Information about the world I was heading into filled my head. It was nothing too specific, though. Mostly broad information such as general locations, continents, languages, and details about the races and magic.
It really was just like a game. The whirling darkness vanished and my entire vision was clouded with a gaudy blue-green menu. It was like something from an RPG of old.
The first three options were obvious. Race, Name, Gender. There were no other options after that.
For name I simply filled in Aria. Even in my old world Smith wasn’t my real last name. I couldn’t remember my true last name… I never did find out who my parents were. I’d have killed them personally if I did, of course.
Name: Aria
Next, for Gender, I obviously filled in ‘Female’. As interesting as it would be to become a man, I’ve already lived for thirty years as a woman. There was no reason to change now. From the information I was given, gender has no effect on actual statistics other than ‘Charm’ anyways.
Name: Aria
Gender: Female
For race, though, I was slightly more interested in my choices. There were many options. I could be a human, a dwarf, an elf, a hybrid, a beastman (varying types), or even a Dragonkin. Of course I wouldn’t pick Dragonkin or Dwarf, because their aesthetics were a bit off putting.
There were a variety of subspecies too under each main race. Elf had Wood Elf, Arcane Ancient, Scryyag, Dark Elf, and much much more. Humans had Savage, Centralist, Northman, Arcane Ancient, Dark Human, and much much more as well.
Each and every subspecies had specific status bonuses and detriments. There were even options to be a vampire or other undead species. It seems they are natural races influenced slightly by the Demonic Miasma.
Considering 80% of this world’s population was human, I decided to go with that as my baseline. Humans were, after all, capable of both physical might and magical might in this world. Thus they were the best for efficient magic warrior builds.
After debating it for a while, I decided to settle on the ‘Savage’ subspecies for human.
Name: Aria
Gender: Female
Race: Human (Savage)
Age: 20 (Unchangeable)
The menu in front of me changed and a model of my body appeared. It looked like my old body except a bit younger. It seems my age was going to be regressed to twenty years old. My hair had also changed to a dark red color from its old black. This was a major characteristic of the Savage subspecies. Due to their high magical potential, often their hair turns scarlet in color and their eyes a thick gray. No other race has this strange trait, for some reason… But it is true that the Savage subspecies is the most efficient for becoming a magic swordsman.
I wasn’t allowed to change too many things about my body. For one, my general physique was set and I couldn’t adjust it much. My slightly smaller than average bust would stay that way in this new world, which was unfortunate. Considering fantasy and all I had hoped I could give myself some ‘upgraded’ features.
I was allowed to reconfigure my face slightly. This was a godsend enough for me, because it let me fix the damn crook in my nose I’d had since an unfortunate incident when I was seven years old. It was the main reason few people ever considered me ‘pretty’ in my last world. Beauty was just another form of power, of course, and I regretted not being able to hold onto it back then. I wouldn’t make the same mistake this time. If I was going to be forced to fight this ‘Demon King’, then I intended to use my wiles to make as many men become fodder for me as possible. My own survival came before all else.
I decided to leave my height alone. It would be unfortunate if I had to adjust to living in a taller or shorter body. Though I did increase my muscle mass a slight bit. Not enough to look gross, mind you, but so I appeared athletic like a swimmer.
Finally, after about an hour of tinkering and seeing what I was allowed to change, I finally finished messing with my appearance and clicked the ‘OK’ button at the bottom of the screen.
All at once a light filled my vision and then finally I felt my body take form. I hadn’t even realized it, until this point, but I hadn’t even been in a body. I had just been a soul floating in nothingness.
I moved my arms, legs, and neck around to get a feel for them. To my surprise, it felt completely natural. I was overjoyed that there would be no awkward period of getting used to things.
A new screen popped in front of my eyes. This one was labeled ‘Traits, Abilities, and Statistics’. It seemed rather ominous. In the corner of the screen a small counter appeared displaying 995 SP.
Under the ‘Abilities’ section was a skill called ‘Otherworld Knowledge (5 SP)’.
It was rather intuitive from the get go. I was given a currency, SP, to spend on stats and skills. It seems it was limited to a certain amount. I honestly wondered why the Gods couldn't just give me infinite power to do their bidding. Well, they probably had their shitty reasons.
I immediately began playing with the skills and stats.
The statistics section listed 5 main stats:
Power:
Speed:
Endurance:
Spirit:
Sensory:
One SP increased each stat by one point. I started by pouring SP into strength just to see if there was an upper limit. It looked like the ‘Counter Stop’, as they called it in Japanese games, was at 100 points for each stat.
