Five years. Five years since the biggest change in our world’s history. No… maybe the biggest change in the history of every world. The day that Dale appeared. The man behind the Goddess, whose very existence caused society to move to the verge of collapse.

Everyone knew Ashley, even though none of us had seen her. She was in our dreams and our hearts from the day we were born. Theories about her varied from place to place. Some thought that she created the world to grant us life. Others thought that maybe she was one of our own people, who sacrificed herself during the last ice age to offer us the warmth to survive.

However, everyone agreed on one thing. One simple fact. There was no higher power than the Goddess, who watched over us all. This one idea had been firmly in our hearts for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years.

And in one day, that one irrefutable fact was turned on its head. Some people wanted to claim it a lie, that what everyone in the world had seen wasn’t really Ashley. But in our hearts, we knew it was true. She sat on a throne beneath another, someone who looked completely different from us.

I was only a teenager when it happened, just thirteen years old. However, Dale’s appearance itself wasn’t what caused the biggest change that day. No, it was what happened next. When he proved his power by opening up a new strength to our world. The strength of levels and classes, quests and kingdoms.

Even today, we know that the system that he gave us still has more to be discovered. Unfortunately, our attention was forced to be divided. When Dale appeared, he spoke of a gate, a gate that had been laid in Salsburo, Nuranda in Nemra.

For the next few nights after the gate had appeared, everyone evacuated Salsburo. Not a single soul wanted to risk going near the gate. And then, three nights later, the Sky Citadel appeared in the skies above Nemra’s capital.

Our president had been engulfed by a strange fog that sprang up from the floor and vanished, only to be returned to us several hours later. During that time, many forces attempted to assault the Sky Citadel, launching cannons and missiles at it in the hopes of avenging the president we were all sure had perished.

Each and every attack was shot down. Archaic cannons emerged from the walls of the citadel blasting a golden energy we later came to know as ki at anything that drew closer. Ships were shot down, missiles detonated in the air, and bullets fell harmlessly on an invisible barrier surrounding the flying fortress.

When the president was returned to us, he spoke of how he had met Dale personally. He had spoken with Ashley, who had assured him that Dale did not mean anyone any harm. Dale’s only request was that we grow stronger, so that we can fight the enemies who will one day appear.

According to the words Ashley told the president, Dale was able to forestall the arrival of the enemies for many years, but this protection had its limits. While he worked to prevent their arrival, it was up to us to grow. And with this message delivered, the Sky Citadel vanished from the world again.

Instead, a new danger appeared. The gate in Salsburo was activated, but not from our side. A single creature appeared in Desbar, one that we had never seen before. Its body was short and green, sharp pointed fangs filling its mouth.

It took us six nights to kill this creature, and in that time it had killed no less than five hundred of our own. Its hide was like armor, its claws tearing people apart with the greatest ease. Bullets barely put a dent in it, and only when an entire squadron of police officers had been dispatched did they manage to bombard it from above until it died.

Those officers were among the first to receive classes and levels. They became our archers, our heroes. At first, their bodies did not show much change, but as police officers continued to do their duties, they soon discovered the power of levels.

As they grew stronger, they grew more bold as well. Some turned corrupt, believing themselves unstoppable after they gained a few levels. Others wanted to go through the gate to defend it on the other side.

However, another change began to happen in those officers as well. The church called it Ashley’s punishment for their arrogance, as they had been stripped of their ability to fly. With the increase of their levels, their bodies had become too heavy for their wings to carry them. A police officer that couldn’t fly had no business on patrol, so they were quickly assigned to desk work.

Infuriated by this unjust response, many law enforcement officers, and even some army soldiers charged the gate. When they found the two keys, they slide the one with the whirlpool icon into the slot, transporting themselves to another world.

And that was the last we saw of them. This was thirty nights after the appearance of the gate. And soon, the second monster appeared. This one was much larger than the first, a black skinned wolf with diamond spikes protruding from its back. When it howled, anyone without proper protection nearby simply… dropped dead.

This time we were more prepared, yet the hunt still took two full weeks. Against this diamondback wolf, bullets had no effect at all. Only the artillery shell from a tank was able to bring it down.

Knowing that they had to act, the army declared a quarantine on the state of Salsburo. Although they had found themselves unable to destroy the gate, they were able to build a fortress around it. Automated guns were prepared to fire at anything that stepped through.

After that, the gate was silent for another month. We thought that the military might be suppressing information to not startle the public, but the gate had simply not activated. By that point, even the regular civilians had begun to gain levels. We became scholars, blacksmiths, tailors, and even some priests began to appear.

In the fourth month after the gate had arrived, the fort around it fell. There was no explosion, no sounds of a battle. Everyone inside was simply… dead. The corpses had been chewed up, looks of fear on everyone’s faces.

We never learned what was responsible for that massacre, only that it left as quietly as it arrived. At this point, people were considering abandoning Nemra entirely, and fleeing across the seas. I myself was thankful that I lived in the Lenan Union, where I only had to hear about this over the internet.

