Kane had no doubt as to what choice he would make. Rather, he thought there was only one class truly representing freedom of choice. And thus without a single doubt Kane made his choice.

You have selected the class ‘Herald of Principle (Unique)’. You can only ever choose one class. Once you have chosen your class, it can not be changed. Do you wish to confirm your selection?

A pretty damning rule all things considered, but not one that concerned Kane as he confirmed with a determined ‘yes’.

Without delay Kane found himself enveloped in a thick golden light. He felt strong magical power coursing through his entire body. Every cell tingled, energized by a strange and unknown source. He felt his body being sculpted. His wounds closed and his muscles grew dense and hard. His bones strengthened and morphed into their perfect position. Even his left arm unnaturally straightened with a popping sound. Once his physical changes seemed to finish, his mind felt at peace. With a deep sense of clarity and a tireless and powerful body, he unconsciously smiled. His entire being felt unbounded with energy and strength.

Kane took in a deep breath. The air was refreshing and revitalising. After a moment of taking in his new body, it was time to sate his curiosity. He opened his status once more.

Name: Kane

Age: 26

Race: Human (High Noble)

Class: Herald of Principle (level 0)

Health: 100%

Experience: 12

Base attributes:

Strength: Extremely high (138)

Endurance: Extremely high (192)

Constitution: Extremely high (171)

Dexterity: Extremely high (114)

Intelligence: Transcendental (243)

Willpower: Transcendental (258)

Perception: Extremely high (156)

Charisma: Extremely high (105)

Beauty: Extremely high (126)

Luck: Average (49)

Class Bonuses: 1 attribute point per level. All attributes * 3.

Skills: Doctrine, Invoke Principle

Karma: Neutral (0) (locked)

Without any knowledge about this world, there was no telling how much any of this really meant. But with his body healed, at least his most immediate concern had been dealt with.

His karma also changed to zero and became locked, but somehow he felt that dying would not solve the issues the Gods had with him. Not that he would have any thoughts of dying, now that this all happened. Still he wondered what it meant.

One attribute point per level did not seem like much, but perhaps that was only due the bonus he received that tripled all of his attributes. As he would learn more of this world, he had no doubt these questions would be cleared up.

Curiously, Kane took a glance at his skills.

Doctrine

Allows you to create your own doctrine. Choose your core principle and accompanying tenets. Current limit: 1 core principle, 5 tenets.

Invoke Principle

Allows you to invoke a principle upon someone deemed worthy of said principle. Invokes target with a permanent principle that will grant bonuses pertaining to the principle and aid them in upholding said principle. Breaking the principle will destroy the invocation.

"How novel..."

They seemed rather obscure and abstract at first glance.

But whether it was due to his increased intelligence stat or whether it was due to something else entirely, he didn't know. But it sure seemed quite powerful. Was he more intelligent then before he wondered? He noticed little increase apart from that it seemed easier to create and maintain different lines of thought. It mattered not. The power of these skills seemed to have potential to change and possibly even break the very fundamentals this of this system.

With a satisfied grin, Kane activated his Doctrine skill.

State your core principle.

After a few moments of deep thought, he nodded and spoke out loud. And despite the fact his voice sounded different. Deeper and more profound, it did not shake him in the least.

“Thou shalt not bow before any one. Neither before beast nor man nor king nor God.”

That was how he wanted to live his life. Screw those Gods. This life was his own.

Core principle set.

You may choose your tenets.

Still, he didn't want to live a bad life either, he wanted to make friends and enjoy himself along the way, so after a moment of deliberation he decided on the tenets.

He knew how he wanted to live this life. Regardless of how this skill worked, there was no reason to worry about it as long as it felt right. He proceeded to set his five tenets after which he carefully looked over his Doctrine skill.

Doctrine: Thou shalt not bow before any one. Neither before beast nor man nor king nor God. Be thine own maker.

