‘Five years, five years, and I still have nothing to show for it,’ Hector thought disheartened. 

Ten years ago the world had changed dramatically. A giant meteor had been on a collision course with the planet, but instead of crashing and burning into the world, it disintegrated upon entry and released a new type of energy into the atmosphere. Everyone in the world fell unconscious as this new energy touched down. When they awoke it was a completely different world, it was still Earth, but not at the same time. Monsters walked the world and lands had shifted drastically changing the landscape and displacing people. This event became known as the Fall, currently the year was 10 AF (After the Fall.)

After the fall, some people awakened a system that granted them skills and power. These people were known as the Galvanized. The galvanized were usually easy to distinguish from normal people. As each galvanized leveled up their power they experienced physical changes, for some, these changes were minimal, but for others they were radical.

It was estimated that only roughly ten percent of the population had become galvanized in the first year after the fall. Had it not been for the appearance of these galvanized, humanity may not have survived the first few years following the fall. The galvanized quickly grew in power as they fought monsters and banded together to help build sanctuary cities. Five years after the fall thousands of sanctuary cities existed across the world, and leagues, and guilds were formed. 

The leagues were private organizations consisting of many different galvanized and behaving like adventurer guilds in popular media and literature, while the guilds were more like government organizations. The guilds provided and enforced laws and regulations for the galvanized. 

In the years since the sanctuary cities were established many things about the galvanized had become public knowledge. Except that is, how to become one outside of the three times the system seemed to have initiated the change. Many believed that defeating monsters awakened the system, and while a few people had been able to become galvanized using this method, most had not seen any results. 

Hector was one such unlucky sole. He had been going out of the city every weekend for the last five years hunting and defeating low-level monsters. But to no avail, no system had awakened, and he had not felt an ounce of power within himself. He was ready to give up on becoming galvanized when he was told about a privately run project by a friend.

Hector walked into the restaurant where he was meeting his friend and someone from the project with little hope in his heart. He’d heard of many such projects in recent years failing or, in some cases, ending in tragedy. 

Hector’s friend, Jason, waved him over as he entered, “Hector, buddy, you made it. Michael, this is the guy I was telling you about.” Said Jason introducing him to the recruiter for the project. “Hector this is Michael.”

“Hector, nice to meet you. Please join us, we ordered a pitcher of beer,” said Michael motioning for him to take a glass and join them at the table. 

Michael pulled a small disc from his pocket placing it on the table and pressing down on it as they sat. “Noice cancelation tech,” he explained as all of the sounds around them seemed to just disappear. “Now no one outside our bubble can hear what we are discussing.”

“Hhm, impressive,” said Hector.

“Hector here is a man of little words Michael. So don’t expect him to be anything like me,” said Jason jokingly. 

“Hah, ain’t that the truth. This guy can talk a parrot under the table. You know, back when we had parrots, that is,” added Hector jovially. 

After a bit of banter and beer Hector turned to Michael and asked what the project was all about.

“Well, you know how after the first wave of galvanized there have been two additional waves?” Michael stated more than asked. Four years after the fall another, much smaller, batch of the population became galvanized. No one was sure why but four years after that, another, even smaller batch became galvanized. Many studies were done in recent years to ascertain any special criteria used by the system to pick these people, but no pattern could be discerned. It seemed that people were chosen at random.

“Our director,” Michael continued, “was lucky enough to be part of the last wave. What sets him apart from most galvanized is that he didn’t want it. He had never been much of a fighter you see, and couldn’t imagine himself going out to fight monsters. Luckily for him, we now have sanctuary cities, meaning he doesn’t have to risk his life if he doesn’t want to. Plus, in terms of galvanized, he would put himself more in a crafter type of category.”

“Anyway,” Michael continued. “He is interested in providing a means for anyone who wants to become galvanized to be able to accomplish it. To that end, he has been collecting a wide array of scientists and crafters. Are you familiar with monster nuclei and mana stones Hector?”

“I know about them as much as anyone does, I guess. Mana stones are crystalized pure magical energy, and nuclei are more like crystalized monster energy. Both are hard to come by though since mana stones are usually only found near, or in, miscellanies, and nuclei usually only drop from mid-leveled monsters and above. Hell, in all the years I’ve been hunting low-level monsters I have only ever seen one small nucleus,” answered Hector.

