CH 1 - Age of Mana

It was the late afternoon I was returning from my baseball training to my college dorms.

"Hi Vic, on the way to dorms from training?" Asked blond girl my age, walking in the opposite way.

"Yes Jess, and you?" I answered.

"We are going to have a drink down in a bar, want to join in?"

"Maybe later I need to get changed and have a shower."

"Sure, you know where to find us if you decide to join."

I nodded and we both smiled at each other.

She was one of the few good friends I had in the college, despite being good at baseball and fencing, and according to Jess being handsome and I came from wealthy family to booth I never actually had too many friends. I was not interested in superficial friendships; Jess and her friends were the only group I felt good with. They had the tendency not to mince their words and speak directly from their heart. What was exactly what I liked about them. They were pretty much the only people I talked to outside of teachers, I just ignored and dodged the rest.

Most people around me always tried to crawl up my ass, but they didn't. If they thought I was being a dick, they just put in my place. And it was very refreshing. 

I continued on my way to my room. Once I reached my room, I dropped all my baseball gear  on the small table under the window and grabbed clean clothes and went to take a shower.

As I came out of shower, still drying my hair with a towel I wanted to check my phone to see what time it is. I grabbed my phone when I heard loud boom from the outside and I felt as if everything darkened from nowhere. I looked out and all the sunlight that was there not even a minute ago disappeared and everything darkened like during a massive storm. I looked to the skies and what I saw made my jaw drop.

Instead of sun or storm clouds that should be there I saw massive whirling vortex consisting of black, gray and white stripes with a black gaping hole in the middle. Lightning was occasionally striking from the hole. It looked scary.

I was shocked by the sight and I stood there looking at the vortex with my mouth open. This is when I saw it. A blue window with white text appeared in front of me.

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Welcome to the new era, The Age of Mana!

You were granted a system to help you navigate this new era. Initialization is complete. Please kill a monster so that system can grant you your initial blessing.

Rarity of the blessing will depend on the strength of the monster slain.

Good Luck!

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"What the fuck?"

Was my only reaction. But before I could comprehend what was going on I heard something.

"Heelp!" "Please Heeelp!" "Grrr!" " Grrr!"

I looked down and what I saw scared me. Sewer lids were moved and from the sewers a stream of zombie like creatures were funneling into the campus street. Chasing after people. Once they got hands on somebody, they started to tear them to shreds and consume them.

I almost vomited. When I heard something else.

"Howl!"

I looked up and when I saw from what the sound originated, I felt like somebody poured bucket of ice cold water over me.

  It was perched on electric pole. It had huge mouth that opened into 4 segments both vertically and horizontally. In the mouth a countless rows of sharp teeth could be seen and in the middle of all that huge tongue sticking out. It had lifeless gray eyes that were locked onto me. It was down on all four despite visible having distinct legs and hands. Hands being rather thin ending with sharp looking claws.  Legs were massive and very masculine. Out of nowhere it turned my way and prepared for the jump. While having eyes locked on me.

  I quickly grabbed the baseball bat I placed on small table and stepped to the side of window. I raised the bat up high prepared to swing if the monster jumped into the window.

And I didn't have to wait for long. It took just a few seconds for the ugly bastard to crash through my window. It landed on the small table that gave out under the pressure and ugly bastard fell to the ground loosing balance for a moment. I didn't hesitate for a second and started to hit the fucker with my baseball bat across the head with all my might.

After first hit I heard the monster screech in pain it looked like I was hurting it. That empowered my resolve to pummel the fucker to dead before it could get up and start doing whatever fuck it came here to do. I kept on swinging until there was just a mush where the thing's head should be.

I dropped the bat to the ground and looked at the ugly fucker while trying to catch my breath.

I heard some notifications in my head but I let them be for now. What interested me more right now was Jess and my family. I picked up the phone and noticed that it had no coverage.

"Fuck!"

After I calmed down A little I checked the notifications.

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Congratulations! You killed Jumping ghoul level 2!

First monster kill registered, calculating blessing rarity.

  More than 5 levels difference and monster was killed without any help. Highest possible blessing will be granted.

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"More than 5? What am I -3 or what?"

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User is eligible for a trait as a part of the blessing ... granting random trait.

Trait "Dealer's choice" acquired.

User is eligible for a skill as a part of the blessing … granting random skill.

Trait dealer's choice interrupted granting of random skill. Please select a skill from the list of possible initial skills - >>>

-  Iron skin

-  Ice spear

-  Fireball

-  ….

-  Summon ice tiger companion

-  ….

-  Summon Shadowblade

-  ….

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I looked at the list of over 500 skills trying to comprehend my situation. I read the log once again. Then I checked the dealer's choice trait. I wanted to first understand what is going on.

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Dealer's choice – every time you would receive a random reward or upgrade you can choose from the possible options.

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OK that explains why I can choose the skill. I don't know what the fuck is going on here with the age of mana bullshit but I have to get to the college bar and make sure Jess and others are ok.

So, let's pick a skill.

I was trying to filter out the skills in some way. Then I noticed that they were split into three different tiers according to strength. First being un-tiered, these were the most common ones and weakest. Then there were tier 1 abilities there was much less of these. They were less common and stronger. And last tier were tier 2 abilities there were just a few of them, they were meant to be very rare and meant to be the strongest among the starting abilities.

So, I filtered out everything outside of tier 2 abilities and only three abilities remained there, two out of three required specific weapons so I skipped them and picked the last one.

"Learn Summon ice tiger companion!"

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Initial skill earned.

Initial blessing granted successfully.

Checking for life skills that could be converted to skills ...…

Two convertible skills found.

Granting skills: Basic cooking, Basic fencing.

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"Me cooking for myself and taking fencing lessons paid off." I thought as I looked on the notifications.

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Basic fencing has small chance to mutate thanks to you already having cold attribute skill. Dealer's choice prevented the random decision.

Do you want to mutate your fencing skill?

YES / NO

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