Origin Seeker

Chapter 1: First Day

<Announcement- Individual: |Dream| has given the ultimate sacrifice for the pursuit of knowledge.>

"...huh?"

When everything turned to black and Dream couldn't feel anything anymore, a voice rang out inside his head. He could 'see' text being displayed.

<A Title will be granted>

<Title: [Origin Seeker] acquired>

<Abilities befitting a [Seeker] will be granted.>

'What...the hell?'

Dream had no idea what was happening. Well, he kind of did, but he wasn't sure whether or not he wanted to believe it. 

<Ability: [Savant] will be granted>

<Ability: [Copycat] will be granted>

'Oh...Cool. Abilities... I may just be in a really good lucid dream... Get it?'

<Ability: [Awareness] will be granted>

<Warning: You will be moved to a different world. The individual will be granted an ability derived from his origin.>

<Ability: [Summons from Another World] will be granted.>

<Warning: As the Individual has never come in contact with Origin Energy, a small amount will be infused upon arrival. This may cause discomfort.>

'Origin Energy? Like mana or something?'

As Dream asked that, he finally 'woke up'.

"...."

Opening his eyes, the first thing Dream saw were green leaves and sunlight poking through them like pillars of light. It wasn't super bright, but because he just came from a dark place, he squinted and put his hand up to block the brightness. 

"Ugh. Bright... and hot. Damn, what is it, a hundred degrees? Let's get rid of this."

Saying that, Dream sat up, reached over, and pulled off his sweater and shirt that was already causing him to sweat. Going from a cold night air to hot and humid jungle weather was not fun.

Once he was stripped down a bit, he lifted his head and took a closer look around. Next to him was a big rock, and all around him were big trees, bushes, and other various flora and fauna. It wasn't thick and swampy like the Amazon, instead being a relatively tame forest that went on as far as he could see. 

"...I'm in a forest... With absolutely no directions... All alone... I'm already lovin- Ow... What the? Ow!"

As Dream was mumbling to himself, parts of his body started feeling prickly. First it was his chest, then his arms and legs, then his head. Everything started pulsing with a stabbing pain, and it only got worse by the second. 

"Agh! What the hell?! I didn't even do anything! Ahh!! Shit! This hurts!!!"

Descending into more and more strenuous pain, Dream went back to the floor to roll around as if he were on fire. And it really felt like that. While at first he could deal with it relatively well, it quickly started getting to the point where he was a little scared. 

5 minutes pass, and Dream couldn't hold back from letting out true cries of pain. He was trembling all over, and it felt like blades were crawling under his skin and against his bones. 

Unfortunately, the pain didn't pass for another 15 minutes. It was only on the 20th minute that it started to fade, and 10 minutes after that, Dream was left a mess of a man on the floor. 

"I... I didn't even do anything... I just got here. Why... wait. Those messages. It said discomfort. But this was hardly discomfort! It was trying to kill me! I thought it would never end... Hey, that wasn't there before."

Pulling himself together, Dream got back up and looked around again. When he did, he could see a piece of paper on the ground a few feet away way, something that definitely wasn't there before. 

"Definitely wasn't there before. What does it say..."

Picking it up, Dream proceeded to read the words on it, all of which were written beautifully, better than any calligraphy artist he had ever seen. 

Dear Dream,

The pain you have recently experienced was due to exposure from Origin Energy, or at least what I'm pretty sure was Origin Energy. You must have noticed how your body is enhanced. This is natural and something that everyone in this new world is born with. And to give you a rundown, yes, you are in a new world. This world runs on a system of abilities, classes, and levels.

You have also been given an ability, one of which is a summoning ability derived from one of the characteristics of your home planet. Through your summons ability, a catalog of weapons, gear, and many different items will be allowed access to you through your status. This will be crucial to your survival as you begin your new life, so do check it out.

Another ability you have been given is Savant. I'll let you figure that out, but know that it holds the native language of this world. A little something to start you off right.

By the way, the way to check your status is to say out loud, 'Status', but you can also give the command in your head. Everything you need can be found in this menu like video games in your previous world. This includes the message and notification log as well.

Alright, this concludes my starter message for you. Everything else will need to be discovered by yourself. I do hope that you have a successful rise in power, and when you are powerful enough, you will be able to find me.

The best of Fortune,

-- A Very Powerful Dude

"...So it really is some other world... A system... And I got those abilities of mine, at least that's what the system said. Catalog? That will indeed be useful if it is what I think it is. Uhh, Status."

