1 The System

In the year 2000, the world discovered a new energy called Mana. magical energy that should have died out long ago but was currently returning. The world discovered the true reason behind the witch hunts, a shocking truth that showed how people were trying to protect Mana so it could recover. something which they all failed at, and by the year 1693, Mana had completely died out.

No one expected it to return hundreds of years later, but with its return, the world entered a new stage where the world was learning magic. it started slow as many people at first rejected the concept of magic. But over time, bit by bit. the world came to accept this new concept. 

New jobs opened up around the field of magic, and for a time the world was at peace as the powerhouses of the world were not at war with each other, and were putting their full attention into using this energy to see if they could bring out its full potential.

to say the least, the knowledge of magic was held from the public to avoid people running around thinking they were god or anything. but as time passed, Mana had grown so much that the government couldn't just keep this information from its people.

if enough Mana gathered, then a dungeon. a dungeon being a portal in space which leads to a different dimension filled with monsters. If enough time goes by without these dungeons being clear, then you would have a scene where the portal starts spilling out all of the monsters from within. So the government had to have the public learn about magic and enter these dungeons to clear them.

But these dungeons had many benefits to those who entered. for one, those who kill a monster have a chance of collecting the monster's core. Monster core was the core of monsters, without it monsters would die. These held pure energy, which the government managed to learn to use to power things from cars, houses, and even TV. it became a highly wanted object, which increased the value of such things. so many people would enter the dungeon all in the hopes of finding them...

It was the year 2012. 12 years since the return of magic. by now, the world had adapted to the changes and knew pretty much everything... but it didn't mean everyone was happy. many people lost their homes, at this time of day, when even Hunters can struggle to make a living, what about those who couldn't make it as Hunter?

Currently, James is sitting in his car. his phone was playing the video recording from a camera he had placed in his house.

"We are planning on having a child. What do you think?" James' wife asked her daughter while sitting next to her boyfriend. the daughter, 15 years old was slightly weirded out by this, but she nodded slightly. 

"thats great, but we have to have your father believe he is the father." the boyfriend said before they went over their plan. James listened for some time before letting out a deep breath.

James turned off the phone and threw it onto the passenger seat. He had had his guesses, but it turned out his wife had been cheating on him with his best friend, and to make it worse his daughter was playing along with the whole thing... to say this hurt, well that would be an understatement.

"With this I have nothing..." He said in a low voice. James was doing well for himself for some time now, he had managed to be the first person to build the first concept of a guild. something which took in hunters and gave them the resources needed to enter dungeons, he was going big... until those hunters left him for other guilds that had better benefits. his guild was closing down, he wasn't a hunter, and now he was hit with the truth behind his worries.

Now he truly had nothing, a man without a family, no true friends... nothing. He was quiet for some time while looking blankly at the car. 

"What are you going to do now?" a voice suddenly came from the back of the car, causing him to jump up while looking back. there he saw an old man sitting there, he looked weak and had on black robes to cover his body. he was wearing an eyepatch over his right eye. and he couldn't help but notice how birds stood on the house and trees, all of their eyes locked on this car.

"Who are you? how did you get in my car?" He asked in shock while reaching towards his gun, while his eyes locked on the old man's every movement.

"You lost everything, and are at your lowest. Will you give up here, or fall?" the old man asked, stunning James. James looked at the old man for some time before his eyes narrowed... he had seen this guy before.

"It's you..." He said in shock, when he was a kid, this old man used to stand outside his window, just watching him. At times, he felt this guy was standing over his bed, making him scared to sleep. yet he has returned, looking the same as ever.

the first time this old man has ever spoken to him was when Mana appeared, he said only 4 words to him.

"This is an opportunity." Those words were what led to him seeing the value of Mana and the dungeons, he threw everything into this and exploded to be a rich man in a matter of a few months.

"Will you give up here?" the old man asked, to which I shook my head slightly. I would of course not give up on something like this, I just needed to think of my next move.

"Who are you? just why have you been following me around?" I asked my hand on the gun. but the old man ignored him and simply looked outside.

"Have you ever heard the saying, Knowledge is power?" He asked making me frown slightly. that was a simple saying, but so what?

"In these 11 years, you have learned a lot about Mana and more about this world.... go and test your talent for magic." at those words, the old man disappeared like a mist, and at the same time the countless birds disappeared, leaving me stunned. 

