In the beginning, there was the void.

  The only truly paradoxical concept. The ultimate state of nonbeing, and at once the ultimate nonbeing of any state. There were no rights, and at once it was the supreme right of nonexistence. There was no movement, and at once there was no notion of static. There was no cause for its existence, and at once it was an effect of itself. There was no chaos, but at once there was no order.

  Absolute void. Void of absoluteness.

  As the epitome of a paradox, even though it was nothingness, it was developing. It was swelling. It was growing. It was evolving. In the void itself, there was more and more of nothing. More and more of the void. At the same time, both ‘nothing’ and ‘eternities’ were passing, as the lack of everything became more and more intense.

  Nothingness became so saturated that it began to bend until finally a single fold emerged, for the first time introducing the concept of cause, creating impulses traveling through the entire void. These changes slowly progressed. The vibrations of the void moved increasing amounts of nonexistence, the waves passed through each other, becoming more and more complex, thus creating irregular disturbances and pulsating patterns of nonbeing. Forms composed of nothing were created only to disperse and join their parent.

  This situation was constant, and at once constantly changing. Some might call it a miracle of chance, others might say that the inevitable happened, as the cause caused the effect.

  Pulsating nothingness introduced chaos, which, paradoxically, created harmony. The shapes formed from the excess void began to show signs of life, twisting and continuing to disturb the tranquility of the omni-vacuum, causing further vibrations and at once continuing to evolve.

  The void has reached surfeit, and the beings of nonbeing matured. The tangled tentacles of nonexistence began an eternal struggle for nothingness while becoming more and more complex, finally gaining the ability to create basic instincts. The instincts that screamed to tear more. To grow. To develop. To exist.

  This subconscious craving turned into a desperate desire. Although with development they began to gain individuality, one thing has not changed: The void creatures have longed for reality, but they were never meant to taste it. So they lasted and continue to this day, tortured in their nonexistence by eternal hunger.

  Among people raised in the blessing of mana, it is no secret that everything can carry a meaning. Just as a simple stone can cause an avalanche, a simple thought can change one’s fate. Both the tiniest speck and the most magnificent peaks influence reality and announce their presence. It all started when the entities of the void wanted to exist so badly that their wish gained a real force. A new energy was created, capable of resonating even with nothingness, and its concentration grew both for eternity and in a single moment.

  Mana, however, was not a grateful offspring. It emerged with neither instructions nor values, driven only by a desire to create. Born from the condensed dreams of entities of nothingness, it crystallized, fulfilling its purpose. Reality formed, but since nothing could exist in the void, it became a separate being, fulfilling the eternal desire of nothingness in its existence while never merging with nonbeing.

  Instantly, space came to be. Instantly, time came to be. The law of causality has been stabilized. Separated from nothingness, a colorful range of dimensions spread out. Mana, still driven by the wish to exist, gathered that will in one tiny area. There it crystallized again, altering and once again transforming intention into truth. Although it has lost all its former properties, it has taken on a whole new form. So that’s how the first molecules came into being. The first matter. The first universe. The creation was still fresh; unstable, so to prevent a return to the raw state of mana, a protective layer was created. Like a fetus floating in the infinite space of mana, surrounded by a membrane so that it can grow to one day reunite with its parent and continue to last.

  The creation of the universe required the exhaustion of the intention to exist. It took time for the desires of the void to guide mana again. After the act of creation, it lost direction and became neutral. That fact has been exploited. Even before the first universe was fully formed, something else came to exist in space.

  It was there, as if it had always existed. Partially developed, but ready to be an arbiter of reality.

  The System has emerged.

  ***

  “… fuck.” he mumbled to himself quietly when his nose was once again attacked by the stench. If he still wasn’t motivated enough to make it his goal to get stronger instead of living a quiet life here, he just found another reason: he’d need to get some stats to be able to once kick a certain shadowy ass.

  “Mr. Strauss, do you perhaps have anything to share with the class?” the teacher asked, causing another wave of laughter among the children.

