In a dark gloomy world, one covered by a faint black fog, monsters of different ranging sizes ruled the land.

Vastly different from the peaceful earth, where animals were just that. In the 2nd realm, animals evolved as well. Not one beast did not have vastly improved intelligence. Of course, they were not like humans, animals lived by instinct so their first evolution was very minimal but because they have animal bodies, which are vastly stronger than humans, their mind is mainly developed and they gain humanity's reasoning ability and developed brain.

Beasts in this realm are usually between one or two times bigger than their weaker counterparts but there are weak ones as well. It can be considered a process of bloodline dilution which weakens a race, that said, compared to earth, there are countless things in this world which can purify the bloodline.

From mystical herbs to rare magical water, there are countless things which make this world much stronger and can push races to a greater stage. One example are lizard kind, those who are lucky have evolved backwards to the dinosaur stages, possessing massive bodies and immense strength while retaining human level intelligence.

As for humans, one thing should be known, earth is not the only world of the bottom tier realm. There are countless parallel worlds but a curious fact is that all of them had humans. Likewise, all of them once had similar sentient races before their extinction but unlike earth, whose gate was frozen under thick sheets of ice, other worlds were luckier and their gate remained exposed.

At this time, in a heavenly tall mountain which reached over 10,000 meters high alone within a dense forest, within the guts of the mountain, a hollowed space existed.

This space was simple and near the north wall of the mountain and within it was a massive black gate. It was tightly sealed and all around it were collapsed rocks held back by some unknown force.

At this time, it began to release a faint light.

BANG!

Suddenly, it erupted with light and this light smashed into the rocks. No different from what happened on earth, the rocks sealing it in were smashed apart. They were reduced into sand and the space expanded more and more. No ruins remained though, completely crushed by the fall of the rocks.

This went on for a long time until finally, a final wave slammed into the outer wall of the mountain but only five small openings were revealed. One left the mountain while four revealed hidden tunnels deeper into the mountain.

Roars came from these places and a stampeding could be heard from each one as their occupants felt that their imprisonment had ended and they rushed to escape.

At this time, the sand began to surge into the lock of the gate turning into yellow energy and forming a small faintly glowing orb while the demons of the gate were released to kill. It should be noted that earth’s gate was 30 meters tall but this one was easily double that size. At the same time, the gate demons were also double in both size and number and were like a pack of rabid dogs as they rushed out. They came in an unending number to have enough numbers to kill the four stampede.

A savage war raged between them and the victor was the gate demons, they absorbed every last bit of blood and essence of the killed beasts and returned to the gate to sacrifice the blood.

When the gate was filled, a small ghostly gatekey appeared. This was a copy sent by earth’s gatekeeper to the awakening counterpart. The small faintly yellow glowing orb surrounded it and infused its soul into the gatekey and began to unlock the gate.

The rumbling was even louder than earth’s gate and it caused loud shaking to spread out until it was unlocked and began to open without any help.

The gatekeeper appeared at the center of the platform and was hazy like the first gatekeeper but compared to her, this one was better off. The reason the upper realms were more powerful is because these realms possessed special energies in the air. The black fog which surged out from the gate on earth was actually energy which seeped down but it didn’t even account for a full 0.1% of the total energy within this world. It could barely even considered a leakage. After it seeped out the world naturally closed off that leak as well.

The gatekeeper absorbed the energy around it rapidly solidifying her body. She had tan skin and amber hair because she used sand as the basic energy for herself.

Looking at the infinite darkness of the gate, she saw a very tiny white dot flying out and it dipped and slowed down before stopping in front of her.

The light slowly faded and what was revealed was Asur, skinny and weak but fully evolved with pale grey skin and grey hair.

When he breathed in, the black fog around him, which was the manifestation of the energy of the world, was sucked into his lungs. To him, it felt like a burning sensation but after the first bit, his black tattoos on his arms and legs lit up. It turned into a red color and directly absorbed this fog. His body began to pop and crack as this energy flowed into his blood.

