After death, Alvin's consciousness fell into darkness. He couldn't see or hear anything.
It felt as though he was in a strange void where there was nothing but darkness and loneliness.
But strangely, Alvin didn't feel anything in such a depressing situation. It seemed that he simply didn't have the feelings of fear, anxiety, or boredom in this mysterious state.
He didn't know how much time he spent in this black space, but one day he suddenly regained his vision and hearing.
At first, Alvin was confused, but as time passed, he came to the realization that his soul had somehow entered the body of a 3-year-old boy called Asher.
Although he could hear and see everything Asher could, he didn't seem to have any control over the body that he was in.
It was as though he was a spectator who was only allowed to watch and hear but had no right to interfere in Asher's life.
This made him go insane several times, as this feeling was simply a torture. But as a year passed, he slowly adapted to his new way of life and accepted the reality reluctantly.
As days passed, Alvin came to know more and more about the world he was currently in and about Asher as well.
Just like Alvin, Asher was also an orphan. He was abandoned outside the orphanage with only a pendant on his neck when he was at most 6 months old.
The pendant around his neck had an oval structure with a silver case and an obsidian black crystal embedded on the top of the silver case.
The name Asher was carved on the other side of the silver case in a very domineering manner.
So the head of the orphanage, the gentle middle aged lady, Miss Rose, decided to call him by the same name from then on.
Alvin didn't know anything that happened to Asher before he was 3 years old, but judging from what he experienced through Asher's eyes, he could tell that Asher had a peaceful childhood, unlike him, who was a beggar until the age of 5 in his previous life.
At first, Alvin had thought that this was a place somewhere on Earth, but he was unable to tell from which country they were from as no one seemed to have a particular facial feature that he could associate with any country he knew.
Later he slowly came to know that this is not Earth but a world called Celestia. Here, the magicians and cultivators from the fantasy books really existed.
Whereas normal people could live up to 100 years at most, even a beginner-level cultivator would easily live more than 100 years with ease.
On top of that, these people are so ridiculously strong that even a simple sneeze from some powerful cultivators could kill a normal human.
In Celestia, usually, there are three paths of cultivation: magicians, weapon cultivators, and body cultivators.
As the name implies, magicians are people who could control the pure power of elements to cast spells.
On the other hand, although weapon cultivators also have an affinity for elements, they use their weapons as the medium to channel this power.
Whereas body cultivators use their flesh body as the channel for this power.
What is common in all the three paths is that the cultivators need to absorb a type of energy called elemental divine essence into their body to cultivate.
This energy is stored in the spine area of the human body. People of this world refer to it as the divine bone.
Cultivators will form a special type of diagram called the divine essence diagram in the inner world of their divine bone when they awaken their elemental affinity.
It is the color of this diagram that decides what type of elemental affinity a person has.
At the same time, if the diagram had a symbol of a lotus at the middle, it is a diagram of the magician path.
If the diagram had the symbol of a sun at the middle, it is a diagram of the body path.
And finally, if the symbol is that of a half moon, it is a path that belongs to the weapon path.
Normally, it is impossible for people from ordinary families to awaken the magician path, as this is highly dependent on heredity, which means if you have a magician father and mother, you have a high chance of awakening the magician path; otherwise, the chance is only less than 10%.
Apart from being a magician, the other two paths had nothing to do with genes.
These two paths are more difficult than the path of a magician, but the plus point is that there are no hereditary restrictions here.
Even if you are a peasant, if you train well, you can simply crush a magician with high talent under your feet one day.
Alvin didn't know much about cultivation, as their orphanage is situated in a small city called Flower City in Sylvaris continent. The number of cultivators Asher had seen was only a few.
His knowledge was mostly from TV news and shows about cultivators.
Among them, little Asher was a die-hard fan of one of the magicians called Draven, who could control space magic. His goal in his life was to become like Draven and travel through space one day.
He even secretly prays every day to the God of Creation to help him awaken space element when he undergoes awakening.
One day, Miss Rose took Asher and several other children of ages varying from 5 to 15 to a place called the Awakening Temple.
Awakening Temples are places where young people try to awaken the dormant elemental powers in their bodies through exposure to a high-concentrated elemental essence field.
Normally, awakening is highly expensive, and you need an exorbitant price to secure entry to the temple.
If you don't have money, you could only let nature take its course and leave awakening to the hand of fate.
While awakening the weapon and body path is still possible through high-intensity training, the magician path is almost impossible to awaken if you don't use an awakening chamber.
Due to Miss Rose's close friends, the children of the orphanage from the age of 5 are given a chance to try their luck in awakening an element once for free inside the temple.
Little Asher was an enthusiastic child. He entered the awakening chamber, muttering prayers to the God of Creation to help him awaken the space element.
He didn't even consider the possibility of failure to awaken an element, as his small brain didn't even go that way.
But reality gave him a tight slap on his face. Seconds after Asher entered the magic chamber, his face turned pale from pain.
He felt as though his spine was being pulled out of his body. It was so painful that the little boy fell to the ground twitching in pain.
Soon, the person responsible for guiding the children in the awakening chamber hurriedly brought little Asher to the medical team.
After the examination by the elderly doctor of the temple, it was found that Alvin's divine bones were severely damaged, and they didn't have the capability to hold elemental essence in them.
(Note: The divine bone refers to the spine here; it is in the spine where the magic core is formed when awakened.)
Normally, it was impossible for someone's divine bone to be damaged during awakening, but nobody could explain why Asher's divine bone was injured so severely like this.
On this day, it was a happy day for the entire orphanage because one of the 12-year-old boys, Henry, from the orphanage, had awakened the rare elements of light and space at the same time.
He was immediately accepted by a powerful person present there as his disciple.
Amongst all this celebration, all of them unknowingly forgot a 5-year-old boy who got his dreams crushed on that same day.