Atlas: Seekers Of Strength

In a worn down house within a small village, a special moment is being shared between two loving husband and wife.

"Push honey, our baby is almost here!" An average built man who hasn't got the best of looks is excitedly kneeling down beside a bed, he's holding his wife's hand as he tries to comfort her to relieve her pain.

He feels helpless as he watches his lover scream in pain over and over, seemingly never ending. He can only allow her to use her hand to squeeze his own, but with his large hands filled with callouses he doesn't feel much pain.

"Don't worry misses Flynn, the baby is almost out just push a little harder" An older woman seemingly experienced with child birth is helping to deliver the baby.

"Ahhhhh" A high pitched shout follows on from this mans encouragement and the woman's order.

After a last push from the woman on the bed, a babies cry fills the room. Taking a closer look at this new born baby you can notice it doesn't look anything special, Its smaller than the average new-born while also being a little skinnier.

Holding the baby, the mid wife wraps him in a towel.

"Congratulations, its a boy" the mid wife smiles and hands over the baby to the father.

"Its a boy, honey we got a boy!" excited, the man jumps up and takes hold of the baby, carefully holding it within his arms.

Laid back on the bed exhausted, the woman gives a sweet smile before falling into a deep sleep.

Over the next few days once the wife has regained her strength, they take out some savings and pay the few money they earn to ask the villages doctor to come and determime their babies health.

Walking through an aging door to the house, an old man with a set of white hair and spectacles walks inside.

"Good morning Dr. Guda" both wife and husband hurriedly greet the doctor, in this worn down town whos people dont have access to good education, this doctor is of a high status which they cant afford to neglect.

He had entered this town around 10 years ago mysteriously out of no where, he doesn't have cultivation and seemed to be of no threat.

Although everyone was cautious at first, they had allowed him to stay because he might spread news of this village to other cities. within these 10 years hes gained a high position in which even the mayor has to show courtesy.

"Mmm" Nodding, acknowledging their existence the doctor proceeds to ask where the patient is. The Flynn husband and wife bring him to their new son.

After an hour of inspection the doctor walks out of the room shaking his head with a sigh before leaving the house on his own accord. The husband and wife's weeping can be heard from within the room.

Their son has been diagnosed with rare genetic disease that makes him blind, once the external exam was finished they moved onto checking his Astral foundation.

Your Astral foundation is more important than your own limbs to the people living in this world, it allows you to absorb the Astral Qi within the air to cultivate your body.

When the doctor checked the kids Astral foundation, he had found he had been born with half his spirit missing, the spirit is needed to sense Astral Qi.

The realms of Astral Cultivators are;

Mortal Realm;

Consolidated Realm, Ascended Realm, True Spirit Realm

Once you reach the peak of True spirit realm, you can then step onto the true path of Astrals! stepping beyond the mortal category and giving you tremendous strength.

Astral Realm

Elementary Astral Realm

Origin Astral Realm

True Astral Realm

The village only knows the realm up until the True Astral realm, this was the realm of their ancestors had managed to reach! but now their protector has only managed to reach the Origin Astral realm.

Back onto their son, he has been born with half a spirit meaning he cant connect with Astral Qi, he will be forced to remain within the consolidated realm for his entire life.

While clenching his fists the father looks at his carefree son whos sleeping in the cot without worry. Putting on a deterimed expression, the father roars within his mind

"It doesnt matter that my son is disabled! I don't care that my son will never be able to cultivate! I will raise him to be a respected man, I'll work double the shifts to get more money to let him attend a good school to get the best education"

"My Son will make his name known by relying on knowledge! " the father roars within.

The years go by, its been tough on the Flynn couple as they've increased their workload and hardly sleep. They managed to save enough money to send their kid to a good school.

Their son Lucas Flynn is now 5 years old.

"Okay Lucas, listen to what ever Freya says, Ok?" A worried father and mother are hugging their son and are reluctant to part with him, the mother even has some tears flow.

A small 5 year old boy with milky green eyes nods when hearing his mothers words, he just stares blankly into space. He's wearing hemp trousers and a cotton blazer, in his right hand is a small black cane.

Hearing the school bell ring, the mother still clings onto her son.

"Mrs Flynn the school has started, it wouldn't be appropriate to have Lucas late otherwise that would make him stand out even more, you don't want that right?" a younger woman with a gentle look tries to convince Mrs Flynn to let her son go.

She is part of this schools staff and has been instructed to help Lucas to get to and from his lessons.

"She's right honey, our son needs to grow up and experience working with his peers" A tall aged man with a hoarse voice says, the wrinkles around his aged eyes along with his hunched back would make you think he's an old man, but he's actually just passed 30 years of age!

Nodding and wiping her tears, Mrs Flynn lets go and watches her son enter the schools yard along with that young teacher. Holding a cane within his right hand, Lucas will will tap onto the ground now and again and surprisingly will avoid obstacles several meters in advance.

No one would think he was blind if they wasn't looking carefully.

After entering the school building, he finds his class and sits down alongside a dozen other children. The other children seem interested in him as they watch him enter the class and begin whispering to each other.

Some children can be heard laughing while can be seen grinning, taking joy in others misfortunes.

Following the instructions of his helper, he finds a seat at the back of the class away from other students as they keep their distance from him. The boy shows neither anger or happiness as he just sits expressionless.

The helper then exits the room.

Soon the teacher enters and the class begins, Lucas isn't much of a talker so the class and even the teacher just seem to ignore him, but from time to time the teacher wont slack off and does teach him seriously.

A week passes since the first day of school.

"Alright class, times up so hurry up and hand over your answers" a middle aged man with a scholarly feeling is going around the class and taking the children's answer sheets.

The questions were written on the board at the front, there are several such boards but they are for older students from earlier classes, some boards have the teachers own notes for some mathematic equations he's trying to solve.

Hearing the kids grumble as they hand over their exam, the teacher laughs as he watches them complain. When he gets to this blind student of his, he looks at his answer before collecting it unlike the other students where he didn't bother looking.

This student of his always answers every maths question correctly and he cant recall if he's ever got an answer wrong!

Picking up the exam sheet he looks a little before frowning, this isn't the exam questions he's set? hearing some snickering he looks around towards his other students.

Seeing them look over in amus.e.m.e.nt as they hold back their giggling, he understands what happened, the other kids must of played a trick on him by giving him the wrong questions from the beginning.

Shaking his head with a wry smile, he was about to put away the sheet before his eyes shoot open and his mouth widens as he stares at this piece of paper like a treasure.

When the kids were waiting for their teacher to scold this kid, they suddenly get startled.

"You" with his hands quivering he looks at Lucas in shock before regaining his composure.

"Tell me boy, where did you find these answers?" the man shouts as he stares at Lucas.

"I solved them" Lucas replies, expressionless as always.

"You solved them alone?" looking around, he checks around Lucas's desk.

"yes"

"Ok , could you then solve these equations for me so I can take a closer look?" he asks while repeating several equations, stating them clearly and making sure Lucas can hear them.

Listening to the equations, Lucas takes up a pen and begins writing their answers without pause, soon after he gives the teacher several pieces of paper.

"Is he a genius?" the old man mutters before taking the pages and begins flipping through them, for each page he turns he gets scared.

These are the theoretical equations he made from his lifes study of maths, but all of their answers are written down here.

"No" the old mans voice quivers as he swallows a mouth full of saliva.

"He's a monster" he mutters.

The other children can only look on in shock as their teacher can hardly keep his expression calm.