2 Chapter 2: Awakening

System Implemented….

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Status:

Name: William Myer --- Race: Lesser Human --- Race Rank: 1

Class: None --- Level: 1 --- EXP: 0/10

HP: 1/2.5 --- MP: 0/0

STR: 2.5 --- END: 2.5 --- AGL: 2.5

PER: 2.5 --- INT: 2.5 --- CHA: 2.5

LCK: 2.5

Abilities: None

Perks: None

Active Effects: Void Scars

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"What… is happening?" William thought.

The last thing William remembered was the attack, but even then, his mind drifted away from the trauma and he began to dream. He was at the Moonlight Festival held on the winter solstice. Thram had held this tradition since it was founded.

Newly built after the great war, the village sat at the furthest of what remained of civilization. Even though it was a peaceful existence, there was a time before William and his family were born where that wasn't quite the case.

William had pestered his older brother and parents nonstop at the festival about what life was like before the war. No one in his family knew what had happened, and they had told him this before. However, they all knew that all he wanted was permission to go hear the rumored story again, and reluctantly, they let William go. Gathered near the town square, the local blacksmith known as Rich would gather some the children during the festivals and tell them stories of the previous world. Many in the village didn't even believe him, but William did.

Under a crackling campfire and dark sky, Rich's grizzly voice with long greyed beard would tell more or less the same story every festival, and yet, many children came to hear it again and again:

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Before the great war, there was no such thing as magic or beasts. Gigantic cities that spanned miles and miles with skyscrapers and advanced technology were all around the globe while wars were fought with guns instead of blades. Through centuries of fighting, people had slowly begun to put aside their differences for the greater future of Earth. Robots, known as Cybers, would attend to mundane chores and jobs throughout society. High tech devices like teleporters and space travel were blossoming, yet humans were the only sapient life in the galaxy that people knew of. But everything changed on the day of the Awakening.

All at once, humans began to display strange abilities that most people could only describe as magic. Some would be able to move objects with their minds while others could move elements like water at will. While these abilities were strange, they were rather weak and couldn't be used malevolently, but that did not stop corporations and militaries from experimenting. Over time, the power of these abilities seemed to steadily increase, and strange mutations started to sporadically appear amongst the people with some people's skins turning different shades of colors like green or blue, while others began to grow tails and horns. Scientists wondered if this "magic" was due to evolutionary mutations or if the mutations were due to the magical phenomenon.

Nonetheless, the balance of the world slowly started to crumble as the magic and mutations began to grow steadily out of control. People experimented with the power and mutations until they appeared to be inhuman. Some were branded as monsters and outcasts as riots spread from city to city. In the background another phenomenon occurred: animals were transfigured by the magic, giving them unnatural intelligence and strength. These beasts began attacking humans, and the line between the human monsters and the beasts started to grey.

The brightest minds and leaders gathered together in an attempt to bring order back to the world with their solution of a global, centralized military known as the Cyber Military. Some of the people were made into half human-half machine cyborgs to fight along side the other AI implemented to maintain order. Experiments were done to see if machines could even use this magic, and to the surprise of many, this newfound magic could be infused into certain metals to store the energy. A short peace began as this military now used these mana infused metals to store energy and implement them in machines and weapons in combat. Although Cybers were tolerated by the general public before the Awakening, their intelligence and global power now frightened the general public and a war ensued across the world until the world had become unrecognizable due to the nuclear and magical fallout.

All that was left were remnants of technology and magical wisdom for the survivors. They slowly rebuilt civilization and founded the Ryko Empire. Unlike those nations of the past, power couldn't be attributed to a vast army or technology because a skilled magician could destroy a conventional army in a moment. Instead, the new empire was a feudal one that centered around the four city states of Galeon, Agete, Phanec, and Pyratite. Each city had a great king with renowned magic power, and the Wizard King kept balance between the four groups with his mages as an independent group. Outside the border of the empire were the Wildlands, where only beasts and monsters awaited. Perhaps there were other human cities or maybe even monster cities out there, but all that could be held onto at the moment was because of the four kings protecting the cities they governed.

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Children were in awe of the story, and many traders had said similar stories when trading with Thram, but to be fair, the only people who really knew the truth were those who far outlived the normal humans, which were rumored to be the kings and some beasts.

William believed Rich mainly because no other adult knew or told any of the kids anything differently. Even though their village was located on the border of the wildlands, no one had ever seen a beast before, and William was often curious about why many adults would tremble at the mention of the Wildlands. His only conclusion was that beasts and monsters were real and that they didn't like to talk about it since Thram was so close to the border.

He also knew magic was real because of his brother Joseph. Joseph had an innate talent to manipulate rocks. The kids would often play games, and Joseph would often have an upper hand if he were to use his talent to use a rock to protrude from the ground, tripping another kid. No one was really scared of Joseph or his power because tripping his friends was as far as his power appeared to go. For this reason, William and his friends would just put in place rules against magic and would occasionally put Joseph in time out for breaking the rule.

In the village however, magic was commonplace in skilled jobs. Rich for example, would use fire magic to heat up his blades and armors to save energy while his father Dylan was known as an astute farmer because he also had an earth type ability that allowed him to till the soil easier than others. William never showed any magical abilities, but often, some couldn't unlock any talents to begin with or had to study at the only magical institute in Ryko in Agete. Unsure if magic powers were genetic or if everyone could use it with practice, most people just lived their lives in the village ignoring it if they could.

Other remote villages away from the four great cities felt similar, but as you got closer to the cities, the more people seemed to care about magic. Namely, this was due to the Ryko System. After the apparent destruction of modern society, the scientists and wizards came together to create a hierarchy to keep people in line. Mixing together an AI like interface with magic led to a game like system that tracked a person's abilities in society and combat. Rich had once mentioned to William that the system itself had a mainframe located in Phanec.

Anyone without the Ryko System had a great disadvantage in society, especially amongst wizards and combat oriented jobs. The system was designed to reward and grow prospective citizens to fulfill different jobs as well as keep the system running through energy production. None of this mattered to poor people in villages because to obtain the system would take an absurd amount of energy credits that only the wealthy elite or military could get their hands on.

William knew of the system, but along with everyone else in their rural community, it was out of sight and out of mind. Of course, William wouldn't care, but now, someone had given him the system.