Chapter 1 - One Small Mistake Led One Thing To Another

"Weak! Weak! Weak! How are these ants so weak!" A voice beyond the realm of humanity's capabilities roared in anger. "For an eternity we have set up this massive game but for what? Nothing!"

Countless gods trembled in fear in the face of this absolute voice.

"Lord, we have developed our own civilizations to a large degree! There's only one world that's been lacking this entire time!" A lower god pointed at a blue orb covered in green specks of land.

"What's that feeble world? It barely has any mana in it!" This unfathomable voice's aura made it so that the other gods couldn't raise their voices against him.

"It's called Earth! My Lord!" Another feeble lower god tried to explain.

This terrifying existence gritted his teeth and made every other god fall on their knees, "Which fool didn't develop that world? You had ever since the Absolute Beginning to create a powerful civilization! To not even have a single speck of mana in that… ball is disrespecting me!"

The lower gods couldn't utter any words in response to that. Seeing as no one else was answering another vibrantly devilish voice intruded on the conversation, "As I recall it was a lass called Helena, the God of-"

"Bah! Who cares! Bring that wench to me right now!" Every single god, whether their status was as low as being a God of a mere lump of soil or as high as being a God of Life, everyone rushed out to find Helena.

~~~

In an underdetermined location in the Land of Gods, a little red-haired girl was eating a skewer. Her hair swayed like fire and the color of it was so vibrant that it seemed as if hellfire mimicked it. Her skin was pale yet the cruel damning darkness in her eyes made others rethink if she was sick.

"Man, these taste so good. What's your secret old man?" Helena was stuffing in countless sticks down her mouth.

"Ohoho! If I said that then my secret recipe would be stolen." An old man continued roasting more skewers at his stall. "We can't have that now, can we?"

"Mmm, so true! Eh?" Helena looked all around her and saw gods of varying authorities surround her. "What's uh… what's happening? Did I miss a meeting or something?"

"He's looking for you." The previously devilish voice replied to her. "I told you what would happen if you didn't develop that world like you were supposed to."

Helena dropped the skewers she had in her hand and immediately felt a shiver get sent straight down her spine, "Eh? But I still have an eternity left!"

"That was an eternity ago…"

"Ah shucks, hehe. Are one of you guys a God of Time by chance?" Helena knew that she messed up badly.

"You very well know that those gods only follow his commands. Now come with us obediently."

"Hmph! Just a bunch of nobodies and you think you can capture me?"

The devilish voice interjected, "Helena I'm here though?"

Helena narrowed her eyes, "Did I stutter?"

"Dammit, you just had to hurt my feelings! Capture her!" This devilish voice summoned multiple black orbs that whirled all around him. Other extremely terrifying existences created their own specialized attacks.

Helena smirked and snapped her fingers. In a single moment, an unholy amount of mana gathered and condensed into a sea of hellfire. The black orbs of pure annihilation were completely swept up as hellfire consumed annihilation itself. The other attacks didn't fare that well either as they were gobbled up into nothingness.

"Hahaha! Just you? You'll never take me in a million-" Helena's voice was immediately cut off as she vanished where she stood.

The other gods were about to be drowned in a sea of hellfire when it suddenly disappeared as the caster was teleported. They all sighed in relief, "Thankfully the Lord got her before it got too out of hand."

"Too out of hand?" The old man pointed at the surroundings. "Everything's destroyed! Eons of work vanished in the blink of an eye! Gah! Who's going to pay for this!"

"-years… oh… oh no. Hey, boss, big boss man. How's it-" Helena appeared in of him. He grabbed ahold of her neck and squeezed tightly. "No need to be that rough." It was as if her words annoyed him even further, he gripped it tighter.

Helena couldn't breathe anymore and immediately tapped out, "I give! I give!"

"Why didn't you do anything?! Everyone has created their civilizations in preparation for this and you've done absolutely nothing! So much work wasted! The only thing that can appease my anger now is your corpse." His eyes emitted a terrifying aura as they showed lighting viciously running around. Even the land behind Helena was getting razed to dust.

"Wait! Wait! I have an idea to fix this! How about we just send them to other civilizations and make them stronger that way?" Helena immediately spouted out some kind of plan that she thought of on the fly.

He was about to delete her existence from reality when he started to ruminate about it. "That… isn't the worst idea possible. We can give them a few years by using a few Gods of Time and make sure they get strong by giving them enough lives by using the Gods of Life. Yes… that can work."

He let go, letting Helena land on her butt. Although it hurt a bit, at least she was safe now. "See? No harm no foul, now if you just let me…"

"Hold on… you still need to be punished."

Helena immediately felt severe concern for her safety. The last time she recalled, getting deleted from existence was so much better than suffering whatever punishment he inflicted.

"Hmm… yes, I know. Why don't you follow along with your plan? Hahaha! Yes! I'll strip you of your power and shackle you to the weakest human there! I can see it now! I'll even give you a congratulatory gift! I'll personally send both of you to my own developed world to enjoy!" He laughed out loud, the first time he had done so in a million years.

"Y-You can't mean… the most talented world out of the infinite worlds? That world? My Lord, you can't do that! I'll immediately die! A single ant there could destroy Earth with a single movement of its leg!" Helena screamed out at the injustice meanwhile he was laughing the entire time.

"Helena, good plan. I approve! Everyone, begin!" His voice echoed throughout the Land of Gods and faced his palm at Helena. "I bid you farewell. Good luck, Helena. I wonder how close the sole True God of Death is to death itself!"

"Noooo!" She tried to resist yet to no avail, her very existence disappeared and was sent to another place in the lower realms. The power that she had accumulated for an extremely long time was rendered null, forced to be shackled to a worthless human being.

