Just as Orion was preparing to make his first Essence selection, he heard Teacher Remy's voice inside his head.
"That's enough for today. I've gathered enough information. Let's return to the school and have lunch. We can discuss the details once we're out."
His voice sounded excited and happy. He probably already thought Orion was a warrior prodigy.
It was also impressive that someone who looked like pure muscle mass could send a telepathic message from kilometers away. Hearing a clear voice in his head, similar to the system messages, only heightened Orion's anticipation for the Academy. He also wanted to use various spells.
Orion was sure he had time to make his Essence selection before leaving and refocused on the floating panel in front of him.
In truth, he had already made a general decision in his mind. But some doubts still lingered.
He scanned through every Essence he could choose for the third time, from left to right. Then he narrowed his focus to the ones he was ninety-nine percent sure he would pick.
[🏛️ Essence Type: Death
"Death to everyone, even to me, me, me, me..Zzzyxyzzz..."
An Essence that allows users to walk by stepping over death itself. All professions and abilities that one must know about death fall under this essence. Whether you seek to approach death or distance yourself from it.
-Techniques to be used for death can be acquired from the market. For weapons, souls, virgin sacrifices and energy types; you may use other Essences.
WARNING: "Users whose sole purpose is killing are advised to use more hunting-oriented essences such as Hunter Essence, Weapon Essence or Reaper. The Death Essence is not for killing. It is for ruling both sides of the mirror!]
If he didn't have the Cheat Your Death passive ability, choosing something cool yet complex like "Death" might be a good idea. The sentence about "distancing oneself from death" had caught his attention.
But according to the warning below, this Essence wasn't about hunting animals or monsters.
For a brief moment, he tapped the section labeled "Essence Market", but the page that opened was completely empty.
"Is it because I haven't chosen anything yet?"
Returning to the previous page, he continued reading while muttering to himself. "Should my goal be machines, artificial intelligence, teleportation, or turning into a dragon and conquering this world?"
If he was on a planet with large populations, a developed civilization would change everything. He couldn't gain power, money, or control with Death Essence alone. He would need to invest, honey trap, and create new tech to lure people under his control.
Even if he wanted resources-hell, just wanted to make money, he needed something more productive.
Something capitalist and irresistible to common and mid-range people in this magic world. So he shifted his gaze to different Essences, and his eyes widened.
-Slave Essence
-Bond Essence
-Desire Essence
-Emotion Manipulation Essence
-Harem Essence
…
These were really interesting, and Orion had to slap his own face to stop himself from imagining extreme things.
He was alone in a new world. Even the system message said that he was the first one to come to Midka after three thousand years. Orion kept examining the ones marked with +18 symbols with a strange mix of seriousness and sadness.
After reading a few erotic Essences that promised extremely intense effects, he finally managed to calm the monster between his legs with great struggle.
A few minutes later, he found the second Essence he was seriously considering.
[🛠️ Essence Type: Production
"Produce everything to command reality.
Creation, construction, and world-building… even universe-building!! The Production Essence grants the wielder the ability to gather, craft and build both physical and magical constructs.
As professions advance, production evolves from gathering to shaping weapons, constructing structures, developing magical technology and even creating semi-sentient or fully sentient machine planets.
-The tools required during production can be acquired from the market. Materials can be sourced from your planet or other Essences]
The Essence itself was just as incredible. He was sure that doing something focused on production and construction would be genuinely enjoyable.
On top of that, it seemed he would be attending a magic school in two days. And he would probably have to deal with tons of nonsense.
If he was going to stay in this academy before serving in the human armies, it would give him enough time. He would learn magic from here and advance his skills with the Essence Page.
Orion had to prepare some leverage for this fantasy world.
Money, connections, control, access to high-level intelligent individuals. All of that required creating or at least showing something original. Magical constructs sounded impressive enough.
As a bonus, he could build a shelter for dangerous situations. An engine, a balloon, even an airplane to explore this world. Compared to Death Essence, Orion was certain that Production Essence was more useful.
His knowledge of engines and mechanics was close to zero, but even crude, low-quality weapons could still be possible with time and experimentation. Maybe he could even get rich by producing and selling weapons later.
This Essence felt vital for him as he imagined new possibilities.
But when he saw the sentence about sourcing materials from other Essences or the planet itself, he decided not to rush. He quickly scanned the few remaining Essences.
One of them, positioned at the very end of the Essence Page, was directly related to materials.
