Even at the tender age of five years old, Leon Knox had been enamoured with swords. The fantastical image of a lone warrior standing against the world, blade in hand, had entrenched itself in his mind at a young age after his grandfather had regaled him with the assorted legends of King Arthur and his Round Table.

Every videogame he'd ever played, he used a sword. His favourite characters in fiction all used swords. Anyone who spoke to Leon for an extended period would soon learn of the man's love for swords. His boundless and singular enthusiasm for the subject led to Leon having precious few friends who could tolerate his one track mind. He actually owned a pair of swords, a simple wooden katana and an authentic replica of a Nordic Bronze Age sword that Leon had purchased in moment of weakness- he doubted he would ever financially recover from the impulse buy.

One thousand swings every morning, one thousand swings every night- no excuses. A ritual that had gone unbroken for nearly fifteen years. He'd started at age five, only ten swings back then with a large branch he'd found in the back garden. Now at age twenty, Leon had dedicated the beginning and end of his day to the sword for fifteen years.

It was his release.

Some people meditated or did yoga, Leon practiced his stabs and slashes.

His job?

He was an IT technician. His love of swords, unfortunately, couldn't pay the bills. This particular Monday evening found Leon concluding his nightly ritual, placing his wooden katana back into its dignified resting place- behind the garden shed, well out of the way of his parents. They had a somewhat dim view of Leon's hobby though with his career doing well they didn't really have any cause to criticise him.

Leon's phone lit up and he turned his attention towards it, the phone screen reflecting his face back at him as the screen's display dimmed. Long, fair hair that Leon hadn't cut in nearly a year, tied back with a spare hair tie he'd 'borrowed'. He had a messy beard and moustache that obscured most of his face, though his piercing blue eyes stuck out despite his unkempt appearance.

Sweeping a stray strand of hair out of his eyes Leon checked the notification. A text, from his friend and co-worker Jin. Probably a link to the latest game or manga Jin was into, which Leon would look at, following a reassurance from Jin, that there were swords aplenty.

"Yo dude check the news- it is finally happening dude!"

Cryptic, typical Jin.

"Channel?"

"Every channel!"

"Fine."

Resolving to spam Jin with obscure trivia for a week if this was anything less than world shaking, Leon made his way back inside. The living room was mercifully empty, his parents had went out to dinner alongside his sister and her newest boyfriend.

Flopping onto the couch, Leon flicked the TV on, the screen flickering to life and displaying an emotionally shaken reporter standing in the middle of a desert, the ticker along the bottom reading 'Emergency Broadcast-Please Stay Tuned For More Information'. The reporter was already speaking, Leon having tuned in midsentence, and his voice was choked with fear.

"-and the military are now informing us that they have completed their initial strike. The lifeform has not stopped its advance. If you're just tuning in, the United States Army and Airforce have now concluded a joint strike against the lifeform the experts have dubbed 'the dragon'."

On cue, the cameraman panned the shot to reveal what Leon could only call a monster. Dwarfing the jets that were harassing it, the massive coiled serpent had scales which shone with golden lustre in the evening light. It had no wings yet it was floating in the air, held there seemingly without effort, keeping it from touching the sand below. It was an anomaly, Leon's brain told him in no uncertain terms that this creature did not belong to, or on, Earth.

The camera began to shake as the dragon's jaws opened wide and it expelled a black beam of energy at the jets, vaporising them in mid-air. Then the dragon twisted its head, firing the beam at the reporter's encampment and the feed was cut off.

Before Leon even had time to process how unbelievably fucked the situation was a transparent box materialised in front of him, text rapidly appearing before him.

"[E] Grade beings detected in [H] Grade uninitialized space, escalating to Admin".

"Admin kill order issued for following entities:

Gelthasar

Ulquan the Unbroken

The Gorelord

Sergiorno Salathazar"

Forcible teleportation from restricted space successful, [E] Grade beings removed from uninitialized planetary body."

"Scanning planetary body, designated as 'Earth'."

"Scan concluded, threshold has been reached, beginning initialisation."

Leon burst into laughter at the unfolding scenario.

"I'm going insane, fucking Jin, he's finally tipped me over the edge."

The screen continued its text scrawl, disregarding Leon's distress.

"Delaying initialisation"

"Admin manual override activated, logged reasoning follows: 'I'm cutting these [H]'s a break, fuck knows they'll need it if these readings are right'."

