The time had come. Demian had done everything he could to prepare. He sat in silence, waiting, while the atmosphere around the orphanage felt heavier than usual.
This was the Awakening Test. A ritual that held once evry yer on the thrid month of the year , allowing mana-sensitive individuals who has hit 16 to awaken. It was an event that could make or break a person's fate. Some would rise above the rest, some would barely scrape by, and many… would never return.
Demian glanced around. The brute who delivered food every day remained indifferent, his face devoid of emotion, as if this was just another routine task. The other children, however, were different. They no longer whispered when he was near. They avoided him outright, keeping their distance. Even though the orphanage had never investigated Lucas' disappearance, the children knew. They feared Demian—his sudden surge in strength, his cold demeanor, and the eerie silence that followed Lucas' absence.
None of that mattered.
The clock struck 12 noon.
A sharp hum filled the air, vibrations rippling through the ground. Before anyone could react, a flash of light consumed them all.
Silence...
Then—consciousness snapped back.
Demian gasped, feeling solid ground beneath him. Cold, rough stone pressed against his fingers. He pushed himself up and took in his surroundings.
He was on a stone platform, cracked and worn with age, remnants of an ancient civilization long lost to time. Moss and lichen crawled over the ruins, nature reclaiming what once stood tall. The air was thick with the scent of salt and decay. Beyond the platform stretched a vast ocean, a dark, endless expanse where the horizon seemed to bend unnaturally. Ruined towers and sunken structures jutted out from the water, remnants of a kingdom now drowned by time. Some of these structures were partially submerged, while others stood precariously on the last remnants of land, as if waiting for the inevitable moment they, too, would be claimed by the abyss.
The sky was an eerie twilight, neither day nor night, casting an unsettling glow over the ruins.
Demian exhaled. The area didn't match any record of the future, meaning he had stumbled into an unrecorded plane for his test.
No records of this place existed. At least, none he had ever accessed.
His instincts kicked in. First step—assess the situation.
"Status."
A translucent window flickered into view before him.
_ _ _
[Name]: Demian
[Age]: 16
[Skills]: N/A
[Karma Level]: ERROR
**[Task]: ???
He stared.
The karma level displayed an error.
That wasn't normal.
Karma dictated everything in this world. It was an absolute law, an unseen force shaping fate. Every person had karma—most at zero, shifting based on their deeds. Saints and rulers amassed high karma, granting them divine favor. Criminals and murderers sank into the negatives, locking them out of certain dungeons, cursing their fate.
Having both positive and negative karma had its uses. For example there were dungeons which would require you to be of certain karma level to enter ,some organisations,cults the churc etc each had karma restrictions.
Demian had killed Lucas. He should have been at least -10 to -15
But his karma was blank. A glitched value.
A slow realization crept into his mind.
"This world's system doesn't know how to quantify me."
A human's karma could be measured. A being bound by causality followed the rules. But he… wasn't human.
"I wasn't born. I was made."
If he didn't belong to the world's natural cycle, its laws might not apply to him. He could be locked out of dungeons with karma restrictions… or he could enter all of them, ignoring the rules entirely.
But was this an advantage or a handicap?
If karma was how the world judged its people, and he had no karma… was he outside its judgment?
He frowned. He needed more information.
He turned his attention to the Task section. Every examinee received a directive—a goal to clear the test. Yet his status displayed nothing but ???.
"No task. No objective. No guidance."
What does this mean? How will he clear the test and go back ? Will he go back ? And how?
A thought lingered at the back of his mind.
"What if the system itself doesn't recognize my existence?"
Shaking off the unease, Demian stood up. If this was a trial, there would be others.
Maybe their situation would tell something his situation at itself was very pecular and non understandable.
As Demian took his first few steps off the platform, the eerie silence around him became more pronounced. The soft lapping of waves against the stone was the only sound, and yet, he couldn't shake the feeling of being watched.
No task. No direction. Just endless ruins stretching in every direction.
The sky above was a blend of dim twilight, leaving him with a strange sense of time-neither day nor night. The ruins loomed before him, ready to reveal their secrets.