The Second Hand of Time

CHAPTER ONE CLIFFORD, THE GUY WITH THE MESSY HAIR

I woke up to the sound of my alarm, playing some hardcore music. I set the alarm tone like that because; well... you shouldn't set your favorite song as your alarm tone. Trust me; you'll start to hate it once you do.

Today will be the day when I will prove to my ancestors how good I have become. Today will be the day when I will prove to my old classmates the difference between our strength. Today is the day of the entrance examination!

Pardon me for getting too excited. Well, I really don't care about your reactions anyway. You'd be like, 'Oh, an examination? Great. Have FUN.'

Anyway, let me introduce myself first. My name is LeKradz Spark. I am currently seventeen years old. You can just call me LK. That is the name my friends—No. Let me correct myself. Forget about the word friends. I never really had a close one. People would usually call me LK because they say my name sounds kind of weird and everything.

Poor LeKradz, you don't have any friends?

I don't. Well, I did before, but I believe it is just a one-sided friendship. Never mind that. It's a long story. Let's move on.

I turned the noisy alarm off and rose from the bed. Then I went to the bathroom and got ready for the day I have been waiting for years—the enrollment day for the Combat Arts Curriculum.

Combat? Why combat? What kind of person are you?

Well, let's just say that I really have no future in becoming anything else, but to be a fighter, which I always did when I was younger.

But, isn't that illegal?

No. This world is not like your world. In here, on our world, we have magic. Magic came from stones or runes that channel and store magical energy.

But, that's impossible!

Yeah, I know. It's not logical.

Anyway, the school I will be attending to is the University of Peace and Serenity.

But, 'Peace and Serenity'. What kind of school offers a combat curriculum?

This school does. And it's one of the schools that make great combatants from all over the world.

Well anyway, despite that calming school name, the school is widely known for its three major curriculums. The Theater Arts, the Visual Arts, and the Combat Arts. Theater arts are the curriculum for kids who have been given good talent for singing, dancing, acting and something that includes entertainment. Visual Arts is the curriculum for the kids who were born with talent for drawing, painting, sculpting, crafting, and everything with a 'ting' in it. Combat arts are for the warlike kids such as me.

You see, this school is the school where talents are cultivated and shapes you to become a person who works for the economy with passion because you yourself like what you are doing.

This school does not make kids study subjects that are completely irrelevant to the future job. Most schools would make students study and memorize a lot of math and scientific principles before you graduate.

But LeKradz, those principles are essential!

Well, I can't argue with that. But take this example:

You took a course for Dentistry. You have to study a lot of math on your first year. Then another math. Then another math. Then a higher math. Then you will be forced to study about everything irrelevant to your dream job like learning the Evolution Theory or The history of pop music. You will be forced to take an exhilaratingly exhausting Physical Education subject too.