It was probably not too big of a deal, but I thought deep and long about this. What should my race be?

I had already ruled out Humans, Demons, and Goblins. Humans and Goblins were not my style. Demons had a special place in my heart. A dark place full of hatred, reeking of vengeance.

What remained were Elves, Dwarves, and Anthiri. Reducing my options from six to three definitely made the decision easier, but not easy enough.

The speed and grace of the elves sounded exactly like what I wanted, but I could not trust myself to not get hit even once, which made the risk far greater than any other race; close combat was just not a good option. On the other hand, the strength of a dwarf sounded like every man's dream. There would probably be more than a handful of scenarios where this brute strength would be useful, but being the slowest race did not really sit well with me. Every time I thought about it, I felt an itch on my non-existent neck.

This left me with Anthiri. Similar to elves, but not really. Some people said that Anthiri came to existence after many generations of Elves mixing with other races; especially humans. The logic behind that is that while they look eerily similar to Elves, they are not as fast or potent with their magical powers, but their physical strength made up for it.

Thinking more about it did not make the decision easier or make a race clearly better. It just delayed me. It was not like more options would magically appear if I waited long enough.

My best bet was to follow my gut feeling and not worry so much about.

I guess it's the logical thing to do

I sighed.

I then finally focused my thoughts on the Anthir race, confirming my selection through the blue screen's message.

Finally! I had both a name and a race now! But my excitement went away as I looked back at the blue screen to see:

Name: Jinden

Race: [Anthir - Lvl. 1]

Class: ????

Affinity: ????

Attunement: ????

I still had three more things to select. The urge to search for a randomizer grew stronger, but the following options would probably decide a big part of my life-to-come. I could not just leave it all to luck. Not with that goal in mind. I decided to be patient and go through the rest of the options.

I thought on the 'edit' button next to the class, but nothing happened.

What? Why? Maybe I did not focus enough on it?

I focused on again, but still, no response. I tried going for it once more, focusing as much as I could — third time's the charm, right? This time there was a response, but not the one I expected. Red letters flashed out of the screen once again.

Class cannot be edited. Level too low. Error code 319.

Okay, it seemed that I couldn't choose my class yet. That was probably a good thing. I would like to know what I can and cannot do before sticking to a certain archetype. I supposed that trying to choose my so-called affinity and attunement would yield similar results.

Affinity cannot be edited. Error code 320.

Attunement cannot be edited. Error code 321.

Bingo.

That should also mean that my base stats should be initialized by now. I checked and, as I expected, actual numbers had replaced the previous question marks.

Name: Jinden

Race: [Anthir - Lvl. 1]

Class: None

Affinity: None

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Attunement: None

Stats:

[Available Stat Points: 0]

[Vitality]: 7

[Strength]: 8

[Endurance]: 9

[Wisdom]: 7

[Agility]: 9

[Perception]: 8

I was relatively satisfied with my stats, fairly balanced, but I had some obvious strong points. Maybe a bit on the higher end overall? Maybe not, I couldn't possibly know — I just got here. But I felt confident.

I didn't exactly like how my vitality was lower than everything else except wisdom, but if I wanted to be quick on my feet and at least somewhat strong, something had to give. It was a price I had to pay.

For now, the only thing I cared about was finally starting my life. I searched the whole screen for a relevant button, and, after glancing through many different options and screens that I could not care less about at that point, I saw the 'Start' button on the bottom right corner. I was pretty sure it was not there before, but whatever.

I impatiently pressed the button, ready to escape from this boring, never-ending hell.

As soon as I pressed the button, green letters popped up, saying,

Character creation completed. Initialization completed. Creating physical body.

Before I had time to read the whole message, I felt a strong gust of wind. Just like the one that woke me up from my long sleep, except it was ten times stronger this time. If I had my body now, it would have definitely been blown away.

While the wind was initially coming from my right, I started feeling it from the front too. Then on my left, and finally, behind my back.

The wind was going in circles around me. It formed an enormous tornado, big, thick, and grey, blocking me from seeing anything else. Not that there was much else to see here anyway — just a whole lot of grass.

The wind was getting stronger and stronger, circling around me with ever-increasing speed. I felt as if I was starting to levitate. I probably was levitating all along, but how did I feel like I was levitating if I had no body?

