In the middle of a vast forest, was an altar made of stone. The altar had been standing there from time immemorial. It was a place where the dangerous creatures could not enter and the weak and young creatures could rest. Such a place was now deserted. The creatures living there had moved on to another place and left the altar grounds.
One day, a dazzling light emerged right at the center of that altar. When the light receded, there was a little fox lying unconscious on the ground.
The fox had black fur with some red lines on his body. The fox's body was normal, but the same could not be said about his mental state. When it woke up, it observed its surroundings.
"Where am I?" the fox thought to itself. Then, when it looked at his own body, astonishment and confusion hit it. However, unlike many of the other creatures, it did not faze him that much.
"So I really died at that time, huh?" thought the fox. The fox had been a human in his previous life and was a boy and a fairly clever one at that. However, their planet's fate had already been set in stone. The Sun in their solar system had already reached its age and was about to blow up in a couple of days.
Many people despaired when they learned about this news. Some stayed with their family. Some went on with their lives like nothing happened. And some contemplated on what they had done in their life.
The fox, who was a human at that time, had gone out of his house to buy some food, when he saw a small child, with a ball in his hands, on the road, who was about to be run over by a truck. In hopes of saving the little kid he had rushed to the kid's side and pushed the child away.
He was able to push the kid out of the truck's range but was not able to escape himself, and had been run over.
When the fox remembered that moment, he felt satisfaction, but at the same time, he felt stupid. He only had some time left to spend with his parents and his school friends, and yet he had wasted his life to look like a hero, who came out of some novel or storybook.
He could not accept such a fate and yet, it was already handed to him. He could only sigh in resignation. When he was a human, he did not really associate that much with other people, but was not a complete loner. The reason for this was that he was too rational and calculating. Many people stopped talking to him due to his personality.
However, now he was all alone above this stone altar. He could not help sighing. Suddenly something popped up in front of him. It was a pale black game window. The details written in it were:
CONGRATULATIONS
You have met the requirements and have acquired the titles 'The Fox Child', 'The One Who Can Adapt', and 'The Reincarnated One'.
Abilities Gained From The Title:
• 'The Fox Child' – Instinct, Iron Stomach, Nocturnal Eyes, Identify, Telepathy, Language Comprehension, Illusion Magic.
• 'The One Who Can Adapt' – Supreme Adaptability, Rational Thinking.
• 'The Reincarnated One' – Supreme Calculation, Creative Thinking, Insane Growth.
Seeing that window, the fox looked blankly at it for some time before trying to shout, "You must be kidding me!" However, the only noise that came out was a fox's loud howl. He could have accepted being reincarnated as a fox or being in a completely unknown place, but this was taking it beyond the point of no return. He had always hated the stories of heroes having such cheats and had thought that the Gods were unfair.
Now, he had gained the same abilities as them. He was excited, but still not convinced that fate would be this kind. He tried to say "Menu!" like many other stories, but nothing happened. Next, he tried to concentrate and think of the game menu inside his mind. A couple of seconds passed but nothing happened. He could not see a menu, much less a character profile. As he gave up on trying to call the menu, a certain ability that he gained with a title, came up in his mind. The ability called 'Identify'. If he was correct it should let him check his status.
He mentally said the name of the ability, "Identify!" in his mind while considering himself as the target. Suddenly, two new windows popped up. In them was his status. The status was:
TARGET INFO
Name No Name Skill Points 1000
Race Mystic Fox Youngling (Variant) Main Race Magical Beast
Blessings Blessing of the Supreme God Affinity Fire; Water; Wind; Earth; Electricity; Poison; Light; Darkness; Good; Evil; Astral; Void; ???
