"Yo..." I replied to figure hidden in my dreams. "Is this a dream?" I thought to myself.

"You can think of this as a dream, it doesn't change the reality of it." they replied.

"I see, you can hear my thoughts?" I replied.

"Sure." they replied and smiled.

"So, why are you visiting today?" I asked.

"Because disaster is imminent, but of course you don't know that." they replied, they had a much more serious demeanor than before.

"Disaster? What do you mean?" I asked them.

"Well, let's take a step back. You've gotten stronger, much stronger, and your connection to me is stronger because of that." they replied. "There are some things I need to explain since we have the time. First, do you remember my name?" they asked.

"Not...exactly? I heard what you said before, but for some reason I couldn't understand it." I said.

"Hah, alright let me dumb it down for ya. I am what your people call the Earth, I prefer to call myself Gaia. Due to the introduction of mana in my atmosphere my essence gave form and became, well me. It seems due to your incident happening at the same time we formed a very weak connection which has strengthened with time. Following so far?" they asked.

"I...guess?" I replied.

"Okay it's not important that you understand everything. What is important, is that you're in danger, and if you're in danger I'm in danger. I need to teach you how to actually harness your power, since those humans either can't or won't." they said.

"Here, come close." they said.

"O-okay.." I replied. This person, Gaia, then lifted an arm and touched my forehead with their index finger.

"This is something I've created specifically for you, to make it easier to understand your power, and mana. I call it the Gaia System, but you can call it whatever you want, I don't care." they said. "In order to use it, you need to will your mana to your forehead while thinking about it, once you do that you'll see something familiar. With that, our time is up. See ya~" they said with a mischievous smile.

"Hah!" I snapped awake and jolted out of my bed. "What was all of that about..." I said while holding my forehead, I had a massive headache. "Gaia System? Disaster? What is going on..." as I said that to myself I remember what they told me to do. "Will mana towards my forehead and think about...System?" as I said that a familiar screen popped up in front of me. "What the fuck...?" I said as I looked at my status watch sitting on my desk. "This...this is different." I thought to myself while staring at the screen. I could feel the mana forming at the top of my forehead, kind of like when I would shoot a beam from my fingertip.

"Yo~" was written on the screen.

"Wait? Gaia, is that you?" I said aloud.

"Yeah! Haha, sorry I couldn't explain more, we ran out of time! :P" was written on the screen.

"So what exactly did I just do? Why can I see this screen?" I asked.

"This is what you humans call a 'skill' although your methods are a bit mediocre and barbaric. I'm sure in time your kind will figure it out though. For now they use devices and 'items' to accomplish this. Such as that watch!" they said.

"A skill, like the ones I learn from skill books?" I asked.

"In essence, yes, but this is how mana and skills should truly be used. When I was awakened to mana, you could say I was connected to the Universe, I was truly 'awakened'. Now, I will share my knowledge with you. Just don't let it eat you alive ;)" was written on the screen.

The next thing the screen showed me made me shudder.

[Vernon Arias]

Rank - D

Level 10.

Strength - 10

Intellect - 15

Luck - 20

Dexterity - 10

Attribute - Main attribute: Light, Sub-Attribute: Fire

Abilities: Mana-manipulation - S-Rank, System - S- Rank, Basic Sword Mastery - E, Latent Abilities Hidden.

"These are the Gaia Systems evaluation of you and your abilities. There some things that are hidden since you aren't strong enough to use them yet. Normally, when someone first awakens they are level 1, no matter their 'rank'. Do you know how someone levels up?" the system asked.

"By fighting monsters?" I replied.

"Good answer! But not exactly. It's a bit more simple. It's by killing another creature, that means all living beings." It replied.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"What most humans perceive as 'stronger' is them absorbing the essence or experience of those that they kill. This means when you kill a monster stronger than you, you gain more 'experience'. This also pertains to other humans. The strongest of the human race, the 'Guardians', many of them have gotten to the pinnacle of the human race by killing other humans as well. They did all that without the help of my System, at that." they said. "This is all to say this. My body, this world is in danger. I don't want to die, so will you help me?" they asked.

I sat in a daze for what felt like hours before I replied. "I will help you...but I don't know who I can trust, or where to start.." I replied.

"That part is easy, leave it to me. I can tell those who have gained their power through their own strength, without conspiring against themselves. Although, sometimes, humans don't kill each other out of desire, but out of necessity. While I can discern their power, I cannot discern their hearts. That will be your job." they said.

"I understand...I will need to be careful then." I replied. "So what do you need me to do from here on out?" I asked.

"Well, get stronger of course. That means training your mana, and fighting monsters to level up. The higher your ability to control mana, and thus use 'skills' the higher your rank will go. The more you kill monsters, the higher your level will go. These two things will make you much stronger." they replied.

"I see, that answers a lot of questions then. Do you think I can still trust Jason or Gerard?" I asked.

"For now, trust them. Even if they turn out to be bad people, we can still use them to get stronger. And there is still a disaster looming, so be aware and ready. Lastly, the next time you use the Gaia System there will be features for you to see your information and skills. I won't be able to communicate with you through the System as it takes a lot of my essence to do so. We'll talk again once I've recovered a bit. With that...see ya ;)" they said. What was left was a screen with my information.