"Tutorial package granted to 'Earth' at Admin discretion"

"Proving Grounds instance generation complete, initialising."

The box vanished and for a brief second Leon thought he'd regained his sanity. That this was all just one bad trip he was on from something Jin had slipped in his drink at work. Then the box came back with a vengeance and an abundance of exclamation marks.

"Rejoice [Humans] of [Earth]! Your world has reached the threshold to support mana!"

"Rejoice- again! Your species has been granted the privilege of a Tutorial! Less than 0.01% of initialised worlds in the multiverse receive this honour!"

"The System wishes you the best of luck in your new life as part of the Myriad Worlds!"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Leon blinked and found himself in a endless white void.

"Man, this is some potent shit- Jin really sprung for the good stuff this time."

Leon's voice echoed around him before vanishing into the void, the sound prompting the overexcited text box to return.

"Welcome [Human]! Participation in the Proving Grounds Tutorial is strongly recommended to facilitate and hasten your acclimation to the System. For the sake of fairness though, the System will allow you to opt out at this time, as this Tutorial package has a survival rate of 10% and a completion rate of 1%. Do you wish to opt out?"

Leon thought for less than a second before answering.

"No."

That dragon had been terrifyingly powerful. If Leon's gut instinct was right this System was a chance. A chance to climb to the same heights as that beast. Plus, he hadn't totally ruled out the possibility of this all being a hallucination, better not to fight his psyche's recommendations even if they were as weird as opting into some sort of tutorial.

The System chimed in again, as chipper as ever.

"Informed consent obtained, initialising transfer!"

Leon blinked again- there must have been something in his eye for him to be blinking this much- and found himself standing in a small room. Looking around revealed the walls were made of rock, with no obvious exits. The floor and ceiling were also made of rock. The mysterious stone tablet jutting up from the floor in front of Leon was also made of rock. Probably best to start by examining it, owing to its mysterious nature.

Examining the tablet Leon was not surprised to see words chiselled into it- he was surprised they were in English. Being teleported into a pocket dimension of some kind definitely broke a few of the laws of physics but that was above Leon's pay grade. Presenting information in a language the System couldn't have known until roughly five minutes ago? More plausible, especially if it was some kind of alien AI or a god of some flavour. Better to focus on what the mysterious tablet had to say instead of baseless speculation though.

"Your journey begins here noble hero, call out the most sacred and profound of words to begin your quest- say 'Status' and ensure it is with appropriate gravitas, the System is always watching."

A weird stipulation.

"Alright, status."

His flippant tone failing to produce anything, Leon attempted it again, fighting off a grin while he adopted his most serious tone.

"Status."

The box was blue this time instead of colourless. It was also immediately obvious what it was- a character sheet.

Name- Leon Knox

Race- [Human]

Grade- [H]

Class- None!

Job-None!

Stat Block:

HP-60/60

MP-0/60

Power- 7

Speed- 7

Constitution- 6

Intelligence-6

Wisdom-5

Fame-0

Infamy-0

Skills:

[Inspect]-Level 0/2

Those two exclamation marks beside Class and Job were perhaps the most aggravating ones yet. Leon focused his annoyance on the Class field and was surprised to see another blue box pop up to the left of the status sheet

"Class- Gain a Class for more information!

Leon's frustration was growing. He distracted himself by shifting his attention to the Job field.

"Job- Gain a Job for more information!"

There was a problem here- and Leon was sure it was the [Inspect] skill's fault. He focused on [Inspect] next, eager to get to the bottom of the problem.

"[Inspect]- The strongest and greatest inspection skill in the entire multiverse, nothing can hide from its almighty power! Focus on something and have its secrets revealed!"

It was fucking with him. This entire System was designed specifically to fuck with Leon. Unsurprising, since it was his subconscious brain that had designed it.

The stone tablet glowed, the chiselled words upon it twisting and rearranging until a new directive took shape.

"We hope your examination of your holy Status has been thorough hero, now comes the time to bear arms and set out. The world beyond this cave is one designed to fuel your growth. Once you deem yourself strong, find and enter the volcano to claim your inheritance. Your starting weapon choices are limited, choose one and go- good luck hero."

The tablet disintegrated in front of Leon's eyes, a blue box popping up to display his weapon choices.

