Humans. They were the superior race on this planet before the cataclysm came down upon the earth.

They had sky-high skyscrapers, thousands of kilometres long highways.

A highly evolved society, where daily necessities weren't an issue. And people had it good enough to spend their money on luxuries!

You could visit the whole world, in a matter of hours!

But there are always two sides to a story.

The countries could be categorized into two groups.

The first group were the rich ones and the second were the poor ones.

If the latter discovered any kind of resource, the rich came to take it away, since they had the power to do it.

Like this, the rich got richer and the poor got even poorer.

But humans did not limit their actions against their kind.

They did not care about the lives of people who they saw as their enemies,

and they cared about animal lives even less.

Everything that wasn't human, was allowed to be killed,

Humans saw themselves as the superior race.

It was like that and it will forever be.

This did not get any better when the 'animals' started killing them in turn.

I, Civitas know all this. Humans only care about the lives of other humans.

So, their reactions when I reveal my eyes depends on how they see me.

Will they see me as a fellow human, or will they see me as a monster?

It's likely for them to consider me a monster since there are monsters who can morph into humanoid forms to trick people.

For example, Dorminil was in a humanoid form when he fought Gabriel.

But I still keep my hopes up high.

I need to test it out. And now is the best time for that.

I just saved them, so they might tend to trust me more easily.

In case of an emergency, I saved up my last two points of MP, with which it should be at least possible to escape.

So, I turn around slowly, to not make it look aggressive in any way.

When they saw me being turned away and not answering, they kept their distance as they got somewhat wary of me.

They look me up and down while trying to figure out what's the matter with me.

I luckily can see behind me with these eyes, although everything behind me is quite blurry.

When I turn far enough for them to see the corner of my left eye, they seem to freeze in place.

Their eyes grow wider with every second, while I keep turning.

The moment I turned around completely, and start looking one of the men in the eyes,

something seemingly gets triggered in all of them, as they draw their weapons simultaneously.

But they do not start attacking, but instead start speaking, which leaves the hope of a conversation is still possible.

'What are you?'

A thin man with black hair and some leather armour asks. He was the one who pierced the troll's brain.

"I'm a human just like you!"

I say with a clear voice. I try to make my answer sound calm, which is hard considering my nervousness.

'If that's the truth, what is your name? How did you get here and why have I never seen you before?

We would recognize every adventurer who's strong enough to reach here and lives in our city.

So, why can't I recognize you, who even knows magic?'

This guy seems to be the leader of this party, considering how no one says anything about the things he says.

"My name is Civitas! I came here because I heard a scream. I am in these caves because I had to flee,

while my village got destroyed by monsters.

I am glad to see humans after three weeks of being alone down here."

I have to somehow make them trust or pity me. At least I hope this will help.

'How come I didn't hear about any village getting attacked near here?

Near here wasn't even a village. You could only be lying! I would have heard if there was a village around here.'

Fuck, this isn't going too well...

"But I'm really only telling the truth. The village..."

'Ha, Don't make me laugh. I do not need to listen to your ´truth´.

Seeing your eyes I'd say you either belong to the demons or the dragons.

If you hadn't helped us with the troll, I would have already killed you.

But your deceit to seem friendly to us won't work here.

Now you should go and save your pathetic monster life. Go before I change my mind.'

I ended almost the exact way I predicted, but at least they refrained from trying to kill me.

While backing away and slowly turning around I say a few last words.

"I really just wanted to talk. If you get rid of your fear and are ready to talk to me, you can find me in this area here.

I really hoped it would end differently..."

Only when I fully left the room they started lowering their weapons.

'Somehow he seemed to be grieving about something when he left.'

One of the women said when getting interrupted.

'Don't believe anything of his act.

That would be just what he wants. These demons know how to trick people.

You better just forget this meeting. I can tell you, he probably wanted to kill us all the moment,

we exposed our weaknesses to him. This is the way real demons work, they are the masters of lies.'

Like this, they all left this place in a different direction to Civitas.

But in the heart of this one woman, there is a seed of doubt.

It could have gone worse. I guess. At least they did not attack me.

Although they were close to doing it. Maybe I shouldn't have tried it.

But at least I got some information from them.

They didn't know of the existence of Sanctuary, which was predictable since we did not know of them either.

And now I know, there has to be a city near the place I'm staying at.

The others tried cheering me up, but somehow this conversation just pointed out another problem that I haven't considered so far.

Will they let me in, even if I hide my eyes? The guy from before became suspicious of me because he has never seen me before.

In times in which there could be monsters camouflaged as humans, it's natural for cities to not let people in if they do not know them.

But that's a problem I have to figure out a solution for when it comes to it.

First, I need a good rest, since my MP ran quite low, which puts a large strain on my mind.

After waking up the next morning, I decide to go hunting to level up a bit.

The problem of having not enough mana is more and more fatal to me.

Later that day, after powering out my physical body, I start my training on magic.

The control of the outside mana isn't as easy as controlling mana inside my body.

But I am still doing better than anyone with stats as low as mine should be able to.

After practising a few hours, I got a notification that told me I unlocked the 'Common Magic Controlling Skill'.

With this routine of hunting in the morning and practising magic until late at night, I continued for some time.

I focused my whole being on becoming able to learn illusion magic as fast as I can.

______________________________________________

Two weeks later:

I finally did it! I got a notification for learning the 'Common Illusion Image Skill'

When learning a new skill, the start is always the hardest, I was told by Zabula.

In this time I also levelled up 4 levels.

Especially Dorminil was really impressed by my growth rate.

The reason for my fast growth is my bonus stat points.

Usually, it gets harder each time to level up, but my growth is faster than others since my level isn't tied to training.

People usually have to train their body's strength, stamina, dexterity or concentration to trigger a level up.

