Mankind’s Inheritance

A year had passed since Ashen’s group of kids started training, and not many things had changed aside from the increased number of Narkals they had to deal with.

By now, every one of them could comfortably deal with two at once, while the most competent among them could even go up against three.

Cain was one of those competent ones, and so was Ashen. But in his case, it was more like he was lightly swatting the beasts with his spear, using it more like a stick than a blade.

He was able to do that because his body had grown the strongest and largest among the kids, thanks to how he kept nurturing it with mana and, of course, his gluttonous appetite. Not to mention, he was the one who trained the most among them.

No matter how mature a child was, once training was over, they went off to play. Unlike him, they stopped once their bodies had enough, while he kept training for as long as his body could handle it.

And with the amount of mana he had now, he could probably even deal with Gorefineds if they were brought over.

“Huufff…”

A fuzzy breath, full of unrefined mana, escaped his mouth, and Ashen finally exited his immersed state.

‘Now the lower core is also complete. All that remains is the upper one.’

He had started using Trinity Harmony when he was one, and only now was he able to finish his second core. The difficulty did not solely come from the hostile nature of mana in this era. It was also because, to build the core in his lower stomach, he had to use mana to adjust the veins of his magic circuits.

The first time, he had cheated with Somatic Autonomy. But this time, all he had was the experience and the blueprint of what the finished core should look like, so he took his time to avoid risking permanent damage to the circuits.

He had had enough of being crippled once, and he was not keen on repeating the experience a second time.

Thankfully, he had just succeeded, so he could look forward to the amount of mana rising exponentially for some time, until his new core became saturated as well.

‘For the last core, I would need a competent healer to look after me.’

Surprisingly, he did not have to look far. His own mother was the best healer around. She was even better than Seraphine, from what he had seen when she was healing his father’s wounds.

‘But how can I convince her…?’

Hey, Mom, I’m going to screw up my brain with mana needles! Can you heal me while I’m doing it? Oh, heads up! I might get brain damage and turn into an idiot in the process, so don’t freak out!

‘Yeah. Like that could work…’

Bam–!

“Bro bro! Dad’s calling you.”

His tangled thoughts were interrupted by Lapis, who entered his room like a thunderstrike.

“Where is he?”

“The training grounds.”

“Okay. I’ll be going now, thanks.”

“No probs. Mom is also calling for me, so I’ll see you soon, and we’ll exchange info~.”

“You got it.”

◉

When he arrived at the large space, he found that it was not only his father waiting, but also all the boys he usually trained with.

“Ashen, you’re the last one. Find a place to sit. We are going to talk about something important.”

“Yes, Dad.”

Ashen found an empty spot and casually sat down, making himself comfortable on the ground. Only then did he look up curiously.

“Today, there will be no training.”

That sentence alone made the kids’ expressions light up. The patriarch did not mind and continued.

“Instead, I’m going to teach you about something precious.”

‘…Precious? Is it going to be another philosophical talk about labor division?’

Ashen wondered idly, though his attention had unknowingly been grabbed.

“This something is not only precious to us, but also to all of the surviving humans in our world.”

The father’s voice rang deeper in each of the children’s ears.

“It is what allowed us a fighting chance against the superior demi-humans, against the savage beasts, and even against the Darkness!”

“…”

“…”

“…It is also what spared us the fate of being a race that could only bend to the whims and tyranny of the Gods!”

The patriarch heaved a deep sigh and reached into his breast pocket, pulling out a small transparent orb. Visible mana motes could be seen dancing around it, making it obvious just how saturated the energy trapped inside was, especially since it had reached the point where it could be seen with the naked eye.

But despite that, Ashen couldn’t sense an iota of it. He wasn’t focused on that, though…

The orb he was seeing was somewhat familiar.

‘That’s…’

“This is what we call… humanity’s system,” the patriarch finished Ashen’s thought.

Everyone else was looking at him with either confused or blank stares, including Ashen. Though in his case, the blank stare was more out of shock than incomprehension.

“Uh… Dad.”

“Yes, Cain?”

“I understand what you were talking about… but no matter how I look at it… that shining rock doesn’t seem to be that impressive.”

As the kid said what was on everyone’s mind, the man did not react in anger. Instead, he put on an understanding smile.

“Well, of course. This thing here only serves as a connection to the real system. There’s nothing particularly impressive about it aside from that. Every tribe has a few of them stashed away.”

“Oh… oh? Then where is the system? And why is it so great?”

The father shook his head.

“Even I don’t know where the system is. I’ve only heard rumors that it is in the custody of humanity’s strongest tribe, being well guarded at our last bastion.”

A bitter smile graced his lips.

