January 1st, once a day of celebrating new beginnings, has for nearly a thousand years become the most feared day for many. It is no longer called New Year's Day, but the Day of Awakening. On this day, all men and women aged 18 to 23 are teleported away to the Lords' plane, where they must compete to become the Lord of Myriad Races while facing foes and challenges.
Today, January 1st, many youths nervously pack their stuff and say their goodbyes, yet in Duskfall City, Alex, a young, athletic, white-haired man, wakes up, opening his ocean blue eyes not with despair but with well-earned confidence, with his equipment already packed and his spirit prepared for the challenge. Alex walks downstairs with a frown on his face, sad that his family can't be here with him today.
Alex heads to the dining table, where he sees a small present-like box with decorations and a letter at the top. Ripping the letter off, Alex takes a look at what his family wrote.
Alex, dear, your father and I are still sorry we couldn't have been here today, as our territory has been attacked. We wanted to give you this present ourselves, but it only arrived after you fell asleep. We want you to remember that no matter what, we love you and we know that you will return to us.
Love:). the best mom ever?
Alex chuckles and smiles while opening his present. Inside, he finds a storage ring with a purple gem at its top. From the storage ring, he takes out a silver spear engraved with both his name, Alex Nebula, and numerous familiar and unfamiliar runes.
Knowing he only has an hour left, Alex makes himself breakfast and moves all his gear and equipment into the storage ring.
'I will miss this place...' is Alex's last thought before his transportation.
Alex finds himself in a completely black void where only a blue floating panel seems to generate light.
[Welcome, Alex Nebula, you are now in the realm of awakening.]
[Would you like to proceed with the awakening of your power seed?]
"Yes, please proceed."
[Awakening... 1% 7% 37% 71% 99%]
Now two growing sources of light seem to fill the void, one gray and one somehow colorless. Slowly, these two lights begin to merge into one ethereal light. Suddenly, Alex finds himself in what can only be described as a small abandoned village in a frozen taiga.
"I already knew I inherited mom's talent in runes, but it seems I also inherited dad's fog talent," he said with a slight smirk on his face. 'Let's see if I got a good seed mutation, Status.'
***** Status Panel *****
** Name: Alex Nebula
** Age: 19
** Species: Human(Earth)
** Condition: Healthy(98%)
** Profession: None
** Rank: 0
** Power Seed: Runic Fog(Unique) (0% full)
** Lord Talent: Heart Of The Nebula(Legendary)
** Masteries: Runes: Rank 0 (99%), Spear: Rank 0 (73%)
"Can I get some details on my power seed?"
[Runic Fog(*Unique): The User can generate and control a special magical fog made of mana and runes. The fog can be used to obstruct the senses of enemies, empower oneself and allies, and be used as a special medium to write runes. The User also has an improved ability to understand anything rune-related.
[*: The first and only instance of this power ever awakening, it is said that those who start with unique powers are particularly noticed by the currents of fate.]
'That seems like both my parents' powers combined and even greatly improved upon with the ability to write runes. I will need to test that later.'
'hahaha Unique and Legendary? Unique can be anything, but Legendary must be good. Show me the talent details, please.'
[Heart Of The Nebula(Legendary): Your territory is forever covered by your runic fog. Citizens will also be able to write runes on the fog or use it as fuel to power their magical abilities. The constant exposure to runic fog will upgrade the talents of your citizens in anything related to runic, physical, and magical abilities. Some citizens might be able to get the special combat profession, Nebula Knight.]
Finally, Alex checks his surroundings more thoroughly, noticing that beside the long-abandoned village houses in this freezing taiga, four structures look fairly well managed, understanding that these are probably his starter buildings, which every lord gets.
***** Territory Information *****
** Name: Yet to be named
** Level: Starter Village
** Condition: Abandoned and full of snow
** Buildings: Official: Summoning Gate(Tier 1), Lord's Hut(Tier 1), Village Hall(Tier 1) and Nebula Temple(Special)(Unique). Unofficial: 10 Wooden Huts, Makeshift Well.
