"A deal, huh? A deal implies a trade, an exchange of some kind. What could I possibly have worth offering a deal?"

Amy tilted her head, showing a crooked smile. It was probably supposed to come across as wry or mischievous. It just looked cute.

"Nothing at all, save for my assumption that you would be a worthy investment. But no, Killian, I said sponsorship for a reason. There will be a contract of sorts, but the deal I offer you is a net positive, meaning you gain more than you lose. What I offer is continued help after you arrive in The Elder Realm. This would come in the form of advice, suggestions, warnings, and the like. The only thing I would ask of you would be to take certain actions or complete certain tasks. Most of the time, they would simply be a challenge that I would like to see you overcome. I have also felt frustration about not being able to right certain wrongs I have had to witness simply because I do not often sponsor mortals. In times such as those, I believe the tasks you would find favorable, at least from what I can see inside your soul. Any other type of trade could be worked out case by case, whether it be a more material reward or anything else."

At the mention of my soul, I lamely covered my chest, like it would do something. So she can read my mind AND see my soul? Is there no privacy with this woman? If I accept this deal, would this never end?

"I can only hear your thoughts while you are in this space, so that I can better serve you in this transfer process and to protect you from any mental harm you may otherwise incur, as I said before. As for your soul, that is just a function of my existence. Both of which would no longer be a problem after entering The Elder Realm."

Then, how would we communicate? Wait…don’t tell me I have to pray to you?"

The angel shook her head and replied, "No, none of that. I won't be with you physically; instead, I will seed a portion of my power into a section of your mind. This seed would mentally connect you and I directly, and no, I would still not be able to hear your every thought, only those you directed personally towards me. This is how you could ask for advice and allow me to speak to you whenever either of us needed it."

The tail end of the adrenaline was ebbing from my veins, and I could think clearly once more. At the front of this deal, it was indeed more positive and negative, by a large margin. But having a god in your head was a big deal. There was also no talk of how long this deal would last. By the description, I could very well be on the hook for centuries doing whatever tasks or challenges she wanted to throw in my path. Advice and guidance would be valuable in the beginning, but how much would it be worth in a century, while the expectation to complete nebulus challenges never expires? How many of the others will have sponsors? Would I be at a disadvantage to not have one if many others do?

"I would be shocked if even five percent of mortals transferring were contractors, though there are always a few. That's part of the entertainment for some. As for the length of the contract, what if I state that you may end it whenever you wish and for any reason? Anything you have earned during the contract will be yours free and clear, as well as a full removal of my power from your mind."

That was surprising, but I guess it shouldn’t be. Amy didn’t need to give me those hints. Small though they were, it was those tiny bits of purposeful body language that I was able to notice that led me to the major advantage I would have in The Elder Realm. And with the ability to end it at any time, there seemed to truly be no downside.

All this was streaming through my mind, but I already knew why I would accept her offer. Changing my body into a vastly different and better version was great. Claiming I would take this situation forced on me and carve my own path is something I will definitely do, and no one could stop me. I am going to be landing in a new world with an advantage I'm confident no one else will have or even believe. But it's an unknown world, one where I will know no one. A place where nothing will be familiar. All I had to worry about yesterday was having enough money to pay my bills; now my life is at risk. I have to admit it.

I'm scared.

Having a friend from the get-go would make it just a little easier. Even if it's just a voice in my head,.

"Ok, Amy, I can accept those terms. Welcome aboard."

"Then our contract is made, and I will invest my power during the transfer. Now no more dawdling; you have more choices to make."

I wanted to make a snappy comeback, but I was too excited to pick my secondary magic. I pulled up short when I realized she meant the remaining option for my primary magic. What practice would I use for my Time/Space Magic, as well as my remaining five points. I invested three points into omni-directional spatial awareness just for how useful it would be, and the remaining two points into increased dimensional manipulation. I didn’t understand what it would truly allow me to do, but the description made me think it would be worth it. As for the magical practice, there were only a few options to choose from. Some of them were unfamiliar, but I knew what I wanted already. I chose sorcery. Wizardry was a hard choice to ignore, but I knew myself too well. I may think through problems in a logical manner, but I have never been good at the number and theory part of education. My understanding of the mechanics of space revolved around my comprehension of the underlying concepts, but you start getting into the equations of it all, and my brain goes fuzzy. And though I wanted to get into coding, my interest was always manifested as a "admire it from afar" kind of thing. But using willpower, of forming of what I wanted with my mind and forcing it into being. That seemed more up my alley. And having an internal source of magic seemed like it would be useful. That did get me thinking, though, was there something like magic control? I typed it into my window, and two options appeared, both with the name Magic Manipulation. One had a 43.68% next to it, while the other had barely 3%. I looked up at Amy, projecting my confusion.

