In somewhere far far away in the universe.

"Okay, done"

"Everything's a-okay! Shall we get everything started?"

The person hidden by the darkness seems to be smiling while looking at his work of a grand masterpiece before a wisp of light came out of his body and flew away somewhere in the vast universe.

*****

Awakened humans..

They were called many things, from hunters to world travelers.

But they were most popularly known as Terrans, they appeared from out of nowhere just a day after abnormal portals, rifts, tears, or whatever you call it appeared all over the world, and not only that, there were unknown towering beings who walked out of these said portal while covered in some kind of armor from head to toe and would stand guard beside the portals like statues.

And other than them, no other alien beings came out.

In fact, the Earth Humans are the actual aliens instead as they were transported into a world full of magic just as the phenomena on Earth started, and there were a total of three hundred thousand Earth Humans that disappeared that day and arrived in that world.

And that world was called Terrane.

A world ten times greater than Earth and only has a single large continent where many races live on!

From humans, beast people, dwarves, elves, and many more!

These people gained abilities when they appeared in that world through the help of Guides, who administrates what players call the gaming system, a thing very similar to characters inside an RPG game.

It's like a floating screen that shows them their levels and skills.

And through that, the Earthlings are able to navigate in that world.

Some took the path of a Warrior.

Some people who were already proficient in the bow on Earth became Archers.

And some even applied to become Priests of certain religions in that world.

But the most popular profession that most people took was to become Wizards!

Because magic is life!

While some who were interested in other things became Chefs because they are also chefs on Earth, and some became Alchemist while some became Blacksmiths.

They leveled up and gained abilities, they brought things to the modern world like gold coins and even potions that had superb effects!

But the one that truly attracted the eyes of many people are the Mana Crystals!

These tiny little crystals that came from killing monsters are able to replace electricity which made them really popular.

A mana crystal from a Goblin is able to power one street light for a whole twenty-four hours!

Just imagine what a large mana crystal can do!

Powering up an entire power grid of a country wouldn't be impossible!

And this discovery ushered in a new age for the advancement of technology!

And people who made a lot of money out of this are the Alchemist, Blacksmiths, and the few Magic Engineers!

It was because they are the only ones able to create something that's compatible with the use of a mana crystal.

And…

I once dreamed of becoming like them, and now I'm already thirty years old and two years have already passed by since that shocking event.

And now the world has changed a lot since.

And every year, there seem to be a thousand people randomly selected to be able to step into that world.

In the end, I gave up becoming a Terran with no luck of getting selected and instead started farming and fishing.

"Michael! Come and take a break son!"

His mother called out to him from under a tree beside the dirt road.

"Yes~ coming!" Michael answered while wiping the sweat off his face and after that, he started making his way towards them.

"Take it easy son, we don't want you getting sick, okay?" his mother said worriedly as she gave him a cup of fruit juice she made.

"It's okay, I need to work as much as I can so I can save some money for marriage, pay for the land, and for when Alice goes to Uni, right?" said Michael as he took the fruit juice from his mother while wiping the sweat off his face.

"Awww, look honey, our son is all grown up now" his mother couldn't help but feel touched.

"Geez~ of course, he's all grown up now. After all, he takes after me" said his father with a bit of pride while rubbing his nose with his finger.

"Oh please, I'm pretty sure he takes after me, and don't worry about the land son. We can slowly pay for it, and we can harvest the crops starting next month"

Then his parents suddenly started arguing about who Michael takes after, and the said person can only smile bitterly to himself while taking small sips of his fruit juice.

After taking a break, the husband and wife decided to go back home while Michael decided to stay behind and brought his fishing rod towards the nearby lake just a couple of hundred meters away from their home.

Michael placed some bait onto his hook and threw it in the middle of the calm lake.

Then suddenly, Michael felt a powerful tug on his fishing rod that he quickly pulled it upwards for the hookset.

"Holy crap, this is bi....g!"

Then from out of nowhere, Michael suddenly felt his body levitating from the ground, before he got pulled forwards and started skidding through the top of the lake water.

"Ahhh! What..is...happening!"

