In the poorest corners of the Dreadforge Empire are people from all walks of life.
Those people all seem to have one thing in common though.
Pride and reverence in the Empire.
As the strongest and only bastion of humanity on the planet Atherium, the Empire was powerful beyond compare.
The people of the Empire believed in no gods or deities, there was only the empire.
Born from the Empire and die for the Empire was the motto of all who live in its soil.
That was what Kael's family believed, being no different from all other citizens of the Empire.
Kael's family was poorer than most.
His dad was a retired army soldier but was injured in the line of duty making him unable to work most jobs to support his family.
Of course there were ways to heal Kael's father but could they afford them?
The answer was no.
But despite their situation the Dravenheart family was happy.
They believed that as long as they had each other there was nothing to worry about.
Kael although happy, was unsatisfied with his current life.
As a 16 year old burning with ambition he wished to improve his family's situation.
He admired the heroes and legends of the Empire, those who can split mountains with a single sword strike, those whose spells burn so potent and powerful that they were basically walking nukes.
Kael wished to obtain the power to change his life.
He didn't simply dream for this, he actively worked on achieving it.
At the top of his class in almost all aspects Kael had a bright future.
He would be taking the first steps to achieving this as in a couple of days was the graduation ceremony of the Nanyuan academy.
The only academy in his town, and with the graduation came 2 vital things to determine one's future.
1. the awakening of one's aspect
2. Deciding which path one wanted to pursue in the army after graduation.
The awakening of one's aspect was something that would happen naturally but the empire had ways to influence the awakening.
An aspect was the innate ability one was born with.
Every human across the realm had their own unique aspect ability.
The awakening ceremony was where one's path was decided.
If you had a aspect oriented towards combat you would naturally have an advantage in the army.
But that didn't mean that other aspects were bad.
There was a saying in Aetherium that one's aspect isn't what determines one's potential but the way it is utilized.
If you had a aspect that favored information gathering you would have a use in the Empire.
If your aspect favored discovery and creation you would have a use in the Empire.
Kael hoped to unlock a powerful aspect, one that would help in in all sorts of situations.
For this he could only leave it to fate to look upon him favorably.
In the time before the ceremony he had a lot of things to do.
He needed to leave some extra money behind for his family before he left for the army.
Although the Empire would give the families of soldiers benefits it wouldn't hurt to leave a little extra for his family.
Kael left for the forest outside of the city.
Kael was currently at the peak of the Ember realm.
At this stage one wasn't different from a normal human except for the formation of a weak ember core which allowed for the use of a small amount of spiritual power.
There was a reason why Kael was the best in his class.
Hard work and relentless cultivation led him to his current stage.
He could hunt up beasts up to the late feral stage.
Beast same as humans has their ranks divided into four stages.
Which were initial mid late and peak stages respectively.
Kael was confident of hunting feral beasts up until the late stage.
He could use a small amount of essence to strengthen parts of his body making him stronger than most feral beasts.
Feral beasts at the Peak stage was a different story for Kael.
He was confident of defeating beasts below the peak stage simply because like him they could use their essence to reinforce their body.
Beasts at the peak stage could use the essence externally.
That was an advantage which did not need an explanation.
Imagine like you the beast is using essence to enhance its body then all of a sudden a ball of fire or a stream of burning acid is sprayed in your direction.
Kael's goal was to hunt a late stage sycord.
It was a weak beast but its skin could be used to make good equipment.
After a few miles outside town Kael adjusted his mental state and focused on his goal.
Sycords were beasts that lived in packs and lived in burrows underground.
They were beasts that preferred eating the natural flora of the forest but didn't mind eating meat if it came down to it, like most beasts in aetherium.
This wasn't Kael's first time hunting sycords so he knew where to go.
As he approached their general location he saw a pack of sycords eating from a tree.
He slowly used the technique taught in the academy which utilized the essence in your body to reduce noise made.
This put a heavy drain on Kael as he didn't have much essence to spare.
This would be enough for this hunt as he slowly approached the pack of sycords.
His mind was clear, emotions blank, he only had one goal in his mind.
To kill.
And kill he did, Kael jumped out from the bushes and into the clearing.
Quickly the sycords were alerted but it was too late as Kael circulated his essence in a different way, this time increasing his speed.
SLASH.
A sycord's head was smoothly separated from the rest of its body dropping to the floor with a loud thud.
The rest of the sycord's didn't take a look at what was happening and quickly ran in different directions.
Kael was left breathing heavily but a small smile could be seen on his face as his hunt was successful this time.
He didn't waste much time and put the Sycord in his bag and left for town.
Lingering in the area wouldn't do him much good.
Kael couldn't wait until the day of the ceremony.
He truly wondered what sort of aspect he would unlock…