Sean gasped for breath.

That was the first thing he did as his eyes snapped open. It was akin to finally coming out of the water after being held underneath it for a long time. He breathed the air in as much as possible. Nothing hurt, but he could still feel the pain. It felt like something was pressing on him. It took him a while to regain control over his legs and lower body. They felt like they weren’t even there until the blood fully circulated through his body.

Without even moving at all, he was already short of breath, breathing loudly. It felt exactly like waking up from a nightmare, except it was more vivid than anything. People couldn’t feel more pain than they had felt in their life in a nightmare. Sean had. It didn’t feel good. His eyes were wide open and his body shivered ever so slightly as he simply lied there on the ground.

He wasn’t back at home, that much was for sure. Otherwise he wouldn’t be lying on the hard concrete of the road, looking at the night sky. Numerous notifications were in his peripherals, pushed away to the side so that he could see what was in front of him.

But Sean didn’t look at them. Not yet.

He was catching his breath after finally having climbed up to a sitting position. That one moment of having his arm flicked off replayed itself in his mind as he bit his lips. If only… if only he was a bit stronger, he could have defeated him. Just a little bit faster, stronger and smarter.

That was in the past now. That’s what Sean told himself, but the memory did not fade. It felt like it was an eternity away, but he didn’t even know how many hours or minutes had passed ever since that. The pain had the effect of scrambling his thoughts and making time a non-factor.

Then Sean realized he was drowsy, but his eyes turned to the notifications resting in his peripherals. As he regarded them, they brought themselves to the front of his vision. There were many of them.

System Notification

You have gained the status ‘Conqueror’ for completing the Calibration Stage with a Progress of 100%. You have gained the right to be summoned for the Planetary Summit of Planet ‘Earth’.

Reward: Conqueror (Status)

System Notification

You have gained the title ‘Legend’ for accomplishing a feat of great renown and losing your life in the process. The name ‘Hunter Mage’ will be sung by all citizens of Veidrheim for ages to come, hailed as a hero that has saved their world from a great terror.

Requirement(s):

* Make a name for yourself.

* Let your story be known via witnesses.

* Defeating Giant Chieftain ‘Helthur’.

Reward: Presence (Skill)

System Notification

You have left the effective range of the Calibration Stage and the test has been concluded.

Calculating Results…

Accomplishments:

- Use Spellbook (1 / 1)

- Create D-Rank (Spell 3 / ???)

- Complete Side Quests (1 / 5)

- Get Title (4 / ???)

- Get Status (1 / 1)

- Discover Metabiology.

- Befriended Locals.

- Boss defeated.

Rewards:

- Blue Mage (Class)

- Mage Ring (F - Rank)

- Mage Pendant (D - Rank)

- Mage Cloak (C - Rank)

- Access to full System Capabilities.

Sean absent-mindedly looked through the notifications. Despite the flattering contents, he didn’t feel much.

He felt empty as if something was missing. It was a weird feeling. If he could compare it to something, it was as if his pocket that always had his phone was suddenly empty. It wasn’t severe, but it was a consistent, nagging feeling that he couldn’t quite shake off. He’d broken it some time ago and hadn’t collected enough money to get a decent one yet.

Mage Ring

A ring meant to assist Novice Mages in recovering their Mana and channeling their magic. Regardless, it is a useful trinket that is soul-bound to the user and returns to the Inventory if taken off, provided it is not traded. The Sapphire allows the Player to better attune themselves with the Mana within themselves. This particular ring is meant to be worn on a pinky finger.

Item Rank: F-Rank

Item Attributes: +5 Intelligence, +5 Wisdom

Mage Pendant

A pendant often used by Novice Mages to increase their capabilities. It is a useful trinket that is soul-bound to the user and returns to the Inventory if taken off, provided it is not traded. The Sapphire allows the Player to better attune themselves with the Mana within themselves.

Item Rank: D-Rank

Item Attributes: +10 Intelligence, +10 Wisdom

Mage Cloak

A cloak often granted to Novice Mages as a part of their uniform in the many Magic Academia. It is a useful trinket that is soul-bound to the user and returns to the Inventory if taken off, provided it is not traded. Weaved from Sapphire Threads, the Mage Cloak has the ability to induct Mana more effectively than other clothing and has the effect of reducing the impact from Impact Damage that is not magical in nature. The cloak may fix small wears and tears provided with Mana.