Michael started screaming in horror as every word he uttered was met by water entering his mouth.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Help!!!"

*****

"No~ my rod! My expensive rod! How can you leave me!?"

Michael started crying while hugging his fishing rod that was broken into two.

"Fish...Damn you!!!"

A couple of minutes later.

Michael, who is drenched from head to toe can be seen digging a small pit, and where he started burying his fishing rod and filled it up soon after.

"We've only been with each other for three months...but it was the best time of my life. I won't forget you, my love...fishing rod"

Michael gave a short but heartfelt goodbye before he walked away and started making his way home after he got washed up from the other side of the bank.

"Ahh, that rod was expensive, and I wonder what kind of monster fish that was?"

Michael shivered in horror just thinking of the particular event that happened to him earlier.

"It couldn't be a monster, right?" said Michael, a little worried as he stared at the small lake before him with anxiety.

"But there's no Dungeon Rift reported around here though so it's impossible that it could have been a monster. Maybe it was just a really big monster fish that had never been discovered before and had been sleeping in the lake all along?"

But at the same time, Michael also brushed it off because this place would have been a battlefield by now if there really was a dungeon hanging around here.

Dungeon Rift, a very familiar term for gamers and something very similar to those portals that lead to Terrane.

The only difference is that they can appear randomly on Earth, be it inside your bathroom relieving yourself, or inside your bedroom while having sex.

But the point is that they are dangerous because these dungeon rifts are connected to somewhere.

Where monsters on the other side of the rift who happen to stumble upon them, and out of curiosity would pass through them and arrive on Earth.

But the most dangerous Dungeon Rifts are those that appear in populated areas because those monsters would wreak havoc upon seeing the humans, and start attacking them out of instinct.

One large incident was a dungeon rift that appeared in the middle of the City of Los Angeles and devastated the city, and if it wasn't for the fast response of the US Army and American Terrans that came to help back then, millions of humans would have died that day as there were Orcs and even Wyverns that appeared and wreaked havoc from the skies.

And there also Dungeon Rifts that appear in places where there are no human habitants, and upon discovery are easier to control because there won't be humans that authorities need to worry about, but the ecosystem of that place would be severely impacted because of the appearance of monsters.

This is the reason why armies are deployed around the country, especially the countryside where they would patrol the forest and mountainous regions once every week to inspect the land if there were any large changes to the ecosystem.

And fortunately, bullets are able to kill most monsters like goblins etc., while there are a few that's not where they would need the help of Terrans.

And Michael lives in the countryside, a few kilometers away from the nearest city.

He knows that there's no dungeon rift around here because there would have been sightings already as monsters tend to roam around.

"Hmm...I'll just report what happened to the army just in case"

Michael wanted to look around just in case, but at the same time, he was also afraid as he knew that he would just die on the off chance that there's really a dungeon rift here and meet a monster.

Swoosh!

"Wha-ahh!"

And just as Michael had turned around, there was suddenly a small shadow that pounced towards him from the nearby brush, startling Michael so bad that he fell on his butt.

But out of instinct, Michael stretched his hands out and caught it!

"A...cat?"

Michael's mind turned blank when he saw the little thing in his hands.

"Ha-ong?"

The furry little thing with orange fur with black and silver stripes around its body tilted its head in a cute manner.

But then, Michael quickly noticed something on the cat as his face slowly turned into horror because the furry little creature in his hands has a small horn in the middle of its forehead!

"Oh my god, it's a mons- argh!"

Michael was just about to throw the furry creature away when it suddenly bit the flesh between his thumb and index finger, and it lightly jumped away after that.

"You-"

Ding!

Michael was about to get up and cursed at the furry little thing when something shocking appeared before his eyes.

"Hmm?"

"T-this is...! Oh my god!"

[You have successfully contracted "Nature's Guardian".

You have awakened and have been chosen!

You are now able to travel to Terran World.

You have become a "Sentinal" through your contract with "Nature's Guardian"]

"Awakened!? Sentinel!?"

Swoosh!

The furry creature pounced towards Michael where the latter hastily caught it in his hands.

"Ha-ong~!"