPG game he was playing last night.
He was still in the boss dungeon from last night, controlling his character to leave the dungeon, he went into a deeper portion of the area he was in.
Upon entering he was swarmed by a wave of monsters.
While Ian was focused on dealing with the monsters, he paid no attention to the black box.
He was too focused, more focused than he had ever been before.
Even while meditating he couldn't be this focused.
To Ian, gaming was a very important practice that required complete focus, more so than even cultivation.
As his eyes were glued to the screen, he didn't notice the changes occuring to the black box next to him.
As if reacting to his immense focus, the box began to vibrate softly and gradually increase in frequency.
A few seconds later, an ominious golden light shone from the box, presenting an ancient and runic pattern.
Ian could care less about what the box was doing, he was too engrossed in the game.
The light shone for a few minutes until it reached its peak brightness and the box was vibrating strongly.
Then suddenly, a loud boom was heard as the light from the box seemed to flow out of the box and land on Iann's right hand.
In an instant Ian felt and intense amount of pain from his right arm.
An unknown force threw him off from his gaming chair and he crashes onto the floor next to his bedroom door.