Dungeon Prowler : One Man Army

As the most knowledgeable Leader took the role of lecturer. "Mana is the substance that had the most effect on this world since it was created. The history of the races and the current civilization was initiated by mana single handedly. The history notes that a few hundred thousand years ago a man in meditation discovered a container full to the brim with life power and was releasing the excess power to the world outside as the aura that martial artist could detect around the people surrounding them. The man shared his findings with his master and friends and with the efforts of a whole sect, the first usage of mana was perceived. At the time mana was the innate power humans needed to get stronger and create smaller imitations of the natural powers. Soon the whole world was using mana and researchers of all walks of life integrated mana into their research. And so the age of magic began."

"When the first mathematician made the first spell construct and thus successfully cast the full spell the world descended into chaos, and those who used magic reigned supreme. A few thousand years later, the first case of mana corruption created the monsters we now know and love. A mana bomb fed with years worth of mana from multiple people was detonated as an act of dominance that wiped out all life in a radius of 1000 kilometers leaving a desolate land filled with high concentration of mana in the atmosphere. Since mana is natural to the world the animals and vegetation moved right back in without much care, but the higher density of mana caused mutations and corrupted them into angry monsters who consume mana and thirst for it leading the monsters to hunt sentient beings who are full of mana."

"As the usage of mana grew in the world, the concentration of mana that would have taken millions of years to increase naturally in the world, was accelerated to a mere fraction of the time needed and the world adapted by mutations instead of the integration that would be the case after a longer and slower exposure mana. In that era, the dwarfs created the heart of the mountain, a forge rumoured to only create items of unmatched quality. The elves created the eternal forest and the heart of the forest; a tree so big it is rumoured to cover an endless expanse of forestry under its canopy. The orcs created the heart of prophecy, near it orcish oracles see and foretell the deaths of the bravest warriors. The men however created weapons that could wipe the world clean. As for the half beasts they grew from intelligent monsters who loathed the rage and subsequently created the heart of the beast. A monster core made by the sacrifice of millions of intellectual monsters for the monster races to grow out of the rage and mana dependency. The heart of the forest lent its life force to the monsters and the half-beasts were born. They were named werebeasts then to keep the men from hunting them down like they did with their ancestors."

"As the mana corruption took over the world masters began to walk the world, being so powerful that they could lord over an aspect of the world, for example Lady Fortuna is such a being, these beings were worshipped as G.o.ds by those who desired their favor. Among the supreme being was a smith named Hephaestus, he made a device than can absorb mana from the air and filter it down to a power source, hitting two birds with one stone, cleaning the world from corruption and create a power supply that does not need monster cores to operate and instead replace them by mana crystals."

"When he offered the device to the humans as he needed their intellect to make it better and more efficient, they made a weapon that sundered a whole continent that was inhabited by intelligent monsters. Fed up with humans the divine smith Hephaestus wiped away the memory of the device and how to make it from all the minds in the world, all but his own. He then with the help of the heart of the forest, the heart of the beast and the heart of the mountain forged Tartarus, a place for those monsters who lacked intelligence to inhabit, it was made to keep the monsters safe inside it, and used the power of the races to keep the number of monsters in check. The heart of Tartarus was the first sentient artifact in existence, its task was to protect the monsters and reward those who keep them from overpopulation as well as create a safe haven for those monsters who gain intelligence inside its depths."

"Another function Tartarus had was unlock the limiters inside those who explored it, they grew stronger and faster and beyond what those on the outside could ever achieve. A side effect however showed itself soon after Tartarus started cleaning mana from the world, the sentient beings lost their ability to learn and control magic as the density of mana was too low for them to sense it and the difference between the concentrations of the mana pool inside the body and the atmospheric mana outside was restored to balance it became harder to use magic for those who did not cast it before. And so only Tartarus could create new magic users."

"The humans held the hearts as responsible for the loss of the military might and domination they had over the last era they waged war against the other races with what was left of their weapons if ma.s.s destruction and decimated the world into only one continent were the protection of Tartarus saved those who were on it. And once again the world was plunged into mana corruption and even the hearts were infected. The hearts can be considered as a life form that was created by their respective races and being inflicted with mana corruption was the objective sought by those greedy humans who lost their power."

"As the hearts were beginning to show the signs of corruption, they all gathered and were forged into sentient artifacts that would need hosts to manifest their power and rule over the races that created them. Hephaestus obliged the hearts and turned them into artifacts of immense power to be worshiped as G.o.ds and leaders for eternity to keep the peace between the races of the world."