1. Thou shalt judge with wisdom and fairness. For thine world extends beyond one’s self.

2. Thou shalt take action in the face of injustice. For an unjust world is one unworthy.

3. Thou shalt not look down on neither beast nor man nor king. For they are the choiceless ones.

4. Thou shalt not waver in the face of danger, but thrive instead.

5. Thou shalt not falter in the presence of pain, for it is pain that makes life worth living.

What exactly this would do or how any of it would activate is still outside of his understanding. But it is the first step towards the life he wanted to live. The life he was choosing to live.

Kane kneeled over the corpse of the large cat and closed its remaining eye.

“Good fight.”

With no obvious direction to go in except for the strange ominous-looking spire far in the distance. Kane set out towards it. Saying things had been a rollercoaster would be an understatement. But he felt relaxed. His past life was behind him, out of his reach. The judgement of the Gods was no longer on his mind. He had only to move forward now. Ever onwards.

With his right hand he brushed his left shoulder similar to how a man in a suit would brush off a speck of dust. His entire body was covered in crusted blood and dirt. He probably looked just like a monster from a horror movie. Kane chuckled at the thought. Perhaps he was.

It would be good if there was a stream or something along the way. Also a clothes shop would do him well too. He had transmigrated butt naked after all.

During his walk, he spent time trying to fiddle around with his status screen. He had 12 experience. Probably from killing the cat. However it did not seem like he could do anything with it yet. Realizing he lacked a lot of information, he racked his brain about the things he did know about this new world.

The Gods had deemed this world as abandoned. It was hard to know what that meant, however probably it is more along the lines that they care little of what transpires here and thus giving an ‘unworthy’ soul another chance here would not make an impact regardless of whether it is successful or not.

There is also some kind of magical computer system that revolves around his status window. One class for life seemed rather unfair. But perhaps it wasn’t quite as absolute as it seemed. A farmer would no doubt profit from having the farming class, but someone without it would probably still be able to become a farmer. They would just have to rely entirely on themselves.

It seemed that for the fighting class it was probably a little different however. A farmer without the bonuses of a fighting class might still have talent to technically become adept at fighting, but would never be able to become as strong as one with a fighting class. He experienced the buffs to his attributes after all and it was truly amazing indeed.

Was his a fighting class though? Considering the choices he had been given, it would appear so. Perhaps it is an evolution of the juggernaut class. Or perhaps the requirements for it unlocking had nothing to do with it at all. His class was unique. Common sense would indicate the class was specifically made for him. Who made it, had the system created it automatically? In any case no one else probably ever had or ever will have this class. Are there similar unique classes though? Kane assumed so. But with people only able to choose a single class, and the fact that they probably felt pressured into taking one early in life would mean special classes are probably quite rare.

Also, he better not be the only human in this world as that would definately suck. Though those Gods didn’t seem to particularly care all that much, they would have at least sent him somewhere he would have the potential to work on karma, right? He frowned and shook off that line of thought.

He noticed a young oak sapling, long and straight. Probably decent enough to fashion a spear out of.

“Time to Bear Grylls.”

The sounds of rocks hitting rocks and eventually a rhythmic sound of a tree being struck repeatedly echoed in the forest as Kane was diligently making his first tools. With a split rock that looked like an axe head and a long spear with a sharpened point he continued his journey to the spire. He noticed no signs of civilization yet, but there were plenty of signs of wildlife at least.

He had also picked up a follower. A lone wolf had been curiously following him from a distance. At first he had been on guard. A wolf pack would be a hassle to deal with and he probably would not get another healing miracle any time soon. But once he realized the wolf was alone, he calmed down. There was no way a wolf would attack him solo. Probably.

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The forest grew thicker, but occasionally he could still catch a glimpse of the spire ahead. Was he getting closer? It was hard to tell, the spire might well be 50 kilometers away still, it was hard to judge. But he wasn’t getting tired any time soon so slowly the time ticked away as he strode in confidence.

