The forest was quiet, only the chirping of the birds and insects accompanied with the rustling of the leaves can be heard. Along with the subtle scent of the greenery and the fresh gentle breeze, it could become the perfect place for some meditation.
It was a serene place. No humans, no chaos, nor any sort of disturbance could be observed no matter how deep one would travel to. It was truly a treasure trove of calmness and beauty.
But along this perfect scenery, there was "something" sticking out like a sore thumb. And what might that "something" be? It was a young man who seemed to have just woken up from a long slumber.
After he stretched his hands towards the sky, he then started twisting and turning as if trying to test out if all the joints in his body were working. He clenched his fists and threw them into the air in front of him, one after another.
'Amazing...' ［Grey］
The man did all the strange acts he could imagine, even doing a triple backflip, and to his surprise, all the pains he had after reaching his mid-twenties were gone. In fact, it seemed that his body had gotten much better, even much better than it was when he was in his teens.
At that moment, all he could feel was endless happiness, along with his seemingly endless youthful stamina. Even though he has only been in that new body for a moment, he was already thankful for the great benefits he had received.
'I wonder how I look.' ［Grey］
As he wondered about such a question, Grey wandered in the forest towards a certain direction. He looked left and right, and once again confirmed how beautiful the forest was.
In his short journey, he saw brown rabbits hopping around, little birds landing on the small branches, and even a deer peacefully eating its meal of various greens. But most importantly, he found what he was looking for... a puddle!
Slowly and cautiously, Grey drew near the puddle and as he saw his reflection, he unconsciously opened his mouth in surprise. In the reflection, what he saw was not the face of a middle-aged man nor a Filipino man. In fact, it was a face he had never seen before.
Grey touched his face gently as he looked at his reflection, as if checking if it was really his. In the clear puddle was a face decorated with luscious black hair, violet eyes which had deeper colors than any jewel, and skin fairer than any woman he once knew. And even though his face contains qualities many women yearn for, it was undoubtedly a young man's face.
Seeing his reflection in the puddle, Grey couldn't help but be perplexed. It was one thing if his face looked mid-twenties, but it was undoubtedly from someone who is still in their mid-teens.
From his memories, he recalled that he and "God" agreed that he will be reincarnated as an adult, but judging from his own reflection, one could infer that that wasn't the case.
Grey tried to rack his brain for answers why he looked like that. At first, he thought it was just a mistake, but out of nowhere, an answer popped into his mind.
In Merusia, those who have reached the age of 15 will be considered an adult. In fact, children working before at the age of 15 or even 10 are not uncommon. It was truly a baffling difference between Earth and Merusia that Grey just hasn't held a tight grasp on.
Having figured out the reason why, Grey had another question. It was on how the heck he had obtained that knowledge, since he can remember correctly that he and "God" didn't talk about it.
He wanted to think about it at first, but decided no to and just continued heading towards the direction he was heading to. After all, thinking about it will just make his head hurt if he couldn't find the answer. It wasn't that important of a question anyway.
As he headed deeper into the forest, he saw more and more animals, and the trees were getting larger too. He continued admiring such a sight for a few minutes until he finally came to a stop.
'This must be it.' ［Grey］
Hidden amidst the thick and lush forest was a medium-sized house. At first look, it would seem like an old abandoned cottage in the middle of nowhere, but upon closer look, one would notice that it was polished and well-maintained.
Just a few distance away from the said house, a small cavern could be observed slightly hidden by the vines and roots so that people cannot see it from afar. And although small, it was enough to fit two adult men side by side without any problems.
All one would need was a single glance to tell that it was the special dungeon Grey and "God" agreed on. The dungeon which will be used for Grey's training for the next 3 years.
While Grey and "God" were discussing the terms and conditions, they agreed into having a house near the special training dungeon. After all, shelter is an important necessity for survival.
As "God" doesn't have a strong connection to Merusia anymore, he can only maintain the special dungeon for about 3 years. After that, "God" will be fully cut off from Merusia and the fate of Merusia will be in Grey's hands.
In that regard, Grey's mission is to activate all corruption-managing devices hidden in the deepest levels of the 10 Great labyrinths. Of course, it was no easy task as the monsters which spawn there at the lowest levels are capable enough to destroy countries. Thankfully, those monsters only spawn for a month every other year and cannot exit the labyrinths.
