Chapter 5: The World of Obisos
As soon as the light told Ace he believed in him, he vanished causing the hologram woman, now known as Eve, to reappear. She smiled at Ace before beginning to talk.
"I hope you enjoyed the video. As my creator mentioned I will now inform you about this world and the history behind it. Before I begin, I shall help answer any questions regarding the STATS section of the system."
Ace was glad he could go over this first. He had been holding on to these questions for quite some time and knew he would most likely forget them if Eve started explaining the world first.
"I assume HEALTH is as it sounds and if that number reaches zero its curtains for me. STR most likely is strength and that's how strong I am and how much damage I can give. DEX is related to speed and how fast I can move and react. Although I've seen plenty of examples of MANA, I'm curious as to how it works in this world. Also, what is the difference between INT and WIS in my stats?
Eve replied immediately as though she had the answers to these questions memorized and was waiting for someone to ask them.
"I will start with the difference between INT and WIS. INT, as you may have guessed, is your intelligence while WIS is the amount of wisdom you have. INT is how you quickly you can learn and think on your feet intense situations like fighting. WIS, on the other hand, is about what you already know. This deals mainly with the understanding of mana and the more WIS you have the more mana you can recover in a short period. Since your understanding of mana and how to properly use it is nonexistent it explains the low rating in WIS. To answer your question about the mana of this world I need to begin explaining the world to you. Do you have any more questions for me before I begin?
When Eve noticed Ace shaking his head no, she began to explain the world of Obisos.
"The world you are currently in is called Obisos. This world has existed for thousands of years, and the main difference between Earth and Obisos is mana. Since the birth of the planet, Obisos has thrived with an abundance of mana allowing for it to beautifully grow. Everything in this world has mana including the grass your standing on as well as the people. Soon people began to realize that they could use this mana in different ways. Some were able to lift buildings with mere ease. Others could summon lighting out of nowhere to strike their foe.
Over the years with the increase of the human population, Obisos' abundant mana had begun to dwindle and could not recover as fast as it was being used. You must understand that the mana was so pure that it took longer to recover to ensure it was the same quality. Seeing this problem, the being ruling over Obisos knew he needed to change something otherwise the mana would die out. Their solution was to provide a new type of mana. 'Impure Mana' as it was later called, was able to replenish after use getting rid of the dwindling mana problem. The being in charge decided to have the future generations only be able to use 'Impure Mana' to allow the original 'Pure Mana' to recover its losses over the years.
It's important to note that IM (Impure Mana) could only recover so fast because it was much weaker than PM (Pure Mana). Seeing how inferior this new mana was compared to the now small group of PM users, a seed of jealously was planted. Eventually, a large majority of IM users banded together and declared war against all users of PM. The war was grueling and there were heavy losses on both sides, but after many years the IM users were able to win due to their numbers. After losing the war, PM users that didn't participate or too young were discriminated against and referred to as 'Stale bloods' by the newly appointed king. He was an avid believer that the old generation had become rotten from using too much PM. The king ordered the capture of any remaining 'Stale bloods' or newborn children with an affinity to PM to get rid of the rotten generation.
The being noticed the chaos ensuing before them and decided to seal as much pure mana as they could and secretly hid the mana on Obisos hoping in the future someone would find it and use it to make Obisos peaceful again. Since the sealing, 'Stale bloods' are still looked down upon and if a 'Stale blood' were to be caught, the only thing waiting for them would be death. Some have managed to survive thus far but they mainly stay in the shadows and avoid detection."
After hearing this story from Eve, Ace couldn't help but feel pity for the 'pure' users as they were originally punished just because of when they were born. Now innocent children who can't control their affinity to 'pure mana' were captured and killed in some cases. The more Ace thought about the situation, the more his blood boiled. He couldn't stand the idea of people being killed and ostracized for something out of their control.
Ace knew how it felt to be isolated and mistreated for things out of his control. The death of his mother traumatized Ace, and as a result, he barely spoke at all only managing to say a handful of words a year in some cases. Most of the relatives who took him in assumed he was some sort of freak and made sure to let him know that and kept their children as far away from him as possible as to not get them infected by him. As the torment at home continued, the torment at school began. In the past, kids tried to make fun of him occasionally, but his positive attitude always threw the bullies off. After the accident, the bullies seemed to increase more and more seeing an easy target in Ace. Because of Ace's trauma, the bullies didn't have to worry about him telling anyone or talking back so Ace was often the main target. It wasn't until he lived with the relative who truly cared for him that things started to change. He began to open up slightly and could talk again freely although he only really talked when someone else spoke to him first.
Eve noticed the rage in Ace after he learned the cruel nature of this world. In an attempt to get his mind off of things she brought up something her creator had mentioned previously.
"Ace, my master mentioned before about an additional gift and I believe it is time for you to receive it."
After hearing the calming voice of Eve as well as the mention of the gift he almost forgot, Ace managed to calm down. Seeing this Eve snapped her fingers and a bright light soon blinded Ace. When he opened his eyes again, he could see that he had been teleported to what looked to be a casino. He noticed he was sitting on a velvet chair in front of a roulette table with Eve standing behind the table. A TV that was slightly above the roulette wheel suddenly turned on revealing the name of this roulette game he would be playing. After seeing the name, Ace's eyes nearly bulged out of his head.