Orion dodged the people on the street, ducking to the side, dodging to the other, jumping over hurdles; he made progress in his journey.
"Now I've done it!! There's no going back, or I become a Monarch, or those guys kill me! Haha," Orion said nonchalantly.
But the path to Monarchy wasn't an easy one, as the highest Class of Radiance.
But that was a worry for later; before attaining Monarchy, Orion had to take the first Steps and become a Radiant, so the first thing he had to do was ignite his Divine spark and become a Sparkling!
Sparkling was how people called those who had just obtained their Divine spark—not yet ignited, but present! There were multiple ways of obtaining a Divine Spark: one could be born with talent and develop their power as they age, but Orion was 12 years old already, so... that was out of the options!
Next would be having someone ignite your soul for you, but igniting someone's Soul was a costly affair; only the wealthy clans could afford to realize this procedure, since in the process the Radiant could destabilize their Spark, resulting in loss of powers! And it had to be done by a highly skilled Radiant, because the Radiant could end up burning the soul of the person they're trying to ignite, resulting in a... less than pretty death.
And last, the most optimal—and, to be honest, only feasible—option for Orion: Demon Hunting!
Orion wasn't very sure how this worked. Still, from the rumors he caught working for a few Radiants, after killing special types of monsters called Demonic Presences, one could obtain a Runix Core. By absorbing it, they would feed its latent potential to their soul, possibly igniting their Divine Spark!! And it was on that possibility that Orion was betting.
And it was for that bet that he had left the shared house today; actually, for the sake of that bet, he had spent the last few months of his life working nonstop!!
As Orion walked down the roads from the Backalleys, he could peek through the broken and worn-out houses that down there, in the Settlement's main entrance, a horde of people had already gathered.
"Woah!! They're already gathering the crews!?!?" Orion said, surprised, and increased the pace. "Hang on, you bastaaaards, I wanna go toooo!!" He screamed as he ran to no one specific, gathering for himself a bunch of strange looks from the people around.
Within 5 minutes flat, Orion had reached the lower parts of the Settlement, meeting with the instant change of architecture in the place.
Central was split into two, where Orion li—USED to live was the "Backalleys," a dirty, smelly, ugly mashup of living quarters and terribly built houses. And right in front of it, facing the Road into the continent, was the "Front of Central," where the great part of the Commerce took place; it was like walking into another world, the floor was clean, the houses were beautiful, and the people all dressed very well.
Orion—and, to be honest, anyone from the back alleys—disliked walking into the Front of Central; these judgmental looks and the prejudice were palpable. Orion rarely went there, and when he did, it was mostly when he was sure there was a good-paying job available.
But today he wasn't there to get money, but to spend it!
In the distance, there it was, the officials who were gathering the crews!
Orion approached with caution, analyzing the officials. These were Officials serving under the Thirsting Anguish, the Monarch of the region, as shown by their black armor that seemed to wrap around their bodies like bandages.
They sure have an aura about them Orion thought before approaching.
"Good morning, sir!" Orion saluted.
The man Orion had saluted was a middle-aged man with a mace in his hand; he seemed to be in a not-so-great mood since it was so early in the morning, judging by his half-lidded eyes.
"YYAWN." The man looked down at Orion, curious about why he had saluted. "Good morning, soldier, at ease!" he said, deciding to humor the little guy.
Orion obliged.
"How can I help you, kid?" the man turned to face Orion with his arms crossed.
"Sir, thank you, sir! I came here to enlist as one of the participants of this Expedition, sir!" Orion said with a smile.
But on the other side, the man frowned. "Enlist? Kid, aren't you a little—" He looked at Orion's body: slim build, thin limbs, and mainly, dirty. "Scrawny?" he concluded. He didn't mean that as an insult, but because of the bluntness of his tone, it really sounded like one!
"Yes, sir! Don't worry, sir! I am aware of the dangers I will face outside the settlement!" Orion said confidently, not something one would trust, considering his looks.
"You clearly don't; if you did, you wouldn't leave the settlement." The man looked down at Orion—his old backpack, his dirty clothes; it was easy to conclude he was from the Backalleys. "Hah~ Look, I know life in the settlements is hard; although they're sold as 'Safe Havens,' settlements have their own share of challenges and dangers. But trust me, whatever you have here, it's better than what's out there." He stepped up to Orion, casting a shadow over his small frame. "GO home."
Orion stared up at the man for a second with a neutral face. "No, sir!" he said with another smile. "I have a dream, sir, and I am willing to chase it no matter what!" The man stared into Orion's Bright Orange eyes for a second, and they shone back into his. He felt lightly admiring.
"Hah, alright—kids these days, don't they feel fear anymore? It's the seventh one today!" He walked to a nearby box full of equipment and grabbed a sword. "I was called here for intimidation factor, you know. How am I supposed to intimidate these freaks?" he mumbled to himself before stopping his stride right before Orion and offering the sword to him.
"Here. Have this sword; as far as I can see, you've got no weapon on you, so better have this. It's a piece of crap, but better than nothing."
Orion grabbed the sword with both hands in disbelief. "F-For real?! A-Are you sure I can have this, sir?? Won't this cause any problems??"
"How would this cause me any problems? I am a Sparkling; this might as well be a rod of rusted junk." The man looked around and took notice of a greatsword that was resting against a nearby wall; he easily lifted the huge lump of metal, then held the blade with both hands and, like crushing, split it in two. "These are just Mundane weapons; they're made to be given away."
Orion stared in awe at the act of strength the man had just demonstrated, then looked down at the pieces of metal falling as he threw them away.
"...Then can I have two?" he asked excitedly.
"...I suppose," the man sweat-dropped.
...
A few minutes later, Orion walked towards another Official with his head hanging low. He had grabbed 10 different weapons from the boxes around the place, but they unfortunately turned out to be too heavy for him, so he ended up bringing only the original sword the man had given him and a dagger.
The man then wrote down Orion's name on a note with a few other pieces of information about him and handed the paper to one of his colleagues, so Orion finally became part of the expedition crew!!
One more step he had to take before he could confidently participate in the Expedition.
Orion walked up to another official—this one was sitting in a chair, surrounded by boxes and boxes of exquisite-looking weapons and tools.
"Good morning, sir!" Orion saluted. But this time, the other party only gave him a weird look. Orion laughed nervously and lowered his hand from his forehead, "How much is a Runix Core?"