Those that are confined to doing one thing for their entire life, will never be able to do anything else. Maybe it was heaven’s will, maybe it was a certain string of coincidences, maybe it was fate, no matter which one it was, that notion was challenged by one that would rise above any notion of fate and confinement. One that would appear and leave in a flash of blinding light.

The night sky was as infatuating as any lover, where if you were to look at it for the first time, you would barely be able to shift your gaze from its smooth and slender body. A canvas of a deep ocean blue color that painted the huge neighboring planets, while gently sprinkling in the blues, yellows, and reds of faraway stars. A few claimed that the sky was the remnants of a powerful Diviner that had sacrificed themself to change the course of humanity for the better after envisioning a monstrous calamity. However, most believed that their own deity had created the sky as a blessing for man, or as a symbol for man’s continuous conquest and conquisition. It was funny how man mistook disdain for blessing.

His rough and scarred hand gently grazed its long and thin fingers to draw a pattern on the hardwood floor as he continued to gaze at the deep sky, lost in thought. His dry and cracked lips slowly formed different shapes as if he was reciting an alphabet. It was the letters and words he saw today, he was trying to match them to the letters.

Nobody had ever taught him how to read or write, how to breathe or live, how to sleep or wake, he was only taught what he needed to do for the day, he was only taught how to continue to slave away. However, against all odds, he managed to pick up on the connection between speech and writing, and dissected them by syllables to narrow them down to letters. He taught himself how to read and write, how to breathe and live, how to sleep and wake, he was his own teacher.

Although it was useless for a slave like him to learn how to read or write, he only did it to distract himself from the continuous struggle of living. A slave learning to read and write by themselves was unprecedented, slaves didn’t care about such things, they had no use for them, they only lived for today. It was this foresight that differed this dust-gray haired young man from the herd, his intelligence was outstanding, his parents must have been smart as well, sadly he had never met them which was regrettable, but the young man didn’t really feel much after that. A man who was always eating would never know what hunger was.

His tattered shirt and baggy shorts, that didn’t even reach his knees, ruffled from the gentle breeze. The gaping hole in his ceiling was never patched up, and he doubted it would ever get patched up before the entire building collapsed. He had been sleeping in the cold for years, and at this point, it made no difference if he was covered in snow or laying on the cold floor.

After a few minutes of reciting the alphabet, he had decided to just go to sleep and call it a night, he was going to be woken up in a few hours, he needed at least some rest. So laying down on the hardwood floor, he put one leg over the other, and covered his eyes with one arm. He didn’t know when he started sleeping like this, but he found it the most comfortable position in such a setting.

---

The sun wasn’t even visible yet, yet the slaves all had to wake up, eat their breakfast, and get to their assigned posts.

After waking up, the gray-haired youth brushed off any dust or dirt that could have been blown in from outside. His bare feet walked out of the tiny room, and made his way to the cafeteria with a groggy and have-asleep expression, he somewhat regretted staying up so long, but there was no point in complaining now.

A common trend between the slaves around him was that they were all thin males in worn out and faded clothing. The male slaves would be used for brutal labor, while female slaves would be used to cook, clean, and carry babies. Both sides faced atrocious conditions and both just wanted to be done with this life, yet there was a faint hope that they could escape in the near future.

As all of the tired male slaves walked towards the cafeteria to get their simple breakfasts, the female slaves were finished with their nightly tasks and headed back to their rooms to go to sleep. Female slaves worked at night to avoid the male slaves, as the slave owners didn’t want the slave population to increase too fast, they already had a major surplus, if there was another boom happened to the population, they would be forced to mass execute them.

Reaching the cafeteria, some of them chatted with each other as they waited on the line for stale bread and slightly brown-tinted water, while most just stood there in silence and kept their eyes closed as they leaned against the wall, it was the same scene every morning. The gray-haired youth was part of the latter half, a long day was ahead of them, any ounce of rest was worth it in the long term.

---

After breakfast, the male slaves were required to stand in a hall and be distributed to a field to work in. Be it in mining, chopping wood, or working the fields, they were all laborious and the hours would be long.

“I need 70 men for mining today!” A tall and slightly husky man called out to the other two overseers as the three of them stood on pedestals.

“What? No way, are you trying to take up all of the slaves today? If you take 70 that would only leave the two of us to split 60 men! You can’t bully us this much!” Another overseer got enraged, they had to meet weekly resource quotas and taking a hit on it could get their benefits revoked! There was no way in hell that he would be willing to risk losing this position he fought tooth and nail for.

The other overseer frowned as he calmly asked, “This isn’t a normal day isn’t it, did Master request this?”

With a nod, the first overseer, “We have found a new ore mine that contains special properties necessary for Master’s progression in the Divination Arts. Masterer has excused our weekly quota so he could use the majority of the slaves and guards to mine. However, Master made sure to include that you two shouldn’t slack off in any sense, even though you have lesser numbers. Also, make sure you refrain from killing the slaves for the time being.”