He smiled when he came across a small fen. Muddy and buzzing with insects and all sorts of slimy little creatures, but it was still a welcoming sight. The water wasn’t very cold and washing off the gunk from his body felt refreshing. It was when he was finishing scrubbing the last gunk from his hair that a low growl entered his ears.

Slowly he turned towards the growl and saw a large brown bear walking out from the brush. Kane eyed the spear to his right that he had left on the embankment and then back towards the bear again. The bear was still sizing him up, grunting and snorting while raising its head in dominance. He could rush to his spear but it would no doubt charge at the sudden movement. Slowly Kane glided through water towards his spear. But the bear grew more restless and suddenly it had enough. It charged towards Kane. Kane swiftly leapt towards the spear, grabbing a hold of it and turning it towards the bear.

The bear was faster and came within striking distance as the spear hit flat on its flank, its claw swiped along Kane’s chest. But there was power coursing through Kane's veins and he refused to give away even an inch. He grabbed the bear by its throat with his left hand and with unimaginable strength managed to hold the bears weight back while choking it. With a quick repositioning of his right hand on his spear, the tip sunk deep into the base of the bears skull from behind its jaws. It had instantly killed the bear.

The raw strength of his body amazed him. Kane also realized that unlike with the fight against the cat, he had remained calm throughout the fight. He felt stable and in control. It felt like his already incredibly fit body had gotten even stronger during the fight.

He took a glance at his wounds but they seemed fine. The swipe on his chest did do some damage, but despite the cuts being fairly deep, he wasn't bleeding. A quick look at his status revealed his health to be at 96%, and indeed no bleeding effect. Was it due to his increased endurance or constitution? Having a wound that should by all accounts bleed but one that didn’t gave him a strange feeling. It’s good not to be bleeding, but when would a human no longer be considered a human he wondered. His experience also increased to 36. There still seemed to be no obvious way to use it however.

He looked down at the bear, it was a large one and its fur was glistening and pristine. Although he knew little to nothing about skinning, he still kneeled over the corpse saying the same mantra he had said to the cat.

“Good fight.”

And then slowly and rather gruesomely, he worked with his stone tool to remove the bear of its furry coat.

Several arduous hours later as the sun was finally setting, he found sitting next to a makeshift fire. The badly skinned pelt was hanging in its smoke. Professional skinners and tanners would reel at the sight at the ruined pelt that would probably decompose in days, as there was a lot more to it than just smoking a hide. Kane however was chewing on some half burnt bear meat with a smile, thinking it a job well done.

When darkness came and only the stars and moon provided a slight sheen on the land, Kane took notice of a pair of glistening yellow eyes. His follower had been persistent, probably eyeing the bear carcass.

“Alright then brave little one.”

Kane proceeded to cut off a paw from the carcass and walked out slowly into the forest, slinging the piece of bear towards where he had seen the wolf before returning to the warmth of his fire as he slumbered into a light sleep.

At first light Kane ate his fill from the bear and glanced around his makeshift camp. His offering had been taken and the wolf was definitely gone this time. Thankful that he didn’t get any surprises during the night, he worked for a bit on his shabby pelt, holding a cut out piece before him. He nodded to himself. He had fashioned a barbaric looking kilt out of it. It wasn’t much, but at least it would allow him to keep some modesty should he run into any humans. By now he also realized he probably ruined the pelt so he left the rest behind.

He was gaining ground on the spire. He should reach it today.

His chest wound was healing quite fast as well, it had closed up just fine as dark red lines streaked across his now much cleaner chest.

With a bloody spear in hand and his axe head tucked in his kilt he continued his walk towards the spire. Not much happened in the few hours it took for him to near the tower, but about an hour before he would reach the tower, he found a rather alarming footprint. He stood over it in awe for some time, pondering what creature could possibly leave such a track.

It had all the resemblance of that of a bird’s foot, except it was about half a meter long.

“...Dinosaurs!?”

The word came out more excisted than horrified. Certainly it looked just like how he imagined the footprint of a large dino would look like.