🌌 Essence Type: Creation
"Forge reality from nothing!"
The Creation Essence grants the ability to manifest raw materials and primordial elements across all nine dimensions. Users don't find resources, they become the source.
The Path of Creation Essence is slow and abysmal, offering exponential returns at higher tiers. This path is knowledge-intensive and highly synergistic with Construction Essences such as Production, Evolution, Summoning….
Additional knowledge required for creation can be acquired from the Essence Market. Created materials can be used for everything.
WARNING: Using a single Creation Job for extended periods may result in spiritual or mental distortion. Upon awakening this Essence, the user must choose and maintain two jobs simultaneously to balance the mind and the soul.
When Orion noticed the line that effectively said, "You are the source of materials," he reread the Essence description several times from start to finish.
The thought of producing gold, iron, or coal in large amounts made his heart race.
This first Essence choice would determine what kind of person he would become in this unknown world. And the Creation Essence clearly looked absurdly overpowered.
Even while reading the Death Essence earlier, he hadn't thought anything could be this broken. He read its description again and again, wondering if he was misunderstanding something.
Then his face twisted as he focused on the warning section.
Can I handle something this complex when I'm not even done dealing with basics? And I don't even know when I'll be able to choose another Essence.
I will need Production Essence in school. Gold won't help me for now. And it's not even certain if it lets you create diamonds from scratch.
One of the most important parts was that Orion hadn't learned anything scientific in his old life. Without knowing important subjects like math, mechanics, electrical lines, or physics, he couldn't do anything even with unlimited oil.
..
Fifteen minutes passed as Orion sat under the thick shadows of massive trees and clouds. He was lucky, and no other dogs came.
He looked up at a small patch of sky squeezed between the branches. Directly above him, branches swayed, insects crawling everywhere. Then he lowered his head and took one final deep breath.
When he pulled his attention away from the system window, he felt momentarily calm, as if returning to reality. That brief relief and glance around helped reduce some of the confusion.
The teenage boy inside him had grown up during the golden age of computers, early internet, and RPG games. This childish side which didn't care much about his old home, was begging him to choose something magical and broken. The Creation Essence was exactly that. A diamond spoon carved from pure imbalance.
But the adult side of him was a university graduate, a teacher who had tasted years of unemployment and knew the dangers of a real society. That side was telling him to think like an adult.
He wished he had someone to talk to. Someone to consult before making this decision. Then raised his finger and tapped the spot that switched him to the main page.
°•○●
*Name: Orion
*Level: 10 - Exp: 20 / 110
Essence Points: 0 (Unlocked!)
Stat Points: 1
-Strength: 23 (+)
-Perception: 15 (+)
-Endurance: 15 (+)
-Charisma: 16 (+)
-Intelligence: 16 (+)
-Agility: 15 (+)
-Luck: Locked
A small smile formed after glancing at his stats. He knew he was strong enough to convince the Academy. This level of power should be sufficient. Since school was probably just starting, they wouldn't expect much from him anyways.
Taking a deep breath and showing great force of will, he moved his finger toward the section labeled as Production Essence.
[Congratulations! You have chosen an Essence!]
[First Essence: 🛠️Production Essence]
-You can expand the Production Essence page for detailed information.
-Your Essence Market is up-to-date. It will be updated again when new essences and specific conditions are met.
-"Essence Points" are unlocked. You can start earning points for your Essence-eligible actions. Market purchases will be deducted from these points.
Orion didn't see anything bad up to this point. In fact, everything was going great.
But just as he stood up and started walking toward the exit of the Hunting Zone, a new system notification appeared.
[WARNING: Due to your essence choice, the temporarily enabled "Cheat Your Death" passive ability is now locked again!]
When he read the warning, Orion felt the seemingly endless heat between his legs disappear instantly.
"Are you kidding me! If something like this was going to happen, why didn't you warn me earlier?"
Staying immortal for twenty-eight more days was very important. The only reason he was wrestling with dogs that could swallow his leg in one bite was the lack of fear of death!
Most of the excitement and fearlessness drained away.
Staying within the safe walls of the Academy was now of far greater importance. He could even feign academic or technical achievements and pretend to be a genius to avoid going to war.
His eyes shifted to the new notifications and the expanded Production Essence page. Since there was no immortality anymore, the type of job he would have was extremely important.
Orion read his first job with great anticipation.
[Production Essence Profession (Tier 0): Gatherer]
"What...?"