In just 1 day, I would turn 7 years old, meaning that I would have the possibility to awaken an element. Although my chances of awakening were higher than others, I still couldn't help but worry because the chances were not 100%.
In my previous life, my luck could be said to be hopelessly low or trash. Being scammed on the internet, going to a restaurant and eating rotten food, buying an item that would spoil after just a few days, getting bird droppings on my head when I went outside, etc.
"I hope that all the bad luck I had in my previous life will be for my luck to explode tomorrow!" I clasped my hands together, closed my eyes, and prayed to the 8 "Authors".
"That's enough I guess."
Now I had another worry, which was about something called "Ability". I realized that Ability was extremely useful in both combat and daily life through my father's words. However, Ability books that focused on combat were rare, thus, they were also extremely pricey.
'Given my family's financial situation…' I glanced around the room, which had been remodeled after I grew up. The crib had been replaced by a comfortable and warm bed. Next to it was a desk and a chair. Overall, there weren't many valuable items in this room nor in this house.
'I wonder how much an Ability book would cost?'
At that moment, I heard my mother's voice from the living room.
"Lucian, do you want to go to town with me?"
***
As soon as I passed through the massive gate leading to the town, I bid farewell to my mother and headed straight to the bookstore, hoping to find an Ability book.
After running around the town a few times, I finally saw it. A red brick shop with a brown roof. It had two windows, and from the outside, I could tell that the store was filled with all kinds of books.
I opened the door and walked in.
"Hello!" A girl's voice rang out.
I turned towards the direction of the voice, and there I saw a girl with long black hair and sharp eyes, puffing on a cigarette. The girl exuded a mysterious aura.
'She looks so cool!'
"What are you looking for?" Realizing that I was just a kid, the girl quickly put the cigarette in the ashtray.
"Where can I find the Ability books? I want to see how much they cost."
"Over there." The girl pointed deeper inside decisively, without saying much.
I hurriedly walked towards the direction the girl pointed. In my mind, I thought: 'That girl is genuinely cool!'
Deep inside was a shelf filled with various Ability books. The 4 shelves above contained casual Ability books such as automatic dishwashing, automatic wood chopping, alarm set, etc. These books were not too expensive but not too cheap compared to the advantages they provided, each book cost an average of 5 Silvers.
Oh right, the currency in this world was Copper, Silver, Gold. And Gold was the most valuable thing. 10 Coppers equaled 1 Silver and 10 Silvers equaled 1 Gold. If I converted it to the currency value of my previous life, 1 Copper would be equal to 10 dollars. So the average price of a normal Ability book was around 500 dollars.
Next, I looked down at the bottom shelf, which contained combat-oriented Ability books as thin as a notebook. Moreover, the bottom shelf was only half full, which was enough to show how rare they were.
"Storage, Invisibility, Silent Step, Voice Change, Flash,…"
They were all useful Abilities, but their prices were extremely high. The cheapest book was Silent Step, which allowed the user to move without making a sound for 2 minutes, and it cost 2 Golds. That was equivalent to 2000 dollars.
'Crazy.' I gulped.
After going through all the combat-oriented Ability books, I knew that I wouldn't be able to afford even the cheapest one, at least not yet.
Suddenly, the cool-looking employee wearing a black T-shirt appeared behind me and asked, "How is it? Expensive isn't it?"
I was a little bombshell, but still nodded.
"If you can't buy it, then you can hunt it in dungeons when you are older."
"Dungeon?"
"Yeah! Dungeons are portals that lead you to another dimension when you go through it, where you have to kill the boss or find a way out. Sometimes there will be dungeons that ask you to complete quests to escape. In a dungeon, there are some Ability books. Or you can find "Artifacts", which will help you in combat if you are lucky."
"Artifacts?"
"Yeah, they are even harder to find than Ability books about combat."
There were still many things I didn't know about this world, such as dungeons, Ability, or Artifacts that I only recently knew about. So I must make sure I don't miss any information anymore.
"Is there anything else? Is there anything like Artifacts, Ability, or dungeons in this world?"
"That's all I guess." My sister replied calmly.
After receiving a satisfactory answer, I said goodbye to my sister and left the store, heading towards the square where I would meet my mother again to head back home.
***
The square was crowded with people lining both sides of the street. Curious, I ran over to see what was going on.
What caught my eye was the sight of hundreds of men wearing shiny armor like the knights in the movies. In contrast to the flashy appearance of the armor, each of them had a lifeless expression.
"What's going on here?"
"They were forced to sacrifice themselves."
I was startled, a familiar voice hit my ears. It was the voice of the bookstore employee.
"Aren't you supposed to be at the bookstore?" I turned my head.
"I am not an employee there" The cool girl replied calmly.
I was speechless, and didn't know what to say.
"What do you mean by sacrifice?" I asked, after looking for a topic in my head.
"Don't you know? The black dragon that had destroyed a town a few years ago was reported to have made its nest there. So the kingdom sent many knights there to try to kill the black dragon, one of the four disasters."
The cold sister continued, "If they succeed, it would be good, but if they fail, they will all die. Fighting it is like a death sentence. However, in return, they would gain more information about the Black Dragon, such as its abilities."
The cold girl looked down at me and asked, "Do you think sacrificing others is the right thing?"
I pondered for a moment.
"Of course not, every life is precious. In addition, if they die, what will happen to their loved ones? Their parents will lose a child. Their wives will lose a husband, and their children will lose a father!"
"That's an interesting answer." The cool sister said.
"My name is Luna, what about you?"
"Lucian."
"It's nice to meet you, I hope we can meet again in the near future."
Just like that, her presence disappeared, and as soon as I turned around, she was no longer there.
"How mysterious." I muttered to myself.
Just then.
"Lucian!" I heard my mother calling me from afar.
She hurriedly ran towards me and handed me a card.
"This is your ID card."
The ID card. I had heard about it from my father. It was similar to the ID card in my old world. This card was used to prove my identity and could allow me to enter and exit the town freely without my parents accompanying me.
I smiled lightly as I held the card in my hand. Suddenly my eyes moved to the left side of the card, where there was a photo of me yawning.
'I hope they allow me to change the photo.'