Vythin’s face betrayed very little, but his firm demeanor softened slightly as he glanced at Kalinor. "What were you thinking?" He asked the other godly figure.

Kalinor smiled, "Lots of options could work. I was going to give him a choice. But I was thinking...reincarnation?"

"Fuck it, why not? It’s been a while. I’ll give him a Blessing, too.”

Vythin looked at Asher and smiled wryly. "I, Vythin Goldenscales, Arch god of Haven, give you, my Blessing."

Asher tried to cock his head sideways quizzically as he felt a wave of warmth wash over him.

What Blessing?

Vythin cracked a smile, "You'll find out…Kalinor, don't take too much longer. Dinner will get colder."

He gave an obvious loving glance at The Arbiter of Souls and cupped his partner's chin before turning away. A golden circle opened once more, and the imposing figure stepped through. This time, the circle remained open, a portal in space.

What was that about?

"My husband…is a notable figure. He became an Arch god; I became the Arbiter."

Fascinating. How'd you get that role?

"Ah, that knowledge is dangerous…" Kalinor waved his hand and the scroll vanished. Several floating black orbs covered in gold floated in front of Asher, "I give you a choice. Choose a world."

…Huh?

"Choose a world to be reincarnated upon. Or you could choose an afterlife. You were raised Christian, yes? I can send you to Heaven if you want. It's not a world though. It’s kind of ghostly.”

…Are there worlds with magic?

Kalinor turned to a passing drone which whirred and beeped before zooming out of the room. "I can arrange that.” A large smile spread across his face. "Heimfold, my home world, has all the things you seem to enjoy according to your life-scroll. Adventure, magic, fantasy races-”

You had me at magic.

Kalinor snapped his fingers and smiled ear to ear as all but one of the orbs disappeared. The orb had only a single landmass set on a planet in a vast ocean.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/sXjB3yxk/0-Heimfold-SD.jpg]

A supercontinent.

It reminded Asher of Pangea in Earth’s ancient past.

The image began to expand, and he could see the whole solar system. Two suns - one red and one yellow, a large asteroid belt surrounding the outer edge, three moons of varying shades of grey, and a ribbon of blue like a river in the sky.

The image, after expanding to give a full view of the solar system, zoomed in until he could see the large landmass up close, making out the topography.

No arctic region?

"Yup! The creators of this world kept things temperate. Give me a moment. I am trying to format this so that you can easily understand it…"

Kalinor concentrated for a few minutes before a shimmering, grey screen of sorts hovered in front of Asher.

This looks like character creation in a video game.

The Arbiter gushed with excitement, "I tried to choose something easy to read. You can customize yourself here. Race, Abilities, etcetera. You will be able to…how would you put it…level up through training. Though, the inhabitants of this world won't quite view it in the same way. For instance, they call certain capabilities 'stats' in a weird trend that started a few hundred years ago. It's been some time since I was there last. I'm curious-"

"Kalinor!" A yell that shook Asher to his core - a yell not unlike an upset parent who wanted their child to come immediately - echoed through the golden circle hovering in space.

Kalinor looked over and grimaced, "Right…dinner."

He looked back at Asher, grinning as a glint of pure joy crossed his face, "Take your time. Once you're ready, just think that to one of the drones you spot floating about, and you'll be sent on your way. Good luck!" He ran through the portal.

It shut behind him.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Asher was alone once more.

Floating in front of him was a screen that looked like a character sheet from a simple RPG.

Name (Race / Rank):

Strength:

Agility:

Fortitude:

Defense:

Offense:

Magic Resistance:

Magic Potency:

Equipment

Active Abilities

Innate Abilities

Affinities

As he passed his pseudo-hand over the words, the true meaning of them filled his mind.

Strength is how strong you are. Pretty obvious.

Agility is your nimbleness. So, dodge chance and general dexterity. And it contributes to a hidden Speed stat.

The hidden stat stood out to him. Why would someone hide that? Who would put missing stats on a readout? Did it mean that people in this world did not know their Speed? He turned to a drone and tried to ask it, but it simply shrugged its wings and moved on. Asher returned his attention to the panel.

