[You have been bestowed with Gaia’s Gift! The World itself rejoices as the System becomes accessible to you!]

[Check your Status in order to learn your Classes and thus, how worthy you are in the eyes of Gaia!]

Those two messages were the first thing Michael Kane saw the moment he woke up. He blinked one… twice… rubbed his eyes to remove the effects of sleep from them… blinked twice again… before a massive grin almost split his face in two.

“Yes! Finally!” He exclaimed with a laugh as he rose to a sitting position on his bed. He noticed that the semi-transparent white window with black letters stayed within his line of sight even as he moved and he laughed again. This confirmed that he wasn’t hallucinating and that he had finally gotten access to the System.

Michael had turned fifteen years old a few months ago and while he had been waiting for this day ever since he realized he wanted more out of life than what he currently had, the wait during the past few months had been specially excruciating. And he knew that he wasn’t the only one. Every fifteen-year-old waited with baited breath for the Day of Gaia’s Gift, which was essentially the day their future would be essentially decided by the World itself.

Now, while most just waited for it with either eagerness or trepidation, Michael had waited for this day with those two emotions plus so many more that he could barely put a name to them. Why? Because he was an orphan. The only reason he even had a name was because the matron at the orphanage he was raised until he was ten had found a piece of paper indicating that ‘Michael Kane’ was his name.

While that raised a lot of questions on itself, Michael had more worries during his day-to-day life than to spend it bothering why his biological parents had apparently bothered to name him only to abandon him later.

As an orphan ‘living in’ Orus, the capital and most prominent city of the continent and kingdom of Aria, Michael was considered to be at the lowest level that any citizen could be. And technically, he didn’t even live within Orus since his house, a small wooden hut he built on his own a few years ago, was located within the forest near the farmlands that were outside of the city walls.

An orphan could only stay at the orphanage until he/she was ten years of age or had the luck to be adopted by someone. While they lived at the orphanage, they were taught the basic skills one needed in order to look after oneself. When they became ten years old, they were ‘gently’ kicked out while good fortune in the future was wished upon them. When he was ten, Michael had been kicked out of the orphanage. He knew that the reason why he had not been adopted was because most people, specially nobles, were not fond of his facial features.

Michael wasn’t deformed. He wasn’t even ugly. As a matter of fact, his facial features were perfectly symmetrical and because of his rough life, they were quite rugged and mature despite only being fifteen years old. No. Michael was quite handsome and pleasant to look at if you ignored the rags he wore and his status as an orphan.

The problem were his hair and eyes. While his hair, a slightly spiky affair that reached the nape of his neck, bangs that framed his angular face and reached his shoulders with a fringe that fell between his eyes, could be somewhat overlooked since it wasn’t a big deal until you learned that the greyish white tresses were his natural color. And his golden orange-yellow eyes, which were commonly associated with Infernals, a race of bloodthirsty humanoid monsters, didn’t help matters at all.

Needless to say, Michael wasn’t surprised he wasn’t adopted. The fact that he was even raised at the orphanage until he was ten was surprising.

After he had been kicked out, Michael had tried to find some kind of job within the city. It wasn’t uncommon for people to hire children as their assistants, helpers or just as cleaning aid. As long as he didn’t become a criminal, Michael had been fine with anything that he could find as long as he could put food inside of him on a regular basis.

However, much as the same as when people refused to adopt him because of his appearance, no one within the city had been willing to give him a job because of it. While most had just told him that they had not been hiring at that time, Michael had known that the likely reason was because he being in their employment would have been bad for business, as some of them had not been afraid to tell him.

Luckily for him, after almost a week, he had managed to find a job outside of the city working for one of the many farmers that worked the lands there. The farmer, an old man named Chuck who apparently used to be a captain of the city guard in his youth, didn’t seem to care about his appearance at all. In his own words, he had only cared about how useful he could be.

And Michael had done his best not to disappoint. Chuck had taught him a lot, from actual farming so he could help him with his work to how to fight using a sword and a shield so he could defend ‘their lands’ from the animals and weak monsters of the surface, such as wolves and goblins. Chuck had even taught him how to hunt and while he preferred using a sword, Michael turned out to be an excellent shot with a bow and arrow.

Another thing that had turned out better than he expected was that even though Chuck paid him a fair amount of coins each week for his work, he got to save most of it since he had been allowed to eat with some of the vegetables he helped grow and the meat of the animals he hunted. He had only needed to spent money on relatively durable clothes he had to use to work to replace his previous sets when he outgrew them.

