Aleastria, 212 PS (Post System)
It was an average day in Montero, the capital of the empire. The sun hung high, and the streets were bustling with all sorts of people. Merchants peddled goods to unsuspecting tourists, while the city's citizens ran errands, such as getting their prescriptions refilled at the local apothecary. That was the case for George; he was just a farmer from the outskirts of the city, and he was here for his monthly prescription. As he entered the apothecary's store, he saw the young clerk, the apothecary's daughter, standing at the counter. "Good morning," he chimed, "Great day, isn't it?". "Yeah, the weather's nice and the sun's just right," the young clerk replied, as if she had just woken up; it was still a bit early in the morning. As George examined the many herbs, potions, and salves that were on the shelves, he noted the little information on the floating blue panel beside each item.
It was a system.
a clear pane of what seemed like crackling blue light, in a rectangular form, seemed to appear in front of everyone's eye, of course not at the same time, but ever since the discovery of the mana core, the citizens of capital and some seasoned adventurers, could see these tranlusent windows apear next to item and desplayed key information, such as the durability and rarity of an an item. The system would also display the metrics of each person's attributes, such as strength or mana capacity.
---
In the plaza, many of the nobles and some guards' children would play all day, one of them was the son of the esteemed researcher, Sir Gerald Johnson, who had contributed many hours to developing the system and the mana core further, but he had tired himself out. The emperor had ordered him to take a vacation, and under imperial law, he had no choice but to spend some time with his son.
---
The atmosphere was tense in the underground facility where the mana core was kept. The mana core, as its name implies, was a giant crystalline sphere that would circulate mana throughout the kingdom. Today was just another inspection, nothing that should have been out of the ordinary, yet the emperor was here, as he had a look of worry on his face, one that would send shivers down anyone's spine. What was the emperor so worried about? Well, two hundred years ago, when his ancestors found the mana core, they found alongside it a prophecy.
"When all seems calm,
the wrath of the gods will fall upon the holder of the core."
in the emporer's opinion, this was nothing more then bullshit, something some crazy person wrote next to the core, to deter anyone from taking it. But surely the prophecy was wrong; they had been in an era of peace for almost ten years, yet the core had stayed functioning, right?
Wrong.
Suddenly, the core began spinning rapidly; it would often turn slowly, and it would usually float off the ground, but it had never spun this violently before. an then, the system chimed, as if it wasn't ironic enough that the core had gone haywire:
[Mass system Update]
"You have incurred the wrath of the ancients,
Good Luck."
And then, silence, as if the ominous system window just now didn't spell the end of this empire. And suddenly, BOOM! The core imploded, shattering in its enclosure and releasing a high amount of lethal mana all around the capital.