" Run, there are monsters ".
" Is the world ending? ".
" Gods are angry ".
" What is that? ".
" Why is a Tree growing all of a sudden? ".
Everyone looked confused and bewildered as a tree started growing from the ground and all monsters got absorbed into it. As they looked confused the tree slowly grew and reached skies.
" What the hell? ".
" Is that a world tree? ".
" Not just in sapphire City. The Lion Empire, Bear Nation and even the Eagle Nation has one like that. In every city, a tree like this grew ".
" Damn, what is happening? First it's the monsters from strange rifts and now it's the strange tree in every city ".
" This must be the world tree said in the mythology".
As they're arguing, suddenly a window appeared in front of some of them like in fantasy novels.
[ Congratulations! You're now an awakener choosen by Yggdrasil ]
[ To defend Earth and protect humanity from invasions ]
[ Climb the tower and grow stronger ]
That's the only message it said and it gave a status for everybody that's been chosen by the tower. And everyone in the world understood that their world changed and everything they know until now became useless. Technology won't work on the tower or the strange space rifts not is it strong enough to kill the monsters.
25 years later, June 1, 2150 :
It's been more than 2 decades since the tower appeared. Since then many experts rose to power. Nations stopped fighting for power on outside world and instead started fighting each other in the tower. Whether it's for resources, dungeons, artifacts, experts and even loot from monsters.
In tower the moral compass is mostly grey. Each nation has it's own factions. For 25 years, the humanity survived against not only dungeons and monsters but also from the Abyss that will invade earth. Some of the awakeners defected to the abyss and formed an organisation called, Dark Hand.
They're the enforcers for the demons in abyss. They're defectors from humanity thag chose to surrender their souls to the monsters from Abyss. These traitors are responsible for many losses over the years including some of the awakeners who have the potential to be a strong and important person for society in future.
Humanity moved on with the changes, the world adapted to the changes brought by dungeons and Yggdrasil. The myths and legends are no longer views as stories and the gods are just termed as awakeners who grew stronger with the help of Yggdrasil tower. But as no one saw them in the tower, many gave up on them.
Every year those who are compatible with mana will awaken a talent after they attended the ceremony at the tower and will be allowed to climb and level up in Yggdrasil tower. So anyone compatible with mana will be taken to the tower every month. This will be managed by the EBA, Enforcement Beaureu of Awakeners.
Of course, talent isn't everything or that's what many say to console you. Talent is an important factor for early growth. If your talent is not strong enough you'll face challenges and struggles at the early stages. And strength speaks in tower and dungeons. Without sufficient strength even if you're lucky enough to get a treasure, what awaits you is death.
Today is the day a new batch of people will be awakened. EBA as usual brought them to the Yggdrasil tower in the Sapphire City. Sapphire City is the main trade City that's like a central hub for trade to all other cities in the Silver Province. It's also the central point that connects all routes on land and sea for surrounding nations.
As the Yggdrasil tower, many teenagers and some adults are also gathered. Personnel dressed in suits are taking them to tower. These are the enforcers of EBA, as the Yggdrasil tower door is opened. All people walked inside it. Then a hexagonal pattern appeared below them and one by one started disappearing.
Damian Grace is one of the awakeners in this batch. As he disappeared, Damian appeared in a space. It's like he is floating in space. There are many shining stars here. And one of them approached him at a speed which he can't react and merged into him. A strange warmth is generated inside him.
As the space disappeared he is outside the tower. A status window appeared in front of him.
[ Name : Damian Grace ]
[ Level : 1 ]
[ Title : Rookie Awakener ]
[ Age : 17 ]
[ Gender : Male ]
[ Strength : 5 ]
[ Agility : 5 ]
[ Vitality : 5 ]
[ Endurance : 4 ]
[ Mana : 5 ]
[ Allocatable Stats : 0 ]
[ Innate Talent : Astral Alchemy ]
[ Skills : None ]
Damian saw the talent and frowned. He thought this might be a production type talent but as he opened the Innate Talent description he is stunned. This is simply something that breaks boundaries.
[ Talent : Astral Alchemy
Rank : Unknown
Description : A skill that defies all laws. Created from the combination of Alchemy, Dark magic and Necromancy. It can extract anything, even the soul fragments of the damned. It can also fuse multiple items based on user's choice. The extracted soul fragments can be used to combine and upgrade equipment or can be devoured to get skills and soul essence of the entity. The devoured soul essence can be used to raise the rank or proficiency of the skill. It's also possible to upgrade skills using enough soul fragments. ]
That's basically cheating. Such a Talent is simply heaven defying. As Damian appeared outside the tower and looking at his status screen, people from EBA arrived and started taking status window details from all the new awakeners. They asked him to show his status window. Damian compiled, because no matter what these people won't let him go. His only advantage is that, his talent rank is unknown and the description can't be viewed by others.
Damian only said he can extract more than what a normal Alchemy skill can and combine different items with it. He only said half-truth and didn't lie because they have equipment that can detect lies. They just nodded and believed it, to EBA, production type awakeners aren't lacking.
Many awakeners who got talents for first time are auxiliary or production based ones. Guilds and Organisations don't lack them. So they will ignore most production types because there are so people with those skills and they easily find someone who differs from normal production type hunters.
As the people from EBA left, Damian turned to the tower. With a smile, he bid farewell and left. As for why not climbing the tower. It's preparing new zone for the new arrivals like them for today. So the new awakeners will get their own space for development and won't be hindered at least until the zones merge with each other.