1 Chapter 1: The System

"Try to toughen up by next near, Eli!" A boy shouted down the school hallway, laughing like a maniac after.

Eli didn't care about the mockery, and just continued walking down the hallway. This kind of bullying was normal for people like him. Then again there might not be anyone like him. It's impossible to ignore since it happens everyday, but this time he couldn't hold his anger in. You see today's the last day of school and now he's getting sent off to a training camp. Unfortunately, this isn't a normal training camp.

In the year 2023 humans discovered different races. These races included, dryads keepers of the forest, werewolves keepers of the moon, and they even found different half breeds. These half breeds are usually animals except they have a human shape and can speak. For example, a cat person.

Now in the year 2039 humans are a very small race. This is due to the fact of a law that was passed. This law forbade fighting between races, but allowed cross breeding. Thus, people could marry a cat person if they fell in love, so now there are barely humans left. And I'm one of them.

The whole point of this training camp was to train people for events known as Beast Tournaments, which I will explain later on. I already know I'm going to be the weakest there, so I had to let my anger out somehow. I turned around and stuck my middle finger up. "I bet you're so clueless you can't tell which finger I'm putting up."

Angered by the comment, the lion boy, yes a lion boy came running down the halls after me. I had no choice but to run. Though I'm not confident I'll be much faster. After rushing out the school doors I was able to run for about 5 minutes before he caught up. I was expecting a beating, but he suddenly backed off. Turning around I realize what it was. It was the cops.

"Hey you alright kid?" One of the male cops said. "Yeah I'm fine." I'm relieved they came or else I'd probably be mince meat.

"Need a ride home? The male cop said. "Ummm, if it's alright with you then yeah." I said. I hop in his car and tell him my address. On the way we start talking. "Thank you for the ride, uh, sir?" I said very formally. "Please, you can call me Dave." "Oh ok, well my name's Eli." After about five minutes, we arrive at my house.

"Hey Eli, I was wondering but do you live alone?" "Yeah what about it? I ask. " "Nothing, but you wouldn't be going to the training camp tomorrow, right? "Oh, that, well actually yes I'm going." "Well here." Dave hands me what seems to be... a grimoire? "What's this?" "Just a good luck charm. I could tell you're human like me, so I wanted to give you something." 'He seems like a very nice guy' I thought. "Thank you Dave!" "No problem!"

I walk into my house and place the grimoire down on the dining room table and I start opening it. 'I wonder what could be inside. Maybe a spell or magic weapon.' Oh wait I never explained magic, did I? Well when we humans first found the other races we also found magic books. Some books could give you the power of fire, while some could give you the power of water. The possibilities are endless. Unfortunately, these books are very expensive and all the strong ones belong to powerful families where only there descendants could pass it on. When I opened the book I was immediately disappointed, it was just a book full of blank pages. As I flip through the pages I accidently cut my finger.

Then as I walk away I see words starting to appear on the book where my blood dropped. I suddenly start to feel very queasy and tired. "My consciousness is fading..."

"Welcome human." "Huh, what was that...?" I open my eyes, but I'm no longer in my house I'm in a white room. In front of my eyes is what appears to be a game menu. As I read the text I come across something strange. "Choose your race?" I click on it and a list drops down of all the different races. They even tell you what there specialties are! Lets see there's, animal man, vampire, werewolf, dryad, angel, demon. Apparently, animal man is more balanced. Vampire's are more stealthy. Werewolves have pure strength. Dryads have magic and the power of nature. Finally angels and demons have the powers of light and darkness. 'What should I pick? I mean angels and demons are the obvious pick, but Dryad sounds cool.' 'Let's see maybe I can see there weaknesses? Sweet I can. Alright, animal people have no weakness, vampire's are weak to the sun. Werewolves only have there best strength on full moons. Angels are weak to darkness, while demons are weak to light. Dryads are weak to... huh nothing? Oh wait, maybe there weak to whatever element opposite to the one I pick. You know in my opinion I'm going to pick Dryad.

