(Different POV)

“Ouch” I say rubbing my head were a welt begins to form. I look up to see what I hit squinting into the darkness above me. Reaching up I feel something cold and hard, pushing on it causes it to lift slightly but only slightly. Noting its lack of movement I scan the rest of my surroundings as my eyes adjust to the low light coming from outside my small alcove . There are rocks randomly scattered about on a smooth stone floor that leads out past the end of my sight. On the sides of the stone passageway are pillars with glowing blue lines interweaved across their surfaces illuminating the intricate designs they form. The lines occasionally pulse with other bright colors in a rhythm reminiscent of a heart beat. I try to stand to get closer to them and smack my head against the stone above me again.

“Damn it, that hurts.” I mutter, gritting my teeth as I hold back a shout. I just had to hit my new bump against a rock, again. Coming back to my senses I crawl forward out from under the rock I hit my head on, careful to avoid looking at the pillars again. Finally outside under the light I stand and turn slowly to get a better idea of where I am and maybe clues as to how I got here. Same as the pillars, the walls are also decorated in strange designs, luckily these don’t seem to have as much influence on me but it's fairly clear that I’ve never been here before, or anyone really. It’s too pristine, too pure, but mainly its damn dusty in here. As I finish turning completely around I spot a figure just within the shadows with a stature that looms over me. The sight causes my body to tighten as I jump back quickly and draw a skinning knife from my boot. To put it bluntly if I had needed to pee it wouldn’t have mattered anymore.

“Who are you?!” I shout, holding the knife tightly in front of me while shifting my weight to the balls of my feet. The figure stays eerily still and silent, continuing to simply stand in front of me. The silence continues as I slowly shift towards one of the pillars to my side while keeping my eyes on the figure. Not seeing any reactions I quickly circulate my mana and launch myself towards the pillar being careful to only look at the ground as I dive behind it for cover. I pull my limbs out of what I imagine is line of sight, mentally I prepare myself for a hard fight and wait for the sound of weapons or magic being fired.

Nothing. No sound other than my labored breathing can be heard. Slowly peeking around the pillar I see that the figure has still not moved. Taking calming breaths I walk out from my cover and slowly step forward, my heart pounding in my chest. After getting only a few feet away I release the tension from my body and put my dagger away. In front of me is the statue I mistook for an attacker. The statue is formed from hundreds or maybe thousands of small stone cubes, it is hard to tell if they are stacked together or carved to look that way. Without any real features it's impossible to tell the race other than the statue appearing somewhat human, gender is difficult for the same reason. As I am examining its features pale light creeps up over top of it. Looking further up I see a hole in the ceiling in which a full moon shines through. I widen my eyes at the sight of the moon as I remember how I got here.

I had died.

(8 hours earlier)

“Almha! Help your father!” My mother shouts out to me from the back door of our house. I swing my sword down one final time before placing it within it’s leather sheath.

“Alright!” I shout back to her. I wait until she turns around before sticking my tongue out and pushing my nose up. Before I can really begin my taunting I am hit in the face by a wet rag that knocks me back onto my ass. Pulling it off my face I see my mother smirk before she again walks back into the house. I frown a bit but still wipe off my sweat before moving towards the smithy attached to the side of our house. Waking through the opening in the back I scoop some water out of the bucket next to the closest wall with my hands and cup it to my lips.

“Would’n drink that if I was you.” My father says in a rough voice as he waves his large hand and pulls the water from the bucket onto and around a cherry red sword held between his tongs. I immediately drop the water in my hands and spit what got into my mouth in the dirt outside, only now do I notice the acrid aftertaste stuck on my tongue. My Dad just chuckles as he watches the metal cool down. “Though I’m mighty curious what it tastes like, is there a real down to earth taste to it?” He asked as he laughs harder at me.

I glared at him before smiling sweetly prominently displaying my dimples, “I wonder what Mom would do if she knew you were using your mana for pranks? It probably makes you take more breaks right? Oh no, would that mean less swords and less… money?” I asked before laughing as I see his face turn paler and paler even with the steam covering him. It’s made funnier when considering the size difference between my parents, it's like a big bear being afraid of a deer. As he quickly rushes over to the bucket to quench the new sword I maneuver my way around the forge and other tools to get to the doorway of the attached shop. Before walking into the shop I take my sword off my waist and grab an apron from one of the pegs hammered into the stone wall. Walking into the shop I see a pair of customers admiring one of our decorative swords, the shiny toys is what I like to call them. Though the customers do fit the profile for people who would buy it. They have bright colored silk clothing, perfectly clear skin, and the biggest give away is the arrogant and predator like look in the two men’s eyes when they see me walk in.

“Sales girl I want to buy this sword.” One of the men says pointing to the shiny toy they were looking at a moment before. He has blond straight hair that reaches his shoulders and light blue eyes, something most “commoners” don’t possess.

“100 gold,” I reply curtly as I continue behind the counter, placing my sword underneath.

“Done. I want it wrapped as well.” He says, before pulling a platinum coin from thin air and casually tossing it at me. Seeing the way the coin appeared my eyes open wide even as I catch the coin in my hands. Looking closer at his hands I can see a green ring pulsing with blue lines, a spatial ring. Those are incredibly rare and incredibly expensive, most certainly not something that should appear in this town. I sweat a little at the realization of what this means.

“Sir, this is too much even for a wrapping. We do not have enough on hand to make change for you.” I reply as politely as my mothers lessons have afforded me.

