How it all started.

(A.N: The prologue is available if you want to read it!)

On the 15th of April, a highly anticipated public speech by the president was scheduled to take place. Speculation ran rampant on the internet, with some suggesting it might be a ploy to lure out potential terrorists, while others believed it could involve the announcement of a new city.

However, the general public had not reached a consensus on the speech's purpose, and the president's order for everyone to attend, regardless of age or health, only added to the confusion.

Unbeknownst to most, the president was an awakened individual, working to instill a sense of calm in the population ahead of an event known as 'Convergence.' Only a select few were aware of the truth, and Aster was one of them.

***

8 hours before the event.

"I checked everything, there was nothing wrong with the mana flow" Aster reported.

Silver nodded, then nonchalantly handed him a white briefcase, identical to the one containing a mana crystal from a week ago. Aster felt a wave of nostalgia, reflecting on how much his life had changed since then.

Inside the briefcase was a black military uniform with white trimmings, bearing the letters 'M.S.T.'

"It stands for 'Military Special Trainee'" Silver explained.

"Military huh? So am I going to become a soldier now?" He asked.

"Depends." She shrugged.

Aster furrowed his eyebrows. 'Depends on what?'

***

3 Hours before the event.

Aster was assigned some space he had to manage. It was a 15m by 15m area. Although it was not really big, it was part of something bigger.

A huge stone platform was built on a palace in the middle of the city. Aster did not know the specific numbers but it was meant to hold a lot of people, like a lot. The entirety of the Avian city was to gather here.

Invisible to the naked eye, a huge runic circle was etched on the platform which Aster was able to see with his [Mana sense] skill.

A monstrous vortex of mana hid just beneath a few cm of stones. There was so much mana that he felt like he could go blind if he specifically focused on it. He felt even some sort of pride that he contributed to this monstrosity.

'I wonder how long would it take for me to produce this much mana. Probably around 200, or 300 years? Maybe more?'

Aster shook his head. It wasn't good to think too much.

He looked around and saw his fellow awakened wearing the same uniform so it was a bit hard to identify who was who from a distance.

That did not stop him. He scanned everyone and found a familiar face.

After trespassing on multiple fellow awakener's posts, he finally met him.

"Hello, Blake! Long time no see! Or a week? But it certainly felt long" He greeted him. "How are you doing? You were pretty shaken up the last time I saw you, hehe"

"I still think this is bullshit" He suddenly spat. "I'm starting to suspect this whole thing is a prank. Did Carl orchestrate this? He is into shit like this" Blake spewed out.

"I think you are just salty that you can't manipulate mana."

"No this is called being sensible," He said with his eyes blazing with fury and Aster knew it was time to go. Not only Blake was older and more intimidating, but his physical attributes were also higher than Aster's so he would definitely lose in a fight.

He didn't have any skills to compensate for the gap in attributes and he couldn't even use his mana in a fight which is his one and only strength.

'I'm gonna beat the hell out of him once I get strong enough. I think I should go the mage route with all my mana and stuff but I also want to learn swordsmanship. Miss Silver said aura exists so I definitely want to try that.'

As he was walking towards his post, someone else came up to him.

"Aster!" a feminine voice cried out.

Aster recognized that voice. "Hello, Alexandra" he replied back

"Say, what's your mana sense and mana control?"

"Uhh, Let me check. Status"

[Name: Aster Gaelcius]

[Level: 1] [Exp:0/100]

[Race: Human(Earthling)]

[Personal traits]:[Earthling(inactive)], [Gaia], [Sloth]

[Hp:70/70] [Energy:50/50] [Mana:240/240]

[Attributes]

[Strength:6]

[Agility:6]

[Endurance:5]

[ Vitality:7]

[Mana:24]

[Intelligence:2]

[Dexterity:4]

[Techniques]:[Mana recovery meditation(Beginner)9/100%]

[Passive skills]:[Mana sense Lv 7], [Mana control Lv 5]

"My mana sense is at lv7 and mana control is at 5." He says with a hint of pride in his voice.

"Oh, I see" she meekly replied back before walking back to where she came from.

Aster contemplated some things before shrugging and returning to his post.

***

20 minutes before the event.

"Good day to you all!" a man in a white suit bellowed. He had long, brown hair that was reminiscent of a lion's mane, a manly face mutilated with scars, and a build that was even bigger than Blake's. This man is Arco Lionsfield, the president of Avian City.

Aster always wondered why that man had a bunch of scars. It was said that he had a military background before becoming president so he thought he became like that in the military, which made him repulsed by the military.

However, thanks to his recent enlightenment, he knew better.

'Damn, monsters did a number on his face huh? Don't they have a healing magic?'

"Today marks a very important event in humankind's history. A public speech like this is happening all over the globe! This event is more important than the agricultural revolution, more important than the industrial revolution, more than the moon landing, more important than the..."

"Man, why can't he just cut all the extra shit and tell us why we are here already" a young man next to Aster grumbled.

He might not know it but Aster could see what Arco was doing. He was buying time. With [Mana sense] he could see a massive amount of mana oozing from his body and expanding.

With further inspection, he found out that the mana was gathering around the people's heads. He was terrified, or would have been if he wasn't caught up in the mana cloud as well.

He did not try to fight against it, he just let it do its thing. He was once again reminded that the world he was transmigrating into was extremely unfair and that some people could squash him like an ant and he wouldn't even get the time to complain.

***

30 seconds before the event.

