Alone on a park bench with nothing but a paper cup sat a boy, about 17 years of age. Behind him was the rising sun… Or at least a depiction of it inside this dystopian hell. It shine with bright orange and yellow radiance.

The boy wasn't tall, wasn't handsome, wasn't wealthy. He had black hair that contrasted his bright gray - almost white - eyes that shone with a dull hueof longing. He wore slightly tattered black shitt, pants, and shoes which were almost everything he owned apart from a few items his mother kept.

He had no name really either, mostly called either "kid" or referred to by some crude insult. He would like to be called "Hagan", as it was similar to what his mom called his father.

'As if I'll ever get called anything slightly proper.'

Hagan's mother died when he was 6, leaving him alone for the past roughly 11 years. He had a sister but she got adopted 10 years prior when she was 3. Their mother was very peculiar, one calling her children by "son" or "daughter" depending on who she was talking to. He knew his sister had a name which was "Vedis" as that was the name given to her when she was adopted.

Hagan was enjoying… trying to enjoy… his first cup of coffee he bought however, he was severely disappointed by the bitter sting it delivered to his mouth. Hagan was also trying to enjoy what would be one of his last days alive as he knew he would be selected to enter the First Trial.

The Trials were strange, they randomly appeared nearly two decades prior. When they first arrived, people all around the world began to feel tired and sluggish. Eventually they fell into a deep, foreboding sleep. The First Trial introduced all who entered to The Speaker. During them, people find themselves is an unfamiliar world with horrifying creatures. Once the Trial started, it would seem as if time was rewound. The setting and rising of both the sun and moon was reversed, the seasons were reversed, leaves rose instead of fell.

Next, the Trial would truly begin and you would need to find a way to end the Trial before something in the Trial ends you. This could be achieved by killing a certain monster or person that is threatening you, finding a civilized village with a Return Altar, or by simply getting lucky and having the Trial end without consequence.

The Speaker would analyze a persons body, thought process, likes, dislikes, habits, and many other aspects of their being in order to bestow upon them a Class. There were 5 total classes which were Base, Advanced, Mastered, Flawless, and Divine, each Class also had a tier 1-3 rsting. The same system was used for Keepsakes, which were weapons, armors, tools and other miscellaneous items acquired during the trials, and Aspects, when were powers granted that had to do with what the person was innately excelled at or could be granted from bloodline.

The First Trial usually only awarded people with either Basic or Advanced Classes and Keepsakes and very seldomly allowed anything of the Mastered Class to manifest.

'How do people enjoy this shit' Hagam thought as he took another sip of his coffee.

'Well, guess it's about time,'