Morning came slowly to Greyhaven.
Fog clung to the fields beyond the village fence. The air smelled like damp earth and woodsmoke. Roosters had already started shouting at the sky.
Soren Vex sat on the low stone wall behind his house and stared at nothing.
Or at least that's what anyone else would see.
In front of him, faint and blue, the System window hovered in the air.
```
[STATUS]
Name: Soren Vex
Level: 1
Class: ERROR - Not Found
Health: 100 / 100
Stamina: 100 / 100
Mana: 50 / 50
Strength: 8
Agility: 10
Endurance: 8
Intelligence: 10
Perception: 10
Skills: -
Traits: -
Titles: -
```
Soren had been looking at it for almost an hour.
It had not changed once.
No class.
No skills.
Nothing.
Just that single line.
**ERROR Not Found**
He rubbed his eyes.
The window stayed exactly where it was.
"Right," he muttered quietly.
The System had never been wrong before.
Not once.
Every person awakened at sixteen. Every person received a class. Even the weakest villager had something Cook, Tanner, Farmer, Miller.
The System always assigned a role.
Always.
Soren leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees.
"So what are you doing?" he asked the air.
The window did not respond.
Of course it didn't.
Still, he tried again.
"Status."
The panel flickered once.
The exact same window reappeared.
Empty.
He focused on the **Class** line.
Sometimes you could expand System entries. Skill descriptions. Trait explanations. He had seen other people do it.
Soren reached out and tapped the text.
Nothing.
He tried again, slower.
Still nothing.
"Open class details," he said.
Silence.
The fog drifted lazily across the fields.
Somewhere down the road a cart rattled past.
Soren exhaled slowly.
"Okay," he said.
Think.
If the System wasn't giving him anything… maybe it needed something first.
He stood.
The status window followed automatically, sliding through the air as he moved.
He tested a few things.
First, he jogged across the yard.
The stamina bar dipped slightly.
Then refilled.
Normal.
He picked up a loose stone and threw it toward the fence.
His arm felt the same as always.
No notification.
No skill gain.
Nothing.
Soren frowned.
Most people discovered at least one ability within hours of awakening. Some kind of starting skill tied to their class.
Warriors got weapon techniques.
Rangers got tracking abilities.
Even farmers sometimes received something like Soil Sense.
He had
Soren glanced at the window again.
Still blank.
"Good," he said quietly.
Old habit.
State the problem. Observe it. Don't panic yet.
He sat back down on the wall.
Maybe the answer was in the interface itself.
He studied the panel carefully.
Every line.
Every space.
Stats looked normal.
Health. Stamina. Mana.
Attributes all balanced at five. Typical for a new awakening.
The empty sections bothered him more.
Skills.
Traits.
Titles.
All blank.
But below them
Soren leaned forward.
For a moment he thought he saw something.
A faint outline beneath the skill section.
He focused on it.
The shape vanished.
"…Huh."
He tried again.
Nothing.
Just empty blue light.
Soren sat back and folded his arms.
Either he was imagining things…
Or the System was hiding something.
---
Breakfast was quiet.
His mother placed a bowl of porridge in front of him without speaking.
Steam curled slowly toward the ceiling.
Soren picked up the spoon.
Neither of them touched the subject right away.
Outside, villagers moved along the road. The sound of voices drifted through the open window.
Excited voices.
Awakening Day always spilled into the next morning.
Stories. Boasting. Plans.
Finally his mother sighed.
"Does it still say the same thing?"
Soren nodded.
"Yes."
"No change?"
"No."
She sat across from him, hands folded around a cup of tea.
"Maybe it takes time," she said.
"Maybe."
Soren took a bite of porridge.
It tasted like nothing.
"The priest said he's never seen anything like it," she continued quietly.
"That makes two of us," Soren said.
She studied him for a moment.
"Are you worried?"
Soren shrugged slightly.
"Not yet."
It wasn't entirely true.
But worrying wouldn't change the interface.
Observation might.
"You could go speak to the officials," she suggested.
"I did."
"And?"
"They told me to wait."
"Wait for what?"
"The System to fix itself."
His mother made a face.
"Helpful."
"Very."
Soren finished the bowl and stood.
"I'm going to walk."
"People will talk," she said gently.
"They already are."
That much was obvious.
He could hear the whispers even from inside the house.
Soren grabbed his jacket and stepped outside.
---
Greyhaven felt different today.
The village was small enough that news traveled faster than smoke.
By morning everyone knew.
The boy with no class.
Soren walked down the main road and pretended not to notice the stares.
Two farmers paused mid‑conversation as he passed.
A pair of younger kids pointed openly.
"That's him," one whispered.
"The broken one."
Soren kept walking.
A group of newly awakened teenagers stood near the well comparing status windows.
Bright panels hovered in the air.
Soren saw glimpses as he passed.
Warrior.
Hunter.
Stone Mason.
Real classes.
Paths.
One of them noticed him.
The conversation died instantly.
Someone coughed.
No one said anything.
Soren nodded once and continued down the road.