Item Rank: C-Rank

Item Attributes: 20% Resistance against Impact Damage (Physical)

For a moment, it felt like he was looking through the loot that dropped from a Boss Fight in a game. He snorted slightly. It far too soft and weak due to his exhaustion. It wasn’t the physical kind that made you unable to move, but the mental one that made you drowsier. The need for a warm blanket was made moot thanks to the Heart Factor making him feel as if he was still in his bed. The northern winds on a mountain after his clothes were drenched didn’t so the tame winds of late spring on ground level was no issue.

Then his eyes turned to the Class and the Skill that accompanied it. It looked cool.

Blue Mage

Many Mages see to it that they remain within a dusty library throughout their lives or temper their art away from conflicts and monsters. You are an exception, having dabbled in Metabiology to further your prowess, actively seeking out new prey to hunt. Each upgrade of a Metabiology Skill grant +5 Intelligence.

Class Rank: 2nd

Class Benefit: +5 Intelligence, +5 Wisdom per level

Class Skill(s): Mana Sight

Class Skill Limit: Magical [Unlimited], Auxiliary [Unlimited], Physical [5]

Mana Sight (Class Skill)

There aren’t many that seek to make sense of the illogical, but it is but one step of a thousand for any competent Mage that wishes to further their studies to reach the heights of wizardry. You are able to see the very Mana in the air, the Mana Circuits and vital organs of beings as well as the enchantments and spells that have been at play since the dawn of time.

Appraisal Benefit: Mana Points

Skill Rank: C-Rank

Skill Type: Magical

Skill Mastery: 0%

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Metabiology…

Sean remembered seeing that in the Heart Factor Skill’s description. Eating the giant’s heart probably helped as well. He didn’t know what Class Rank meant without TI-O explaining it to him like when he was in the white void, though he could assume that 2nd was probably better than 1st and worse than 3rd. Or vice versa? The issue was that he didn’t know if lower meant better or worse.

The others were System-related notifications, but one among them caught his eyes. It was the Appraisal Skill. It was something that was taken for granted in games, but he assumed it would be useful.

Appraisal

As a fully-fledged Player, you are now able to use the System-supported Appraisal Skill. Get the general information of those you wish to appraise. This reads the Player’s intentions and will be automatically activated. Applicable Information will increase depending on the Player’s capabilities.

Skill Type: Auxiliary

Applicable Information: Name, Class, Title(s), Status, Mana Points

Apparently, the Mana Sight Skill allowed him to see the Mana Points of others, so it would stand to reason that without it, he wouldn’t be able to see it. That was a nice benefit. He would have to see what it was.

System Update

Title System: Unlocked

Inventory System: Unlocked

Travel System: Unlocked

Guild System: Unlocked

Shop System: Unlocked

Village System: Unlocked

Patronage System: Unlocked

The number of System Notifications was overwhelming, but he finally finished scanning through all of them. He knew from the notifications back in the Calibration Stage that Titles would be active so that wasn’t very much of a surprise. Inventory was a given, though he doubted that he’d get one given the realism that the System had.

It could only store Soul-bound objects which he had three of: the Mage Ring, the Mage Necklace, and the Mage Cloak. All of them were in his Inventory which was shown in a manner similar to the Library. As common sense dictated, he tapped on ‘Mana Ring’ and the item formed itself around his right pinky finger.

It was a simple, silver ring without any decorations. The sapphire was encased in a shell of silver around the edges, connected to the ring with that. It wasn’t a large piece by any means, just practical, and it was a clean sphere as if any jagged edge was rubbed with sandpaper. There were no curves or edges that were added to look good —perfectly practical.

Sean did likewise for the other two items and both were also formed in a perfectly comfortable position, just as they were meant to be worn.

The pendant was simple and quite similar to the ring, but the piece of sapphire was a tad bit larger. The design was the same, encased in silver, though it was less circular and more of a diamond shape from playing cards. It stuck out just a bit to be clearly visible.

As for the Mage Cloak, it was one that covered almost his entire body, complete with a hood. It easily reached Sean’s knees and the front was connected with a button that had a small sapphire engraving on top of it. In terms of color, it looked like it was dark blue. Some dots on it glimmered every now and then, giving off a magical feel.

Sean stared at his hands and clenched it.

He felt ready now. If he’d fought Helthur with the benefits from the items, would he have been able to kill him? It was debatable but he was certainly far more confident in his prowess now. He almost had another half of his current Intelligence in the form of item benefits.