The next activation was six months after the gate’s arrival. This time it was no monster, but a group of people. Their race was recognizable as one of the ones following Dale, so they were not immediately fired upon.

Instead, they were taken into custody, forced to undergo weeks of attempting to communicate. It was only natural that they didn’t speak the same language as we did, after all. But without anyone that could act as a translator, the process was long. If we had known about the existence of quests back then, perhaps everything would have been handled more efficiently. But that system was not known to us, yet.

Once we were able to set up a basic dialog between ourselves and the kitsune, we learned where they were from. Their world was not the one represented by the whirlpool, but the one represented by the card. According to them, our world’s key had the symbol of wings.

From them, we learned that only the first and weakest of the monsters we had encountered had come from their world. They had never heard of the ones that had followed later. In fact, their world was similarly suffering from the monsters appearing from the third world, the world which was no doubt the strongest among the three at the time.

As we began to sink into despair, the Goddess gave us hope. She sent word through her priests that she wanted us to establish a guild, an organization to defend Desbar from the monsters that lurk within the gate. This was the birth of the Legion, the group of hunters trained to use the strange new powers gifted to us.

And now… five years later, as I turned eighteen, I was finally qualified to join the Legion. I flew across the ocean not by plane, but by the power of my own wings, using the strange power called ki to support them. This was both a test and a way to train, as foreigners were forced to rely on their own power to arrive at the testing grounds if they wanted to join. Unfortunately… the test was also conducted during the day, requiring people to adjust their sleep cycles and come equipped with their own sunglasses.

That wasn’t to say that Nemrans had it easy, since I had heard they had their own trials to pass before they could qualify. As I felt my wings growing sore, I saw the welcoming point on the edge of Salsburo, a wide open field where people had already begun to line up. With a brief moment of hesitation, I checked my status window.

It took me a moment to quickly add up the levels in my head, but afterwards I breathed a sigh of relief. I had just barely met the level requirement of fifty to enroll in the Legion. When I left Lenan, I was lacking a few levels, but I knew from my research that I could gain levels both as a monk and a scout while undergoing the journey.

If I was still short after all this time, I would have to fly around a few more cities most likely. But if I did that, I might miss this year’s entrance exam. Waiting an extra year wouldn’t be that bad, but I had nothing to return to. When I told my mother of my desire to join the Legion, she cast me out of the house with tears running down her face.

I couldn’t say that I blamed her, really. If there was one thing that was common knowledge about the Legion… it was that they rarely returned from a mission. And those that did return were either far stronger than when they left, or crippled. In her eyes, my desire to join the Legion may have been the same as telling her I wanted to kill myself.

Shaking my head, I removed those thoughts from my mind as I tilted my wings, swooping down to land at the field. There were a number of lines formed already upon my arrival, with some people old and others my own age. A total of six lines, each with a single person at the end holding up a small scanner.

Ever since the appearance of levels, scientists across the globe had been trying to study the strange force that bestowed extra strength upon people. This device was one that I had only heard about from my research, a cutting edge technology that gauged the level of whoever it scanned. Without delaying, I immediately moved to step into a line to wait my turn.

Unsurprisingly, there were more than a few people who came here without the proper ability. Whenever someone like that had their turn, the instructors would have a sour face before yelling at them, directly kicking them out the field. Some argued, saying that the device was faulty, that they were every bit as qualified to be here as anyone else, but they didn’t listen.

For those that resisted, soldiers came to apprehend them, arresting them and dragging them off. I shook my head as I watched them go, simply taking a step forward whenever the line moved. As I neared the front, I felt someone move up behind me. “Nervous?”

The sudden feminine voice caused me to turn around, seeing a young woman standing behind me. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think she were the Goddess descended. However, she looked a few years too young, barely my own age. Grey horns rose up from the side of her head, poking through her red hair. Her green eyes practically shined at me through her black shades as she looked on curiously.

Compared to her, I couldn’t be more normal. My horns were short for my age, my arms thin and my body short enough that I barely came up to her chest. Part of why I wanted to join the Legion was because I knew that gaining levels would help me grow stronger. With my body that was unable to develop properly, this was my one chance to live a normal, even a successful life.

“Kid?” She asked, a hint of concern in her tone. “You sure you’re really old enough to be here.”

I groaned indignantly when she asked that. I knew my stature made me seem younger than most. Instead of throwing a fit, I pulled out my wallet to show her my ID. “I turned eighteen three months ago.” I responded, causing her to blink her eyes in surprise.

“Ah, sorry, I didn’t really mean…” She seemed flustered, unable to properly respond, before letting out a heavy breath. “Let’s try this again. I’m Ashara Leyrin. And yes, I know about my name. It’s been a family joke since I was a kid.” I was about to speak up when I noticed the line in front of me moving again. My turn was up next.