1 Chapter 1

Prologue

During the early morning on the 22 06 2021 on the planet Earth, a thousand towers made from black crystal rose from the ground. In the span of only a few seconds, their tops had reached the clouds. No one knew what these towers were, how they had come to be on Earth, or what their purpose was.

Immediately after their appearance, a thousand people disappeared from the vicinity of each tower, or a total of one million people. They were going to represent humanity in a competition on which the fate of each participating world depended.

Our galaxy is vast and there are many different intelligent and not so intelligent races living in it. After many wars, which grew into one huge final war, the strongest surviving races came together and after centuries of negotiation, decided to change the structure of the galaxy. They established the "Central bureaucracy" and began a multitude of different projects designed to bring lasting peace and prosperity.

One of the later projects was to encourage the use of magic. During the last war, an unimaginable amount of spaceships and fighting machines were built and then lost, countless planets were destroyed using powerful technologies. The damage was immense, and the galaxy's resources were running out. Magic, however, uses a different kind of resources, and its energy is limitless. Spaceships powered and operated by mages usually had no need for fuel and did not rely on rare elements for armor plating, instead using runic shields which, in addition to being strong enough, were considerably cheaper to initiate and maintain.

That's why the central bureaucracy decided to introduce access to raw mana to most new worlds. That way their future would not be limited by the lack of rare resources and their absorption into the galactic alliance would be far easier.

These thousand towers on the planet Earth were magical artifacts designed to change our planet and the whole solar system by providing access to the mystical energy known as "mana".

In addition to mana, the towers would provide a host of different bonuses to the new planets, but not all races were equal. To keep diversity and encourage the new worlds, virtual competitions were held periodically between the new races. Performance in these competitions would determine the investment in the respective worlds and the boons they would receive.

Decades before the arrival of the towers, agents of the central bureaucracy were sent to promote certain genres of books, movies and computer games that were supposed to help somewhat with the upcoming race.

Now let's wish the future participants good luck and follow their adventures.

Chapter 1

I, Meridin Zlodar, the youngest son of Marquis Zlodar opened my eyes suddenly. I was in a well-lit room filled with all sorts of medieval weaponry.

Swords, armor, spears, bows and crossbows decorated the walls of the room. In one corner were shelves filled with books and scrolls, and next to them stood an alchemy lab. Flasks of bubbling liquids, test tubes of colored substances, and instruments with complex magical symbols on them. As my memories slowly returned, I heard a voice directly in my head.

"Hello participant. I am the spirit of the tower. You're one of the first among the 1,000,000 people to enter the towers. Now you have the choice to go back or move forward. For decades, a plethora of literature, computer and board games must have prepared you for some of what is to come. Your world, which hasn't had access to mana in millions of years, will awaken again. You can look at these towers as a blessing that will enable the population to adapt, survive and even prosper. Prepare for the transfer of memories."

Before I had time to prepare myself for anything, numerous memories invaded my head. The world unfocused and my feet buckled. Memories of battles I had never participated in, but which were as real as if I had been there, unfolded before my eyes.

I could feel the pain of the participants, their hatred and their sincere and deep desire to defeat their opponents. I felt the deep bond between individuals, something far stronger than mere friendship. Something celebrated since the time of antiquity. Such bonds could only be born after you had shared many hardships, escaped death by a hair's breadth and passed through hell together. I felt the deep trust and care that the soldiers had for each other and it touched me on a deeper level.

Then disjointed scenes showing the danger of the towers themselves unpacked in my head. I saw fearsome monsters destroying entire cities. I saw dragons scorching armies. I saw battles between creatures that moved so fast it was simply impossible to track with the naked eye. And yet, I saw mighty fighters of the homo sapiens race, battling them, trading hundreds of blows every minute. I saw and felt myself craving some of those powers for myself.

Scenes of mighty wizards slaying hordes of monsters unfolded before my eyes, and I felt the powerful energies these wizards wielded in battle. Every gesture they made, every breath they took, was filled with a tremendous amount of energy. Energy that at any moment they could send against their enemies.

I could feel it, and deep in my soul I had a strong desire to tap into those powers as well.

The scenes unfolded one after another before my eyes, with ever increasing speed, until they merged into a river of colors and sensations.

I could feel a multitude of memories unpacking in my head and being forgotten immediately afterwards. I had no access to them, but somehow I knew that when I found myself in a certain situation, they would resurface in my mind once again.

