I sat in that void for some time, relaxing and unwinding. Finally memories started to fade, and I felt my real self start to climb to the surface once more. I think I was done creating life for some time. If I had to look at another DNA helix in the next few weeks I was going to throw up.

Once my mind had taken the time it needed to recover, I had to dredge up a name for this race. The worst part was, I had zero idea what to name this race. All the cool names were already taken, so I had to make something from scratch. But first should I see how they look? While yes I had created them, I didn’t bother to check what their base form was. I selected the unnamed template and dropped it into the character creation screen.

What I saw was well unassuming. It was a single round pod, no larger than a soccer bar. The flesh was smooth, and the color of coal. The only thing that gave it away that it was a living being were the tentacles that grew out the bottom of it. Other than that, it had no eyes, it had no discernable futures. It was just a pod that sat there, menacingly. It was cute though.

Since I had satisfied my curiosity, I removed it from my character screen, and went about thinking of a name for the race. What encapsulated a galactic horror? It needed to sound ancient, like it has always existed but was forgotten. I didn’t want something that sounded lovecraftian. They weren't eldritch horrors, but just regular ones.

I chewed on the name for some time, as I floated in place. How about something simple. Like, The Ancient Ones. It was simple and to the point. It also conveyed a meaning that stood against the flow of time. I thought about it for a few more seconds before I mentally nodded my head. It conveyed the meaning, and didn’t seem too over the top. Quickly, I typed the name into the flickering bar.

Congratulations! You have created a race from scratch. You have been awarded multiple titles as well as 150 creation points. Would you like to make this race public?

Titles Earned:

Progenitor of The Ancient Ones: You are the creator of this race. None may use it unless you so decree. All of this race will look upon your true form and recognize you as their creator.

Creator of life I: You have created multiple forms of life, but they were all based off of another's. Yet you craved for more. You suffered through countless hours, and crafted something from nothing. This is the first step down the path of creating life. How far will you tread? (This title has no effect as of now.)

This time the response was a bit different and I was rewarded something called creation points. I wasn’t quite sure what that was, but it looked like it was important enough to have. So thank you system for your kind donation to the poor and downtrodden. As for making this race public, hell no. This was my secret weapon, and I’ll be damned before someone else has access to them.

Finally I was finished with this step and it took far longer than I had planned. I was eager to escape this void and enjoy my new life. Just floating here was kind of getting on my nerves now. It was fun while it lasted though, but I yearned to stretch my legs and explore.

The next step I needed to do was work on my new form. I pulled up the copy of the Celestial Nephilim template and brought it back to my character creation screen. Once again I was greeted by that inky black form that shimmered like a star lit universe. This form I enjoyed for various reasons. But the biggest was just the fact it looked like the universe in one small picture.

I stared at it for a moment before I glanced at the options to manipulate my body. There was no option for hair, or muscles, or much of anything really since it seemed that the merging of the Star Borne template took all of that away. The only thing that I saw was the ability to change my skin tone, and the light frequency. My height wasn’t fixed either, which was good. On to work then!

The first thing I decided to change was the color of my body. I selected my entire chest, and changed the tone to a soft azure. Much like the color schemes I’d see in a nasa photograph of space. I then selected my head, and gave it a soft orange tone like that of a nebula. Piece by piece, I went over my body, and added in colorful swirls and radiant displays. If I was going to look like a walking universe, I was going to embody one.

Once I was done, I sat back and gazed at my new body. I was vibrant, yet as dark as the depths of space. My body looked like a nebula, but there was no real comparison. I was happy with this overall. The last thing I wanted to do was work on the lights. Once I found the option in the menu, I carefully worked on the brightness until they all shimmered like the night sky. Now I think that was perfect! All that was left now was to give it one last look over and tweak it accordingly.

I ended up changing the height slightly, as well as adjusting the brightness on a few of the colorful swirls. But everything else I kept the same. I enjoyed how colorful my eyes were. They seemed to hit just right, and since this was going to be my true form, I was happy with how mystical it looked! I went down to the bottom of the screen and clicked save.

