Pro was standing over the top of the building dazed. He’d wanted to die all day long, all week long, and every damn breath he’d spent after his mother’s death but he was awe-struck now, watching something fast approach him, flying through the sky.

He wasn’t able to make anything out of it in the dark but he could feel every bit of it, as it flew towards his face. Pro jerked in fear, forgetting his unstable footing, and hit his back on the railing at the terrace and slipped down on the road from the lofty building.

It was abrupt and painful but somehow still satisfying to him. He didn’t like the world anymore and he hated himself better than this damned world. Hah. A gifted student. Like Hell! He cursed himself in agony. I am nothing but a loser.

Amidst his thoughts unbeknownst to him, the weird “something” that had flown towards him was chasing him from behind in the fall. Amid his thoughts, he got struck in the back by something heavy. His broken back wriggled in pain. A burning sensation seared through his back and he sped down the road screaming. His scream startled everyone passing as he his head smashed on the road, cracking open.

Ah… Pro slowly sat up with a weird headache. What happened? Am I alive? He regained his sense perception and recognized that he was lying somewhere in a forest amidst large trees. The sound of a river flowing could be heard behind him and the serene environment had an invigorating ambiance.

He touched his head remembering clearly that his head had split open in front of his office building. He didn’t remember anything after that. As if having a revelation, he hurried to the river and bent over it. The crystal-clear water reflected his face.

I look the same. He thought, touching his face, assuring himself. Wait! What is this?

He saw a vertical eye-like tattoo over his head. It looked closer to a ruby but it was exactly shaped like an eye. Like a closed eye, with just an outline and colored red. He instinctively touched it and abruptly, a screen emerged before him.

_____________________________________

Name: Probus Ambany

Race: Methos (mythical)

Level: 1

Exp: 0/100

Strength: 8

Agility: 7

Posture: 7

Intelligence: 8

______________________________________

He stared at the screen hovering mid-air. He wasn’t an avid reader of manga or light novels but he had read a fair share of them before the apocalyptic invasion in the world, referred to as the great burial.

Other than this, he was unaware of mystical powers even though he was a human. The great burial or the burial, was caused on Earth as it got caught up in the war between several higher powers.

These alien beings had immense innate powers, mystical potencies seemingly undefeatable for humans. First, the elves arrived on Earth, waging a war that swept the whole world. The top nations were vanquished and many nations surrendered. Soon after, several other races, like vampires, dorians, and dragons arrived and the earth became a hub of alien invasions and wars. The elves and vampires did protect humans but kept them as slaves and soon the dignity of humans fell steep.

Various races conquered the earth’s various regions and formed nations with humans just as objects of satiation.

The races settled from war and started to live peacefully when all humans escaped to vampire and elven kingdoms.

Pro’s parents were officials in the military martyred in the great burial. After his parent’s death and the government's fall, he couldn’t maintain his comfortable life any longer. He moved to an elven kingdom where he was sold in the slave market to a rich elven family under a lifetime contract.

He had to suppress his emotions every damn day and work without a salary. He was given enough to feed himself and live with the bare minimum there could have been. Yet, his treatment was better than the other slaves because his intellect was nothing to scoff at. He was forced to study books from eleven libraries and he acquired a high post in their industry yet still, without a salary. He was discriminated against, condemned, and punished even after his dedicated endeavors. Soon he couldn't push himself further.

He had studied ample about the mystical world in a general sense though, he still didn’t know much about its secrets because he wasn’t exposed to them. They were just available to the royal and distinguished race of elves.

He gathered his knowledge about mysticism and mystical races. He thought about this new race “Methos”. I have never heard about a race called Methos.

He knew the hierarchy of races as divided by the URO, a universe research organization.

Feeble, weak, normal, warrior, elite, reigner and conqueror. Mythical wasn’t one of them. It doesn’t sound like it’s weaker than any of this though. If anything, it’s probably stronger going by the name. But how is this possible? Have I activated some hidden bloodline or something? He scoffed.

The screen abruptly switched as if reacting to something. The screen switched to display: “Would you like to activate the system.” And a yes or no button just below.

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Pro looked at the screen and answered inside his mind, catching that it could read his thoughts.

Yes, he answered.

“System activating…”

A light flashed and the status appeared again with no change. Pro stared at the status, waiting for the “activation” to happen but he didn’t notice anything different.

Nothing has changed. Did something happen?

“Yes.” A soft voice resounded in the quiet, breaking the silence, and responding to his thoughts.

Pro looked at the screen in shock. He had somewhat expected this to happen, but not in this fashion. Still, the soft, girlish voice was pleasing to hear and he didn’t hate it one bit. It reminded him of his mother as he closed his eyes in abject disappointment.

I can’t save myself. I couldn’t save my family and they died. I will die like that too. His thoughts rose disturbing him deeply.

Nobody knows about me and I am alone even amidst this huge population. A system doesn’t mean I can work it out. A loser is always a loser.

He opened his eyes and looked at the system with his dead pair of eyes in a sullen countenance.

0__0

He saw a small figure of a young girl flying, hovering near the system. It was a body made of something that wasn’t corporeal. A miniature, gorgeous doll. Gorgeous but her countenance gave off a cold feeling.

“Are you the system?” Pro said.

The girl nodded in reply.

“System girl, can you explain–”

“Goddess,” the girl said in a beautiful voice wrapped in her cold tone.

