Chapter 1| The Book Of Endings

|It's okay if you stop believing in these texts one day, I simply hope you'll never stop preparing.|

Jay closed the book with a deep sigh and a heavy heart. It must've been the hundredth time he read the book and still, even now, he felt exhausted whenever he finished it.

The work he had been reading was called 'Tome of the End: Volume One'.

The book was leatherbound and looked ancient. The pages appeared fragile and seemed to be made from parchment rather than paper, due to the materials the pages were constructed of, the 500-page book was significantly wider than any other book he'd seen to date.

He'd found it exactly six years ago now, when he had been only ten years old. His parents had brought him camping abroad, it had, in all honesty, been a rather boring event for the most part.

The notable part came on the final evening of their trip when Jay had gotten lost in the forest while attempting to get some firewood for his parents. When darkness began descending, he got lost and couldn't find his way back to the campsite, so he panicked and the cold boy had to look for a place to sleep at.

It was then that he had spotted the cave. Though Jay had been scared, his parents had made it very clear there were no dangerous animals in the forest, so he ended up entering the cave. To his surprise, though it had been uninhabited by animals, the Tome of the End had been sitting right there, in the middle of the small cave, as if waiting to be found.

When his parents had found him the following day, they had surely been surprised to find him together with a massive book he'd been lumbering around.

The book spoke of an event that was supposed to occur to the planet called 'The Integration'. When it happened many things would end up changing, and everybody would have to kill in order to survive. The book mentioned different races and types of magic.

Though any adult would dismiss the book as a work of fiction, the ten-year-old Jay had believed in the book full-heartedly.

Since then, a multitude of things had occurred which caused Jay's continued belief. The first came when he tried to appraise the book some years ago. The appraiser had been taken aback, claiming they had never seen a false book of such accuracy before. The exclamation did not come from the contents but the age of the book instead. Everything pointed toward this book being centuries old, but the modern English the work was written in made it clear that this was impossible.

The appraiser claimed that if the language used matched the age of the book itself, it would've been completely impossible to tell the book wasn't many centuries old.

A second appraiser confirmed this, also claiming the leather used as the cover of the book didn't belong to any animal they had ever heard of.

And there was one more event that happened about a month ago, one the book stated as the most apparent warning the integration was about to begin.

All over the world, the sea had reclined a full meter. The consequences of this event reached far, some people panicked while the scientists were looking for an explanation. Thus far all they had were far-fetched theories that they had no way to prove.

The book had talked about it though, Between two weeks and a month, before the integration takes place, a link between various worlds will be established. This will most often cause the seas to rise or fall by large amounts as the water was displaced.

It had been 27 days now, nearing the month that was put as the maximum time it would take. He had been rather busy this past month, trying to get things in order before the integration happened. He tried finding the other volumes of the 'Tome of the End' but came out unsuccessfully. There were supposed to be four volumes, of which he had the first, but no matter how hard he looked online or offline, he had been unable to spot the other volumes.

Just as he was once more getting lost in thought, he heard his mom's voice come from downstairs, "Jay, can you go get a bag of sugar from the store? I forgot to buy it yesterday."

Jay, having been brought out of his own mind, called back, "Sure mom!"

He already had his backpack on his back. For the last two weeks, he had always kept it on except for when he thought his parents would find it overly suspicious. He secretly kept it with him in bed as well, just in case the integration happened when he was sleeping.

After throwing the book he already knew by heart onto the bed, he made his way down to the ground floor, he got some money from his mom to buy the sugar and got his pocket money while he was at it. Even though it would most likely be useless soon, he still appreciated the gesture.

The walk to the store was only about fifteen minutes and largely uneventful. He successfully bought some sugar and ended up deciding to get some salt and cinnamon as well. Since the water level dropped so much, he had been spending as much of the money he had as quickly as possible, in case he got transported the next day. With what he got today he decided to get just a little bit of spices. The book had mentioned food would not be an issue in the beginning for those that were even somewhat capable, but that did not mean things such as salt and cinnamon would be plentiful as well.

The cashier was a girl that was probably about a year older than him, her hair was colored blue but she kept her brown eyebrows, and she had a piercing in her bottom lip. Jay didn't really pay too much attention to her but when he was about to take his change something happened.