“Yes! That is exactly right,” exclaimed Michael excitedly. “But what we have recently found is that mana stones are an extremely condensed and adaptable source of energy. Not only that, but also, nuclei contain more than just the energy of monsters, they also contain their skills. I won’t bog you down with the science of it all. But, in short, Project G has found a way to use them together to transfer these skills into a living subject. However, we can’t promise that it will give you access to the galvanization system as you would be part of our first human subjects if you join the project. However, we have been able to transfer skills into live subjects… So, how about it? Are you interested?”

Hector took a second to absorb what he’d just heard. On the one hand, becoming a full-blown galvanized was not a certainty, but on the other hand, he would at the very least no longer be a mundane human. “How long have you guys been running these live tests and what have you tested?” He asked.

Michael smiled as he heard the unmistakable interest in Hector’s voice. “I’m glad you asked. We have been running tests on live subjects for the last year and have found varying degrees of success with lab rats and apes.”

“Apes? Where did you guys find regular apes? Weren’t they extinct after the fall, or at least close to it?”Asked Hector.

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Michael took on a more serious tone as he spoke, “Full disclosure here… This is not exactly a fully legal and sanctioned project. The powers in charge do not want the general public to find a way to access the power they now hold. Furthermore, now that the world is somewhat safe for us again, those who have some measure of power want to hoard it for themselves. With that in mind we’ve had to find “not-so-legal” ways of obtaining some of the things we require, let’s just leave it at that.”

“Hm,” Hector took on a pensive stance. ‘I mean it makes sense,’ he thought to himself. ‘Humans are inherently greedy, at least that has been my experience. And power has never been easily shared by those who obtain it. I can see how something like this might be against the interest of those who want to remain as the few elites… I hate how politics has returned to normal even after such a catastrophic event where millions of people have been displaced and died across the world… Anyway, fuck it, I haven’t had any luck on my own, may as well give this a try before throwing in the towel. “Okay,” He said to Michael extending his hand for a shake, “I’m in.”

***

The following day Hector found himself in an underground lab far outside the city walls with Michael and his team. Turns out that Michael was the galvanized he’d spoken of the day before, the one who had started the project.

The lab was split into two different rooms, there was one room with a medical bed for each participant, five in total, and all of the instruments that would be attached to them. The medical team was in a monitoring room portion behind a large glass wall.

“Sorry Hector, I couldn’t risk revealing myself until I was absolutely certain we could trust you. As I said yesterday I am not a fighter, which means that I am also quite weak as far as galvanized go. Hope you understand.”

“I do actually,” said Hector. “I have seen some weaker galvanized be attacked before in hopes that killing them would transfer the system and skills to the perpetrator. Which, we now know doesn’t work that way but some people still try it.”

“Ah, good. Glad to hear you understand. Come I’ll break down the process for you,” answered Michael.

***

Hector and the other participants were set up to what seemed like magical IVs, they were a bluish glowing solution of water, pulverized nucleus, mana stone, and other things from what he was told.

“So all we have to do is lay here while the IV empties into our veins?” Asked Hector.

Michael nodded as he answered, “Yeah. Hell, if you can manage it you are free to take a nap while we wait for the IV to empty. Once that part is over it’s just a waiting game for twenty-four more hours as we monitor any possible changes. 

“I’ve actually had a pretty long week so I think I’ll take you up on the whole taking a nap thing,” answered Hector. With that, he laid back and floated off to sleep as the room became quiet. 

***

Hector opened his eyes only moments after closing them. Only, he wasn’t in the lab anymore, in fact, he wasn’t anywhere. He was standing in complete darkness, the floor felt solid, but he couldn’t see any floor, walls, or ceiling for that matter. 

The darkness was pervasive, but weirdly, not complete, there was an unnatural dreamy glow to it all coming from nowhere. Unsure of whether he was in a dream, in some comatose state, or maybe experiencing some spiritual thing, he began walking forward.

Unable to feel a sense of time or direction he walked for an undetermined amount of time and distance before he saw something on the horizon. An unimaginably large bolt of lightning flashed accompanied by a ground shaking and deafening crash of thunder.

