The present day world is quite different from what it used to be, continents now having unrecognizable shapes and environments, maps aren't near as accurate as they were. With a large part of land under the control of both animals and creatures having mutated and emanated from the portals, many countries were lost for good, with close to no hope of gaining them back.
Fortunately, humans were able to regroup and fight back to barely keep their place on earth, having now successfully regained enough land to build various cities, even if they were constantly under the threat of monsters.
While they were able to have vast cities constantly rising, there also was a large number of small villages struggling to even survive one more day.
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October 26th, year 2190, somewhere near what used to be Canada.
"Dyrus! Hurry up or else mom is gonna be mad at us!"
Within one of these villages, was a young girl, no older than 12, running towards a small hut that seemed like it would break appart from the slightest gust of wind.
"Give me two minutes! I need to finish practicing!"
A boy around the age of 10 could be seen swinging around a stick vigorously. Even though today was his tenth birthday, he didn't skip out on training, for it was his only hope of achieving his dream, gaining powers. That's right, the youngster, Dyrus, was born without mana or internal energy and hasn't been able to accumulate any form of energy ever since his birth. The village doctor said it might have been due to his mother not having been able to eat properly during her pregnancy, and so his body was too weak to house any form of energy. So, once he became old enough, he started training his body, in hope of one day being able to be lucky and become an energy user.
After a couple of minutes, Dyrus finally put down his stick, he usually would have trained for longer but since it was his tenth birthday, his parents decided to give him a special present this year. As he was walking towards his home he wondered what his parents could have gotten him.
Once he was in front of the door, he tried reaching for the knob, but it suddenly turned before he could even touch it. A shadow quickly came out of the door and reached for his hand, pulling him inside the pitch black insides of the hut. As surprised as he was, Dyrus didn't react, as he knew the person who brought him inside was the same one who was running outside mere moments ago, his sister, Jurie. Even though he knew what was happening, he still couldn't help but shake in excitement, this was the first time his parents actually got him something other than a muffin for his birthday.
A soft voice came out of the darkness, asking him to sit down on the floor, as they didn't have the leisure of having chairs. Shortly after he sat down, a flame suddenly lit up from the middle of the room, illuminating the surroundings devoid of much furniture. His parents and sister could be seen standing around him, his mother holding a very poorly made muffin that had a lit candle on top, and his father also held something covered by a broken down piece of cloth.
"Happy birthday my dear!"
His mother came towards him and gave him the muffin, which was barely the size of a bite. Dyrus then blowed the candle, making the soft flame go out, and his sister opened the door again, letting the outside light flow in.
After having carefully degusted the bite sized muffin, his father came forward with the piece of cloth in his hands.
"Here is your gift son, since we got your sister a necklace for her tenth birthday, we thought you also should be getting something for yours, I hope you like it."
Dyrus's father then handed the piece of cloth to him, an expectant glint in his eyes.
Dyrus slowly opened up the cloth, revealing a copper dagger.
"What!? How did you get this dad? I thought we didn't have a blacksmith in the village!"
In the current age, most small villages like theirs did not have access to any form of metal tools, since no one knew how to manipulate metal or even where to procure the materials needed for it.
"We indeed don't have a blacksmith, I was lucky enough to find this deep within the forest, I think an outsider might have dropped it there."
Dyrus felt complicated. His father, just like at least one person from each family in the village, was the one to go hunting and gathering resources in the nearby forest. He would definitely have more use for this dagger than he would, especially since it would be a lot better than the stone one he was using.
Just as Dyrus was about to express his thoughts, his father cut him off.
"Don't worry about me, as from today, you will be coming with me in the outer parts of the forest to train."
His father's statement shocked him. Never had he imagined that he was going to be allowed to go hunting with him this early, even though he always bothered his father to bring him along on his trips. Before he could say anything, his father continued.
"We will be starting tomorrow morning, so be sure to get enough rest today."
His family then left the hut, leaving Dyrus alone to settle his emotions and rest for the next day.
The next morning, Dyrus woke up at the brink of dawn, his excitement nearly overwhelming him. He dressed himself up, before going outside to meet his father, who was already geared up. He had a bow made out of vines and branches alongside a stone dagger by his waist. he was holding onto a second smaller bow, which was given to Dyrus as soon as he arrived.
"Get ready, we need to leave as soon as possible if we want to be back before night."
Dyrus then strapped the bow to his back before taking a wooden quiver laying behind the hut and filling it with some pre-made arrows. Once he was done, he came back to the front where his father was waiting.
"Alright let's go pray before leaving."
Ever since the appearance of dungeons, people started praying to the various gods that were in charge of those dungeons, mostly in hope of getting their blessing and become believers, but also for other things, like for the chance to live another day.
Dyrus and his father quietly came to the center of the village, where a small shrine was built by the villagers to pray and give offerings. The shrine currently had a couple of other men around it, they too were praying before leaving for their hunt. The father son duo waited for their turn as to not disturb the others.
Once came Dyrus's turn, he softly got down on his knees and clasped his hands together. This wasn't his first time praying, it was something he often came to do, hoping that maybe he would get a blessing from a god and finally be able to use energy. This time however, he prayed for good luck for the hunt, this was something every hunter did.
They were not praying to any god in particular, their prayers simply directed towards any who would listen to them.
After getting up, he waited for his father to finish his prayer before they left the village, heading towards the forest.
The forest wasn't very far from the village, taking less than half an hour to get to it, once they reached the forest, they walked on for another hour before Dyrus's father stopped abruptly, pointing to what seemed like rabbit trails.
"There, a physical rabbit, this should be an easy prey enough for your first time, from the size of the paws it seems pretty young too."
Most animals kept their original names, except they were now categorized into two different types, physical and magical, which meant that they respectively had internal energy and mana. Internal energy was mainly used to reinforce the body using elemental powers, while mana was used to cast elemental spells.
"Follow me, I'll show you how to track animals."