Race creation phase complete... Applying the template to the user's body... Template applied. The user is no longer designated fully human. The primary designation is now

Celestial Nephilim, with a sub designation of human. Analyzing Kairos... Titles Removed... Favor of the System and Deux Machina. Would you like to review your shopping cart one more time before purchasing it?

Oh shit, I almost forgot about that! I backed out and went back to my shopping cart and glanced through it again. The only races that I wanted to get were the dark elves, and the living golems. The rest I only had in there so I could access them a bit easier when I was making stuff.

It will cost 100 creation points to purchase the dark elf and living golem templates. Would you like to confirm this purchase?

One hundred creation points seemed kind of hefty and I had no clue what my wallet was looking like. At least I earned some early from my purely scientific exploits. I confirmed my purchase and quickly went back to the previous page and repeated my previous steps. Finally, I was so excited to get into my new life! Goodbye Marcus, and hello Kairos! Once the message faded from view, my vision went with it for a few seconds.

The familiar kiss of the sun on my face brought my vision back. Warmth spread through my body as I opened my eyes. All around me was a sea of golden sand, and above me was a sapphire blue sky with small plastering of fluffy white clouds that casted brilliant rays of light onto the ground below.

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I brought my hands up to gaze at them, and a strange feeling danced through my heart at the sight. Much like the body that I had created, my hands were a colorful swirl of red and orange. Small pin pricks of light would shimmer into existence before they evanesced back into the darkness. That was it huh? I didn’t feel any different. I still felt like I always had. How odd. I reached out towards the clouds, trying to grasp for them. The muscles in my hand rippled like water, as they enclosed the air. My sight was different too, or at least it seemed like it. Everything seemed painfully bright, and colorful. Almost like I was seeing in super high resolution.

So this really wasn’t a dream. I was no longer human. Now, I’m an Administrator, and my former life is behind me. Yet, even though I thought that, I had steeled myself to one day return to earth, and visit my parents. Even if biologically I was no longer their child, the least I could do was say goodbye.

The light from the clouds touched the skin of my hand, and seemed to vanish from reality. This new body really was odd. I pulled my hand away, and touched the back of it, and was shocked to see that my skin wasn’t even solid. It felt more like a thick pool of ink that simply parted under my touch. How interesting.

I shot a tentative glance downwards and saw that I was standing fully nude. But I wasn’t embarrassed by it. In fact, there was nothing there but a swirling universe, and a ken shaped pubic region. I was fully genderless now, and in a way, it felt freeing. Was being bound by gender nothing more than a concern of the flesh? It was something that I never really gave too much thought to and even now, didn’t really mean too much to me.

Once I was done checking out my new body, I spun around to take stock of the surroundings. Behind me was a sea of trees that held thousands of shades of green. Birds chirped in the distance and the sound of waves crashing against a shore behind me almost made me jump. I spun back around and saw that the stretch of sand had turned into a brilliant blue ocean that was gently lapping at the shore. This place was strange. It was almost like it was changing as it left my sight. Was it rendering into reality? Or was it something far stranger?

The salty aroma of the ocean reached my face, and a gentle gust of wind pressed into my back, bringing with the musky smell of a forest. Thousands of birds chirped around me, and the sounds of a lively world reached my ear. It was so peaceful here. But all of that was shattered by the crunch of gravel. I quickly spun to the source and saw a rather tall and lanky figure coming out of the woods, meandering in my direction. "Who are you?" I called out as I stood my ground. I wouldn’t be scared any more. I was an Administrator now, and I’ll be damned if I backed down.

“Why hello old sport, my name is Athurias Valman and it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." The figure spoke with what sounded like a slight English accent. A short second later he stepped out of the shadows and into the sunlight revealing short-cropped red hair and a thin, almost emaciated form. "Might I ask what this new Administrators name is?"

