Noah glanced at Mark and was surprised to see that he had an almost pleading look in his eyes.

“You’re fine with this?” He asked Mark dubiously. He still couldn’t believe that Mark of all people would approve of feeding the humanoid bodies of the orcs to the pigs.

“I don’t see anything wrong with it. They tried to kill us so I say let’s put their bodies to good use.” Mark looked at the orc corpses with a thoughtful look on his face. “Besides, there’s probably a reason why we can sell them in the shop in the first place. Feeding them to animals probably isn’t the only use for them.”

“Fair point. Hmmm,” Noah looked in Talal’s direction and asked, “What does eating invader corpses do to animals anyway?”

“Well you see, most invaders come from worlds where mana has been the norm for thousands if not, millions of years. This means that their bodies have evolved to contain and use mana in the most efficient way possible.” Talal pointed at the piglets and said “Most animals on worlds like ours, on the other hand, have evolved and changed to the point that they can barely use mana if not for the system giving them skills.”

“So you mean that eating the invaders’ bodies improves their control of mana in some way?” Noah tilted his head to the left and glanced at the orcs again “Then does that work on humans too?”

“No, not really” Talal chuckled “For one simple reason, humans already evolved to manipulate mana efficiently thousands of years ago. Remember that notification at the start of the apocalypse? It said that the planetary mana core was dormant.”

It finally clicked for Noah “Wait, so is that why creatures like you exist? Because magic used to exist on Earth?”

“Ding ding ding! You got it!” Talal smiled and suddenly morphed into his original form but shrunk down to the size of a sparrow. He then flew around then landed on Noah’s shoulder “We used to rule the Earth before the mana core was forced into hibernation by the invaders. That’s what they do before they invade you see, they take the mana away and wait for the natives to weaken. Weaken to the point that sending their weakest forces will be enough to conquer the target world.”

“Why didn’t you guys just leave?” Noah looked at the bird on his shoulder that was speaking into their minds.

“Oh, a lot of us did. The only ones left behind now are the weakest and youngest ones who were unable to travel through space. We had to use our mana sparingly since we couldn’t replenish it. That’s why most of us have human forms. So we could blend in with you and not have to keep on using mana just to exist.” Talal kept on preening himself while talking

It was at this point that Mark put down the piglets he had in both hands and interjected “But wait, how do humans fit into the whole ancient magic society thing?”

“Some of you were actually as strong as us, but for the most part, you were our servants.” Talal stopped to look at the two humans trying to gauge their reactions to that information but saw that they were more nonplussed than anything. “There are still some who want to go back to the old ways of us ruling and you humans serving us but they’re the minority. Most of us just want to be left alone while we grow in power now that mana is back.”

“I… I’m not quite sure how to react to that. Imagining a creature as strong as you wanting to make humans their slaves… it’s a scary thought.” Mark trembled as he thought about the new information

“Which is why we need to get stronger!” Noah said with renewed determination as he abruptly stood up. “Enough with the history lesson, it all boils down to us getting stronger anyway. Strong enough that we can kill those invaders before they kill us and strong enough that we won’t be made into slaves by anyone, no matter the species!”

Mark just smiled. “You’re right again! But first, let’s see what we’ve gained from those orcs.”

Noah brought out all the orc gear they’d gathered today. In total, there were twelve sets of armor and axes. There were also three sets of bows and arrows that came from the archers.

They decided to sell the twelve sets of armor and all the axes for a total of ninety-six mana stones. With the one hundred and twenty mana stones they got from the quest, it all came to a total of two hundred and sixteen mana stones. Add to that their rewards for earlier in the day, they had three hundred and ninety-eight mana stones to spend.

“We might be a bit rich,” Noah remarked while gawking at the number on his screen.

Talal scoffed and said “Relative to the people on Earth maybe, but you’re piss-poor everywhere else”

Noah visibly deflated at that but perked up again when he realized they could still buy a lot with the money they had now. “What do we buy with all this money though?”

Mark had a thoughtful look on his face “Maybe a better wand for you? You didn’t even get to use the one you bought last time because it’s too weak.”

“But they’re so expensive. I don’t think it’s worth it to buy tier-one wands. Maybe when we have enough to buy tier 2 wands or staffs I’ll consider it.”

Mark shrugged “If you say so. Now, let’s get to the juicy stuff, the level-ups.”

With that, Noah checked out his notifications. There were the kill notifications for the twenty-two orcs they’d killed today and the level-ups for his new spells. Then he swiped up to the ones that mattered most

You have leveled up!

You have 9 status points to spend!

You have leveled up!

You have 18 status points to spend!

You have leveled up!

You have 27 status points to spend!

You have reached level 10 and unlocked more System Features!

Unlocked Titles!

Unlocked Leaderboards!