I stood there confused for some time, and with slight unease, I went over what he told me to go do... so, I drove off. heading to my guild, I went to my office where I went on to pull out a device used for measuring one talent.

When a person has the talent for using Mana, it means their body has something. a container that could hold and store mana. these containers were all not the same, the bigger they were the more powerful a mage would be. upon awakening, a mage has the power to train and increase their container.

So, even if you have the trashiest of reading upon awakening, putting in the hard work could allow you to reach greater heights.

I placed my palm on the reader, and after a moment my heart almost stopped when I saw the reading which appeared. I had a reading of 5. on the ranking for hunters, that would mean I'm F-tier. the lowest rank, but still it's better than having nothing.

I can use magic, isn't this great? adding the resources from the guild, I could train myself up and enter the dungeons... but how did I become a Hunter? I never heard of anyone becoming a Hunter even after they tested to not be one.

'Knowledge is power?' I frowned slightly as those words that old man popped into my head, what did he mean by knowledge being power? By understanding the world, did my knowledge therefore supply me with a container or something? but that made no sense... or maybe it did.

getting up, I went towards the training room within the guild. it was where guild members could come and train. using some illusion spells plus with some high tech, one was capable of recreating goblins, and other monsters to fight and train. but I was not ready for battle just yet, I instead wanted to have my container grow.

there were 2 ways to have one container grow. the first is through working out, the stronger the body, the bigger the container shall be.

the second way is through using your Mana over and over. Each time you recover the Mana, you will not only have more than before, but you will be more skilled in how to use Mana.

So I got to working out. One should know some of the weight here use one Mana to make them heavy. this forces the user to stay focused under stressful moments like working out, this would of course come useful when fighting monsters.

Just because one has a container doesn't mean one can instantly use it. one has to be able to sense and draw out that mana. this was of course easy with me working out, sensing something leaving my body as I set the weights to Mana absorption mode. this mode allows the weights to absorb the mana of a person holding it on their own, allowing one to be able to sense the mana as it leaves them.

'This is Mana... what a magical feeling.' I thought while holding the weight which slowly absorbed my mana. I could feel my energy leaving my body and entering this weight, it was such a magical feeling, I tried to take hold of the energy before it could leave my body, this allowed me to slow down the absorption speed of the weights.

with a little more effort, I was slowly moving the Mana around within my body. putting the weight down, I tried to call the weight to my palm. slowly, a small blue orb gathered at my palm. I almost jumped for joy seeing this orb, I could now be a hunter. I was of course happy.

but I wanted to get the hang of Mana, so I got to work. even before I had Mana, I liked to keep myself in check by working out. so working out wasn't something new to me, it was just the added part of splitting my mind to control Mana that was hard. So, I got to work.

"Boss... you have Mana?" a middle-aged man entered the training room and was stunned seeing James lifting weights. to use the weights here one needs Mana, so he was of course stunned.

"Yeah... with how the guild is going, I thought I should step up and be a hunter as well," I said softly, stunning the middle-aged man. there were a few people who stayed at the guild, it was mostly those who had nowhere else to go. no other guild took them in but me,

"Boss. thats great." the man said with a smile, the reason this guild was dying was because the other guilds had hunters running them. A normal person was just not built to run a guild, many believe the guild master should not only be the strongest but have the best leading skills. so, a hunter who knows what it's like to go into dungeons, thats the type of person everyone wants to be the guild master. 

"What are you doing here? were you not going to come in tomorrow?" I asked while grabbing a towel to remove the sweat from my forehead.

"What do you mean? today was the day I was going to come in." He said in confusion, causing me to pull out my phone to look at the time. I was stunned seeing I was here for the day plus night. it was now the next day early in the morning.

"I didn't even feel it..." I thought, I was so absorbed in working out I felt nothing. I ignored the missed phone calls, and I looked at the middle-aged man before me, Kevin. he was an F-rank Hunter. he wasn't all that powerful, even after working out for years he had not ranked up. but he was a gunner, a hunter who used guns. of course, special guns that use his Mana to fire, 

"Where is your team?" I asked to which Kevin sighed at my words, 

"Bob and the others have left the guild to join The Sword And Spear Gild," Kevin said, making me sigh softly. with Bob and others leaving, that leaves only me and Kevin.