"There are two options because of your perspective on magic compared to how the people of The Elder Realm think of it. The first option is how they perceive it, magic being all aspects in one. Spells, rituals, ambient power, internal power, everything in the sphere of magic is magic. They don’t think about it like you did when typing it in the window. You thought of magic as energy itself. As the power that fuels every working someone would do. Both are right and wrong. It is both, but in the way that steam and ice are still just water but in different forms and having different functions when wielded by people."

That was pretty interesting. Skimming though both options showed the first, the more known of the two, focused on controlling spells, constructs, and other effects created by the casting or working of magic, while the second option seemed to focus on controlling the magical energy itself. Which to me seemed like the better of the two options, so I read further about that option.

The base ability allowed the user to sense magic if they couldn’t already and manipulate ambient magic in the environment, whether directly or for powering spells and other effects. Amy spoke up, gaining my attention.

"That option would be very useful as well as give you the option to hide the fact you are a sorcerer. It would also have great synergy with the benefits you gained as a Dusk Elf."

That was very forthcoming; where was this earlier?"

"Benefits of the contract. Now I can offer such information and give my opinions much more freely."

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Well, score one for my little deal; it's already paying off. As I continued to read, I saw there were very few options to invest points in, which was unsurprising when I put some thought into it. Most of the power in this option was in the base abilities, and the investable options seem to empower those. One option was called Other Controlled Manipulation. It detailed the ability to manipulate magical energy while being actively controlled by someone else. Well, now that would be very useful. As I read what point investment would grant It got better and better. It increased the user's willpower when trying to wrest control of magical energy from others, allowed the user to assert total control over the magic energy surrounding them out to a certain distance, and the full five points gave the user the precision to weave magic directly into spells or other effects based on their knowledge. That cinched it. I chose this version of magical manipulation and invested all five points in other controlled manipulation.

Abilities/Skills were just as Amy said. Single magics or powers, as well as their point investment options, could be found in the list that appeared, as well as more skills than I could imagine. The first choice was easy. It had occurred to me while reading through the earlier options that this was going to be a completely selfish choice. I didn’t care about the rest of what I had chosen to gain any advantage I could, or even my other ideas or the remaining choices. I wanted to fly. A very un-angelic, very human snort came from Amy.

"If you're going to make a choice like that, at least search for things like high-speed flight or perfectly controlled flight."

I didn’t know that there would be options that were so specific that would give me more bang for my buck. With a mental grumble, I typed both in and read through them. I chose Perfect Controlled Flight as it allowed incredibly fine control of direction and position whilst flying, and the speed was fast to use for travel purposes as well, around 70 mph if moving in a straight line but dropped to around five if utilizing fine control.

The second choice was the opposite, a choice purely for its necessity. I chose Basic Combat Weapon Handling. I felt that it would give me the greatest diversity in capability for combat, and seeing as I was going to fill more pocket spaces with guns and ammo than the U.S.A. could produce in a year, I knew it would be helpful.

Finally, I pondered something I realized throughout this entire process. Thinking through everything presented to me and finding the opportunities before me through that process is the reason I am in the position I am in now. Typing in and reading the entry for Cognition Acceleration detailed the ability to speed up the user's processing speed depending on how much magical power was fed into it. Not only did it seem like a perfect fit, but I could think of no downside to having more time to think in any given situation. Trusting my gut, I made the choice, and the window vanished.

"Well, I guess that's it. I'm a sorcerer. Is all that's left is to choose what stuff I want to take with me?"

When the angel nodded, I asked another question that had been on my mind.

"How long do I have in here anyway? Are other people still making their choices?

"I mentioned this at the beginning, but we are in a space in between moments. Everyone was taken at the same time, and no matter how long any of you spend here, you will all be transferred at the same moment. You could be in here for two minutes or two hours; you will arrive at the same moment everyone else does."

I clapped my hands together loudly and began to rub them together in excitement.

"Well, then, I can take my time then. This is going to be fun."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later, I was told most people only spend around ninety minutes in this space. Just enough time to deal with any existential horror at their predicament, receive the explanation on magic and powers, rail against the crime of ruining their lives, come to terms with their fate, make their choices, and leave. The longest Amy had been in this space with someone was around two hours.

