"It is the Galactic Calendar Year 2000, and for the past two centuries the world has been in an era of evolution. Due to the discovery of something known as Neo-Cells found in other animals, we have been able to learn how to use them to stimulate our Neocortex into evolving the abilities of the animals we take the Neo-Cells from. For instance, Manuel, please stand up and show us the evolution you have gained."
At this the attention of most of the class shifted to the teen in the front row who was standing up. The young man around 18 years old standing at a taller than average height of 1.85 m (about 6.07 ft) with chocolate-like brown skin with curly brown locks and glowing emerald green eyes. He had a lanky and awkward look to him with incredibly long legs, but his face told a different story, one of arrogance and a feeling of superiority. Not that he didn't have the rights this arrogance, he was after all, one of two students in the whole class who already had an evolution, and one from a mantis no less.
He thrived in having the entire class focusing on him and sent the occasional glance towards a certain young lady sitting in the right corner. However, when he saw her not even glance his way and continued staring into thin air with an icy look on her face, he felt a bit annoyed, as if all his efforts were in vain.
To show off a little in hopes of gaining her attention he showed off his legs, which had been enhanced by a Zenith Mantis to increase his jump strength, how far he could jump, as well as to resist the impact of landing. "My father told me that he could get me an upgrade for my arms to add the scythe edges of a mantis within the next three months." He arrogantly explained while looking down on the other students.
"Namir!" The teacher interrupted Manuel to yell at a young man sitting in the back row. The teen turned his head to look at the teacher and replied, "Yes, Mr. Williams?" The young man who looked to be around 17 who had responded was a head taller than the other students, standing at a height of 2.04 m (about 6.7 ft), thin at 160 lbs. with a wiry frame, he had Hershey colored skin with thick, sharp eyebrows, a sharp, squared jawline with a 5 o' clock shadow that was neatly trimmed and well maintained, clear amber eyes, and long curly hair that went down to the small of his back.
The teacher, Mr. Williams, responded with "If you're not going to pay attention during my lesson then please leave." As if having waited to hear those words, the young man, Namir, quickly stood up, grabbed his bag, and left the classroom. This left everyone in the room, even the teacher, stunned into a brief spell of silence.
Quickly the class erupted into chatter about what had just occurred, "Wasn't Namir acting a little strange just now?," one student proclaimed. Another student was quick to add on, "Yeah, he never seemed the type to act so disrespectful.," messages of the same sort came rolling in one after another. One particular message that had the entire class nodding in agreement was, "Maybe it's the stress of him being rather poor and not able to afford the Neo-Nutrient? After all, the college exams for Mercenary schools are quickly approaching!"
The class all came to an agreement that this was the most likely reason for Namir's out of the ordinary behavior and began to feel sympathy for him instead of anger or disapprovement toward his actions, all except for Manuel. Manul felt his display of his Neo-Evolution ability had been overshadowed by some poor kid throwing a tantrum over not having enough money or resources. This cemented a bad opinion towards Samir in his mind, leaving him feeling both vengeful and filled with envy as he glanced over toward the indifferent girl whom had her eyebrow raised and stared in the direction Namir had left in.
~~~~
A figure could be seen moving in large, quick strides down a narrow, grimy-looking street. The figure held a grim look with sharp eagle-like eyes that were constantly scanning his surroundings. This figure was obviously Namir; who, after making his way out of the classroom had quickly gotten to the location he was currently at.
Quickly reaching the end of the street, Namir stopped in front of his house. Namir rushed into his home before rushing to his bedroom where he sat and began pondering, feeling both lost and confused. "This.," Namir stated with a tone of dread, "Is not my body." He finished in a matter-of-fact tone, never taking his eyes off the mirror in front of him. This situation had left Namir feeling both confused and lost; he had been stripped from his home and body and summarily dropped into a new location with him knowing nothing of his current whereabouts and body.
It was at this moment Namir first realized, 'Wait, how did I manage to get to this body's home with no knowledge of it's location.' and with this thought it was as if a floodgate had been opened, Namir realizing he had somehow gained this body's memories. Quickly searching through his memories Namir finally spoke, "I am Namir Webster, yet this body is named Namir Prince." he stated, whilst still looking into the mirror. "I look like I did when I was younger, before I joined the army." Namir said while touching his face as well as turning from side to side, a look of nostalgia appearing on his rather handsome face. "My world had no such thing as Neo-Cells and it was the year 2027 AD, not 200 GC." From his memories, he knew that humans switched from the Gregorian calendar to the Galactic calendar in 3300 AD.
"I am either hallucinating, dreaming, have gone to the future or am in some alternate reality. My money is on the last two, this feels too real to be a dream, and a hallucination should not be this prolonged." Namir was not the type to waste time, after examining the body's memories he had already drawn a number of possibilities for how he would have ended up in this scenario. Namir could see himself smirking in the mirror, "How interesting." he stated, feeling his body begin to thrum in excitement. It had been a long time since Namir had had anything light up his curiosity and excitement toward the unknown; leaving Namir to feel as if he were a kid again.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
He then closed his eyes and began to review the memories of Namir Prince. "So, this Namir also grew up with a single mother living in a poor environment. With all the similarities between the two of us it would make sense for this to be an alternate reality, so if that is the case then I just switched over somehow." Namir could feel a deep connection with the memories of this body, it wasn't as if he had been viewing someone else's memories but as if he were going over his own past experiences; this was something Namir took mental not of. Namir decided his current best course of action would be to learn as much as possible about this new world he had been suddenly dropped in, knowing this knowledge could easily be the key to his survival.
