Gray sat idle on a park bench, his face looking towards the sky. It was sunny, white clouds drifted across the sky. He could see some shapes among the randomness of the position of the clouds.

Sometimes spending time doing simple things such as observing the sky provided one with a sense of relief. Lately, things had changed so drastically that Gray did not have much time.

‘It’s still much better than when I was doing that shitty job’ Gray thought to himself as the warm sun rays kissed his skin.

Gray’s mental state had greatly improved over the past few weeks. It was a bit weird, given the state the world was in. As Gray relaxed some thoughts came to his mind.

Gray closed his eyes and thought back to the things Sung Ho had said.

‘The mana crystals and magic measuring stones are really great’

The mana crystals were now allowing hunters to use equipment to fight off monsters. Right after the announcement, many hunters rushed to buy these crystals or bought magic imbued items themselves from the association. Their use had become widespread over just one day, for instance, Yura was able to use a sword in her raid.

The good thing was that even though the market price for the crystals should have skyrocketed, it was subsidized by the government and was also controlled because there was a large supply of the crystals since they were so common in dungeons.

Then there was the magic measuring stones that could measure the magic coming out of a gate. This implied that you could identify how dangerous the dungeon was. Hence, the government established different ratings for dungeon gates. The ratings were from E to A where A was the highest.

When deciding what ratings they should create the government greatly acknowledged one thing. It was the fact that data showed that there was a trend of recent gates being more dangerous than ones that had appeared previously, this correlated to gates emitting higher and higher magic energy. Hence, the government accounted for stronger gates in the future that might come about. Therefore, most gates that were considered ‘difficult’ today were rank D gates, however, the leveling system would change this.

Gray then thought about the system itself.

‘What really is the system?’

The system enabled an individual to become stronger, but what really was the thing that allowed the system to do such a thing? Or more importantly, how was the system created?

There were no answers to such questions.

As Gray pondered many questions he wanted the answer to, someone lightly tapped his shoulder.

Gray opened his eyes.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Gray”

Brandon had a warm smile on his face. He picked up the bags that were set aside the bench, placed them down near the bench, and sat beside Gray. Then he opened the bags and started taking out many items.

There were many things.

From full armor to weapons such as swords and daggers. As Brandon placed these items in front of him he grabbed a large shield from the other bag, the shield had a red tint. Brandon stood up and held the shield in his hand.

“Punch the shield as hard as you can”

Gray got up and took a fighting stance in front of Brandon. He clenched his fist.

Gray’s punch rushed towards the shield

Bam!

Brandon’s body was pushed back, his eyes went wide.

He hesitantly said “You….. see my shield is” he then carefully turned the shield to look at the front.

“Oh crap”

The shield had cracked. Brandon looked over at Gray.

Gray had no expression.

“That’s pretty good actually”

‘No, does he not know that it wasn’t supposed to crack!’ Brandon pondered what Gray was thinking. ‘This shield was advertised to take hits of even some rank D boss monsters!’

Brandon’s face changed expression, now he would need to purchase a new shield. Gray came over and grabbed the shield from his hand.

[Common Shield]

Rating: E

Item Type: Shield

Durability: 61/100

Conditions to use: None

A shield imbued with some magic.

[Effects]

Physical damage absorption: 70

‘Oho that's pretty interesting’

The shield durability had fallen by 39 points, it should've been 100/100. This accurately represented the crack on the shield caused due to Gray’s punch.

After a few moments, Gray and Brandon sat back down on the bench. Brandon gave Gray a few items.

[Common Longsword]

Rating: E

Type: Weapon

Durability: 100/100

Attack Power: 125

A longsword imbued with magic.

No conditions to use

[Common Dagger]

Rating: E

Type: Weapon

Durability: 100/100

Attack Power: 90

A dagger imbued with magic.

No conditions to use

[Common Chestplate]

Rating: E

Type: Armor

Durability: 100/100

[Effects]

Physical damage absorption: 30

[Common Chausses]

Rating: E

Type: Armor

Durability: 100/100

Chausses imbued with some magic.

[Effects]

Physical damage absorption: 20

Then there was one last thing

[Common Gauntlets]

Rating: E

Type: Armor

Durability: 100/100

[Effects]

Physical damage absorption: 5

As Gray read the descriptions of each item, he realized the power of imbuing items with magic.

Brandon watched as he held the items and inspected them

“You know those gauntlets cost $8000 each?”

“Eh? Why?” Gray couldn't comprehend why these things would cost that much

“Apparently smaller items are more difficult to imbue with magic”

When the government discovered that they could imbue items with magic, they tried to imbue guns and bullets with magic to use them against monsters, however, it was impossible. Then they tried to imbue missiles with magic but that also did not work against monsters.

It seemed that the only way to fight off monsters was to use magic.

‘Magic really is power’

Brandon then got up and stretched out his body.

“Are you ready then?”

Gray put the items in his inventory and stood up

“Yes”

--

Name: Gray

Age: 19

Title: First Warrior (Locked)

Class: ?

Level: 14

Fatigue: 0

HP: 56

MP: 0

Strength: 80

Agility: 47

Intelligence: 47

Vitality: 13

Sense: 2

Skills:

No Skills

Items:

Common Longsword

Common Chestplate

Common Chausses

Common Gauntlets

Common Dagger

Goblin Hunting Knife

--