I heaved as I the dungeon clean-up started. The blood and guts that were covering me and weren't mine turned into golden lights. I had been grinding experience, and I’d finally gotten enough to level all the way to 25 from 20.

I’d officially dropped out and started grinding. One of the great things of having a magical heart is that all I needed to survive was water and sleep. All of my time not spent doing that had been spent training and doing two solo dungeon runs.

After this second run, I had 1400 points. As I invested the points and as I felt the energy enter my body and somehow stay there, waiting for a purpose, I contemplated what I was going to do.

Yes, I was going to level, I was going to keep an eye on Marie, obviously, but other than that, I didn’t really have an idea. The problem was that I’d never really known what I wanted to do with my life, and now with the system, I guess I could do whatever I wanted.

When my level ups finished, I got a new notification.

[You’ve reached level 25, and have thus met the third of three first form class thresholds.

Rewards are granted based on your class and your current needs.

Generating rewards

…

Skill {Vision of the future} granted

+220 Free stat points

{Vision of the future

Passive

Rarity: NA

The future is a malleable thing, something strange and mystical. But for you, there needs to be clarity. This skill will show you the future the world is headed to without your intervention. May this power guide you.}

Congratulations, you have reached Level 25 and have thus reached the prerequisite level to join the first system event. This event will take place after the first system update.

…

Adding event countdown to user interface.

Please be warned that it is impossible to level beyond Level 30 until the event has been started and the world has acquired a second initialization.]

When I looked at the timer, I saw I had about 2 weeks before the event started. There didn’t really seem to be a reason for the time. The weirdest thing was that as I was looking at it, I saw how the timer became an hour shorter. Whatever decided how long it took, it wasn’t a set interval.

Then I noticed the countdown next to my new skill. It was counting down from 10. The closer it got to 0, the stranger I felt.

I floated over a world bathed in blood. Its scent filled the air, its colour was causing even sunlight to seem red. I was overlooking a battlefield, two sides fighting over territory.

They were both flying banners I had never seen before but I knew, subconsciously, that they would belong to people who had become extremely powerful thanks to the system. As they were fighting, a portal opened, a rift in the sky.

A creature of unimaginable power stepped out, the magic around it was visible to the naked eye. And as it moved, people died. It was a massacre, humanity died and nobody was there to stop it.

“Look at how you fight amongst yourselves, how your petty squabbles cost your race their existence. Unite them under one banner, for if you do not, you will never stand a chance against what’s to come.”

I woke up in my bed, no idea how I’d gotten there. But now I knew what I had to do. I needed to become powerful enough that no army could stand against me. And I needed to make sure that humanity had someone to follow.

I had an objective, so I got to work.