  A few hours earlier he had been brought back to the group, with only Olympia missing, as she apparently had something to do. This time they met in a place called The Regular Chapter. It was a combination of a restaurant, a bar and some kind of office relaxation zone. You could come here to have a leisurely meal or to have a drink and relax in the company of friends. The place even had a dedicated space where; for an extra charge; you could leave your children in the care of an employee and several amenities such as shower booths with washer and dryer functions, which Orion immediately took advantage of. From what he gathered, it was also reasonably priced enough to be the default hangout spot for many people, which, judging by the name, was intentional.

  Although he did not hold a grudge against the group, for some reason they still felt obligated to support him, at least at the beginning of his time in this world. So they had gathered in a pleasant, quiet room provided by this establishment to sit comfortably around a low, round table. They had plenty of pillows that were spread all over the floor so that everyone could build their own seat. Zaiah, for example, gathered for himself a few larger red ones, which made him look like a giant crystal in a museum exhibit when he landed on them. The only thing missing was the glass display case.

  The place was neat and comfortable, their room was isolated enough to provide privacy, but you could still hear the louder conversations from the larger common room. Although Orion supposedly received some coins from the Inquisitor that were somehow deposited in the Spatial Ring, he still couldn’t use them. The group, however, told him not to worry about it, and only from the mouth of the shadow lizard did it sound a bit off.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  After settling down and ordering the daily set meal and a fruit drink, the name of which he couldn’t even read on the menu, the conversation began. Then Orion found out that the Inquisitor had already left the place but left some messages for him.

  The first was that he should concentrate on solving the problem of mana, and when he did, there should be a surprise in his new ring. The second message was that he should think about using the medicine again after 20 cycles, whatever that meant. The third and most important news was that mudles; the local variety of magic donuts; could be found at the bakery at the given address, which was apparently hard to miss. It was to be clearly marked, as were the other buildings. According to the Inquisitor the place was to be staffed by a charming old woman who was described as half human, half broccoli.

  Orion managed to ask the group a few simple things, such as where he could even find basic clothing, as he was still in a blanket, or if there was an option to rent a room.

  This exchange was interrupted by the arrival of food. A waitress came into the room, resembling a humanoid deer partly transformed into a tree, which made it a little easier for him to imagine the woman from the bakery described earlier.

  The girl was probably quite young, moving vigorously, and what he initially thought was a levitating set of ordered dishes was held aloft by numerous branches extending from her back. Her skin resembled deer fur in some places, but in others it looked as if it were covered with birchbark. She had a partly animal face with human accents, vivid green eyes, and where her feet should have been, were hooves.

  Although he was slowly getting used to it, the moment she walked in, the atmosphere of youth and carefree came into the room. Due to the number of people in the city, the sensations were mixed to the point of being unrecognizable, but it was still a distinct experience when a new person entered a relatively closed area.

  The waitress wore nothing suggestive of her profession; she was dressed informally, which may also have been a deliberate decision to make the customers subconsciously associate the place with the home climate. The sight of something resembling short denim pants in this situation evoked a rather mixed feeling.

  After she left, looking at the food served, even though it smelled wonderful, it just looked too alien for Orion to know what to expect. His lunch consisted of a ten-centimeter foam-like cube, spotted meat cut into strips about one centimeter thick, next to which were served multicolored vegetables in the form of grass blades, laid out on small leaves. The saturation of the latter’s colors was so vivid that it was easy to mistake it for dessert. For cutlery, he received a knife and something in the shape of the letter M with long legs, which turned out to be the equivalent of joined chopsticks.

  It was quite amusing to watch Zaiah, whose plate had several colored crystals. For a moment, Orion wanted to make a joke about cannibalism, but this time he managed to stop and keep his mouth shut. Instead, the said crystal raised the subject of his problem. He seemed to have many theories, and after asking all sorts of strange questions and getting answers, he excluded a few.

  Even after that, Zaiah still thought there might be various reasons, but remembering the stench that Orion emitted when they met and the circumstances under which he landed in this world, he rejected most of them. After a moment’s thought, he decided to identify three scenarios. The first was damage to the core. It was the worst-case scenario. The second bad possibility was the pathways’ insufficiency. The third scenario was also for pathways, but in it, they would be clogged.