~~~

"Ugh… hello?" Cain, an orphan since birth pointed a stick at an unconscious red-haired woman. "Miss, are you ok?" Cain then proceeded to poke her face with a stick even more. Seeing that she wasn't awake he had to deal with the random words appearing in his face.

[Activating the System.]

[Initializing Host: Cain Ex]

[Host, please use the basis for the power system.]

"Huh?" Cain was extremely confused. "What do you mean to use as a basis? You mean like this girl?"

[Accepted, using the foreign entity as the basis of the power system.]

"Alright! I don't know what's happening but something's happening so it must be good, right?" Cain looked around to see that they were in the middle of a forest. "Now, if only that girl knows what a system is.

[Host, you have been chosen as the carrier of the system. The system is only a guiding tool to see your strengths and other people's strengths.]

"That sounds really helpful!" Cain, only being a twelve-year-old kid without any knowledge of how to read or write was now given such a tool. "So what do I do now?"

[Host, I recommend you familiarize yourself with the system.]

"Oh… alright. Can you explain it to me in a way I can understand?"

[Reconstructing format… done]

[Host: Cain Ex

Power Level: Super Weak

Mastery: None

Note: All values are based on the basis.]

"Aw, that looks pretty bad." Cain felt demoralized but didn't feel that terrible. He was finally seeing new sights with a whole new world to explore.

He recalled what happened mere moments ago when a god-like voice told them to get strong in another world and they wouldn't die for as long as they got stronger. Cain felt like one of those superheroes so he was really excited.

All he needed to do now was talk to the girl who was sleeping in front of him. Her appearance seemed to be extremely fierce yet at the same time astounding. Cain felt as if he could look at her face for hours on end.

Left with nothing else better to do, Cain continued poking Helena's face trying to wake her up. This continued on for a little while until Helena finally opened her eyes. Cain who was attentively looking for any change immediately backed off once he saw her move.

"What's… happening?" Helena felt her body weaken to an unimaginable degree. Think of being the wealthiest person in the galaxy and having it be taken all away leaving you with nothing but two coins and a half-eaten piece of bread. Needless to say, it was painful.

"Ah!" Helena immediately shrieked as her body deformed and morphed into a younger version of herself. She could see her flawless white skin immediately regress as her power was taken away. She was having a panic attack.

"Nooo! My skin, my beautiful skin! Nooooooo!" Helena cried as she hugged herself, trying to console herself.

