Chapter 7: Introduction to Becoming an Assimilated [1]

Waking up to the unfamiliar sounds of an alarm clock, I looked at the time. I noticed that it was only 6:30; I must've mixed up the times for class and waking up. I would do well to not be so careless.

After washing up, I waited until the others were done getting ready and headed out together to our classes. We only had 2 classes scheduled for the day, 'History & Geography' and 'Introduction to Becoming an Assimilated'. The intro class was up first.

When we reached class, it was nearly time for it to begin. Thankfully, Jude couldn't find a seat near me and Miguel so the twins sat separately. While I was appreciating the chance to attend the class in peace, the professor teaching us came into the room.

He had the classic look of a clumsy researcher, thick glasses and all. He called the students up for roll call and I returned the tags of each of the students. Some of their expressions were friendly while others seemed apprehensive. Since I remembered the names of all of them, I mentally took note of their reactions toward me to try to avoid future trouble.

After that was completed, the teacher took out a device from his pocket and laid it on the teacher's desk. It projected text onto the white wall behind him as well as some drawings.

"Since almost all of you have no idea what an Assimilated is or what it means for you, today's class will be very important for you. It would serve you well to pay attention diligently."

Hearing him, all the students in the class stopped relaxing and concentrated on his teachings.

"I won't go into too much detail on this since you have history and geography coming up next, but I'll start off with a brief reintroduction of the beginning of the calamity."

"As you all should be aware, around 50 years ago, the Demon King crash-landed on Earth with his 4 horsemen. Though some claimed the parallels with the Bible as divine affirmation, the demons themselves provided us with the truth behind the creation of the universe."

"So simple. Once there was nothing, then there was. The stronger the demons that were defeated, the more of the truth was revealed. It was only after the defeat of several horsemen that we could confirm their final stance on the matter."

'Ascend if you want to know the complete truth'

"Many took it as a challenge to their faith and denounced the claims, while others silently pursued power, hoping to achieve this so-called 'ascendance'."

"Though it cannot be verified whether anyone has truly ascended, many report that those at certain levels of power go through changes in their mentality after a certain while but nobody seems to be able to decide on the threshold."

"Regardless, with the advent of the Demon King came the age of the assimilated. Though initially called the age of Mana, it was soon understood that Mana wasn't the only new form of energy at our disposal."

"The most abundant sort of energy was Mana, but it was definitely not the only form of it. Mana can be gathered from the surrounding by the Assimilated or it can be mined up from the mines which spontaneously appeared beneath our feet. How their appearance didn't cause a significant change in the land formations and tectonic activities, scientists are still discovering things to this day."

"There was also a change in the world's climate. No longer was there a danger of the theorised 'climate change', some spots in the world underwent massive changes. The most prominent examples of that are the two remaining large-scale forests in the world, the Amazon and the Sundarbans."

"The monster by-products from the Amazon would rarely contain Aura cores, a resource which could be used to improve the physical strength and capabilities of the Assimilated. And from the Sundarbans, very rarely some special types of roots could be extracted which are called Shine roots. They are useful for Assimilated who specialize in ranged weapons like bows and javelins. They could also be used for modifying existing weaponry, which already underwent an energy revolution by switching to energy-based ammunitions from gunpowder and bullets, to make them strong enough to affect the Assimilated in combat scenarios."

"Taking in mind the Assimilated, who are now comparable to tanks and ballistae, the importance of shine roots as a resource is extremely clear. Aura cores can also be used to enhance melee weapons, and with the re-emergence of hand-to-hand combat in response to much stronger ballistic-resistance gear, they too are highly coveted."

"And with those kinds of temptations in motion, it is hardly a surprise that the world has been embroiled in global war even after the Demon Kings' defeat 20 years ago. The principle is simple, isn't it? Those who control more Mana mines can control the world."

"By now, Mana crystals have become so important in our lives, that they are even the primary international currency active in the world. Vested not by any one government or entity, its' sheer usefulness and versatility gave it its' value, akin to gold or salt in previous ages."

"The calamity would definitely have caused even more deaths due to the world food crisis at the time, had it not been for the existence of demon berries, also known as ambrosia."

"It is a miraculous food dropped by nearly every creature that was affected by the changes in the environment, what with the introduction of Mana, Aura, and Shine. It caused them to mutate and change to become much more aggressive and dangerous. But each of these ambrosia is capable of satisfying all nutritional requirements of the human body. Any excess nutrition within it would be used up as a short burst of energy."

"Funnily enough, not only did humanity not have to suffer through a food crisis in these trying times, but it also quelled all whispers of the so-called 'obesity' epidemic which could no longer affect the population. Among the few downsides it had was that it did not allow for fat formation, so the need for ambrosia rose significantly than initially thought. Another was that since it did not provide water, the world had its' most widespread case of water shortage where nearly 90% of the surviving world population had to deal with it."

"And with it, came the rise of big water. They employed Assimilateds to dig massive wells underground and used advanced machinery to extract the pure water. For a not-so-short few decades, water was, in itself, treated as a form of currency until the World Association stepped in and regulated the price of water."

"I've been rambling on and on for quite some time now, but none of that should have cleared your doubts about what being an Assimilated means, so I'll focus on that."