I was in here for two months.

After around twenty-two hours, it occurred to me that I wasn’t hungry or tired. When Amy told me that was part of her protection so I could prepare with no distractions, I laughed maniacally and continued to prepare. It was interesting using pocket space magic. I had to get the hang of the fact that I could move anything I wanted inside a space to anywhere else in the space or into a separate pocket space. Once I realized that I challenged myself to only use my mind, things also went faster when I wasn’t moving everything by hand.

I started with the space I would live in. I simply called it my base, which also made me realize that calling them all pocket spaces when I could create one the size of a stadium seemed stupid. So I kept pocket space for anything sized to fit handheld objects, up to the size of a garage. Next, I called anything garage-sized to house sized as "Living Spaces". And anything bigger than that without getting too huge, I called warehouses.

But anyway, I started copying everything in my room back home into my base. Everything from there built on what came before. After replacing my bed with a king-sized four poster monstrosity, curtains, and all, I started to think of everything else I would need in a home in the modern world. I asked Amy if she could give me a new window to search for things on; after all, it would be unreasonable to expect every person to know the brand name and other details of anything they could carry on their person that they could choose from all of earth. The question made her laugh out loud, but the window appeared anyway. Housewares went into countertops and cupboards, fixed in place by my magic. Sheets, towels, pillows, blankets, and everything else were stored in warehouses and then doubled again. Medicines and other such supplies stored in warehouses as well. When I got to food, I toyed with choosing a generator, seeing as I could store more gas than a man could burn in a lifetime. When I set it up, I plugged all the electronics I had in the "bedroom and office" area, as well as what was my new kitchen. When I accidentally shifted the generator into a section I had set up with a stasis field, I discovered something interesting. Even Amy had never seen it before. Even though the generator was in the stasis field, the current kept going to everything plugged in. I assumed that since it was locked in stasis, the power would be frozen inside like anything else. Amy said it had something to do with the underlying physics of energy transfer breaking down due to the stasis field being placed while it was already outputting. All to say, I understood none of it, and it was a reaction of science and magic, but I just found a way to have infinite electricity in my base. The downside, as Amy told me, was that if I were to ever remove the stasis field or shift the generator to a place without one, it would instantly go into a "Matter to Energy Reaction," and the resulting explosion would be mind-bogglingly massive.

The bathroom was lack luster as all I needed was something to go in and could shift the results into a separate space and, once full, erase the space from existence. A capability I would be thinking about for a while. Next, I set up a section of a wall in the base as an armory. Two guns of various types sat in premade lockers, and more ammo than I could count rested in others. I filled warehouses with a thousand copies of every weapon I could find in my search window, and I can say without exaggeration that I stored more ammunition than has ever been produced on earth. A fleeting image of arriving in this new world and arming an entire nation made me chuckle, but I knew nearly all of it would never see the light of day. I was just in worst-case scenario mode.

Stasis warehouses filled with food, water in various containers, tools and materials, off-road vehicles by the hundreds, and books. Outside of a personal library tailored with every book I ever liked and everyone I think I might like (including a ridiculous amount of manga and comics), as well as a section filled with survival and other skills books, I created spaces big enough to copy the Library of Congress twice over. Building and all.

Entire collections of videogames and consoles, hobby kits, and other activities got their own spaces. More and more, I stored. Most of it under stasis, and all of it duplicated for the hell of it. By the time I filled a warehouse with nuclear bombs and entire trains, I began to realize I would never stop if I didn’t do it now.

And so I got ready. An expensive set of black hiking boots, a pair of grey jeans, a comfortable white tee-shirt, a shoulder holster with a Glock 19, and a well-fitting military surplus style olive drab jacket with a soft grey hood. After putting a few other things I might need quick to hand in a small pocket space, I called my wallet I turned to Amy.

"Guess I can put this off any longer; I'm ready to go."

"Having set some interesting records, I can say the higher deities are happy you're ready. Let me also say well done, Killian, extreme the last part of this process has been, you have done well in using this opportunity to truly take hold of your new destiny. I am more than excited to see where your journey takes you, and I am happy you let me share it with you. See you in the Elder Realm."

I stood firm, ready for however the transfer would happen. I am ready for this, I have prepared more than anyone else would have been able to. I have everything, food, water, shelter…wait did I get a lighter? Oh god, did I forget something to make fire?!

"Wait, I think I for-"