Professor Jaxon pulled a marker from the desk, held the duster in his other hand, and turned to face the whiteboard. He wrote in large, clear letters: The History of the Status Window 101. Then he turned back.
"There are two popular theories about the history of the status window," he said. "They contradict each other. We will start with the first."
Alex straightened again. His back went flat against his seat, his eyes forward, all the clutter of earlier thoughts pushed to one side. He had read both of the major theories before, but listening was different from reading. And there was always the chance that something new would surface, some detail that the books in his father's library had left out.
"The first theory is more folklore than documented history," Professor Jaxon began, moving slowly along the front of the room from left to right, unhurried, like a man who thought best while walking. "No one knows who first told it or where it came from. But it has survived for centuries, possibly for millennia, and at some point the majority of people simply agreed to accept it."
He stopped at the centre and faced the class directly.
"It says that in the very beginning, when the world was first formed, it was nothing like what we know today. The atmosphere was hostile. Beasts ran rampant. And in those primal conditions, one creature that looked almost like a human but was not quite there yet began to evolve. It learned to walk upright on two feet. It used its hands to hunt. It had an unusual intelligence, one that allowed it to climb trees, swim rivers, and run across open ground with ease. Over generations, its back straightened. The tail it had once carried disappeared. The large ears grew smaller. And slowly, the face it wore began to resemble the one we see when we look at each other."
He paused for a moment, letting the image settle.
"It reproduced, and each new generation came closer to what we are today. Stronger. More intelligent. The hair that had covered their bodies began to fall away. The shape of them became more familiar." Another pause. "Do you know why we don't see that creature in the world anymore?"
A boy in the second row raised his hand. He wore oval glasses and had straight black hair.
Professor Jaxon nodded toward him.
"Because the evolved humans were afraid," the boy said. "They feared that the ones who had failed to evolve might eventually change again and become something even more powerful than them. So they killed them. All of them. The predecessors and the ones that hadn't changed."
Professor Jaxon nodded, the faint trace of a smile crossing his face. "Yes. They killed their predecessors. They killed the ones they had come from. And there is a story that the gods, watching from above, were so enraged by what they saw that they cursed the evolved beings forever. The curse was that they would never escape the worst of what lived inside them. Dread. Fear. Greed. Envy. All of the darkest emotions would be bound to them for as long as they lived."
Alex tightened his hands on his desk. He had read this part before. But hearing it spoken aloud made it feel heavier somehow.
"The evolved beings pleaded, but the gods did not answer. Guilt took hold. They built altars. They worshipped. Some argued against it, still too proud or too stubborn to bend, but most of them felt the weight of what they had done and they pleaded every day." The professor let the silence stretch for a moment before continuing. "And the gods never answered them. Not for a very long time."
"Eventually, the gods did answer. They forgave the evolved beings. And not only that, they tore open the sky and flooded the world with mana, so that the ravaged land could heal and these beings could survive. The evolved beings had spent one hundred and eleven years in continuous prayer, and during all that time the beasts had multiplied unchecked while their numbers had been shrinking. The gods forgave them because they did not want to punish a new generation for what an older one had done."
"But the forgiveness came very late," Professor Jaxon said quietly. He let his eyes move across the room. "So late that when it finally came, only thousands of the evolved beings remained. The ones who had committed the original act had long since died. And so the gods decided to give the world the status window. Since they did not wish to show favoritism, they gave it to every living, breathing creature in existence. That is why even beasts are divided by rank, just as we are, even if their lack of intelligence limits how far most of them can rise."
"But then something unexpected happened. With the gift of power came rapid change. The evolved beings began to evolve again, and this time the changes were dramatic. Some grew long pointed ears and found that their lives stretched far beyond what had been possible before, and we know them today as elves. Some grew shorter in stature but far stronger in body, and we call them dwarfs. Some grew tails and ears that resembled a fox and beasts, and they became beastkin. And some changed very little in outward appearance, and they became humans."
Professor Jaxon paused.
"Do you know what mistake the gods made that we are still paying for today?"
The same boy in the oval glasses answered again, his voice calm and certain. "The evolved beings who had refused to worship the gods, who had left and settled apart from the others, also received the status window."
"Yes." Professor Jaxon's expression darkened slightly. "The gods made a grave mistake. Those beings still carried generations of resentment toward the gods who had cursed them. That hatred was deep enough that it marked them physically. Horns grew from their heads. Their skin changed. And they became what we now call demons." He let the word sit there for a moment. "They have been at war with humans, elves, dwarfs, and beastkin from the very beginning."
He went quiet again. Then, more softly, he added, "And that war continues to this day."
Alex released a breath he had been holding without noticing.
"And the status window was not even the gods' worst mistake," Professor Jaxon said. "Giving the world mana was far more consequential. Because as the war went on, something no one had anticipated began to happen. Gates started appearing, scattered across the land. And a population that was already small had to fend off waves of monsters pouring out of every gate when left uncleared."
"So the gods began to select their chosen one and blessed them. Gods started offering rewards for the clearing of gates. Artefacts, weapons, treasures pulled from whatever lay beyond."
The professor looked out across the room with a steadiness that made his next words feel like they carried weight.
"So the next time you receive a reward after clearing a gate, remember where it comes from. Those rewards are a gift from the gods."
A girl seated in the middle rows raised her hand. "Professor, if demons are everyone's shared enemy, why is there still so much division between elves, beastkin, dwarfs and humans? Why haven't they all stood together?"
***
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