However, despite all of this, Michael had not been able to avoid feeling dissatisfied with his life.

The time he had spent looking for a job within Orus had been enough for him to see the kind of life he really wanted. He wanted a life full of excitement filled with luxury and pleasure. He wanted for people to admire him and look up to him despite his looks. He wanted to have the power to only depend on himself to get the things he wanted.

In other words, Michael wanted to join the Adventurer’s Guild and become an adventurer.

And adventurer was someone that had the guts to not only had the guts to go on missions/quests all over the kingdom but also to head down onto the Dungeon, a descending structure divided in floors on top of which Orus was built, for profit and to increase their strength.

Adventurer’s were amongst the most respected people within Orus and, aside from nobles and the Orus Royal Family, the ones that managed the most money. Considering the kind of risks they took on their day-to-day life, it was only common sense that their profits equaled those risks.

That was why Michael had been waiting for this day with all the emotions that translated to anticipation and trepidation. He wanted to become an adventurer and doing so would depend on the classes he received today.

There was a chance that, since he had been doing it for five years now, that he would be assigned the Farmer Class. However, in order to counteract that possibility as much as he could, Michael practiced his swordsmanship and marksmanship every day for a few hours before and after work. Not only that, but he had used some of his saved money to buy books on magic that he would also read on his spare time.

While the final decision on the Class(es) he got was entirely up to Gaia and the World, it was known that you could influence the end result up to a certain point. By doing the above mentioned, Michael had hoped to get either the Warrior, Ranger or, if he was lucky, the Mage Class. One of them would be enough to allow him the chance to become an adventurer and start on his path to living the life he desired for himself.

“Alright. Enough stalling. Let’s get this over with,” said Michael to himself as he took a deep breath and psyched himself up. There was only anticipation within him now, though the trepidation was still there, since he knew that there was still a definite possibility he would be assigned the Farmer Class. He shook his head and sighed before speaking with a clear voice. “Status!”

A semi-transparent white window that was bigger than the first two that had appeared when he woke up appeared in front of him. It displayed to him his General Information, his Attributes, his Classes and the initial Skills he was granted by the Classes he got. Almost greedily, he began to read.

General Information

[Name: Michael Kane]

[Age: 15]

[Race: Human]

[Rank: F]

[Level: 4]

Attributes

[Strength: 8 (F)]

[Endurance: 8 (F)]

[Vitality: 8 (F)]

[Agility: 8 (F)]

[Intelligence: 12 (F)]

[Wisdom: 12 (F)]

[Magic: 12 (F)]

[Charisma: 8 (F)]

Classes

Origin Essence: 0

[Blader (+4 STR, +4 END, +4 VIT, +4 AGI) (LVL 1/25) (0/100)]

[Elementalist (+4 INT, +4 WIS, +4 MAG) (LVL 1/25) (0/100)]

[Manablessed (+4 INT, +4 WIS, +4 MAG, +4 CHA) (LVL 1/25) (0/100)]

[Harbinger (+4 STR, +4 END, +4 VIT, +4 AGI, +4 INT, +4 WIS, +4MAG, +4 CHA) [LVL 1/25] (0/100)]

Skills

[Blader]

[Blade Mastery. Passive. (LVL 1/25). Increases proficiency using bladed weapons. Increases damage done by bladed weapons by 10%.]

[Elementalist]

[Fire Manipulation. Passive/Active. (LVL 1/25)]

[Wind Manipulation. Passive/Active (LVL 1/25)]

[Water Manipulation. Passive/Active. (LVL 1/25)]

[Earth Manipulation. Passive/Active. (LVL 1/25)]

[Lighting Manipulation. Passive/Active. (LVL 1/25)]

[Manablessed]

[Mana Manipulation. Passive/Active. (LVL 1/25). Allows you to freely manipulate the magical energies within you.]

[Harbinger]

[Time Alter. Active. (LVL 1/25). Allows you to perceive everything around you two times slower. Limit: 5 Seconds.]

[Teleport. Active/Passive. (LVL 1/25). Allows you to change your position in space within a range of ten feet.]

Michael just stared…

… stared some more…

… and then blinked once… twice… roughly rubbed his eyes to make sure he just wasn’t seeing things… before blinking twice again as he started to make a pretty good imitation of a fish out of water.

