Side Chapter 1: New Tunes

[POV Jack]

*thump* "Aghk!!!" I awaken to a heavy object hitting me in the stomach. It's my sister, Millie, as usual. She wakes me up like this every morning recently. Even in this world sleep is too little...

She then sits on my stomach and gets her face as close as possible to mine. She stares at me in silence before shouting, "Wake up wake up wakeupwakeupwak-aaahh!!!!". I push her off me to the floor.

"Jeez, you're getting heavier Millie."

She stands up and glares at me before shouting again, "I am not!". *smack smack smack* "Agh stop hitting me!"

"Stop arguing and get down here you runts!" A voice suddenly shouts from downstairs. Millie and I look at each other before running downstairs. Gurub, our guardian, is quite scary when annoyed. He's annoyed all the time though, so I guess it doesn't matter what we do anyway.

We go downstairs seeing the rest of the kids in the orphanage already seating around the dinner table. Millie isn't really my sister, but everyone here treats each other. We all have our stories, reasons why we're here. No one talks about it though, and no one asks. Doesn't mean they aren't, quite the opposite really. I'm sure everyone has heard the muffled sobs and cries in the middle of the night.

"Took you long enough to wake up." Eman grinned with his big toothy mouth. Back then I get shivers when he does that, his teeth look like shark teeth and I felt like he was going to eat me every time he smiled. I eventually got used to it after years in this other world. "Come on and sit! We're hungry!"

*slam* "Shut up and eat!" Gurub slams bowls of food on the table. We're already used to it so no one flinches or anything and we just eat quickly and quietly before doing the dishes ourselves. Gurub then points to me "You're on garden duty this week brat!"

"But I have to go to the dojo today!"

"Then you better hurry and take care of it before he comes by!" He replies before thinking a bit and pointing to another kid. "Jameson go help him!." Jameson nods and joins me outside.

"Can I help too Gurub?" I hear Millie's voice faintly.

"Aren't you on house duty brat?"

"But I want to be with Jack!"

"No, now start cleaning!"

Jameson and I go outside and clean up the garden, pulling out weeds and watering the plants. We have a garden where Gurub gets a lot of the fruits and vegetables he cooks from. Jameson whispers to me, "What did you get in your awakening?"

I look at him with an eyebrow raised before shrugging, "Hearing enhancement, I can hear a lot better now and a lot more things, you?"

"Mine's tactile, I can kinda sense where people are through vibrations on the ground." D#mn that's way cooler than mine. Though I guess that's why he's been walking on his bare feet since he got back.

I turned six around a couple of weeks ago. Well, at least six years from when I was left here in the orphanage. Anyway, a week after I turned six we got awakened at the Pyllar, which is this giant smooth crystal tower that pierces towards the sky just below the great barrier. They say it was left by the gods when monsters start running rampant on the world. It was a way for us to fight back and protect ourselves against them.

I call out my status window while doing chores. Status!

Name: Cassius(Jack)

Race: Denia'me

Titles: Jackson's Apprentice(Shown)

Otherworlder

Bearer of Blessings

Classes: None(Shown)

Status: Healthy

Physical: 66F

Endurance: 42F Mind: 3E

Magic: 17F

Traits

Bestial Physiology Lv 5

[ Full transformation ]

Sensory Enhancement Lv 2

[Auditory - General Enhancement | Intuition - Presense]

Skills(Active)

Acoustic Assimilation Lv 2

Minor Telepathy Lv 7

It still feels so surreal every time I see it... kinda drills the fact that I'm not on earth anymore. I get a bit melancholic thinking about my past life. The gods of this world pulled our souls from that accident and sent us to this world to fight. I need to find Amabelle as soon... those sick bastards won't have their way with us...

"Brat! Jackson's here!" I get snapped out of my reverie by Gurub's shout.

"Coming!" I shout before going upstairs and grabbing my headphones and my quarterstaff. I ran outside towards where Mr Jackson is.

"Mr Jackson you don't have to come here to pick me up you know, I can come to the dojo on my own!"

He waves me off nonchalantly, "Nonesense, I walk this way whenever I head over there anyway. Besides if I don't come by who knows what time you'll be waking up?"

Millie comes up from behind, "Don't worry Mr Jackson I'm waking him up the way you told me to!" Ah, so that's why. I glare at her for that and Mr Jackson pats her head. "Thank you, Millie, now off we go Jack." He starts walking towards the dojo and I follow him.

I met Mr Jackson for the first when I was on shopping duty, he was a nice old man that helped us with carrying the bags home. From then on whenever he sees me on shopping duty he always offers to help. I met him again after awakening when they had us attend an apprenticeship exam. They call it an exam but it's more of an interview really. He actually runs a dojo teaching techniques using pole weapons.

Pole weapons like the staff, spear, halberd, and even the scythe are the most popular choices of weapons here. They focus on efficiency more than anything else, and it's more efficient to teach those weapons as those are generally the easiest to start learning. It's also probably the safest... well at least safest melee weapon.

*clack* *swing* *bang*

We arrive and it's full of kids and teenagers practice fighting, either battling dummies or other people. It looks like a proper martial art school scenes you see in movies. Movies... I miss those.

"Alright, go practice your basics with your fellow apprentices, we'll focus on defending in the afternoon." He tells me before heading off to advice the other kids. I put on my headphones and with renewed determination, I focus on getting stronger to find my best friend as soon as possible.

Wait for me Amabelle, stay safe I'll come and find you.