"Can I have a cup of coffee?" I asked hopefully.

And to my surprise the tower spirit appeared in the room. It looked like a ghost from the movies. A fleshless form made of mist, with a slight bluish glow around the edges. He made a commanding gesture and a cup of strong black coffee, a chair and a table materialized in front of me. I sat down, took a drink of the coffee, and suddenly a huge computer screen appeared in front of me.

There, under the format of a huge website, were the descriptions of thousands and thousands of classes, skills and starter items.

I began to look them over slowly as I considered what was happening. "I must still be dreaming.", I thought to myself. "I hope it doesn't end soon because it looks pretty interesting. When I wake up I'll tell Sofia about it, if she hasn't left for morning lectures before me." Sofia was the girlfriend I'd met in third year at the elite private school I was studying at.

Soon my thoughts returned to what was happening in my strange dream.

I started to look at all the different classes and to navigate the strange but yet familiar menus on the screen. After a while I noticed something a little bit strange.

"Hey tower spirit, why do I only see classes and skills but no points for strength, dexterity and so on?" I asked, remembering all the games I had played on my phone and my computer.

"Please wait a moment," the tower spirit answered me after a short delay, and in the style of those the very old computer games from the 90s, continued, "these are descriptive measures that will not be needed in the game."

"And what descriptive measures were used to tell what the different classes do then?"

"Please wait a moment... " answered the tower spirit. "Skills simply have no direct correlation to an individual's personal strength or agility. The gains and outcomes of learning the skills depend on other factors."

"And what are these factors?" I asked again.

"This is information you have to find out for yourself," said the spirit with a little smile. "You are here to be tested and giving equal start to everyone will show very little. So please do try to be more .. imaginative in your choices."

I paused for a moment and tried to examine the new information in my mind and to slowly gather my thoughts. Then bit by bit, some ideas started to form in my head. But first I was going to learn as much as possible about this starting place.

"And what happens after one chooses a certain class?"

"Each class comes with a number of skills, and once the prospective participant chooses a class, such as, for example, a combat mage, healer, cook, alchemist, and so on, he has the opportunity to learn those skills. The game then begins, with the appropriate class and equipment provided."

I sipped from my coffee and made myself more comfortable on the chair.

"Please, explain to me a bit more about the way these skills are learned. I for one am not an alchemist and don't even know what that word means in the context of the game. How will I get my alchemical knowledge in case I choose this class?" asked I.

"I'm not sure if I can answer that question."

"Why?"

"I can't answer that question."

This quick series of questions and answers confirmed my idea, that maybe, the tower spirit was not going to answer direct questions about some topics, and I had to work around this and try to gather as much information as possible.

"I understand, maybe you shouldn't reveal certain information related to the game mechanics. But.. Can you still give me some information, related to learning the skills of the selected classes? So I can still form an opinion if a certain class fits my capabilities? For example, after choosing the archer class, with its various different skills related to archery, does that mean I will immediately become a very good archer? That is, will the system going to inject information directly into my brain and muscle memory?"

"Wait a minute, I don't know what this "system" is, but I can guarantee you that none of the abilities, or game actions in general, will mess directly with your brain."

"But didn't you just transfer information to me?"

"This is different and it's a one time thing. According to the instructions, all participants must receive a certain amount of information, in order to have a relatively successful start. It is not like we cannot give you those memories, but again, we want to test your ability to learn and use new knowledge."

"That's interesting." I said and stopped to gather my thoughts.

"So," I thought to myself. "Transferring knowledge is possible, but it won't be used for the learning of the skills... How the hell is the learning going to happen then?"

I continued to look at the different classes as I constantly asked the tower spirit many questions. Time passed and I began to get a slight idea of the game the "participants" would be involved in.

There were so many different classes, but most of them were related to fighting and survival. Here's the Cook for example, besides his ability to prepare food, he had a lot of fighting skills. Beside fighting he had several skills for identifying foods and herbs, techniques for processing different types of monster meats, and foods enhancing the fighting skills of the people who ate them.

Just from this, I could infer that, maybe the game was going to take place in a world with lots of weird monsters. And given that the tower spirit said at the beginning of his introduction that "For decades, a multitude of literature, computer and board games, should have prepared you for some of what is to come.." I could possibly draw some conclusions.

Time passed slowly, my coffee ran out and I asked for another, and then another and another. I was not getting tired, but instead more and more curious about this place and the risk and the opportunities it could offer.