It seemed as if this overseer was a lot closer to the aforementioned “Master” than the other two, as he had been specifically chosen to deliver this message. Most slave owners would send their most trusted aide to deliver vital messages relating to their slaves, as to avoid mass confusion from sabotage and releasing the slaves. Although slaves were cheap and dispensable, it took awhile for slaves to get used to a new environment, and become absolutely proficient in their tasks. A tank in profits for a few weeks would be shown after completely switching out the majority of slaves.

The other two overseers were elated to hear the news, the enraged overseer was now as tame as a housecat as he rubbed his hands and turned his eyes into curves while wearing an amiable smile, “Ah, yes, yes, give Master this servant’s thanks, I will carry out their orders to the best of my abilities, I won’t let Master down!”

The other overseer, though appearing serious, was actually quite happy as well, “Yes, please give Master this humble servant’s thanks.”

Servants and slaves were two completely different steps on the social ladder. Slaves were no different than animals, barely fed, barely kept alive, forced to work, and could be disposed of on a whim. Servants, on the other hand, were voluntary workers that received benefits or pay from their profession or work. The lowliest of servants would be their master’s housekeepers, while one of the higher ranked professions as a servant was overseeing the slaves, it took a lot of trust and effort to get this position.

“Alright, since you’ll have less workers, you two can pick out the slaves first, I’ll take the rest. Just leave a few of the good ones for me.” The first overseer didn’t want to cause problems with the other two, so he took a step back and allowed them to pick first. If he was the one that picked first and took all of the proficient and good slaves, then the other two would see a dramatic drop in efficiency and may be punished.

Though he was closer to the Master, if there was an “accident” in the next hunting trip, the Master couldn’t do anything, finding servants as strong as them was difficult, and they could violate their contract if there was unfair treatment. There were unions for all sorts of lowly jobs and positions, all except for slaves. These unions were protected by the central government, meaning that any attempt to slight them would be a provocation against the government, but the unions weren’t allowed to overstep their powers or else, government provisions would immediately be pulled back and put elsewhere.

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On the other hand, the other two overseers didn’t want to slight the first one in anyway unless they had to, he was drastically stronger than them. If they pissed him off, and he were to catch them off guard and alone, then they could only pray that their families could recognize the bodies before the burial. It was a tug-a-war and both sides had equal strength, it was a delicate balance where any intervention could tip the scales.

The slaves that listened to what was happening had their hearts sink and started panicking, “Mines? Oh shit, oh fuck…”

Slaving away in the mines was the hardest compared to the other two. You had to carry a heavy pickaxe everywhere in a dim tunnel underneath the ground with a small amount of air circulating. Many slaves died working in the mines, be it from bleeding out because of the lashes on their back, the lack of oxygen, or pure exhaustion, the mines had harvested the lives of hundreds of slaves, maybe even up to a thousand.

Realizing the two overseers had first picks on the slaves, the slaves started begging them to either chop wood or work in the fields. Usually they wouldn’t beg to not work in the mines, this time it was different. If there was an unusual ore found, which there had been a few times in the past, the ores would be deep in the mine and the ores would be tougher to mine, meaning less air, more travelling back and forth, and using more stamina to mine the ores. Hell was about to break loose.

When the two overseers saw this, they pulled out their leather whips and started intimidating them, “Move back and shut up! Anyone that speaks will get tortured, you won’t even have an escape from it by dying.”

This shut up all of the slaves and caused them to step back in fear. Feeling the complacent, the overseers didn’t continue and one of them just started looking over the crowd of slaves and called out to a few lean and somewhat strong slaves. These slaves were naturally adept for hard labor and were able to gain at least some muscle, even though they were malnourished. After picking ten different slaves, some weak, some strong, he stopped and looked towards the other overseer, who also picked ten. They went back and forth another two times until they each had thirty. The remainder moved towards the initial overseer for the mines with depressed and fearful moods.

The gray-haired youth was part of the team that went to the mines, that’s what he got for being weak and average looking. Most other slaves had brightly colored hair, ranging from red, to green, to purple, they were able to attract gazes pretty easily while standing tall. Having gray hair was extremely rare but didn’t pop out.

Having to work in the mines today, the young man could only pray he got out of there alive and get assigned to wood-chopping or fieldwork tomorrow.

---Inside of the Mine---

After a few mere hours, the gray-haired youth was exhausted and was gasping for breath as he could barely hold onto his pickaxe. He wasn’t the only one, many other slaves couldn’t continue on, a decent portion of them had died. If you stopped, even for a five second breather, the guards would lash you with a leather whip. It stung and burned, you could feel every drop of cold blood seethe out of the warm laceration as it snaked down your back. The feeling was excruciating, the worst part was that you had to continue right after, another pause would mean another lash.

So far, the gray-haired young man had two lashes on his tanned back as his rough fingers barely hung onto the pickaxe, only for him to hit it one last time before he collapsed.

