As soon as the Scientist's voice in the sky grew silent, the air in front the Beguru tree began to shimmer.
As a precaution, I had given the nearby tribe all of my money, food, and drinking water and asked them to clear the area.
I told them it was for ecological research purposes.
The object coming from the ground began to take a dome-like shape.
There wasn't anyone around me, but I was sure everyone on Earth was shaking in fear and confusion. I knew I was.
As the shimmering in the air dissipated, the area looked as if the Temple of Athena Nike had shrunk down to the size of an altar, usable by one person. I slowly approached the newly appeared Don Gate.
I had, of course, seen many gates before, and even used one before. This one looked just like the rest. But this time, this gate was completely different to me now.
"This…is…the first Don Gate!"
There was no way that the information was wrong. The first deva had already been born in the past and that information no longer had any worth to it, so anybody could learn it.
But the sliver of doubt never left me. I was always worried what I would do if the Don Gate never appeared. I needed it to become mankind's first to evolve!
I couldn't give up on the 500 stat points. Once I laid my eyes on the Don Gate, all of my doubts vanished.
"I feel kind of bad. That person won't be able to gain fame like he did in the past."
Mankind's first deva wasn't the strongest by far, but he was definitely strong enough for his name to carry weight.
He was known as the "Black Clawed Panther."
There was not a person that didn't know his name, and he was strong enough that the top 0.1% didn't hesitate to let him into their ranks.
He was famous for wielding twin swords, and with his stats upgrades, a nimble assassin. But there was no way he was in the top 0.1% for that alone.
He was exceptionally adept with poisons! Among his arsenal were bleeding poisons, neurotoxins, paralytic poisons, and cursing poisons!
It was his frightening ability to use twelve different types of poison in tandem with his powerful body and his sword skills that earned him the nickname Black Clawed Panther!
The poison he seemed to prefer was the cursing poison, which would leave weakening effects for certain attributes like attack and movement speed, physical and magical resistance, and random status attributes. Because he could also stack these effects on his opponent, it seemed to me that he wasn't really picky about his fight style.
But the thought that I would never meet the Black Clawed Panther made me feel a little sorry for him.
"I can't get weak now. It's not like I'm going to concede this chance to him. I could never do that. I can't give up here. It's not like I'll ever encounter him."
I may have felt slightly guilty, but I knew I was not going to give this up.
I gathered my thoughts and stretched out my left wrist, which had the token of knowledge embedded in it, towards the Don Gate. As soon as I did, my body was embraced in a flash of light.
Chimes rang in my head.
The token of knowledge will now be accepted.
As the message faded, the light began to pull me towards the Don Gate.
The clothes I was wearing couldn't enter the gate with me, and were peeled right off of me as my bare body entered the gate.
It wasn't wide or large inside the gate. It was true that it was simple, with not a single piece of furniture inside.
The only special thing you could say about it was that it was flawlessly white all around. In front of me a hologram appeared and spoke.
-Human Lee Jiwon of World 1455 has used their token of knowledge. Congratulations! You are the first of World 1455 to use a token of knowledge!
-Your transformation into a deva will now begin. The process will take 600 seconds.
-During your transformation you will feel some discomfort. This is part of the process, so please bear with it.
As the voice spoke, the silvery material of the token melted like it was dissolving in water and began enveloping my body.
It started from my left wrist and almost violently spread all around my body, to my elbows and shoulders. The area in front of me turned into a hologram screen.
Deva transformation is 9% complete.
Deva transformation is 21% complete.
Deva transformation is 34% complete.
As the percentage on the hologram rose, so did the pain. I gasped despite myself.
The small card tattoo on my wrist was secreting an unbelievable amount of silvery liquid that was covering my eyes, nose, ears, mouth, and anus. Even my pores were clogged with the stuff!
Soon, my eyes were submerged in the liquid and I couldn't see in front of me anymore.
It hurt so much that I thought my eyeballs were going to burst from the pressure.
"Eugh...guh...gurg!"
The liquid began rushing into my mouth without resistance and I lost the ability to breathe as it kept entering my body. I collapsed onto the floor from the pain and started to spasm.
No longer able to breathe, I couldn't even make grunts of pain.
All I could do was pray that the pain would go away faster.
It was my second time, but there was no way anyone could get used to this. All I could do was hope that the 600 seconds would end soon.
-Deva transformation is now complete.
"Cough! Ugh, guh." I stayed lying on the floor on my stomach, coughing violently.
"Huff, huff, damn, this nearly killed me a second time!"
Panting, I flipped over and looked down at my new deva body. To be honest, it didn't feel like anything had changed.
It was the same body I had had for thirty years, with no visible difference from yesterday or today. The only thing different showing that I was now a deva was the token had disappeared from my left wrist.
Once you used a Don Gate, you would never truly die. Even if a blade cut off your neck or sliced off your arm, you would only lose health points.
But if you lost enough health points, a cut throat or arm could kill you. It's just that you wouldn't truly die, and instead resurrect.
