Five goblins.
All you need to awaken the system is to kill five goblins. That's how much Mana you need to absorb into your body. Kill five goblins.
Anyone can do it. You just grab a gun, enter a dungeon or a gate with some goblins in it and shoot them down. It doesn't even need to be goblins. Weaker creatures like slimes will also do, although you'd need more than five slimes to awaken the system.
It's an entire meritocratic system. If you're not the one who kills, you don't get the Mana. If someone holds the monster down for you to kill, you don't get the Mana. If you help someone kill, even if you yourself did no damage to the monster, you get Mana. Among adventurers there is a saying that talks about this phenomenon: "The Mana knows".
It's almost as if the Mana has a will of its own and can see all. It knows who is supposed to inherit its powers and only allows those who are worthy to absorb it into themselves.
But it's not hard. It's just five goblins.
You don't need military experience. You don't need to be particularly well trained. You don't even need to be in shape. You just need a gun, a bunch of bullets and good aim.
A lot of people try to awaken every year. Of all ages, but mostly the young. Most governments in the world restrict the entrance to dungeons and gates to those of age, 18 or 20 depending of the country. Few allow younger to risk their lives.
And who wouldn't want to awaken the system? Though the system you can achieve feats that were only legends or miracles until now. Healing diseases, becoming bullet proof, splitting mountains and resurrecting the dead. All is possible through the system.
And all starts with five goblins.
Five goblins.
That's what Matthew thought. Just five goblins.
He'd spent his whole childhood dreaming of becoming an adventurer. A hunter, a dungeon diver, an awakened or any other name people used around the world. Matthew had no great motive. He didn't have a sick mother to heal. Not a crush he wanted to woo. Not an enemy to defeat. No particular reason to protect others. Both his parents were alive and well. His younger sister was doing well in school. He himself was never object of bullying or any particular mistreatment. All Matthew had was a dream of having the perfect adventurer build.
The system is, well, a system similar to games. You absorb enough Mana, you level up and pick a class and a skill. Each class have their particular skills, each level you become stronger. With enough levels you unlock, you can pick better classes and new skills.
All classes were already mapped, it was pretty much public knowledge that at level 10 and with at least five levels in the Mage class, you could pick the Pyromancer class, for example. All paths an adventurer could have by levelling up were known.
Most people already had a class progression in mind even before levelling up for the first time. There were companies that forced a specific level progression from their employees. Armies all over the world also had pathways for their soldiers. There were even specific jobs and associations to assist adventurers picking their levels. Not to mention the thousands of online forums and discussions on the perfect build.
Matthew himself were an avid member of many of these forums.
He mapped the perfect pathway for himself. His perfect build that he wanted to prove to everybody that was the best. First he was going to pick Warrior and the Imbue Mana skill. Then a level in Worker to pick Inventory, so he didn't need to carry loot. Mage for Solidify Mana, then Warrior again for another level in Imbue Mana… He mapped his whole progress up to the level 100, even though the most experienced adventurers in the world barely reached level 40.
He didn't want to go to college, not even an adventurer school. Once he was out of high school, he asked only one thing from his parents: a gun. His mother was absolutely against it. Having her son risk his life on a dungeon was way too dangerous of a career. His father, who was a level 2 Scout from his youth, but soon gave up to find an office job, was not all against it. He thought his son would follow the same path.
With enough begging, Matthew's mother ceded. A gun, a bunch of bullets and a protective vest were his 18th year old birthday gift. And a cake.
The next day, Matthew armed himself. He only needed five goblins to start his dream.
A low level dungeon is actually quite safe. The government posts a security team inside to patrol while the adventurers kill the monsters and take out the Mana Crystals that became the currency of the world ever since the gates and dungeons appeared. If someone needs help, they intervene. If something unexpected happens, they intervene.
And all Matthew needed was five goblins.
Close to home, there was one of those dungeons. A 30 minute walk. Filled with goblins and some slimes. He avidly paid the fee the government asked for the security team and entered the dungeon alone.
He needed only five goblins.
The first was easy. Sleeping on top of a slime. It only took Matthew 3 shots to kill it.
A warm feeling filled his heart. It was Mana. He smiled, it felt nice. He only needed 4 or less because he also killed the slime.
