I looked up at the sky, staring in what could only be described as horror at the scene before me. It was like nothing I'd ever seen, and yet, the only thought I could manage was, 'This must be what the dinosaurs felt like.'
It only made sense that that was the thought running through my head; after all, I was staring down the biggest meteor I'd ever seen as it slowly flew toward Earth.
Standing in the middle of a now eerily silent forest, I couldn't quite bring myself to feel horror toward the sight, only a feeling of complete acceptance. While I wasn't quite happy with the way my life was about to end, I held no regrets toward the life I'd lived.
I grew up with just my dad, a man who fit the definitions of a manly man in all ways. He was a hunter by profession, spending more time out in the woods than with me. But, I wasn't bitter about it, it was how he put food on the table for both me and him after all.
He and I didn't have a major connection for the first part of my life. While he'd never admit as such, I think the only reason he ever truly took care of me was out of obligation.
But this all would change later into my life; about when I'd started in middle school, I'd become interested in following a career path similar to his own, if a bit more technical. You see, I'd found myself to have fallen in love with the developing of technology with the modern age, and maybe as a misguided attempt to gain his affection, I'd pushed that love toward hunting.
Like I said, a profession similar to his own but not the same; where he was a hunter, I more wanted to work on the aspect of improving the humans ability to hunt. I focused mainly on the development of weaponry that could be wielded by humans, hoping to create a weapon that could truly advance our ability at combat. Unfortunately, I'd never managed to accomplish that goal.
The main aspect where I'd differed from other weapons developers was in the weapons that I designed - this was also more than likely the reason I'd never managed to make weapons that could truly advance combat. Where others slowly advanced in the making of modern weapons such as guns, I'd found myself to have a strong distaste for them, instead liking the more old school of weaponry, things like the sword or the axe; my absolute favorite weapon being the spear.
Still, while reminiscing of the past, I realized that while I may not have regrets toward the life I lived, there still was one major regret I'd carried. That being my failure in advancing hand-held weapons to a standard I found acceptable, allowing them to fall to the wayside in place of the more advanced ones.
Closing my eyes, I awaited the meteor whilst filled with regret towards my failure, feeling that I may have been able to accomplish this task if I'd just tried a bit harder.
~~
I could feel myself snapping into awareness once more, my eyes widening to a near impossible degree. I was under no delusion that I'd survived that meteor, having felt myself slowly melt under the blazing heat it produced. I let out a shudder at the memory, melting alive was an incredibly painful way to go after all.
Shaking my head of the thoughts that seemed to overwhelm it, I glanced around me, trying to figure out just what had occurred. The fist thing I had noticed was the rather poor looking bed I was laying on, it appearing to be on its last leg.
As my gaze swept across the room, I noticed that the room as well as the objects inside of it had a rather weird feel to them, looking too spartan in design for the modern era.
However, it was at this point that my mind seemed to remember the previous incident with the meteor, my eyes immediately looking downward at my body. Upon seeing the creamy white skin of my arms, I felt myself nearly recoil in shock. This was because of one simple fact; melting alive was in no way conducive to having skin at all, let alone such clear skin.
Besides the clarity of my skin, I had also noticed another rather odd feature - this being that my body was now far smaller than I remembered. My mind reeled from the information, quickly creating a list of possibilities that may have resulted in this rather strange circumstance:
The first thought that I had come up with was: whatever had occurred previously had been a dream and that this was my original body. This possibility came with some rather weird conditions however, because I had no memory of this life, only the previous one.
It seemed as if this thought were a trigger of some kind, as before my mind could wonder to the next possible conclusion, I felt as if my head had just been smashed in by a sledgehammer. Bringing my now rather tiny hands up to my head, I cradled it as memory after memory seemed to slam into my mind.
These memories were of a life completely different from my own; of a young boy of about 12 years old. However, the most distinct thing about the memories were the world in which the boy lived; it was nothing like my own after all.
In the world of the boy's memories, there were a multitude of things that could only be described as paranormal in my world. Things like cultivation, Qi, Spirit Beasts and more. Yet, I could tell that while I was me from the other world, these memories now seemed natural to me, as if they were normal. It appeared as if whatever had occurred that had brought me here, seemed to also completely combine me and the boy.
While I was the 24 year-old Leo from Earth who spent his life as a hunter experiencing nothing supernatural, I was also the 12 year-old Leo from the planet Marek, wherein there existed an energy known as Qi, as well as beings that cultivated said Qi in an attempt to become immortal that were known as cultivators.
While my profession on was a hunter, I wasn't someone who lived out in the woods or anything. And I spent a non-infrequent amount of time on the internet, trying to gain inspiration for my inventions on there, so I had naturally read fantasy stories. This meant that the idea of reincarnation as well as cultivation were nothing new to me.
However, as I was thinking over what I should do with this new life, I noticed something that I must've been subconsciously ignoring in hopes to gain a better idea of what was going on; there was a floating screen before me. The screen appeared futuristic in nature and had words written upon it. Focusing on the rather strange screen, I began to read the words on it, and with every read word my excitement grew.