Blessing of the Elemental Gods Condition Normal
Blessing of the God of War and Tactics Experience 0
Blessing of the Lunar Goddess To Next Level 100
TARGET STATUS
Level 1 Racial Level 1
H.P. 200 M.P. 500
E.P. 200 S.P. 100
Strength 15 Vitality 15
Intelligence 100 Wisdom 100
Dexterity 13 Agility 20
Resistance 14 Luck B
Titles The Fox Child, The One Who Can Adapt, The Reincarnated One; The Gods' Blessed Child; Apostle Of The Supreme God Abilities Instinct; Iron Stomach; Nocturnal Eyes; Identify; Telepathy; Language Comprehension; Illusion Magic; Supreme Adaptability; Rational Thinking; Supreme Calculation; Creative Thinking; Insane Growth
SKILLS
Claw Lvl 1 (Variable) Growl Lvl 1 (Variable) Elemental Ball Lvl 1 (Variable) Soul Manipulation Lvl 1 Magic Manipulation Lvl 1
Fire Magic Lvl 1 Water Magic Lvl 1 Wind Magic Lvl 1 Earth Magic Lvl 1 Thunder Magic Lvl 1
Poison Magic Lvl 1 Light Magic Lvl 1 Darkness Magic Lvl 1 Angelic Magic Lvl 1 Demonic Magic Lvl 1
Astral Magic Lvl 1 Void Magic Lvl 1 Unknown Magic Lvl 1 Thief Lvl 1 Blackout Lvl 1
He was left speechless. He would have believed if someone said that he became a fox through reincarnation. However, he could not believe that he was reincarnated in a world with every young child's dream, Magic. He too, had wished to see real magic when he was young and fantasized about being a hero, but later learnt that a hero is like an evil magnet, which attracts evil.
"The God's must be playing with me." He thought. As he thought this, a window popped up. It displayed a skill he gained due to using Identify on himself. The skill was called 'Game Interface'. It allowed the user to check their status and skills. He could also choose which ones to see.
After trying his new skill and its functions, he looked around himself and looked at himself again. He was completely able to figure out that he was a male fox, to his relief. He looked around and saw a puddle of water near him. He went close to the edge and looked over to see his reflection. When he saw it, he was completely captivated. He was an animal lover in his past life but still, the face he saw in the puddle was definitely far cuter than the face of any creature he had seen until now. At that moment, he once again doubted his gender and inspected his body thoroughly.
After completely satisfying himself with the inspection, he once again checked the place for any possible dangers. He was on top of the altar, so he could see everything coming near the altar. He confirmed that this place seemed to be abandoned and so started to go down the steps of the altar. When he reached the ground, suddenly light poured out from the altar, which made him turn around to look at the altar.
At first, he could not see anything because of the light, but as it slowly faded he saw an old man with a long beard that reached the base of the altar, coming down from the altar. The old man was wearing white robes, like the one which wizard's wear. Considering his overall appearance, he looked like a sage or an old wizard. However, due to the ability, 'Instinct', the fox was able to understand that the old man was too majestic as well as godly for a normal wizard.
While the fox was amazed, the old man reached the ground and was just some distance away from the fox. When he realized that the old man was coming towards him, he put up his guard. Seeing the fox reaction the old man stopped and said, "Do not be afraid, little one. I do not wish to harm you."
Hearing the voice of the old man, he felt tranquility enter his very being. However, he was not a mere fox. He had his own fair share of conversations in his previous life, and his experience told him that someone who says that line is always someone shady. Even 'Inspection' was not working on him. The fox activated his ability, 'Telepathy' to speak with the person in front of him as he could not speak with a fox's vocal chord.
"Who are you?" said the fox telepathically. The old man answered with a surprised tone, "Oh! So you can already use your abilities. Truly a fascinating one. As for the answer to your question, I am the Supreme God. You can think of me as the God of Gods. I have many names, but you can call me Oldrin. That is what they call me in this world."
The fox was completely not interested in talking to the old man who named himself as Oldrin. He was a fan of fantasy stories but did not want to have to go through it, himself. And as the person in front of him was a type of God, it meant that the scenario where he would have to fight monster or humans was about to occur. While the fox thought these things, Oldrin broke his chain of thoughts.
"Do not worry, little one. I did not revive you here as a fox for such a mundane purpose." said Oldrin. At first, the fox was shocked on how Oldrin was able to read his thoughts, but then he remembered that he was a being greater than God. Then suddenly, he looked at Oldrin with disgust. After all, reading someone's thoughts was a breach of privacy.
Oldrin too knew that so he silently took the stare head-on. Then, the fox asked, "If you did not revive me as a fox for such a purpose, then what is the reason for reviving me?" Oldrin replied by saying, "I revived you so that I could see the way of life, a human lives when he is turned into another creature. Many of the other Gods have done this before. Only I am the one who could not find a fitting person for this job. Do not worry. You will not be restrained by any power in this world, except mine. You can be anything you have ever wished to be. A hero, a demon king. Even being a God is achievable in this world. So long as you do not die, you can do anything in this world."
