"The full moon is out tomorrow! Remember to stay inside tonight, children. The moon reaper will be outside!"
Instantly, the students in the classroom brushed off their teacher's warning.
"Haha, whatever you say, teach!"
"We heard you the first five times, teacher Olivia!"
As a wave of laughter passed through the students around him, Free silently stared through the sole window in the classroom.
Don't go outside!
Don't go outside!
That was all he had heard from the orphanage instructors this entire week.
Their response when asked why?
"You'll die if you do."
All the exits and windows, besides the one in this class, were barricaded like some sort of prison.
Free rested his head against the desk, his pitch-black eyes trailing the flecks of sand swirling beyond the lone window.
Just sand and endless black.
It hadn't always been like this...
Just a week back, he had been allowed to leave the orphanage whenever he wanted and explore the desert that their small encampment lay within.
But now, he was confined to this single building.
Suddenly, a female figure with long, snow-white hair, a set of heavy silver armor, and a scabbard lying diagonally on her back appeared.
When exploring the desert, Free had often seen her silently jogging laps around the village's borders, swinging her cool iron sword at the air.
She always wore this emotionless expression and refused to speak even when asked by children where her armor had come from.
In this small town, she was probably the only one with that much equipment.
Despite them being the same age, she had always been allowed to roam free by the elders, virtually ignored by them, while he had to obey their strict rules.
Why was she allowed outside!?
Snapping Free out of his thoughts, the teacher's voice sounded from right in front of his desk.
"Those who intentionally seek the signia of the full moon are Eclipsers. They are the only ones allowed out right now."
Kicking her leg forward and knocking Free's head off the desk, Olivia muttered and walked back to the whiteboard.
"Now, get up, Free."
The cover behind the window suddenly slammed shut, leaving Free with his own reflection.
A fifteen-year-old child with rugged and ungroomed black hair, a tattered black cloak, lowered eyebrows, and pale skin stared back.
Free's eyebrows lowered as he scanned his tattered black cloak and pale skin, clearly due to a lack of sunlight.
Snickers immediately erupted around the classroom as everyone turned to gaze at him.
"What does he even do besides stare and go outside!?"
"Does he even talk to anyone!?"
"*tsk* Why did a useless kid like him get a spot in this orphanage? My younger sister has to wait until next year because they're full!"
"If he wants to go out and die, let him teach."
As Olivia began scribbling math equations on the board, paying no attention to the chatting students, Free pushed his chair backward and stood up.
Eclipser this, eclipser that, why couldn't he become one!?
Of course, internally, he knew why.
Twenty-five years ago, on a very regular day like today, nighttime had come, bringing darkness along with it, but it had never left.
The sun had fallen and never risen again.
As far as humans knew, the sun no longer existed.
Only the moon and the darkness around it remained.
At first, the world had believed it to be some extended solar eclipse...but after ten days of complete and utter darkness, they realized something was off.
Dealing with massive agricultural losses due to a lack of sunlight, humans were completely unprepared when waves of unknown monsters suddenly appeared in the darkness.
Marked with a stage of the moon, such as waxing crescent, these ethereal beasts tore apart the defenseless human settlements, forcing humanity to abandon all their current castles and rebuild crappy villages in the middle of nowhere...like that one Free currently lived on.
The cause of the darkness was unknown, but many nobles believed it to be the wrath of Erebus, the god of darkness.
Finally, after humanity played a game of cat and mouse across the single continent of Pangea with the unbeatable ethereal monsters, losing millions in the process, a full moon appeared a month later.
Under the full moon, the last hopes of humanity discovered quartz crystals falling from the sky, like meteors.
And, when touched, these crystals temporarily put humans to sleep before shattering and disintegrating into nothingness.
This sleep was just like any other...after resting, you would wake up and return to the real world, going on as usual.
However, what you saw in those dreams, or rather...visions of the future, would determine everything.
To gain the lunar symbols on their chest, Eclipsers would have to observe the clues apparent in their dreams and solve the mystery those clues posed in the real world.
Once the mystery was solved, though, Eclipsers would evolve into Lunites, gaining access to mysterious abilities through their moon insignia, but more importantly, an opportunity to enter the Origin Realm.
Their power could be quantified based on the stage of the moon placed on Lunites when they solved their dream's mystery.
However, this power came at a cost.
Once exposed to the full moon, Eclipsers had until the moon's disappearance at the end of the day to find and touch an end crystal.
If they couldn't discover one...they would transform into the very monsters they required abilities to fight.
Those at the top, packed to the brim with riches and resources, could easily stay in power by monopolizing these crystals and aiding their children in solving their dreams.
As Free stood up and took a step toward the door, a sudden voice stopped him.
A blonde-haired girl with a pair of glasses, covering her light-blue eyes, turned around and quietly whispered.
"Free, where are you going!?"
Raising his hand, he slowly pointed at the blocked window and answered.
"Out."
Today, there wouldn't be a single soul, besides the Eclipsesr, out to stop him from exploring the desert.
Usually, Free would be constantly scolded and stopped by elders for going too far from the village, but today was different.
The desert was his to explore.