Public HospitalDand CityEdgard CountryMay 1stYear 2020In one of the wards of the government hospital, there were two dozen beds, but only the right one closest to the window was occupied.On the bed was a slim youth who’d just turned 18 less than a month earlier, his head wrapped in bandages.He had messy black hair with long bangs covering the top of his eyes, and his thin lips were pressed into a deep frown.Behind the round glasses resting on his face was a pair of obsidian black eyes fixed on the news being played on the TV.It was reporting how a corpse had washed up on the shores of Elverta City, a popular coastal city often called the ‘Beach City’.The dead man had been identified as a 35-year-old company CEO who owned several businesses in Edgard’s capital, Aegall. Police were investigating the case seriously, not only due to the man’s identity and background, but also because on a night several days before his body washed ashore, dozens of his company buildings had been

By the time Calvin woke up, he’d already been checked by doctors, and his condition was confirmed to be relatively stable, especially compared to how he’d been when he was brought in.The impact from the metal pipes hitting his head had been enough to make him bleed heavily, and the doctor’s initial diagnosis had been grim.But now, seeing him, the doctor was so stunned he had to call a colleague to examine Calvin again to make sure he wasn’t mistaken.They then prescribed some drugs to deal with his blood loss and the swelling on his head, then left, leaving Calvin alone with his mother and her twin.Looking at the woman who had a faint red tint in her eyes that was very different from her twin’s brown eyes, Calvin was 99% sure of his hypothesis from earlier.‘She’s definitely an elementalist! A dormant one that hasn’t even awakened her affinity.’It seemed that his being reborn in Calvin Carter’s body wasn’t as random as he’d thought. Calvin likely had his own innate elemental power

Water elementalists were often renowned for their healing abilities, but the water element could bring as much death as it could bring life.Pressurised water was a deadly weapon, and if the spear hovering in front of that man’s palm was fired at top speed, he doubted that the younger doctor would be able to jump to the side fast enough to avoid it.Even if he did, the elementalist could just fire another.A cold breeze blew across the open balcony roof of the building, the two doctors silently facing one another while Calvin hid in the dark and considered his next course of action.While he was doing that, the two doctors were speaking to one another.“W-what do you want?” the younger doctor demanded, his voice trembling lightly.At this, the older man snapped.“What do I want?! Rickey, you betrayed me! You made me end up like this! Because of you, I got fired, and my wife divorced me! Now everyone looks down on me because I lost my license!”Hearing this, the young doctor, Rickey, f

There were markets where people sold Artifacts, items recovered from ruins and special pocket spaces scattered across the land known as ‘Rifts’.A large portion of these 'Artifacts', due to the nature of their origin, were coated in faint elemental energy, which often made it difficult to tell whether they truly held special abilities or were simply ordinary items that had absorbed too much elemental energy without proper appraisal or analysis.Because of this, it was easy for counterfeit artifacts to appear, with people coating them in elemental energy using real artifacts or elemental tools, then selling them to unsuspecting buyers at outrageous prices.This district contained both shops and markets selling genuine and fake artifacts, but unlike reputable businesses that would not want to be caught dead with even a single fake, the open markets were filled with far more counterfeits than originals.Buying artifacts from the open markets carried a high risk, and there was an unspoken

Calvin got up and continued walking, taking long detours through crowded areas and glancing at reflective surfaces to see who else was following him.Eventually, he decided to head into an alleyway with very few people, and the moment he entered, a group of four men rushed out from the main street and immediately surrounded him.‘Oh, only two were E-Rank elementalists? Guess sensing their actual levels from a distance is a bit hard for the current me.’While Calvin had those idle thoughts, the few people in the alleyway scattered, having no desire to get involved in what was about to happen.“Brat! Why the hell were you moving around so much?! You wasted our time!”The familiar gambler immediately shouted, his nostrils flaring with anger and releasing faint traces of steam.As Calvin calmly noted that small detail, the second of the four, a man with dyed blonde hair and piercings, stepped forward and spoke.“Look, kid. We know you made a lot of money selling that elemental stone earli