New Frontier, a small village nestled in the southernmost part of Valendia, stood surrounded by a dense forest that whispered with the chill of the approaching winter. Simple wooden houses dotted the settlement, their chimneys releasing thin trails of smoke that kept the village’s nearly one thousand inhabitants warm against the already chilling autumn winds.

  At the heart of the village stood one of the Church’s outposts, a structure that starkly contrasted with the modest homes around it. It was one of the few buildings made entirely of brick and stone, its pristine white painting gleamed against the old weathered wood. The church’s luxurious windows, adorned with glass and intricate mosaics, reflected the pale sunlight in a way that seemed almost otherworldly. The entire building exuded a sense of displacement — divine, sanctified, and otherworldly, exactly as it was meant to.

  Around it, the small village market, where different merchants were selling their products: bread, fish, meat and cheese.

  The smell of bread filled the air, and the sound of hammer against metal could be heard in different spots across the village, as well as the cows’ “muus” and the sheeps’ “beehs”. Yet, something dares to disrupt the almost perfectly peaceful place.

  — Hey! Someone grab that kid — A middle aged man yells, a small stand food vendor, selling bread, sweet rolls and other farinaceous, he was heaving a decent day, yet, just a few hours after opening, one of these unlawful children already stole some of his merchandise.

  The hooded kid kept running, some people tried to hold him, but ended up missing by a hair's breadth, he was too small and nimble. The youngster rapidly crossed the other merchants, he was aiming for a small street where nobody would pursue him anymore.

  One of the guards by the street tried to block the path to the alley, but just like the ones before him he also failed, he started to run after the boy, but the latter was already used by this, he started jumping over small obstacles like boxes or pieces of wood, and zigzagging in unpredictable moments, the mud on the alley didn't help the guard in his medium armor. Still, he was closing in and just before he could grab the dirty clothes of the thief the same passed through a hole through wooden fence.

  The guard raised his halberd and was just about to destroy the obstacle, but just before he could launch the attack, he stopped, this was a chicken coop, it surely belonged to someone, destroying the fence and searching for the boy while stepping in feces and having to avoid the damm chickens wasn't worth the one or two loafs of bread the kid took.

  Meanwhile the boy climbed a tree in the garden and jumped trough the fence, landing on the other side, where the commotion he created didn't reach. He proceeded to the small hill to the east side of the village, going through the southern gate and crossing a shallow stream.

  Under the shadows of the tallest tree, at the hill overlooking the village was Rachel, his best friend since… Ever. They could easily be considered brothers from how close and dear they are to each other, of course their very contrasting appearance made this situation impossible. Rachel had a dark red hair, cut in a blunt bob style, which was the longest the girls in the orphanage were allowed to have, so they could avoid a louse plague, she had light green eyes and the most beautiful smile possible, yet, unfortunately, nobody would mistake her for a noble lady, she was too skinny, her clothes had many cuts with some specks of mud here and there, even her left cheek was slightly dirty, her greasy hair tangled in some spots. A fair judgment of this child would be that of a rough diamond — one that still needed careful polishing start shining.

  — Nate! You’re finally here, I’m so hungry... how was the fishing? — She asked with a smile.

  — Got two this time — the kid, Nathan, short for Nathaniel and finally, Nate for friends, said showing off his two loafs of bread — and your hunting, anything interesting? — Rachel smiled, opening a small pouch and showing a small fig pie, the smell of recently baked food was just delicious.

  — It's fig season up north and the merchant that came last week brought some, so the aunts started make these, they look absolutely delicious! — She exclaimed.

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  Nate removed his cloak revealing his looks: He had a very short black hair, the style was mandatory for boys at the orphanage to avoid louse, his eyes were dark like the starless night sky, he could be considered a handsome boy, but, like Rachel, his current situation didn't help: old clothes, dirty and broken nails, shoes with holes, and he was at least 7 kilograms lighter than a boy his age should be.

  With the food ready, and with water as beverage, courtesy of the small flask he carried, Nate and Rachel sat on the cloak and started to dig in, the orphanage could barely give them one meal a day, and it usually didn't have any meat on it, so the youngsters would usually be hungry all day long and, sometimes, even starving, most would turn to small crimes to handle the situation, just like the two of them.

  — Humm... this pie it's really good, we should get more the next time — Nate said

  — Yeah, We're also getting really good at this, one of these days we'll rob the whole village in a single day and they won't even notice, hehehe — Rachel laughed and Nate smiled.

  — Why dream so small? With the Ceremony we could both get classes more focused on stealth, with this, not only this small village, but even the capital will tremble under our name.

  — Hahaha, Yeah sure, hahaha — Rachel kept laughing, only after some time she spoke again — But we're unfortunately only twelve and there's four years to go yet, but I surely hope we end up lucking out.

  The Ceremony was the most important day for the population of Tera, and that obviously included the two of them, it was the day they would become adults, not only on the face of society, but on the face of gods themselves.

  Once someone reached fourteen years old their bodies would be strong enough to allow them to receive the blessings from Heaven. However, there was only one way of getting the blessings, by killing a beast of a higher rank, and since bugs and other smaller lifeforms didn't count, only animals like wild dogs, wolfs and the many, many monsters that inhabit Tera would be acceptable prey, the problem was obvious, no normal 14 years old would be able to kill a beast like that.

  This very specific situation created a blooming market with endless demand, where hunters would catch a living animal, trap it and finally sell it, so the young boy or girl would only need to land the final hit and receive his blessings. As easy as that, the service was done and now the kid was officially an adult.

  The process might seem like a cheat — after all, there’s hardly any challenge in killing a caged animal. However, this method has never posed any issues during the blessings and is far safer than sending pre-teens out to hunt wild animals to "prove their worth."

  But this whole ordeal had a seat back, it's price, which wasn't cheap at all, the team behind the catch of the beast needed many traps, potions, information about the prey and a team big enough to not only detain the beast but also to keep an extra eye on their surroundings, with the goal of avoiding any ambushes from monsters, or even worse, other humans.

  In the village, the cheapest monster was priced at one gold coin, meanwhile each leaf of breed costs five copper coins. Since one gold coin was worth a hundred silver coins, each also worth a hundred copper coins, the price for a single monster was absolutely ridiculous for anyone that was not in high society, in the whole village probably only one or two families could afford such a price, especially since it would be provided for free once the boy or girl completed sixteen.

  This is where The Church comes in, with its recruiting system, for those who didn't have the means to complete The Ceremony on their own could do so through The Church, which would provide the beast necessary to complete the ritual.

  Of course, it wasn't entirely free, in exchange the young adult would work as a soldier of the Holy Army for two whole years, meanwhile, equipment, training, food and housing would be provided, the soldier would work as a guard in the city, keeping peace and order among the civilians, fighting against monster tides, as well as catching the next year batch of monsters needed for The Ceremony.

  A lot of younglings would still work for The Church even after the two years contract had expired, since the benefits were decent and the prestige for working for the representation of gods themselves was like no other. Hence The Church was the most respected organization in the entirely of Tera.

  Since The Church operated more like numerous branches of a company, with the same objective, rules and hierarchy, but did not have a land or country where it ruled integrally, no kingdom or government feared an overthrow or internal strife.

  They both sat overlooking the village, the small wooden houses, the chimneys, the rather cold wind from fall that made the flowers, the grass and the trees slowly dance, the clear blue skies contrasting with the slightly orange color the flora was getting, everything brought peace and hope for both of them.