I have no idea how I died. While my lifestyle might not have been the healthiest, there were no real signs of trouble. At 42 years I was not that old, but somehow it happened.

I found myself in a white room, at a desk, looking at a screen. The message said: “Sorry you died. You are the first one to use our self reincarnation service! Enjoy your new life.”

Sounds absurd. I never believed in anything after death. Yet somehow I just knew this was real. Clearly something was messing with my mind, keeping me calm.

At least I was not leaving anyone behind. My parents died of a disease 6 years ago. I had no close friends, only colleagues at work. Most of my free time was spent playing video games or reading fantasy novels.

Anyway, back to the screen. Apparently I was getting reincarnated in a fantasy world. It looked like a video game interface to create a level 1 character. Was this going to be a game world? There really was not an awful lot of information available. I would not consider myself very brave. In the 42 years of my life there was not even a single fight. Maybe I should go with a bard? Travelling, music and a way to make money without fighting.

Then I spotted a small icon on the top. “Import Character”. Hm. Clicking on it gave me options… of video game characters I played in the past. Not of every game mind you, but the system seemed to accept some. Well there was this one character… where I might have cheated a little. Or a lot.

I gave myself 2 classes instead of the one you could normally have. A level 20 Elemental Sorceress, level 20 Fey Trickster (something rogue like) with all stats a lot higher than they should be. A very specialised character could max out one attribute, like strength, but it would require sacrifices. A dedicated defender would have a lot of toughness but lacked the strength to do damage. My character had it all. The strength of a barbarian, the speed and flexibility of a rogue, the toughness of a defender, the intelligence of a wizard and the charisma of a bard. Intelligence did not make you a genius though. It gave you the ability to think faster, make difficult calculations and multitask.

While the game did not care about that, in reality there would be a lot of synergy between attributes. Moving fast is pointless if your brain cannot keep up with it. Having insane strength will be meaningless if your punches break your bones. Having all attributes that high would be amazing. And op.

Now let's talk about my classes. Elemental Sorceress was a spellcaster focusing on elemental damage. It offered a passive resistance to the elements and immunity to the prime element you picked. For me that was lightning. It also gave your special element piercing attacks to overcome enemy resistance. While the class offered little utility in theory, I did add a few more spells than one should have. Because I cheated. So I had a low tier heal among other things.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Now the Fey Trickster was sort of a magical rogue with a fey bloodline. There were no actual spells but some nice passives and abilities. It provided a high resistance to poison and disease, reduction from non magical damage and I even had the ability to turn into a black panther at will. I always liked cats. I could also grow claws in my elf form, not sure how useful that would be. Further I had the Eyes of the Fey, a passive that let me see magic and pierce illusions. The class also included the ability to better spot and disarm traps and came with a stealth skill.

Speaking of skills, there were a couple I had invested in. I had arcane knowledge, which covered all things magical. Traps, stealth, lockpicking, persuasion, athletics, perception and deception were also maxed out. Additionally I had some points in survival to help with hunting and tracking.

Neither of my classes was focused on martial combat but with the abilities of both combined I rivalled a lvl 20 warrior in melee. Although I was missing any special attacks, I did have ridiculous stats to compensate. There was also a precision attack passive. In game terms it gave me additional damage when attacking a distracted enemy. The game lore explained the ability with keen eyes, that allowed you to spot weaknesses in the enemies armour.

So overall my character was ridiculously op in game terms. I was basically a full adventures party in one person.

Completing the game gave me further loot and additional power. There was a quest in the game, that changed your body through alchemy, giving you health regeneration. I could even regrow a limb in a week. My character had more spells than should have been possible, a lot of skills, items, gold… I could be rich, overpowered and just retire? That does sound rather nice. Also a bit broken. Then again, I had no idea what kind of world I would enter.

Of course there was a slight… issue. Well maybe not really an issue but at least a concern. This character was a female dark elf named Amaya. Ebony skin, shoulder length white hair, purple eyes, 1,64m tall, and a moderate bust. The thing is, I used to be a man. I just liked playing female characters.

Honestly, I have wondered in the past what it would be like to change my gender. But I would have never seriously expected it to happen. Also, how would dark elves be treated in this world? Would they be common? Would they be feared? Dark elves had a resistance to magic. It was not as strong as that sounds. A fireball would still burn you, it only helped against magic targeting you directly. So mind control, polymorph, petrification,… anything that targeted your body or mind directly. Beneficial effects, like buffs and heals, still worked. I wondered if that would create a loophole in this new world.

Also, a strong enough spellcaster might overpower your resistance. Still a nice defence for a world of magic. Further, dark elves could see in the dark. It was even more powerful than the low light vision of normal elves.

In the end, the power was just too tempting to ignore. A world with magic might be harsh to the powerless. Let’s go with it, and hope for the best. I pressed accept and the world went dark…