-Six Years Post Saturation Completion CONT-
The war against Humanity was…for lack of a better word, Earth Shattering.
Overnight, entire cities fell as the Other Races descended on nearby Perm-Instances, wiping out any opposition before taking over said Instance.
Everything about them seemed…superior. Although the Ranks were similar across the board, there was something different about the other Races, as if they had naturally higher stats and abilities.
Even their Talents appeared to flow more naturally in use, like they had been using them their entire lives, whereas humans tended to view their Talents as tools instead of extensions of their being.
Seeing such vast differences between Races, no matter the race, brought up a dialog in the scientific and Pro-Ranker communities, bringing along a more in-depth study of two specific lines of text in our Status.
{Race: Basic Human}
{Race Rank: First Classification}
With the war Raging on and bodies dropping on both sides, it was inevitable that Humanity would get their hands on the enemy's corpses at some point.
When it finally did, our eyes were opened…or should I say the eyes of the old fogeys from the previous generations' since everyone from my gen or younger had already assumed physically and metaphysically, the other races had a leg up on us as humans, as it was a popular topic in fantasy.
Using a combination of biotechnological scans and Arkadia's resources, the truth about the Race lines came to light, and as before, it was the Elven Race that took center stage.
Specimen One:
{Race: Basic Woodland Elf}
{Race Rank: First Classification}
Specimen Two
{Race: Woodland Elf }
{Race Rank: Second Classification}
Specimen Three
{Race: High Woodland Elf }
{Race Rank: Third Classification}
Three different sets of data were on display, all three from the analytical scans of either captured or killed enemies.
Furthermore, the three specimens all had different classifications and even racial names.
Through this data, a storm of theories swirled around the internet and news media; tag lines about Humanity being weak or the Evolution of Race became prominent news articles or blogs online, and it wasn't until someone correctly "Guessed" the proper command that Arkadia gave more information.
Over the years, it was common knowledge that Arkadia was a fickle mistress when it came to spilling its secrets.
If you didn't have a VERY specific command prompt to give, you would receive ZERO feedback. In fact, there were entire forums and subforums of people whose sole purpose was figuring out what DID and DIDN'T work as command prompts.
Sitting inside my one-room log cabin, browsing the internet on my Ark-phone…HOLD UP!
I should probably explain that really quickly. So when Humanity first began diving into Instances, everyone was quick to realize certain levels of technology couldn't work in the highly saturated particle environment.
Thus, as with everything, the masses turned to the Arkadia shop, and after cobbling together pieces and bits of tech from the MISC Shop, boom, the First Gen Ark-phone was born.
Visually, it wasn't that different from a Robo-Cell or an A-Phone; however, internally, it was like something from the far-reaching future.
While it couldn't make calls or even send text messages inside an Instance, it still allowed offline access to the internet for things such as using Maps, looking up items, or even Monsters.
Now, the thing about Ark-phones is that, unlike smartphones of the past, no one company could control it, as it was inherently linked to Arkadia, where you would pay a small amount of coins monthly for service.
As for the devices themselves, there were hundreds of companies that made uniformly custom versions, some better than others for one reason or another, so the Smartphone wars continued as they had for years.
Anyway, the main point of my telling you is that if you had enough tech know-how and were good with building, it wouldn't be impossible to make an untraceable device, such as the one in my hands.
Sure, it wasn't pretty and was practically held together with rubber bands and duct tape, but it got the job done.
'Sigh, they were quicker to the uptake than I expected…' I thought while scrolling through a document listing out around 20 different command prompts to access what was apparently a hidden feature of Arkadia.
'Arkadia, open the Racial Trait, Progress, and Evolution panel.'
Before my eyes, my panel transformed from its static black box with gold letters to a crimson screen with bright silver lettering and framing.
[Racial Trait, Progress, and Evolution]
{Current Race: Basic Human}
{Current Race Rank: First Classification}
{Racial Trait: 1:1 Level Progress Gain.}
{Racial Progress: 52%}
{Available Racial Evolutions: 0}*Please Reach 100% Progress to generate a list of Racial Evolutions*
'52%...that's lackluster…' I thought before scrolling through the commands and finding one I wanted to use.
'Arkadia, give me a detailed description of how to increase my Racial Evolution Progress.'
[As a First Classification Ranked Being, there are multiple ways to increase your Progress, with the easiest being increasing your Talent Rank and the hardest being DNA collection from other beings.]
[The reason Increasing your Talent Rank raises your Racial Progress is simple: you are filtering copious amounts of Particles through your body with each use of your Talent, refining your DNA in the process.]
"Tsss, alright, didn't expect that." Thinking aloud, I opened up my Status panel and checked my Talent Growth Rate before swiftly closing the panel and getting up.
'If I compare the situation to that of novels and other franchises, then the best way is always the most complicated way…which means it's time to go to war, I guess.' Baring that thought in mind, I reached into my inventory and withdrew my combat gear.
**The Book Cover has the outfit for reference if you want a visual representation**
My gear was a pitch black with red accents hybridized outfit made from a combination of monster leather and metal plating meant for optimal protection and flexibility.
With the full-body suit in place, I moved on to my vampbrace-style gloves, which were more like a lightweight gauntlet. I say that because the main difference between gloves and gauntlets is one is meant for combat, and mine definitely was, as the fingers were reinforced with strong Gamma Rank metals, turning my fingers into razor-sharp claws instead.