The alarm clock rang on the small wooden table.
Ring, ring, ring!
Arthur opened his eyes. The room was dark, cold, and very quiet. There was no sweet smell of pancakes. There was no loving mother to pull back his blanket. There was no warm voice saying, "Good morning, my son."
Arthur was a true orphan. He had zero family. He had never known his mother or his father. He grew up in the cold city orphanage until he turned twelve, and then he was given a tiny key to Room 4B—a small, drafty box of a room at the very edge of the city. He lived alone, ate alone, and fought for every single copper coin he earned.
Arthur sat up on his hard bed. He rubbed his eyes and shivered. The wind blew hard against the thin glass window. Outside, in the modern magic city of Neo-Veridia, the sky was a bright mix of steel gray and glowing blue. A public transport bus, powered by floating wind-runes, zoomed past his window with a soft whoosh, its neon blue lights flashing against the wall.
Today was the most important day of his life.
Today was the Global Awakening Day.
In this world, magic and modern life lived side by side. Tall skyscrapers made of white stone reached up to the clouds, lit by glowing magical lamps instead of electric light bulbs. Every single person in the world had to go through the Awakening Ceremony when they turned eighteen. Everyone awakened a class. Some people woke up to be simple farmers who could grow wheat with a wave of their hand. Some woke up to be blacksmiths who could bend hot iron like soft clay. Others became warriors, mages, or healers.
Every single person got a class. But Arthur knew that the type of class decided your whole life. If you got a good combat class, you could join the guilds, live in the rich towers, and eat fresh meat every day. If you got a low-level labor class, you spent your life scrubbing the streets or carrying heavy rocks for pennies.
And far above them all, whispered in ancient legends and old books, were the Global Lords. They were rulers of vast territories and endless universes. But they were rarer than a drop of water in the desert.
Arthur stood up. He did not have nice clothes. He wore a patched black shirt and worn-out brown pants. He splashed some cold water on his face from a small metal bucket, wiped his face with a rough towel, and picked up his old leather jacket.
As he stepped out of his building into the narrow alleyway, the cold morning air hit his chest. The street was already full of people.
"Hey, look! It’s the kid from Room 4B!"
Arthur stopped and turned his head. Standing near the corner of the street were two boys from his neighborhood, Leo and Sam. They wore expensive silk jackets with shiny silver buttons. They had their mother and father standing right behind them, holding warm cups of tea and smiling proudly.
Leo crossed his arms and laughed. "Going to the awakening ceremony alone, Arthur? Oh, that’s right. You don’t have a mother or a father to walk you there. Who is going to cry when you fail and become a street cleaner?"
Sam grinned and stepped closer. "Don’t be mean, Leo. The poor orphan doesn’t even have a family name to shame. His name is just Arthur. Just a stray dog walking down the road."
Arthur clenching his fists inside his jacket pockets. His knuckles turned white. His heart beat fast in his chest—thump, thump, thump. He wanted to snap back, but he kept his face calm. He looked straight into Leo’s eyes.
"A stray dog can still bite," Arthur said in a quiet, steady voice.
Leo’s smile faded a little bit. He snorted. "Talk big all you want. When you get a useless ’Dust Sweeper’ class, let’s see how loud you bark."
Arthur did not answer.
He turned away and walked past them, keeping his head up. He did not have time to fight with them. Every step he took brought him closer to the Grand Plaza, where his fate would be decided.
The walk took twenty minutes. As Arthur reached the center of the city, the streets became packed with thousands of teenagers and their families. Shouts, laughter, and nervous whispers filled the air. Parents were hugging their children, giving them lucky charms and words of encouragement.
Arthur walked through the noisy crowd completely alone. Nobody touched his shoulder. Nobody whispered good luck. He felt small in the giant sea of people, but he kept moving forward until he reached the massive iron gates of the Awakening Hall.
The Awakening Hall was a gigantic building shaped like a giant silver dome. Magical lights swirled around the roof like dancing ribbons. At the front gates stood strict guards wearing heavy steel armor and holding glowing magic spears.
"Tickets and ID cards!" shouted a guard with a deep, booming voice.
Arthur reached into his pocket and pulled out his small, worn-out paper ticket. He handed it to the guard.
The guard looked at the paper, then looked down at Arthur’s thin frame and patched clothes. The guard’s eyes showed a brief flash of pity, but his face stayed hard. He stamped the paper with a heavy metal seal and pushed it back.
"Orphan registration. Row nine, seat forty-two. Go inside. Do not waste time," the guard said bluntly.
"Thank you," Arthur said softly, and walked through the tall doors.
Inside, the hall was as big as a mountain. Thousands of chairs were arranged in long rows, all facing a massive, raised stone stage in the very front. On top of the stage stood the Awakening Pillar—a tall, thick pillar made of dark obsidian stone, holding a glowing white crystal sphere right at the top.
Arthur walked down the aisle and found Row Nine, seat forty-two. He sat down quietly on the wooden chair.
