The Dungeon of Growth

[Welcome to the dungeon, you have entered the floor 1 safe zone.]

I let out the breath I had been holding as the scenery around me changed to that of a city. A huge city in the middle of a massive forest. In the distance, I could see a gargantuan pillar extending into the sky and disappearing into the clouds above. I knew, from the information provided, that this was the first floor of the Dungeon of Growth. A place created by the System for new planets and species to use in order to gather enough strength to survived in the greater ecosystem of the universe. I would be able to hunt monsters, gather weapons and abilities, and hopefully, evolve beyond my current means.

I stood in a square of sorts, the area was just as large as Time Square in New York from Earth and there were people packed in to the seams. Above everyone, standing on a massive stage in the center of the square was a person. As everyone's focus shifted to this person, they began to speak.

"Welcome to the Dungeon of Growth new beings of the universe. I am known as Gor'ath, the ruler of this safe zone and administrator of initialization for the System. We will be answering many of your questions as time passes, unfortunately it is better to learn through self experience than being told. If you would all please line up around the stage we will begin your awakening. This is taking place across the entire city and we hope that we can get this process done within a few days and send you all on your way."

After speaking they waved their hand through the air and everyone was shunted into orderly lines. Checking my place in line, I sighed heavily. It looked like it would be at least a day before I was able to awaken. Not much happened for the rest of the day, but the line moved much quicker than I initially thought. With the line moving forward quickly, I only waited about 9 hours before I could see clearly what was happening on the stage. One person was brought up from each line and given some strange, iridescent rainbow colored gemstone. After taking the stone, each person sat and absorbed some sort of energy from the stones.

Upon absorbing the energy, a pillar of light would flash, most often for a few seconds, sometimes a little longer. Then they would rise and move off the stage to speak with one of the many attendants present before leaving. It took another day, but eventually I was led up on stage and handed a stone. I sat and listened as the attendant explained how to absorb the energy in the stone. I also found out that the stones they were giving out were low grade experience crystals. They gave pure experience, just enough for a being to awaken their Talent and Ability. Each crystal held 100 experience and a normal person was only able to absorb maybe 25 to 50 from the crystal.

I closed my eyes and reached out with my mind to the crystal and received a notification from the system.

[Would you like to absorb Experience Crystal Grade 1?]

"Yes"

As I spoke, I felt the energy rush into my body and watched, astonished as I received a few notifications.

[Congratulations on Awakening!]

[You have unlocked a Unique Ability! Perfect Purification]

[You have unlocked a Unique Talent! Universal Origin]

[You have levelled up! You are now level 2]

[You have 5 free attribute points and 2 skill points to distribute.]

When I opened my eyes, I saw that the light around me hadn't faded and the crystal in my hand turned to dust and scattered from my grasp. I looked at the attendant who was staring at me with wide eyes and jaw dropped.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, finally snapping the attendant out of their daze.

"Uhh no. But if I might ask, did you just level up?"

"Yes, I did, the system said it has something to do with my Talent." I spoke slowly, not wanting to give away too much if I could help it. I stood from my seated position and began to head to the side of the stage before the attendant could stop me. Everyone was staring at me with awe and I felt a little sick to my stomach. They were looking at me like I was a hero and I was never interested in being a hero. In fact, I would consider myself to be somewhere between a villain and a hero, not evil, but not righteous either.

"Don't look at me like that," I almost spat the words out, like their admiration was venom, "I will never be a hero, to you, or anyone." I spoke loud enough for most of the people to hear me and with those words, without speaking with the other attendants, I left the square and made my way outside the city.

"Status"

[Name: Grehem Wilson]

[Species: Human]

[Tier: 1]

[Level:2]

[Exp: 0/300]

[Talent: Universal Origin]

[Ability: Perfect Purification]

[Strength: 10](+2)

[Agility: 11](+1)

[Vitality: 12]

[Intelligence: 14]

[Wisdom: 12]

[Will: 10](+2)

[Attribute Points: 0]

[Skill Points: 2]