On another note, Grey doesn't have to rush things as he still has more than a hundred years before corruption runs wild. Grey was bothered at first when "God" said corruption was about to run loose, but that was only in a God's perspective. In the eyes of humans, it was still a long time.
"Pardon the intrusion." ［Grey］
Grey spoke respectfully as he opened the door to the cottage as if he was awaiting for a response. Thankfully, there was none. It would be troublesome if someone responded inside a house in the middle of nowhere, after all.
Like a child who just got a new toy, Grey explored every nook and cranny of his new home and familiarized himself with the layout. And after all that, he still couldn't believe that he got a house for "free".
Inside the house were the common appliances and facilities one would expect on a brand new and fully furnished house. There was a living room, a bathroom, a kitchen, a dining room, a sizable bedroom, a restroom, a large workshop, a couple of storage rooms, and there was even an attic and a basement. Despite how it looks from outside, it was actually a really good house.
It was also worth noting that the restroom had a modern toilet! It was something unexpected for a world which "God" had described the civilization to be in the late medieval ages. Of course, that is in terms of scientific knowledge and culture, but in terms of magic, there are some technologies which are more advanced that the ones in Earth, such as extradimensional storage rings.
Of course, the toilet technology of Earth is incomparable to those in Merusia. It was "God's" bonus for Grey who decided to undertake his mission. Not only the toilet, there were quite a handful of technologies inside the cottage such as stoves, showers, refrigerators, ovens, and air conditioning units which are powered by god-knows-how.
Seeing all the modern appliances he thought he had to forsake after arriving in Merusia made Grey's eyes water in tears, It was truly such a generous bonus that "God" had given to him.
It was generous to the point that Grey had considered worshiping him and creating a shrine for him even if he didn't know what he actually looked like.
After he had finished touring the house, Grey went outside for a breath of fresh air and to check his abilities as well. And just as he headed outside, a little yellow bird perched on a tree branch just in front of him.
'Perfect' ［Grey］
Seeing his target stand still, Grey then whipped out a god-forsaken embarrassing pose where he quickly slid one of his arms upward, and his fingers scattered covering his face but had more than enough space for his eyes to see through, and then...
⟨⟨Appraisal⟩⟩ ［Grey］
The moment he thought about those words, a bluish semi-transparent screen suddenly appeared in front of him out of thin air. Although he had expected it, he was still surprised when the screen actually appeared.
But while he was surprised, his feeling of embarrassment was blanketing his surprise. On that day, he had sworn to never do anything similar again, even if he had to die in order to protect the promise.
----------------------------------
[Animal]
[Species] Haltean Peachbird
[Sex] Female
[Age] 1 year
[Status] Healthy
[Description]
A species of Peachbird which is endemic to the central area of the Haltea Great Forest. Whenever it flies, it spreads the scent of the peaches it had recently eaten into the air.
-----------------------------------
Seeing the information in front of him, Grey couldn't help himself but be amazed as such a sight. It was something truly out of his world. Other than talking to "God" and his reincarnation, it was the only thing which screamed the feeling of fantasy.
And due to his overflowing excitement, he ended up appraising everything within his line of sight. Be it trees, grasses, mushrooms, rocks, and even the ground itself, none escaped Grey's appraising spree.
It took him about a few minutes before he realized that he had actually strayed quite a distance from the cottage due to his excitement. Of course, it wasn't far enough to the point he would be lost.
Finally, it was the time to appraise the most important thing. Although he was feeling a little nervous, his excitement overrides that nervousness. And...
⟨⟨Appraisal⟩⟩ ［Grey］
-----------------------------------
[Salferine]
[Name] Grey Silverdrake
[Race] Human
[Sex] Male
[Age] 15
[Status] Healthy
[Mana Capacity] 320 [Mana Quality] H
[Combat Power] 10 [Threat Level] H
[Attribute] None
[Class] None
[Physical Enhancement] 10%
[Ability] 『Divine Eyes (Divine)』
『Divine Mind (Divine)』
『Subspace (Divine)』
-----------------------------------
As Grey once again thought of the magic word, a semi-transparent screen which was larger than the ones he had seen so far, appeared in front of him, and with that screen were a bunch of unfamiliar words.
