Chapter Two:

The Basic Awakening will begin shortly.

Inhabitants of Planet 'Earth' Overall Rating.

Luc looks at the letters appearing in front of him. Confusion stands out on his face. "Are they real?" He asks himself. "T-That's not possible; it has to be a dream." He pinched his arm and said, "Damn, it hurts." "S-so, no dream?"

If that's not a dream, then was everything real? Did the house, No, the whole town got destroyed by the lightning and the shadows moving through the sky. And who the heck was this giant face with lightning arcs shooting out of his hair in all directions? And this white room, just with the stars above. It can't be real. There is no way. Luc's thoughts were running wild, and his mouth began to make gasping sounds.

Panic spreads through his body.

But the robot voice continues with its monton description.

Major pluses and minuses will be listed.

Special recognition and most points were earned through: 'Technology Level.'

Earth inhabitants 'Humans' made significant progress in their technologic development. From nuclear energy to high-level medical care, space travel, and long-distance communication, this world's land mass was completely conquered by human society, and every threat was self-inflected or consciously accepted.

For world dominance and development, they earned the subgrade: A.

In front of Luc, a small 'A' letter appeared. His mind, still in shock, tried to focus on something different and start reading the text. Apparently, it was a short explanation of humanity's achievements. He didn't know if it was a good result; seconds ago, he never thought humans would get a rating from some kind of deity at all. But if he followed the normal game and school systems, an A should be kind of good, right?

His eyes traveled to the rest of the text. "Yep, that will be uncomfortable," he thought.

Negative points: self-destruction of the environment; magnitude of worldwide conflict since the first signs of intelligent life; hating and discriminating society. The human species is as brutal as it is intelligent. Humanity is responsible for the deaths of whole species, the pollution of their own environment, and the discrimination and enslavement of their own kind. Humans tend to engage in destructive behavior for short-term gains.

It's unlikely that they would discover and traverse the veil to mana-holding worlds.

Assumed remaining time until self-destruction: 117 years.

This leads to the subgrade: E.

Overall: Planet Earth was a far-developed technological planet, but was close to its own extinction through the dominant race 'Human.' They tend to have negative and self-centered behavior, but they have potential and high adaptability.

Bestow the Grade: D

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'DING!' Earned Title [D-Grade]

As the first-integrated humans from Planet 'Earth,' you earned the title: [Babel's Tongue]

Basic Awakening will start now.

Luc read the text even after hearing it from the mechanical voice. D-grade can't be too good. In every ranking, he knew it was close to the bottom; of course, some games or novel systems start with G or even H, but they were rare. "So we are kind of at the bottom, huh." He knew he should have convinced his foster family to go to the climate protests, but after telling him that they had more important things to do and that protesting doesn't change anything, he stopped going there himself.

His eyes flowed over the text again. Maybe there is a way to see what this title does? He concentrated on the D-grade title, and really, the text transformed and told him:

D-Grade: A slightly better version of the ground race "Human." gives +2 to all attributes.

Wow, it worked. +2 to all attributes, huh, so it should be possible to see...

The room was vibrating. Luc's thoughts instantly turned away from the flowing words before his eyes, and they vanished without a trace. He tried to comprehend what he saw in front of him. If something attacks me here, I'm completely helpless, hovering in the air without any good way to move. But before he could start panicking again, the room started to... fold. Yeah, that should be the right word. The white, endless-looking walls were folding down, like a piece of paper; behind them was pitch-black darkness; the folded walls were crawling under his feet and were compressed into a white glowing ball. That all happened really fast; he just saw the ball, the black Infinity, and the stars above his head for a second before the white ball started to shine and he had to close his eyes.

Starting 'Awakening.'

He smacked his head mentally. Concentrate this is serious, he thought

After some seconds, he felt the floor under his feet again.

Welcome to the 'Awakening'.

A new quest is available.

He carefully opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings. He was standing in a big forest; trees bigger than he had ever seen were growing in front of him; animal sounds filled the air; and small sun rays were making their way through the thick canopy.

A small stream flowed into the forest.

Behind him was a black opening. It looked like the maw of a predator. He couldn't penetrate the blackness with a glance, but it looked like it went deep inside the earth.

Suddenly he felt his eyes starting to itch. He rubbed them, but the itching got stronger until it began to burn. Panic filled him. He used his fist to rub, but the burn wasn't going away; instead, it became stronger. Luc fell to his knees; agony was filling his head.

The stream, he thought. I need something for my eyes; they're hurting, God damn. On his hands and knees, he started to crawl, asking himself, Where is it? It has to be in this direction. "I can't wait much longer", he screamed.

Then suddenly he felt the water on his hands; greedy, he was filling his hands with it and tried to rub his eyes with it, but the burn didn't stop. He finally put his whole face in the stream, opened his eyes, and cried out. He ripped his head out of the water; it felt like daggers in his eyes, and he never thought it could be even worse than before. Full of primal energy, he ripped a stripe from his T-shirt, something he would find really impressive with his weak body if he weren't so busy with his eyes burning. He put the stripe around his head, and immediately the pain became a bit less, a bit more bearable. He is still lying on all fours and is wrecked by a shudder of pain. His conscientiousness is lacking; Luc knows he needs some cover. The forest? No, he even heard the animals roaming in it, so the cave is the only option. He starts feeling his way until the soft grass makes way for hard stone, and he finds a small side where his body could lay down. His eyes were still feeling like molten lava was flowing into them, and then his mind slipped away.