Grey was laughing like a madman, feeling indescribably happy at this very moment. People gave him weird looks, but he hardly noticed them, because he had something that would change his life forever.
He always wondered where his magic cheat was, or if it would ever come, and for a while, he believed it never would. But all of that was crushed today, because now it was real, and right here.
He didn't contemplate for a second and instantly opened up the system panel to read his status.
[Name: Grey]
[Rebate Charge: 100%]
[Race: Human]
[Core Class: Light-Red]
[Arcane Aspect: None]
[Physique: Skinny]
[Bloodline: Commoner]
[Prana: 10/10]
"This is a lot to look at."
One's Core is where Prana is stored. But all cores are not the same, because the greater the core strength or capacity, the different the color, we call these classes. And going from least to greatest, they'd look as such:
[White --> Light Red --> Dark Red --> Light Orange --> Dark Orange --> Light Blue --> Dark Blue --> Light Green --> Dark Green --> Light Violet --> Dark Violet --> Void --> Radiant --> ???]
As for Arcane Aspect, it refers to one's affinity to wield different magic.
The main types are: [Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, and Lightning]. But, there are also the sub-aspects such as: [Light, Darkness, Gravity, Infernal, Tornado, Tsunami, Tremor, and Black-Lightning].
That much Grey understood. What he didn't understand was the many things to be read on his status, such as the rebate charge, physique, and so on.
"System, perhaps you could show me a guide or something along the lines of that?"
[Rebate Charge: The amount of charge in the Rebate Mechanic. At 100% the Host may activate the charge and receive their 1000x Rebate. But once used, it will be inactive. A 30-day cooldown will be in effect, and the host may wait the timer out, or manually charge the Rebate by killing strong beasts, gaining 'XP', or anything along those lines.]
"Okay, that's to be expected, a small nerf on this overpowered mechanic. I mean, even with a 30-day cooldown, that's still insane. I can just do nothing, and it refills? Amazing. I can also speed up the process by killing monsters and such, which is also amazing, meaning if I get bored, I can always just speed things up. Moving on...Race is understood, but..."
[Physique: The physicality of the host. The greater the physique, the greater the rewards. At your current physique, most things deemed physically challenging will be hard, such as a pushup. But with a greater physique, doing a single pushup will be as if you'd done 10,000.]
[Bloodline: The blood that runs through your veins is also a factor of magic talent, skill, and progression. With your current bloodline, you have average talent, average skill, and average progression. With a greater bloodline, your talent and everything that has been named thus far could be enhanced by 1000x, and so forth, and so on.]
Grey let out an exhale after going over everything. There was a lot to learn, and a lot to remember, but he had it in the bag. He understands that Prana was just his Prana capacity, and with about 2, he could only shoot out 4 Novice-Ranked spells before he became all dizzy and weak from low Prana.
※ ※ ※
Grey was now outside the city. He ran to a nearby forest, which was overrun with beasts like the Tri-Clawed Wolf or the Saber-Toothed Fox. He sat on a tree-trunk, looking over the system mechanics, relaying everything to himself and what was to come.
He then opened the Rebate panel.
[Do you wish to gain 1000x Rebate?]
[YES/NO]
It was simple and asked a single question. Grey's heart was beating, not from nervousness or fear, but excitement, from sheer joy. Not waiting a beat longer, he pressed yes, anxious for results.
In the first couple of seconds, nothing happened—
"AGHHHHHHH!"
Grey flailed on the floor, clutching the air, his surroundings, his chest, anything for comfort, but the pain only grew greater and greater. It was a simple numb feeling at first, then it became a sharp static, and only grew more painful. It was like 1000 needles were placed at every nerve in his body, like someone skinned him and tore out his muscles one by one, a pain he found hard to describe, but could picture vividly.
It felt like an hour of suffering, but in reality, only 15 minutes had passed.
When Grey opened his eyes, a dull static ran throughout his body. He sat up after he found himself passed out on the grass. He sighed and breathed, the pain that was once there, gone so abruptly. He didn't know whether to be grateful or angry, but he didn't choose the latter.
He sat on the tree-trunk once more, running his fingers through his ash-colored hair, his dark eyes set on his hands. He clenched his fist, feeling unbelievable strength run through his arms and fists. He smirked and took off from his right foot, suddenly bursting forth and clearing through a row of thick trees.
"D-Didn't mean to go that fast... or do that."
He stopped wasting time, now opening his status.
[Name: Grey]
[Rebate Charge: 0%](Cooldown: 29:23:59)
[Race: Empyrean Human]
[Core Class: Light-Green]
[Arcane Aspect: Penta(5)]
[Physique: (Low) Peerless]
[Bloodline: Primordial]
[Prana: 2000/2000]
"Holy shit. I expected much, but this is insane. I jumped from basically the lowest core class to light-green. My race and bloodline are so mysterious that I assume it's strong, and I can use 5 magic affinities. It's rare for even elves to wield 4, and rare for humans to wield 3, but 5 for a single person? That's unheard of."
Grey continued to practice his new body. He could run around the entire forest 10 times before breaking a sweat, and could leap across an entire lake, not to mention his strength; he could grab a boulder the size of 2 trucks and chuck it like a ball. Last but not least, his Prana. Years back, before all of this, Grey learned he had an affinity for wind. So he spent most of his time trying out wind spells before he managed to become pretty decent at one.
[Wind Bullet].
He put out his finger like a gun and channeled Prana from his core, through his body, and up to his arm.
"Grant me the strength, o' great ones, [Wind Bullet]!"
A devastating gust of wind shot from his fingertip like a giant spire, ripping through a crowd of trees and leaving an amazing yet terrifying display of power. It was as if some giant came and took a bite out of the forest.
He did it again and again, before he realized he could do it without incantation, that's how used to it his body became.
"[Wind Bullet], [Wind Bullet], [Wind Bullet], [Wind Bullet]!"
Grey wasn't trying to destroy the forest, so he just tested it in the air, and soon, he could do 2 at a time from one shot. All he had to work on was precision, speed, and controlling the power. He added just a "sip" of mana into his hand, shooting out pea-sized wind bullets, with nearly the same amount of power and even greater speed.
He then classified his wind bullets. One for AOE damage, which he had named [Wind Dozer], the other for personal attacking, [Wind Bullet], he had it all down-pack.
After testing some more wind spells, Grey went back to the city and slept on the streets that night, because... no money.