1 A Pushy System

Not far away from a certain remote village, there was a wide and open grass field.

A boy with raven black hair was taking an afternoon nap with a rusty-looking sword at his side as he bathed in the shadows of the trees on the edge of the grass field. He wore a short-sleeved white shirt, a light open brown vest, black pants, and a pair of boots. In other words, he looked like a typical village boy.

The sun shone brightly and the chirping of the birds in the area and the sound of a gentle spring breeze caressing the green grass were heard.

Peaceful moments like this were things the boy liked. However, this soothing moment met its end quickly as the boy heard in his head a gentle voice sounding like that of a middle-aged man.

[Wake up.]

"Hng… Give me five minutes…" the tired boy said annoyed.

Thus, five minutes passed with the boy still sleeping.

[Five minutes passed now. Wake up.]

"Ugh, fine…"

The boy reluctantly awoke from his short and yet relaxing afternoon nap.

He pondered about the reason he had to wake up so soon, but the answer was right in front of him.

When he slowly opened his sunflower-like yellow eyes, something caught his attention.

His sleepy and yet sharp eyes focused on the words floating in the air. Even when his upper body got up, the words followed his eyesight.

"Huh?"

The boy was shocked and in disbelief.

"You're kidding, right?"

[Have I ever made jokes?]

"Good point."

He looked at the words and read them out loud.

"Get accepted into Loogam."

He sighed.

"Out of all things, I have to do this? Especially you should know that this is almost impossible for me."

[Almost impossible does not equal impossible.]

"…"

The boy's right eye twitched in annoyance.

"It doesn't matter what you say. I won't do this." he said shrugging his shoulders.

"There's no way that I, a mere village boy with almost no magical power, will be accepted into the most renowned magic academy in the world, Loogam. Do you even know what kind of people try their luck to get into that academy? Nobles, prodigies and potential heroes, first-rate magic knights and adventures. That is no place for me." he elaborated while he stood up.

"I can take on any other quest, but I won't do anything that will threaten my peaceful life." He said as he stretched his body.

This was the way he, Mika Elbar, lived his normal life in a normal village.

After picking up his rusty double-edged sword that was by no means sharp, Mika decided to go home.

When he walked on the road leading to his village, he noticed someone approaching him from behind.

"Is that you, Mika?" a soft and girly voice called out to him.

"Ain?"

With his head looking back, he saw Ain Sacra, a girl his age, who also lived in the same village as Mika. She was a petite girl with braided brown hair whose color matched her round eyes. She wore a pink one-piece dress with frills on the ends.

"Were you collecting herbs again?" Mika asked as he pointed at her basket full of herbs.

"Yes!" Ain replied enthusiastically with a bright smile.

Her family ran a pharmacy in the village. Sometimes her parents asked her to collect some medical herbs so they could use them later to produce healing potions.

"And were you training again?" she asked.

"Yeah, sort of." he replied half-heartedly.

"Well, makes sense, I guess. After all, we both turned 15 recently, right?"

"It makes sense?"

Mika tilted his head slightly in confusion.

"Hm? I thought that you were training so that you could enter a magic academy."

"Enter a magic academy? No, no, no, that's impossible. I mean, I have little to no magic power." he denied her theory while waving his hand.

"Oh, really? That's a bummer… If I could use magic, then I would definitely want to try out entering a magic academy!"

Unlike Mika, Ain was unable to use magic. In their village, it was rather common that someone was born without magic power.

One could be born with the ability to use either fire, water, wind, earth, ice, lightning, or plant magic. People could recognize those with magic based on their eye color due to the eye color corresponding to one's element. In the case of Mika, he was born with lightning magic, hence his eyes were yellow.

Ain sighed.

"I wished I had a relic… Then, I wouldn't have to worry about having no magic." she lamented.

In the world, 66 weapons exist that grant the wielder a powerful ability. They are called the 66 mystic relics and they choose their wielder when they were born or when they met certain conditions later in their life.

Those relics were so strong that even most top-tier mages or knights could not hold a candle to them. It did not matter if the wielder had no magic.

Therefore, if someone possessed a relic but had no magic, then even entering a magic academy would still be a cakewalk.

"A relic, huh…" Mika muttered as he stared at his rusty sword which was on the left side of his hip without its sheath.

10 years passed since Mika encountered that sword. It was a normal day but when he woke up, he found that rusty sword beside his bed. Since then, it would not leave Mika's side. If he forgot his sword at home or even if he threw the sword from a cliff, the sword would appear in front of him again.

However, the rusty sword was not the only thing he received 10 years ago.

There was also the system.

The system would appear in the form of words floating in the air not leaving his eyesight. Those words contained quests Mika had to accept like hunting rabbits, collecting herbs, or doing 100 pushups. After fulfilling the quests, he got rewards like gold coins, magic stat boosts, or knowledge.

But it was also possible to receive punishment if the quest was failed. In the past 10 years, he received punishments like getting ill for a certain time, losing money, or eating food made by Ain, who was known for being a horrendous cook.

Belonging to the system was the strange voice he heard in his head. According to that voice, it serves as some kind of guidance for Mika. The voice elaborated on quests and helped Mika during quests so he could fulfill the quests. It did not state its name yet, however, it mentioned that it and the system could be referred to as 'System of Blessings'.

Back then, Mika got quickly accustomed to the system and voice because he thought that they were mystic relics, so he just accepted it.

Mika told other people about the system and the voice, but nobody believed him. After all, only Mika could see the quests of the system and only he could hear the voice.

Soon he started to wonder if he really possessed a relic. The system may reward him, but in the beginning, Mika had to pay a price for it or rather, he had to make a contract with the system. And as far as he knew, no relic would take something from the wielder away.

"I have to go now. See you!" Ain said as she pointed in the other direction.

The sun began to go down on the horizon with the sky colored in a mix of orange and pink when the two of them arrived in their village.

"See you." Mika waved his hand.

Thus, he was alone again and went in the opposite direction of Ain.

[Are you sure that you don't want to take on the quest?]

"I told you already. It's impossible."

[You mean almost impossible.]

"Tch." Mika clicked his tongue.

[You will automatically receive the punishment if you don't accept the quest.]

"That's fine. I guess, I just have to eat something made by Ain, right?"

[No.]

Words appeared again in front of Mika.

His eyes widened and he took a step back as he saw the details of the quest.

Reward: Right to change the contract

Punishment: Death