Around him, other students were whispering nervously. "I hope I get a Fire Mage class!" "My dad bought me a magic sword just in case I get Warrior." "What if I get nothing?"
Arthur sat still, folding his hands in his lap. He looked up at the glowing white crystal on the stage. It pulsed with a slow, rhythmic light, like a sleeping heart.
A few minutes later, the heavy doors at the back of the hall closed with a loud bang. The lights in the room dimmed, and a magical amplifier hummed to life.
"Silence! The Awakening Ceremony for the year two thousand twenty-six will now begin!" shouted the Chief Examiner, an old man with a long grey beard and heavy golden robes who walked out onto the stage.
The whole hall went dead silent. You could hear a pin drop on the stone floor.
"When your name is called," the Chief Examiner said, his voice echoing loudly through the magical speakers, "you will walk up the steps, place your right hand flat upon the Awakening Crystal, and wait for the light to show your class. Do not run. Do not touch anything else."
The Chief Examiner picked up a long golden scroll from a nearby table. He unrolled it slowly.
"First student: Marcus Vance!"
A chubby boy in a green jacket jumped up from the front row. His face was red with excitement. He ran up the stone steps, climbed the stage, and nervously pressed his hand against the white crystal.
For three seconds, nothing happened. Then, the crystal flashed with a bright, warm yellow light.
"Marcus Vance! Class: Earth Shield Guard! Grade: Common!"
The crowd in the front row cheered loudly. Marcus smiled proudly and walked off the stage to the left.
"Second student: Elena Stark!"
A girl with short blonde hair walked up. She placed her hand on the crystal. The crystal flashed bright red.
"Elena Stark! Class: Flame Archer! Grade: Uncommon!"
More cheers and claps filled the hall.
Name after name was called. Student after student went up. Some got Farmer classes. Some got Miner classes. Some got basic healing classes. Every time a green, blue, or yellow light flashed, the crowd reacted.
Arthur watched everything with quiet eyes. His hands were slightly cold. He knew his turn was coming soon. As an orphan with no family background, no expensive potions to prepare his body, and no special training, whatever class he got was going to define the rest of his harsh life.
"One hundred and forty-two," the Chief Examiner read, his voice getting a little tired. "Arthur. Orphan registration."
The moment the name was called, a sudden hush fell over the entire hall.
Far in the back, near the entrance, Leo and Sam laughed out loud. "Hey, look, it’s the stray dog’s turn!" Leo whispered loudly enough for people nearby to hear. "Let’s see what garbage class a nobody gets."
Arthur did not look back at them. He stood up from his wooden chair. His legs felt a little heavy, but he forced them to move. He walked out of the row and stepped into the wide center aisle.
Every eye in the giant hall turned to look at him. Thousands of strangers stared at the poor orphan boy walking alone toward the stage. There were no parents cheering for him. There was no family waiting to hug him. There was only the cold stone floor and the tall, silent obsidian pillar waiting at the top.
Arthur climbed the first stone step.
Then the second.
Then the third.
Up close, the Awakening Pillar looked massive. It smelled like old dust and ozone, like the air right before a heavy summer thunderstorm.
At the top of the pillar, the white crystal sphere floated inside a ring of floating golden runes. It was bigger than a basketball, and it hummed with a deep, low vibration that Arthur could feel right in his teeth.
The Chief Examiner looked down at Arthur over his small gold-rimmed glasses. His voice was cold and businesslike.
"Place your right hand flat upon the center of the crystal sphere," the Chief Examiner instructed, pointing a skinny finger at the glass. "Do not let go until the light finishes changing. Begin."
Arthur swallowed hard. He raised his right hand. His fingers were thin and scarred from doing hard physical work around the city.
Slowly, carefully, Arthur reached out and pressed his bare palm flat against the smooth, cold surface of the crystal.
At first, the crystal stayed dead white.
Arthur blinked. Is it working? he thought. Am I going to be a normal farmer? Am I going to clean streets forever?
Leo, watching from the back row, started to chuckle. "Look, even the crystal doesn’t want to light up for a—"
Before Leo could finish his sentence, the white light inside the crystal instantly died out.
Crack.
A sharp, violent sound echoed through the silent hall, like a pistol shot in an empty room.
Arthur tried to pull his hand away in shock, but his palm felt completely glued to the glass. It was stuck fast, held by an invisible, crushing force.
The white crystal turned pitch black. Not normal dark, but a terrifying, deep, ink-black color that seemed to suck all the light out of the room. At the same exact second, deep spider-web cracks shot across the surface of the crystal in every direction.
"What?!" the Chief Examiner yelled, dropping his golden scroll in absolute panic as he stumbled backward three giant steps. "The crystal is breaking! The pillar is overloading! Guards, cut the magic lines—CUT THEM NOW!"
Before the guards could even draw their swords, a blinding bolt of dark purple lightning blasted straight out of the cracking crystal sphere, wrapping around Arthur’s body and blowing the roof off the hall in a massive explosion of wind and shadow.