Chapter 1: The System Ceremony (1/2)

My name is Jacob. I am a 17-year-old high school student. My looks are average, with black hairs, dark brown eyes and height which is a little above average. I live in the city of Clayacre which is a part of the human country Epryae.

Right now, I am sitting in a huge, fancy looking hall which looks like it can easily capacitate at least a thousand people. But now, including me, only three people are sitting here.

“Rex Winstean,” a voice call.

The boy sitting on the end of the first row got up and with unsteady steps, walks up to a highly ornamented door at the end of the hall and gets inside it.

Now, only me and a small, mousey-looking guy are here. He is sitting just a few seats to my left side with his eyes closed and his shaking hands on his thighs.

You must be wondering, what are we doing here?

Well, today is the day of the ceremony… The System Ceremony.

Every year, people who had turned seventeen before the first week of June, are required to show up to this ceremony, where they are infused with their systems.

This is not done unnecessarily, there is a great significance to this ceremony.

Thousands of years ago, the humans on our planet; Illuethea, were suffering from an extreme population crisis due to the fact, that unlike the other races, we used to die the moment we turned 18.

At the point of near extinction, to take humans out of this predicament, the higher beings, Elves, shared their secret of immortality with us humans; The World System Tower.

This tower holds the power to modify the body of beings and infuse magic, in the form of a system, in them.

Through these systems, humans started earning life points. One of these life points can be exchanged for 24 hours’ worth of life. These life points can also be used to level up in the system and gain skills and powers. You can even become immortal if you have enough level and life points.

But still, almost no one chooses to level up.

Why? Because of the existence of poisons.

Poison is referred to a special forbidden skills and acts which comes with every system. They are called so because they either deduct life points from us or makes earning them difficult.

Now, these poisons grow stronger with each level a person gain.  Thus, making it harder to survive the more powerful you become.

I have heard about cases where people die the moment, they got their systems.

Yes, though they are extremely rare, some poisons can also kill instantly.

So, most humans choose to be at level 1, in which you can stay and earn life points for around 50 years before the magical powers given by the world system concentrates so much without use, that your level 1 body becomes unable to hold it in and then you die...

I look down and notice that my hands are shaking too. Everyone fears the poison they are going to get.

“Jacob–eh… yes, only Jacob,” the voice calls again.

I stand up. The mousy-looking guy who is the only one sitting now is looking at me with pity in his eyes.

“You are a bit too scared, buddy. I know it’s going to be fine for me,” I say with fake confidence, trying to calm himself and at the same time, myself down.

Fuck! Just don’t give me a death poison and I will be fine…

I move to the ornamented door which opens itself the moment I stand in front of it.

“Woah,” I leak out a voice.

This room is exactly as beautiful as I have read about it. Its walls are made of pure black and shining stones with veins going all around it like the roots of a tree inside the earth. The veins are said to change color with different people.

But it’s a bit strange. There are actually two different colored veins; blue and pink, intertwined together. I have never heard of something like this before.

At the center of this room, an oval cave made out of those blue and pink veined rocks is standing. A small, rectangular shaped opening is shining brightly with white light at the center of it, beyond which I cannot see anything.

Even though I am confused, the instructions given to me are clear and following them, I enter the cave with my right arm forward and my hand enclosed into a fist.

The moment my whole body gets inside, it starts to feel extremely hot inside my enclosed fist. It feels as if my whole body is burning with my fist at the focus.

“Ahaaaaarh,” I scream in pain.

I try to open my fist but couldn’t, it feels as if it has been glued like this.

They never said that it’s going to hurt this much!

But then, suddenly, the pain starts to lessen. The light around me also starts to diminish as I find myself standing in front of another ornamented door at the other side of the room which wasn’t visible before.

Still breathing heavily from what just happened, I start moving towards the door in a daze before remembering the procedure I have to follow.

My fist is still enclosed but there is a feeling of something hard inside.

Opening it, I find a small and shiny, dark blue colored stone with pink colored lines like lightning all over it, sitting right in the middle of my palm.

“So, this is my SIS, huh? Beautiful,” I mutter.