New Life in the New World (Re-Written)

Sixteen years later...

It has been sixteen years since I got my new life in the world of Athos. I was born into a small family that consists of me, my parents and a little sister who is five years younger than me. Both my parents are chefs, which is how they met each other in the first place.

The world of Athos is oriented around magic. Even if I say this is a magical world, this world nowhere resembles a medieval world as it was described in many of the light novels. The civilization of Athos is more advanced than I initially thought.

The difference here is the energy used for the technology. The entire technology tree of Athos revolves around magic. There are light bulbs, trains, and even airships that use mana crystals as the source of power.

Though it was now like this, it wasn't the case before the Gates of Ascension showed up. This world was as medieval as Earth before the gates appeared.

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Everyone who reached the age of sixteen would get a mark. The mark can appear on any part of their body based on the person's interest. Most chose hands, arms, or even faces. This mark is a sign of power in this world.

The mark would be white in colour when it first appears, which says that the person is a newbie. The person who has yet to Ascend would have the white mark. The mark changes its colour for every increase in rank. Each rank has its own colour.

Once the mark appears on a person, they can enter the Ascended Lands as per their wish but none do so. The Ascended Land is not a video game, where one would have an infinite number of lives. Once they die, it was done for them

Life may be unfair and cruel, but it also provides chances for one's survival and improvement.

The chance is called Trial Lands. Here unlike Ascended Lands, one would be given two extra lives. Once three lives are used up, that person would be dead.

Unlike Ascended Land which was open to anyone at any time after the mark appeared, Trial Lands doesn't work like that. These have their own rules.

The opening to the Trial Lands appears once a year.

If the awakened has entered before or after entering Trial Lands, then the entrance will be closed for them.

The ones who can enter should have awakened after the previous day of opening.

Everyone would be bound by these rules.

It is the reason, why people wait for months even after the mark appears on them. The reason was that there are many resources that are only available in the Trial Lands and the chance to obtain them would disappear once they entered the Ascended Space or Ascended Lands.

On the Day of Opening, every sixteen-year-old kid with a mark can enter the Trial lands. This access would be valid until next year. Before the new batch came, this land would disappear and the ones who were newbies would enter the Ascended Space.

A new Trial Land would appear every year. This stops one from using prior knowledge as a loophole to gain maximum benefits.

Once the awakened enters the Ascended Space, they won't be called newbies anymore. They are called Ascended, one who has ascended to the next phase of the mortal realms.

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When one enters Trial lands, they would be given a Class, Talent, or Physique and three class skills or spells which are purely based on their luck.

There would be villages, towns, and cities in this trial land. Like video games, everyone can get quests from either the system which are mostly specific to them or from the NPCs, which are either general quests or class quests.

The reward for completing the quests could be experience, currency, or items, which are of utmost importance to the newbies who lack everything.

Experience is required for levelling up. It can only be obtained by hunting/crafting depending on the profession and from completing quests.

Items are required to add protection or craft or to kill monsters. There are many types of items such as weapons, potions, or crafting items.

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The currency that the Ascended uses is called a Magic Coin(s). Unlike local currencies where different denominations are used such as Iron, Copper, Silver, Gold and Platinum coins which are in the order of increasing value.

1 Platinum Coin = 1,000 Gold Coins

1 Gold Coin = 100 Silver Coins

1 Silver Coin = 100 Copper Coins

1 Copper Coin = 100 Iron Coins

These are the exchange rates of different coins in the world before the Gates appeared.

As Ascended Lands became part and participle of Athos, they had to introduce a new currency. This was due to how different nations' coins had different values.

A gold coin of one nation wouldn't be perceived as of equal value to a gold coin from another nation.

As Ascender Lands entered all ways of life, a new stable currency was needed. After a lot of diplomatic missions that spanned years, a new currency was introduced, after getting approval from different races and nations of the world.

The new currency was named, Athos Credit(s).

1 Magic Coin = 1,000 Athos Credits (Ac)

The Magic Coins though useful in the Ascended Space, couldn't be brought out to the world of Athos. The new currency would remove that problem as the coins could be exchanged through the new institution that oversees the transactions.

Athos Magical Traders was established with branches all across the world. This acts as a guarantee that every transaction would be carried out without failure, but for a fee. There was no other choice for people but to use this method as there was no direct exchange of currency.

One can just go to the institute's post in the Ascended Space and pay the amount that you wanted to exchange. Once the payment is done, your bank account will be credited in the real world.

The working of exchange was a bit different for converting Athos Credits to Magic coins.

You can visit one of the branches, and make payment there. They would provide a Transaction Number and also a PIN code, which can be redeemed at the Institutes's post in the Ascended Space.

If you lose those two numbers or stolen by someone else, the money is gone forever. Though newer ways are tried, not everyone is in agreement on their introductions.

Coming to the currencies, though the new currency came into existence, it didn't mean the old currencies went out of existence.

As of present, Copper and Iron Coins are the most used coins. They are still in circulation as they are usually used to buy small quantities of items or cheaper ones. Using Athos credit would be a hassle on such occasions.

1 Athos Credit = 100 Gold Coins

[A/N: Though the gold coin has different values, here it takes the value of an average gold coin.]

Even today Silver Coins are used sparsely, but Gold and Platinum are out of circulation in the markets.

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When the gates appeared, it was not all sunshine and rainbows for the world.

Monsters entered the world and wreaked havoc across nations. Many nations disappeared from the face of the world.

The gates not only opened for monsters but also new races that were never seen or heard before. Some were peaceful and wanted land to live and survive, while some wanted hegemony or just plain old destruction.

In time humans came to co-exist with some races but were at war with some races.

The thing was, these races brought technologies with them into this world, which were mostly beneficial for this world, improving the quality of life here.

Many diseases that used to plague the world disappeared from the face of the world. The once backward world improved in almost every sector.

For example, the lights were introduced by Gnomes, rails by Dwarfs and the airships were from Elves. Elves are even known for medicine, which helped humans in improving the health of the people.

This improvement in the quality is also the reason for the life of peace that was enjoyed by people like my family.

Both my parents were non-combat professionals, so they couldn't go out there to hunt. The levelling process for them is to cook different foods. The better the quality, the better the experience gained.

Though this feels like a loophole as they can cook the same things from safety to gain experience easily they have a limitation. The experience gained is less compared with combat hunters.

They would only gain a high amount of experience if the food they cooked was a new recipe. If that recipe was first in this world, they gain a lot more experience. This was not only for cooks but applies to every crafter, which was why every crafter experiments a lot.

They both gained a lot of levels due to having their own restaurant in the small town of Ashberry. This was what most cooks do, either establish their own restaurant or work in one.

Though my parents have high stats due to their levels and appear stronger, they are weaker as they have little to no combat experience. They can't fight against combat hunters of the same rank or even a few ranks below properly.

If this was still a land of lawlessness as it was when the gates first opened, a family like us would always be in danger, not because of monsters but humans who don't care about consequences. This slowly changed as laws were brought back into the lives of Athos and much chaos subsided.

My Life was good until now. It will all change tomorrow as I begin my journey for strength. The gate to Trial Land opens tomorrow, and it would be the start of my fight for survival.

No, not just for my survival but for the survival of my family, my friends, and all of Athos.