“Keep it, consider it me sowing good karma.” He says with a charming smile, pulling the sword from the wall and placing it onto the counter. I go silent at his words and looking at him closer gives him a more gentlemanly feel as I notice my cheeks slowly get hotter with him being so close. I keep my head down to hide my embarrassment and quickly sheath the sword and wrap it in cloth. Before I can hand it over a shout comes from outside.

“Yo Almha what did you do to Bruce! Hahaha! The guy won’t talk about your date together but everytime someone brings up your name the man clamps his legs shut!” a black haired youth with a sloppy grin on his face says as he walks into the shop. After stepping in he sees the men at the counter and frowns slightly before a smirk flits across his face and he appears to ignore them to keep talking.

“What does that make now? It’s gotta be at least 12 right? Seriously I have to know, what have you been doing to these poor guys that all of them have the same reactions?” He asks as he walks over and leans on the counter. The two customers are now alternating looks between me and Julian, as that’s his name, before the blue eyed one grabs the sword and quickly walks away. Seeing them leave I turn to Julian with a deep frown as I try to burn him with only my eyes.

“What the hell! That was clearly a noble! One that gave me a platinum for karma!” I shout at him. I would swing my sword at him too if I didn’t already know it would be useless. Julian is a prodigy with the sword and regardless of how he looks he is a hard worker on top of it all which makes him a nearly perfect candidate for the Academy. That is if he wasn’t so damn annoying.

“You are worth more than a platinum,” he mumbled low enough that I couldn’t hear it, frowning slightly.

“What did you say?” I ask.

“Nothing, forget about it. I have something more important to tell you.” He said, his trademark smile back again.

He leans over and whispers,“I found some information on a shrine in the forest from a book in the library.”

“Why are you whispering then? There is a shrine in practically every town for the gods.” I say, sighing at the lost potential customer as I put the cloth back underneath the counter.

“What if it were a shrine for The System?” He smirks, “would that catch your interest?”

I lean in closer to him until my nose is touching his and stare him down as I ask, “Where?”

(6 hours later)

“Damn it all! Where the fuck is it!?” I shout out loud as I finally lose out to my frustration. My clothes are ripped all over, I’m muddy, and I can’t see farther than a few meters in front of me even with the moonlight. All of this because the shrine only appears at night and only on full moons.

“Why the hell is it this hard to pray to you, you damn System?” I growl as I continue on through the woods slashing furiously at the undergrowth that bars my pass. I already know the answer to my question as it's common knowledge, the god wants people to earn their prayers. The System is the god of knowledge and skills, things which are notoriously hard to aquire easily. That’s why the shrine of The System is so rare and so valuable, because if a person can reach it and pray successfully, then The System will bestow that person with a gift of either knowledge or skills. Master level knowledge or skills, something all races desire for the fame, and sometimes even power, that the gift can bring. The catch is that after one person prays at a shrine it will disappear from that place. No one knows if it appears somewhere else or if there are only a limited number of shrines, because of that people are willing to kill for the location of one.

“I’m really going to owe Julian if I find this shrine.” I mutter as I slash through another bush and walk out into a clearing. I suck in a breath of cold air and freeze in place when I see white tulip shaped flowers glowing a pale blue color spread out around the clearing. Normally I wouldn’t know the names of any plants but these are special to me. Moon Lilies, they are one of the best ways I can boost my water affinity quickly to the next stage. Unfortunately they are also at the level in which a beast will guard them.

Looking up from the flowers I see it, the massive black wolf in the center of the clearing much larger than any creature I have ever seen. It’s blood red eyes stare into mine as the darkness concentrates around it, the sight freezing my body in fear as it slowly stands up to its full height. My body is already drenched in a cold sweat and my legs quivering as they try their hardest to at least keep me standing. I try to look away, I try to run but my body won’t listen, I can only watch as the wolf slowly walks towards me, each step leaving an imprint in the ground from its weight. As it draws closer it seems to frown before it jumps, I can taste tears on my lips as I shout in my mind ‘Move damn it! I want to live!’ By pure force of will I fall to the side a black blur passing through where my head once was, I feel the ground shake as it lands behind me. I don’t look back and instead scramble to my feet circulating as much of my mana through my legs as I can and run.

Forward is the only thing on my mind as I dodge between the trees and plow through bushes their branches whipping across my face and body. I don’t know how long I have been running but I can still hear the wolf behind me and the sounds of it crashing through the forest to chase me. I take a quick look back to see the wolf’s red eyes in the darkness, the rest of its body blended into the shadows of the night. Turning around was a mistake as it only fueled my fear, I’m running low on mana and my breath is growing heavy,I know I won’t be able to run away. Hiding won’t help me either which leaves only one chance, to fight it.

As I stop in my tracks I already know how pointless it is to fight. The beast is clearly more powerful than I am, my only advantage was wastefully powering my legs for speed and it had kept up with me easily, most likely I have been only seen as a toy so far. During the run I already came to terms with my death, I can’t escape and no one knows I’m even here so no one will save me. The thought brings me no joy but it does bring clarity from my fear, I pull my sword from its sheath and prepare to fight for my life.

The wolf stops in front of me, eyeing me like the nobles did earlier today, like a predator. I don’t move and instead stand my ground. Then something strange happens as I see the wolf bare its fangs into what looks like a smile before it again runs towards me. I shout at the top of my lungs and charge forward as well and swing my sword down, the same way I have practiced for years, directly onto its snout. I watch in despair as my sword breaks against its fur as if made of glass before the wolf opens its mouth. All I see within is darkness.

(Present)

“I’m dead”, I say as the memory of the fight returns. However, before I can grieve over my lost life a blue panel appears in front of me.

No child you are not dead. You are chosen. Blessed by The System to be the mother of a legend.