What did he want? And what would earn him the most ranking points?

Those two questions consumed him, and he pondered them as he moved the train back and forth.

How to execute the plan?

That was another question that kept swimming to the surface, but Tom wasn’t too worried about that answer.

Execution would not be an issue. He was confident in his abilities, his willingness to train and the way he could find even the smallest of loopholes to exploit. He suspected he was close to the perfect person for DEUS to reincarnate. And it wasn’t all arrogance, either. He had the results to support that confidence. After all, in his last life, he had received a title that acknowledged his advanced understanding of fate and, since he had achieved so many titles, he knew how they worked. That was a larger advantage than most people understood, because the best method to stop someone from getting a title was telling them how to get it. The GODs disliked people cheating like that, and so the fact that he already knew the pre-requisites for multiple titles meant he could work through the list without triggering the GOD’s ire.

How did he know that? Tom shrugged at the thought. There was no true answer. Mostly it was about intuition, but there was more to it than that. He was certain he was right, and he had learnt to trust that feeling. When he knew something this absolutely, he always turned out to be correct, no matter how outlandish the position initially seemed to be.

If those two advantages - his fate and title knowledge – would work in tandem, they would propel him ahead of even the other reincarnated humans, no matter how impressive their resume.

As he played with the train, he focused on the first two questions. The memory of the fight where he had died, kept playing in his head, unbidden. Not just those last moments where the cat-like person had strained with everything it had to kill him, either. There was also the power of both the giant and the dragon.

Then the memory reset to the wador.

Tom shivered. Its claws tearing his stomach open while it strained to bite his face off, and then the spear slipping…

He shook his head, disguising the action by following it up with an inquisitive neck tilt while staring at the train, implying that it had done something unexpected.

Those last moments had been a mistake, and a costly one - all because of his own arrogance. The wador had prepared to fight him, taking skills directly to counter him, and Tom, to his own detriment, hadn’t even considered that to be possible.

As a result, he had been easily slaughtered in a battle he entered willingly, believing he had the upper hand.

However, that wasn’t why he was dwelling on the memory. He focused instead on the true threats they had faced in the trial - the devastating power of both the dragon and the giant.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Tom shuddered when he remembered them.

The dragon had been the size of a small hill, but despite that it was incredibly quick and agile. She would have been unbeatable, if it was not for their surprise attack that exploited her weakness. One that now she would be very conscious of. Best case scenario, she would defend the vulnerable area on her neck more proactively. Worst case scenario, there would be a magically-tailored artefact protecting that weak spot.

Tom knew she would not do the former. That opportunity was gone for eternity.

He laughed at the thought process he had used to reach the final decision. It boiled down to see a big monster, me tough, me want to beat it. It was, of course, a more nuanced decision than that, but only slightly. What was the point of being able to defeat a swarm of monsters when something like that was around?

It made his choice simple.

He would become a single target specialist. Thoughts regarding stealth and rapid attack methods occurred to him, but he dismissed them. Those abilities did not belong to his strengths. To grow into the most powerful being he could be, it would be best if he leaned into what he was great at. His best features were hitting hard while sustaining high mobility. There was no point in complicating things.

Spear skills were a requirement, as it was always fun stabbing monsters. As for magic, Lightning and Earth were a given, both because of his prior experience and his affinities.

Even as he thought about it, an extra item was added to his ‘to do’ list. He had to confirm that affinity did not change with reincarnation.

What else? He wondered. Chaos-related skills had to be a part of the build because of their link to fate. Any human that did not have a core component of their skillset focused on random outcome attacks was failing as far as Tom was concerned. The memory of what Selena and Jane had done to the giant was still fresh in his mind. The power that the tier two spell Chaos Bolts had reached had been extraordinary. They had almost imprinted themselves on reality as they had shot toward the giant. They had been that powerful - and then the bolts had hurt it when other attacks had just bounced off.

All that, along with teleportation and precognition for defense, would be the core of his build.

Tom smiled to himself. This was a development plan that would work.

But what now? He asked himself. He had fate, and presumably some time in the dark, before he fell asleep. How did he want to use that resource?

Healing, Tom decided after only a moment’s thought. It was not a part of his core build, but it was something everyone should possess to a limited extent. Plus, lacking the ability to fix himself up was making his skin crawl. It made him feel fragile. That a minor cut, at least by his standards, could kill him because he lacked the magic to stem the bleeding was horrifying.

Tonight, he would fix that, and it would be proof of the concept of everything else he wanted to achieve.

Above, the lights flickered, five rapid flashes. With mock reluctance, Tom pushed the train away and then joined the line that was winding through the cleaning loop. The layered spells struck him one after the other. First, his outfit rippled as the first couple of spells struck. Little Ta recognised them as the ones that would clean and mend his clothes. A fresh minty taste spread through his mouth as his teeth tingled. He felt his hair shift subtly and then a general prickling ran over his skin. It was not unpleasant, just notable.

He exited the small loop and, as he passed the mirror, he discreetly admired the power of the spell. His clothes were now pristine, the small rip in his trousers had been mended, and the spaghetti stain on his T-shirt had vanished. When he smiled, his white polished teeth flashed in the mirror even though he had never physically brushed them once in his life.

Marveling privately at the invention, Tom climbed into bed and pulled the blankets over him. The lights had not switched off yet, and he was pleased that the bedcovers were of sufficient quality to block all the light from outside.