You would resurrect in a perfectly fine body, like a video game avatar. That was a deva!
"Status check!" I unconsciously called for the stat check menu to open.
If there was someone nearby watching me, they would have definitely thought I was crazy, but I didn't care.
It would become natural later on. A small rectangular holo-screen promptly appeared in front of my eyes.
[Name: Lee Jiwon
Level: 0 Death count: 0
Title: None
HP: 10000/10000 MP: 2000/2000
Strength: 20 Agility: 20 Vitality: 20
Willpower: 20 Intelligence: 20
Residual stat points: 0
Fatigue: 0
Job: None
Physical attack: 60 Physical Defense: 20
Magical attack: 60 Magical Defense: 20]
It was the same status menu I had seen for eight years. Of course, the information displayed now was much simpler.
1 point in vitality granted 500 in HP, which meant 20 points gave me 10,000 HP. 1 point in INT granted 100 in MP, which meant 20 points gave me 2,000 MP.
1 point in strength increased ATT by 3, 1 vitality point increased DEF by 1, 1 INT point increased MATT by 3, and 1 willpower point increased MDEF by 1, which means my ATT and MATT were at 60, and my DEF and MDEF were at 20.
Anyone who became a deva obtained a stat menu that looked like this.
As I was checking my stats, a voice came from the Don Gate.
You are the first of World 1455 to become a deva. You will be granted an additional 200 points to each stat!
You have been granted a Title for being to the first to become a deva. You will receive an additional 10 skill points!
Your deva transformation is now complete.
Good luck out there in the Otadonol Stage!
As soon as the voice stopped speaking, I was flung out of the Don Gate without ceremony.
The Don Gate vanished with the same bright light it arrived with.
Because the gate disappeared after each use and reappeared at another random location, many fights broke out for the right to use the gate.
But the last few messages shocked me far more than seeing the gate disappear in front of me.
It shook me so much that I couldn't move. Not because of a physical shock, but a mental one.
"That…that conman! That Panther bastard conned us all!"
I was absolutely sure that the rumor we all heard said the first deva received 100 additional stat points. Even that much was a significant amount!
You would be not one or two steps ahead, but ten steps ahead of everyone else! In the beginning, no one really had items to use, and your stats and skills would already be so much higher that you couldn't be compared to anyone else.
This was why I invested so much for this past year to become the first deva!
It was more important than anything else I could have done. But now I found out that it was not 100 points, but 200! There was no way I could have expected this!
"And I got 10 skill points as well?!? Title check!"
As soon as the Scientist's voice in the sky grew silent, the air in front the Beguru tree began to shimmer.
As a precaution, I had given the nearby tribe all of my money, food, and drinking water and asked them to clear the area.
I told them it was for ecological research purposes.
The object coming from the ground began to take a dome-like shape.
There wasn't anyone around me, but I was sure everyone on Earth was shaking in fear and confusion. I knew I was.
As the shimmering in the air dissipated, the area looked as if the Temple of Athena Nike had shrunk down to the size of an altar, usable by one person. I slowly approached the newly appeared Don Gate.
I had, of course, seen many gates before, and even used one before. This one looked just like the rest. But this time, this gate was completely different to me now.
"This…is…the first Don Gate!"
There was no way that the information was wrong. The first deva had already been born in the past and that information no longer had any worth to it, so anybody could learn it.
But the sliver of doubt never left me. I was always worried what I would do if the Don Gate never appeared. I needed it to become mankind's first to evolve!
I couldn't give up on the 500 stat points. Once I laid my eyes on the Don Gate, all of my doubts vanished.
"I feel kind of bad. That person won't be able to gain fame like he did in the past."
Mankind's first deva wasn't the strongest by far, but he was definitely strong enough for his name to carry weight.
He was known as the "Black Clawed Panther."
There was not a person that didn't know his name, and he was strong enough that the top 0.1% didn't hesitate to let him into their ranks.
He was famous for wielding twin swords, and with his stats upgrades, a nimble assassin. But there was no way he was in the top 0.1% for that alone.
He was exceptionally adept with poisons! Among his arsenal were bleeding poisons, neurotoxins, paralytic poisons, and cursing poisons!
It was his frightening ability to use twelve different types of poison in tandem with his powerful body and his sword skills that earned him the nickname Black Clawed Panther!
The poison he seemed to prefer was the cursing poison, which would leave weakening effects for certain attributes like attack and movement speed, physical and magical resistance, and random status attributes. Because he could also stack these effects on his opponent, it seemed to me that he wasn't really picky about his fight style.
But the thought that I would never meet the Black Clawed Panther made me feel a little sorry for him.
"I can't get weak now. It's not like I'm going to concede this chance to him. I could never do that. I can't give up here. It's not like I'll ever encounter him."
I may have felt slightly guilty, but I knew I was not going to give this up.
I gathered my thoughts and stretched out my left wrist, which had the token of knowledge embedded in it, towards the Don Gate. As soon as I did, my body was embraced in a flash of light.
