It was warm here, in this vast expanse of weightlessness and comfort. Aimlessly, Brock drifted along, his weary eyes unable to make heads or tails of the myriad of colours and visions occurring around him hundreds of times a second. All he could truly understand was the flood of boundless power washing through every facet of his being, empowering him beyond the limits of mortality and easing his constant pain to a distant sensation, before soon removing it entirely.

Only half-conscious, Brock struggled to focus on the happenings within his body. The tsunami of energies were like radiant streams of neon crimson as lines of the stuff coursed through every vein, muscle and cell, repairing and altering them in ways he couldn’t yet understand.

While it was a subtle sensation, he felt something akin to veins being carved out through the entirety of his body as the energy roamed through him and cut its own pathways to travel even faster. It didn’t take long before those ‘energy veins’ were flooded with the rampant power, and a core of red began to rapidly form and pulsate softly within his chest, acting as a second, immaterial heart. It was where Brock felt the power begin to gather, the true source of it all.

Slowly, as explosive wave after explosive wave of infinite power gushed through him, Brock felt the familiar tug of consciousness threaten to pull him away from the world of colour and energy, a realm beyond that which he physically resided on, one of true perfection. Unfortunately, the mystical place was ripped away, and he was once more met with the embrace of darkness. Damn...

"Gauuugh." groaning in drowsiness more than anything, Brock cranked open his heavy eyelids and winced as dim sunlight seared his retinas. Above him, the sky was painted in hues of pinks and orange as the sun once again hid behind the horizon, signalling the end of yet another day on Earth.

Wait... wasn't I... oh...

The beauty of it was soon lost on Brock, however, as he quickly realised he was lying in a gory pile of pulverised innards. Scrambling off it desperately, and resisting the urge to puke with great effort, his attention was fortunately snatched away by the words hovering discreetly in his vision, refusing to budge lest he commanded them to. "Huh?"

[Shard of Awakening used: 1/1]

[Welcome to the System, User: Brock Carter.]

Mentally, Brock indicated for the prompts to close, and looked on in awe as the first two were immediately followed by an onslaught of notifications.

[You have met the requirement for full access.]

[Epic Shard of Awakening (Energy) has granted SEALED.]

[Title Gained: At The Precipice – Be neither dead nor alive.]

…

…

…

[Title Gained: Leader of the Pack – Slay an Alpha.]

Brock’s sight was quickly clouded by the slew of disembodied texts, the vast majority relating to the acquisition of so-called titles, with each granting one sort of bonus or another, aside from a few mysterious outliers. He felt slightly overwhelmed as he scanned over the prompts, idly noting each of the feats he had appeared to have achieved. Interesting...

But as of now, other things took precedence, and Brock forcefully snapped out of his awe, frantically patting his body down and checking that he truly was alive. And miraculously, he was. In fact, he wasn’t just alive, he was fully healed, albeit covered in various scars from his previously accrued damage. A particularly jagged one cut across his midsection where he had once been torn asunder.

"That... is a good sign..." he felt at it again, "I hope..."

Remaining slightly lost in the incredulousness of it all, Brock whistled at the respectable amount of Titles he had gained as he looked back to the list. Eventually though, he closed what seemed to be an activity log of sorts, and left his vision once more unobscured. Glancing down at his hands, Brock balled them into fists, experimenting with the latent power he felt laying in every aspect of his being.

It was almost addictive.

Thinking back to a simpler, Subway-er time, Brock let his appendages rest and uttered a command he had attempted to use earlier, eyes widening marginally as a new screen popped up and replaced the old one.

“Status.”

Brock Carter.

Race: Human [F] LVL 1

Ascendancy: SEALED [F]

Level: 1

[Stats]

[+5%] - Strength: 25.2

[+5%] - Agility: 23.1

[+5%] - Dexterity: 23.1

[+5%] - Constitution: 26.25

[+5%] - Vitality: 27.3

[+5%] - Intelligence: 32.55

[+5%] - Wisdom: 29.4

[Titles] - At The Precipice, Agent of Chaos, Blessed, Destined for Greatness, Underdog, Hidden Fangs, Leader of the Pack.

Free Stats: N/A

Shards: N/A

SEALED: N/A

"...Woah... just like a game..."

Brock’s brows climbed up his forehead in amazement. While he was dumbfounded by what an Ascendancy was, and why it and the other thing were deemed as ‘sealed’, he felt like he had a somewhat decent understanding of the other parts. Stats themselves were pretty self-explanatory and their values were obviously better the higher they were, although he had no scale of reference for his own.

Though inwardly, he did suspect that his Ascendancy was related to the ‘Epic Shard of Awakening’ he had apparently used. Sounds possible.

In other news, his level was the most crystal-clear section of the screen, assuming it to be the usual ‘kill things to get exp’ shtick. Even if you weren’t an avid gamer, it was a widely understood concept. Despite that, he was somewhat confused by the notion of race levels. Titles were the section that grasped the biggest portion of his attention, as it seemed to be practically bulging at the seams with words. Plus, while he wasn’t sure his stat numbers were even all that high, he knew the Titles to be responsible for the boundless strength he felt idly surging through him as of current.

With but a thought, they were laid out bare to him. Now, let's see...

At The Precipice: Be neither dead nor alive.

Agent of Chaos: Glimpse the Beyond.

Blessed: Be injected with the Original Life and welcomed into the Systemic fold. +1 to all stats.

Destined for Greatness: Be the first to slay a monster on your planet. +3 to all stats.

Underdog: Slay an enemy over 5 levels above you. +5 to all stats.

Hidden Fangs: Slay an enemy over 10 levels above you. +10 to all stats.

