(Grey)
I was inside one of the white rooms inside the Lock Academy, staring at a picture, waiting for the fateful moment. The picture was a family portrait of a family, which consisted of a father, a mother, a daughter, and a son.
The father's face was ripped out of the photo by none other than me. The mother had beautiful wheat-blond hair and a pair of deep blue eyes. The sister, who was born at the time, would grow to be thirteen years old. She inherited her father's black eyes and her mother's blond hair.
Then, there was the boy…me.
At the time, I was only four at the time that the picture was taken. I had my mother's deep blue eyes and my father's black hair, which I hated.
To be honest, I wish I could've spent more time with my mother and younger sister, but I knew I couldn't, and, pulse, it's not like I wasn't going to see them again. I'll just be on somewhat of a journey.
[Chosen of the Akashic Records!] A voice echoed through the white room. [Today marks the ninth of June, the day your lives will change for better or for worse. In five minutes, you will all be teleported to a random place in this cursed world of ours. Your mission is to return to civilization alive. Ours, however, is to provide you with the necessary supplies to survive.] The voice paused for a moment. [You were given a ring each.]
I looked at the ring I wore on my right thumb. It was black with a golden pattern.
[That ring is a dimensional storage ring; in it is food and water to last you a year, a bedroll, and most importantly, the weapon that you chose. There will also be search parties sent across all of our continent's most dangerous zones, so unless you are teleported into an undiscovered zone, there is a chance you will be found. We wish you luck, you're going to need it.]
'What an asshole.' I thought.
True to the voice's words, five minutes passed, and a tear in the fabric of reality appeared in front of me. I didn't get to inspect it for long before it swallowed me.
The white room that I was in a second ago vanished, swallowed by complete and utter darkness.
And suddenly I was swimming in a field of reflectionless black. I felt quite peaceful; I felt as if nothing existed aside from me. Yet, I also felt like I was a tiny cell in a vast universe.
Time passed, I didn't know how much, properly a few seconds, but it felt like a millennium, and the vast darkness was swallowed by light, only for the light to be devoured by mist.
Inside the mist, I saw a set of glowing blue runes etched on a silver sphere.
I walked towards it, instinctively. As soon as I was in arm's distance, I stopped and extended my hand, cressing the runes with my fingers.
Instantly, I felt intense pain course through my body; the pain was like a swarm of ants spreading through my very being. The pain was especially intense on my back; it was as if someone had taken a sword and engraved runes on my back, along my spine.
With every second, the pain intensified, but at the same time, knowledge flooded my mind.
I fell on the ground and let out a blood-boiling scream harrowing, primal scream.
Eventually, the pain ended, and I took in a deep breath.
"What the fuck!" I managed to mumble.
[Chosen! Welcome to the Akashic Records.]
[The seal of art has been broken.]
[You have ascended a rank.]
A voice echoed through the mist, and suddenly I was lying in a bed of snow. The snow was soft and comfortable, but more than that, it was cold, incredibly so.
But I didn't care. I was processing the information that flooded my mind.
"The Art of Nothingness: Mist Wraith," I mumbled in a low whisper.
After a while of staring into the starlit night sky, I let out a sigh and got up on my feet. The first thing I did was to imbue ether into the black and golden ring. Instantly, a voice whispered into my ear, the same voice that echoed through he mist, the voice of the Records.
[Trophy received: Dimensional Ring.]
I continued imbuing the ring with ether until a long, black, straight stick appeared in front of me and fell on the ground. I pick it up and, just like the ring, imbued it with ether.
And just like the ring, a voice whispered into my ear once again.
[Trophy received: Cane Sword.]
I then retrieved a simple white coat from the ring and wore it. It covered my entire body, so the cold wasn't as harsh. Then I took a good look around, and all I saw was trees cut out of pure onyx and snow.
"I don't recognize this place at all." I realized.
"More work for me, I guess," I mumbled, wandering through he forest.
With that, my journey back to civilization began.