A teenage looking boy sat on the blue swing outside a fairly-new blue house with a big smile on his face, cold wind breezes over him and along comes a scent of some delicious food. The boy had hair as white as the moon, tied up like a ponytail, and had eyes boiling red like blood. Though he was young, he had strength as though he had been training since he started crawling.


    “Kiyu dear! It’s time for your breakfast!” A female voice can be heard from inside the house.


    “Coming mom!!” Kiyu said in excitement for the breakfast that his mom made, hopping off the swings so quickly in hopes to get to the kitchen that was too far away from the swingset but he had something at stake—his food. He ran as fast as he could to get there before his gluttonous dad gobbles all the food up. In the nick of time, he made it to the table just before his dad


    Kiyu shot a smirk at his father. “I thought strong hunters were supposed to be faster, huh dad?”


    His mother chuckled a bit at the comment but his dad looked joyed about the comment instead of angry.


    He had always enjoyed his time with his parents, they always were positive, funny, and even dumb at sometimes. When he was a kid, boiling hot water was about to fall on him and ZOOM his dad moved him away in such a fast manner. His mom would always cook for him and read out bedtime stories when he was little.


    “Hahaha, I was just going easy on you.. unless you want me to try..” He smiled like how a devil would while offering a soul contract to you and with the green draconic aura emanating from his father’s body.


    “Go easy on the kid, Draco.” His mom hits his dad in the head with such force even a boulder would break. Draco agreed and ate his food whilst being stared down by his wife.


    Kiyu laughed at him and began to chow down on the delicious crisp sizzling red sausage and runny eggs. Perhaps it’s his favorite meal even after all these years and even his stomach growling like a bear could tell.


    He had thoughts while gobbling the food, could I ever become a hunter like dad? When will I get chosen for the trial? But all those thoughts are gone once he hears a voice call out to him.


    “So son, did you ever get chosen for the trial yet?” Draco asked with a mouth full of food.


    Kiyu’s shoulders slumped and a frown could be seen on his face. “No, I haven’t been chosen yet..” Kiyu murmured, his voice sounding disappointed.


    He had read in a book that trials have a chance of occurring when you’re above the age of 10. If you’re chosen, when you sleep your soul would be transported into the trials and build how you a body that is like yours in the real world but even though your physical body isn’t in the trials, you can still feel everything as it was real. Time also moves much faster in the trials than in the real world but how much time you spent in there won’t affect your age in the physical world.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    The trials environment, challenges, and difficulty determine your power(s) you’ll get but in some cases like the world renowned 10 Star Hunter “Munin The Lazy”, he was given an easy trial but got extraordinary powers from it. Kiyu had been training since he was 7 just in case he needed it to complete the trials since he was scared to fail—because if he did, the trials wouldn’t accept anyone who does fail again and will lose their opportunity to change.


    His dad told him about his own time in the trials when his task was caring for a dragon, protecting it from weak monsters, then having to slay it when it was full grown. Draco said it was a hard thing to do but he had to or else he’ll just be stuck in the trials forever caring for that dragon.


    “Cheer up Kiyu! You’ll be chosen eventually and after all, it’s your 14th birthday tomorrow so maybe you’ll get extra luck to be strong like your pops!” Draco said with enthusiasm while flexing his bicep.


    “Not strong enough to do your own laundry!” Kiyu’s mom shouts across the room, picking up a piece of clothing in the laundry room right next to the kitchen and throwing it right onto Draco’s face. Draco takes a whiff and then seems fine but Kiyu takes a step back because without even using his nose, that shirt looks like it’s been dragged through all the sewers in the world.


    “Dad.. what is that..? And why is it so.. PUTRID?” Kiyu pinched his nose, slowly backing off into the distance with a disgusted expression like if you smelled rotten eggs and the stench was tenfold.


    His mom rolls her eyes “If you think that’s bad, you should see the rest of his ‘lucky clothes’.” Then she points towards a room right across the laundry, it had a deadly green gas exiting from the top. Kiyu shook his head faster than he had ever did in his entire life.


    “Isabell, It’s my lucky clothes..? I don’t smell anything wrong with them?” Draco grabbed the shirt and sniffed it a few times and seemed fine with it. Kiyu is weirded how he couldn’t smell nor see how dirty, smelly, and vile it was.


    He then wondered a question, How did he get that shirt so dirty? It’s not like any monsters live around us.. and now that I think about it, it does seem strange that there’s always nothing attacking us. I should ask dad and hopefully he won’t brush it off this time.


    Kiyu walked back to his dad, still with his nose pinched. “Dad, how come we never get attacked by monsters?”


    “Well it’s about time you learn. Your mother is a very skilled barrier user, maybe even blocking out harbinger classed monsters. For the calamity classes, your pops has it under control.” His dad explained to him but he was confused about what these classes meant.


    Draco saw his confused expression he made. “Son, you did read the monster guide I told you to read a year ago, did you not?”


    Kiyu looked as guilty as ever. “Well.. I forgot to read it..” Kiyu shrugged but he remembered that he had to read it but was too lazy to actually look into that small but bulky monster book compared to the small book of information explaining trials. Kiyu slipped the bulky monster book into his back pocket, saving it for later to actually read this time.


    “You are one helpless kid you know?” Draco sighed and gathered his thoughts and brought Kiyu to the living room, Kiyu knew this meant one thing—a long talk. This was definitely the thing he had dreaded because every time he took time to gather his thoughts, it felt like a century.


    Kiyu looked around for anything to get out of this conversation and saw his father’s most prized possession, “The Blade Of The Jade Dragon”.


    “Are you strong enough to defeat calamities? And that sword of yours that you always treasure, is it the best sword ever!?!” Kiyu pointed directly to Draco’s back waist where a sheathed katana is held to his pants. The katana had a guard that looked like a jade eastern dragon wrapping itself around it and so did the sheath too. Kiyu had never seen the blade itself as Draco never had to use it, his curiosity had grabbed ahold of him before and tried to unsheathe it while his dad was asleep but he would know and move him away.


    Kiyu was nervous but readied himself to finally sate his curiosity about the blade. “Could I see the blade on the katana, please..?” He was sweating a bit because dad never showed it to anyone and he could be the first one to know about it.


    “Sorry Kiyu, I only sheathe this blade for foes and they don’t live to tell the tale. But I can tell you what it looks li-“ Draco was interrupted by an abrupt loud knocking noise coming from the front door.


    He walked away from Kiyu and went towards the door, fairly close to the living room.


    Kiyu was struck with an aching headache, one that could win a contest if they ever had one but a voice spoke out to him.


    “DON’T OPEN THAT DOOR!”


    Kiyu wondered why but didn’t hesitate to run up to his dad


    Draco opened the door.


    A person that didn’t seem to be from this town lit up.


    “Hello.. Draco.”