The fox once again looked at him with disgust and said, "Cheat character." Oldrin became depressed hearing this. He had not been called that ever in his whole life, which was far longer than the life of a star. Even in front of a Supreme God, the fox was throwing insults as if wiping his hands. This was one of the reasons why Oldrin never found a person that would be perfect for this game of Gods. He could not find a person who dared to say such things in front of him. He wanted to see a person, who would not be chained down even by the Gods, to reincarnate.
Such reasoning had led him to reincarnate a boy who tried to save a little kid. Though Oldrin had his doubts, they were cleared when he started conversing with the fox telepathically. After all, none of the reincarnated people had been able to grasp the power of the gifts they had gained, in such a short amount of time.
Afterwards, a Supreme God began explaining about the world to a cute little fox, which would have looked stupid to many people. However, those who could discern people could have seen the thirst for knowledge in the little fox's unwavering and determined eyes.
What Oldrin said was that the world they were in, was called Aeon. It was a world of fantasies, where different races lived. They were in a very big forest of Aeon just to have a safe place to talk in. Though this place had weak monsters in the center, the edge of the forest had many magical beasts of the dragon-kind. Due to this, the forest was called the Mystic Forest by the beings of this world. When the fox asked if there were dragons in the forest, Oldrin said that they were not in this forest but could be found in the mountains of Aeon. Normally, anybody would have been relieved after hearing this, but the little fox seemed to be irritated that there were no dragons in the forest. This made Oldrin question the mentality of the little fox.
As for the reason of the fox's irritation, he just wanted to see and ride a real dragon. He considered it the king of mystical beasts and wanted to keep one as a pet. It was also portrayed as a very cool-looking creature in his past life. The wish of having a pet dragon had not dissipated even after being reincarnated as a fox; instead it had increased exponentially.
Suddenly a window popped up in front of him to report a new skill like a loyal servant.
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CONGRATULATIONS
You have unlocked the skill 'Ambition'. Even after having a hard to reach aim, you did not give up and were thus given the skill that reflects your ambition.
Ambition: A skill that gives you a boost in stats according to the ambition you have for the task. It is like 'Limit Break', but is more better in terms of efficiency.
The fox's mouth hung open. Oldrin was amused since the little fox had gained yet another skill. When the fox asked about the matter, Oldrin said that none had gained such a skill and that it might be a unique skill.
Hearing the word 'might' made the fox suspicious and he asked Oldrin if he did not create this world. As it turned out, Oldrin created the world and the Gods of this world but left the management to a system of sorts. It was called the 'Ark Magus System'.
"The Ark Magus System is an independent system that has equal amount of authority as me, but only in this world." said Oldrin, his voice growing weary. He did not expect explaining to be as hard as this.
After they were done talking, Oldrin gave the little fox a last present, which was a new name. This world had people with different names. But it was better to have a different name. So he thought about it a bit and said, "I think Ludius should suffice as your name. As for the whole name, let it be Vana Ludius."
When he said that, the name in the profile changed from no name to Vana Ludius. He was looking forward to Oldrin's naming sense, but it turned that the Supreme God's naming sense was far worse than his own. He could not help but sigh. The One above Gods seemed like a complete klutz to Ludius.
After that when Oldrin's time in that world was near the limit, he gave the fox a little warning. "Do not try to defeat the Ark Magus System." Was what Oldrin said to Ludius and then disappeared in a blinding light like the one he came in.
Some seconds passed and Ludius stared at the empty place where Oldrin was standing. Suddenly, a very dark and disturbing aura came from his body. It was neither a skill nor an ability. It was the manifestation of his own emotions. The emotion of happiness one feels when they dissect a frog during a biology class. People in his old world would have called him a freak, but in this new world, freaks were a common occurrence. His real intention was still the same as in his old world. To gain all the knowledge of the world and beyond. He was a normal person yet at the same time, he was not, due to his unquenchable thirst for knowledge.
