Will"s family situation was a bit complicated. The Chamberlain family was always successful because Will"s father was a wealthy businessman. Will"s older brother Michael was also skilled in the business world and helped his father manage various companies. Jane, the second born sibling, was a talented Martial artist who was very gifted for her age. She was predicted to compete internationally in the future. Will - was Will, he had no special inclination or ability. The family was always a bit compet.i.tive, but things changed a few years ago.
Will"s father remarried a few years ago. This woman was considered to be the perfect woman. She was smart, intelligent, and beautiful, the perfect trophy wife. She came from a rich family and had two children from a previous marriage. They were twins, a boy, and a girl. They too were very accomplished and intelligent. Lisa was a famous cla.s.sical pianist at only 12. Dillan was a science savant who was offered scholarships to universities by the time he was 13. Needless to say, Will"s stepmother doted on them and was extremely proud. To Will, his stepmother was a devil who brought two demons into his life.
When they became part of the Chamberlain family, the compet.i.tive atmosphere thickened. Everything became a compet.i.tion to see who could achieve the most to gain their parent"s approval. The family seemed to naturally divide into two groups, the guys against the girls. Michael and Dillan had an intellectual bond and started their own company. Jane and Lisa became allies over a love of martial and cla.s.sical arts. They aimed to help each other exceed their goals. Will"s father focused on the sons and his stepmother pandered to the daughters. Will was expected to keep up with the high standards set by his parents and siblings, but couldn"t. He slipped through the cracks and was left on his own.
Will struggled with depression but eventually reached a numbness towards the people he called family. Because he went unnoticed, he had the independence and freedom to do whatever he liked. Will developed many hobbies and focused on them during his free time. He indulged in online games, which lead to an interest in anime and comics. He spent the majority of his time reading web novels. He especially had a fascination with Chinese and j.a.panese novels. They gave him a sense of happiness in a fictional world that took him away from the troubles of his real life. Will soon became an Otaku. He became so engrossed with these web novels, that he taught himself how to read, write, and speak Mandarin and j.a.panese. He had the dedication and after three years, he was almost fluent in these languages.
Will had a deep interest in history, mythology, and ancient fighting styles, especially in the Orient. He was constantly researching and reading about these topics. Will eventually reached above the level of an average native speaker in reading in Mandarin and j.a.panese. It did not matter what the media, whether a game, novel, comic, if it was related to ancient eastern warriors, or eastern philosophies and religions, Will had to see it, play it, read it. He was particularly drawn to Xuanhuan or Xianxia novels, particularly ones that dealt with concepts such as immortality or supernatural powers.
Though Will was involved in the world of online gaming, he was not particularly well known. He did not stand out or have any special skills. He was average at best. When it came to his gaming life, he didn"t care about reaching new levels or gaining new weapons, etcetera, he did have an obsession with "grinding" his skills. He was convinced that this was the closest he would ever be to martial arts. Will only played online games that had a warrior cla.s.s such as a Samurai cla.s.s. As long as he could use a sword, especially a katana, he was happy. He dreamed of becoming a skilled swordsman, but he knew he would never have the endurance for the training that was required. He was lazy, though he idolized the skills of swordsmen, he knew that the romance of the image was more than just beautiful techniques and life philosophies. It took years of training and effort to master the simplest of techniques. He was disillusioned of his dream by the expectation of sweat, blood, and broken bones. To fulfill his underlying dream, he immersed himself in his fictional worlds of mysticism, magic, and power. In his worlds, he was able to destroy mountains and crossover into different dimensions. His reality was h.e.l.l, but in his fantasies, he was in Utopia.
Will was often mocked and bullied by his peers at school. They called him names and yelled out, "Geek" or "Nerd" as well as other insults as he walked past them. He paid them no attention; he didn"t care what they called him. He learned from his family that he was never going to live up to the expectations of others, so why bother? It is just a waste of time. Will was happy living in his own world, a world of worlds. He wasn"t offish and didn"t go out of his way to be an outcast, but it just happened that way. Rather, he was an open and honest person who spoke his mind. Will was always open to new ideas and theories. People at school just didn"t understand him. He didn"t follow the trends and didn"t go to parties or chase girls as his popular older brother did. Will didn"t pander to the norms of society. Will"s reasoning was that normal is relative; one person"s normal is different from another"s. The idea that there is normality in any group of people or society is just an illusion propagated by people who blind themselves from the truth. He did have a few people who liked him, but they were very few.
After school, Will spent his time in his room or walked around the city alone. His walks were his world where he became who he wanted to be, a character in an adventure. He could listen to music and imagine himself off in a dream. These walks were his physical exercise, his mental release, and his creative outlet.
Will visited his Aunt and Uncle in Cardiff, Britain, from his biological mother"s side. He was glad to be visiting them. They got along well. This was a chance to escape the nightmare of his four siblings. Luckily they were all back in New York, far away. Will"s mother disappeared when he was very young and he didn"t have any memories of her. His father still kept in touch with her side of the family for the sake of his children who visited them often. Will enjoyed Cardiff, especially because his relatives lived in a middle-cla.s.s suburb with a lot of trees and nature. It was beautiful and tranquil, unlike the cement cacophony of Manhattan that he called home.
On October 30, 2015, Will decided to take a walk. It was a hot summer day in Cardiff and he was walking down the street, with his earphones in and his music playing, immersing himself in his world. Suddenly,
"BOOM!" A loud noise deafened Will instantly causing him to stumble.
"Ah d.a.m.n!" He exclaimed and he ripped out his earphones.
He was sure the noise came from within his mind, but it felt as if he were standing next to a loudspeaker. His ears were ringing from being deafened when a mechanical voice began.