“Interesting…”

From then on, Kane moved more silently. But the look on his face would betray most expectations. He did not look afraid or even worried. Instead he had a permanent smile and his eyes were brimming with excitement.

To Kane’s disappointment, though probably for the best, he had not seen the dinosaur before arriving at the spire. The spire had a slick sheen to it and looked to be made out of a deep black stone It was perfect in its symmetry. It was only about 8 meters in diameter at the base yet reached unimaginably high into the sky as if made from some indestructible material.

More surprising however was that there were signs of civilisation at the base. There was one opening into the spire and laid out in front was a clearing with an abandoned carriage and a path leading out into the forest. There was also some abandoned stalls that looked like people would use to sell wares perhaps. But the most obvious sign of civilisation would probably be the two people standing near the spires entrance. Dressed in medieval looking knight armor complete with helmets and sleek steel swords at their waists.

Kane stepped out of the brush and onto the clearing. The knights took notice of him quickly. One even drew his sword after letting out a squeal before the other calmed him down.

“Who goes there!”

It was an odd experience, he definitely heard him speak english, yet Kane knew intuitively that that wasn’t the case. Some magical force seemed to translate what the man had said. Weirder still, if he would try to read their lips, it would still seem english to him. It seemed almost perfect, yet felt slightly off. It would probably get some time to get used to that. Kane shook his head and cleared his thoughts. He walked towards the two guards while holding up his hand with a friendly gesture.

“Greetings good sirs. My name is Kane.”

The squealer still looked unsure of himself, standing slightly behind the other. The one who had spoken seemed more confident about himself and continued after giving Kane a good once over with his eyes.

“By the Gods man, what is that thing you are wearing and where in damnation did you come from?”

“A long story, let’s say I happened upon this place by chance without so much as clothes on my back. Could I bother you with some questions?”

“He could be a savage.” The squealer whispered.

“Ever met a savage that talked like him? Don’t be a fool.” The other replied.

“Name’s Carl, this here is Dippy.”

“Muh-muh.. Mark! It’s Mark not Dippy.”

“Everyone calls him Dippy.”

Dippy sighed with a frown.

“Sure Carl… And Dippy. It is a pleasure meeting you.”

“So, Kane was it, what was it that you wanted to know?”

Carl had realized that he probably shouldn’t underestimate Kane. Not everyone just wanders around the forest alone and manages to survive. The wound on his chest was also quite alarming, it was obviously from a bear. To let one up close like that and survive, that was quite something indeed. As for the skirt, Carl would rather not think about it.

“The way to the nearest village for one.”

“The path over there leads straight to Arkahn. It goes circles roughly in the direction you came from though. It’s about a days travel.”

“Really? I might have walked right past it then. Strange.”

To think he had ‘spawned’ quite close to a village surprised him a little, couldn’t the Gods have just put him inside of it? But he shouldn’t linger on those thoughts. If things hadn’t played out as they did, he would’ve probably chosen the gatherer class by now.

“And why are you two here then?”

“We are assigned to guard here. Normally it is a bit busier here but people have retreated on account of a traveling merchant spotting a Drake in the area.”

Dungeon? Drake?

“A Drake?” Kane wondered, was it related to the tracks he had spotted? Most likely. “And what are you guarding here then?”

“What?”

“What are you guarding?”

“What? Are you blind? You’re not blind, right?”

“No I can see the spire, I wondered what it was.”

For a moment the two guards looked at each other in surprise.

“What rock did you crawl out from under?”

Kane scratched his neck and chuckled.

“Quite a large one, I suppose.”

“Well, it’s obviously a dungeon. There are so many of them. It’s… Rather strange to think you have never seen one.”

“A dungeon?”

“Wow, is he dumb?” Dippy remarked only to be hit on the helmet by his companion. “Quiet you.”

“I don’t know where you came from, but you seem decent enough folk, despite your… Whatever that is you are wearing. Why don’t you join us for some food, it’s getting pretty boring here without people around and Dippy here keeps getting on my nerves. I can tell you a few things you want to know.”