Calling out unsurely, Dream brought up his status that popped into his vision.

|Profile|         |Catalog|

Name: Dream 

Species: Human Male

Titles: [Origin Seeker]

Class: (unassigned)

Level: 1

Stats: Strength- F-      Agility- F-

           Stamina- F-       Magic- F-

Passive Skills: [Visualization] Lvl. 1, [Savant]Lvl. 1, [Copycat] Lvl. 1, [Awareness] Lvl. 1

Active Skills: [Summons From Another World]

"Hmm. Interesting. Those are all the skills I got. Except for Visualization. Nothing said anything about that... Oh well. More of these skills couldn't hurt. Anyway, let's check out this catalog."

Raising his hand, Dream attempted to click on the catalog tab in the air. But upon doing so, nothing happened. Tilting his head, he said 'catalog' in his mind, upon which the screen in front of him changed. 

|Catalog|

-Search here-

1. Weapons
2. Utility
3. Clothing
4. Supplies
5. Misc.

"Oh! That's cool! Hehe, definitely weapons first. Uhh, search bar, search up guns."

Guns:

1. 38 Special Revolver 
2. 44 Magnum Revolver 
3. 22 Cal. Pistol
4. 9mm Pistol
5. 45 ACP Pistol
6. 57 Cal Pistol
7. 223 Cal Rifle
8. 556 Cal Rifle
9. 308 Cal Rifle

....

After he spoke, a list of many different guns popped into view. Seeing all the options, Dream drooled in excitement. 

"Oh, I'm gonna get me some of these! Let's start with a pistol. Definitely not a revolver. A 57 should be good. I've always like that gun."

Saying that, Dream focused on the option for a 57 Cal Pistol. Soon, another screen popped up. 

-.57 Cal Pistol

- Fires 5.7x28mm rounds

- Detachable box magazine

- Mana cost: Med

"Medium mana cost? I have no idea how much that is, but it sounds doable. Uhh, give me this gun."

After focusing on buying the gun, Dream saw the item appear in mid-air a few inches from his leg. It wasn't the normal polymer gun either, but a futuristic-looking one with default holographic sights. 

"This is freakin cool. Although I felt some mana drain. At least I think that was mana. Wasn't my regular energy. And it dropped a good amount. I might be able to buy one more of these before being sapped of it all. Are there any consequences to doing that? I didn't really feel any discomfort. Whatever. Let's see... This one should have 20 rounds right?"

Putting other thoughts aside and pulling back the slide of the gun, Dream looked inside the barrel. However, after looking down, he saw nothing. No bullets. 

"No bullets? Don't tell me. Do I seriously have to buy them separately? Catalog."

Calling back out the catalog, Dream used the search bar and looked up the bullets for the gun. And sure enough, boxes of bullets could be seen for sale, all of them costing low mana. 

"Ugh. Looks like I need to do everything by hand. Get me a box."

After selecting in his mind, a box appeared in the same way the gun did. Dream picked it up, took out the magazine to his gun, and started loading bullets. 

Several minutes later, Dream had a full magazine. He inserted it into the gun and racked the slide, loading a bullet. 

"*sigh* The bullet cost was low, but it still drained good amount of energy. I definitely won't be able to get those rifles. I guess this'll have to do."

Sighing in disappointment, Dream stood up. 

"You know, I should get a backpack. I'll need something to carry my crap. Catalog... Gimme a backpack."

The next moment, Dream had a backpack in which he put his shirt, sweater, the mysterious letter, and the half-empty box of bullets. The gun he put into the pocket of his sweats for easy access. 

"Alright. Let's see if I can't find some people. Though I gotta be careful. Who knows what kind of animals are lurking. Wouldn't want to run into a bear or something."

Saying that, Dream chose a random direction and began walking. As he did, he could feel the weird changes to his body. 

He found that he was definitely stronger than before. His legs responded quickly, his body felt super light, and he could move with incredible speed. He used to be a track sprinter after all, so he was very sensitive to his speed and bodily power. This only served to surprise him though. The reason was because he had only achieved speeds and feelings like this when he was in peak shape. 

After walking and checking out his body for a long while, he eventually pulled back up the catalog to scroll through its wares. 

