We did it to ourselves. It was our fault. When the fate of Earth was at stake we stumbled and failed. We created the pantheon. We created the gods that suppress knowledge.

General Tsu Yang, Excerpt from the War on the System Published in 2073

August 2071

“Soldiers. You have been gathered here today to work towards establishing a strategic reserve. No plan survives contact with the enemy, especially when our enemy is smarter than us, stronger than us, faster than us, and quite frankly better at fighting than us. But we have no choice. The Domain Hades is out of control. Australia has already fallen, and now he is coming for our allies in Japan and China. The strategic reserve will be manned by people from all our allies. The only requirement is that you have at least one combat skill to Intermediary. It is well known and understood that the only way to advance a combat profession is to actually kill something. So low combat profession levels are not a concern. We will rotate people in and out of the reserve so that the average combat level of the reserve will rise over time. Get with your commanding officers if you want to volunteer. Tour of duty is expected to be one year. The AI will ask you if you want to stay in the reserves at that time. If you have loved ones under the domain of the AIs, you are ineligible to volunteer but that does not mean you are ineligible for the reserves. You are here because you are talented enough that I am considering selecting you anyway. So if you believe in the cause and you want to be included, prove that you deserve to be here. That is all. Dismissed.”

After General Yang's speech ended, the entire crowd erupted in a loud cheer. Lucas was possibly the loudest of them all. He wasn’t eligible to volunteer, but nobody present was aware of that. If anybody really looked deeply at his background, he probably wouldn’t even be eligible to be in the Army. One of his uncles was at the lab where and when this whole damn mess started. But he hadn’t heard from him since the blue screens had appeared.

“I already qualify,” Lucas muttered to himself. With the guilt that comes with knowing your family is potentially part of the problem, Lucas had thrown himself into his training. Hand to Hand, Rifles, AI interaction, those were the first 3 skills he earned. He quickly picked up the infantry and ammo maker professions as they were so helpful to someone in the Military. There seemed to be some sort of artificial control in place stopping him from getting some of the skills the other military members had. Any skill past rifles in relation to the modern Army was blocked from him. No Energy Cell Recharging, No Ion Rifles, No Information Warfare, No HUD interfacing. There were really quite a lot of skills that he couldn’t get. “Probably has something to with that 10th domain…” muttered Lucas. Ironically skills like AI interfacing, Formations and Hand to Hand all came very easily to him. Not that he had a lot of opportunities to level up skills that were not military skills. It just meant that he had to try and become skilled with Ion Rifles and Energy cells the hard way. Unfortunately, he still couldn’t use the decent Ion Rifles because of the system-imposed skill level restrictions on them.

Lucas felt sure that the reason he even had the 10th domain on his system screen at all had something to do with his Uncle. It was well known at this point that the starting affinity in each of the Domains was heavily dependent upon your genetic makeup. Had it really been six months since that was announced on the news? Lucas didn’t have a high enough affinity to be worth training in its use, but he also had that 10th domain. The System Domain. He didn’t dare to mention in case it meant what he thought it meant. His uncle was somehow tied up in the creation of the System that was so hated. The System that was sweeping away the world's nations to forge something new. Who knew if he was tied into the Domains, but Lucas was almost certain he was related to the creator of the system. With the current world events, he didn’t want anyone to know. If he could get himself selected to be part of the reserve, he could put enough time between him and his uncle that nobody would be able to put two and two together except for him.

Name

Lucas Eckles

Race

Human

HP

279

Stamina

270

Total Affinity

17%

Mana

100

Strength

14

Endurance

27

Agility

12

Charisma

10

Intellect

10

Luck

13

Status: None

Active Skills

Inspect

Beginner 5

Dash

Beginner 1

Rapid Fire

Beginner 3

Stealth

Beginner 1

Passive Skills

Rifles

Intermediate 4

AI Interfacing

Intermediate 3

Hand to Hand

Intermediate 1

Formations

Intermediate 3

Combat Professions:

Non Combat Professions:

Infantry

Lvl 3

Ammo Maker

Lvl 3

Major Outstanding Quests

Grantor

Obtain a position in the Reserve

General Yang

Affinities

Earth

0%

Light

0%

Wind

0%

Water

0%

Fire

2%

Space

5%

Mind

7%

Crafting

3%

Death

0%

System

3%