"Select one:

Sword

Dagger

Axe

Spear

Longbow

Shortbow

Sling

Staff

Orb

Wand"

If Leon had been focused, he would have carefully considered this list, weighing up every option, mulling over the implications of being offered magical weaponry. How would warfare change with the addition of wizards- would they ponder enemies to death with their orbs? He would have considered the benefits of ranged combat versus melee and what his build would look like based on his choice here.

Of course, Leon lost focus upon seeing the first item on the list and mashed the sword option as soon as it appeared.

It materialised in Leon's hand, a beauty of a one handed sword. Straight and double edged, the blade gleamed in the blue light of the System box. Leon recognised it as a typical and common arming sword, with its cruciform hilt and rounded pommel. The leather grip felt good in his hand and Leon gave the sword a practice swing to feel the weight. Slightly heavier than expected for its length, though that could be explained by the lack of a fuller.

An upward passage was suddenly revealed as the craggy cave wall shifted, sunlight spilling into the cave. Leon was surprised to hear running water from outside, though this surprise didn't last long as a stream of water began to flow into the cave, pooling within the uneven floor's indents.

The volume of the stream was increasing as Leon observed. Rapidly. Panic flooded Leon's nervous system and he ran up the passageway, sword in hand. He burst out and into the daylight, finding himself standing on a sandy beach. The cave and the passage he had ascended from were buried into the sand, the encroaching tide rapidly flooding the cave.

He cast his vision from left to right, seeing only yellow sands, the beach seeming to stretch on without end. To his front, a forest. To his back, the ocean- there was nothing out there on the horizon, only placid waves. There were more cave exits next to his though, and other people were climbing out on to the beach now, looking just as bewildered as Leon felt.

A shout rang out from further down the beach, a man raising a familiar looking sword above his head and waving to attract the attention of the other humans.

"Everyone! Let's all gather down here! We need to work together to get through this!"

He had a strong masculine baritone, and his voice carried itself a fair distance. Leon began making his way towards the man, falling in beside a giant of a man who held a bearded axe comfortably in his hand.

They gathered around the man who had shouted, ten of them in total, four women and six men. Leon thanked his lucky stars that they all seemed to be adults, the youngest being a teenage boy and the oldest being a middle-aged guy. They all seemed to be doing the same as Leon, looking around at the unfamiliar faces and judging each other silently. Leon was sure he was leaving a bad impression in his sweat sodden tank top and tracksuit pants although, he didn't really care what these hallucinatory people thought of him.

Before anyone could speak the axe wielding giant spoke, his accent distinctly Northern European and his English stilted though Leon couldn't confidently place the man's country of origin.

"We are here on land, ja? Secret exit will be in water. Is common trick in silly children's video game."

The giant stripped off his shirt and waded into the water, axe still in hand. The group watched him swim out into the ocean, stunned into a collective silence by the man's reckless action.

Once the giant had gone a fair distance out, he turned to face the group and yelled to them.

"Water is fine people, come in, come in and-"

They would never find out what the giant man's name was nor what he had been about to say as a monstrously large shark chose that moment to rise from the depths of the ocean, leap into the air and swallow the man whole. The beast was gone nearly as soon as it had arrived, a giant fin snaking its way towards the horizon the only proof that they hadn't imagined the creature.

Leon's focus was on that giant fin and a blue box popped up to reward his focus.

"Level 90 Megalodon- The Oceanic Apex, this beast will devour any who enter its domain without the means to fight comfortably in water. Shares weaknesses with the Great White Shark."

Leon did not know the weaknesses of a Great White Shark. He doubted any other fish could survive in those waters with the Megalodon living there let alone a Great White. Unless the System was also breaking the square-cube law, that creature would need huge amounts of food to stay alive.

It wasn't just the apex predator of the ocean- it was the only predator in that ocean. He was also beginning to doubt the [Inspect] skill's value. A second box popped up, though it vanished after Leon glanced at it.

"[Inspect] has reached level 1!"

Joyous news, maybe it would actually help him inspect things now.

Dismissing the description of the Megalodon, Leon observed the rest of the group. Shock and horror on every face, one of the girls was crying and the teenage boy was dry heaving into the sand.

Leon was stuck thinking about the giant man's declaration.

He'd been sure of some secret being out in the water.

Leon was now sure of something as well.

They were gonna need a bigger boat.