“Though those are only rumors. I don’t know if the so-called strongest tribe still exists or is already dead, nor do I know if our last bastion is still holding.”

Unlawfully taken from NovelPhoenix, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The kids just nodded their heads at that. They were already accustomed to such depressing stories, so it did not faze them anymore.

“Enough of that. Let’s talk about something more encouraging! Such as your other question, Cain.”

“…Why is the system so great?”

The little boy tilted his head.

“Yes. To understand that, we have to talk about the power of Concepts.”

He looked at each of them, daring them to ask a silly question such as what Concepts were after studying for so long under the big sisters.

Thankfully, no one did.

Letting a satisfied smile curl up his lips, he continued.

“Every other race aside from us eclipses us in natural lifespan, with some being even immortal, such as the ancient Gods of this planet or the vampires of the north.”

He got a couple of nods at that.

“This naturally allows them plenty of time to comprehend their chosen Concepts, while we, on the other hand, might not even reach a glimpse of one due to our lifespan being a short hundred years.”

The patriarch paused for a moment, gazing down at the pale orb in his hand and caressing it ever so gently.

“…But we did not succumb to our fate.”

He raised his head to look at the intense stares of each of his children before continuing in a much gentler tone.

“Countless years ago… when the native Gods of our planet still cared for us like their children, a certain God saw the plight of our race and gave us a special sacred stone.”

“The stone had few uses. Its main function was acting as a processor, dividing and parsing through information already imprinted into it.”

The patriarch lightly turned the pale orb in his hand, letting the children watch the mana motes drift inside.

“Even Concepts counted as ‘information,’ and this sacred stone accepted them too, but the humans of that era did not understand its real value.”

His voice carried a hint of yearning as he continued.

“Back then, it was said that they lived in a utopia. There were no wars, no hunger, and certainly no mad Gods to threaten their lives. All they had to do was worship and receive blessings.”

A few of the children listened with wide eyes. To them, such a world sounded almost impossible.

“Thankfully, regardless of their ignorance, they treasured the sacred stone and protected it dearly, as it was a gift from their God.”

The patriarch's fingers tightened slightly around the orb.

“That sacred stone is now acting as the heart of humanity’s system.”

He paused there, seemingly gathering his thoughts.

“Yes, Ashen? Is there something you are curious about?”

The moment the patriarch paused, Ashen raised his hand as if he had been waiting for it.

In reality, he had a ton of questions to ask. But there was one more pressing than all of them combined…

“Yeah, Dad, I’m curious. From what you said, I can guess that the system will probably grant us Concepts, but who was the one who put those Concepts in that stone in the first place?”

If it was the so-called sane Gods, fine. He could roll with it.

But what if it was a malevolent entity that had planted a trap inside it?

He had been using the system’s Concepts for a while now in the real world, and he did not want to suddenly start distrusting it after all the help he had received from it if he could help it.

“As perceptive as always, my son.”

The patriarch smiled faintly, clearly pleased by the question.

“That’s a very good question, and the answer to it is neither Gods nor Devils, but us, humanity.”

“Huh? No… that doesn’t make any sense…”

Ashen involuntarily refused such an answer.

“Oh? And why is that?”

The old man raised an eyebrow at him, seemingly amused by his reaction.

‘What do you mean, why? Are you crazy?’

Ashen stared at his father for a moment before his thoughts began racing.

He knew that the number of Concepts stored in the System was large enough to grant each human among billions fourteen Path Skills, and there would rarely be two identical ones amongst people.

Not to mention that it encompassed seven Concepts in the form of deadly sins until the pinnacle, where one could become the embodiment of their Concept at the zenith.

How could such a vast amount of information be comprehended by humans in one lifetime?

Even if the whole race did nothing but try to comprehend a single Concept and then poured all their understanding into the stone, it wouldn’t even scratch the surface.

Of course, Ashen couldn’t rant about all of this to his father. He was only a kid who knew nothing of the System, after all.

So he could only bullshit his way out of it.

“Uh… I mean, if there was a human with such strong Concepts, he would already be famous, right, Dad? I did not hear you speak of anyone like that…”

“A single human?”

The patriarch tilted his head slightly.

“Indeed, that kind of fantastical being doesn’t exist. But why think of one human?”

‘Even with all of them, it doesn’t change anything, pops.’

“And why even think of every human surviving now?”

“…”

Ashen fell silent.

The patriarch’s gaze moved across the group of children before settling back on him.

“The human race has survived since immemorial times, children. So let me now tell you how humanity’s system came to be.”

The lightheartedness that had lingered on his face disappeared. His expression became more serious with every passing second, until none of the children dared to interrupt him.