Chimes rang in my head.
The token of knowledge will now be accepted.
As the message faded, the light began to pull me towards the Don Gate.
The clothes I was wearing couldn't enter the gate with me, and were peeled right off of me as my bare body entered the gate.
It wasn't wide or large inside the gate. It was true that it was simple, with not a single piece of furniture inside.
The only special thing you could say about it was that it was flawlessly white all around. In front of me a hologram appeared and spoke.
-Human Lee Jiwon of World 1455 has used their token of knowledge. Congratulations! You are the first of World 1455 to use a token of knowledge!
-Your transformation into a deva will now begin. The process will take 600 seconds.
-During your transformation you will feel some discomfort. This is part of the process, so please bear with it.
As the voice spoke, the silvery material of the token melted like it was dissolving in water and began enveloping my body.
It started from my left wrist and almost violently spread all around my body, to my elbows and shoulders. The area in front of me turned into a hologram screen.
Deva transformation is 9% complete.
Deva transformation is 21% complete.
Deva transformation is 34% complete.
As the percentage on the hologram rose, so did the pain. I gasped despite myself.
The small card tattoo on my wrist was secreting an unbelievable amount of silvery liquid that was covering my eyes, nose, ears, mouth, and anus. Even my pores were clogged with the stuff!
Soon, my eyes were submerged in the liquid and I couldn't see in front of me anymore.
It hurt so much that I thought my eyeballs were going to burst from the pressure.
"Eugh...guh...gurg!"
The liquid began rushing into my mouth without resistance and I lost the ability to breathe as it kept entering my body. I collapsed onto the floor from the pain and started to spasm.
No longer able to breathe, I couldn't even make grunts of pain.
All I could do was pray that the pain would go away faster.
It was my second time, but there was no way anyone could get used to this. All I could do was hope that the 600 seconds would end soon.
-Deva transformation is now complete.
"Cough! Ugh, guh." I stayed lying on the floor on my stomach, coughing violently.
"Huff, huff, damn, this nearly killed me a second time!"
Panting, I flipped over and looked down at my new deva body. To be honest, it didn't feel like anything had changed.
It was the same body I had had for thirty years, with no visible difference from yesterday or today. The only thing different showing that I was now a deva was the token had disappeared from my left wrist.
Once you used a Don Gate, you would never truly die. Even if a blade cut off your neck or sliced off your arm, you would only lose health points.
But if you lost enough health points, a cut throat or arm could kill you. It's just that you wouldn't truly die, and instead resurrect.
You would resurrect in a perfectly fine body, like a video game avatar. That was a deva!
"Status check!" I unconsciously called for the stat check menu to open.
If there was someone nearby watching me, they would have definitely thought I was crazy, but I didn't care.
It would become natural later on. A small rectangular holo-screen promptly appeared in front of my eyes.
[Name: Lee Jiwon
Level: 0 Death count: 0
Title: None
HP: 10000/10000 MP: 2000/2000
Strength: 20 Agility: 20 Vitality: 20
Willpower: 20 Intelligence: 20
Residual stat points: 0
Fatigue: 0
Job: None
Physical attack: 60 Physical Defense: 20
Magical attack: 60 Magical Defense: 20]
It was the same status menu I had seen for eight years. Of course, the information displayed now was much simpler.
1 point in vitality granted 500 in HP, which meant 20 points gave me 10,000 HP. 1 point in INT granted 100 in MP, which meant 20 points gave me 2,000 MP.
1 point in strength increased ATT by 3, 1 vitality point increased DEF by 1, 1 INT point increased MATT by 3, and 1 willpower point increased MDEF by 1, which means my ATT and MATT were at 60, and my DEF and MDEF were at 20.
Anyone who became a deva obtained a stat menu that looked like this.
As I was checking my stats, a voice came from the Don Gate.
You are the first of World 1455 to become a deva. You will be granted an additional 200 points to each stat!
You have been granted a Title for being to the first to become a deva. You will receive an additional 10 skill points!
Your deva transformation is now complete.
Good luck out there in the Otadonol Stage!
As soon as the voice stopped speaking, I was flung out of the Don Gate without ceremony.
The Don Gate vanished with the same bright light it arrived with.
Because the gate disappeared after each use and reappeared at another random location, many fights broke out for the right to use the gate.
But the last few messages shocked me far more than seeing the gate disappear in front of me.
It shook me so much that I couldn't move. Not because of a physical shock, but a mental one.
"That…that conman! That Panther bastard conned us all!"
I was absolutely sure that the rumor we all heard said the first deva received 100 additional stat points. Even that much was a significant amount!
You would be not one or two steps ahead, but ten steps ahead of everyone else! In the beginning, no one really had items to use, and your stats and skills would already be so much higher that you couldn't be compared to anyone else.
This was why I invested so much for this past year to become the first deva!
It was more important than anything else I could have done. But now I found out that it was not 100 points, but 200! There was no way I could have expected this!
"And I got 10 skill points as well?!? Title check!"
