The last thing I remembered was the explosion.

But instead of being pushed away from the portal, it pulled me.

Then, I (not) gracefully passed out.

“Welcome to the Midplane human”

I suddenly opened my eyes.

I was in the middle of a black space. It felt like it had no end, there was only darkness.

Actually, I couldn’t feel my body, only this feeling of… roundness?

It was kinda lonely, being in this dark place alone.

“Behind you, child” the voice said, apparently amused.

I turned around, startled.

There was a lightwoman.

…

No really, it was like a stream of light, forming the body of the woman. I couldn’t see her features, but her eyes shone with a brighter light.

“I forgot, you humans cannot see us in this form, right?”

I could only nod, almost blinded by her

“Just a moment, then”

And she started to shine.

More than before. I could only hide my “eyes” trying to stop a permanent blindness.

This gave me time to analyze my “body”. A round sphere. Apparently my soul. My gaming and reading past whispered that I must be on some summoned-to-another-world situation

When I turned back I was astonished.

Instead of light, I saw the most beautiful woman ever.

She was pale, and had long platinum hair. Long enough to reach her ankles, and tied just at the tip.

She had a face that could only be called elven. Even her ears were pointed! But instead of eyes, there was only the bright light, just as it was before. And red lips. Full red lips.

When I said her hair reached her ankles, it was only an assumption. She wore a simple long white dress, long enough to

go further than her feet, with long sleeves, and at her shoulders there was a white furry scarf. On her hand shone some rings. Really expensive looking rings.

I could only blink staring at her.

I could see a smile forming on her mouth “Nice to meet you, child. I am the goddess of snow. And I have an agreement I wish to make with you”

Again, I only stared at her.

Apparently, she saw this as acceptance and continued to talk “Right now, the other gods are talking with the other children so no need to worry about then.

Our world is nearing an era of changes. After giving the mortals the gift of magic, they spent a thousand years, trying to understand it and control it. Now, the reason of this gift has come to light.

Monsters were meant to wake up in the next century. Before they arrived, we decided to give mortals ways to fight against them. But right now it is too risky to let them fight, it is still too soon. So we made an agreement with the God of your faith.

We are to borrow you, and make you teach, help, and guide mortals on how to defend themselves. We agreed that, to complete this task, we would summon humans from your plane, and train them in our plane. He agreed to this, but only with the condition that none of you are allowed to die in this plane. Lady Death has been warned and, therefore, none of you will suffer death. Going through a situation that would cause you death will make your body turn into energy and reborn in the closest temple.

Any question?”

I was still staring, agape, at her story. Yeah, not very heroic, I know.

She was still grinning “and, to make sure you would receive something nice too, we, the gods, decided to give you a gift.”

As she said that, a mirror popped into existence in front of me.

“The present is the chance to create your own body, modify it in any way that you want and, at the end of your task, take it with you to your original world.

Now, I shall excuse myself while you change yourself” she finished saying and simple vanished.

I stared at the mirror and saw my body, only that it was naked.

An average guy stared back at me.

Black hair, brown eyes, a thin line of beard on my chin.

Not fit, I blame the delicious foods.

170 centimeters of averageness.

Well, I can only think that I was now in a kind of Character Creation room. Don’t know how I’m not freaking out. Maybe it’s because all this is a kind of dream becoming true to me. After playing and reading so many adventures, it was finally my time.

My reflex smiled to me.

Or maybe they’re controlling certain aspects of my brain, to make me calm and agreeable.

The smile quickly vanished.

Now… how to make changes?

“Oh, I forgot to say” said the goddess, puffing into existence. “To change any part of your body, you only need to focus on it and imagine how you want it. On the side of the mirror there is your current race. Focusing on it will show you the races of this world and you can change for whatever one you want. Enjoy”

She vanished once again.

Well, nothing to do about it. Sighing, I checked the races available.

And again went agape with the number of choices.

Human, Dwarf, Elf, Orc, Hobgoblin, Beastman, Vampire, Elemental, Construct, Fairy, Demon, Angel, and various others.

And a lot of them had sub races, like Wood Elf, Incubus, Golem, Imp, and so on…

It was a dream of any RPG gamer.

Curious, I chose Incubus and waited for the change in my reflex.

Let’s just say… I was shocked.

It had curved horns out of my forehead. Bulging muscles. Full 6 packs.  And a scary… uhm… well… “sword”. Maybe “greatsword” is the correct word.

Feeling my face hot, I quickly changed my race. Hell, how can anyone live with that weapon?

Next, I decided to look at the elf. I chose High Elf.

Now there was a lean guy staring at me. Long hair. Point ears. Aristocratic appearance. I decided to not look further down. (Sorry fundoshis)

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Totally disliked the guy… me… us?