As explained, the races of the upper realm were stronger because of this energy, the reason he was skinny was because he lacked both nutrition and this energy. The tattoos had an energy gathering ability and it directly filled his blood which then began to fill his muscles, bones and even hair.

His shriveled body began to fill up slightly as strength returned to his body but the burning in his body was very painful, though not as much as the evolution. His muscles began to swell as they were empowered and his bones thickened while his skin gained a faint shine. After ten minutes his body cooled down but the tattoos remained a red color instead of black.

He got up and looked at his own body. He was very skinny but no longer a skin and bones skeleton. He was naked because his clothing was blown away and he saw his junior which had majestically ‘evolved’ along with the rest of his body.

One thing he noticed is that although his body had grown and even his height had increased from 172 to 182 cm tall, his body was filled with a vigor similar to when he was 10 or younger.

“You look well, keeper of the gatekey.” the new gatekeeper said.

He looked at her and found a perfectly distinct tan woman before him with no haze. In her hands were a ghost form of the gatekey.

He looked at his right hand and saw the tattoo of the gatekey. “How do I use it now?” he asked.

“Simply wish for it.” she said.

He thought for a moment and the gatekey appeared in his hands, it was no different from before but now it was surrounded by the hazy fog and was sucking it in. On the white and black sides the number was completely equal, 100 on each side perfectly balancing itself.

“Where is this?” he asked.

“You are in the 2nd realm or should i say, the 2nd layer.” she said.

“Is there a difference?” he asked.

“Somewhat. Earth has been sealed off for a long time but it is just a term that said there are differences. You see, earth and this layer are one world.” she said.

He frowned but did not speak. The gatekeeper continued, “It is confusing to understand but indeed, these two worlds and many more are all part of one world and are formed by layers. Each covers the other without them knowing the existence of those above while those above know the existence of those below. There is no name for the combined ‘world’ but that is where the ‘realms’ come into practice. You see, the gatekey is a special tool which measures the good and bad karma of a living being. Sentient beings are more affected by karma due to their conscious decisions. You, for instance, had nearly 4 billion points of good karma and just over 3.5 billion bad karma. When you evolve this is mixed and your race evolves depending on the proportion. The more good karma, the more you tilt towards a celestial being and the more bad karma the more you tilt towards a demon. You had an immense amount of both while having more good karma so you are someone who is in the middle regions between both.” she said.

“So what am I?” he asked.

“I cannot easily tell, keeper of the gatekey…”

“It’s Asur. My name is Asur Linstar.” he said cutting her off.

“… alright Asur, i am unable to tell what race you are because it has been too long and the races of this realm are vastly different from what I knew. Now, another difference between the realms is their affinity, the realm we are in is called the Neutral Realm. Here beings which aren’t too far to either side and but contain a vast amount of both types of karma evolve into this realm. This is the 1st layer of Neutral realm which is a 2nd layer world. It is but one of the many similar worlds. Although not perfectly like yours, you will find that there are similar evolved humans like yourself. That said, they are vastly more primitive to yourself.” the gatekeeper said.

“Did their world not develop?” he asked.

She shook her head, “Because the gates in their world remained opened, there are occasions when some people of the higher realms would seal their bloodlines and abilities to visit these worlds. Their cultures developed differently because of these interferences.” she said.

Her words shocked his heart, “Do you know about my parents?!” he asked.

“You mean the previous keepers of the gatekey? I know about them until they gave you the key. Gatekeepers are able to watch over only those who possess the gatekey. After they passed it on to you i knew not what happened to them when you separated from them.” she said.

“But do you know who it was who attacked? Did they speak secretly where they would go?!” He asked a bit desperate. It was one of the things he most wanted to know because he did not see his parents after that day where their family was separated.

The gatekeeper looked at him before pointing down. He looked down and saw his gatekey. Shockingly, his bad karma was fluctuating greatly.

“Bad karma is not just doing bad things but taking bad choices, knowing this at this time will only endanger your life. Your bad karma might even constantly rise because this knowledge will influence your choice making. Your theory of life follows your parents methods they taught you but this choice might have long lasting effects.” she said.