He reviewed the body's memories to find that in this world humans had discovered a new cell within animals that would come to be known as Neo-Cells around 2000 years ago, and within 100 years of this discovery humans had begun to expand outside their galaxy, this showed the rapid on-set evolution of their species, and this could be almost directly contributed to their discovery of Neo-Cells. These advancements quickly sped up the technological advancements of humans, leading to the start of what would later come to be known as the galactic era.
After starting their space exploration it wouldn't take long before humans found the answer to a hotly debated scientific topic, were they the only life in the world? The answer was quickly proven to be no; finding new species they were shocked, not only were there newly discovered species other than humans, but there were also beings thought to be nothing more than myths and legends on Earth. The most prominent among these being species such as Dragons and Elves, as well as beings of myths such as Centaur's, Cyclopes, and Giants.
It wasn't long after the discovery of these species that humans began to be embroiled in war, with the number of their enemies quickly growing. Finding themselves to truly only be lower ranked among these species whilst only being around middle of the pack in terms of intelligence. This was only based on the average strength of humans however, as with the abilities of the Neo-Cells they found their strength could actually rival middle class species. Finding themselves to still be heavily disadvantaged when it came to fighting upper rank species, and completely outclassed with any beings above middle class, humans quickly came to the conclusion that they would need an advantage natural to them to be capable of reaching the same rank as these truly monstrous species.
It wasn't long later when humans first had the discovery that these other species had Neo-Cells, finding that the higher ranked species gave better and more abilities. They were quick to continue waging their wars against an increasing number of enemies; humans having no idea what had caused a seeming majority of these races to hate them. Most humans openly fought with other species to gain their abilities, sometimes even teaming up on higher ranked species, yet never really closing that gap. It would continue in this same seemingly endless routine of death and war for years before something would finally change; a human with less than stellar moral fiber finally destroyed this sort of passive war between the races; he robbed the grave of a high ranked species previous king, one known for his otherworldly strength. gaining this beings abilities had placed this human up there with the likes of the strongest races. This placed humans at odds with a lot of other species, especially the species whom's previous grave he had robbed, the Dragons.
This was the final straw, the higher ranked species felt threatened that a species could reach them in such a short time-frame, especially through such an unscrupulous ways. The high ranked species banded together and had a battle with this human; this was a world-shattering battle that had lasted for nearly ten years straight, yet even working together the High Ranked species could still not kill this man. It was at this time that the sky was seemingly torn apart, and with it came beings falling from the sky. These beings would come to be known by some as angels and to others, gods; these beings had proclaimed themselves as above all others and stated that the humans actions had displeased them greatly. It took only a single of these beings to kill the strongest human to ever live, putting an end to his legacy and with it his name became lost.
With no power to stand up to the High Races humans were quick to surrender, no longer believing themselves to have a chance in this war. Humans were forced to sign a contract stating that they would no longer hunt other races, however, to quell the resentment between the races they opened a battlefield where the different races could fight, which also gives humans the chance to gain the abilities of other races. Still, some high races that were filled with both pride in their superiority and anger toward the humans for challenging them, were unsatisfied with this result. They eventually came to the agreement that they would allow ten high-ranks to enter the battlefield, but would limit the opening of the battlefield to every 100 years and once you were in you would be stuck for 10 years before the exit would open.
This battlefield would come to be known as a dreaded place for the human race, considered a place of mass execution for their race as the high and middle races would all target them. It would stay like this for years, before finally something changed; one human in the battlefield managed to defeat a high ranked being, reaching the rank humans hadn't managed to reach for centuries. This came with the ire of the arrogant high ranks, wanting to stop this human before they could become the second coming of the first devil of the human race. They laid an ambush for the human, taking his family hostage and preparing a trap, they sent a letter of a location he would meet them at or his family would be slaughtered. He was left severely injured by the ambush; yet, still he managed to take down over 20 other high ranked species with him. This man would later become known as the first hero of the human race, showing humans hope after so long of despair, his name was Aaron Webster.
This had the unintended effect of causing mass fear among other species, viewing the rapid rise in strength of the human race to be unnatural. This lead to a pact among a majority of the upper races, if a race finds a human with their trait, that race will hunt the human down to kill him since they do not want their abilities to be used for the advancement of the human race, even understanding the consequences of breaking the treaty between the races would lead to severe consequences. Humans were quick to stop taking the abilities of other races, viewing it as too high of a risk, they were still willing to take the abilities of certain races; however, those that they believed it to be worth the risk of, such as Drakes, Treants or Elves.
Humans also discovered that ingesting the Neo-Cells of long-lived races could increase their natural life-span, with the current longest lived human being 234 years old with an estimated lifespan of at least 1,000 years. This human had taken the Neo-Cells from a race known as the Wark, a war-loving race who loved to battle. Due to their constant battling, they had evolved an incredibly fast healing factor, which had the side effect of increasing their lifespan from 1,000-10,000 years.
Due to the treaty, it is exceedingly rare to find humans with the abilities of an alien species, especially humans that were younger than 100 as they would not have been alive during the last time the battlefield was open. There were still ways to gain abilities; however, these ways were not possible to achieve among the weaker of the human race. This led to the starting of an occupation known as mercenaries; this occupation was filled with the members of the human race who had managed to gain abilities from members of other sentient races or had naturally good aptitudes toward a stat such as strength or intelligence.
Namir also found that the world he was currently living on was not Earth, instead it was a planet known as Zenith, a cattle planet. It was a planet filled with lush wildlife and animals that were far stronger than the ones found on Earth. Humans had come to be known as a sort of cattling species, as with the abilities of other sentient races being locked away from them they began to herd and breed non-sentient species for specific abilities.