Invaders

Kim is sitting down on the ground with his leg crossed. His eyes are closed and he seems to be doing a breathing exercise. In front of him, a young man in his 20s with pitch black hair and pupils is walking back and forth with his hands behind his waist. He is wearing a tailored pitch black suit that matches his eyes colour. A calm dignified demeanour could be seen from his face. His prominence aura is emanating a sense of pride and dignity. A glance makes him look like someone who is standing above the pinnacle of a living being.

"Just before you entered your mental domain you managed to unlock your mana sense which enables you to sense mana that surrounds you. It opens up a new perception on how you see the world. You could say that you acquire a new sense specifically to sense mana."

Mana exists everywhere within every particle in the universe. Only those who could wield mana can sense them. It is one of the basic requirement for a person to become a mana user. Kim has been able to sense mana since the fight he had with Alpha Cerberus, but he did it due to the heat of the moment. Although he"s getting used to mana since that day, he still wasn"t in full control of his mana. By properly sensing mana, he would be able to properly start practising how to wield mana.

One breath, two breath, three breath, a continuous cycle of breath has been ongoing since the time Kim started to sit down. Breathing is the key to wield mana. As for how nature breathes, and human breathes and animal breathes, breathing is the key to life itself. Every living being has to breathe to live. The reason why a doctor smacks a baby to cry is to get them to breathe.

To wield mana, one has to be able to sense mana naturally like breathing. By incorporating mana in one breathing, the person would be able to change from a person to a mana user.

As time goes by, he could sense a familiar energy floating around him. More and more time pa.s.sed by as he continued to do his breathing cycle. No one knows how long has it been since time is close to infinite within the domain. Finally, Kim senses strong energy circling inside his veins and pouring out at the same time.

It was the same feeling he had when he was fighting Alpha Cerberus and King Hydra when white orbs glittering around him. The only difference is that this time, the orbs are moving randomly instead of concentrating towards him. It seems that every time he breathes in, the orbs would be absorbed into his body, circulating around his veins. As that happens some would leak outside and disperse into the empty dark s.p.a.ce.

The gentleman who was walking back and forth suddenly stop it in his place. He noticed the change in Kim and spoke. "This is mana. I believe you have sensed it before and even experienced using it. As you can see, even if you could absorb a lot of mana, it would be a waste if you could not keep it to yourself. The worst thing is that with your huge mana capacity and bad control, all of that mana would gush out uncontrollably. No wonder all those monsters endlessly chasing you"

"Remember when you became an egg. Keep all of it together. Think about how careful you should contain your mana. You need to keep your composure so that the sh.e.l.l won"t break. Make sure not a single mana is leaking from your pores"

Kim gave a slight nod and started to remind himself how he directed his mana into his body.

"Good it should take him some time to handle his mana properly"

"Hmm??"

The mana that was dispersing into the dark s.p.a.ce suddenly staggering in its place as if there is an unknown force trying to control its movement. Another moment pa.s.s, all the mana started to gather around Kim. The mana swirled around him, like a tornado. It flew upward into the ceiling forming a milky way within the black s.p.a.ce. The scenery was as beautiful as the starry night sky. Kim then opens his eyes and took a deep breath. All the mana just now come rushing into Kim body as if he is a giant black hole.

"Magnificent. It seems like what he experienced wasn"t for nothing. He only lacked practice with his mana sense. Now that he mastered it, everything would flow nicely"

Kim closed his eyes and tried to observe his surrounding with his new profound way. This time he perfectly used his mana sense and found out the entirety of the mana circulation inside him has changed drastically. Instead of leaking and disperse randomly the mana he gathered now enveloping him like a thin sheet of gla.s.s. It feels like his whole body is covered with a transparent cloth.

"Good, now you are officially a mana user. Get ready..."

"Get ready? For what?"

"You won"t learn anything just by sitting there doing nothing. It"s best to learn through experience"

"By experience you mean..."

"Sparring of course. Don"t worry, I will give myself a handicap. I will only use 5% of my mana, which is about the same as how much you can use. Although I"m not used using a human body, I still face lots of them in battle before. There might be some skills you could learn from me kid so get ready!"

"W-Wait do you feel pain inside here? What are you doing? Wait!"

The moment the young man release his mana Kim felt the same domineering power that almost crushed him to death before. The amount of mana seems to be almost comparable to him, but somehow he felt like his entire being is being pushed down. Every single cell in his body feels forced to kneel down to such pressure, but Kim still persists and manage to stand on his ground.

"To even manage to handle my mana. When you reach a certain mastery, those who below you would have no chance of going against you. With me as your Master, you shall stand above others! Now fight!"

Kim who was shocked now put on a serious face. The young man saw this and put on a grim smile while laughing loudly.