None of them had ever seen him look so solemn before, not even when he was forcing them to kill Narkals for the first time.

“If I have to sum it up in one word, it would be…” He lowered his gaze to the pale orb resting in his palm. “…inheritance.”

“Humanity has known from the start that they could never stand against the other races as equals, so they made a choice.”

“They picked seven Concepts, and then they linked their lives to the core of the system, the Sacred Stone.”

“When they died, all of the conceptual power they had gathered throughout their lives would be transferred back through the link and stored inside the system as information.”

“The death of one was not enough to even be called a speck of dust. The same went for the deaths of thousands, millions…”

His voice remained steady, but his eyes had lost their earlier warmth.

“…and even when all of the humans who had first linked themselves to the system perished, it had not changed anything.”

“The Concepts recorded in it were laughable compared to what they had to face. Everything would have been a futile attempt, but their descendants were also born connected to the system.”

He paused for only a moment before continuing.

“And just like their fathers, they fought their hardest, tried to comprehend the Concepts of the chosen seven, and did their best to survive as long as possible while leaving descendants of their own.”

“Those descendants, too, were connected to the Sacred Stone.”

The man’s pink eyes had become clouded as he spoke, as though he was no longer seeing the children before him.

“One generation after the other; they took over the mission of their fathers, survived, comprehended, and had descendants…”

His voice lowered, and he did not seem to even be addressing his audience anymore.

Yet the children did not dare make a sound, so his voice still rang clearly throughout the underground space.

“No matter how many died, there was always someone passing the mission on to the next.”

“When they tried corrupting us as they had corrupted the Gods, our will did not allow it. When they tried extinguishing our race, we did everything to stay alive, going as far as to dig into the ground and hide beneath the earth.”

The patriarch's grip on the Sacred Stone tightened.

“And somewhere down the line… somehow… the Sacred Stone stopped just receiving…” A faint smile appeared on his lips. “…and started giving too.”

“There were many trials and errors, but in the end, we had done it.”

His voice regained some of its strength.

“Humanity had forged a weapon worthy of being called their tool of salvation.”

The children remained completely silent, hanging onto every word.

“Despite that, the mission that had started with our ancestors never stopped.” His gaze slowly swept across the children.

“The human race would keep sharpening our weapon until it eventually reached the end of the Darkness…”

His eyes hardened.

“…and tore through it.”

Finally, the patriarch seemed to snap out of his strange state and sighed deeply. It was a sigh filled with a multitude of emotions that none of the children could accurately name.

“There are two reasons why I am recounting this story for you, children. One, it is because my own father had done the same for me and had entrusted me to pass it on to my kids. So I shall do the same and ask this of you, and two…”

He raised two fingers, briefly emphasizing the point before lowering his hand again.

“It is because I do not want any of you to view this system as a mere tool, used and taken for granted.”

His gaze slowly moved from one child to the next.

“I want you to see it as a torch that your forefathers passed to you. It will illuminate your path, and you, in turn, will make it shine a little brighter before passing it on to the next person.”

In the end, he smiled, a smile full of pride, as he looked at each of them.

“This is the strength of humanity. We might not have long lifespans or strong bodies, but we possess a gift like no other…”

He placed a hand over his chest.

“…our inheritance.”

Silence filled the room.

Despite their young age, their fathers’ sentiments seemed to have been properly conveyed. They, too, would be ready to pass down the message when the day came.

Ashen slowly raised a hand over his eyes, trying his best to hold something back.

‘Damn this young body… I can’t even properly control my emotions…’

It couldn’t be helped.

Who would have thought that the System he had taken for granted his whole life, and had even been suspicious of in the deepest recesses of his mind, was actually built on countless piles of corpses, sacrifices, and convictions?

It was no wonder it was called Humanity’s System.

‘To keep this up, how many countless years did it take? How is it even possible?’

‘How much suffering did they go through just to survive one extra day, to add just a little more to their Concepts…?’

‘One by one, they fed it with the belief that their successors would do the same, and that one day, their race would come out as victors…’

His hand slowly fell from his face.

‘And here we are, modern humans wielding it to stay turtled behind a vast wall and one Ashbastion.’

‘What a tragedy…’

The patriarch suddenly broke the silence with a hearty laugh.

“Haha. It seems we have talked for quite a while this time around! It should be about time now. Come on, everyone, make a line, and put your hands on the orb one by one.”

“Haah…”

In the end, Ashen forcibly put a halt to his messy thoughts and got in line too.

‘Forget it. For now, I just have to take hold of this torch and do my duty as a fellow human being.’

…it was the least Ashen felt he could do for a humanity that had fought against the impossible for far too long.