As he was wondering about the first creature he would meet in such a scenario , while suppressing his aura, a rustling sound caught his attention. At first he thought it might be a dangerous creature, but the ones that came out of the bushes completely destroyed his opinion. What were in front of him, were foxes that looked majestic. According to his Inspection ability, they were adults of another kind of race of Mystic Foxes. Actually, they were of the normal Mystic fox species.
There were two in total. One had silver-colored fur with a yellow-colored mane, which according to him was a female fox. The other fox had yellow fur with a silver-colored mane and was a male. The male fox's face though, gave Ludius a bit of a scare. "Will my face also look so grotesque when I grow up?" He thought to himself. The yellow fox's face was actually like that of a very angry general from a boot camp. He could see that other than his faces they looked like the deities of a certain country.
They seemed to be assessing him. Then suddenly the yellow fox looked at him in disgust. Ludius could easily guess the reason behind that look. He was a variant. A variant could also mean that they would be considered as either inferior or stronger. In this case, it seemed like he was considered as a freak or an inferior creature. This really tugged at his conscience. After all, if he compared his and their appearance, then the one who would come out as a victor was him.
"Hey! You kid." The yellow fox said telepathically. It was a pretty impolite way to talk to a stranger, yet he seemed to be thinking of himself as the lord of this forest. "Did you see something here?" the yellow fox asked.
The two foxes had actually been assigned to search the area for the cause of the white light but they could find a thing. Then, suddenly they saw another blinding white light. When they saw it, they ran towards it as fast as they could, but they only found a suspicious, little, black fox. Using Identify, the yellow fox found out that he was a variant of his own kind and a really weak one at that. The reason they thought he was weak was that they could not see his actual stats. It could be said that Ludius was the only fox with this ability.
They wondered if this fox had seen the thing causing the lights so they asked. For the two Mystic foxes though, the answer came along with an insult. "I saw something, but I am not telling anything to you two foxes." The black fox said telepathically, in a very disgusted tone.
On the other side, when Ludius was saying these things he had already used Inspection on them and gained a new skill called Appraisal, so he knew their strength. Though they seemed quite tough, they did not have the one thing that Ludius had, and that was his arsenal of skills and abilities along with his previous life's memory and intellect. Still, they did pose one problem to him, and that was the fact that their Intelligence stat was almost low as his. He could already tell that the yellow fox was arrogant but he could not help but think of him as a dumb fox now. The data about the two foxes, using Appraisal were:
TARGET INFO
Name El Zorro Race Mystic Fox: Adolescent
Level 70 Main Race Magical Beast
H.P. 30000 M.P. 200
E.P. 30000 S.P. 10000
Strength 1000 Vitality 1000
Intelligence 50 Wisdom 75
Dexterity 500 Agility 500
Resistance 1000 Luck D
Abilities Mystic Fox Species' Innate Abilities Skills Mystic Fox Species' Innate Skills
TARGET INFO
Name El Shiro Race Mystic Fox: Adolescent
Level 72 Main Race Magical Beasts
H.P. 28500 M.P. 500
E.P. 30000 S.P. 10000
Strength 900 Vitality 1200
Intelligence 500 Wisdom 700
Dexterity 750 Agility 450
Resistance 10000 Luck C
Abilities Mystic Fox Species' Innate Ability; Foresight Skills Mystic Fox Species' Innate Skills; Light Magic Lvl 10
When the yellow fox Zorro, saw Ludius give a smug grin, he lost his cool, and got ready to kill the little fox in front of him. As both Ludius and Zorro were going to charge at one another, Shiro, the silver fox stopped Zorro with a piercing glare.
Ludius too, stopped after seeing his opponent back down. "The one called Shiro must be Zorro's superior." Ludius thought. And tried to converse with them again.
"My name is Ludius. And who might you two be?" asked Ludius in a polite manner, through telepathy, which stunned the two foxes. After all, the little, rebellious fox's attitude had taken a 180 degrees turn, now. Thinking that Ludius had seen him as the stronger one, Zorro became more arrogant. "Humph! And here you dared to go against me. I must say I was impress-" He said telepathically, but was cut off by Ludius as he telepathically said, "Shut up, Pea-brain! My talking politely has nothing to do with you. It is just a common way of greeting others, if you did not know."