After a few moments, he finally reacted in the most eloquent and fitting manner possible.

“What the fuck?!”

Needless to say, he was not expecting that.

-XXX-

As he exited his hut with a wooden kite shield strapped to his back and a steel longsword strapped to his waist, Michael couldn’t help but be thankful of the fact that he didn’t need to go to work today. Knowing its importance, Chuck had given him the day off and Michael was going to make the most out of it experimenting with his new abilities.

After seeing his [Attributes], [Classes] and [Skills], he felt that he couldn’t do anything less.

While making his way towards the clearing he had been using for the past year as a ‘training ground’, Michael brought up his [Status] and called forth the description of his classes.

[Blader. You are the bone of your blade. Tempered steel is your body, soul and will.]

[Elementalist. Child of Nature. Its forces are yours to command as you see fit.]

[Manablessed. Born of Magic. The energy of the World rejoices within you.]

[Harbinger. The One Above. The Primordial Powers respond to your will.]

“Not one. Not two. Not even damned three, which has been known to happen from time to time. Four! Fucking Four!” Exclaimed Michael as he read the information in front of him repeatedly as he walked and evaded trees, bushes and other obstacles almost subconsciously.

Normally, one received just one [Class]. If you were exceptional and talented, you received two. Some prodigies were known to have received even three. But four? That was just unheard of. Not only that, but none of those [Classes] were even among the ones recorded. He had never heard of or read about [Blader], [Elementalist], [Manablessed] and/or [Harbinger]. He doubted anyone had.

Heck, even the increase to his [Attributes] he would get with each increase to the level of each [Class] was twice as much as what one normally gets. For example, he knew that [Warrior] increased Strength [STR], Endurance [END] and Vitality [VIT] by two and increased Agility [AGI] by one. In comparison, [Blader] increased those four [Attributes] by four. And he got even more increases thanks to his other three classes. It was unreal.

Still, Michael could kind of see why the first two classes were given to him.

Chuck had told Michael that while he wasn’t a prodigy using a sword, he had enough talent for it and thanks to him practicing a few hours every day with it, he had become good enough that Chuck claimed that he could reach a prominent rank within the city guard in spite of any [Class] he got. Coming from a previous captain of the city guard, that had not been low praise and had meant something.

Going by the description of [Blader], Michael also inferred that it had something to do with more than just his abilities with a sword. For once, it spoke about blades, not swords specifically. And beyond that, the description said that his soul and will were ‘tempered steel’. While the part of his body being that as well could refer to his abilities with a sword, Michael was still about unsure what it meant for his soul and will.

As for [Elementalist]… well, after using the books he had bought in the past to get a basic understanding on how magic worked, Michael had gotten an interest in Elemental Magic and had made sure to learn the theory behind the usage of the five main elements. However, the description of [Elementalist] called him ‘Child of Nature’ and said that its forces were his to command. Until he experimented with his skills, he wouldn’t be able to start correctly deducing what it meant.

While he could chalk up [Manablessed] to his interest in magic, the fact that he was ‘Born of Magic’ threw him for a loop. He knew that ‘Mana’ was the magical energy that was present within all living beings that allowed them to use magic without the need to channel the energy of the World itself to do so, meaning that he likely had an affinity towards magic that was beyond most people. Other than that, he couldn’t come up with something that made sense. He would need to learn more about magic in order to learn more about it and what it meant.

And finally… [Harbinger]. The One Above? Primordial Powers? Going by the initial skills he got from it, the primordial forces likely referred to Time and Space. While some of the books he’d read spoke a bit about those concepts, he had never even gotten a hint that something like Time Magic and Space Magic existed. Not only that, but [Harbinger] even gave him increase to the [Attributes] that didn’t have anything to do with magic. He couldn’t even start guessing what it meant for him to have [Harbinger] as one of his [Classes].

Michael eventually reached his destination and he only took a moment to observe the ‘damage’ he had done to it that was proof of the many times he had come this clearing to train in the past before shaking his head. He couldn’t waste any time.

“Let’s start with [Blader]…” he muttered as he reached for the shield on his back and unsheathed the longsword. The moment he did so and slipped into the initial stance of his forms, Michael noticed that something was wrong. He looked down at the shield with a frown. “Why does it feel uncomfortable now. It never did before…” he trailed off as he began to think.

