After explaining to my friends what I understood of our current predicament, I started exploring the system menus. I needed information and the best source was always the system itself.

I found a few useful menus, a bestiary, a lorebook, a summoning menu, a map and a help menu. The map menu required information so as I started scrolling through the help menu I made my way to the geography class to get an atlas.

I knocked and opened the door, no one was in so I just went for the pile of atlases and picked up the most recent.

[Item: {World Atlas: 2019 edition} detected

Do you wish to consume this item to update the map?

Y/N]

After I pressed yes, the atlas turned into golden particles and got sucked into me. Once every particle had been absorbed, I got a system notification.

[You have successfully gained a full world map for this Planet.

You have gained the achievement: {Mercator}

You are the first in your world to achieve this feat.

Your achievement has been turned into a title.

{Mercator

Duo

Rarity: Epic

You have mapped out this planet and have taken the name of he who achieved this before you as power. The system will show every location of interest in a radius of 10 km on your map. You can grant other people your system map without repercussion. You are naturally skilled at mapmaking}

You have gained 1,000 points of experience for achieving this feat.]

I chuckled, that was a nice bonus. I’d assumed that someone would have done this before me but thinking about it, it made a bit of sense. People who understood what was going on probably wouldn’t all take the time to read the rules, people who didn’t understand would still be trying to calm themselves a bit, and of those who did read the rules, most wouldn’t care for the map that much, as it updated in a radius depending on your perception.

It had been 15 minutes since the system had appeared. I’d had quick access to the atlas and the actual intent to use it to update my system map. That’s the most important detail, to use any of the system functions, you need to intend to use them. Had someone just picked up the atlas, they would not have gotten the prompt, otherwise, anyone who was touching an atlas at the time of initiation would have gotten the prompt.

Next, I checked the list of available skills I could buy. The one I was looking for first and foremost was in the rare skills tab and would cost me a painful 20 of my meager supply. The second I bought was uncommon and cost 10 points, this one was priceless in my opinion though and I would have paid my remaining thirty skill points for it. The last skill I bought was a rare one, depleting all my points.

[You have bought the following skills: {Mana Sense},{Pugilism},{Tenacity of the Immortals}

{Mana Sense (Lvl 1/10)

Passive

Rarity: Uncommon

You have attained the ability to sense mana, starting you on your path of magic.}

{Pugilism (Lvl 1/20)

Passive

Rarity: Rare

You have trained a lifetime, learning how to fight with your fists in a way that none can match. Your fists are your greatest weapons and all who stand before you should fear them.}

{Tenacity of the Immortals (Lvl 1/20)

Duo

Rarity: Rare

Strength, fame, worship, Immortals have followed many paths to get where they are now but there is one thing they all have in common, the strength of will to never give up, to go against impossible odds and not give up at all. The greater your conviction, the stronger this skill will be.}]

I will be honest, I had sometimes fantasized about what I would do if we ever got a system, how I would fight. I had made multiple possible builds depending on the stats available, the way magic worked, etç.

The one that was perfect for this system was the build I loved the most, a Flame Pugilist. As I felt the knowledge and powers of those skills flowing into me, I sat down. I wasn’t going to wait for a chance to use magic.

I made myself comfortable and closed my eyes as I started sensing the particles of magic around me. I focused on those particles and tried moving them around, forcing them to obey.

I tried to suck them in, to make them a part of me. I ignored the system notifications completely focusing on those beautiful things. They were chaotic, they disproved things we were so sure we knew of this world. When I finally opened my eyes, I was no longer in the geography classroom but in the nurse's office.

The nurse heard me move and let out a gasp of relief. “Thank god you’re not dead.”

“Why would I be dead?” I get that it was weird that I hadn’t moved in a while but it shouldn’t have been more than an hour, maybe 2.

“Kid, you haven’t moved in 2 weeks, I don’t even know how you still seem so fucking sturdy, although I’m guessing it’s got something to do with this damnable system.”

As she said that, I focused on all the system notifications I’d missed.

[Wisdom + Conviction has exceeded 50, entering passive state (Meditation)

You will only leave this state if malicious intent is detected or if you decide to leave

You have gained the Trait: {Mana Savant}

{Mana Savant

Passive

+30 Conv

+30 Wis

Any Magic skill gains exp*500%}

Skill {Mana Sense} has leveled up

…

…

…

Skill {Mana Sense} has achieved Max level and has evolved into {Mana Clarity}

…

…

…

Skill {Mana Clarity} has reached Max level and has evolved into {Mana Maester}

...

...

...

Skill {Mana Maester} has reached Max level and has evolved into {Child of Mana}

Congratulations, you have evolved a skill to legendary rarity.

You have gained the achievement: {Creator of Legend}

You are the first in your world to achieve this feat.

Your achievement has been turned into a title.

{Creator of Legend

Passive

Rarity: Legendary

You are one who forges their own path, a path that will spawn many legends. Any skill below the rarity of Legendary now has a boosted exp gain.}

You have gained 1,000,000 points of experience for achieving this feat.

Skill {Mana Maester} has leveled up

…

…

…

Skill {Child of Mana} has leveled up

{Child of Mana (Lvl 31/80)

Duo

Rarity: Legendary

You are a child of mana, of the very core of magic itself, you can sense the smallest ripples in mana, you are deeply connected to mana and it is deeply connected to you. As a child of mana, your body is highly receptive to changes, willingly undergone, caused by mana, this can allow you to create specialised organs, allow you to enhance yourself greatly using mana. Due to your deep intrinsic connection with mana, you can interfere with the connection other peoplpe have with mana.}]

I was shocked to say the least, it didn’t make any sense, the system should be fair and yet, here I was, leagues ahead of everyone else. I looked at my stats to be sure, interested in what I would find.

[Name: Oscar Van Damme

Level: 0 (0/10)

Unspent Experience: 1,001,000

Ethnicity: Belgian (Flemish)

Gender: Male

Zodiac: Libra

Titles: Mercator, Creator of Legends

Traits: Fat, Intelligent, Mana Savant

Stats:

Conv: 53

Wis: 67

Cons: 40

Str: 20

Agi: 20

Per: 20

Stat Points: 0

Skills:

{Schooled (Lvl 10/20), Passive}

{Temperature Resistance (Lvl 1/40), Passive}

{Pugilism (Lvl 1/20), Passive}

{Tenacity of the Immortals (Lvl 1/20), Duo}

{Child of Mana (Lvl 31/80), Duo}

Skill Points: 0]

As I looked at my stat sheet, I finally realized how much effect the mental stats had, my mind was racing at a speed that I couldn’t have imagined. It felt so great, so addicting, I wanted more. Then I realized something. If I didn’t keep some balance to my stats, I would definitely run into some problems. I could not move as fast as I could think, which could be problematic. It probably was a flaw that if I was going for a pure mage build, I would not need to worry about too much but since I was going for a combined build, it would be something I’d need to keep in mind.

As I finished thinking, I turned to the nurse. “What happened while I was like this?”