Of course, with his appraising ability, he soon found out the definition of all of those terms. And to his surprise, he easily understood them, even when he had no prior knowledge about the things he saw on the status screen.
As it turned out, there was once an ancient race called "Salfer" which dominated Merusia. That ancient race later went extinct as their descendants transformed into the 7 races, which are collectively called as "Salferines". These 7 races are the humans, elves, dwarves, harpies (skyfolk), saureids (lizardfolk), therianthropes (beastfolk), and the undines (merfolk).
"Mana Capacity" is the maximum mana one's body can hold while "Combat Power" is the total strength of a person. While "Mana Capacity", is a linear quantity, "Combat Power" is exponential. Even if one person only has twice the combat power, in actuality, they actually have 8x more power.
"Mana Quality" is the quality of mana and how well it circulates inside the body, and the efficiently it can be used in spells and arts. The better quality one's mana is, the less mana is needed in using magic.
Lastly, "Threat Level" is the level assigned to each individual in consideration to their combat power. And it is worth noting that the difference in each level is very large. For comparison, it would take more than a dozen average H-rankers to defeat an average G-ranker.
"What the..."［Grey］
But what got Grey's attention the most was his name. It was to the point where he thought that his embarrassing pose from just a few minutes ago was actually less embarrassing than his current name, especially his surname which screams an overwhelming aura of chuuni.
At that moment, Grey became worried about the contents of the dungeon, hoping that "God" with the mind of a middle-schooler didn't put anything embarrassing. Though he would be amazed if "God" really found a way to put something embarrassing in a dungeon.
After some time of recovering from having such a name, Grey decided to accept it wholeheartedly and focused his attention on his abilities instead...
-----------------------------------
[Ability]
[Name] Divine Eyes
[Rank] Divine
[Effect]
〔Judgement〕
An eye that can see the true nature of anything and everything. It can decipher lies from truths, and evil from good. One of the abilities of a God.
〔???〕
〔???〕
〔???〕
〔???〕
-----------------------------------
One blink... Two blinks... Three blinks...
Grey blinked a couple of times and even rubbed his eyes just to make sure that he wasn't seeing things, but no matter how many times he did, nothing changed on the screen in front of him.
It was then that he realized how different the perception of a mortal and a God is. When he heard "God" said he can only have abilities which aren't too overbearing, he only requested those abilities that will make life easier. Never in his wildest imaginations he would have thought that an ability only Gods have isn't "overbearing".
"That idiotic god..."
No matter what he does, he can no longer change everything. All he could do was silently curse under his breath, thinking how much of a moron that God was when he nodded as if he understood his requests.
Grey can only accept his abilities as he would rather have an overpowered ability rather than a flawed one. While he calls it overpowered, in truth, he still has no idea how powerful his abilities are actually as some of its effects are still locked.
Inside Grey's mind, he could already see himself getting dragged by multiple countries in a power struggle, something he doesn't want to get involved in.
His other abilities, "Divine Mind" and "Subspace" are also in the same situation with "Divine Eyes", in that they are also not fully unlocked yet.
"Divine Mind's" first effect, "Memory Bank", allows him to perfectly store and manage any amount of information and retain them as memories. "Subspace's" first effect on the other hand, "Inventory", allows him to store an infinite number of things, provided that they are not "living things".
"Not living things" was a vague description, but from the mangas and games he had played, he had somewhat of an idea what can and what cannot be stored.
Grey also realized that one doesn't necessarily need to use the right keywords, as long as he can imagine them perfectly, he can use his abilities. An example of it was his "Appraisal" which was actually a product of "Judgement", an effect of his "Divine Eyes".
⟨⟨Inventory⟩⟩ ［Grey］
Next, he then surveyed what things were inside his "Inventory", and prepared himself to be surprised at what contents the "Idiotic God" put inside of it, but nevertheless, he was still surprised from the lack of common sense that God had, because inside it...
