Garreth and Alberton shared a confused look, before the scholar went on and nonchalantly doomed Alex with a simple question. One he could have thought of before, if he paid more attention to the ways in which skills can be obtained. Not that it would have resulted in a different outcome, since he couldn't have done anything to change his status within such short notice either way.

"So? What about before? You want me to believe that you never managed to get a skill in your whole life just because you didn't get points to buy some? What are you, a rock? Every 10 year-old has at least some skills, even if they're just basic ones like Cold Resistance or Running."

Hearing this, Alex felt exhilarated. That means I can in fact gain skills just through training! Not very quickly apparently, but better than being stuck with nothing other than unusable points... Quickly catching a smile from forming on his lips, a decidedly unfitting expression, given Garrets following accusations.

"So you're seriously using some skill to modify your status, only to hide literally everything? Hah. To think that I almost fell for his shit. How the hell did an idiot like you get such a skill. Tsk... hides every skill... idiot..."

Continuing to mumble under his breath about Alex's idiocy the captain went to pick up some sturdy, very uncomfortable looking ropes from some tent, apparently used for storage, before being interrupted by Alex, having given up his charade and deciding to just come clean. Well, mostly clean. Not being able to find another solution, Alex told the men to have only just gotten the System when he woke up, receiving an unamused grunt from the grumbling man. Alberton, on the other hand, seemed to be seriously contemplating his claim, giving him some hope.

Seeing his companions look, Garreth questioned Albertons thoughts. "What's with that look? You're not really gonna believe that bullshit, are you?"

"Not really, no. Something about his story does strike me as familiar though. What was it again..." Taking his sweet time while letting his audience wait, to garner their interest, Alberton chose the perfect moment to reveal his thoughts. "Ah! The Grown! That's it! Though there are some inconsistencies, now that I think about it."

"The what now? You sure you're not just yourself growing... senile? Buahah." Finding his joke overly funny, Garreth began to laugh, although calling it a roar might have been more appropriate.

Alex flinched from the sheer mind-numbing noise resounding in his ears. In front of him stood Alberton with a frown plastered onto his face, arms crossed, certainly not amused at the poor attempt at a joke, taking it as an insult to his prized knowledge, accumulated over dozens of years of hard work and study. Not wanting to stoop down to the level of this fool though, he decided to just ignore his terrible sense of humor, like he always did, and continue his monologue.

"I have studied a great deal about nearly every topic imaginable, read more books than even that brick-head over there could possibly carry, even if mostly focusing on the theoretical application of skills and magic, and talked to people much smarter than all of this camp combined, an obvious exception aside."

Waiting for an appropriate amount of time to allow these meat-heads to realize the true extent of his intelligence and wisdom before continuing on with his monologue, Alberton only received blank stares. As he usual did when he informed others about the efforts he undertook for his studies. When people reacted like that, he took it as an attest to their incapability to realize and show proper respect for the work he put in to deliver their inferior minds the knowledge they sought from him.

"But one particularly interesting story, due to it's sheer absurdity standing in stark contrast with the fact that all of the phenomena mentioned within have been proven to indeed be possible or even witnessed many a time, was about origins. Specifically, the origins of monsters and quite possibly all creatures, including humanity! Nobody can really prove the accuracy of the original story, but some of the phenomena have been observed and documented, describing creatures sprouting out of the ground, encapsulated within crystals of some sort. These so called Grown, for that is what it apparently looks like when they emerge out of the earth, are thought to represent the progenitors of a species, at least when the first of their kind appear. Afterwards, they would go on to reproduce in the same fashion every living being would, thus having lead to the current population of monsters and other creatures, including humans. As for those crystals, there are many theories regarding their origin, how they work and their purpose, if they even have one."

"Wow, remarkable. Your infinite wisdom and intellect is only trumped by your incredible ego. What's that got to do with him and his bullshit story?" Garreth interjected sarcastically, hoping to bring the old wizard back on track, or at least make him shut up, causing Alberton to beam with pride before the captain finished off his praise with a snide remark, making him quickly revert to his annoyance at the uncultured moron he was forced to call his superior, although only in name.

Considering whether he should just stop bothering with his attempt to enlighten this unworthy fool, he glanced at Alexander. The young man seemed so convinced of his story that he would feel bad to leave him to deal with this idiot on his own. Alberton could already imagine the outcome, so he quickly went on with his attempt to dissuade Garreth from acting too rash, his growing annoyance resounding in his voice. "I was just about to tell you, before you so rudely interrupted me with your usual single-mindedness! So, the Grown..."

With that, Alberton the wise began to narrate the saga of the Grown. A long and boring story, given that it's intended purpose was closer to a historical documentation than a fantastical tale.

Long ago, before the descent of the System, the forefathers of humanity emerged from a sea of blood and bones. Weak and unprepared for the horrors awaiting them in this world, they struggled. Not many would be sufficiently capable to survive on their own, or lucky enough to avoid the terrbile fate befalling those who had the misfortune of encountering their fellow residents in this unhospitable world.

Creatures so horrendously misfigured that it was questionable wether they really could be deemed as such in the first place, more akin to limbs of various species combined with masses of blood and gore. Things that should have never been allowed to exist.

It was a time of death and despair. Humanity fought for generations, slowly building increasingly larger settlements, paying dearly with their blood for every inch of safety. These locations were maintained and developed over hundreds of generations into the fortified cities humanity takes residency in today.

Certainly not without setbacks. The so-called time of madness, marking the descent of the System, threatened to bring civilization to fall. All over the world humans would be born with permanent mental issues, causing them to hear undecipherable whispers or other strange sounds, even if they were deaf. Others would see flashes of lights, coming and going as if they where never there to begin with. Some unlucky fellows would be doubly punished by fate.