The third and the fourth came together. They took Matthew unprepared and almost hit him with their daggers. To which Matthew quickly dodged and opened fire killing both.
His heart raced. He could've died! But the warm feeling of Mana was both comforting and rewarding. It took Matthew a few minutes to put his feelings back together. To regain the courage. He was happy that, unlike gates, in dungeons the goblins were made out of Mana. Therefore there was no blood and no body. The dead would simply disappear in a bright blue light and leave a Mana Crystal behind. They also didn't have much intelligence, being more similar to robots than living beings. If he had to kill real beings, Matthew didn't know if he would have the stomach to do it.
The fourth was lurking behind other adventurer. A green-eyed woman, with a long brown hair tied in a high ponytail, in her mid 20s, who was hunched down collecting a couple of Mana Crystals from monsters that she killed herself. She was dressed in a tight jeans pants, with knives wrapped around her thighs, a grey T-shirt with a famous band art on the front, a belt with two holstered guns around her waist, a black leather biker jacket adorned with light blue stripes and fingerless leather gloves.
Matt hesitated, if he missed the goblin he could hit her. And she was really beautiful. He then decided to just warn her: "Behind you!"
The woman quickly jumped forward, quickly glanced backwards spotting the goblin and threw 2 knives that landed neatly in the goblin's eye and neck.
"Thank you kid" – She said while retrieving her knives and the Mana Crystal from the floor.
Matthew smiled with a saddened expression. That was his forth and she took it.
The woman quickly understood his face and smiled: "Worry not kid. The Mana knows".
The Mana Knows. Matthew did feel a bit of the Mana's warmth in him. A part of that goblin's Mana was absorbed by him. But was that enough?
It didn't matter, he quickly resolved himself. There were more than enough goblins in that dungeon for him to awaken.
The woman introduced herself as Vanessa. Said worked as a fast food cashier and did some dungeon diving on her spare time to get some extra cash. After thanking him again, she gave him the goblin's Mana Crystal as a thank you and wished him luck in his awakening before leaving.
Not long after, Matthew killed the fifth. But he didn't awaken. "Guess that just warning someone of danger is not enough to earn enough Mana" he thought.
He did kill another one. That would make it five, plus a slime and a warning. But he didn't awaken. "Well, five is the median. Some take less and some take more. Not all goblins have the same Mana levels" he consoled himself with information he found on the internet.
Six and seven. Still no awakening. Was he doing something wrong? Perhaps he would get a cool unique skill that came with every awakening and that's why it was taking more than five? Might he raise to the position of world famous adventurer like the Sage Bianca that awakened with the Half MP Cost unique skill?
Eight and nine. The words "the Mana knows" were echoing in his ear. Perhaps he was not worthy? Was it because he was using a gun gifted by his father? Did he need to use a gun he purchased himself? Or perhaps the Mana didn't want him to become an adventurer? Why wasn't he awakening? Was there something wrong with him?
Lost in those thoughts he met Vanessa again. She was carrying a now fat bag filled with Mana Crystals. She as quite quick at hunting, Matthew thought.
"Heya Kid! How you're doing? How many goblins have you killed?"
Matthew forced a smile to hold in some tears: "Nine already…"
"Then you're almost there!"
"Almost there?"
"Yeah, in this dungeon the goblins are particularly weak, you need about 10 or 11 to awaken here!"
Matthew was dumbfounded. But then he laughed relieved. Five normal goblins! When the scientists came up with the idea of quantifying the amount of Mana needed to awaken and to level up, they used goblins from a gate. Real proper goblins and not Mana constructs of a dungeon. The standardization of what is now called Experience or simply XP, 1 = goblin, real average goblin.
Vanessa quickly understood what was going on his head and said again with a huge smile: "Good luck on your awakening! Hope you get a nice unique skill!" She was a good girl, Matthew thought, just wished she dropped calling him a kid. Did he look that much younger than her?
With the tenth goblin and on his last cartridge, Matthew felt a surge of power from inside. Finally! Now he could start his build, the ultimate build that would make him the strongest adventurer. The first step in his dream. First step, Warrior.
Then, a translucent blue screen appeared directly in front of him with the words:
"System Awakened
Unique skill granted:
Gacha Levelling:
- No requirements to acquire classes
- Classes are selected at random upon levelling"