First, it was a sound. Jay stopped in his action as he heard an immensely loud creaking, as if a massive door was being opened. He looked both ways trying to find the origin of the sound before casting his gaze downwards. The creaking turned into a rumbling, and the ground began shaking, causing him to nearly trip. He grabbed hold of the counter as the girl yelled out something Jay didn't hear due to the rumbling of the ground.

Suddenly he was hit with the reality of the situation, this was the final sign of the integration, something that happens less than a minute before it happened.

Jay cursed inwardly as he looked around himself, trying to find a final item he could perhaps take with him before he got transported. The cashier was still trying to talk with him but he ignored it. He spotted a flashlight that was being sold just across from the counter and quickly made his way towards it, grabbing it before falling to the ground. A moment later, everything turned white.

And just like that, he was gone. He couldn't see or feel anything, there was just the vast whiteness, all around him.

Then, just a few moments later a blue screen appeared before him.

| Welcome to the integration of your planet. Currently, the system is in the middle of terraforming your planet to allow for the existence of mana upon the surface. This process will take an unknown amount of time.

| Since you are a part of the first generation of integrated homo sapiens, you shall be allowed to walk upon the path of tribulations until your planet's transformation is finished.

| Good luck.|

These words weren't only shown on the blue screen before him, they also seemed to be imprinted into his mind. Leaving a small headache in its wake.

Just as the headache subsided, the system spoke again.

| You have been given the opportunity to ask a singular question. The system does not have to answer the question if it does not desire to do so. If it decides not to answer the question, you may not ask a different one.|

Having managed to stay mostly calm thus far, Jay thought about the message he had just received, pushing through the headache it gave him. Even though the message didn't say it, the Tome of the End had mentioned that you only have one minute to ask your question before the option disappeared.

That being said, to Jay it wasn't exactly an important moment, as the system would only respond to simple questions, all of which had been answered within the book.

Hence, he decided to use it to steel his mind before the first tribulation.

"What type of challenge will the first tribulation consist of?"

| A fight to the death.|

Despite having already known that there was a good likelihood the first challenge would be one of that kind, Jay still felt himself panic a little upon hearing it. He had been as prepared as he could be for this moment, but that didn't mean he was completely ready.

Still, he managed to calm himself down before the surroundings changed once again.

Over the course of a few seconds, colour began appearing once more. He could feel grass underneath his feet and sounds entering his ears.

After taking a few moments to reorient himself, he took stock of his situation. In front of him was some type of blue barrier. It reached high into the sky and was mostly see-through.

He was currently naked, his clothes had disappeared as well as his backpack with the items he had taken as preparation. Even though he knew he wouldn't have access to it at this time, he had secretly still hoped he would.

To his right was yet another blue barrier identical to the first. But when he looked behind him and to his left, he found a large number of other people. There were people of all types of ages, the youngest of which should be 13 according to the Tome of the End. It didn't take long for the first people to begin panicking. Trying desperately to cover themselves with their hands.

Ignoring the screams of people realising something was terribly wrong, he looked at the sky opposite of the barriers he had already spotted. The other barriers seemed to be about a hundred meters away from himself boxing everyone in completely. Considering people were packed reasonably close together he guessed there should be around 100 people within the square.

Just as he was thinking of how to proceed, he felt someone grab his arm from the side.

He instinctively jerked back the arm that had been grabbed while turning to face the assailant.

"W-what is going on?"

The question came from a young boy that had most likely just become thirteen. Tears welling up within his eyes.

Just as Jay was about to respond, a blue screen appeared before all those present.

| Welcome group 12.876. Your first tribulation shall now begin.|

| Mission: Kill your opponent.

Reward: Your continued existence

Time Limit: 24 hours

Note: This mission is mandatory |

| The Mission may be started by passing through the barrier, your battles will be spectated by all those that have already finished the mission.|

With the announcement finished Jay quickly looked at the barrier. As expected it was even more translucent compared to before, to the point where he had to actually focus to see it.

It was now that the time came to use the information given by the Tome of the End. According to the book, there were two things the system gave people substantial rewards for. One was doing something good. Naturally, if you did something almost nobody is capable of doing you'll be rewarded.

The second thing was doing something first. Being among the first to take a certain action was nearly always rewarded.

Now, it was time to be the first. And so, knowing that being the first to complete the mission would likely see him rewarded, he walked forwards, through the barrier.