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It has been 5 years since the disasters that befall Earth. 5 years since the invasion of unknown beasts called monsters that almost caused the extinction of human species and what might suppose to be the destruction of earth. Even though less than third of the original population is left, human instinct has led them to survive until now. We could see that humanity is still striving to live as they were before. The only difference is the blooming knowledge of mana.

Mana users have been surfacing and become the new symbol of power for every nation. Politics, economics and social status before the disaster were now equal to non-existent as status are rated depending on the capability of one to wield mana, increasing the chance to succeed in life regardless of their background. Schools have become a place to learn about mana and military training became the place for mana users to hone their skills.

The living style of current civilization is changing drastically as past knowledge and technologies are adapting towards development related to mana. For example, what was known before as energy in the school"s textbook has changed into mana. Machinery and vehicles are now depending on mana to move instead of using fossil fuels such as oil and gas.

Even the power grid and plant are using mana to provide energy. Humanity is introduced with mana stone which is an orb that could circulate mana by absorbing and providing mana into nature.

This has solved problems on sustainable growth and environmental issues as mana doesn"t produce waste when providing energy as it all happens in nature. The 4th industrial revolution has changed its focus to mana technology development and growth within the society.

As good as how it sounds to be, there is always two side of the same coin. After the founding of mana, the rate of unemployment has increased by several folds among blue-collar workers as fewer people is needed to handle machinery since mana stone can provide enough for machines to work automatically. Due to recent development among works, technologies and social life, we could see a clear discrimination between mana user and ordinary people.

Since the growth of society only focuses on mana as its focal point, an ordinary person who doesn"t have the brains to do research and development, or the apt.i.tude to become a businessman would have to depend on labour work such as agriculture and fishery to maintain their status within the community. Some would do any work to get extra bucks even if it means sacrificing their own dignity. No matter how great mana has changed the world, harsh reality will always there, not to be underestimated.

Earth human society has adapted the guild ranking system that was implemented from another world. Malaysia, for example, is governed by the Varhem Kingdom with Prince Ray as the representatives. Under the administration of Prince Ray, each nation will establish several guilds mainly, adventurer guild, business guild, researcher guild. Some nations have their own specialities such as art guild, or martial art guild, there are also sub-guild for hobby and leisure such as photography or treasure hunter guild.

The main focus would be adventurer guild as they hold the biggest power in one nation. Even if a country is well developing in terms of their research and technology, it would amount to nothing if it could be crushed in a single moment by powerful mana users. Thus, most mana users join the adventurer guild as they are the most prospected person in this current era.

Even with all this system, there are still problems arising from mana user who does dirty works such as plundering small villages, illegal trading and even killing. The most dangerous thing, however, are those who become a rouge spending their time travelling the world without binding themselves to any nation. These people are unknown variables because they could become a threat whenever they decide to do so. Especially when most rouge users are a powerful foe since they can travel alone without help. Most would not dare going outside alone due to approaching danger getting attack by monsters and even other mana users.

Thus, each nation adventurer guild would make sure to take care of their members properly to tame those powerful mana users. As you get more powerful, the higher you rank in the guild system, the more benefit you could get anywhere you are on earth. Even in another world, you would be respected. If any of them decided to go against a nation the Kingdom which governs the country would help to eliminate them.

With all this management, there is no warring country present. Even North Korea and South Korea have reached unification. This is due to the governance of 5 kingdoms which rule over each continent. Before they came to earth they had an agreement to not collide with each other during this period. However, some people had questioned whether or not their claim as protector of the earth is true or not as their arrival to earth was too much of a coincidence. Are they here to protect or to take? That claim has long being ceased from spreading as the people involved has been missing without any trace.

Currently, those 5 representatives from 5 kingdoms are having a video conference at the top of KL tower to discuss the matter regarding an island just east of Peninsular Malaysia called Borneo. After the word "Dragon" has been circulating among them, Borneo has become a forbidden area for anyone to enter without the approval of each representative.

Today they are discussing to send a group of adventurers to gain some intel with the Varhem Kingdom as the lead.

Nowadays, every time the word Borneo is said among the people, fear would shake their hearts as rumours of a vicious monster is hidden within the island. Many fishermen and even pilots accidentally went near the island and never went back ever since. For kids, it has become a bedtime story to remind them to be good.

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Currently, in Borneo Island, a 17-years old boy and 15-years old girl are eating fried chicken by the river with a campfire in front of them.

The girl with her violet eyes stares at the boy as if she wanted something. The boy only took a single glance then spoke.

"Just drink some river water Momo"

"Master, you look handsome today. Milk?

"Here you go."

While both of them savouring their fried chicken, a slurping could be heard clearly in Kim"s mind.

"Could you keep it to yourself old geezer? I"m trying to eat here."

"d.a.m.n you, wait till I"m out of this chain I will smack your a.s.s kid!"

Kim pet Momo"s head with a sneer in his face.

The voice could only respond with one big gulp.