So, my journey begins as pretty much all isekai stories do, I was pulled into another world, another dimension/reality, all the above. Apparently, my travel to another reality/dimension caused me to go through the space between all realities. This space is known as the Sea of Chaos. It contains or connects to everything that is or could be. Perhaps more the potential of those things, I had a significant amount of potential to absorb. At least that is how my guide described it. Sure, he went into a bunch of stuff about gifts from God, bloodlines, a unique connection to Omni-Magic and Creation. There was some talk about the Dark making a claim, I’m sure what he said was important, oh well. That part is all a bit fuzzy; I wasn’t completely paying attention. Hey, you would be distracted too if you just ended up in another world. I’m still learning what this all means.
I mean I am literally in another world! My previous life is over! Now what? That is where my thoughts were so I kind of missed the introduction by my guide but I figure I am a quick learner so I will sort it all out one way or another.
Anyway, one thing my guide made a point to emphasize is that I will have a habit of not adhering to the exact laws of this new world. In other words, I should be mindful to understand this reality’s natural laws which for me are more “guidelines”. Oh, and this world is more like an anime from my world, as long as I don’t get any stupid nose bleeds for no reason it should be fun. I always wanted to journey to other realities so why not here. As part of my journey to this world I gained these creation points, not exactly sure what they are, other than they grant me the ability to give myself features and powers. Apparently, I ended up with 39,000 points, 13,000 points for Mind, 13,000 points for Body, and 13,000 for Spirit which blew my guide away.
“There is power in that Trinity, every traveler gaining a certain amount for each area. That is orders of magnitude greater than any other traveler I have ever heard of. The total is what you should concern yourself with as you can technically use those points wherever you choose, ‘guidelines’ remember.”
Shaking his head he continues, “In fact most powerful travelers maybe end up with 100 to 200 points maximum. Yet here you stand having absorbed so much. I’m surprised you did not explode.”
“EXPLODE?!”
‘Way to bury the punch line, so note to self, no traveling across the ‘Sea’ until I get a better handle on this stuff.’
“Give me a moment. After, I will discuss the Dark’s claim and explain your situation.”
I have to give it to my guide, after he got over his shock, he helped me understand the options and showed me a cool RPG or role-playing game like interface. My guide was adamant I use most of my points before stepping through the final threshold to this world. According to him most points are used on someone’s base ability stats and maybe one or two Magic types or unique skills. With so many points he did not want me leaving until I decided what to spend them on, or as gamers like to call it finish my build.
I had a lot of options I could use these creation points on and at first it was a bit overwhelming, but I eventually got the hang of it. The options reminded me of a lot of D&D and other types of RPG character building and broke down into the following groupings (perhaps my familiarity with RPGs is why they broke down this way, who knows, moving on. The following menu options were available:
Base Ability Stat Points (Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, etc.)
Secondary Stats (Defense, Flexibility, Senses, Luck, etc.)
Knowledge & Special Abilities
Powers & Magic
Skills, Proficiencies, & Languages
Each one had a bare-bones definition or descriptor:
-Base Ability Stat Points (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma are your general foundation that defines how easily you can perform various actions)
-Secondary Stats (Defense, Flexibility, Luck, Intuition, Creativity are focused more on specific reactions and how those actions interact with the larger world)
-Knowledge & Special Abilities (Unique abilities or knowledge that give bonuses towards certain actions or negate the requirements of other interactions)
-Powers & Magic (Grants access and/or mastery over a superpower or Magic type)
-Skills, Proficiencies, & Languages (Gain knowledge and mastery over tools, musical instruments, professions, etc.)
Well to start, I focused on my body and mind attributes. I brought each Base Ability Stat to 2,197 (13x13x13), did I not mention I kept seeing 13 everywhere for some reason. This system had 13 ranks which I thought was odd. It was like this place had a strong connection with the number 13, like super strong connection, but I digressed. After that I brought each of the Secondary stats to Rank 13 and a few a bit higher. It was always a good idea to invest in yourself. With my base and secondary stats taken care of I decided it was time to focus on the other options like magic!
Where I spent most of my time was going through all the possible special abilities, powers, and magics. This was where the spirit part of the trinity comes in. One’s spirit fueled magic and powers in this world. Some spirit signatures were attuned or had specific affinities. Having vast potential meant max affinity across the board, which meant I could choose from any of the powers, nothing was greyed out to me. My inner gamer and love for magic translated into a bit of a shopping spree with these creation points.
What was most fascinating about powers and magics was some powers gave me inherent access to a spell without having to cast or memorize that spell. The best way I could describe it was like the difference between a sorcerer who has the power within them vs. a wizard that has to study and practice the spell in order to master it or commit it to memory. This meant I could gain all sorts of spells, instantly know them, and cast them without all the crazy chanting or outside requirements, effectively giving a magic noob a max level spell or my favorite, Fireball (it was the first one I picked just so I could say “I cast fireball”).
