Step, step, step. A little boy is walking across his destroyed village. His clothes are ripped, and he has blood all over him. As he looks around, he can see the corpses of the villagers on the ground. As he looks down, he can see their blood mixing with the mud from the pouring rain. He tries his best not to cry, not to break down and give up, because he knows if he stops walking, he is as good as dead. As the boy is walking, he hears a roar behind him, and as he turns around, a shadowy creature suddenly jumps at him.
Suddenly, a young man wakes up and quickly sits up in his bed. He is covered in sweat and is panting. This man is shirtless, but his body is covered with bandaging, and he is wearing dark brown pants that have been stained with dried blood. He first looks at his body to investigate what has happened to him, but then he looks around and sees he is in an empty room with nothing but a desk full of notes, and beside that desk is a wooden shelf full of medical supplies.
All of a sudden, a man barges in through the door.
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING, THOMAS?!" the man yelled.
The man standing at the doorway, clearly full of rage, has black combed hair and is wearing a white button-up shirt with a long white cloak, accompanied by dark brown pants and black shoes.
"I'm sorry," Thomas chuckled.
"Do you know how long it took to stabilize you?" responded the man.
"Look, I'm sorry, Dr. Matthew, but it looks like I've been here for too long."
Thomas would quickly get off the bed and start grabbing his clothes that were hanging on the top of the chair.
"What do you think you're doing?" Dr. Matthew questioned.
"I've got to head back," Thomas responded.
"You can't leave yet, Thomas. You need to rest."
"I'm sorry, but I'm not sure how long I've been here, but I need to get back to work."
"Work?" Dr. Matthew would start loudly laughing, and it would quickly be accompanied by Thomas awkwardly laughing as well.
"Let me get this straight—you nearly died to a Crab King, got rushed to my office where it took me 10 hours to heal and stabilize you, and the first thing you decide you want to do after waking up is go back to work?" Dr. Matthew said while trying to contain his laughter.
Thomas would respond with a nervous "Yeah?"
Dr. Matthew's face would quickly change from laughter to a very serious and stern face.
"Are you stupid or something?"
Thomas is shocked by the response and is a little taken aback.
"Look, Thomas, I can see you have a great work ethic, and you, for some reason, love to threaten your life every other day, but when things like this happen—where you get seriously injured—you need to let your body rest and recover."
"Sorry, but I can't do that."
Thomas would quickly put on his clothes and try to make his way to the door, but Dr. Matthew would block his path.
"Thomas... You have to stop this. This life isn't made for you."
"What?"
"I'm sorry, but being a scavenger isn't healthy for you, and I can't simply let you freely walk out of my office each time you get deathly injured and then come back a few weeks later, nearing death again. This has to stop."
"You don't get a say in this, Dr. Matthew." With each passing second of this conversation, Thomas is becoming more and more agitated.
"I mean, what else can I do for myself? I'm an uneducated man, and the only thing I can offer is my strength, but even that isn't enough for this life."
"Thomas, there are plenty of possibilities in the labor force. Lately, a lot of kingdoms are in the stage of expanding and are willing to pay a lot of money to people who are willing to help with the labor."
"You're saying my only possibility in life is to become a servant?"
"That's not what I meant, Thomas, you know that."
"If only... If only I could use the Shining, then maybe I could be more useful. Maybe I wouldn't be holding back my comrades."
"Don't beat yourself up, Thomas. There are plenty of scavengers who can't use the Shining."
"That doesn't mean I want to be one of them... I'm just so sick of being weak."
"You see, Dr. Matthew, ever since that incident when I was young and my village was attacked by monsters, I wanted to live my life to the fullest, because what if one day I die just like them? I would simply kill myself if I randomly died one day and had a completely pointless life. So please, Dr. Matthew, let me go and let me do what I love the most before my life comes to an end."
Dr. Matthew would move out of the doorway, allowing Thomas to finally leave his office. As Thomas leaves the office and walks around the area, he ponders to himself what he could do to become stronger, to become more useful, until his eyes spot the library.
"If I want to become stronger, the library is my best option," Thomas thought to himself.
"In the scavenger camp I'm currently deployed at, they have a library that has info that could help teach people how to use the Shining. However, to even buy the most basic guidebooks, it costs a fortune."
Suddenly, an evil smirk would appear on Thomas's face as a plan would take place in his mind.