Noah excitedly checked out the Titles window as he remembered that he got a legendary title in the beginning of the apocalypse. He wondered if he somehow had more considering that he made his own spells.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

[Divine Pioneer]

-As a Pioneer you are given the opportunity to select a Subcalss early-

Select now? [Yes/No]

Noah couldn’t believe his eyes. He hurriedly checked the shop for an information packet on subclasses and found out that you can only get one at level one hundred. Getting one at level ten would allow him to level it up much earlier than everybody else. He immediately selected yes and a couple of options appeared.

Scanning… Build focus detected to be full Intelligence…

Generating Subclass options according to build and previous actions…

[Incinerator]

-Focus on the Path of Fire and reduce your enemies to ashes-

-Fire-related spells level up twice as fast-

-Grants +10 levels to Fire Affinity-

-Grants +9 status points per level-

-Grants the spell [Incinerate]-

[Spring of life]

-Focus on the Path of Water and bring life to everything around you-

-Water-related spells level up twice as fast-

-Grants +10 levels to Water Affinity-

-Grants +9 status points per level-

-Grants the spell [Water of life]-

[Engineer]

-Focus on the construction aspect of Earth and build the grandest structures possible-

-Earth-related spells level up twice as fast-

-Grants +10 levels to Earth Affinity-

-Grants +9 status points per level-

-Grants the spell [Build]

[Storm’s fury]

-Focus on the destructive aspect of Wind and Blow away your enemies-

-Wind-related spells level up twice as fast-

-Grants +10 levels to Wind Affinity-

-Grants +9 status points per level-

-Grants the spell [Storm’s fury]

[Child of Mana]

-Focus on the Path of Mana and gain a depthless pool to pull from-

-all spells level up 1.5x faster-

- Grants +4 levels to Mana Affinity and Magic Talents-

-Grants +15 status points per level-

“The system really wants me to specialize huh. Hmmm… Nah. I’ll double down on being a generalist. The versatility is just too helpful to pass up on.”

Noah selected [Child of Mana] and like when he first got his class, his mind was flooded with information about it, though, to a much lesser degree. His head still ached but that took a backseat to his excitement of having more status points. After all, more status points meant more mana and more mana meant more damage. He then checked his status.

Name

Noah Blake

Class

Elementalist(EPIC)

Level

12

Subclass

[Child of Mana]

Guild

N/A

Mana

184

Stamina

14

Strength

8

Dexterity

11

Constitution

7

Intelligence

92

Regeneration

15

Unused Status Points

42

Noah was flabbergasted at the amount of status points he could spend. “That’s eighty-four more points in mana if I choose to put it all into intelligence. Hmmm… No, I need regeneration too if I want to eradicate the orcs faster.” So, he put fifteen points into regeneration and put the rest into intelligence bringing his total mana pool to a respectable two hundred and thirty-eight points.

While Noah was distributing his stat points, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that the room they were in was unnaturally bright. He looked over to the source of the light and was surprised to find out that it was Mark, he was glowing a holy light. A few seconds later the light dimmed and winked out leaving a smiling Mark behind.

“What was up with that light?” Noah asked

“Oh, I got a title for going a different route than intended for my class and got to upgrade my class.” Mark’s smile grew wider while looking at his new class.

Nature’s Paladin(EPIC)

Because he didn’t end up picking a God to serve as a paladin, he ended up as a paladin of nature because of his connection with the piglets. It was kind of like a druid but focused more on combat. He kept his healing skills and finally gained skills geared for close-quarters combat that would make use of his increasing pool of stamina. He even gained skills related to animals and gaining their trust. He was happy most of all because he would be more capable as a frontline fighter. He’d been feeling lately that Noah had been leaving him behind.

“So, what class did you get? And what rarity? And how many status points per level” Noah grilled Mark for details but Mark kept a tight lip.

“You’ll find out tomorrow when we hunt some orcs. All I’m going to tell you is that I get ten points per level.”

“What?! That’s better than my class?!”

“Yeah, but it’s just by one point. And don’t tell me you didn’t get anything good from reaching level ten because I remember you telling me about that legendary title you got from getting that pseudo-planet.” Mark scoffed and said

“Oh, you know hehe.” Noah giggled like a gossiping schoolgirl and continued “I got a subclass and you can only normally get one at level one hundred!”

Mark looked at his cousin and couldn’t help but sigh “Why am I not surprised” he shook his head and sighed again. “Okay tell me about it tomorrow, it’s getting late and I want to sleep.” Mark got up and looked at his cousin again “Just when I thought I was catching up…”

Noah got up from his seat with Talal still on his shoulder and started walking out of the Boars’ room with Mark when he noticed that the bell icon in the corner of his vision was still ringing. He mentally pressed it and was stunned at what came out.

Level 10 reached! Unlocked Pseudo-Planet basic functions!

He stopped walking and couldn't help but exclaim "HOLY SHIT!"