Ethan was in his old room playing a racing game, with Gadget’s his head laid in his lap, at 3:06 P.M., when it happened.

He was taking a tight turn, neck and neck with second place, when the screen suddenly flashed red. It briefly returned to the game’s screen, where he could see that he’d lost first, and then it went red again and stayed red.

Frustrated, he sighed and patted Gadget’s head as he stared at the screen. He’d never seen anything like this before. He tried changing channels on the television, but nothing he did with the remote worked, and he eventually decided that he’d need to get up to resolve the problem… but he didn’t want to disrupt Gadget.

He hesitated long enough that he was still sitting cross-legged when the red screen suddenly changed again, becoming a video of a pillar of clouds floating above a park down the street from where he was. His mind blanked, as he recognized the pillar of clouds; it was the same thing he’d seen in the sky on his drive here… but why was it on the screen?

“What the fuck is happening?” He said, his voice tense. Gadget picked up on it and stood up, and Ethan did, too. He had a very, very ominous feeling looking at the screen, but he couldn’t look away.

After a full ten seconds, the pillar of clouds slammed down against the ground. Despite the pillar being of clouds, the ground fractured upon impact, and Ethan heard it. He felt the house shake, and he heard people scream.

Ethan stared at the screen, unable to look away. What was going to happen next? What was even happening now? He knew that he should’ve been doing something useful, but it wasn’t like the ten seconds he spent staring at the screen could’ve been spent doing very much.

Over the course of ten seconds, nine more pillars were shown around the world rapidly, each one surround by fractured ground and one even the blood of people that it’d fallen on, and then, finally, the screen changed views one more time. It was the Earth, from space, and Ethan was very certain he didn’t like the implications of that after what he’d just witnessed.

Five seconds into the seemingly-still image, the world changed. Faster than the television could display, the Earth vanished into the… something. For a heartbeat, he thought it was a snake, but it was made of stone; it was a structure. The bottom of it had been open, and had closed on the Earth.

In just a millionth of a second, the structure had... grabbed the world, he guessed? If it had eaten it, he wouldn’t be alive anymore… probably. Maybe the structure was going to kill them, but it was just taking a minute.

‘Wait- why am I just accepting this?’ Ethan wondered. He looked down at Gadget, who was staring at the screen, just as entranced as he had been, and shook his head. He’d thought about taking the dog to the basement, but that was stupid; a basement wouldn’t give him any better chances if their entire planet had just been eaten by something.

He rushed over to the window and looked out of it. The sky was covered in an impossibly thick layer of fluffy white clouds, and it took a few seconds of fighting to get the window to open. He stuck his head out and stared straight out, but there was nothing in the sky, anywhere; it was all clouds.

That wasn’t normal, and it was enough for Ethan to decide to act like everything had been real. He pulled out his phone to call his mom, but there was no signal.

‘Of course; the Earth just got eaten. There probably aren’t any satellites anymore… speaking of satellites, what happened to the moon?’ He wondered.

The thought seemed pointless, but if the Earth was moonless now… well, the Earth was going to be having some serious problems.

He slipped on his flip-flops and strode out of his room, lost in thought. “Heel,” Ethan told Gadget, and the old dog listened, following him out of the room, thankfully.

His mom was at work fifteen minutes away- at that distance, rushing there was pointless. A few extra minutes to get prepared would make little to no difference.

Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be getting even a second longer to prepare. Text appeared within his mind, and he came to a realization.

‘Oh… so this is happening?’

He couldn’t believe that all the crappy anime, manga and light novels had been right- there were game-like Systems.

Earth has been consumed by Tower Seventy-Nine. Your planet has been ranked: Fledgling (Talented). System four assigned.

Only a heartbeat after that one was another.

You have been deemed to be one of the Worthy species. Gathering nearby Worthy species.

A few seconds after that message, Ethan was standing in a pearl-white room. Gadget was panting, panicked, at his feet, and there were several other humans around him, a few of which he recognized. There were raccoons, birds, and even a brown bear, too- luckily, it didn’t attack anybody.

Subject’s analyzation has finished.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It was impossible not to read the text, when it was in his mind, but that wasn’t at the forefront of his mind; instead, he was worrying about Gadget. He was blind and old; would he be okay? Ethan knelt down and hugged the adorable creature, trying to help him calm down. He was panting hard.

Class granted: Summoner. It is recommended that you open your Panel.

Even as he comforted his dog, Ethan followed the text’s instructions. Rather than shout out ‘Panel!’ like a few of the people around him and embarrass himself, he first tried by reciting the word mentally- and it worked.

Subject: Ethan Cross

Class: Summoner (Uncommon)

Level: 0

Rank: 0

Attributes:

Agility: 1.3

Creativity: 1.5

Fortitude: 1

Insight: 1.2

Magic: 1.4

Processing: 1.4

Strength: 1.1

Impartments: None

Why had the System recommended that he check this? None of it seemed useful to him just yet. Ethan frowned, but was struck by a stroke of genius when he mentally ‘pushed’ at the word Summoner.

