1 chapter 1: Death

Lands started to emerge from the sea, towers pierced the sky, and monsters started to appear. Initially, the humanity was unable to respond to this dramatic change. Because of earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes, a lot of their facility were destroyed. But they soon started to respond to the monster's attack, through various weapons. This period lasted 3 years, in which the humanity started to gain the upper hand.

That is, until the monsters morphed. A new energy started to circulate in the planet, and it was called mana, becouse of the resemblance it had with the mana of videogames and works of fantasy. How the mana worked was instantly grasped by the monsters, and soon they become invulnerable to every type of weapon which didn't contain mana. It was an horrendous period, in which portion of humanity was annihilated.

But some people started to battle the monsters in equal footing.

The apparence of the awekened. People who, thanks to a system called Gaia, were able to use their innate abilities. It was just like a game, so people soon grasped how to use those abilities. This period was called The Awakening.

This is what transformed our Earth in this fantasy like environment. For someone it might be hell, for others it may be Heaven.

I don't belong to neither of the two categories. I hate the monster, which killed my parents. I hate the earth, which evolved too fast, without giving the humanity the time to adapt. But I don't feel it's right to call it hell. It's still the Earth, and not some place created with the intent to punish us, or reward us.

Since the death of my parents, I had it tough. Not as much as many others, though. My parents were the owners of the Wright Company, which had the role to put in touch the client with the seller for various business. I always studied hard to take over the company, and, thanks to my effort, I managed to not let crumble the empire that my parents leaved to me after their death. I started commercing weapons, and through the crisis, I managed to earn quite a sum. When the weapons become useless and the awakener started to appear, I swiftly took the opportunity. Now we sell skillbooks, items, and the awakeners' services. So I managed once more to let my company grow, instead of letting it fail.

...if I was able to adapt this quickly, is because I myself was able to awaken, and I was one of the first ones to, even. I had something strange on my status: a trait; "Book maniac". Its description said "you can read every book and enhance its effects".

I can understand why I obtained such a trait, you know? If I have something special, that thing is that I deeply love reading. Or is it better to say that I'm obsessed with it? A lot of people love reading, but as far as I know only I did have this trait. Anyway, another would be that I'm strong willed. Even if my parents died, and had an enormous responsibility called 'wright company' which weighed on my shoulders, I studied, harder than ever. I pierced my way through the crisis, Thanks to my sole effort. So yeah, while I could understand why I had that trait, why did I not obtain one about my strong will? Probably I'm not that special in that aspect, or so I thought.

Anyway, my trait allowed me to read any book, no matter the language it was written with. And, if I understood the book's contents, than I could easily remember what I learned from the book. To the point that it looked like I experienced the things I read about, allowing my business abilities to soar.

One day I saw a man, an awakener, take action with my own eyes. The man name was Icaro Sabia. I fell in love with his way of fighting: he was extremely powerful. It felt like in front of me there was a real hero, from the books I read and the video games I played before the Apocalypse.

From that day I felt a strong passion burn inside of me. I wanted to gain that power... And kill the monsters which took my parents away from me. The burning desire of revenge that until now I repressed with the thought of the responsibilities they left to me, exploded. So I started training with various weapon: before purchasing a skillbook I had to see which one would effectively help me. After months of training, I arrived at the conclusion that I have very little talent with every weapon except the sword. Could it be the effect of Bookmaniac? I read a lot of fantasy book and manuals about the ways of swords. Maybe my talent surfaced through it. So I took a Bunch of skills for the sword and...

Usually, you just have to open the skill book, and you will learn the skill. But nothing happened. I could read the skill book. Thanks to my book maniac. I was extremely excited! That meant that, as long as I could understand the skill, I could use an enhanced version of it! ...but I couldn't understand it. The language was a strange one, none of the ones on Earth was like that. But I could still read it. The problem was the knowledge inside. It was simply impossible to me to understand. I'll give you an example: give to a child, which never learned a thing about math, a book about equations. How the fuck is he supposed to learn!? He could not, he hasn't even the basic, so what was written for that child could be just bullshit. Some nonsensical words put together.

...but I could not allow myself to leave it be. There were other ways to resolve this problem: use an item's skill, upgrade my trait, obtain skills through the achievements... And so I did. I trained Like a Mad to increase my stats. I killed like a mad to level up, and increase my stat. I read books and books about fight and tactic, to increase my experience. I relied very little on my item skills: they had a cooldown, and if I used them without a concern, I could end up killed. Increasing my level without actually using a single skill, and when I used one, waiting for the skills cooldown, become a strenuous work. The higher the level, the more dangerous the monsters, the more difficult to replenish the experience bar. Years passed, I and my company experienced a continuous growth.

I also tried to study the skillbooks, and tried to understand the mechanism behind them. I also obtained elixirs which had a very little chance to awaken my potential and upgrade my traits or awaken a new one. I don't know how much of those fucking things I drunk... But My trait upgraded, lastly.

...

...

. . .

It became "reading maniac". Same effects. Just, now its effects were not limited to books, but they became applicable to everything 'readable'. It was actually pretty cool, I could read the various hieroglyphs in the towers, and through them, I could earn various intel for the understanding and the comprension of the skill books. But it still was so hard... I was slowly becoming old, but I did not give up. I started to fight less, and used all the remaining time to study as much as I could. Obviously, I still had time for my private life. I even had a family.

I actually was pretty famous. Becouse I never obtained a single skill. Even if I did crazy things for achievements. Even if I used all sorts of items... I never obtained a skill. But still, I was strong. My abilities with the swords were incomparable.

The humanity was able to slowly grow, and now their situation was balanced between humans and monsters. But monsters continued to evolve, and to born. The world was divided in two fraction: the one of monsters, an the one of humans.

Years passed, I obtained another trait. 'Imperishable Soul', a powerful name, isn't it? Its effect were vague though. " as long as your will does not wither, your soul will be imperishable. "

The fuck does it means? Well, it doesn't matter. I continued my studies...

Until, at the age of 70, I finally almost understood my first skillbook. Thanks to my high level, and my enormous stats, plus my rigorous training, even if I was old... I had a body full of energies. Just, I was feeling myself weaken with the passage of time.

The monster legion attacked our human empire.

I, of course, went into the battlefield. I did not want to see my family butchered by the monsters. I went ahead and started my killing spree. But... The most powerful human, Icaro Sabia, was not here. Did he abandon us? I... I can't believe it.

I fought until my death. But, before dying I felt like I had an epiphany. I understood "sword slash". But my body was too weak to move. I could not do the skill I tried to learn for so many year. Regret filled my entire being. I lost the use of my eyes, and I couldn't see anymore.

At first I wanted only power. Power to destroy the monster. But then the real me took the control. My " trait", took control. I'm a book maniac. I want knowledge. I want to understand the mechanism behind the skills. I want to improve them, and create an absolute "skill". I wish to wield the power without the help of the Gaya system.

My entire being went numb. I felt nothing. There were no shrieks, no "thuds" created by the weapons hitting their adversaries. No smell of blood and iron. Nor the hot feeling of the blood going out of my body... I felt nothing.

I wish to... To live. To use the power I finally understood how to wield.

There was no other regret, other than that.

I had an happy life. I had a family, I had money, I had friends, I had power.

But i could not evolve and go over the limits of the Gaia system.

...

It was then, that I started to feel something. I could feel a slight pain all over my body, and a sharp pain at my abdomen. I opened my eyes and...

I saw an unfamiliar ceiling