That is where I was wrong. I looked down and, slowly but surely, my body was starting to form. I saw millions of blue particles coming together, merging from different directions to create my feet and my shins, which were both covered by a black pair of boots. Perfect for helping me travel across unpleasant terrain.

My thighs and hips were next, covered by what I assumed to be a regular pair of brown pants. My legs were relatively small, not skinny. Perfect for running, dodging and evading, but one could definitely say they were not the strongest. With these stats, it should be expected.

Next up was my body and my arms, covered by a loose, white undershirt. Maybe a bit buffer than my legs, but could use some work. I should not have any trouble wielding my weapon and slashing through my enemies, at least.

Speaking of my weapon, where was it? It had not appeared yet. Would it be a sword? A spear? A bow? A magic spell book? I was curious to find out and was hoping it would be something suited for close combat, but after a few more moments of waiting, I realized I was not getting a weapon yet.

In the meantime, my body had completely formed, including my head. I started feeling it with my hands to understand what I looked like and, thankfully, there was no one there to see me doing this or they would think I was a weirdo.

My nose was... No one cares what my nose looked like.

My ears were pointy, almost like an elf, but not as much. Another sign that favored the rumor about half-blood elves.

And as far as my hair went, I definitely had some. I could feel it. But what did they look like? I pulled a strand of hair and looked at it.

Blue? Really?

The tornado suddenly stopped, leaving me floating in the air, two meters above the ground, before falling on my ass with a thud.

Welcome, Jinden. Your new life now begins.

This was far from the best way to begin my new life. Thankfully, I did not lose any HP from the fall. Just a slight pain on my tailbone, but that should go away in a couple of minutes.

I stood up and rubbed my back a bit. Being so focused on my new body, I failed to realize, but the scenery had changed. Not drastically, but where there was only grass and the blue sky, I could now see a deep forest not too far on my left. I could not see a town, or a lake, or anything that signified that there was one close to me, which meant that going through the forest was my only option.

Not a great option, but I did not really have much of a choice.

I got up and started walking, flaring my hands, trying to get used to my new body. The first few steps were a bit awkward, and I was lucky enough to be on a relatively even ground, otherwise I would have probably ended up falling face first.

I tried a lot of things. Punching, kicking, weaving, and bobbing. Even running around. I was like a hound someone let loose in the park after having it caged for days.

Testing out the capabilities of my body, I felt light. I felt strong. I felt good.

I had no way to actually know, but I felt like I could take on any level 1 foe, no matter their race, and easily come out victorious, possibly without even breaking a sweat.

For now, there was no one around to test my assumptions and the only way that led to civilization was probably through the woods, oddly enough.

I walked towards the forest's entrance and the closer I got, the more I thought this may not have been the best idea after all.

The forest was vast. The trees too big. Both in height and thickness. This, combined with how close to each other they were, made for a terrible place to walk into. The sun was shining, but barely any light made it through all the leaves and branches, all the way to the bottom of the forest — it could as well be considered night down here. The trees being so close to each other also meant that it was hard to navigate through them. Even harder to run away if you ever need to. Though I doubted I would.

I had barely taken my first step into the forest and I already heard something - or someone - break a branch by stepping on it. It was coming from straight ahead, slightly to the left, but I couldn't see anything. Not at that point, at least.

I lifted my fists to my face, taking a fighting stance, ready to face whatever was approaching.

"Come say hello," I said, eager to put my body to the test.

"squeeeal"

Squeal? So it was not a person that was hiding. But that was okay. Whatever it was, it would do.

From the shadows came my first opponent. It was... I did not know what it was. It looked like a boar, but it had the mane of a lion and the size of a bear. Whatever this being actually was, it did not seem friendly. But that was completely fine with me — I was itching for a fight anyway.

I thought about it again and stepped out of the forest, into the open field. With my speed and my high agility stats, I should have the advantage out here. Landing a blow on the beast's ribcage should be child's play.

Naturally, the odd animal followed me, and our battle was finally about to start. I looked into its eyes as it looked into mine. Not able to hold my excitement back, I charged, and so did the beast.

"Hoooooog!!"

"SQUEEEEAL"