  Asking for an explanation, Orion was informed that the core is a very specific organ that has, or may have, most living things integrated with the mana, except for the vast majority of plants. Humans and other rational races were born with it, whereas animals and beasts could create it as they evolved. In the case of sentient beings it resembled a sphere in structure and in the beast it had more irregular, lumpy shapes. And although it looked like an object, it actually functioned as a gateway through which mana traveled from the physical to the spiritual plane and vice versa. Supposedly, this organ could be refined and strengthened, but if it were damaged… in short, you would be screwed.

  The pathways were to be a kind of circulatory system for mana. It was through these channels that the neutral mana was drawn in, the body was powered, and the spent energy was expelled.

  The first two scenarios suggested a malfunction in one of these components that would require a medical approach. Egill, as a team healer, could have tried to heal the pathways, but there was no way he could have done anything with the damaged core. However, Zaiah said that while it would be worth making sure not to accidentally make things worse, these options are unlikely because Orion just got out of the System’s hands.

  His argument was that since the System had directly dealt with Orion’s body and spirit, the organs mentioned before should be impeccable, and such disorders could occur in naturally born babies. The third scenario, however absurd it sounded, was the most likely. According to Zaiah, Orion’s pathways were supposed to be clogged with impurities. This usually happens when a person abuses cheap potions, pills, or other stimulants for a long time. In such cases, people should notice a decrease in the effectiveness of these organs.

  When asked by Egill why he chose these scenarios, Zaiah replied that they were influenced by the place they met and the stench mentioned earlier. He explained that the smell meant he was dealing with a swamp composite, and although Orion had no idea what it was, Egill immediately admitted he was right. Eyharnis joined the conversation, adding that it’s likely that Orion’s wake-up location could also have had some significance, since he was teleported by the System.

  As the conversation progressed, Orion began to understand less and less, so he asked the group if there was a decent way to learn the basics of this world. He would rather not burden them with tiresome questions like: how does the calendar work here, what’s allowed and what’s not allowed, why the hell does the clock show that there are ten hours in a day, and so on; not to mention mana topics. Although it occurred to him that he could try to learn in the library, he realized that he could not read the local writing.

  At that moment, full of enthusiasm, Avir said he had the perfect teacher for Orion. After the meal, Zaiah said he needed to prepare some materials, so they decided to split up.

  A group of Orion, Egill, Avir and Eyharnis set out for the city, and their first stop was a building that was painted with all kinds of garments and accessories. Leaving the clothing store, Orion finally stopped looking like a savage. He was wearing a light beige shirt with short sleeves, made of a material similar to linen, and graphite pants, which were made of a strange but surprisingly comfortable combination of leather and jeans. He also managed to buy a belt and shoes that were not much different from earthly counterparts. After thanking the seller and the group for providing him with the funds, they moved on.

  The moment came when Orion was to meet his teacher, the person who was to explain to him how everything works in this world. He didn’t even complain for very long when it turned out that Avir had taken him to the closest statue and ordered him to talk to it.

  At this point, he could already expect it.

  Moving on to the present, the real place to learn was the nearest kindergarten. Although he might have cursed in his mind, it actually made sense, given the level of knowledge he needed to acquire. Although this was his first lesson, he came to the conclusion that the teaching model here does not impose a strict schedule. The teacher changed subjects quite widely, and occasionally she asked the students what they wanted to know.

  Unfortunately, since the average age in the class, apart from Orion, was six, this also meant that there were rather specific tastes in humor. So, the winner of today’s joke was farting. The teacher, in addition to teaching, also turned out to have a penchant for detective work, as she was quite eager to solve the mystery of who was polluting the air. Orion, fearing that this utterly thrilling subject might drag on, decided to take the blame so that the woman could continue her lessons.

  Truly, such a great mistake it was.

  Since the culprit was already known, he could occasionally hear the children’s groaning in an effort to continue the joke.