His arrogance shattered once more, Zorro was once again getting ready to start a fight, but this time, Shiro interrupted it. "I hope you do not have the intention to shed the blood of your own race." said Shiro. Hearing this, Zorro stiffened up once again. He could not refute to the fact that the Ludius was a Mystic Fox. He grudgingly went to search at the other places. Now it was only Shiro and Ludius alone in that place.
To break the silence, Shiro said, "I am sorry for his misconduct. He is one of the strongest in our clan so he acts arrogantly. I would like to introduce myself. My name is El Shiro. The other one is my younger brother, El Zorro." She did not speak in the same manner as Zorro, but instead in a more polite manner. This was due to being able to see Ludius' stats. They could not see it as a window like Ludius, but were fed the information on their target straight, through a voice. While Zorro only looked for his level, Shiro had looked up for his stats instead of his level. As she had more experience than Zorro, she knew that she could not judge the opponent from just his level.
Ludius shrugged it off and said, "I do not mind. Many like him are always reckless." After that, they talked about the forest and the creatures living in it. Eventually, Shiro asked about the light; to which Ludius replied, "That was a wyvern that had gained the Light God's Blessings."
She was worried when she heard that. Afterwards, Zorro came back. Shiro invited Ludius to their clan but he refused. For him, the main priority was training to get stronger and get out of this forest. However he told them that he would come around if he had questions to ask or if they needed help.
-+++++-
Like this, they bid each other farewell. After coming some distance away from the place, Zorro asked angrily, "Sister, why did you act so kindly to that little runt? Even the weakest of our clan could have beaten him." His sister though had an inner turmoil. She, unlike her brother, had checked him correctly. Her greatest fears were Ludius' blessings. He had been given the blessings of many Gods and by someone called the Supreme God. His ridiculous ability called, Supreme Adaptability. That ability would have made him stronger every second in the battle. And the faint, but strong aura. An aura that could be said to rival the War God's aura itself.
These things were bringing about a maelstrom of questions in her mind, but the main question was: "Who was that little black fox, called Ludius." Along the road to their clan's base, Zorro kept pestering her with questions while she was spaced out.
-+++++-
On the other hand, Ludius started to move once he could no longer see the two foxes. He activated his magic-related skills and abilities and created 13 balls of the different elements. The color of those balls were a blazing red color for fire; elegant ultramarine for water; faint green for wind; rigid brown for earth; flashy yellow for electricity; viscous green for poison; plain white for light; pale black for darkness; bright yellow for good; blood red for evil; starry dark blue for astral; pitch black for void and; total gray for the ??? Element.
He made them float and rotate around him in circles and then went to search for a creature that would be good as food. Little did he know that Oldrin was watching him from the heavens. Oldrin was already laughing enthusiastically, while the other Gods paled when they saw a reincarnated person easily use magic. Normally living beings needed to be taught how to use magic, but the fox had done it on his own. They watched everything that he did until now, and he had not really been taught how to use magic, yet he used it.
Ludius planned chase after a rabbit that was as big as an ox. He planned to kill the rabbit using a hybrid of either a normal bite or Claw Lvl. 1 and Poison Magic Lvl. 1. He wanted to first slash it or pierce it with his fangs, then use poison magic's Paralyzing Poison Generation.
The Gods that oversaw Aeon, were shocked that he did not even think about the consequences of angering a Bulk Rabbit. These creatures were mostly docile, but if threatened, they would go on a rampage until they cool down. After some time, Ludius met an exceptionally strong one. When Ludius looked at its stats, he felt the need to ask if the creature in front of him was really an overgrown rabbit or not. Its stats were:
TARGET INFO
Name No Name Race Bulk Rabbit
Level 25 Main Race Magical Beast
H.P. 1000 M.P. 10
E.P. 1000 S.P. 1000
Strength 40 Vitality 50
Intelligence 1 Wisdom 5
Dexterity 30 Agility 35
Resistance 50 Luck C
Abilities Bulk Rabbit's Innate Abilities; Raging Soul Skills Bulk Rabbit's Innate Skills; Berserk
He concluded from the appraisal that the rabbit was strong enough to kill his own kind ten times before dying. Still, Ludius had one thing that could let him win and that was his knowledge, and he was not going to be afraid of using it to its full potential.