The sight was both frightening and amazing, the lightning was wrapped in three different colors, silver-gray, black, and crimson-red. The lightning seemed to have landed very far away from him but was blinding nonetheless causing him to blink several times before closing his eyes entirely as he fell to his knees and covered his ears from the terrible thunder. When he reopened his eyes a thunderstorm raged around him.

The lighting and thunder surrounding him were much more bearable than the initial bolt. He stood and watched in awe as the lightning danced around him, unlike the initial bolt which was more like a braid of the three colors, these were separate single bolts of each color.

The black lightning was an all-encompassing type of black, almost as if it was draining any light within its vicinity while simultaneously radiating darkness. The red lightning was a deep and crimson color making it seem as if the space itself was being rent to pieces. The silver lightning was bright and glittery making it seem like the bolts were made of millions of tiny sparks.

***

Hector had made it a point to keep track of time once he began moving again. If he was correct in his time keeping he had been walking for hours since he entered the thunderstorm. Just as he was ready to stop and rest an object appeared in the distance. 

It was hard to tell exactly what it was at first, but the closer he got the more it looked like an oversized chair. When he was finally close enough to identify it he realized it was indeed a large chair, one may even categorize it as a throne. Except, it was missing any legs and seemed to be in pieces. It had a high back and seat pad in one piece, with two bars laying to either side of it on the… Ground? Darkness? Floor? Not-ground? Whatever it was he was walking on. It was also positioned several hundred feet from the end of the thunderstorm.

The entire thing was made of some type of white rock, not quite marble or granite, it seemed almost crystalline in nature. Unsure of what to make of it he gingerly touched the highback piece hoping nothing even stranger than what he was already experiencing would happen. When nothing did he sat on the seat pad since that was the next logical step.

As he sat, the throne came to life floating several feet off the ground, tri-colored lightning sparked to life and ran down the sides of the high back levitating the bars into place as armrests and taking the place of chair legs. There had been another bar underneath the seat pad that flipped out with the lightning and levitated under his feet as a footrest.

It all happened so fast that he was unable to react before the lightning throne began moving forward at a blinding speed leaving him stuck in the seat. Quickly, the space he was in went from a pervasive darkness to a blinding light giving him no choice but to shut his eyes and hold on for dear life.

Mere seconds after closing his eyes the throne came to a dead stop and he could feel the blinding light was gone. He opened his eyes to find himself in yet another new place. This time he was standing in a tropical rainforest, a hundred feet in front of him in a clearing was, what he could only describe as a temple made of a white quartz material. 

It was nothing more than a large floor piece, with three columns on each side strung together by an eave running across the top of the columns. In the center of the temple was the throne he had been sitting on, only now had he realized he was no longer sitting on it.

The structure was magnificently simple and beautiful, it seemed like the whole thing had been carved out of one gigantic piece of milk quartz. Now that he could see the throne better he realized it was made of the same material. 

He studied the design of the throne mesmerized by its simplistic elegance. The tricolored lightning ran down the sides of the high back lifting the armrest bars into position with red lightning; the black and silver lightning continued to the bottom of the seat pad; the silver lightning shot down several continuous bolts at each corner not quite reaching the ground but still holding the entire construct aloft; the black lightning cut straight across the bottom of the seat pad lifting the footrest into position.

Beyond the temple was a sandy shore leading into a river at the bottom of a waterfall. He would have thought of this as a metaphysical space if not for the fact that all his senses told him it was real. He could smell the fresh water falling into the river, feel the lush foliage as it brushed against his body when he walked by, feel the warmth of the light streaming through the foliage, and feel the smooth surface of the quartz structure as he ran his hands across it. He turned in circles surveying the landscape witnessing lush rainforest as far as the eye could see. He entered the temple and sat on the throne, hoping this would be the end of his odyssey. 

When he sat on the throne it began levitating higher and higher, simultaneously a large circular pool of water began levitating from the river. As the throne reached its zenith above the temple the pool of water lit up and tilted into a vertical position. As if he was in a movie theater the lights around him seemed to dim to darkness and a scene began to play on the pool of water as clearly as if it were a TV screen.