He preferred the silence to laughter.
The village training yard sat near the edge of Greyhaven. A simple dirt field surrounded by wooden posts.
Empty this early.
Good.
Soren stepped inside and walked to the center.
If the System wasn't giving him instructions… he would experiment.
He opened the status window again.
```
Class: ERROR Not Found
```
"Fine," he said.
He picked up a wooden practice sword from the rack.
The weapon felt slightly unbalanced. Old.
He swung it once.
Twice.
Then began moving through the basic drills every village kid learned growing up.
Forward step.
Strike.
Recover.
Again.
The blade cut the air with a dull whoosh.
Soren watched the System window from the corner of his eye.
Nothing.
He kept going.
Faster this time.
Footwork shifting across the dirt.
Strike.
Recover.
Turn.
Still nothing.
No skill notification.
No progress bar.
No message.
After ten minutes he stopped.
Breathing slightly harder.
"So combat doesn't trigger anything," he said.
He returned the sword to the rack.
Next test.
Soren jogged laps around the field.
Stamina dipped.
Recovered.
Normal.
But again
No skill.
He tried focusing inward the way some mages described.
Looking for mana flow.
Feeling for energy.
All he felt was his own breathing.
"Right," Soren muttered.
"This is going well."
A voice spoke from the gate.
"Practicing already?"
Soren turned.
Darik Holst leaned against the wooden post, arms crossed.
Two others stood behind him.
Milo.
Ren.
All three had awakened yesterday.
All three looked very pleased with themselves.
A faint status panel floated beside Darik.
```
Darik Holst
Class: Shieldbearer
Level: 1
```
Solid.
Recognized.
Approved by the System.
"Morning," Darik said.
Soren set the practice sword down.
"Morning."
"We heard you were out here."
"Village is small."
"True."
Darik stepped inside the yard.
"So," he continued, "did your class show up yet?"
"No."
"Huh."
Ren snickered behind him.
"Maybe he needs to restart," Milo said.
Darik grinned.
"Did you try turning the System off and on again?"
Ren laughed openly this time.
Soren watched them quietly.
Three data points.
Predictable behavior.
Bullies rarely changed their patterns.
"You done?" Soren asked.
"Just curious," Darik said.
"Curiosity satisfied?"
"Not really."
He gestured toward Soren.
"Show us the window."
Soren didn't move.
"Why?"
"Because I've never seen a broken status before."
"Then today's educational," Soren said.
Milo stepped forward.
"Come on. We're helping."
"You're staring," Soren corrected.
Darik shrugged.
"Same thing."
For a moment the yard went quiet.
Wind brushed through the wooden posts.
Finally Soren opened the panel and turned it toward them.
The blue window hovered between them.
```
Class: ERROR Not Found
```
The three boys leaned closer.
Ren blinked.
"That's… actually real."
"Told you," Milo said.
Darik frowned slightly.
"Weird."
He straightened.
"So what are you going to do?"
Soren closed the window.
"Figure it out."
"Without a class?"
"Seems likely."
Darik watched him a moment longer.
Then shrugged.
"Good luck with that."
He turned toward the gate.
"Come on," he told the others. "Guild recruiters won't wait forever."
The three of them left the yard laughing quietly.
Soren listened to their footsteps fade.
Then reopened the interface.
Still empty.
"All right," he said softly.
"Your move."
---
He spent the rest of the morning testing ideas.
Running.
Climbing the fence.
Throwing stones.
Meditating.
Even deliberately falling once to see if pain triggered something.
Nothing worked.
The System remained silent.
By midday Soren sat beneath the large oak tree near the edge of the training yard.
Sweat cooled on his skin.
He opened the status window again.
Same result.
Same empty fields.
"Either you're broken," he said quietly, "or I am."
The blue panel shimmered faintly in the sunlight.
For a moment it almost looked… unstable.
Soren leaned closer.
"Wait."
Something flickered.
A second layer of text flashed beneath the normal interface.
So fast he almost missed it.
He focused harder.
The window steadied.
Blank again.
Soren frowned.
"No," he said.
"I saw that."
He closed the interface.
Opened it again.
Nothing.
Closed it.
Opened it.
Still nothing.
Soren leaned back against the tree trunk.
Thinking.
Patterns mattered.
If something had appeared once… it could appear again.
He waited.
Minutes passed.
The village bell rang in the distance.
Wind rustled the oak leaves overhead.
Then
The interface glitched.
Just for a heartbeat.
A second window flickered beneath the first.
Fragmented text.
Unstable.
```
> Unregistered Class Framework detected
> Initialization pending...
```
And then it vanished.
The normal status window returned.
Empty.
Silent.
As if nothing had happened.
Soren sat very still beneath the oak tree.
His pulse quickened.
"Good," he said quietly.
Not panic.
Confirmation.
Something **was** there.
Hidden.
Broken.
Or unfinished.
But not empty.
Soren looked toward the distant road leading out of Greyhaven.
Toward the larger world beyond the fields.
"All right," he murmured.
"Now we're getting somewhere."