"Final ten seconds give it everything, come on! One two slip two" Jason's coach called out.

Jason punched the bag producing a crisp snap, exhaling with each hit. Today's session felt really weird for him, his whole body was acting up, his adrenaline kept spiking and random pains erupted from his body throughout his workout.

He'd been training MMA through his university for 3 months now, being a freshman at AUT he thought it would be a good way to make friends. Not that he made many. However, punching the bag and pads kept his head clear and was great exercise - he was in the best shape of his life.

Jason was a typical introvert, he enjoyed keeping to himself and having his own space and independence, being 18 years old and 6' tall he didn't particularly stand out in any way. He wasn't one of those weirdos who have no friends, he just chose to keep his circle tightly knit, things were always easier that way.

As the class wrapped up, Jason headed to the shower rooms to clean himself up and get changed for his morning lecture on 'introduction to programming'.

After a nice hot shower, now in his favorite white sweats he headed off to class, buying an energy drink on the way.

- 2 hours pass and the lecture is over - 

"Thank goodness that's over." Jason thought to himself. "I don't know what it is about this lecturer but it's like they spend 30 minutes on an easy topic" (don't they all)

Jason stood up and headed out of the lecture hall when all of a sudden these words appeared in the sky for all to see:

"WARNING: SYSTEM INTEGRATION BEGINNING: MANA UNLOCKED"

Out of nowhere a pressure Jason had never felt seemingly occurred ubiquitously as if gravity had suddenly strengthened. Jason grit his teeth and resisted this pressure til he felt he would collapse. About 10 seconds later the intense pressure disappeared and in it's place Jason saw a screen in front of him:

Name: Jason Cole 

Level: 1

Species: Human

Health: 3

Agility: 3

Endurance: 3

Strength: 2

Mana: 2

"What the hell is this" Jason muttered to himself...

"AHHHHH" a student screamed in the distance, the sound of her shrill awoke Jason from his daze as he raced towards the sound of terror.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

As he came around the side of the building the image in front of him made his knees weak. One of his classmates from the lecture earlier had been grabbed by an ant the size of a dog. Her arm looked like it'd been completely crushed and she was being dragged off towards some unknown location.

Jason looked more closely at the seemingly large insect and saw above their head was a window that read Level 3 Carpenter Ant 

Although nervous to his core, morally he couldn't leave this girl alone to be eaten, especially because she'd fainted due to the bite and couldn't defend herself. As he'd seen the state of her arm, Jason deduced that it must have an incredibly strong bite and it's size had somehow manifested due to the announcement still boldly hanging in the sky.

Jason sprinted towards a classroom that was in the midst of being built and grabbed a single rebar from a pile on the ground, now equipped with a weapon he dashed towards the creature now dragging the unconscious girl towards an ally and bashed it in the head. 

The unsuspecting ant suffered a critical hit due to being focused on taking the girl away and lost it's balance. It turned to look where it had been hit from and saw Jason with the rebar in hand. 

It instantly released the girl and dashed towards him. Most untrained people would turn and run but Jason could tell that the insect was injured as he'd hit it with full force. After seeing what the ant's pincers could do he didn't want to fight it head on and instead dashed towards the side avoiding the insect's weapon and swung towards the ants eye, blinding it. 

Yellow fluid spilt out and it's antennae twitched as it was heavily injured. Jason took this opportunity to bash it in the head once more, killing it.

As it keeled over, a white gas seeped from it's body making it's way to Jason's heart. On arrival it made it's way into his body rejuvenating him.

System Notification: You have slain Level 3 Carpenter Ant:

+ 4 endurance, + 2 health, + 1 agility, + 1 mana, + 3 strength

Level Up! x2 

All stats + 2, Unassigned stats 

New Passive Skill Unlocked:

Hunter's Instinct Level 1

Jason looked at his status which appeared below him again and now read...

Name: Jason Cole 

Level: 3

Species: Human

Health: 5

Agility: 6

Endurance: 9

Strength: 7

Mana: 5

Active Skills: 0/5

Passive Skills:

Hunter's Instinct Level 1 - Enhances combat sense, reaction speed, and the ability to detect weak points

"I must be dreaming" Jason thought to himself, "this is absolutely crazy, but no wonder I could defeat something that's a higher level than me, it must be because it had lots of endurance and not much power."

"I definitely feel stronger now, but first I should take this girl to the infirmary."