Luckily Carl was quite forth coming during their lunch. He seemed to enjoy talking a lot while Dippy remained silent on the side. Kane appreciated that Carl did not pry much into his past. Kane learned some interesting things about this world. He also received a pair of trousers and some worn out boots. Carl had to apologize for not having any more extra clothes, but that did not matter to Kane. He was well on his way to civilization now.

As for the things he had learned.

Dungeons are places that gather negative energy. They prevent nature and local wildlife from becoming corrupt and transforming into powerful monsters. Basically they kept the ecosystem stable, Kane surmised. And with that energy it creates a dungeon beneath it where all sorts of monsters roam about. Dungeons should never be left alone for long periods of time however, or they might break and release all their negative energy. The surrounding lands would be engulfed in terror and destruction.

Therefor people called adventures with fighting or survival classes delve deep into these dungeons. Kane was glad to know he was not the only one with a status window and a class, but it did not seem like you could see another person's status or class. The reason for adventuring in dungeons is to keep the dungeon from growing out of control.

Adventurers do so not just out of the goodness of their heart of course, it seemed delving into a dungeon was quite rewarding. Also various countries guard and try to monopolize their dungeons. There was no need for many guards here however, because apparantly this dungeon is smack in the middle of the kingdom of Luania. So there was little to no concern for outside forces to come in and raid the place clean.

The nearest village Arkahn turned out to be the capital city as well. It makes sense considering the importance of dungeons in this world, but he had been walking in a straight line. To think he blew right past a large city felt awkward. Also, for being smack in the middle of a country, wasn’t this place far too underdeveloped? Kane had asked why they didn’t build their city right here, but apparently settling near a dungeon is a surefire way to overflow the dungeon with negative energy. So that was why the forest had appeared so remote and devoid of civilization.

Kane had felt comforted however at the fact that this world still had plenty of people living in it. And the existence of dungeons and strange monsters certainly peaked his interest as well.

“About that Drake, do you know what kind of footprints they leave?”

Carl peered for a moment at Dippy before both of them shrugged.

“No, I have never actually seen one. And hope not to either to be fair. Why do you ask?”

“Well…” Kane roughly drew the footprint he had found in the forest into the ground. “Roughly an hour in that direction I spotted a footprint that looked like this.”

“That’s quite big.” Dippy interjected.

“Yes it is.” Carl stated with a slight frown.

“I believe it might be left by the Drake, probably.” Kane smiled gently.

“And you found it an hours walk from here?”

Kane nodded.

“That’s quite big.” Dippy interjected once more.

“Over in that direction?” Carl pointed.

“Yes, quite nearby really.” Kane nodded once more.

“It’s really quite big.” Dippy interjected again.

“Mhm.”

“Hey Carl.”

“What is it, Dippy?”

“We have to guard the dungeon right?”

“Yes, we do.”

“But no one says we have to be outside of it right? “

“You are correct.”

“I think I’ll guard it from inside the entrance.”

“That's a great idea, Dippy.”

Finishing up lunch Carl and Dippy gathered their things and unapologetically walked towards the entrance.

“Wait. Could I go inside the dungeon as well?”

“No, sorry, unless you are registered at the adventurer’s guild, we can not allow you entry, unfortunately.”

Kane had felt quite dissapointed. But seeing Carl's sincerity, he had no intention of forcing the issue.

“It’s super big.” Dippy murmured.

“I see. I think I might just go and do that then.”

“I wish you good luck, Kane. Stay safe.”

Dippy also nodded while measuring out a length with his hands. “So big…” before the guards both disappeared into the entrance of the dungeon.

Kane took in a deep breath and turned towards the path. Seemed like the presence of the Drake had rattled Carl and Dippy quite a bit. It would probably be a good idea to try and avoid it, for now at least.

Onwards with a smile, Kane set out for the city Arkahn.