Leader of the Pack: Slay an Alpha. +5% to all stats.

Glimpse the Beyond...

While Brock urgently wished to denounce the System and what it considered to be a ‘welcome’, the description of his Agent of Chaos Title garnered his primary courtesy. It wasn’t a concrete connection, but Brock felt that the place he had been dumped when being ‘disposed’ of was most likely the Beyond the Title spoke of, and he felt it was an appropriate name. The place had seemed extremely insensible, beyond what he could soundly perceive and comprehend if you will.

The shadows in the void still made him shudder, even now.

Leaving a major stick out like that to ponder on later, Brock turned his attention elsewhere and did a quick, albeit rough, mental calculation. He was left astonished as the answers came to him easier than ever before. He hadn’t exactly been dumb before, but he was no Einstein either, and math had never been his strong suit. That aside, he managed to pin his pre-title stat values at 5, 3, 3, 6, 7, 12 and 9 respectively. That meant that some of his stats had seen over a 700% increase in value.

Inwardly, while he felt a tad bit sour that his physical stats had been so low in comparison to other aspects, he was rejoicing wildly as he looked to his Intelligence and Wisdom. In the few games he had played, it was his default choice to be the mage, as compared to swinging around a sharp hunk of metal, magic was just a way cooler option.

The question was, could he use magic now that the System was here?

He had no ‘skills’ to his status screen, assuming they would use Intelligence or Wisdom to empower and fuel them, nor did he have any indication there was a method to use magic outside of them. As much as he was in love with the idea of being a powerful wizard, he had to admit physical stats would come in handy here, especially since they were readily available to use.

“Fireball?” Brock outstretched his arm and half expected a ball of heat to just appear.

It did not.

Deciding it was best if he moved away from the messy result of his one-sided scuffle and to the relative safety of the buildings, Brock gave the street he found himself on, the one opposite what he had walked down, a cursory glance, before spinning in place and re-entering his firm through the back door. I feel so... strong...

Enamoured by the possibilities his new stats presented him with, Brock was left feeling giddy as he climbed the stairs. This time, instead of heading toward the top floor, the place now being in utter shambles, Brock entered the middle floor, or the office block. There was nothing special about it, just that it was a place he was intimately familiar with, and that fact gave him comfort.

Plopping down into the spinning chair he proudly called his own, Brock attempted a few more experiments regarding the use of magic, though all of them resulted in failures. Sinking a little further into his seat, Brock opened his status menu once more and regarded the purpose of each stat, eager to ponder on his newly enhanced power.

From his somewhat limited knowledge, Brock understood that Strength and Agility quite frankly affected what they described; strength and speed. Dexterity was similar to Agility but involved finer details and reactions, maybe even perception if the vague feeling he got was correct. Constitution and Vitality he knew related to the regeneration or resilience of the body, though he wasn’t too clear on which did which.

He felt at the scar cutting across his abdomen, "I guess I could always try to find out..."

Brock laughed at himself a second later, his voice dripping sarcasm, "Yeah, you're funny man."

Intelligence and Wisdom though were bordering the realm of the immaterial, and therefore harder to notice a qualitative change in. Intelligence, as he had quickly found out, enhanced his actual academic intelligence, obviously. Though Wisdom was a bit more difficult to quantify, as he had no idea if the mental effects he was subtly noticing were from Intelligence or Wisdom itself.

Aside from a clearer head and high intelligence, Brock didn’t really notice much else.

Anyways, Brock felt himself drawn to the fact that his race was graded like everything else he had remembered the System mention in the void, as well as the clear indication that it was able to be levelled. While he assumed that the level under his ‘Ascendancy’, whatever that was, was basically an overall level or class level or some such, Brock had no idea what race-level would do.

Would increasing it better himself, make his body finer and his looks more eye-catching? Make it closer to perfection or raise it to a higher level of being? He had no clue, but he could certainly say he was excited to find out. For the first time since he had been plunged into the shithead System’s world, Brock was enjoying himself.

Nothing more comforting than capability I guess…

Idly, Brock considered what his next move was. He had been granted a considerable boost in combat potential, and while he was certain he was nowhere near of being capable of beating the Alpha yet, he felt somewhat confident in wiping the floor with the other wolves. Or at least fighting them on even footing. Although, if possible, he’d still avoid them like the plague.

The obvious path forward was to continue to track down the Source, even though his use of the Shard of Awakening hadn’t given him any direct boon or advantage toward finding it, apart from the brief feeling it had radiated in the realm of colours. He couldn’t say for sure, but he felt that the power the Shard had contained was the Original Life, or at least a diluted version of it.

Either way, it was enough that he’d be able to know it was the Source when he saw it.

With nothing else to check or do, Brock hauled some of the desks over to the stairway with his newfound Strength, hoping they’d be of use deterring or even blocking beasts from entering and catching him unawares. Sighing softly at his predicament, Brock settled back in his chair and opened his drawer, delighting as his stash of chocolates, like all the other foods he’d found so far, were oddly untouched by the ravages of time.

Doing his best to enjoy his dinner, Brock tore into his chocolate bars, finding his stash left almost empty afterwards, a newfound hunger revealing itself in the process. It seemed to him that having an enhanced body also came with its demerits.

Silently, Brock placed his face on the desk in front of him and prepared to rest for the night, his eyes already beginning to droop from the exhausting trials and tribulations he had been through during the course of the day.

Slowly, as the cool surface of the wood embraced his cheek, darkness began to snatch him away as he drifted off into slumber. He glanced up to the roof, attempting to pierce past the plaster and gaze upon the cruel machine ruling over his life.

“...Goodnight asshole.”

There was no reply.