He perked up after a moment after he realized that [Blader] and [Blade Mastery] gave him proficiency using only bladed weapons, which a shield most definitely wasn’t. He had never heard of a [Class] or a [Skill] making it so someone was uncomfortable of using an equipment they already knew how to use, but considering that he had never even heard of any of his [Classes], he supposed that the possibility wasn’t too farfetched.

Michael dropped his shield on the ground and immediately felt a marked difference. Unconsciously, a grin appeared on his face as he began to seamlessly go through forms using his longsword one-handed. As the blade cut through the air and he moved through the clearing with an ease and grace that he had never possessed, Michael became aware of the effects of his [Blade Mastery] skill.

The fact that it was currently only [LVL 1/25] made him mentally salivate at how good he will be when he maxed it out. Not only that, but he was now sure that his [Class] and [Skill] applied to all kinds of bladed weapons. The possibilities…

Michael continued using the longsword and testing his newfound abilities with it until he worked up a light sweat. He knew that unless he was sparring against another person or fighting against monsters, his skill wouldn’t actually rise in LVL.

Michael sheathed back the sword and took a deep breath to calm down. “Okay. That’s one done. [Elementalist] is next…” he muttered to himself as he closed his eyes, held up his hands in front of him and began to focus on the first of the five skills he was given by that [Class]: Fire Manipulation.

The moment he did so, Michael became aware of the magical power within him. While he knew the basics of magic and its concepts, he had never been able of channeling mana before. Unlike other classes that had a more physical focus, one could only use mana if one was lucky enough to get a magical [Class]. That was why mages of any type were so revered and were guaranteed a noble status the moment they became one.

Anyways, Michael felt his mana being directed from its core, which was located right in the middle of his abdomen, towards his hands. After a moment, he felt warmth against his face and he could see an orange-red light through his eyelids. Michael opened his eyes and his grin came back when he saw that they were engulfed in cackling red, orange and yellow flames. He could feel their heat, both on his face, hands and arms, but he wasn’t being burned by it. That was because since he was producing it with his own magical energy, he couldn’t be hurt by it.

[Fire Manipulation Subskill ‘Flames’ acquired.]

[Fire Manipulation has reached LVL 2.]

Michael blinked at the two sudden and unexpected notifications before shrugging his shoulders. “Eh, what the hell? Flames!” He declared for aiming his palms forward and away from him. His eyes shone with glee as a constant stream of flames shot forward until about fifteen feet away from him, where they simply stopped. Michael stopped the flow of mana after a few seconds before using it again with only one hand. The range and size of the flames were somewhat reduced but the heat was still the same.

Barely resisting the urge to start laughing like a madman, Michael proceeded to use his other elemental manipulation skills.

[Wind Manipulation Subskill ‘Gale’ acquired.]

[Wind Manipulation has reached LVL2.]

[Water Manipulation Subskill ‘Stream’ acquired.]

[Water Manipulation has reached LVL2]

[Earth Manipulation Subskill ‘Spike’ acquired.]

[Earth Manipulation has reached LVL 2]

[Lightning Manipulation Subskill ‘Sparks’ acquired.]

[Lightning Manipulation has reached LVL 2]

“This is so fucking awesome…” muttered Michael as he stared at his hands that were cackling with yellow electricity.

The [Wind Manipulation] subskill [Gale] allowed him to generate a gust of wind strong enough to rip off some of the leaves of a nearby tree. The [Water Manipulation] subskill [Stream] allowed him to shoot a pressurized stream of water from his palm that had enough force to dig into the bark of that same tree. The [Earth Manipulation] subskill [Spike] allowed him to rise a deadly looking earth spike from the ground. And finally, the [Lightning Manipulation] subskill [Sparks] allowed him to shoot bursts of lightning at about the same distance as [Flames].

“[Blader] and [Elementalist] are enough by themselves to give me the potential to become one of the strongest adventurers ever,” he said to himself with giddiness as he cut off the mana flow and the electricity surrounding his hands frizzled out. “I still have yet to test [Manablessed] and [Harbinger]…” he trailed off as he finally couldn’t resist the urge that had been building since he began testing out his abilities.

Almost like a madman, Michael began to laugh happily.

It was understandable, considering that he had been given more than what he had ever hoped for. While he was curious as to why Gaia and the World deemed him worthy of such potential, he still was going to make the most out of it.

He would become the strongest adventurer in history.

He would become the wealthiest adventurer in history.

He would become the most famous adventurer history.

Women would flock to him and he would make them his.

Or his name wasn’t Michael Kane.