“I’m back,” mumbled Sean. It was a tiring week. Maybe it was a little more than that, but he didn’t keep count. All of them melded together in his mind but he tried to recollect it.

On the first day, he’d fallen to the ground and lost consciousness. On the second, he awakened at Fillmore’s house. On the third, he’d found out he was a hunter. That night, he’d fought the giants. For three days, he waited for his body to heal. After that, he started climbing up the mountain and spent two days before fighting Helthur. Or was it three?

He shivered slightly when Helthur’s face flashed in his face. A moment later, he was clenching his fist and teeth as hard as he could, the fear replaced with seething rage.

If he could fight that bastard again, Sean would show him hell.

It added up at nine days.

Nine days of life in another world while things on Earth proceeded as normal.

The Travel window was also very much like the Library and the Inventory windows, but it had only a single location on it —Nerea, Broica. That was where he was now. Back in his hometown.

He was in the park where he was when the System came. The trees always looked so beautiful to him before, but now after he’d gotten a taste of the fantastic landscapes of Veidrheim, they looked lacking to him. He hadn’t seen many trees, but Earth felt too real, reminding him that he had no second chances.

If he died now, he’d die.

There was no coming back from that, no matter what.

It felt bad.

Maybe it was the process, or maybe it was the concept. There was something so innately wrong with the feeling that he got. It was as if he’d simply woken up from a dream, dragged away from the other world by someone waking him up, only to find himself alive. There was no time lag, no nothing.

So what would happen when he died?

Would he simply be gone at that single moment instead of popping back into existence? Was there an afterlife? What would that be like?

He was thinking too much.

Sean’s eyes turned to the only two notifications he hadn’t dismissed —the first two. The other systems didn’t seem all that important to him.

Not yet.

He had to get back home or at the very least find Clara. Would she be home?

The title of Legend was heavy, but he had to find out about the Skill that came with it. So he promptly opened his Skillbook and tapped on Presence.

Presence

You have become a Legend. Not a living legend that is simply called so, but a true one. Your name is sung by those you have saved and an entire civilization praises your might and bravery. You are able to tap into the belief of those that believe in you to inspire awe in those who hide behind you and inflict fear in those that stand before you. You gain immunity to all skills of the same nature, even those of Divine Origin. Temporarily, Presence overpowers all other skills of the same nature other than those of Divine Origin.

Skill Rank: A-Rank

Skill Type: Auxiliary

A legend…

It felt awkward to know that he’d left a lasting impression not on a single group of people or a village, but an entire civilization.

He’d killed Helthur but that was due to the giant’s arrogance and sadism, something that he could not rely on in the future. He had to grow more powerful and study his Magic to not be in such a pathetic state again. A tutorial boss had killed him, so what would this new world with the System entail?

Then he heard a faint sound from somewhere.

It sounded like buzzing, but not quite. It was louder than it should have been.

He looked to the left, right, front and back to no avail. Then he realized where it was coming from —from above.

Sean looked up just in time to notice the horde of giant mosquitoes that were as large as dogs and had varying sizes. Some looked to be as small as chihuahuas —which was still an absurd size for insects— and some looked to be as large as Dobermans. There were about six of them.

It was too late to imagine the circles as they were almost upon him, even with his impressive casting speed. So he jumped back.

It looked easy on movies and cartoons, but apparently jumping back wasn’t an effective strategy unless you were superhuman. No, Sean was already superhuman, so the answer was that it was impractical unless you were a damn strong superhuman. He raised his hand in front of his face to protect himself as the closest insect plunged its sharp as needle proboscis into his body —the size was similar to syringes and he guessed was as large.

A sharp pain coursed through his left arm. His body had gotten used to being broken and crushed, but pierced and cut? Far from it. It was a different kind of pain —one that he wasn’t used to yet.

But that didn’t stop him from casting his spell. He imagined the circles within his mind, Computation helping along the way, to cast an Explosive Mana Ball with a timer of one second. He’d gotten far too used to it, so much so that he didn’t even think of using a regular Mana Ball.

The ball of light propelled itself, but unlike the giants that had tough bodies that could block the Mana Ball for it to properly explode, it simply pushed past the flesh of the mosquito as if it wasn’t even there. After it traveled around twenty meters into the sky, it exploded with a puff of blue smoke.

