The Past Future

"Dungun hunting? Like in games? What? Dude, you didn't get me all the way here to play a game?" Will said.

"Oh no, not a game, more like life and death shit, you'll know when we get there," I replied.

Will stomped on the breaks and said, "Bro, I'm not your girlfriend, and I'm not someone you need to hide shit from, I'm your bud, and if you're not feeling like telling me what the fuck we're doing, or where we're going, then I'm not really a fan of this shit."

He then got out of the car and waited for me to get out.

I took a deep breath, opened the door, and stood on the other side of the car looking at his face to face from over the hood. "You really want to know?"

"Yeah." He replied.

"You won't chicken out on me?" I said.

"Bro, you think I'm a wuss?" he said.

"You're a grown-ass man and still afraid of rats."

"Bro, the rats I've seen are as big as a fucking football, ain't no way I won't get freaked out by that, and that's irrelevant to what we're talking about, why bring up old shit man, that's a low blow," Will said.

I smirked in his face and said.

"The world is going to end in two weeks," I said.

Will, looked at me, sternly for a moment then said, "Man if you really are that worried about telling me just don't spew out bullshit."

I shook my head because I knew this was going to be his reaction, "Mishaa," I said.

To which he was still confused as why I was speaking to empty air.

Then suddenly, I waved my hand and aid "Reveal Status Screen"

Immediately Will jerked back when he saw the blue screen popping in front of him.

"Good, now show me my status screen."

Status Screen Name Lucas Newman

Race Human

Job N/A

Potential S Class

Current Awakenings N/A

Skills ???

Titles

First Among Many.

He Who Devours Monsters.

He Who had Seen the End.

"What the heck is this, it looks so damn cool," Will said. As he looked intensely at the screen.

"You have some sort of projector under your arm? How is this working?" he asked.

"None of that, this is Mishaaa, Massive Intelligent System of Aid and Assistance. Apparently, we've been too egocentric thinking that we're the only ones living in this universe, we're wrong. Deeply so. There live many, many things in this universe and Mishaa was protecting us from them by hiding our world. Now, the protection period is over. And we're going to fend for ourselves from now on."

Will still looked like he didn't believe me.

"You still doubt me right? I mean why would you believe me, I just revealed to you how insignificant our lives could be and how the world is dominated by something that is far bigger than the thought of an omnipresent omniscient deity."

Will's mind was still reeling from the revelation and he was still trying to process a way to refute what I just said.

"Just so you're convinced. Let me show you this," I said as I went to my backpack.

I pulled the mana crystal I got from Granny Yang and the two rusty old swords.

I grabbed a small rock from the road and said, "This is a bit of a waste but at least should be enough to convince you." I said as I slammed the rock on the crystal chipping a bit of it.

I grabbed a few pieces of the crystals in my hand and then placed the swords on the ground next to each other.

"Repair," I said, and immediately, the crystals in my hand shone bright, activating the dormant mana inside them.

The two swords shook and rattled as they became bright for a moment, and shook away all the rust and dust covering them, returning the two swords back to their original form.

Will's eyes were wide as heck and before he could speak, "This isn't some street magic, this is true magic. Here," I said as I handed him one of the swords.

He grabbed the sword with a shaky hand and said, "I'm dreaming? This can't be true right? Tell me this is just some high-quality magic trick man."

I shook my head, "I told you, shit is about to go down."

"How do you know all this?" he asked.

"Do you remember what I showed you earlier? The status screen? What was the title at the bottom of it?"

"He who had seen the end…" Will replied mechanically.

"Yep, I've been there, I've seen it all. From the start to the end, to our very own deaths. And I came back."

"You mean, you regressed you're a time traveler?"

"Not exactly, I didn't travel through time, I had my doubts at first at what happened…"

I then began telling will about the monster I fought at the end.

…

"So… a monster that can switch cause and effect? But how is that related to you?"

"Perhaps, when I bit at the monster's neck he tried to reverse cause and effect, and since I had a piece of his own flesh stuck inside my mouth I was affected. And I was sent back due to his reversal in time. I don't fully understand why I was sent back to this exact time period, but I couldn't be more thankful. Because with prior knowledge of what's about to happen, we have a fighting chance."

"Why not tell the government this? I mean they can help?"

"No shot, the moment this stuff goes public we'll be caught and experimented on. Or worse. I don't want to have my freedom in another person's hand, though I doubt they'll be able to hold me down. Anyway, now you know what's about to happen. What do you want to do now, follow me, or go back." I said.

I looked to the distance and said, "It's only a couple of miles left to get to the abandoned factory. You can go back, I don't mind walking there."

Will's mind began reeling still trying to figure out what was going on, but his answer was exactly what I expected.