I searched the knowledge I had been provided and found that an average Human adult male value for each stat was 5. From there the scale was simple. A 10 implied you were twice as strong as a normal man. A 50 implied you were 10 times as strong as a normal man. A 100 implied you were 20 times stronger than a normal man.
It seems Humans can only achieve up to 50 normally, but I could go up to 100.
Since I wanted to be a magic swordsman, someone able to defeat enemies immune to physical or magical damage, high base stats would be a must. I started by putting 50 into each column.
Power: 50
Speed: 50
Endurance: 50
Spirit: 50
Sensory: 50
SP (745)
I decided if I had SP left over after taking the skills and Abilities I wanted, I’d put whatever was left into my stats.
I checked out the ‘Traits’ tab and was presented with 4 empty columns. It seems I could pick up to 4 total traits and no more.
Intrigued, I selected a blank slot and a massive list of all the available traits popped up in front of me. I was immediately flabbergasted by the options.
Traits were different from ‘Abilities’ in that they were innate. They were things you couldn’t get through regular training in this world. Things like ‘Extreme Luck’, ‘Double Stats’, ‘Extra Profession’, and ‘Double Exp’ were listed.
They all also costed a monstrous amount of SP. The Average cost, it looked like, was about 300 SP… But the benefits they supplied were insane.
The most unfortunate thing, though, was that there were no explanations to them. Most the names alone were enough to understand, but there were a few that left me scratching my head. Ones like ‘Malice’, ‘Blessing’, and ‘Serial’ I could only guess at their effects.
I started scrolling through the list when one particular Trait caught my eye: ‘Greed (700 SP)’.
I didn’t hesitate. I didn’t know its effects or what it did, but I selected it without a care. There are times when one must go on their own intuition. I mean, in the end, I’ve kind of proven that reincarnation is real anyways. So even if I end up dying due to a wrong decision this time around it doesn’t matter. I’ll just be reborn again. It seems even life had a ‘Restart’ button now. It also meant that those people I inadvertantly killed didn’t matter either. They were all reborn. I didn’t kill anyone. Death doesn’t matter!
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My body began to glow, and then one of the trait slots underneath Greed changed by itself into ‘Psychopath (0 SP)’. It seems if you meet the conditions you can garner Traits for free… But they aren’t things you can train for. I could only smile at this development. Still, I was a bit pissed off that a random trait I didn’t choose just popped up in one of my four precious slots. Even if it was free of charge.
Finally, with only 45 SP left to me, I switched to the Abilities Tab. It was basically a skill list. I clicked an empty slot, of which there seemed to be no limit, and a new list popped up.
-Swordsmanship Skill (5 SP)
-Marksmanship Skill (5 SP)
-Mana Manipulation (5 SP)
-Qi manipulation (5 SP)
-Mana - Qi Conversion (5 SP)
-...
The list seemed nearly endless. That didn’t matter much to me, though. I knew exactly what skills I wanted. It sucked that I could only pick up to 9 of them, though. Thankfully in my given knowledge information on many skills was presented. This made it easy to cycle through what I wanted.
-Swordsmanship Skill
-Qi Manipulation
-Acrobatics
-Manaless Body
-Elemental Qi Projection
-Qi Empower
-Advanced Life Sense
I picked those seven abilities. In this world there are two types of magic power: Mana and Qi. Mana is much more classic in the sense that it is magic power derived from the user’s spirit and knowledge. Qi, however, is derived from the user’s spirit and will.
Basically it was the difference between Eastern and Western magic. Rather than shoot a fireball like a magician, a Qi user could ignite their willpower and create fire on their sword. In essence, for someone like me who wanted to possess both physical and magical attack it was the best option.
The ‘Manaless Body’ skill was rather simple. It formatted the user’s body so that any mana they would posses would naturally be converted to Qi. There were skills for active conversion, but this was the only passive one I could find. After all, mana was going to be useless to me on this path.
I had 10 SP left.
For some reason, I didn’t want to invest it in stats though. I had considered the possibility, but what if there were ways to spend SP after this page? I had used most of it, and the 10 SP in my stats wouldn’t make a huge splash in the end.
On a whim, I decided to hit the big ‘CONTINUE’ button at the bottom of the screen. I was immediately glad I did.
The next screen that popped up was ‘Equipment’ with tabs for different body parts.