"You still look pale though?"

"Eh?"

Cain and Helena looked at each other.

"Who are you?!"

"What's your name?"

Helena's aggressive tone and Cain's friendly question contrasted each other heavily.

"You must be that useless kid! Damn it! How am I going to get my power back at this rate? Never! That's when!" Helenas clenched her fists in anger.

"Hello." Cain still retained that innocent smile on his face. "I'm Cain, do you what a-"

"Listen here, Cain. Whatever you're going to say must be dumb and stupid and dumb! If you ever want to ask that question again then a god might get angry and strike you down where you stand! You hear me? Dead! Not alive! Uh… not moving! So don't ask me again or anyone ever again!"

'I was going to ask what a system is but I guess everyone gets this.' Cain thought to himself.

"Hah… it's over. I'm so dead." Helena's power was taken away from her leading her body to regress back to how old Cain was. This was another restriction that he put them on. Both her age and power would return as Cain grows.

"What are you looking at? Ugh, fine. My name's Helena." She needed to get away as soon as possible from this dangerous area. As far as she could tell sitting around here longer than they already were seemed to be asking for death.

"Helena… That's a beautiful name." Cain honestly said out loud. He had no ulterior motives than to follow along.

Helena racked her brains thinking of what they could do, "All right from now on, whatever I say you listen, alright?!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Cain saluted to her.

"Good, first things first. We're getting out of here and fast!" Helena recalled that this was quite a low-level area, one so low that it was basically worthless to a person of her previous status but not it was essentially a death trap. "Let's head this way!"

"Yes, ma'am." Cain followed right behind her. "This is fun."

"System, what can I do to help Helena?"

[Get stronger! Be so strong that she has to lean on you!]

"I'll try my best! So what can I do to be strong!"

[Activating the quest system.]

[Quest: Walk 1000 steps.

Reward: Mastery of a Passive Skill.]

"I'll try my best!" Cain then continued walking right behind Helena. He slowly lagged behind her. As she was moving away the shrubs and bushes away, Cain was starting to have difficulty in keeping up to her.

[Quest Complete!

Reward: Mastery of a Passive Skill]

"What kind of passive skill?" Cain innocently asked.

[It is up to the host's choosing.]

"Is there a passive skill that can help me catch up to Helena?"

[There are multiple ones. The recommended ones are Vitality of an Immortal, Traceless Steps, and Unbound Speed.]

"I don't know what those mean… is how about a passive that doesn't let me get tired so easily? I think that's enough." Cain refused something he couldn't understand and tried to reason out something more reasonable.

[Reward: Endless Stamina - No Mastery]

Cain immediately felt his entire body lighten up to an unbelievable degree. Feeling his body full of energy, he ran up to right behind Helena and finally caught up to her. His face was full of joy as he wasn't being left behind anymore.

"We're almost there." Helena pushed on even further and finally arrived at the destination she wanted to get to. "Aha! A village! Cain, look there. Do you what we need to do?"

"No, ma'am!" Cain voiced back. "What do we do there?"

"Haha simple, all we need to do is ask for help and they'll help us! What kind of heartless people would leave two children to their own devices in such a dangerous place? I can see it now!" Helena confidently marched on.

Cain nodded and followed right behind Helena.

Helena moved around her face and tried to bring up a pity tear. "Sir? Please help us!" Helena felt so confident that she didn't even need to think of a backup plan because she didn't need to.

"You need help? No worries, I know exactly how to help you." The guard ran into the village and informed his higher-ups.

"Haha, see that? Easy." Helena showed off in front of Cain who was praising her.

Slam.

"Woah, Helena. They even helped us get a ride! And look there, they're also helping people like us!" Cain was amazed at how everything worked out in Helena's favor.

"Don't talk to me." Helena was undeniably depressed. It unfolded in a way that she didn't expect to. The light in her eyes was gone.

So apparently, they were mistaken as escaped slaves and were brought into a wagon to be traded with. Helena's pride was very hurt right now. If her hands weren't bound by chains then she might've just ended the embarrassment right here right now.