"I guess I know what I need to do now. With all this information I can at least keep track of how strong I am. I'm also curious what I can do with 'mana-manipulation', and it seems even abilities learned through human made items are stored here." I thought to myself. I then got up from my bed, took a shower, got dressed, and headed out. My destination was the shopping district of the Dome. I wanted to take a look around and see if there are any skills or items that I could use. Afterwards my plan is to register for a solo field run. I want to see exactly how the system keeps track of my progress. Prior to entering the Dome, I opened the System to check my stats.

"Vernon?" I heard a voice coming from behind. "Why haven't you answered my calls? Ignoring me? And why were you just staring off into the distance?" She asked.

"Ah, I made a mistake." I thought to myself as I grasped my arm. "Sorry, Adira, I was in a hurry this morning and I forgot my watch. I guess I'm a little out of it from yesterday's training, haha.." I said to her.

"I see..." she replied. "Well anyways what'cha doin' here!" she asked.

"I was looking to buy some things, well if I find anything useful that is." I told her.

"Oh! I'm here to pick up my armor, can I tag along? I'm sure I can help you find some good stuff." she said.

"That would be great! I was nervous I might spend my money on useless junk." I replied. "Where should we go first?" I asked. "Well, I heard you made a lot of money from hunting yesterday! There's a high-end shop at the top of the shopping district with high-end skills, we could try there?" she said gleefully.

"Yeah, that sounds good. I wanted to look for new skills anyways." I said while glancing one last time at the System, before cancelling the skill. After walking for a few minutes we finally reached the shop we were looking for. "Above Heaven" read the sign out front.

"This is it, lets go! It's separated by affinity, so we can look at the light section and then the fire section!" she told me.

"Alright-" I said as she pulled me along with her. "Let's see! Hmmm?" she said while pointing her index finger to her lips. "Ah, here! These are defensive light abilities, and some offensive abilities. Check them out and see if there is something you like." she told me.

"Okay!" I replied. While looking through the set of skills books I saw one that caught my eye. "Light Manipulation - Rank unknown" I read aloud.

"Hm? Affinity manipulation skills are some of the worst skills to have. They don't have much combat use, and their power output is subpar. You're better off looking for something else~" she said while sifting through some books.

"What? The weakest?" I thought to myself while staring at the book. "But my mana manipulation skill is S-Rank. That can't be right..." I continued questioning.

"I don't know, something tells me I can make use of this. I think I'll take it." I told her.

"Huh? Really? Are you sure?" she asked me.

"Positive." I said seriously.

"Alright, if you say so. Look around and see if there's anything else you might like." she said.

"Sure, let's see..." I replied. There weren't many notable skills in the light section. I looked around the fire section and found a skill called 'Infinite Burn' I quickly grabbed it.

"Oh! That's a pretty good skill. It deals damage over time which is good against monsters with high regenerative abilities. The only caveat is that you need to supply mana constantly to keep it going." She stated.

"That sounds overpowered!" I thought to myself excitedly. "I wonder how it will pair up with light manipulation or mana manipulation. This should be interesting." I pondered.

"Alright, I think I'm all set. With this all the money I made yesterday is gone, but I think it's worth it." I told her.

"Perfect, it's unfortunate the owner is out today, I would have loved to introduce you to her." she told me.

"Ah, that's too bad. I'm sure there will be other chances." I replied.

"Yeah, too bad...Anyways, let's go pick up my armor. What are your plans for afterwards?" She asked.

"I was planning on heading out to a field to test my new things out. Did you wanna come?" I asked her.

"Yeah, sure! I 'd love to see how far you've come after training." she explained.

"Don't get your hopes up...it's only been a day." I said.

"Haha, alright. Which field are we registering for?" she asked.

"I was thinking about going to the field in the outskirts under the Lyon guild's jurisdiction." I told her.

"You want to go to the Tears of Calamity? That's a C+ ranked field! You're E-Rank, there's just no way." she exclaimed.

"D-rank actually, and I got approved to go by Gerard and Jason." I responded.

"R-really? Wait you're already D-Rank? That should be impossible..." she said to me.

"Why is that impossible?" I asked.

"It usually takes months to even years of honing your skills, mana, and building your body to rank up. You're growing at an abnormal rate." She stated.

"That's interesting." I thought to myself. "According to Gaia, as long as I fight and defeat enemies higher than me, I'll absorb their essence and grow. I wonder if there's more they didn't tell me." I continued.

"Adira, either way, I'm going. Did you still want to join?" I asked.

"Well, now I have no choice but to go. I don't want to risk our little prodigy dying." She joked.

"Prodigy...Hah. I've just been lucky with meeting such good teachers." I replied back. "Either way...let's get going, I want to end the hunt before nightfall." I told her.

"Alright, let's head out, my car is here so we can take that." she said.

We quickly got to her car, which was a two-seater sports car with a gray exterior, and black interior. We then headed to the outskirts of Lyons to the field Tears of Calamity where I would spend the next few weeks training.

***