Hello Host, You Have Been Selected As The Host Of The Crafting System!
This System Comes With A Couple Basic Features, Those Being:
Status
Skill Creation
Creations
Quests
To Learn More About These Features, Please Select The Tutorial Mode!
With this, the message seemed to end, along with it the screen seemed to change, going from a message to what appeared as a menu. Glancing up, I noticed that there was something labeled as tutorial mode in the top right corner, with a yellow box surrounding it.
As someone who had read stories for inspiration, I had of course come across the system genre. And while this system seemed barebones in comparison to some of the others I'd seen, I was excited just to have something that could help me in my new life in any way. On top of this, there was another aspect that stoked my excitement; the systems name. As someone who had spent the entirety of their past life as a craftsman, having a system related to that profession nearly had me over the moon with joy.
Quickly doing as instructed by the system, I clicked the tutorial mode. Upon clicking it, the orange box seemed to move from the top right to now be bordering the word 'Status', clearly indicating that I should click it next. Feeling a bit silly at doing what was the equivalent of tapping the air to others, I decided to I'd test if the system could respond to my thoughts.
Upon clicking on 'Status', a new screen popped up.
Status
Level: 1 (0/100)
Strength: 5
Endurance: 3
Intelligence: 13
Agility: 8
Creativity: 20
Stat Points: 0
The Average Status Of An Adult Who Has Not Cultivated Is 10.
As I looked over the new screen, my eyes seemed to zero in on two stats in particular. Those two stats were intelligence and creativity; this being because these were the two elements required for my job in my past life.
I couldn't help but agree with my stats, feeling the provided information for those two stats to be correct, while the others made sense with my body now being that of a child's. Staring at intelligence, I couldn't help but lament that this was the most likely reason for me never being able to make a truly incredibly invention; while I was smarter than the average person in my last life, it just wasn't enough to create something truly unique.
Glancing at the new location of the yellow box, it was now surrounding a back arrow that was just above where the screen said status. Instead of reaching forward to click it physically, I instead mentally clicked it, which seemed to work as the screen changed to what it had previously shown.
Now, the yellow arrow instead surrounded the word 'Skills', another thing that made my eyes shine in excitement. Upon mentally tapping it, the screen changed to another unique one; however, where previously 'Status' had shown a list of my stats in numerical value, this slide was blank except for a paragraph at the bottom.
You Do Not Currently Have Any Skills.
Due To This System Being A Crafting System, Skills That You Create Can Only Be Those Of A Craftsman, The Only Exception Being Cultivation Related Skills. Skills Created Will Not Have Descriptions Of Their Affects, Instead Acting As A Representation Of The Users Skill In Whatever Skill They Create; Additionally, Skills Can Level Up The Users Skill Faster Than If The User Did Not Have The System.
I felt a bit disappointed at the limitations, but was quick to shake that off as just having the system itself was a huge advantage over others. Clicking the back arrow once again, the yellow box had predictably moved downward to the 'Creations' option now.
Upon clicking on it, it contained a similar look to the 'Skill Creation' tab. By that, I meant it was completely blank, void of any creations, only containing a written sentence at the bottom.
The Creation Tab Is One For Anything That You Craft That Is Original. The Creation Of Original Objects Come With Multiple Benefits, You Will Gain A Large Amount Of Experience As Well As Massively Levelling Any Skills Required To Create The Original Item. The Reason For The Amazing Rewards Is That This System Is A Crafting One, Something Designed For People Who Are Meant To Create New Things.
Reading this tab over and over again, I could feel my breathing quicken with barely restrained excitement. This tab was the one I had anticipated the most, considering what I had spent the majority of my previous life obsessing over.
With a firm shake of the head, I quickly diverted my attention from this tab, moving on to the next one before I could get too absorbed in my own thoughts. I clicked the back arrow with shaky hands, choosing to move on to the next tab, 'Quests'.
Active Quests:
Passive Quests:
Active Quests Are One-Time Quests That Are Gained Through Specific Actions, While Passive Quests Are Repeatable Quests Assigned By The System
Clicking the back arrow once again, the screen changed to a new one that was surprisingly not the menu.
Congratulations On Completing The Tutorial! As A Reward For Completing The Tutorial, You Have Been Assigned Two New Quests:
Create Your First Skill: As A Craftsman, Having No Skills Is Like Being A Carpenter With No Wood, Change That.
Reward: 5 Stat Points And 50 EXP
Create Your First Original Creation: As A Craftsman, Can You Truly Call Yourself A Professional Without Having Ever Created An Original Object? Fix That.
Reward: 50 Stat Points And 25,000 EXP
Staring at the new quests, I could feel it as a fire was lit under me, my body seeming to almost spring out of the bed as I rushed down the stairs to start the day, a large smile spreading across my face.