I selected some basic chainmail and plate armor from the list, some boots, and a full encapsulated helmet. Altogether the armor only cost 1 SP. It was just ordinary iron and leather, after all. I also selected a ‘Magic Bag’, which looked like a marble bag but had the storage space of a 20x20x10 meter room. It cost me 2 SP and was one of the nicer ones. I could even call out items or store them just by thinking about it. It was incredibly handy.
Next came the weapons. The list of possible weapons was massive, but I quickly advanced through it and opened the ‘Swords’ tab. If I was going to be living in a fantasy world, then weapon had to be a katana of course.
After surfing for a while I found what I was looking for. The best katana on the list, Albyrra’s Bane. It cost 3 SP by itself. It was crafted from mythril alloys and could channel Qi or Mana. It was also nigh unbreakable and blessed by some God whose name I couldn’t pronounce or even read. It was totally a cheat level item. The sheath and belt came with the item, too, which was awesome.
I had 4 SP left, but I assumed there would probably be some kind of use for it so I simply selected the ‘CONTINUE’ button yet again. This time a strange screen popped up in front of me.
[Remaining SP will be converted into equal levels of currency and provided to your magic bag. This feature will charge 1 SP as compensation. Do you agree, YES? NO?]
I selected the Yes without hesitating. 3 SP worth bought me an insane cheat level katana. Its value in gold was probably insane as well. I hadn’t even considered money. Of course I couldn’t live in a new world without money.
Suddenly my armor and katana equipped themselves to me, and my magic bag appeared on my hip. Then a voice rang out, much like the one from before, but this time in a distinctly kinder tone.
[You have been given to me, child. I am the god Albyrra. Your previous God has gifted you with power himself, so I do not need to… But I will give you a small gift anyways. You will be doing my bidding, after all. It would be unfortunate if you die. I will enchant your armor, since it seems to be the only place you slacked in the ‘creation’ of your avatar.]
Thank you. So you’re Albyrra, huh?
[That is correct.]
So I’m your slave now, huh?
[That is correct. Your soul is now bound to my world. You have 10 years to slay the Demon King before the Miasma poison spreads too far to reverse. If that happens, your soul will become corrupted and die out into nothingness with the rest of my world. Try not to let that happen.]
Wait wait, you mean if I don’t kill the Demon King I can never be reincarnated again?
[That is correct. The Demon Miasma is a creation of a rogue Elder One who infected numerous outer worlds like mine. If my world dies, then I lose my power in the Pantheon as well. We will die together, child, if that happens.]
It makes sense now!
[Pardon?]
You desire to keep living! You feel Greed just as humans do. Human beings weren’t the flawed ones, the Gods were!
[Child, I tire of your strange convictions. You are being summoned now. I’ll leave you to your own methods. You have one simple job, kill the Demon King and crush the crystal in his chest. How you go about it does not matter to me, so long as you achieve results. I cannot assist you any further from now, but my command as your master stands. If you try to disobey it you will suffer tremendous pain and die. Then I will simply borrow another soul to be my champion and I will willingly throw your soul into the Miasma.]
Ha! I get it, I get it. Kill the demon king. I also have 10 years to do it. What happens when I succeed, though? What do I get from all this?
[Other than the ability to keep on existing?]
Yes.
[Do not anger me, child. I will gift you the freedom to roam my world as you please, and that is it.]
I want to become immortal, too.
[No.]
Please?
[No.]
Come on, you got to give me something!
[Goodbye, child. Serve me well. I’ll be watching your journey. Oh, and by the way, your summoner holds my blessing, meaning their commands are as absolute for you as mine are. You can’t disobey them.]
A bright pentagram shaped light appeared beneath me and it felt like I was being dragged through a tiny hole in the ground. Pain wracked my form and my breath escaped me.
-Complete Character Information-
Name: Aria
Gender: Female
Race: Human (Savage)
Age: 20 (Unchangeable)
Job: -BLANK-
-Statistics-
Power: 50
Speed: 50
Endurance: 50
Spirit: 50
Sensory: 50
-Traits-
Greed
Psychopath
-Abilities-
Otherworld Knowledge
Swordsmanship Skill
Qi Manipulation
Acrobatics
Manaless Body
Elemental Qi Projection
Qi Empower
Advanced Life Sense
-Equipment and Possessions-
Armor of Albyrra’s Blessing
Boots of Albyrra’s Blessing
Helmet of Albyrra’s Blessing
Elite Magic Bag of Holding
Katana of Albyrra’s Bane
3000 Gold
-Blessings-
Slave of Albyrra
Demon’s Bane