He frowned and sighed, “Fine, i will wait for now.” he said.

The bad karma returned to 100 and his good karma increased by 50 points.

The gatekeeper smiled, “Good, for the time being, you should leave. There is a village 20 kilometers to the north east.” she said pointing to the direction he needed to take. “You should reach it and regain your full healthy state there as well as set up a basic life. The village is simple but they give off a feeling like yourself, people of higher good karma.” she said.

“Alright, if you say so.” He said.

“Just some advice, the gatekey has a ghost form like my own which only you and other keepers can see. When you touch someone, it shall appear over your hand and it will reveal the karma of the person you are in contact with. This is a slight benefit you gain as a keeper. You can judge others if you wish.” she said

Asur’s eyes shined before nodding. “I understand, thank you.” He said and looked around and saw many bones before frowning but didn’t say anything else as he walked to the cave entrance and looking around carefully. He was amazed by his own senses which had become incredibly sharper before he headed out towards the village.

To someone from earth, 20 kilometers doesn’t seem so far, to a marathonist, it would take a little over 2 hours on paved road. The problem was that this region of the world was dense forest and rough ground. What is more, it also has many wild and savage animals.

The first 5 kilometers was what took 2 hours for Asur to walk. Along the way, he experimented with his current physical condition and was greatly amazed. He was a very fit person on earth, if he wasn’t, he would have died when his life seed was evolving. Using the many skills he developed to test his strength, he was amazed when he found that he was easily 10 to 20 times stronger than what he had been as the basic minimal benchmark.

He was still in a weakened state which was close to that of a starving man. Using his improved agility and flexibility, he was able to climb trees to find food. Sadly the fruits he found he was unsure if they were safe and could only sigh that the fruits were not the same as earth. The ecosystem was completely different from earth be it, trees or animals.

Speaking of animals, he encountered bugs and birds in large numbers. They were all common creatures like what earth had, these could be considered the diluted specimens after many generations of breeding. It was only when he had reached 7 kilometers that his sense of danger made his hair stand up and he quickly hid himself.

As soon as he did, a large four legged lizard stalked out from the bushes. It looked like a komodo dragon but instead of being only around 2.5 meters long, this one easily reached 7 meters in length and a meter in height.

It lifted its head and looked around before stalking off.

Asur had thought that the warning that the gatekeeper had given about the much larger animals was just over exaggeration but now he discovered that he was naive. This wake up call put his senses on high alert and he was suddenly shocked when he found his hair stood up with his high tension state of mind and improved his ability to sense the wind. What is more, his hearing sharpened and he could hear the lizard’s movements from a longer distance while his vision seemed to gain a sort of zoom.

It was all so strange that he had to shake his head and suddenly all these ‘abilities’ deactivated. When he saw this happen he began to focus on one sense at a time. To be able to control this kind of ability was incredibly important.

The easiest was his hearing, when he focused on his ears, he noticed a drastic decrease of background sounds and he could even focus on specific sounds. It was almost like a radio where there might be static in the middle but as he moved his head left and right he could pick up different kinds of sounds. That said, when he stopped, he felt tired and he broke out in sweat.

“Seems these abilities aren’t for free.” he thought and suddenly saw his tattoos and figured it had to do with them.

Just faintly improving his hearing to pick up sounds better, he moved along. He walked much slower and after 3 hours, he had reached the 10 kilometer mark and found a small stream of water and quickly stopped to drink after confirming he was safe.

Just as he finished revitalizing himself with the water, he heard a snap and his tension skyrocketed as his hairs stood on end. He suddenly jumped forward from his squatting position.

CRASH! ROAR!

From his left, a giant spotted leopard jumped out. It was as big as a tiger but as fast as a cheetah. It left Asur pale as he saw the beast rush at him after he dodged. It jumped at him and after he rolled he jumped up and grabbed a tree trunk. Because of his new strength being many times greater than a humans limit, he actually sank his fingers into the bark and rapidly clawed his way up the tree.

ROAR!