The other mosquitos flew at Sean from all directions, a clear challenge for him who’d tried to outmaneuver the giants as they were slow while using pinpoint attacks. He had no AoE attacks and the only one that he had was on a timer with a minimum of one second, meaning it’d explode after it had traveled dozens of meters.

He pulled out the stinger still left in his arm. It didn’t hurt, surprisingly. He was never truly bothered with syringes.

He slid to the side, slightly delaying their relentless assault, and shot a Mana Ball with a Push component at two, using both hands at once. They were no challenge, simply giving way as the balls crushed through them as if there was no resistance.

Three down, three to go.

Sean felt one of their syringes hit his left shoulder and promptly turned around, breaking the fragile stinger of the mosquito in the process. The mosquito itself was still back where it was, meaning staring right at him. When he tried to raise his left arm, he couldn’t.

It didn’t move.

He lost too much time and one of the others stabbed its stinger into his other shoulder. They were too strategic for mere insects.

With that, Sean lost feeling in the second arm.

But he had his eyes.

His eyes blazed blue and he created a Mana Ball from it. With a blink to signal it, it was shot almost instantaneously after being created and he turned to the other two one by one and shot a Mana Ball at them as well, blowing them to smithereens.

He wasn’t tired, but the feeling in both his arms was temporarily gone. Sean could vaguely remember that they had some sort of numbing agent at the tip of their proboscis. Perhaps that also doubled as a paralyzing agent in large amounts or perhaps it was a System function. He didn’t care whether it was one or the other, though. What mattered was that they had it.

System Notification

You have leveled up to Level 2!

Reward: +5 Intelligence, +5 Wisdom

He looked at the screen. Leveling up seemed simple enough. Killing monsters did it, apparently. He didn’t know if completing quests also did as he hadn’t gotten any so far. Slowly, but surely, the feeling returned to his arms and he could finally move them. Stretching his body to its utmost, Sean managed to touch the needle at his back.

Pulling it out outright was difficult, so he instead resorted to touching it near the base where it had pierced his flesh and pulling it back bit by bit at a time. It had pierced quite deep, miraculously missing the bones to almost make it to the other side. The numbing agent thankfully solved the pain that would have come with it aside from the initial stinging.

Sean didn’t want to feel more of the pain. Far from it. He took a deep breath and summoned his Status Screen.

Character Screen

Name:

Sean Morris

Class:

Blue Mage Level 2 (1 / 10 XP)

Status:

Conqueror

Title(s):

Practitioner of the Arcane Arts, Big Eater, Legend

Health Points:

403 (+11 per minute)

Mana Points:

730 (+4.9 per minute)

Attributes

Strength: 25 (???)

Intelligence: 58 (73)

Agility: 13 (???)

Perception: 40

Durability: 41 (???)

Endurance: 38

Vitality: 32 (112)

Wisdom: 34 (49)

He’d gotten far stronger. To think that his physical stats were all only at 10 when he started out…

However, the true growth lied in his Intelligence and Wisdom. They were impressive. He could most definitely take down another human like himself if he cast every spell he had, but Sean knew full well that this was not the end. He would have to study more and delve into the Spellbook to truly make progress and so that other mages wouldn't kill him with just as much ease.

Then Sean remembered about his HP. The stings didn’t damage him much. Perhaps if they drunk his blood, it’d have been different. But they hadn’t. There was no time to.

His narcissism took a backseat for a moment and he remembered he was tired and wanted to meet someone he actually knew. The possibility of his laptop being working again didn’t even register in his mind.

How strong were the monsters?

Sean used an Appraisal on the mosquito, willing at one of the dead mosquitos. The System could be commanded with the mind, after all. And surely enough, a System screen appeared inches away from its body. The words on it were vividly visible despite the distance of five meters between Sean and the mosquito.

Skill ‘Appraisal’ has been activated!

Name: Giant Mosquito

Status: Monster

Level: 1

Mana: 0 / 0

The monsters were weak. Was that what a Level 1 monster was like? Then how strong were the giants, being far more powerful than them? Sadly, that wasn’t a question that he could answer right now. But his thoughts wandered toward company, toward others. Sean wanted to meet someone —anyone that he knew.

After more than a week of living in another world, he felt lonely, as if he was all alone in the world and no one else existed. Sean always had at least someone near him in Veidrheim, yet he felt alone —something he never felt on Earth.

So he simply stood there, thinking about where he should go.

For a moment, Sean thought about visiting Clara but refrained. It was night. He loved her but his common sense was still intact.

So home it was…