The resulting panic at this supposed disease was fueled by the fear of the unknown and of the growing number of these unstable individuals, often harming themselves or others during combat due to their inability to differentiate between reality and illusion, causing a steady decline in the number of soldiers capable of defending their homes, only increasing the inhabitants worries.

Contrary to what might be assumed, the word 'madness' in time of madness did neither refer to the growing number of poor souls tormented by their hallucinations, nor to the ensuing panic causing humanity's fast approaching decline. It stands for the madness resulting from all of the above many generations after the initial appearance of these symptoms, when civilization degenerated back into small communities, more akin to tribes. A life not dissimilar to that of their forefathers, thousands of years ago.

This was the madness.

In their despair, a new hope arose. The cause of their misery, the Cursed, the very same beings that had once doomed their species and were hunted down wherever they appeared, before it spread to all of humanity within a single generation and made any attempts to erradicate them meaningless. Cursed by previous generation, now they were blessed by the System.

Within a single year the remainder of their population was witness to the Systems descent. Slowly at first, some people started reporting that the strange whispers changed into voices and the lights into words, taking up speed until the truth spread to all of the remaining humans, allowing them to finally perceive the System.

At first they did not profit much from their newfound reality, for it only allowed them to visualize vague details about themselves, not granting them much of an advantage over the horrors of the wild, even if over time those beasts became less grotesque than the hideous amalgamations of biomass witnessed by their forefathers, seemingly having adapted slightly to their surroundings.

But the real wonders of the System were yet to come.

During the coming generations the System adapted itself to it's new hosts, bestowing upon them previously unimaginable powers. At first, it allowed those few highly skilled individuals to further increase their strength past their physical limits, to better contend against the dangers posed by their enemies, altering the structure of their bodies on a fundamental level by gaining additional Stats through training. Over time those advantages became more pronounced by the advent of Skills, abilities gained through remarkable effort, allowing them to achieve new heights.

Later on came the possibility to aquire more Stats by spending Statpoints, gained by defeating strong monsters, and to just buy godly powers with Skillpoints, allowing their wielder to manipulate the world with their thoughts in various, unimaginable ways.

The emergence of Levels was a comparatively disappointing turn of events. Limiting the amount of Stat- and Skillpoints one was able to gain from opponents to an almost insufferable degree. Now, one had to fight against beasts of an equal or higher Level, only made worse by the fact that monsters were much stronger than humans of similar Levels to begin with. This in turn necessitated the now common hunting parties to vastly increase in size, requiring dozens of warriors to defeat a single monster while still allowing most participants to gain a minimal amount of Experience.

In the end, the System gave humanity the strength it required to rise to it's former glory and even surpass it, even if it caused it's fall in the first place. Within barely a few generations civilization was back on track. Much faster than the thousands of years of struggle the first humans underwent, only for the result of their efforts to go to waste within a few hundred years.

"I don't see it..." Garreth said, confusion at Albertons story apparent on his face.

With a suspicious glint in his eyes, the scholar inquired what he meant. When he received his expected reply he had to give his everything not to strangle this imbecile. "I don't see how that's related to that guy's bullshit..."

"Do I have to spell it out for you? Fine, would you at least pay attention this time?!" Lowering his raised voice, not managing to hold back a sigh, he continued. "Alexander and the Grown have in common that they both appeared out of nowhere and have no memory of how their lives up to that point. The only dissimilarity is his ability to perceive the System, not shared by any of the Grown found to date. Do you see it now?!"

"That just proves that he's not a Grown for me."

"Indeed, that could be the case. But what if he is one, capable of using the System despite all odds? What if that could lead to a deeper understanding about the origins of the System and how it works in the first place? Or maybe even how to modify it?! Just imagine all the possibilities!" Alberton blazingly answered, so engrossed in his day-dreaming that he almost didn't notice the man trying to get his attention.

"Yes?"

"I can't use it though..." Alex stated hesitantly, hoping that his decision to reveal the truth, in case the fanatic scholar wanted to cut him up to study him in-depth, turned out as correct. Not that it would have remained a secret for long anyway, considering the fervorous look in his eyes.

This left the verbose man speechless. All of his hopes and dreams crushed with a single sentence, gone with the wind. Karma, considering his previous questions about Alex's non-existent skills. A muffled sound could be heard in the distance, Garreth trying to hold back his laughter at his supposed comrades plight, before coming to a sudden stop.

His mood taking a turn for the worse he took heavy steps towards Alex, rope in one hand, preparing to bind his captive with it to avoid trouble further down the line. "Enough with this shit. Already wasted almost an hour just to listen to the story of an idiot and the lies of this guy!" Suppressing a slight chuckle at his own joke and successfuly maintaining his stoic expression, the captain continued his statement. "You told me it was a Reaper Wolf, so you can see the System. And you even got levels! C'mon, can't you think of something better?! It's just getting stupid now."

Seems like I'm gonna get more intimate with those ropes, if I don't do something quickly... Ugh... One last try. Having mostly come to terms with the prospect of being tied up and not seeing much of an alternative, Alex began his last attempt to avoid the ropes, trying to sound as desperate as possible. "But it's the truth! I don't know if that Grown thing is what's happened, but I can't use the System! I just know the stuff it says, and I can't interact with anything! That's why I don't have any skills! And I also have no memory of my old world! I just woke up next to that abyss and saw that thing! It died from the fall and I..." He didn't have much hope after noticing that the muscular man seemingly didn't even listen to his words. That just made the sudden interruption all the more shocking.

"Wait." Alberton demanded with a stern voice and serious expression, unlike anything the scholar had demonstrated up until that moment. Garreth, equally confused by his sudden change in demeanor, halted in his steps, turning towards him with a questioning look.