"Father, I've cleared all the weeds around us," twelve-year-old Gene called out. "Can we have dinner now?"
Colin Klepp sighed. "Of course. But remember to wash your hands."
"I'm twelve already! Stop treating me like a little kid!"
Colin almost replied, "Isn't twelve still a little kid?" But he hesitated and said nothing.
When he was young, a twelve-year-old had been just a child. Now... twelve really could not be considered a little kid anymore.
The world no longer allowed young people to grow up in peace!
He sighed. The happiness he had felt at finally reaching their destination after the long journey vanished, leaving only endless heaviness and worry.
Who could have imagined that the prosperous, powerful Ameli Kingdom would fall apart in just a few years, collapsing so quickly and so miserably?
Twenty years!
Thanks to that damned "Calamity," society in the Ameli Kingdom had all but regressed to a savage age over the past twenty years.
Unless Holy Servants prayed day and night, the moment people stayed too long in one place, the Calamity would follow like a shadow and arrive without a sound.
It was a shadow lurking in the darkness, an undying horror, an eerie force that could turn the living into monsters in the blink of an eye.
Colin had witnessed more than one outbreak of the Calamity in those twenty years. Every one had left a deep impression on him.
Terrifying! Uncanny! Unstoppable!
Fortunately, as the Calamity spread, Awakened began to emerge among humanity. They could unleash astonishing strength for a short time, enough to hold off all manner of demons and monsters.
The reason Colin dared to leave town with only a dozen or so people and travel such a long way in search of treasure was simple: he was Awakened too.