Class Description: Summoners fight by summoning other creatures to fight in the summoners’ stead.

“Fucking bastard,” Ethan muttered, wincing when he realized that his harsh, if quiet, tone made Gadget worry that he was angry with him. In reality, he was annoyed with the poor description of his Class.

Subject’s mana will be awakened in ten seconds. A selection of Impartments will be granted in twenty seconds. Tutorial will begin in thirty seconds.

Ethan wasn’t sure what to expect, but the ten seconds went by both impossibly slowly and terrifyingly fast. He clung to Gadget as a warm feeling emerged in his chest… and, a bit later, screams, roars and everything between rang out.

The flesh in a section of his chest was being burned away, and it was agonizing. He screamed, and he could hear Gadget yelping and screaming in his ear.

It was over after a brief moment, and the spherical cavity in his chest was rapidly filled by… something. Presumably, a mana core or something; its surface rubbed against his insides, which felt strange but luckily did not hurt. Its surface felt like glass, and his entire body felt tingly as nerves and such began to melt into the sphere.

Even as that was still going on, the System’s text appeared again.

Choose an Impartment.

1. Summon Goblin.

2. Summon Body

3. Summon Minor Golem

He focused on the first one like he had his class, and he received a brief description, thankfully.

Impartment Description: Summon Goblin allows subject to summon a goblin. Low mana cost. Moderately autonomous.

He did the same thing to the following two.

Impartment Description: Summon Body allows subject to summon a human body. Low mana cost. No autonomy.

Impartment Description: Summon Minor Golem allows subject to summon a golem. High mana cost. Limited autonomy. Requires external resources.

The second one creeped him out, and the many hoops of the third one dissuaded him. He chose the first one. Distantly, he recognized that he was adapting pretty well so far; most of the people around him were standing around in a daze or having a panic attack, which was completely reasonable. He’d always been pretty good at picking things up quickly- the downside was that, after he became moderately good, he never seemed to be able to reach the next level. He hoped that this wasn’t that.

Impartment will be imparted upon entering Tutorial.

‘This has got to be the most lucid dream ever, right?’ Ethan took the brief break to think. He was going to treat it as real, just in case- after all, it felt impossibly real-, but this simply wasn’t possible- colossal towers didn’t just consume planets, give its inhabitants magic and toss them into a tutorial.

Just then, the mana core successfully completed its merger with the rest of his body, and Ethan shuddered a bit at the strange sensation. Nerves had merged with his mana core, meaning that it no longer felt so out of place within his body and, more importantly, he could feel the mana core itself.

You have thirty seconds to choose a tutorial. The System interrupted his train of thoughts.

1. Arena of the Damned

2. The Verdant Gauntlet

3. Floor 0.1

He focused on them all, and their descriptions appeared in his mind.

Tutorial Description: Arena of the Damned is an extremely difficult Tutorial in which subjects must enter twenty gladiatorial duels and win.

Tutorial Description: The Verdant Gauntlet is an extremely difficult Tutorial in which subjects are thrust into a dangerous forest.

Tutorial Description: Floor 0.1 is a moderately difficult Tutorial in which subjects must clear a hypothetical Floor 0.1.

He almost chose Floor 0.1 right then and there, but Gadget was still leaning against him and there was no way he was leaving without him.

‘What’s Gadget going to pick? I need to pick the same one.’ Ethan thought. Dogs couldn’t speak English, so he assumed that the System was instead just giving him a rough feel for every option or something. With that, the first two should just have a feeling of extreme danger, while the other should have a feeling of only moderate danger… so he’d pick Floor 0.1, right?

Companion has chosen The Verdant Gauntlet. The System told him, and Ethan gritted his teeth as he chose the same.

Ethan was glad that the System had bothered to recognize that he wanted to know which one Gadget had chosen; he guessed that it was for families. A baby couldn’t survive alone, after all; they needed their parents to protect them.

He’d made his choice in only ten or so seconds, and it seemed that they’d only be put into the Verdant Gauntlet after the full thirty seconds had passed. He spent that short period of time trying to process everything; he hadn’t even had the time to worry about his mom, or about the fate of humanity; he was just doing what he was told to do by the text in his brain.

His mother was hard working and social. Her chances weren’t too bad. His chances were worse, now that Gadget and he had chosen ‘extremely difficult’ tutorials.

‘Gadget… is he going to survive?’ Ethan wondered. He intended to do everything he could to protect his companion, but could he endure what got through him?

There was magic now; surely, he would be alright. In fact, this might be Gadget’s only chance at living past twelve or something. Maybe he would get stronger; maybe he’d regain his sight.

‘Maybe we’ll be separated, and he’ll die.’ The thought was like poison, and Ethan clung tightly to his dog. Gadget would’ve given his life to save his any day, and Ethan refused to lose to his dog in that respect. He would protect him, no matter what.

And then, the twenty seconds were up.