Five minutes had passed, and still I was falling. The island plateau and canyon had long since faded into the distance, and all that was left above me was darkness. After mulling over what I had just experienced, I finally realized that my surroundings were different than I first thought. Near where I had fallen, there were three extremely dull pillars of light that reached as far as the eye could see. They were colored red, green, and white respectively, with the closest being the green. Remembering what happened in the canyon led me to realize that they probably had something to do with the doors from above. I couldn't see anything else that might help my situation, so I decided to approach them.
As I got closer, I began to feel a tug on my body. The lights seemed to be trying to suck me in. I continued until I was right next to the green light. I reached my hand out towards it and touched the light. An extreme and intense burning sensation started crawling up my arm as the light consumed me. As it approached my head, I felt as if I had made a horrible mistake and tried to take my hand out, but couldn't. The light seemed to be holding my hand inside itself. When the light started to consume my face the burning became too much for me to handle. My vision went dark as I passed out from the pain.
Upon waking, all that could be seen was darkness. There was no feeling or sound that I could notice. I seemed to be standing on solid ground, but could not tell through the black fog surrounding me.
[ retrieving past life data...]
[ data found ]
[ loading system...]
[ error: incarnate ID not found]
[ retrieving back-up system...]
[ loading back-up system...]
[ loading complete ]
___________________________
Welcome Hiyato,
Would you like to view your status?
[ yes ] [ no ]
___________________________
"Ah!" I fell back in shock as a window opened in front of my eyes. As I fell the window stayed centered in my vision. I reached my hand out to push it away, but grasped only air. When my hand passed through it, I could still see it on the other side. The slight transparency was interesting, but I needed to figure out how to get it to go away. I tried touching it, but again, nothing happened. I read through the text again and thought that it might be interesting to see what it's offering to me. As this thought came to my mind the window disappeared and another window popped up in its place.
___________________________
Name: Hiyato Kage
Class: N/A
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Titles: incomplete incarnation, unchosen, one who defies the gods, path maker, risk taker
level: 1
mana: 300/300
strength: 5
dexterity: 7
intelligence: 15
wisdom: 13
mana affinity: 56
skills: ethereal body lv.1, mana manipulation lv.1, item storage, steady mind lv.4, analyze lv.1, translation
___________________________
Looking at the window, it seemed to show me a list of different statistics. It had my name as well as a bunch of stuff I couldn't understand. It seemed to be a game-like interface. As I was reading over the stats, my eyes popped. "56!?" That was higher than all of my other stats combined! "Wait, wait, wait how do I know if that's normal or not? For all I know, it might be average." There was always a possibility that all of my other stats were just very low. I was just an average teenage human after all. If only I knew what these stats really meant, then maybe these numbers would really mean something.
___________________________
titles - Names given to commemorate great achievements or despicable deeds.
strength - A numerical representation of your physical fitness and durability.
dexterity - A numerical representation of your speed, agility, and flexibility.
intelligence - A numerical representation of how much knowledge you have accumulated.
wisdom - A numerical representation of your good judgement and psychological stability .
mana affinity - A numerical representation of how much control you have over mana and aether.
skills - Abilities learned or earned. Active skills can be activated by thinking or saying their name.
___________________________
As if to answer my thoughts, another window replaced the one I was staring at.
It seems as if my thoughts can control the system. Reading through the window gave me a fairly good and simple breakdown of what the stats, skills, and titles really mean. Using my new knowledge, I tried to access information about the exact skills and titles I saw.
___________________________
skill name: ethereal body
effect: Your body and soul are one, your mana becomes your life force. Hitting 0 mana will cause your soul to dissipate into the aether.
Passive effect:[skill lv.2 required]
___________________________
___________________________
skill name: mana manipulation
effect: You have the ability to manipulate your mana into external forces that affect the world around you.
High affinity effect: Spell creation is now possible. Chant is now unnecessary.
___________________________
___________________________
skill name: item box
effect: Gain a pocket dimension where objects can freely enter and exit as the owner wills.
___________________________
___________________________
skill name: steady mind
effect: Your mind calms rapidly, even under extreme pressure.
lv. 4 active effect: Your mind works 8x faster than normal - 5 minute activation - 60 minute cooldown -
___________________________
___________________________
skill name: analyze
effect: Focusing on an object or entity will give you information about them.
___________________________
___________________________
skill name: translation
effect: So that you can communicate with the people of this world, upon reincarnation you were provided with knowledge of other worldly speech and text.
___________________________
___________________________
title name: incomplete incarnation
effect: An error has been made during reincarnation. Although the cause is unknown, ownership of system cannot be confirmed. You have been supplied a backup system copy in order to help your odds of survival. Body information has been lost. Your soul cannot currently be confined to a mortal shell.
___________________________
___________________________
title name: unchosen
effect: The gods have rejected you. Creation has rejected you. Effects of this title are unclear.
___________________________
___________________________
title name: one who defies the gods
effect: You have broken from the shackles of the divine. Almighty beings can no longer restrict you by will alone.
___________________________
___________________________
title name: path maker
effect: You have broken off the path decided for you and have created your own. Your future is impossible to determine.
___________________________
___________________________
title name: risk taker
effect: Your risk was well rewarded. You gain more experience from risky actions.
___________________________
As I finished reading I realized that my mana affinity was actually considered to be pretty high. Although all the skills seemed interesting, the titles were even more so. I don't remember doing anything to earn them. Although I was interested in this, I decided that I needed to find a way out of here, as currently I was still trapped in a black void.
___________________________
Would you like to exit [item box]?
[ yes ] [ no ]
___________________________
Rather unexpectedly, it seemed that I could have just left at any time. So this was what a pocket dimension was like. Interesting. Nevertheless, I decided to think about it later and selected the [yes] option. A white light started to surround me and I waited to see where I would end up. What sort of destiny awaited me?