I will say the Magic and powers section was pretty interesting. First off, according to my guide, certain Magic types were normally restricted or not available to people regardless of what they wanted but my experience was far different. Everything you could possibly imagine was open for selection, it was a bit overwhelming as I said but what really fascinated me was the system itself. If you wanted a particular spell or power, you had to first unlock that type or school but what was most interesting was how vast or narrow those options were. You could gain a pyromancer type of Magic or gain an elemental mastery type which of course Fire Magic was a part of.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
The way my guide explained it to me was “Most people do not have unlimited affinities or an intuitive understanding of the universe to be able to grasp larger concepts that would grant them such options. Again, the laws are truly guidelines for one such as you.”
Each of these types were also not created equal when it came to creation points. I first had to decide how much I wanted to invest into that school or area of magical expertise and understanding, the amount invested would help you have innate mastery of that type of magic. How much you invested would help unlock greater knowledge or more options of the spells available to learn.
Then I had to invest points in specific spells I wanted to know like the back of my hand.
What a weird saying, I mean how often do you really study the back of your hand? Anyway, I digressed, where was I? Oh yes, Magic!
The theory was the more I invested in overall mastery, the more I’d be able to later learn new spells of that school or create my own spells of that Magic type. If I was starting a new life where magic existed, I was going to learn everything I could about magic! Of course, instead of pyromancy, I took Elemental Mastery because of “Fireball!” But also, who doesn’t want to sling Lightning bolts around like Zeus or Thor?!
As I was using creation points got me curious about creation itself, so when I saw that option, I also took Creation Magic. When I told my guide I took this magic, I thought his eyes were literally going to pop out of his head, apparently that type of Magic is reserved for, well let’s just say its super restrictive. Though that wasn’t at the top of the Magic types I invested the most in. I put most of my investment in Purity and Omni-Magic as apparently it lets you do all the types of magic but also lets you disrupt or transform Magic into whatever you want, you know the whole energy is not destroyed only transformed into another state, see I paid attention in physics class. Literally my guide fell over and had to take several dazed moments to collect himself. His only words being, “You will be unstoppable if you use that right. Could it be that there is more going on than even I am aware? God really does work in mysterious ways!”
Lastly, I spent a good amount of time acquiring various skills, techniques related to professions, random knowledge about the world and its people, and of course languages. This knowledge would round out both my body and mind capabilities. I had no idea what I was going to do when I got to this world but make no mistake I wanted to be prepared for as many situations as I could. Plus, I always enjoy crafting, it seems wrong if I didn’t use some creation points to help me create future masterpieces. Combined with the purchase of knowledge of the various cultures and languages I might encounter; I was starting to feel as prepared as one could possibly be. You know the saying the battle is won or lost based on how much you prepare, and I was going to use these creation points to their maximum efficiency.
After consecutively shocking my guide from one unbelievable thing, after the next I decided to keep the rest to myself and just fell inward, searched, and selected what else I felt made the most sense. When I was done, I had spent almost all my creation points and told my guide I was ready to go.
“Excellent! Now that that is over, you should review your results before we get into picking your new life. You can pull up your Status sheet my thinking the word ‘status’. In truth, you could associate any mental command, it is all about intent.” My guide instructed.
I was just about to do just as instructed when my guide interrupted me. “Ah, one more very important thing. Not everyone sees the same thing when they open their status screen.”
“Huh? What do you mean? How does that work?” I asked in confusion.
“It is simple. Everyone understands the universe in their own way. Your status screen is a combination of your understanding of the universe and a summary of what you want to see. I recommend when you get more familiar with the process you experiment with different ways to show your stats and summarize your information.” My guide explained.
‘That is a lot to take in. So, in other words, as I start to gain knowledge and learn more about myself, I can choose to see that reflected in my status screen, interesting. OK, well enough of all that deep self-analysis, let’s give this a shot. Status!’ I thought. Sure enough, just as my guide instructed a semi-transparent Status window popped up in my view.
Name: James Drake
Race: Dragon
Form: Human
Stats
Health Pool:
28,561
Mana Pool:
57,122
Stamina:
28,561
Health Regen.
1,300
Mana Regen.
13,000
Stam. Regen.
1,300
Strength:
2,917
Dexterity:
2,917
Constitution:
2,917
Intelligence:
2,917
Wisdom:
2,917
Charisma:
2,917
Abilities
Proficiencies & Techniques (# of):
Magic & Powers (# of):
Armor Types:
4
Magic Affinities
19
Weapons
13
Spells Known
128
Combat Mastery & Techniques
23
Spellcasting Modifications
5
Skills
48
Resiliencies & Immunities
24
Tools
36
Heightened Senses
6
Languages
34
Powers & Abilities
16
Ok there is being OP and then there is me! When I was picking everything, I did not realize how much everything added up. I mean now that I look at it from a summary level, this is the most ridiculous…wait, scratch that, redonkulous character sheet I have ever seen! No wonder this guide is so interested in me.
After that eye opener, I’m going to have to be cautious about learning how to tap into and self-regulate my power. With that consideration in mind, it was time to decide how I would start my new life.