** Territory Size: Dome 100m radius(Lord's Hut as the center)
** Conditions to upgrade: ...
'Seems I got a special building, it's probably related to the profession change function of my talent. Hmm, well, I'm not good at naming things, let's wait till I have people to consult with for that. I should probably summon my subjects soon so they can help me hunt and set up a safe place.'
***** Newbie Challenge ******
** To get newbie lords used to the Lords' plane, all new lords will face a beast tide in 2 weeks.
** Until than all newbies are advised to prepare their territory and subjects for the attack.
** For the next two weeks, all newbies will have a repelling field to stop higher Rank intruders.
'And here comes the announcement, I guess it's a defence type challenge this year, I think mom and dad had to conquer monster settlements for their newbie challenge.'
Alex walks from the entrance of the Lord's Hut to what can only be described as a platform with a mystical circle-shaped gate filled with runes and mana stones, giving the gate an ancient and mysterious look. While Alex already learned what a starter summoning gate should be able to do, it doesn't stop him from identifying it to see it for himself.
***** Summoning Gate *****
** Level: Starter Village
** Tier: 1
** Conditions to upgrade: 50 units of wood, 20 units of stone, 10 Rank 0 mana stones.
** Functions: A special building of a lord's main territory allows lords to summon a daily number of subjects of the same species to their territory. Current ability: Summon 5 Rank 0 subjects every day.
"Summon!" he yells with a somewhat childish excitement.
The gates light up, and in moments Five individuals surrounded by light appear. As the light slowly fades, Alex sees three men and two women kneeling before him. "At your service!" they somehow shouted in unison, as all of them agreed to be summoned. Residents of the Lords' plane all have the option to join a lord at any point in their lives for any reason whatsoever.
Alex looks at each of them and observes their status panel. Among the five, he looks first at the oldest of the three men, a big black-haired man covered with scars, clad in heavy armor and a sword and shield on his back.
***** Status Panel *****
** Name: Bernard Smith
** Species: Human
** Age: 41
** Condition: Healthy(92%)
** Profession: Trainee Knight(Common)(Combat)
** Rank: 0
** Power Seed: Steel (100% full), Fragment of Fire
** Information: formerly a talented blacksmith abandoned his path after the death of his wife and child and took on the mantle of a knight to avenge his fallen family.
** Masteries: Sword and Shield: Rank 1 (0%), Blacksmithing: Rank 1 (0%)
** Skills: Protect and Serve(Rank 0, Common), Steel Charge(Rank 0, Uncommon)
The other two men, while younger, were much less remarkable. Both were unawakened and quite average, but it turns out they were twins; the older brother's name was Jack, while the younger one was Reed.
'Well, even though they are worse than Bernard, I can't really complain i'm sure there is someone out there who got 5 sickly or useless subjects. Let's look at the ladies' status now.'
Alex first checked the older of the two women, a sweet-looking brunette wearing an inn's uniform with some white strands in her hair.
***** Status Panel *****
** Name: Maria Stevenson
** Species: Human
** Age: 38
** Condition: Healthy(100%)
** Profession: Beginner Chef(Common)(Life)
** Rank: 0
** Power Seed: Unawakened
** Information: An uncommon case of a natural profession awakening without awakening the power seed. Formerly an owner of an inn who cared so deeply about making tasty meals for weary travelers that she managed to awaken by herself.
** Masteries: Cooking: Rank 1 (0%), Baking: Rank 0 (90%)
The younger of the two women, unlike everyone else, was scanning her surroundings. Under her hood, Alex managed to see her pitch-black hair and pale gray eyes before he scanned her.
***** Status Panel *****
** Name: Amira ******
** Age: 20
** Species: Human(*****)
** Condition: Healthy(96%)
** Profession: *****(*****)(Combat)
** Rank: 0
** Power Seed: *****(80%), Fragment of Shadow
** Information: *****
** Masteries: Assassination: Rank 1 (10%), Scouting: Rank 0 (99%), *****
** Skills: *****
** Note: Some details are hiddden do to insufficient loyalty or a special ability that conceals information