The tiger sized leopard jumped up and clawed at the tree but with size comes weight and unlike a normal leopard, who is lightweight and muscular, this one is heavyweight and very muscular. It was very different from the skinny evolved human like Asur. He was like a chimp and quickly climbed the tree.

He looked back at the savage beasts with his heart beating heavily. “How does humanity even survive here?” he asked himself but breathed heavily and calm himself. If he was lucky, there will be some people from even remotely technological world around. If not, he will have to figure things out himself.

Seeing that the ground was too dangerous, he climbed up the branches and began to jump from one to the next. His dexterity was enough to impress even acrobatics but the beast kept after him. One should know that it is probably more taxing to jump from tree to tree instead of running. For animals who grew up in the trees it might not be but for those not used to it, it is very exhausting.

After 2 kilometers he had to stop. The leopard circled the ground and looked up at him while roaring sometimes.

“Although these might have the intelligence of a human, for some reason this leopard seems pretty stupid to me.” he thought.

Woosh! Puff!

Suddenly a thick heavy spear comes from the bushes and suddenly slams into the back of the leopards head crossing straight through and nailing it to the tree.

The impact was so hard that the tree shook hard making Asur grab the trunk for dear life.

When he looked down, his pupils shrunk and swallowed his saliva as he saw the feat. After evolving, Asur was very clear that anything in this world was many times stronger. Just as he was watching, a few hunters walked out. They had very pale skin and wore leather armor. On at least one of their arms or legs was a faint red tattoo.

A small hunting party walked out and the leader walked over before stomping on the Leopard and twisting the spear before ripping it out. The man looked up at the naked and skinny young man.

“!^#$*@” the words that came out were completely unknown.

When Asur heard the first words he knew things wouldn’t be easy. He sighed and examined the people, they looked similar to himself, including the tattoo despite being less distinct and the hair color was black as opposed to grey. Their pale skin showed a very faint tint towards a darker pale.

If he was lucky, they were the same race as him. If they were not, then it will be harder to adapt to the world.

An angry shout came from the leader who was saying something unknown but his gestures indicated for Asur to descend. Since they saved him and didn't outright attack him he was careful as he descend. Sadly he was not even at the peak of his strength since he was hungry and before he reacted he was hit on the side of the head and blacked out.

***

At the destination Asur was heading for, there was a small outpost but at the very back was a cave opening which was the way to the real village. The hunting party returned with one of them carrying the naked young man after just putting a simply rag over his loins.

The tiger sized Leopard was also dragged back to a point where some collectors were ready to bring it back on a cart.

“Open the gate! We have returned!” the lead hunter shouted coldly.

“Open the gate!” the guard over the watchtower shouted.

The gates trembled and groaned and slowly opened letting the hunters inside.

“War Chief, did you encounter the source of those earthquakes?” one of the hunters walked up and asked.

“No but we have found this man naked. He came running from a Spotted Scavapard. He was smart enough to run into the trees.” the war chief said.

“What do we do with him?” the man asked.

“Take him to the chief and seer, let them decide.” he said and handed over Asur to them. The man nodded and took Asur into the cave passage. There were lamps on the walls. That said, these were not oil lamps, they looked like them but the light was like a small orb of light floating just like a tiny sun.

The caverns were well lit and not overly complex but one can get confused if they were not careful or used to the village. At the center was a very large cavernous space which was the center of the village. The number of people were startling being close to 1,000 in the tribe.

The man took Asur through the center and into a passage which head down unlike the many others and after a bit it widened once more but there were guards.

“Halt, what do you need with the chief?!” one of them asked in their tongue.

“The war chief encountered this unknown man and wants the Chief and Seer to decide his fate.” the man said lowering his head. These two were incredibly powerful warriors which is why they protect the chief and seer.

They looked at each other one of them gestured to go check if they will see him but just as he was going to turn a shocking thing happened.

“Let him in.” a faint voice sounded through the wind into the ears of the tree. Their eyes turned wide almost to the point that one would think their eyes would pop out.

The seer is the highest authority, even above the chief but there is one special thing about her. She rarely talks, this is not because she looks down on others but it has to do with her own unique abilities.