-----------------------------------
⟨⟨Inventory⟩⟩
⟨⟨Important⟩⟩
[Letter from God] x1
⟨⟨Contents⟩⟩
[Rations] ×42, [Enchanted Water Jug] ×3, [Futon] ×3, [Tent] x3, [Cooking Pot] ×3, [Cooking Utensil Set] ×3, [All-Around Tools] ×3, [Clothing Set] ×7, [Sewing Kit] ×3, ["Tips to surviving in the wild" Book Set] ×1, [Armament Ring] ×13, [Divine Amulet] ×3, [Void Crystal] ×10, [Divine Potion] ×20, [Divine Elixir] ×20, [Divine Poison] ×10, [Divine-Grade Ores] ×100 kg, [Mythical-Grade Ores] ×1 ton, [Legendary-Grade Ores] ×5 tons, [Divine Blacksmith's Toolset] ×1, [Divine Alchemist's Toolset] ×1, [Divine Enchanter's Toolset] ×1
-----------------------------------
... aside from the first few things he needed for survival, everything after them were absurd things of the divine-grade. It would even be an exaggeration that he was richer than any royal family in the world.
As he copes from the shock in the list of items he saw, he notices a special item which was even marked as "Important" in his inventory. It was a letter from none other the "Idiotic God".
As he read the letter, Grey's face changed from one of confusion to one of which looked like he had diarrhea while suffering a headache at the same time.
According to the letter, "God" had provided him the "necessities" he needed to survive and the "knowledge" about common sense in Merusia had been implanted to his "Memory Bank".
After reading the letter, everything finally made sense to Grey. The reason why had no idea of acquiring was actually because of that "Idiotic God". In fact, he even had some knowledge which is top-secret in some kingdoms.
Deciding to leave things be, Grey headed to the special dungeon and tested out the cheatー no, the equipments he had in the inventory.
The first thing he equipped was an "Armament Ring" which then turned into a pair of platinum-colored heavy-plated gauntlets which had the ability "Destroyer" that increases the user's attack power and attack speed by 150%, and carries shock throughout the whole body, no matter how tough or resistant the targets are.
Next, he equipped the "Divine Amulet" which immediately spread out a layer of mana into his whole body, as if it was creating an invisible armor. It has the abilities "Mana Heart" which increases mana recovery and creates a second mana tank that he can use once his mana is depleted. "Immovable Guard" which doubles defenses, resistance to negative effects, and physical recovery. Finally, there was "Phoenix Heart" which allows him to resurrect after he dies, although after it has been used, it needs another year to be ready again.
After that, Grey brought out a ration and an enchanted water jug which he would use when it was time to rest.
Just from the first two items alone, it was safe to say that Grey could already fight someone ranked higher than him. After all, they were cheaー gifts from "God" himself.
"Alright! I'm set!" ［Grey］
Clenching his fists in excitement, Grey gently pulled away the vines covering the dungeon entrance, and as he took his first step, a burst of mana gushed out from it, sending a cold sensation into Grey's face.
Any normal person would become cautious from such an experience, but Grey on the other hand, rather than wariness, his face was full of thrill and excitement. He was excited to the point that his eyes seemed to have glimmered for a moment as he continued to head inside.
The inside of the cavern was a dark place, dimly illuminated by small blue gemstones in the walls acting as if they were torches. It was neither too damp like caves on Earth, nor too dry like a mine tunnel. And although the entrance was small, the halls of the cavern were quite spacious.
Upon heading deep enough, one would notice the amazing rock formations which seemed to have formed for thousands of years, there were even speleothems large enough that the ones from the ceiling connect into the ones in the ground.
Embedded within the walls were a myriad of crystals and ores, along the roots of some trees which had dug deep into the ground. Grey wasn't an expert but by using his abilities, he understood that those minerals could fetch quite a price.
As he continued walking, Grey finally reached a large open area. It was spacious enough to fit a couple of basketball courts. Not only the length and width, the ceiling was high as well. The only thing off about it was that there were no rock formations to support such a large open area.
"!!!" ［Grey］
While admiring the size of the room, a rush of mana suddenly gathered into the central area of the room and a faint light was emitted from it. The more mana was gathered, the brighter the light became.
Standing there, Grey carefully observed the supernatural phenomena without blinking even once. It was a scene full of wonder which he wanted to burn into his memory. After all, it was his first time in a dungeon.
It took a few seconds before the light died out, but when it did, it revealed an astonishing sight. The room which was once empty was suddenly filled with small transparent blobs which seemingly appeared out of thin air. No matter where one would look, the room was filled with...
'Slimes!' ［Grey］
CHAPTER 2 END