"Clothes, guns, food, devices. This thing's got everything! I could get myself a bed, a tent, fire starters, pots, pans. Freaking everything! They even got cars and shit! There's really nothing I can't get from this, so long as I have the mana. This can get really expensive though. Some of the high tech rifles need a stupid amount of mana. The more material or the more complicated it is, the more expensive it is. Now that I think about it, I've regenerated some mana. I should plan out what I'm going to get. First I should think about getting what I need to camp..."

Mumbling to himself, Dream started making a mental list of the things he would need. However, as he was walking, he suddenly heard rustling. Snapping his head around, he looked off towards a tree covered in bushes.

"...Please tell me that's a rabbit."

Dream stared fixedly at the bush, but unfortunately for him, what came out wasn't a rabbit. It was a dog. A mean-looking dog, and it was snarling at him. 

He wasn't the only one either. Dream saw 5 more dogs pop out from bushes around the same place. All of them were staring straight at him, definitely not looking to make friends. 

"...Shit."

Dream's heart pounded madly as adrenaline started coursing through his veins. Slowly, he reached for the pistol in his pocket and pulled it out while planning what to do in his head.

'I don't know how fast these things are. Should I start running first? I don't know if I'll be able to wear them out. Even if I do, they'll probably find me again... Shit. Let's fire first and take one out.'

Steeling himself, Dream raised the gun and pointed at the dog closest to him about 20 meters away. None of them reacted as if the gun weren't worth their time. Taking careful aim, he fired right at the dog's head.

*Bang!*

*Thud*

<You have killed a level 6 [Wild Dog]>

<You have leveled up!>

<You have leveled up!>

'...Wild dog?'

As the dog fell to the floor lifeless, Dream saw three notifications appear in his vision. But after looking at it for a second, he focused back on the problem in front of him.

After the shot, the other dogs were shaken. It was incredibly loud and rang out in the forest. But after composing themselves, they looked to their side to see the dog who had fallen to the ground. 

As this happened, Dream decided to catch them off guard. Taking aim once more, he fired toward another dog.

*Bang!*

*Thud*

<You have killed a level 7 [Wild Dog]>

<You have leveled up!>

*Bang!*

*Arf!*

"Damn."

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

<You have killed a level 5 [Wild Dog]>

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

Firing continuously, Dream tried to take out as many of them as possible. Unfortunately, his aim wasn't always spot on, and he could only kill two more before the others snapped out of it and charged toward him.

"Run!"

Spinning around, Dream made a beeline for the opposite direction, dogs right on his tail. 

His backpack was tossed around as he tried to carefully tread the terrain as best he could. He had to be a bit hasty though, and he charged through several bushes when he couldn't find another route. Avoiding the dense trees was difficult too, and he was constantly weaving through them. Luckily, Dream was no stranger to agile movements having played lots of soccer in his life. 

However, soccer skills weren't invincible against horrible terrain. After running for only a few minutes, Dream ended up slipping after planting his feet to harshly. 

*Thud*

Falling to the floor, Dream didn't hesitate to whip around, not even worrying about the pain that came from hitting the ground. When he did, he could see the dogs only a few meters away.

*Bang!*

Raising his gun, Dream fired at the closer one. It noticeably slowed and tumbled to the floor as the bullet went into its chest. The other one was fine though, and lunged straight at him. 

*Growl!*

"Agh!"

Dream yelled out as the dog pounced on him. After kicking his leg out to keep it away, the dog decided to target it and munch down on it like the piece of meat it was. 

"Ah! Fuck off!"

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

Carefully taking shots, Dream sent bullets into the dog. Unfortunately, he couldn't and wouldn't aim at its head as it was right there next to his leg. Instead he opted for the body, punching holes into it.

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

*Arrrr!*

After several shots, the dog finally started giving and let go of his leg, howling miserably. It dropped to the floor next to him, blood pouring out. 

Dream backed away when it wincing at the wounds on his leg. His sweats had been torn to shreds, and there were deep wounds on his calf. 

"Shit! It's gonna get infected. Damn dog!"

*Bang!*

<You have killed a level 7 [Wild Dog]>

After shooting the dog in the head, Dream pulled himself off the floor, compensating on his uninjured leg.

"Huff... Huff... You too."

*Bang!*

<You have killed a level 6 [Wild Dog]>

Shooting the other dog that was also laying there injured, Dream took some deep breaths, calming himself down. 

"...I need to move. Louds noises and blood will attract predators. I need bandages too. Damn. Can barely walk with it. Sigh, this is turning out to be a shitty first day."

Saying that, Dream trudged away with his mangled leg as quickly as he could, hoping to get away somewhere safe.