The guards presumed that he was another dead body, so they didn't check his vitals to make sure he was dying and for the most part, stared at each other until one of them gave in. One of the guards sighed in boredom and irritation as he picked up the frail young body to put on the pile.

Walking out of the mine with a body over his shoulder like it was his backyard, the guard made his way towards a nearby cliff and tossed the unmoving corpse into it. With a shrug of his shoulders, he reentered the mine, uncaring of the death of a mere slave. Earlier, he looked at the body as if it was repulsive, as if he were carrying the corpse of a pig.

From the height the body was thrown at, it would guarantee the mutilation of the corpse, even if it fell on top of the other rotting bodies.

Just as the body was about to hit the pile, the gray-haired youth, in his mind, heard a jingle and confetti appear in the middle of darkness. The young man was confused; he looked around and saw nothing else but darkness, all until he heard a voice in his head. This voice didn’t actually have a voice, it was similar to when you read something in your head, the voice reading it didn’t actually have a sound, no matter how hard you focused on it.

“Hello, Host. I am the Wizard System. The world of Avas is full of wizards, and so you will rise above them all...” However, for some reason, the voiceless voice cut itself off, causing the young man to be slightly apprehensive to ask a question, but the voice hastily spoke once more, “The Wizard System seems to have detected an abnormality and requires to reassess the current system configurations. For the time being, the Wizard System will temporarily protect you from any harm, but please do bear in mind, the Wizard System is only protecting you due to an error on its part, in the future, you will receive no such exceptions no matter the situation.”

The gray-haired youth was terrified as to what was happening, in his mind, questions were rushing past his mind, “Who had intruded my mind, why did they target me? Protection? Protection from what?”

“Reassessment of location: Completed

Reassessment of host: Completed

Reassessment of host’s biology: 500% Affinity

Reassessment of global trajectory: Completed

Reassessment of universal trajectory: ERROR (4 Attempted Retries)

Reassessment of Natural Laws: Completed

Reassessment of Universal Laws: Completed

Reassessment of Foundational Laws: Completed

Location of Sister System; Mage System: Avas”

The gray-haired youth was dumbfounded as he saw the words appear right in front of him, while trying to make sense of whatever the hell these reassessments meant. Just what was going on here?

“Ahem, hello Host, I am the Wizard System. The world of Siga is full of mages, and so you will rise above them all as the first and only wizard! To be completely transparent with the Host, what had happened was unexpected. The current host was supposed to obtain the Mage System, the sister system of the Wizard System.

Though you will not be able to become a mage, you are still eligible to become a wizard in this world. Mages and wizards are two sides of the same coin, neither is better than each other, and each is simply a different means to the same end, so please do not feel discouraged.”

The gray-haired young man was still pretty confused so he asked, “Hey uhh… Wizard System, what’s a wizard?”

“The explanation is somewhat long, but the System will attempt to simplify it. Mages are born with innate talent that decides how proficient they are in the manipulation of mana. Mages absorb and store mana inside of their bodies through mana channels into their mana chamber, in which they internally manipulate mana through conversion of their innate element.

Wizards are usually trained and raised based on their intelligence and comprehension skills. While mages are able to almost instantly cast a spell, wizards take an extended amount of time to either draw out their spell or chant it. Wizards do not have mana channels or chambers, so what a wizard does is externally manipulate the mana.”

“Wait if this wizard stuff is real, doesn’t that mean wizards are weaker than mages? Wizards take longer, so in a one-on-one fight, wouldn’t the wizard always lose?” The gray-haired youth was now curious after he got comfortable with the voice.

“Well that is up for debate as it is difficult to compare the power levels between a mage and wizard, if they relatively had the same power level, it would most likely end in a draw.

Mages being able to internally manipulate the mana is a double-edged sword, because once they run out of mana in their mana chamber, they automatically become useless in front of a wizard. A wizard, though slower, could technically cast multiple spells at once. However, to cast a spell, wizards also require physical endurance and intense focus, as spells place a large pressure on their bodies, so there is some form of limiter on wizards as well.

Another thing that has to be taken into account is the elemental differences. For mages, they are born with their talent and elemental affinity, usually inheriting it from their parents. They cannot manipulate mana into any other element than the one they have the highest affinity with. Wizards, on the other hand, aren’t biologically biased towards one element, albeit most wizards just pick one element to focus on, as their advancement would be much slower if they chose to be a jack-of-all-trades.

I hope this helped alleviate the Host’s confusion.”

The gray-haired youth was happy that he got a chance such as this. He had always known he had no chance to be a mage, he had never sensed the so-called mana. So for an opportunity to become the equivalent to a mage came as a once-in-a-lifetime chance, he couldn’t wait to become a wizard!

“The system requires that the Host please give his name.”

The gray-haired youth hesitated as he shamefully spoke, “I don’t have a name… most people called me Gray Hair...”

“This won’t do, Host, would you like the system to give you a predestined name?”

“Uh… sure…”

“The Host's name is now: Kezner.”