“System goddess,” Pro corrected himself, “ Can you explain what is going on? Why can I not die in peace? Why? Is even death not a choice for me? Is my… Is my life mine or is it not?”

The girl sighed and flew towards Pro’s shoulder sitting on them, in a majestic pose, and said, “You have been saved by this goddess on master’s order but you are just a shame on the methos race. Getting manhandled every day by those elves. Aren’t you pathetic for wanting to die? Do you not want revenge? Do you not want to live?”

“I tried to prevent your death but fate cannot be altered and now your seal has been released. You must get stronger and protect yourself otherwise you will die for sure.”

Pro’s sullen countenance grew grim.

Pro heard everything and picked the girl up from her shoulder.

“Wha! You!?”

Holding her in front of a pair of dead eyes, he said, “Goddess or whatever, don’t speak about these things to me. Death wasn’t granted to me by fate, it was my choice. My choice! Do you understand? I wasn’t lucky enough to have death. My parents died, and my aunts and cousins can’t be contacted so they have probably died as well. My career died, my status, my dignity, everything is dead. What do you want me to

save myself for? Live? What for? For you? For this world?”

The aloof expression on the girl’s face had disappeared as she squirmed slightly striving to free her soft body. Listening to Pro speak, she was dazed.

“My master spoke about this. She can never be wrong–”

“Like hell with your master. If she had saved my family or she could have brought them back from the dead, then I would work for her for a whole life happily. Who is your master? A snob elf, a psycho dragon, one of those lust-ridden vampires. They are all stupid and cowards. Even if she is a god, I reject her. Give me my death back right away. You privileged don’t know this.”

“I am not privileged,” she muttered.

The doll girl could no longer answer and argue. She only listened to him quietly with a stiff expression on her face. Tears started to form which she held back with effort.

“I am a pixie. A warrior race but still we all lived peacefully on a small planet. I wasn’t always this small. I was bigger and more beautiful and was about to get married the next month when the dragons attacked our planet to get their forces closer to the vampire planets. My parents, my lover, my brothers, my sisters, my neighbors, my friends all died. I barely survived the accident because the master saved me with her mystical powers, attaching me to this system to protect the last life threads I had. I was devastated but I knew I couldn’t kill them. I couldn’t do anything and I would never have a chance to do anything to them. You can though. You can kill them. If I was in your place, I would have sworn to destroy them. I cannot win but I can help you get stronger and I will aid you in destroying them. We are tied together, Pro. We are tied together.”

She placed her small hands on his chest, “And you will kill them.”

“You are not the only one at a loss here, Pro. Thousands have lost their loved ones.”

Pro was struck by these words. He couldn’t seem to trust her but her heavy expression couldn’t let him distrust her honesty. Somewhere in the conversation, he had loosened his grip holding her lightly on her hand. Was he willing to do the hard work and take the risk or was he not willing to do the hard work?

He questioned himself on how he had accepted his defeat and how he feared failure. How he was just trying to run and not face that the successful Probus was not so successful anymore.

He was first from birth thus, he didn’t know how to get to the first from the last.

He clenched his fist in annoyance for him and said, “Can I do it?” His voice was weak and low but determined and unwavering, like coming from the depth of his soul.

“You can Pro, you can. But not now and it’s not easy. It’s long and hard because you have been sealed by the system, something similar to myself.”

“I have been sealed by a system? By your master?”

“Yes, but it was because you were almost already dead. You aren’t a human, Pro. You are a Methos. A fearsome race but your energy had been sealed from birth which happens to every Methos. They gradually used to break their seal unlocking their mythical bloodline potencies. But you were unaware and sealed yourself deeper and deeper, falling to a level as low as a human and it can go further. Your death complicated the situation and there was no way other than sealing your life to the system which is the only thing keeping you alive.“

“Your potential has been bound to the system which is my life. So basically, your life and my life are almost the same. If you die, I will die and if I die, you will die.”

Pro listened to everything in adamant determination, acknowledging her every word.

“What powers do Methos have exactly?”

“It is… Unknown. Even my master does not have significant knowledge about this race but she may still be able to provide better information.”

“How can I ask her? Shouldn’t I know more about myself and my race?”

“You cannot. She is not in contact anymore and I can feel it. She had to use her powers to trap your leaving soul which cost her a lot. Probably because your race is mythical but she isn’t in contact and that’s why we have to be more careful. ”

Pro sighed.

“Do you know about the Origin of races?” She asked.

“I do know a bit about it.” He spoke, trying hard to recall.

“The universe was static and dead silent when the fire of passion ignited in it. It made it move and churned out of it the power of races. All powers come from that holy power, the untainted, the unborn, and ever-moving. The universe moved together with the holy fire and clad the power of races via his desire.” He paused then.

“And?”

“I don’t know anymore. I was just a slave and somehow managed to hear this from their ritualistic recitations.”

“Hear this, I will tell you, Pro.” She said in her beautiful voice but this time much sweeter.

“It clad the power of sunrise in Yse, the bright and power of sunset in Hunon, the dark. It gave the cleansing, Gorian, the power of flow and the traveling, and Bdsam, the power of flight. It gave the royal Nymph, the power to chant and gave the hunter Jtroan, the power of stance. To Humpher the brave, the power to expand, and Tsele, the queen, the power of life. And last it gave the Ominous Methos, a power and a curse. A power and a curse to devour. A power and a curse. A power and a curse.”

“The ominous Methos.” Pro raptly repeated after her.