As I click it it gives me the drop down of elements to pick from. There's the usual, Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Lightning, but then there's some weird ones. Gravity, time, space, blood, and control. At this point I'm either going to pick Blood, Control, or, Gravity. I click on blood to see if it would give me a description, but suddenly it auto selects it. Wait, what!? Damn it, who knows if I picked a weak one now?

Then the voice returns saying something that made me happier, "You have chosen Blood due to picking it you now have the option to pick another element. Thus I go with my second choice Control. The screen in front of me changes showing a weird sentence, "You have picked the settings beginning evolution, welcome player! What do they mean by evolution? All of a sudden I wake up in my house, but I feel different. I walk to the mirror only to be shocked. I have weird white hair with red tints. I'm taller, and look more muscular. I also seem to have dark red eyes. "Man I look like a demon." As I start to walk into my living room a thought popped into my head telling me to say open system, so I do. Then the system appears in my face. 'This really is like a game.' I thought. There seems to be two tabs one stats tab and one skills tab.

Right now I'm on the stats tab where I see five stats, my level, and my hp. The stats are, strength, magic, defense, speed, and stamina. I have a 10 in everything except magic where I have a 20. Then I click the skills tab where I see two menus. One for blood skills and one for control skills. Right now I have one blood skill called leech. Also, I have one control skill called command. I then think in my head, 'system close.' Then the system disappears. Wow this is super game-like, but right now I have one thought in my head. Maybe these new skills can help me at the training camp. Well I know I say camp, but it's more like a school. It's a four year project where kids 16 are required to attend until there last year when they should be 20.

I do feel exhausted, so I decide to go to bed. *BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP* I wake up to the annoying sound of my alarm. "I guess it's time already huh." I get dressed in a black shirt and jeans, brush my teeth, and that's when I heard my doorbell ring. Walking over I see someone familiar outside. I open the door and "Dave? I didn't expect you to come over." "Well you don't have a ride to the training center right, so I thought I'd drive you." 'Dave really is a nice guy.' I thought. I take him up on his offer and head out the door. As I get in I see one more person in the car besides me and Dave. He seems to be around my age, so I guess he's going to the camp too.

"Hi nice to meet you my names Eli." This boy seems to be very distracted. He's constantly looking around and at the window. Then I realize he's a human, so I can understand if he is scared. I decide not to talk to him, so I don't frighten him. It was about a 30 minute drive, and Dave was right I never would have made it there in time. "I'm afraid this is where we part ways." Dave sounded very sad. "Thank you again Dave!" I walk up to what seems to be a gate. At the outside of the gate there are two guards. I walk in to the training camp, and then I walk over to the center of the camp where everybody else is. I start to get nervous as I look around. 'Everyone looks so strong.' I thought. Then I see him, the General. General Ferta is one of the strongest people in the world. He's a werewolf with shadow magic. "Hello everybody. My name is General Ferta and I'm here to explain the introduction battles. Today you and somebody else will battle using magic. In order to win you have to knock the person out, but don't worry. You will have your strength displayed on this screen."

Out of nowhere a screen appears behind the General displaying power levels. I look at the screen and see that I'm the weakest, well that's to be expected. "You can choose your partners now!" General Ferta says very energetically. I can already feel the stares from everyone around me. *BOOM BOOM BOOM* "What's that sound?" I look around trying to figure out where that sound is coming from. Then I look behind me and see a very tall and muscular werewolf. 'Huh how is he transformed it isn't even night time.' I thought. Though then I see it. A moon shaped pendant hanging around his neck. 'What is that?' I wonder. "Hey human boy." The werewolf has a very deep voice, so deep I could barely respond. "Um... yes?" "My names Cain, fight me!" I quickly glance at the screen behind the general to see what this guys strength is. 'What the!? This guys strength is the top of the chart!' Now I'm scared. 'There's no way I can beat him'

"Listen up, I forgot to say one thing: you can't deny a challenge from someone with a higher power level than you." Those words spoken by the general strike fear into my heart. What am I supposed to do now? "Ok let's fight." I follow the werewolf up to the stage. We seem to be the first competitors. "Alright, everyone ready?" The general seems very excited, but I don't know why. "Yes!" Me and Cain shout." "Then start!"