"This is still sounding like some cliché plot, but to be honest… I don't know why, I'm actually excited to see what's going on. How dangerous can this be?"

"I don't really know, but since Mishaa isn't awake yet. Perhaps the dungeon will not be that hard. Also, it's still the first integration."

"You mentioned integration when you were speaking about that white monster, but what's that."

"I'll tell you on the road," I said as I got back into the car after picking up everything.

Will then drove us off to the factory as I began explaining.

"Integrations, they're phases that Mishaa will take us through to improve our powers. Every integration is an apocalypse-level disaster. And the first…is going to be the nastiest and will probably kill off A few metric fucktons of the planet's inhabitants."

"Damn, that deadly? What's in that integration are we going to fight dragons or some shit," Will said, I could see his hands squeezing on the wheel.

He was afraid, but still took what I said seriously.

"Oh, no, dragons, god forbid, if there were dragons at the start nothing will be left alive. No, it's a zombie apocalypse." I said.

"Bro, fuck that, give me dragons, I don't want to deal with zombies, what the fuck, I'm not the kind of guy who will hide a Zombie bite, but I damn sure don't wanna deal with one," Will said.

"Oh, Zombie Bites are the least of our worries, they will also kill you if you give them the chance not just bite you, But they aren't the worst. Because Once a Necromancer Class Zombie is born or is nearby, you won't become just a mindless zombie, you may turn to something worse, but it's definitely still better than dragons" I replied.

I took a small pause and added, "The most dangerous thing about the first gen Zombies, is their rapid growth, they can have sonar like vision, and superhuman strength, but the worst thing is...they are fast as fuck."

"No fucking way, Sprinters?" Will said his eyes almost bulging.

"Oh, you got the name right. Yep, we used to call them Sprinters. They're fast, strong, and can climb heights like they're cockroaches. They're physically weak though and can be taken down with guns only at the beginning though. Since the more they mutate, the less relevant modern weaponry become."

"What do you mean?" Will asked.

"Once the world's mana levels increase, using anything that doesn't have mana in it will not even scratch a monster. I've witnessed a nuclear explosion that only ruffled the hair of a zombie wave not even harming a single one of them."

"Fuck…" Will said. "Then how the fuck are we going to fight if not even a nuclear explosion can do anything?" Will asked, despair clear in his eyes.

"Swords and magic my friend. The sword I just repaired now has been touched by mana, and it can now be used to kill monsters." I said.

"Like baptism?" he said.

"Something like that, and before you ask, you can baptize a gun, bullets or a nuclear weapon. Or anything that has been made using machinery and wasn't forged by hand, that is only at the beginning, then that method will soon become obsolete and only items created by the system or forged by hand using mana crystals will work. That's why I'll need to go find that man... " the last part I spoke in a hushed tone.

"Damn… we'll practically be sent back to the dark ages. That's not good," Will grumbled

"Don't worry about that, I've seen people shooting arrows that shot faster than the speed of sound. It's not that huge of a difference and using magic is liberating," I shrugged.

"You mean I could use magic?" he asked.

"Oh yeah, you were pretty damn good at it too. But let's not be hasty, your magic was one of a kind but I'm sure the dungeon you got yours from isn't opened yet." I said.

"Oh tell me, tell me what did I use? Was I shooting fire and calling down meteors from the skies?" Will asked, "I always picked Wizard class when playing D&D"

"Ah, well… more like rocks."

"Huh, that doesn't sound as impressive," Will said.

"No, it really was great, you were the party's tank. You could support us all in a pinch, call walls from the ground, and coat yourself with stone."

"Like the Thing?" he asked.

"Slightly improved version but yeah, you got the idea."

"That sounds cool."

"Yep."

"What about you?" he asked.

"Oh, me, I was a sword master. I never had a Quirk. I could also only use weak magic, but was very nimble."

"Damn, sound cool still." He said.

"Yeah, it was," I said reminiscing about the past. "But was not enough. Not nearly enough."

Will felt the heaviness of my words and said, "You said I was the party's tank, that means there were others, who?"

"Oh, yeah, well…" just as I was about to tell him about the members "We're here," I said as I looked over the side.

"Right, let's check this out."

"This will mostly be a dead dungeon or empty one since the mana crystal that was on Granny Yang was not activated yet. We'll just check the place at first also, be on your guard we don't know what's hidden in that dungeon yet and we don't want to die during the tutorial phase." I said.

"Man you make this sound like a game."

"If you think about it like a game you won't stress out as much, but remember, in this game, you don't get do-overs… well, unless you're me, still be careful," I said as I pulled the sword from my bag.

"Right, let's go", Will said.

"Follow me."