[Synchronization Complete]
The red window shifted, expanding and slowly reorganizing itself.
Nathan stared at it without moving.
'This is it.'
The moment he had been waiting for.
Nathan swallowed as his eyes moved slowly, reading from the top down.
--------------------------------
Status Window
Name: Nathan Hale
Tier: Unawakened
STATS
Strength (STR): 4
Agility (AGI): 4
Precision (PRE): 4
Endurance (END): 4
Awareness (AWR): 5
Focus (FOC): 6
--------------------------------
Items: None
Abilities: Reversal (Active)
Summons: None
--------------------------------
He went silent as he didn't know what to say.
"I… I really don't know what I expected," he muttered.
His stats were way below average.
But one thing stood out more than the rest.
'Reversal?'
'How do I have an ability already?'
Also the fact that this ability was active made Nathan even more confused.
'I need to search this up.'
He learned forward on his chair, holding his mouse tightly.
Not only did he need to understand his stats properly but also the ability that appeared out of nowhere.
He quickly opened a new tab.
"What are stats and abilities?" Putting the words in, he pressed enter.
Results filled the page immediately.
He skimmed, ignoring anything that looked exaggerated or poorly written. Eventually, he clicked on a forum post that looked clean.
Nathan scrolled slowly.
The post started simple, explaining all the stats one by one.
Strength
Strength represented raw force and impact.
Agility
Agility covered how fast you were and how quick your body reacted.
Precision
Precision controlled your accuracy, control of weapon and weak point targeting.
Endurance
Endurance decided your resistance, healing rate and durability in battle.
Awareness
Awareness governed threat detection, reading enemy intent and environmental perception.
Focus
Focus controlled mental performance, ability efficiency and serves as the fuel for ability usage.
Nathan leaned back slowly.
Scrolling further down he didn't see anything written about abilities.
Confused, he opened another new tab.
"Abilities after awakening system."
Multiple forum posts came up, reading through them he saw that all that was being talked about is how to get your first ability after awakening.
Nathan scrolled through, one post catching his eye.
'Is it possible to get an ability upon awakening?' Nathan inwardly read the title.
In the comments, countless people joked and laughed at the poster.
That's when a serious reply came in his sights.
"The only way to acquire an ability is from an ability shard."
"But, it wouldn't be unprecedented to awaken your system with an ability, as the system synchronizes your body, meaning that you already had the said ability."
"There are many examples of people awakening with certain proficiencies in famous hunter families."
After understanding this, Nathan closed the forum tab and sat quietly for a moment.
The system window still hovered in front of him, unchanged.
'But then why does this say it's an active ability...'
Thinking of a way to use this ability, he puts his hand forward.
"REVERSAL!"
Seeing that nothing happens Nathan exhaled slowly and turns back to his keyboard.
'I guess this is my reward for awakening so damn late.'
Not thinking too much about his stats and ability, he moved onwards to the next pressing matter on his mind which was deciding where would he actually start hunting.
He typed carefully.
"Grade 0 rift Unit Meridian," and pressed enter.
Nathan clicked one of the official looking pages and scrolled.
Unit Meridian, this was the city he lived in, loading the website, he saw a short summary.
Nathan skimmed through, already familiar with most of it.
After the rifts first appeared the monsters hadn't waited for humanity. They had poured out everywhere, burning through cities.
Countries and governments had responded the way they always had, arguing over borders and blaming each other. Unfortunately for them, it hadn't worked.
This made humanity unite not out of idealism but rather out of necessity because of which a new structure had emerged slowly, built around survival rather than politics.
Technically nations still existed on maps but their sovereignty had become secondary to coordination.
The entire world had reorganized itself into Units, each Unit covering multiple cities, grouped not by culture or history, but rather by their logistics and rift management.
Some of these Units were massive hubs, centered around high grade rifts or unique environments. Others existed quietly without any action and Meridian was one of those.
Nathan scrolled further.
Unit Meridian covered four old cities and a scattering of smaller districts. It barely had any high grade rifts and little to no big guilds.
It wasn't all bad as it was safe compared to most big cities.
Nathan snorted softly.
"That figures..." he muttered.
The lack of danger in a Unit meant fewer hunters. Which in return meant fewer guilds, less money flowing through the system making the more ambitious hunters transfer out as soon as they could.
Nathan scrolled down to the section labeled Rift Infrastructure.
Finally found what he was looking for.
Government Controlled Grade 0 Rift: The Sunken Maintenance Tunnels
Nathan clicked the link.
The page loaded slowly, then displayed a series of still images.
A concrete underground tunnel, water pooled along the ground, reflecting dim emergency lighting bolted to the walls.
The Sunken Maintenance Tunnels were exactly what the name suggested, old underground service corridors.
Nathan read the environment description carefully.
Long and narrow corridors with a low ceiling. Pipes lining the walls as water slowly dripped down from them.
Soon his eyes landed on an image of the monsters who lived in this space.
'Goblins.'
They were grade 0 monsters that were known to be small, aggressive and fast.
Nathan swallowed.
He scrolled down to the Access Requirements section.
Reading through he realized that the requirements were pretty simple.
Register at the Hunter Association, and enter in.
Nathan leaned back in his chair again.
The Hunter Association was not a guild. It wasn't glamorous nor powerful in the way some agencies and guilds were.
It was just another government office which existed to keep records.
Anyone who awakened their system had to register, without exceptions. The Association tracked awakened individuals, monitored rift access, and issued licenses.
Nathan had walked past the building dozens of times without thinking much of it. A plain looking building near the transit hub.
He read the process.
Registration required identity verification and system confirmation. Once registered, the individual would receive a basic hunter registration card.
That card allowed two things. Firstly, licensing of a beginner weapon, free of charge and secondly, legal access to government controlled Grade 0 rifts within the Unit.
Nathan stared at the screen.
This was not the heroic beginning that he had imagined.
'Just paperwork.'
He closed the page and stared at his desktop.
The path forward was clear now. Register, get a weapon and enter the rift.
Nathan leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
He couldn't remember the last time he felt this excited.
The system window hovered silently, as if acknowledging his feelings.
Nathan reached up and dismissed it.
For tonight, at least, he was done. Tomorrow, he would go to the Hunter Association.
And for the first time since he'd begun waiting years ago, Nathan didn't feel like he was standing still anymore.
He felt like he was finally at the starting line.