"Hey, thanks again, dude. You really saved me, we were actually two slaves short this time." A slave trader tossed a few coins at the guard.

"Don't mention it! Just toss me a few more coins and I'm more than happy. Hahaha!"

Cain realized that everyone else inside the cage wasn't as eager as he was since they were all keeping quiet. "Hey system, is there a way I can help us out?"

[There is currently no applicable quest. Try again later.]

"Oh…" Cain saw that the atmosphere wasn't as good as he thought and now even the system didn't have an answer to his current predicament. "Hey, Helena, what do we do now?"

Helena lifelessly looked at the sky and emptily said, "I don't know. Die? Yeah, probably die."

"You can't be like that! We're still alive, aren't we? Let's keep trying!" Cain kept motivating Helena despite her constantly saying that she didn't want to. Even the largest stones get eroded by water, Helena's depressed attitude finally changed as Cain's words finally reached out to her.

"Ugh, you brat! Fine, I'll keep trying. I still have that punch that guy in the face. I can't die here." Helena motivated herself to try once again. She used everything in her arsenal, which isn't a lot, to try and break through the chains yet couldn't. All along, Cain was encouraging her to keep trying.

After a few days of travel, Helena was still trying. After a grueling amount of time, she finally made a dent in the iron chains. This finally gave her hope in getting out of this. Her entire focus was directed at this chain.

A few people appeared in front of the slave caravan.

"Uh, Helena?" Cain tried to get her attention.

"Not right now, Cain! I'm doing something important." Sounds of clanging and banging appeared right behind her. Voices were drowned out as she focused on chipping away at the chains.

"Helena, I think you should see this. I think it's pretty important." Cain tried to point at the slave traders getting killed and the cages getting opened behind her.

"I told you it's really important. I'll worry about your shenanigans later! I'm almost there!" Helena was chipping away at the iron cuffs immobilizing her. 

"But I don't even think you should-"

"Hehehe, Cain, look at this!" Helena pridefully showed a small chip on the iron cuffs on her leg. It was worn enough that she could easily break it apart with a small nudge. "I'm pretty proud about it. Wait, what are you doing?" 

"I'm getting out." Cain's cuffs were already all long gone from his limbs.

"No, I'm asking is how you got out?! This is impossible!"

Most of the other slaves were already free, leaving Helena be as the only person who hadn't taken off their restraints yet.

"Oh, they broke it apart. See?" Cain pointed at their saviors destroying the cuffs that were keeping the slaves there.

"You little! Why didn't you tell me about that earlier!" Helena blushed in shame, she was showing off how proud she was of something like that.

Cain felt wronged but still couldn't raise his voice against his first friend, "I tried to…" He looked down feeling guilty.

"That's not what… Ugh! Alright, don't cry. It was my fault alright?" Helena really couldn't blame the kid in front of her. Ever since the beginning, he hadn't complained one bit despite being the person who should be scared the most.

Cain reached out his hand, "I forgive you, friend."

"That's… all right, human. You'll be this deity's first friend." Helena then also had her restraints taken off. Their saviors then all lined them up and announced their plans.

"You were all slaves taken away and shunned by society but right now I'm giving you a choice! Will you join our sect and grow stronger or will you choose to receive a small amount of wealth and try to live on just as pathetically as you were?" A well-groomed man spoke in front of everyone. His charisma and elegance were something any normal girl would fall for.

[Quest: Join the Willow Sect

Reward: Mana]

Cain saw the rewards and looked at Helena, "I know we're rushing it but I want to join them."

Hearing this, Helena busted out laughing. "Rushing? Haha! Even if you didn't want to hear about it then I would've dragged you there myself! So, are you ready to get strong? Even if you're the weakest person alive, I'll make sure you get strong enough to stand on your own!"

Cain nodded, "We'll join!"

[Quest Complete!

Reward: Mana]

[Congratulations to the host on unlocking your body's potential.]

[New stats have been added.]

[Host: Cain Ex

Power Level: Super Weak

Mastery: Endless Stamina - No Mastery

Body: Awakened To Mana]