A level up is said to be the gods' recognition of one's hard training.

By now I also reached the level Zabula talked about.

From now on, I will always have higher stats than people on the same level as me.

My status now looks like this:

Name: Civitas

Race: [Error]

HP: 390/390 | MP:60/60

Class: none

Level: 11

XP: 455/1100

Vitality: 39 | Strength: 39 | Agility: 35 | Dexterity: 35 | Intelligence: 10 | Willpower: 10 | Magic: 6

Available Stat Points: 0

Passive Skills: Common Sword-mastery (99%), Dragon's eye, Common Magic Controlling Skill(53%),

Common Illusion Image Skill (1%)

Active Abilities: none

Innate Talent: [Error]

LOCKED (149/150)

OH! I didn't even realize I got close to unlocking the hidden category!

And my sword mastery is also near the uncommon grade!

I only need one more thing I haven't eaten so far!

Now I know what I am going to do for the rest of the day.

I'll search for some new monsters to eat!

This really isn't easy. I ate almost everything around here, so I can't find anything unique!

Maybe I should try to venture further out, but that could be dangerous.

Around here, I know what places to avoid due to strong monsters, but out there, I wouldn't.

I think it would be better to try to fight one of the stronger monsters around here.

The last time I evaluated them I was a fair bit weaker than now.

There is this huge ass crocodile near here that could be beatable, although it would be a tough fight.

But now I got illusion magic and a lot more mana, so I should be able to beat it, even if it's with the help from Gabriel or Dorminil.

[Are you really sure about that? This thing is at least a 'level 50 common' monster. Your level is still lacking in contrast to that thing.]

"I know, but I want to try to sneak up on it. I have an idea for where its weak spot is since I already fought against tinier crocodiles."

[Oh, and where would that be? This thing has scales all over its body!]

"Not everywhere. I noticed, the type of crocodiles, this thing belongs to have very thick armour plates.

These plates are too thick to cover the joints since they still have to move.

And when I gutted some of them before I noticed their hearts being very close to their right side.

I think It should be possible to pierce through its armpit right into its heart if it gives us a chance to do so.

For that, I have to sneak up very close to it.

But I already have the perfect skill for that, which is my illusion skill.

I just hope I can trigger a lethal strike to kill it in one hit."

{You planned that out really well. I just think it would be a bit hard with your level of Illusion skill to sneak up to it while it is awake.

So, you have to wait for it to be asleep, or in some other confused state of mind.}

/I think your plan sounds viable: I wish you the best of luck. For it being asleep and in a good position when you arrive there./

I just nod, while preparing for the upcoming fight.

So, I set out on the way to my target.

I arrive there after a short time since I know the way there.

This thing is the size of a bus!

It is awake but didn't notice me so far.

I think it just came back from a short trip to eat something and is about to go to sleep again.

Luckily, this thing sleeps a lot.

I wait for half an hour until I'm sure it's asleep.

Then I unsheathe my sword, so I do not have to make any sounds when I'm already near it.

After I activated the Illusion spell which consumes one point of mana every second for hiding all noises I produce

I start approaching the spot where I want to strike.

When I am sure I have a clear path towards the right armpit, I start building up some speed.

To pierce deep enough to reach its heart, I have to have as much power behind my thrust as possible.

Like that, I reach the spot while almost running at full speed, raise my sword and thrust as hard as I possibly can.

And with that my sword pierces right through its skin, Its flesh and passes by some rips, to directly hit its heart.

This operation was a huge success so far.

#Lethal strike!#

Just like I wanted it to be!

I press my foot against the side of the crocodile and pull out my sword.

And when I was just about to sheathe my sword, I saw a huge shadow looming over me.

I jump to the side as fast as I can, just to hear an ear-shattering sound right where I was standing before.

When I turn around I can see, what monster attacked me just now.

It was the crocodile itself.

Its head was bent backwards to try to bite me.

How could this be, I thought the "lethal" in "lethal strike" means, it is always a one-hit!

Now that I think of it, I haven't got the notification for killing it.

"Guys, how can this thing still be alive?"

I ask while backing away to widen the distance.

[That's bad. I think this thing is already an uncommon monster.

It's not unlikely for an uncommon monster, which has evolved from a common monster, to have two hearts.]

"Then, how do I kill this thing?"

[YOU won't be able to kill this thing, but we might be able to.

Try to get close and then let me control your magic and arms.]

The illusion magic was already expelled a while ago and it only consumed 15 MP, so there's still plenty of them left.

"Ok, I'll trust you."

With that sentence, I start rushing at the crocodiles head while dodging its attacks.

When I got within a few meters of its head, my arms suddenly started moving, driven by Gabriel.

[By the holy power of us Angels, I command thou mana, to execute my will and to shatter the body of this pathetic heretic beast!

(Smite tier 3!)]

Suddenly I felt all my mana rushing into my right arm. Then three golden circles the size of a football started forming around my wrist.

Finally, a huge sword, at least thrice the size of me started forming above the crocodiles head.

Suddenly the sword crashed down into its skull.

After hitting it, the sword explodes and rips apart the whole upper body of the crocodile.

#Level UP!#

#Level UP!#

"So this is the difference between a tier one and a tier-three smite?

They really are worlds apart."

I say while falling down onto the floor. This one spell exhausted all my mana, so I feel extremely exhausted right now.

At that moment I decided to practice some attack magic from now on since it seems quite useful.

When I got back home I started cooking some crocodile meat right away, I am really hyped up for what is hidden there.

I expectantly take a bite of the meat, which is surprisingly very tasty, when the message I waited for plopped up in front of me.

#Congratulations on unlocking a new feature.#

# Feature unlocked: Evolving #

Does evolving mean, what I think it does?