He looked like the douche of every story. Deciding to avoid the jerk flag I changed races.

Now… let’s see… Orc!

Now I was a tall guy. Really macho to say the least. Wide shoulders, big muscles. A strong jaw with some tusks.

He wasn’t the ugly guy I was expecting. Taking out the tusks he was your average bodybuilder.

But he had an air of countryside. Again avoiding the flag (farm boy flag) I changed races.

I spent lots of time in this play. A Hobgoblin with very long pointy ears. A Dwarf with full beard. A Golem with green mad eyes. A Vampire with long canines (again jerk flag, skipped).

The beastkin were interesting. There were some sub races, like Pisces, Avians, Mammalians, Reptiles, Insectoid (nope race) and Amphibians.

Pisces were quickly discarded. The sea already has some nightmarish creatures, and the lightgirl said there would be monster appearing. So nope to underwater world. Though the fish tail was really shiny and seemed fun to play with it.

Avians were discarded too. Aside the birdbrain jokes, flying was something difficult to get so quickly. And the races were cosmetically ugly, with the bird faces. Hey, it’s for the rest of my life, I wouldn’t trade beauty for flying.

Amphibians were… disgusting too. Another nope race. And Insectoid was discarded without the need to check.

Now there were only some choices left. The Reptiles were pretty cool, with scales and strong tails. The Mammalians were kind cool too; with the claws and wild look and fluffy fur (my nekomime side was fangirling… scratch that the nekomime IS the fanboy). The Elementals were pretty neat too, especially because there was an under note saying they’re strong mages.

Under Constructs race I found even another interesting race! Gargoyles!

They were pretty awesome too. With the leathery wings and lizard-like tail. I would almost immediately chose then if not for the side note: “has low movement during daytime, causing them to lose agility”

Noooo, I like the agility build! Why would you do this to me!

There was the Imp too. They looked a lot like Gargoyle, but a bit smaller.

*sigh* ‘too many options… and for the rest of my life too’

That’s way too hard on me!

I could go on like Human, but I would lose this chance…

So I have Reptile, Mammalian, Gargoyle, Imp, Elemental, or Elf

Decisions, decisions, decisions…

Well, let’s take another roll on these races… not this one… nope… not even in the seven hells…

Maybe an Angel? But they look so… not me. And feather wings looks like a pain to clean.

Another look at demons… ignoring Incubus… definitely ignoring Succubus… the Imp…

Then, I decided to take some chances on this new world. I have lived my whole life as the background character. May as well turn into a race suited for stealth.

I chose the Imp. Hope I don’t regret later.

I decide to have a young face. The race had strange eyes, with black sclera and white pupils. Scary, but I can live with it. The ears were pointed like the Goblins, although a bit shorter. I had black hair, but decided to make it short, only long enough to cover my forehead. On my forehead there were some small horns, small enough so the hair could cover it. I also had an impish grin (very puny) with really sharp teeth. I make my color reddish. I decide to define my muscle tone, but just enough to see the lines. Don’t wanna look like a bodybuilder. The tail is decided to stay very long. This race also has a maximum height of 1 meter. So I go for maximum. Ugh, being this small will be difficult.

Finishing the modifications I tested how to move this new body.

The arms were a bit longer than what I was used to. I get a feeling that I would be faster running on all fours.

Moving the tail was interesting. But I couldn’t explain how I moved it, since the muscles were in the tail. Thankfully, it seems that the movements were already on my mind. I just need practice to actually move around.

Also I had to constantly remind me that now I had claws. I almost cut myself a lot of times, few moments after creation. And they have some kind of venom. A really charming race.

Looking back to the mirror I decide to upgrade a friend of mine. It’s no “greatsword” but I am already small; don’t want to be all small.

...

Modifications finished, I decided to call back the lightgirl.

“Seems like you are finished” nope, didn’t need to call her, “huh, Imp? Interesting choice. I little tip: if you ever think about changing the effects of your poison, you can go to a temple and request some modifications

And since you are from another realm, certain aspects of life are different. Satiety can be exchanged for mana. Meaning that every food you eat, after being digested for nutrients, will turn completely into mana. Though liquids still need to be… released… as before.

Also, if you begin to feel hunger, your body will change mana into nutrients. I suggest you don’t let it happen, it may have some drawbacks.

From the day you wake up, monster will start to spawn after 8 months, on the new year.

Now, when you arrive at the world, search for a priest and ask for aid.”  She reached for my hand and gave me a coin.  "Rest a little and in the next morning pray for the gods. Offer this coin. We will give you yet another gift.”

She once again smiled and, while touching my forehead she started a little chant.

“Good luck child” was the last thing I heard, before once again passing out.

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Author Note:

Aaaaaand another chapter, just one more to go before I start the new chapters. testing how to post and the few tools that royal road has.