Fortitude.

How healthy you are, how much damage you can take, and resistance to physical effects.

Defense and Offense.

Defense was related to blocking, whether that was with a shield, a stronger section of armor, or deflecting with a weapon. Offense was the prowess of the user to attack or hit things. But without a high Strength to back it up, you would be hitting like a wet noodle. Depending on the weapon type - something like a rapier that didn't require much muscle to do damage - you could neglect Strength.

But there’s something odd here…

Those two stats applied to both ranged and melee combat. They also augmented something called Abilities - powers that were trained or innate to the wielder. Sort of like special moves or techniques. They seemed pretty literal in their wording - as if they were translated from a more difficult language and simplified for his understanding.

Magic Resistance is how much you're harmed by spells, and Magic Potency is how strong your spells are…and there’s another hidden stat.

He waved his shapeless appendage in this spectral form over the magic stats and saw another hidden statistic underneath it.

Quintessence?

It was some equivalent to mana or focus points. He couldn’t figure that out – why would this pool of magic power be hidden? He shook his head as no answer came to him and kept reading.

Affinity.

It was like schools of magic. Various elements such as fire and water fell under the categorization. But more esoteric Affinities were also listed; emotions, specific chemicals from the Periodic Table of Elements, and even nebulous ones like shadow.

But the more a person had access to, the weaker their spells would be.

Sort of like a math formula. Magic Potency divided by the number of Affinities equals the spell's power when cast.

As he finished reading the character sheet, another tab on the panel opened, displaying more information. A race compendium.

The races appeared to be quite varied. Each had a starting number for each stat and a set number of points to increase stats and buy Abilities.

Each race had its unique Abilities - underwater breathing, hardened scales, and an Affinity for certain types of magic just to name a few. There were thirteen in total. Most were some blends of animal and humanoid, or just a variant of humans.

Each race also seemed to have a set amount of build points, with baseline Humans starting with slightly more points but no special Abilities or Affinities.

Asher’s mind started racing thinking about the various broken builds he had theory crafted and read about on tabletop gaming forums. Point-buy systems were notoriously easy to break.

He kept reading, eventually being moved by the drones to a hallway with several rooms - almost like cells - when Kalinor returned. Asher barely noticed; he was too engrossed in learning about this world from a character-creation point of view.

There isn't a lot of game-wiki style information, and lots of world-lore missing.

The technology level was around the late-medieval to early Renaissance period. There was not a history section, so he would be going into this world blind to social norms and customs. He inquired with nearby drones, and they confirmed that yes, he would be able to speak, read, and understand the Common language of the world.

Okay, enough of that, let's start building my character…the next me.

Most creatures had stats that started around ten, give or take a few depending on their race and natural proclivities, and around one hundred build points to improve stats.

Kalinor had given him two thousand.

There was a unique Ability that it seemed didn't exist in the rule book, some type of Blessing, that was already on the character sheet.

I'll figure that out eventually.

Asher set to making his perfect character.

His next self.

But he paused in his thought process.

Should I start from scratch – baby, child, the whole thing? Or just…spawn in as an adult?

If he chose to start from the beginning, then he wouldn't be going in blind. He'd learn about the culture, the history, and everything important from a world-lore perspective. He turned to a drone and asked if he would maintain his current knowledge through a rebirth-style reincarnation. The drone confirmed that he would, indeed, have the same knowledge from the get-go.

I'd be an infant and a toddler with the mind and memories of an adult?

He shook his head. That sounded like hell. With his resolve strengthened, he set about his task with meticulous precision. Making a character that he truly wanted to be.

The next me.

He spent an unknown amount of time building and destroying, assembling, and disassembling his future self. Trying different combinations of stats and Abilities. Not too specialized, but not too generalized.

I doubt I’ll have another opportunity like this. And I want to be able to do anything I put my mind to.

Finally, at last, he finished.

Kalinor came over and looked the character sheet up and down. “Interesting.” He put his hand over Asher’s ghostly form. “I hope you enjoy your new life. And I hope I never see you again." He grinned, "Have fun!"

A surge of warmth coursed through Asher.

And the world turned white.