“Kairos," I fully turned to him and crossed my arms. I would no longer give into fear, it was about damn time I held my head high.

"Now old sport, it's rude to not tell a fella his last name when he has given his." He took another step closer, and I could see a light dusting of freckles across his cheeks. He gave a soft, friendly smile, but the aura he was giving off was chilling.

"I don't really have a last name; my title is the closest thing I would have, I guess." I glanced around and saw that the line of trees was closing in around me with each step he took. Was he afraid I’d run?

. He took another step closer, and I could see a pair of blood orange eyes peeking out from an eye brow less face. He wore a Hawaiian style shirt that hung loosely on his frame and had brown dirt caked in random places. The khakis barely held onto his bone thin legs.

"Ahh. You are one of those types that get into character then, my apologies, then." The chilling vibes that were emanating from his body seemed to stop, and I felt myself start to grow slightly less uncomfortable with him. He took a final step and reached out a hand that had a light dusting of dirt on it. "I'm a system companion who runs the next part of the process. It's a pleasure to meet you, Kairos."

I gingerly took his hand to return his handshake and was immediately shocked at the strength in his grip. "It's a pleasure to meet you as well," I replied in a reserved tone, unsure if I am unable to trust this man. He released his grip and spun on his heel quickly and snapped his fingers, causing the trees that were slowly surrounding us to stop and part like a wave.

"Now come, We need to select a class for you so you can move on to weapon creation and finally be gone from this place. Chop chop time is of the essence." The man was taking impossibly long steps with legs that seemed like they were no longer than mine. Why did it seem that everyone and everything here defied what I thought to be true? Was everyone on Earth just wrong? Or was it that we just didn’t understand what we thought we knew?

I rushed to catch up to him and found that my body felt so much lighter than before. Each step I took seemed to make me bounce slightly off of the ground like I was weightless. "So I have a question.” My voice easily cut through the distance between us and I noticed that it had a strange quality to it. It was airy, yet deep, soft, yet potent. It was a strange thing to try and describe. But I think the word for it was ethereal.

"What would your question be then?" He asked, his voice was as steady as if he was going for a light walk and not putting any effort in at all.

"Why is it that everyone I've met so far seems to know how to speak English?" I asked as I closed the distance between us easily. Was it some hidden power of an Administrator?

"Well, mate, every Administrator has access to a universal translator. The system converts language going in and out to the closest approximation of its meaning and tone. You will find that it is spot on every time. "

I nodded my head as we started to slow down even more and entered into an open clearing. "Well, that would make sense. You speak it so fluently, I just wasn’t sure if English was the universal standard.."

He shrugged and quickly walked through the knee-high grass into a pit that was filled with golden sand. In the center stood a wooden training dummy that looked scarred and well used.

Arthurias quickly materialized a chair and took a seat directly across from the training dummy and kicked his legs out into the air. "Now, the first thing is to explain the class structure to you." He shifted slightly as a wall of floating text appeared in front of my eyes.

Analyzing User..Title discovered. Favor of the System, class creation is now applied. Mid-tier classes have been unlocked... TItle has been removed from the user's title inventory.

"Oh. Look at you with the fancy titles. This is gonna make explaining things a tad bit easier since I now have some examples." He snapped his fingers, and a new screen appeared in front of me.

Class selection

Please select which tier you would like to explore.

Low tier- Access Granted

Middle tier- Access Granted

High tier- Access Denied

Mythic- Access Denied

Legendary- Access Denied

Unique- Access Denied

"Now, I'm gonna need ya to click on the low tier class selections. I don't expect you to choose a low tier class since you have a fancy title. I just wanted you to experience the nuances of what is offered.." I nodded my head and reached an Inky black finger forwards and pressed the Low tier class option. The screen quickly faded away and was replaced by a list of varying specialties.

Please select where you wish to specialize in:

Range

Melee

Fist

Magic

Technology

Traps

Summons

Stealth