"I see... well, I will find a way. everything isn't lost." I said while walking over to a Mana reader. Placing my palm on it, the reader showed me my new number 12. Seeing this, I was stunned, I went from 5 to 12 just like that? this was no longer F their, it was the lowest of the E tier.

"Knowledge is power, the more you know the stronger you shall grow." the world suddenly went gray, and I was stunned for a moment before looking towards where the voice came from. there I saw the old man standing next to Kevin. Who was frozen in time? In fact, time seemed to have come to a stop.

"Just who are you?" I asked with a frown, the man looked at me deeply for some time before he spoke.

"I'm your past, you're my future. I'm simply a ghost who is trying to break the chains of fate, and gain freedom... I failed. In the end, there is always a greater hand out there writing out your story." He said while walking towards me.

"... sound a lot like Odin," I said softly, although Mana and stuff sent the world into chaos, people still had to make money and people still wanted to watch movies and stuff. adding the improvement to tech Mana brought, CGI was something out of this world. movies like Thor which follows Odin's son who was cast down to earth to humble him was a movie I liked. 

But Odin from the movie didn't have anything to do with breaking Fate. instead, this one sounded a lot like the Odin from mythology, 

"Indeed... Do you want to be free? Do you want the power to control your life, and not have everything planned out for you? Do you want to stand at the peak of power, with everything under your control?" Odin asked, to which I nodded. who wouldn't want that?

"then I gift you my will and all that comes with it... don't let the past repeat itself, don't become a second Odin. Be better." He said while his body broke apart, entering my body. my face twisted in pain as I felt like my head was going to explode, I let out a painful cry before my eyes rolled back. I fell to the ground out cold, stunning Kevin who quickly ran over to check on me...

{Bonding as complete... greeting host, I'm the system.} Within the void, James could be seen walking around with a confused look when the voice entered his head.

'A system... is that what knocked me out? just where Am I?' James asked while looking around.

{Yes. As most of what your past life has left behind for you was too much, a system that would slowly give you the said thing was formed. You are currently within the inheritance ground, where you can pick one thing from here.} the system said while around me, pillars appeared which showed what I could get.

There were weapons like Gungnir, which had a few unique abilities. when held in hand, the Spear had the power to bypass defense. when thrown, the spear can switch cause and effect, giving it the power to instantly appear within a target chest, pieced through its heart. if a person is somehow able to stop that from happening, the spear shall always follow the target at speeds that are ever-growing. it shall never stop until it hits its target.

Next was a throne which gave one the power to see everything that happens within one domain. and the list of items went on and on until I stopped before a glowing orb that said the Odin Force. Question marks popped above my head, was this not from Marvel? what was it doing here?

{Host, your past reincarnation almost broke from the chains of fate. for a split moment, he saw everything out there and was able to see the many Odin across all of existence. with that, he was able to create many things. The Odin force is just one of the things he recreated. Thats a powerful energy thats only limited by your imagination and current capability, with a picture in mind, you can use that to do just about anything with the energy. but to bring out the full power of the Odin force, you need knowledge. at the same time, it does have the flaw of needing you to enter a deep sleep to recharge...} the system said, making me frown as those were huge flaws.

{but it is also different from the Odin force for Marvel. with this new one, you would not instantly Have levels of power equal to the Odin from Marvel right away. Instead, it shall start weak. like a child, it's up to you to grow the Odin force. As it grows, so will you. at the same time, the recharge time would never be over the top like the Odinforce. but at the same time, you can lower the time through knowledge. if you get it now, just the quality of the energy shall transform you. But the host is recommended not to use this energy freely once he leaves, as people may want to take it for themselves.} the system said while I looked at the ball of energy for some time. the endless possibilities this energy held were something I wanted...

"... do you have ways to leave this world and go to somewhere Like Marvel?" I asked while looking at the rest of the stuff.

{Yes host, but the energy required would need you to be an A-rank Hunter, and from there would could randomly enter other worlds. maybe you would appear in Marvel, DC, or even Dragon Ball. It's all random.} the system said while I looked at The Odin Force.

I will grow strong even without the system's help, but to have such a powerful trump card up my sleeves, would this not be perfect? the weapons and items were cool and all, but I preferred something I could take and use to grow alongside myself. So, I picked the Odin force...