Gacha Leveling

Chapter 1 – Five Goblins

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 leveling up were known.

Most people already had a class progression in mind even before leveling 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 was an avid member of many of these forums. prior to entering the dungeon.

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 Leveling:

- No requirements to acquire classes

- Classes are selected at random upon leveling"