Hundreds of years ago, in a time before we knew of it, in a place that we could not reach, mana descended. It was a mystical substance, used and studied by the most prominent of scholars.

By people that were trailblazers of their own time, of people that were so smart that they could have led a whole generation. A new era of technology, yet even they struggled to puzzle out the existence of mana.

For generations they tried, each and every discovery would be hindered by the same thing. That being that it was not consistent.

Where one experiment might tell of one conclusion another might conclude something entirely different. It stumped even the greatest of minds known to humankind.

But it was then, in this era of research, where everything was about mana and its uses that the end of an era came.

No one knew why they had come, nor how they had appeared. But in major places, the middle of the ocean, the middle of a major city, even just in the middle of nowhere.

It was always in a place rich with minerals, with materials. Why such a thing had happened, why these towers had descended so suddenly. No one knew and no one had even bothered to try and figure it out.

As this time was known as the era of strife, where humankind truly did come close to extinction. It was only for the efforts of those researchers, of their obsession with mana and its uses that the first human born able to use it instinctively came.

It was in that era that the first hunter came to be, he or she, we still did not know who they were. Brought their power to bear, and with it drove back the monsters that flooded through the towers. And when they no longer did, a campaign was set, to take the towers out.

Yet it only ended in failure. The first, the second, even the fiftieth floor. It was all conquered but after that, each grueling step took that many more lives.

Every hero and powerful hunter fell to those floors. And it was then that it was given up, only those brave enough to attempt so did so. And even they had never made it as far as those heroes had.

"In…"

"Inar…

"INARI!"

I startled awake, my head slammed against the brace of my chair and fumbled about. There was a moment in which I tried to reorient myself but it only turned into dizzy thoughts.

Enough that I barely even noticed the hand on my shoulder, a pulse of light and I was once more healthy.

It was merely grogginess from my sleep, of the dreams of history I was having. But it was enough to rattle me.

I had not had dreams as depressing as those in a while and to do it in class, where I was supposed to be attentive.

There was nothing I could do but yawn and stare directly at the board. At the teacher and her sullen glare.

There was a moment in which she gave me this pitying look, in which she called me to the floor. To solve some complicated problem.

For others that may be, but for me it was nothing more difficult than basic arithmetic.

"Correct, please go back to your seat."

Her voice was once more apathetic, a gaze that wandered to the clock and the clock only. As if waiting for the moment she could declare class was over and go home. Or whatever it was that she did among her free time.

And so, with this lull in class, in whence time slowed to a crawl, I looked inward, my senses grew two fold and I found the slow crawl of mana.

It was like a snail, in that it could not go any slower, no matter how much I forced there was no change in progress. Nothing that I could see and nothing that would show my efforts.

But I had long accepted that, no matter how much I wanted the contrary crude pragmatism broke through my optimism.

And so with a depressed sigh I let go of that focus, just in time to catch the tail end of the lecture. Of topics and subjects I had long since learnt.

It all came back to my mana, to how lackluster it was. To my rigorous studies that put me in the top percentage of the country, to my swordsmanship, polished to a tee. Yet all because of my mana.

All because of this crippling factor I was mocked, talked down to, as if even my greatest of achievements could not make up for the cripple that I was.

It was contrary, so contrary to the views I had known so well. The views I had held from a past half remembered.

Of the past I remembered it was one of merit, where those who succeeded did it by legitimate means, oh that was not to say that there was not some illegitimacy, but generally speaking it was those who had applied themselves to their field that succeeded not those that were born lucky.

All in order to shun those that were not born like that.

[Fusing…]

I felt eyes stare at the back of my head, a sense gained from hours upon hours of training, yet I ignored it, there was nothing to be done about stares of those kinds. Only ignorance could be shown.

I scurried through my things, packing notes after notes and pencil and pen, all into my bag that I then slung over my shoulder.

It grew heavy, not that even that was a bother to me. It was nothing against the burden that already lay over my shoulder.

A burden created by my family, those that had, even under the tests that had shown my incompetence in mana, had pressured me to grow further. Quoting their desire to disinherit me and abandon me at every turn.

If I were to be anyone else, any one that was not an old soul such as mine, then I would have broken. It would not have been a matter of if yet only when.

Yet even passed that I was strong, if not physically than mentally, I could endure the abuse. But at some point it had stopped being even that. It had become a physical restraint, one that died the noose around my neck.

A final test, one that would tell of my soon to be future, a midterm, and our first delve into the world of dungeons. A small danger compared to the towers that held monsters above even the best of humanity.

I was to be victorious, to place in the top one hundred. But to do that was impossible, if it was anywhere around the ten thousandth, or even a bit lower then maybe… maybe I would have been able to succeed but as I was now it was impossible.

As we were not competing against only the school but against the entire world, every score was recorded, every score was compared to each other.

And there were many I was better than, if only on account of sheer hard work. But it was only those.

As students with real talent, it was them that were my real competition. Even if they had not worked and lazed around on their ass for the whole of the year.

I still would not be confident.

But I still had to try.

And as I placed a sword and shield over my left and right hands respectively, I found myself staring at the portal. A controlled place.

…