The god which the village honors blessed her but these blessings are also like a curse. Her ears can hear far and wide, rarely hearing the voice of their god, her eyes are special and can see the unseen and her voice was blessed with the power of their god and can reach the god in the higher layers.

Because of these three blessings, her eyes are almost always closed and she rarely speaks because both these blessings would overwhelm her body when used for too long. Only during special rituals where she draws upon the world’s energy can she sustain them for a much longer time.

The three men’s heart beat violently as they looked at the unconscious man and wondered what was going on for the Seer to see him.

The man walked in but he did not raise his head, the chief had heard the voice and came out quickly but silently followed to the Seer’s home.

The seer was a middle aged woman, her hair was silver and glowing, if her eyes were opened one would see silver iris and no pupils. Her skin was a pale grey which was more apparent compared to the other villagers and she had pronounced red tattoo on her left and right arm. One could say that her bloodline was the strongest that even the chief, the strongest person who had a very pronounced tattoo on his left leg, could not match.

“Place him down and leave.” the seer said shocking the man but he more carefully placed Asur down and quickly left leaving the chief and Seer alone.

Or it should have been, from behind, quick steps came, “Father! I heard the Seer looked to see some outsider!” the young man’s voice sounded from the door of the chief’s home. When no reply came he ran to the Seer’s home without a care.

When he walked in, the young man came into view of the Seer and chief.

The chief was scowling, “Why did you come in here without permission!?” the chief said.

“Why should i ask permission to come see my own mother!?” he said coldly.

Indeed, the Seer and Chief were husband and wife.

“Mother, why do you want to see this man?” the young man asked.

The shut eyes of the seer slowly opened and the silver pupils shined shocking the two. Her eyes opened and fell upon Asur, she looked over his body slowly and carefully. “This man is one of our kind. He has just risen from the lower realm.” She said.

“What!?” the two exclaimed at the incredibly faint and quiet voice which reverberated only within the room because of the seer’s control of her voice.

“How can he rise and appear here?” The chief asked.

She closed her eyes and shook her head.

“Mother, can’t you see what is going on?” the young man asked.

She shook her head once more. “This man holds immense power and destiny, his evolution is the same as our tribe, he is one of the Deva. That said, he is even more powerful than myself. Against the Raksha demon tribe and the Yaksha tribe, with his help, we shall eventually succeed this land.” she said.

Sweat began to form on her head.

“Do not speak more.” The chief said.

“Wait father, what does mother mean by, he is more powerful than her? She is a seer and borrows power of the gods?!” he asked.

“You know that we are exiles of the Deva Tribe very far from here. This tribe was one close to a Gate of Evolution. Me and your mother were two who arose from the lower realm which is why we are much stronger than the common Deva but because of her power, we were isolated until we left. It is no different for this man, he arose and has an even greater power. He is simply in a weakened state.” The chief said.

“Does that mean he is going to take control of the tribe!?” the boy exclaimed in rage. He was a very arrogant and proud young man. Even at his young age, he used the war chief, one of the strongest warriors, as a sparring partner because his strength and bloodline were both very strong. Because of his mother, he has one fully formed tattoo and one faint tattoo on his arms.

“He will not, at least not unless the tribe chooses for it. Still, you cannot say that he is not powerful, just look at his arms and legs.” The chief said cautiously.

When the boy looked, his anger turned into shock before he scowled, “Don’t you think it would be better to make him leave?” He asked.

“NO!” The chief shouted and his hand suddenly swung before slapping the boy. “Stop thinking like some arrogant brat just because you are strong! Everything we do is for the tribe not for yourself! If you are like this, when it is time to choose the chief once more, you will be the last person the tribe will choose even if you do possess a high level of strength!” He hissed at his son.

The boy held his face. The slap of his father was extremely hard, being many times older than him, his power was much higher still.

He frowned before standing and leaving. The chief sighed and called someone to take Asur and prepare a room for him as well as dress him with, at least, basic garments.

The man took him on the shoulder and transported him to a house quite far off from the village center and near the outer wall while some women came to dress him and left him to wake up on his own.