Kyra stalked off into the forest, pushing away shrubbery and low hanging branches. She wore a wide smirk, gloating from her victory over an overly arrogant Marc. Who did he think he was? Though her conscience made her admit that he had skills now, she knew she would get those powers soon enough. She definitely will.

Inwardly calling up a screen, she finally took a good, long look at her status.

[STATUS]

Name: Kyra Malixi

Path: Path of the Peasant

Level: 1

Class: N/A

Health: 31/31

Mana: 35/35

Stamina: 20/20

Vitality: 3

Strength: 5

Endurance: 4

Agility: 6

Intelligence: 16

Perception: 2

[SKILLS]

ACTIVE:

PASSIVE:

Fortitude Lvl. 2, Jack of all Trades Lvl. 1

Frowning, she recalled Marc's status screen from last night and realized how much of a difference she'll have to make up for. She knew he was level 100 and had a cliche-sounding Path, but now she finally realized that her stats were also 10 times lower. Not to mention Marc will be leveling up as well.

She suddenly heard Marc's voice in her head - "such a low path" he had said. It probably meant that paths had to do with how powerful she could become. Like talent, perhaps it was something you had to luck into at birth, or when this system hijacked everyone's lives.

Even if that's the case, one day she'll beat him up so bad that he'll never see her as weak again, not when she had reigned superior to him for years now. Somehow. If there's a system, there must be a way to hack it. Because there's no such thing as "perfection", just people who pretend to be.

First things first, she had to understand how the system worked. Marc said it was like modern MMORPG games where you would level up and earn stat points to make your avatar stronger. Something different would be this 'Paths' thing that she hasn't seen before. It didn't sit well with Kyra that her path sounded so lame and average. It seemed that her lifetime of trying new things and pushing through just to be the best was rewarded with one skill:

[Jack of All Trades Lvl.1 : You have dabbled in many different arts and hobbies, learning each one by the books. Normal skills will be 50% easier to learn and level up while combat skills will be 2 times harder to learn and level up].

Great. It was a skill that would have made her life a lot easier - when combat hadn't been necessary. But now, it just seemed like dead weight. As she lost herself in thought, she tripped over a root and stumbled into the face of a cliff, stretching up to the sky. Some feet away was a shallow cave where Kyra decided there should be a few monsters she could kill and level up.

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Since she didn't know how to deal with her path yet, it seemed leveling up and gaining stats would be the easiest way to get stronger. And it wasn't like she hadn't touched combat arts at all. She dabbled in some karate, tai chi, kung fu, gymnastics. So she stepped into the cave, fearless. Yet the moment she stepped into the shallow dip of a cave, it distorted and Kyra's world shifted. Mist spiraled out from nowhere in the darkness, and cave was now dragging on into the distance and disappeared as mist swirled around her.

[You have--]

Kyra blinked but before she could even see the notification, a black smoke covered over it.

"Do you want power, Kyra?" A voice rang through the mist in a raspy yet oily manner. She scoffed under the weird pressure. Sweat tickled down the back of her neck, her body tensing, warning her of danger. How did it know her name?

But of course she wanted power. She hated being left behind by Marc after he received Path of the Godly while she was simply a 'peasant'.

"I see that you do. Of course you do. And I can help you..." A shadow grew larger, the mist swirling apart, revealing Tiny. Kyra jumped back defensively, the black aura all too familiar. "I can give power to you, but you'll have to earn it."

"What?" Kyra was frustrated. "The so called Godly Ones got their power like immediately, why can't I?" She whined.

"I told you last night. They had decades of training." Tiny confirmed what Kyra had inklings about. Of course it wasn't logical for someone so weak to become so strong in matters of hours, even with magic, but she didn't want to think that life favored him and gave him this opportunity. Kyra bit the inside of her cheek. If she also had decades of training, she would be even stronger.

"How is that possible?" Kyra grunted in frustration, her hands beating the air. She wanted to shake the boy and demand answers, but what she saw about him last night made her not do that.

"Time doesn't pass the same for everyone. And its easy just to slow down how Earth perceives time. Almost like a 'pause', you could call it."

"Like I'd believe that." Kyra rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "How would someone do that, huh? Magic?" She laughed, a little doubtful of her own words as she remembered how Marc summoned fire from his bare hands.

"Yeah. I thought your old culture had a lot of material on the prowness of magic." Tiny laughed as if he was a middle-aged man, his eyes staring into the darkness. A few shards of glass appeared and scenes from movies started to play out. Famous fantasy movies and shows like the Avengers, anime and whatnot.

"Those were just fantasy - a part of our imagination." Kyra dismissed his examples. Of course everyone had dreamed about being able to use magic, but it never existed. Even if Marc sparked flames last night, there must be logical explanation, like a miniature flame thrower or something up his sleeves.

"Well yes, in your old world it didn't exist, because you were a science-type. But it existed in the universe. They simply introduced it. Like those screens of yours. "

"If that's the case," Kyra took a few steps forward and knelt down in front of the little so they were eye to eye, "then why can't you just magically give me powers? Hmm? If it can stop time and whatnot, why can't it give me power?" The little boy laughed. Shockingly, it was the high-pitched laughter of a little boy and not the sarcastic and sadistic laughter of an adult or the demonic voice of a devil.

"Your body is too weak. You were born into a magic-less world. So of course I can't just zap you full of power. You'll just die." He looked Kyra up and down, a condescending challenge in his eyes. Kyra would have really liked to punch him right there and then.

"Try me." Kyra stood up straight and looked down at the short child smugly. He rolled his eyes at Kyra and shrugged.

"I'm not giving you this power for free. There's a price. You have to-"

"Yeah yeah whatever. As long as I don't lose to Marc... or die." Kyra interrupted and rolled her eyes. The little boy sighed and pointed a finger at her.

That was the last thing Kyra saw and her world contorted and faded to black.