"Now ladies, gentlemen, and whoever else that might be here, let us join our long-lost brethren! Trigger the [Barrier Monolith]" He commanded and Aster along with a thousand others, simultaneously channeled their mana into the magic circle engraved on the platform.

Immediately a huge earthquake struck, but everyone stayed calm due to Arco's skill. 8 monoliths sprouted from the ground, rose up 500 meters, and surrounded the population. With a flash of blue light, countless tendrils erupted from the tip of the monoliths and intertwined with each other, creating a huge barrier.

At this moment, Aster briefly glanced at the president. He was sweating buckets and panting like he just ran a marathon. He even had someone supporting him. He looked to be at his limit. Aster smiled, he felt relieved that even an awakened like Arco was not invincible, and with enough strength, he wouldn't have to feel threatened by them.

Everyone was awestruck at the barrier, even Blake who was in denial seemed shocked. Aster was no exception so he rushed to the barrier to get a closer look at it.

The barrier was... mesmerizing to say the least. Thousands of threads, intertwined and seemingly endless. He looked up and forgot to breathe for a second.

'I really, really want to be able to create something like this. This is better than any artwork I have ever seen.'

As Aster was fantasizing in his head, the magic circle beneath his feet began to glow, signaling the start of the teleportation process. Thanks to Arco, the population was bewildered but did not go on a stampede.

The circle grew brighter and brighter with each second. if one were to use [Mana sense] now, they would find that the massive torrent of mana has almost completely disappeared. And once it did, with a flash, everyone disappeared. Only the monoliths remained to forever represent this day.

The teleportation process would have lasted for about a few seconds but something went terribly wrong. As they were traveling through the very fabric of space itself, they encountered a dense cloud of miasma that the people in Gaia did not predict would be there.

It eroded the barrier and severely weakened it, leaving it vulnerable to the barrage of energy mixture the universe had full of. A massive hole was created in the barrier, letting a huge vortex of energy in and immediately annihilating 60% of the transmigrants of the Avian city. And Aster was caught in it.

Maybe it was because he had an affinity to mana, instead of completely obliterating him like what it did with everyone else, it started to assimilate with his soul, thereby charging it. Some faint divine and demonic energy also found a way in while the rest mercilessly bombarded his body.

[Hp:1/70]

[Mana:2690/240]

[Hp:0.001/70]

[Mana: 71983/240]

[Hp:0.00001/70]

The massive amount of mana he was acquiring was distributed throughout his body and it enhanced and healed the damages to an extent, although not enough to completely heal him, it was enough for him to persist.

But this temporary buff wouldn't last forever. His soul was going to shatter to a million pieces any time. It should have been destroyed the moment his current mana count reached 2400 but enough time hasn't passed yet. What was like 1/100th of a second, felt like a thousand lifetimes to him.

A thousand lifetimes filled with scorching heat and unimaginable pain. Desperate, Aster used everything he had to find a way to survive.

'I JUST FOUND MY DESTINY.' he desperately thought

'I'M NOT GOING TO DIE HERE' he desperately pleaded.

His soul was illuminated like a lamp from the inside and showed everything inside it to Aster, who was forced to see it crack and slowly disappear. He observed the soul frantically, desperately searching for any solutions even though he knew it was hopeless... Until he saw something.

A part of his soul that was not affected by the overbearing energy at all. With his [Mana control], which was improving exponentially, he guided all of his mana to that part, hoping that it would stay the way it was.

His necklace was glowing green in color. As it was made from Gaia's heart, it could be said it contained bits of her soul as well. It absorbed as much as energy it could, directly transmitting it to Gaia herself who was in slumber, before breaking apart.

[The magic item, [Spirit heart necklace] has been destroyed]

[The [Gaia] trait has been erased]

[[Earthling] trait is now active]

[[Earthling] trait is now in use]

With the necklace destroyed, his innate trait activated for the first time and his connection to his birth planet was rebuilt again. The connection transmitted a massive amount of mana from his overcharged soul to Earth and introduced mana to Earth for the first time.

The president and his bodyguards, who sensed the miasma as they charged into it managed to shrink the barrier thereby making it smaller but strengthening it as a result, thereby saving the life of many, at the expense of many.

After what seemed like years, the barrier finally disappeared. Everyone, who expected death staring at them beyond the barrier, was confused once they saw that they were in a completely different place.

A big stone hall with marvelous artwork all over the walls, two gigantic 15-meter statues made out of gold and titanium, a bunch of soldiers clad in shiny metal armor and military uniform. It was unnecessarily extravagant, obviously intended to impress and intimidate the newcomers for sure.

A man in a military uniform covered in medals was resting on a chair nearby with a grave expression. Obviously, the first summoning from Earth did not work as he planned.

"What happened?" He asked Arco in a hoarse voice.

"Haaa, *panting* there *panting* was a *panting* miasma clou-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT"

"Mommy, I'm scared"

"What the hell is happening" The general stood up and before someone could blink, he appeared next to the thing that caused all the screaming.

The thing looked like a human torso with a head or at least resembled it. It was scorched black like charcoal with veins that glowed in different colors and released a faint whimpering sound. The general immediately knew that it was breathing.

If anyone looked at it, they would believe it was an alien rather than a human. The general used his trusted skill [Perfect sight[Master]] saw its status screen and uttered something.

"Aster... Gaelcius?"

Aster preserved through the storm.

Aster lived.

And he was not going to be the same after this.