At the peak of a mountain, one filled with vegetation and engulfed with Qi, there lies a young man, one carefree and ambitious. He lays down on the grass patches staring at the stars, his visage containing no ripples, filled with serenity.
The young man, named Calamity, last name, Heaven. Part of the powerful Heaven family. He, born in such a family was destined to possess powers beyond desires, status unshakeable, and reputation as noble as the sun. His parents bestowed the name Calamity to him in dreams of him roaming the world as a calamity for others, and as a hero for the family.
Unfortunately, today was the day Calamity would be expelled from the family. As Calamity continued to stare at the stars, he began day dreaming about his life up until now in his family's estate. He felt unhindered, burdenless, and ambitionless. Unmotivated with nothing to push him forward in life, he decided to leave the family.
The moment he brought up his decision to leave the family and travel, his family agreed and would even remove his name from the family registry to ensure he can get the full experience of being free from any ties.
Recalling the actions of his family, Calamity felt nothing about his family's cut ties, but rather focused on the freedom and the journey he was about to witness in the future.
What does the world look like? Where should he go? What should he do?
Stretching on the ground, he propelled himself upwards into a stand. He'd depart from the family's estate in the morning and begin his path down the mountain, officially becoming only known as Calamity.
He turned from the spot, heading towards his own abode, his room only containing a bed, a desk, and a few shelves full of writing utensils. He'd leave a note on the table, leaving a singular trace of his existence for his parents to remember him by, maybe he'd return to the family's estate one day.
With that decision, he turned to his bed, shut his eyes and prepared to leave in the morning.
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On the break of dawn, Calamity was woken by the peering sunlight through his windows. Dressed in his white robes, he proceeded towards the entrance of the estate, leaving and nodding goodbye to those he knew, waving at those he was close to, and hugging his parents as he walked away.
As he walked down the mountain, he saw many little small animals. He took curiosity towards these little things he's never seen. Followed them, ran with them, and even silently watched them from afar. His presence never stood out amongst his family members, they who shone like stars in the night sky while he'd be a small blade of grass in the night.
Feeling satisfied with his session with these small creatures, he continued down his path towards a city in the distance. Multiple buildings he has never seen before, much larger than the estate he lived in.
At the current pace he was strolling through the forest, it'd take a while to reach the city. It took him nearly half an hour before he reached the main path towards the city, there he saw multiple people and carriages. People he'd see carrying bags, some who had storage rings. Immediately he figured out who was rich and who was poor.
Then he watched some of the carriages, these carriages were something his family had always used when traveling but it was his first time actually watching it. He was never one of the people who went outside the family estate, he was one of those who sheltered children. He could glance at some of the people's faces through the curtains of their carriage windows, some holding men, some holding women. Sometimes both.
He walked forward with the carriages watching them with amazement, at some point he felt a prickling sensation in the back of his head only to meet the eyes of someone in the carriage. The person he made eye contact with was a woman, a woman with a veil hiding her upper face, only revealing her mouth.
Although the veil had hidden many features, he could tell that the person he was making eye contact with definitely didn't seem normal. It stood out to him that the woman had a beautiful smile but the way she smiled at the same time seemed slightly off to him. Although Calamity wasn't someone who was social, he could discern emotions quite well.
The emotion he felt from this woman was one of curiosity and irritation. He understood that being a stranger to a person could make them curious if they were to meet but he was just one of the strangers walking towards the city while she was a seemingly rich person traveling in a carriage.
It made no sense to him that someone would display curiosity towards him especially in this situation. At the same time, the emotion of irritation was what caught his senses as he felt that he hadn't done anything provoking during his walk towards the city. Feeling uncomfortable, he turned away and continued on his path towards the city in the distance, a few hours until he reached his destination.
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This was his first time entering a city, he wasn't sure what was going on but he saw people lining up at the entrance. Following the crowd, he also lined up and waited slowly as the line moved forwards occasionally. He noticed that carriages seemed to not need to be lined up and were granted entry into the city with no delay. Not too long after, it was finally his turn and he turned towards the guards.
"Do you have a permit to enter? Or do you need to buy a temporary permit to enter?"
"Temporary please."
"How long will you be staying?"
Unsure of how long he should stay in this city, he simply said a week and had to pull out his pouch of money. Hearing that the price to enter the city was 14 copper, he wasn't quite sure how much that was in silvers, the currency he had.
"How much is 1 silver?"
"1 silver is the same as 50 copper, you'll get 36 copper back in exchange for the silver."
Hearing this, he exchanged the silver and waited for both his coppers and permit. He glanced towards the inside of the walls, the city he was about to enter looked quite grand, especially from up close. Soon he received his objects and proceeded to walk inside.
He continued to walk forward glancing around at the buildings, not knowing where to go. First, he'd need to find a place to rest for the week. Considering his budget of 10 silvers, he felt that the money he held was insufficient to last him long. He would have to go find a job to survive in this city, that'd be his next steps.
With his short 2 step plan, he continued looking around. He saw many stores, clothing stores, food stores, and many others. Some he didn't understand the purpose of like the store where there was a guy shouting in front of a building, declaring that there was a sale for the little creature in a cage.
Do people really pay to hold a small creature outside the walls?
Feeling like he didn't understand too much about the situation, he decided to be uninvolved with it as he felt it was a waste of money. He couldn't help but make his own deduction about things as he felt like a new born child not knowing what was correct or what was incorrect. Everything seemed to hold some sort of value in one way or another.
It wasn't long until the sun began setting, he saw people closing up stores, shutting off the lights. People receding into their homes, guards coming out for night duty, and lights flickering off and some on. Remembering that he didn't have a place to sleep, he walked around until he spotted a building in the distance with the lights on, assuming that it was an establishment where people could rest at.
Little did he know, it wasn't just a place to rest, it was also a place for entertainment.
Glancing at the sign, he saw it said "Traditional Housing". Thinking it was a normal inn, he proceeded inside and went up to the counter.