"System Initiating
Ten-
Nine-
Eight-
Seven-
Six-"
Will was confused.
"What"s going on?" he asked himself.
The voice came from within his head. He didn"t have his earphones in and there were no speakers around. Perplexed, he stood and waited for the voice to stop the countdown.
"Two-
One-
Zero, Systems Start. Please select a username."
"Wait - This - this is-!" Will said aloud.
His mind raced as he tried to process what was happening. Will had read many novels in which similar things had happened. Was this Will"s dream coming to life? After thinking about it for a couple of minutes, Will calmed himself down and devised a plan of action. First, he needed to try and communicate with the voice in his head.
Will always uses the same username in his online gaming. He brought it up in his thoughts and focused on it as his username. Nothing happened.
"Peerless Dao Master." He voiced it aloud.
"Please confirm the choice of username, Peerless Dao Master. Yes or No"
"Yes!"
"Peerless Dao Master has been set as your username. Welcome to the Conquest System, Peerless Dao Master. As a new user, you have been given one hundred points. These points are to be used in the system. Use them wisely; you will only gain more points each time you level up. Each attribute represents an aspect of your body."
As soon as the voice stopped, words appeared in front of Will. They appeared as if they were holograms, floating in mid-air. He looked around to see if anyone else was experiencing the same thing or could see the words floating. Will was alone in the middle of the street. He decided to read the words.
"Level: 0
Cla.s.s: None
Energy type:
Bonus Points: 100
Species: Human
t.i.tles: None
Skills: None
Stats Endurance: 5 -Agility: 4 -Strength: 5 -Wisdom: 9 -Intelligence: 7"
As soon as he finished reading, the voice sounded again.
"Endurance affects your health and stamina. Agility affects your speed and reflexes. Strength affects your physical strength and vitality, for example, how quickly you heal from physical attacks. Wisdom is how efficiently you use mana or Qi. It affects how quickly you heal from manna and Qi attacks, and it affects cognitive reasoning. Intelligence determines your manna or Qi capacity and is your defense against these types of attacks. Intelligence also affects memory. Both Agility and Strength affect your physical attack power. One attribute can become a primary effector and the other a secondary effector. This is dependent on which cla.s.s you choose to use."
"I should pay close attention, this is interesting." He thought to himself.
Will"s expression became hard and serious as he concentrated on the voice.
"There are generally two types of cla.s.ses, mana reliant and Qi reliant cla.s.ses. In the early stages of leveling, each cla.s.s usually depends on one type of energy. Each energy type has an advantage. Mana reliant cla.s.ses are ideal for long-range attacks. They result in overall damage, but not much physical damage. These mana reliant cla.s.ses possess low strength, endurance, and agility. Their advantage is increased wisdom and intelligence. Qi reliant cla.s.ses are ideal for medium to short range attacks. They result in less overall damage and possess low wisdom and intelligence. However, these Qi cla.s.ses possess great endurance, agility, and strength."
"It is advised to choose a cla.s.s type suited to your skills. If you choose a cla.s.s type that does not suit your body, your attributes will be weaker than they should be. It is now time to choose a cla.s.s type. To choose, please mention the parameters of the cla.s.s you desire. Please choose within 45 seconds, or the system will select for you."
"What the f.u.c.k? Are you f.u.c.king kidding me?" Will exclaimed to himself in utter disbelief.
A countdown appeared in front of him. Will was flabbergasted and didn"t know what to do next. What was happening to him? The countdown continued. At the thirty second mark, Will looked up and his eyes shone. He knew what he had to do.
"I am not a sporty guy. I don"t want to lose stats by picking the wrong cla.s.s type. I will have to pick a mana type. d.a.m.n! I also want to use Qi! I definitely want to use Qi even more... Argh!"
Will was faced with a problem. He always dreamed of becoming a martial artist; he now had the opportunity. Most of those characters used Qi. He wanted to go for his dream, but his logical part of his mind fought against him. Ironically, he had completely ignored common sense. He didn"t think of whether or not he had gone insane. He thought fast and had to make a decision. The outcome was uncertain and affected his future. Then -He remembered -the voice said that there are generally two types of cla.s.ses, mana reliant and Qi reliant. In the early stages of leveling, each cla.s.s usually depends on one type of energy. Will didn"t have a great memory, but he was focused on the voice as it spoke.
As Will thought about it, he realized that this didn"t mean that there were only two types of cla.s.ses, and there were others that didn"t necessarily use only one energy type. Was this true?
"Whichever cla.s.s you use, it determines what the primary effector is... so, shouldn"t the same apply to energies?"
Because of his history with gaming, Will knew that wording was very important. Given what the voice said, there was leeway to decide which type of cla.s.s he wanted. Will was confident and decided to gamble on his conjecture. At the 25 second mark, Will decided to formulate his words correctly. He spoke out,
"I want a cla.s.s that uses both mana and Qi, with mana as the primary effector and Qi as the secondary effector. I want a cla.s.s that focuses on the freedom to control my range and cla.s.s ability using my mind. No voice command or casting should be required. This cla.s.s should increase my apt.i.tude in a Dao."
The countdown reached 0 as he uttered the last word.
"Phew!"
He was relieved, yet anxious.
"The system will now choose a cla.s.s based on the parameters you have chosen. Do you accept?"
"Yes."
"Ding! Congratulations. You have been awarded the cla.s.s of Water Meister. As the first user on Earth to receive a dual energy cla.s.s, you will receive 300 bonus points. Additionally, you have been awarded the skill of dual mind. This ability allows you to complete two separate tasks at the same time. Moreover, you have been awarded the t.i.tle Dual Pioneer."